Last year, that is, the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shi Huang, the most impressive thing for the Xianyang people was that the Wu clan brought envoys from the Western Regions into the capital, the tall and divine "heavenly horses", the camels with peaks on their backs, the colorful melons and fruits of the Western Regions, the white and white Khotanese beautiful jade, and the high-nosed and deep-eyed Hu maids, and even the people of Daxia who wore cloth robes and had high noses and deep eyes, all made them feel fresh.

At the beginning of the spring of the thirty-sixth year, another group of people and horses, after a journey of thousands of miles, entered Guanzhong from Wuguan, and the things they brought back once again caused a sensation in the government and the opposition.

At the beginning are two elephants walking forward, which are actually the soldiers who went to Nanjun and Hengshan to rest, and at the request of the deputy superintendent of the army, they were captured in Changsha County, but they were regarded as Lingnan tribute. There were originally four, but unfortunately two have died on the road, for the Guanzhong people who have been extinct for thousands of years, this is a rare giant beast, for a time, Xianyang Wanjia came out of the empty room, crowded on the street to watch.

There are also two peacocks in the wooden cage, one female and one male, but it is a pity that the long journey has made them languishing, and they were watched by so many people at once, and the male peacock felt the danger and opened the tail screen. Unexpectedly, the shouting of passers-by became louder and louder, which made them frightened, and they were scared to death before they entered Xianyang Palace......

Fortunately, there are also hundreds of colorful kingfishers, which are said to be "emeralds", and their feathers are the favorite decoration of thousands of beauties in the emperor's palace.

The carriage also carried hundreds of polished snow-white ivory, dozens of precious rhinoceros horns, 500 tortoiseshell purple shells, several catties of pearls, and 100 pieces of kapok.

In addition, there were Vietnamese captives with tattoos and broken hair, wearing shackles, walking behind.

After the southern expeditionary army reoccupied Panyu, at the request of Shaofu, it sent local specialties to Xianyang. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was overjoyed when he saw this, and asked people to place elephants, jadeites and other products in front of the Xianyang Palace at the twelve golden people to display, in order to promote the great martial arts of Great Qin.

He wanted to tell all those who opposed this war how rich the territory seized by the Southern Expeditionary Army was, so that it was not a "useless land" in the mouth of Confucianism.

Yes, look at that pearl, it is big and round, and there is no one in the Central Plains.

You smell the agarwood, the fragrance is ten steps, and the white wood incense tree can form soil agarwood in the south of Wuling, while in Wulingbei, it is just an ordinary wood, and there is no fragrance......

This number of treasures, Qin does not give birth to a single one, and His Majesty is pleased, so it comes from Qin.

The courtiers and officials were full of praise for these treasures, but they didn't mention a word, these treasures were not needed by ordinary people at all.

Only a passing disciple of the Mo family, looking at the countless Lingnan treasures, couldn't help but shudder in this sunny day.

His master, Cheng Shang, who was also Qin Mo's new "giant", noticed his trembling and looked back at him in surprise.

"Shilin, what's wrong?"

This young Mo disciple was named Shi Lin, a native of the Song Dynasty, and his parents were shoemakers who died in the War of Unification.

Now, this group of people has gradually grown up and become the new generation of Qin Mo, active in Xianyang and various iron officials and mines, opening "engineering" and teaching craftsmen.

Shilin still couldn't stop his trembling, he hugged his arms and whispered, "Master, I'm afraid. ”

"What scares you?"

Shi Lin said: "I remembered that when the master talked about the lesson of "Saving Use", he told a story...... It is like a chopstick, and a basket is terrifying. ”

"The ivory chopsticks are certainly not placed on clay vessels such as xíng, they must be accompanied by rhinojade cups. The jade cup will definitely not be used as a container for the leaves of the herbs, but to hold the delicacies such as the elephant, the elephant and the leopard fetus. Such utensils and food will not be worn in short brown and eaten in a thatched hut, and it will be clothed in nine layers and a high platform and a wide room. ”

When he saw that he began to use the elephant chopstick, he saw the end, so that one day, the wealth of the world would not be enough for one person to squander. Sure enough, after five years, Shang Xuan made a wine pond meat forest, set up cannons, climbed the bad hills, and Yin Shang died......"

