The second type of person who is difficult to govern?

Seeing King Qi coming over, Ji Zhen didn't wait for King Qi to ask, and replied by himself: "Back to the king, this second type of person who is difficult to govern is the family of wealthy merchants and magnates, these people wear silk and eat fine meat, have chariots and horses in and out, and have servants and concubines in their bedrooms. Great, if a man who lacks nothing dares to ask what else the king can give them, what else can they ask of him? ”

"If they have no desire for the state, then they will not take the country to heart, so it will be difficult for the king to drive them, and those who cannot be driven by the king cannot be governed by the state, that is, those who are useless to the state. And the state of Chu is widely placed in the feudal monarchy, with commerce as the upper business, and there are many nobles and wealthy merchants of the feudal monarchy, and it is precisely this kind of rich and noble people who are difficult to govern. ”

If Xiong Huai heard this, he would definitely think so.

Those feudal lords of Chu State lacked nothing, and they had nothing to pursue for the king of Chu.

As long as he offers some goods to the king of Chu every year, and then he will become the emperor of the soil in his own independent small kingdom, of course, there is no such thing as an emperor now.

But all in all, it was not much of the order of the king of Bird Chu.

The king of Chu recruited soldiers from all over the country, and if there was no certainty of victory, they would send some laborers at will to fill the number, and if there was a advantage to take advantage of, they would swarm in.

Although King Qi Xuan did not have such a deep understanding as King Chu, he also thought so.

When he had a conflict with Jing Guojun a few years ago, Jing Guojun planned to build a city wall in Xue Di, intending to entertain himself behind closed doors, and no longer bird himself, the king of Qi.

Hearing the news at that time, King Qi Xuan was shocked and angry, if Tian Ying didn't give him an excuse, and he couldn't control Xue Di's internal affairs, I'm afraid he would have sent troops to attack Xue Di at that time.

In the end, Tian Ying was still dissuaded by the door guests from leaving the sea with big fish in the sea and being controlled by ants, of course, in order to appease Tian Ying, King Qi Xuan recalled Tian Ying again and reused it.

Ji Zhen saw the look of approval in King Qi's eyes, and continued: "Great King, in the opinion of Wei Chen, the Chu State vigorously promotes flour in order to govern these two kinds of people who are difficult to govern. Wheat is just an ordinary thing, and because of this, all the people have access to the Tao and can benefit from it. ”

"Calling on the people to make flour so that the poor people can reap the benefits, and at the same time indirectly reducing their wealth by guiding the rich and noble to eat flour, this is the best way to govern the country, without the need for the monarch to review three times and five orders, and the people will naturally move closer to the direction that the monarch wants."

King Qi Xuan nodded again, the people of the country are too poor, too poor, and their desires are not satisfied, so they will regard the monarch as defending the enemy. In the same way, if you are too rich, you will not be able to be too rich, and all your desires will be satisfied, and you will feel good about yourself, and your heart will not naturally equate yourself with the king.

Therefore, people who are too poor and too rich are people who are difficult to drive, and governing the country requires reducing these two kinds of people at the same time and strengthening the middle class.

Ji Zhen saw that King Qi showed a look of approval, so he began to sell his ideas: "Weichen thinks that frugality and extravagance, like yin and yang, can be used to govern the country. ”

"If the country is poor, then it is necessary to promote thrift to accumulate wealth, but the wealth of the country is quantitative, and the state will tax the country at all times, if the king blindly advocates frugality, the wealth of the country will be piled up in the treasury, so that the people will fall into hardship, and the people's desires will not be satisfied, then they will be full of resentment against the country."

"Therefore, thrift cannot be practiced for a long time, and it is normal for people to indulge in leisure and hard work, seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and eat sex, and we cannot blindly suppress the desires of the people."

"In this case, it is necessary to spread the wealth in the treasury. However, if it is only to spread the wealth of the treasury, it is to weaken the power of the monarch and not to suppress the powerful and powerful in the country. Therefore, the correct approach is to advocate extravagance, headed by the monarch, and vigorously advocate extravagance in clothing, food, housing and transportation, so that the rich families can follow suit and let wealth circulate in the country. ”

Ji Zhen paused, looked at King Qi Xuan and said: "King, although the people of our Qi country are not as poor as the Chu country, but the war that affected the world last year also caused heavy losses to our Qi country, and our Qi country was defeated, and the people paid a lot, but they did not benefit from the war, and they have fallen into a dilemma. ”

When King Qi Xuan heard this, he looked solemn and asked sincerely: "Dare to ask Ji Zi how to implement this extravagant policy." ”

Hearing King Qi's inquiry, Ji Zhen finally smiled, straightened his waist, bowed his head and said: "King, the people of the world can be simply divided into four types, that is, Shinong Industry and Commerce, and the essence of extravagance is to let the people of the two industries of industry and agriculture benefit, and let the two kinds of people willing to take out money. ”

"The most common thing in the peasant households is grain and cloth, but grain is the foundation of the country, and the grain is cheap and hurts the peasants, and the grain is expensive and hurts the peasants, so if the king wants to do extravagant policies, the minister asks the king to follow the example of the Chu State, vigorously promote flour, call on the people to make flour for sale, and let the nobles buy it."

"As for the cloth, now the clothes of our Qi country are wide enough, so the minister asks the king to take a bath every morning, noon and evening, and then change a piece of clothing, so as to increase the consumption of cloth."

"As for the people who work for a hundred workers, the minister asks the king to build a palace, and all the materials for the construction of the palace are purchased from the people, and those who build the palace also need to hire half of the skilled craftsmen of the people, so that the people of the hundred workers can profit."

"In this way, the wealth of Qi will circulate up and down in the country, everyone's desires can be satisfied, and the people's hearts will be what they want, they will listen, listen, and then they can be cured, and those who want the same will win."

King Qi Xuan suddenly remembered, as if he had heard that the King of Chu was also building a palace, could it be because of this?

Building a palace, eating flour, and changing three clothes a day was a simple extravagant strategy.

King Qi Xuan was eager to try and asked, "Is this enough?" ”

Ji Zhen shook his head and said: "Back to the king, this is not enough, it is also necessary to closely monitor the border market, prohibit the flour and cloth of other countries from entering the territory of Qi country, and avoid my Qi country spending money and the people of other countries profiting." ”

King Qi Xuan said: "This matter is simple, and the widow is approved." ”

Ji Zhen hesitated for a long time and said: "King, the way of extravagance cannot be implemented casually, the world is defeated: joy, anger and evil desires, and the way of extravagance occupies two kinds, so the strategy of extravagance must not be careless, after all, arrogance and lust are also the way to destroy the country." ”

"Neither extravagance nor frugality can be practiced for a long time, just like the transformation of yin and yang, which needs to be carried out alternately. However, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift, and the real difficulty of the extravagant policy is that after a few years of implementation, when frugality is advocated again, Weichen is a little worried. ”

Seeing Ji Zhen looking at himself, King Qi Xuan laughed and said: "Ji Zi is too worried, the widow was able to enter thrift from the extravagance at the beginning of his accession to the throne in the past, and he can also change from extravagance to thrift in the future." ”