The two of them had already walked to the feet of the huge golden man, and Shi Lin raised his head and said:

"In today's Xianyang Palace, there are high platforms and wide rooms, nine layers of brocade clothes, delicacies, rhino jade cups, and tortoiseshell elephant chopsticks. Master, the one who is feared by the basket is the one whom the disciples fear. The wealth outside Kyushu is concentrated in Xianyang, decorating the harem, filling the Chen, entertaining the heart, pleasing the ears and eyes, but His Majesty is especially not satisfied, still repairing the palace and mausoleum, and still seeking immortality. I'm afraid that this Great Qin will suddenly overturn like Yin Shang in three or five years......"

"Be careful!"

Cheng Shang hurriedly stopped this bold disciple and pulled him away from the palace gate where there was an endless stream of onlookers. Public opinion in the Qin Dynasty has long been tightened, and since the crime of "slander" was introduced last year, no one dares to criticize the court and the emperor.

The Mo family and the peasant family had just survived the catastrophe of the "forbidden books" a few years ago, and now they still have to work for the Qin government, summarize all kinds of skillful skills in engineering, and teach craftsmen to prove that they are "useful".

When the master and apprentice returned home, Shi Lin, who had been holding back for a long time, said in a low voice: "Master, I just don't understand, go to useless expenses, the way of the holy king, and the great benefit of the world, this is what the Mojing says, and it is also what the master taught me Dundun." But why did the imperial court assisted by Qin Mo act contrary to the righteousness of the ink man? ”

"It wasn't like that at first."

Cheng Shang sighed, the criterion that they Qin Mo believed in was "the officials are impermanent, and the people are not cheap", and "the righteousness of the same world".

Mozi believed that inconsistent government decrees could only lead to social chaos, so when top-down management was implemented, everything should be unified at the top. This highly centralized ideology coincides with the Qin Legalists. Qin Mo wanted to help the Qin State dominate the world and let all voices come from one mouth, so as to eliminate the war and finally realize the ideal of righteousness with the world.

At the beginning, the Qin State was indeed simple and solemn from the king to the official, and the Mo scholars were like fish in water in this system, and single-handedly established the efficient military industrial system of the Qin State.

But after the unification, the water gradually became turbid.

"Unfortunately, it was said by the Xiangli clan."

Cheng Shang couldn't help but think of the conversation he had with Heifu more than ten years ago, when he attacked Chu with Heifu, and outside the small city of Chu Realm, he had a conversation with Xiang Lige, a southern ink scholar.

"The King of Qin is greedy for the name of victory, no year is not levied, I have heard, once he succeeds, he will destroy the enemy, write and paint the princes' pavilions, and build a palace in Guanzhong. Even if it doesn't cause much damage to the livelihood of the Qin people now, it is still relying on the plundering of the Six Kingdoms to compensate, if the Six Kingdoms are wiped out, but the King of Qin is greedy and continues to fight abroad, what will happen? If you want to prepare for war, you must squeeze more money to recruit troops and horses, and prepare weapons, I dare to say today, the king of Qin will be generous to the people, and rob the people of food and clothing, take the people's use, and abolish the people's profits, the people will not be hungry for food, cold and clothing, and labor will not rest. ”

In the face of Xiang Lige's questioning, Cheng Shang's answer at that time was: "Qin Mo will advise the king, rest with the people, and eliminate the military disaster......"

But he was slapped in the face by reality, just look at the joy of being assigned to the frontier last year, the admonitor is guilty, everyone learns to be smart and keeps silent.

Today's Qin Dynasty is getting farther and farther away from the "righteousness of the same world" expected by the Mo, and after Cheng Shang succeeded the giant, he learned from the disciples who walked the counties that the rift between the homeland of the Six Kingdoms and the Qin officials and the Qin army was getting deeper and deeper. And what Qin Shi Huang did was completely opposite to the "love, non-attack, sparing, and burial" that the Moshi still insists on to this day.

"In my opinion, it is Your Majesty who cares about the most important things, and the people who care about the light!"

The more Shilin spoke, the more angry he became, and even began to attack the good friend of the Mo family, Changnan Hou, who helped the Mo family to protect a few years ago.

"The Marquis of Changnan is the same, it is a good thing to seize Nanyue without too many casualties, but how can he offer extravagant things to the emperor and throw his salary into the fire?"

Cheng Shang Shao had to explain a few words to his friend: "This has nothing to do with Changnanhou, this is what Shaofu wants, and it is searched by two supervisors, Changwu Hou and Ziying, and Changnanhou is also acting on orders." ”

Cheng Shang sighed: "Besides, what are the results of the Southern Expedition? He always has to give His Majesty an explanation that he can see and touch. ”

In Haif's words, this is the "interim report of the project", and you have to tell the boss that everything is going according to plan, and the results are great, so you don't send someone to push the progress every month......

"But it's too inaction......"

Shilin is still dissatisfied, in the eyes of this little angry youth, the Manchu Dynasty civil and military, all corpses are vegetarian, sit back and watch the world deviate, falling into the abyss. Chang Nanhou is smart, he ran to the south by himself, and avoided all this, which is not much better.

He gritted his teeth and asked, "Master, what should the ink master do in this season?" ”

"How? I can only make up for the harm ......"

Cheng Shang felt tired, he never thought that he would be selected as a giant, which may be related to the fact that he has tirelessly studied the ideas in the Mojing for ten years, and has done many experiments to prove the hypothesis proposed by Zi Mozi, which has won great prestige. At the same time, Cheng Shang also took a group of disciples, taking the water vertebrae as the prototype, and developed the hydraulic equipment to the extreme, such as today, there are water wheels, water mills, and water drains everywhere, and the efficiency has indeed improved a lot.

Relying on the skills of skilled craftsmen to promote the "productivity" that Heifu and he mentioned, and to prosper the world, may be able to compensate for the negative effects of excessive taxes and heavy forced labor?

Among the Mo scholars, the people who agreed with this concept accounted for the majority, and the previous giant Tang Fuzi, when he was old and old, chose Cheng Shang to succeed him in accordance with the "Shangxian" tradition of the Mo family, and handed over the ink ruler to him.

However, Cheng Shang's disciple Shilin does not belong to the conservative faction, but tends to be radical and has his own ideas......

Seeing that the master was gloomy, he didn't ask anymore, silently retreated, and said secretly after coming out:

"As a giant, the master is too inactive? All day long, I only knew that only the emperor's order was obeyed, and I pinned my hopes on Xingli to make up for the harm, but this big harm, how can it be made up for by small profits, in my opinion, the holes are being made up more and more. ”

He stopped abruptly and said to himself, "Except for Xingli, can't you ...... Eliminate harm!? ”

Even though he was a radical among the ink scholars, Shilin was still taken aback by his sudden idea, and quickly shook his head and threw it away.

But when the time came in March, even though Shilin wanted to work hard to follow the master's teachings and make up for the harm, he found the Mo family by himself.

Shaofu Yao Jia ordered that the construction period of Afang and Lishan was tight, and the links that required exquisite technology had been repaired. Therefore, the Shaofu demanded that the Mo people must send people to assist in the construction of the Afang Palace and the Lishan Mausoleum......

This request caused disputes among Qin Mo, and more than 100 people were divided into two factions, emotional and noisy.

In the end, it was the giant Cheng Shang who reluctantly suppressed everyone and obeyed the government's request.

Shilin went to Afang Palace, where Gongzi Fusu was a prisoner, but he didn't demand too much from Mo and forced everyone to do things that were contrary to his beliefs.

But a few brothers and sisters who were sent to Lishan had a big incident.

In mid-March, Deputy Supervisor Zhao Gao reported to Emperor Qin Shi Huang:

There are three people who have ink, saying that they follow the training of Zi Mozi's "festival burial", refuse to provide precision skills for the crossbow arrows in the Lishan mausoleum, and even speak out, saying that His Majesty is extravagant, does not know how to use sparingly, and has the crime of slander, and should be investigated and dealt with by Tingwei in prison!