In the middle of the night, the inn was quiet, as if all the people inside were asleep.

Only in one room, a few candles faintly oozed out of it, reflected on the window paper.

In this room, Zhao Hongrun and He Zhirong, the head of the house, were playing chess and talking.

The topic they talked about was 'how to make the Wei State strong', because Zhao Hongrun has never liked to talk about empty knowledge, he didn't need some bombastic old Confucian students to teach him etiquette and royal ways, what Zhao Hongrun wanted to hear were those specific strategies.

However, when listening to Zhao Hongrun raise this topic, He Zhirong couldn't help but smile bitterly, waved his hand again and again and said: "The country gentry, how dare you talk about state affairs?" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun said with a smile: "It's okay, just think of two **** idle chattering for a while." ”

He Zhirong hesitated for a while, and under Zhao Hongrun's urging several times, he said: "In this case, His Royal Highness King Su should not laugh at the contemptible and short-sighted. …… Contemptible and foolish, if I want to be strong, I must be stable inside and outside. ”

"Hmm." Zhao Hongrun responded noncommittally, after all, he was not very interested in this kind of opening remarks before the remarks.

"Let's talk about internal security first, and people think that it is particularly important to reconcile the relationship between the common people and the common people." "Note: In the earliest days, the common people referred to "many people or families with surnames", and generally referred to famous families, squires and wealthy families, and nobles in various places. And real civilians generally have only one name, no surname, and some even don't even have a serious name, and some nicknames such as "dog egg", "dog leftover", "big strong" and so on. However, in this book, civilians who are not cutscenes will have surnames, which is for ease of reading and not to be confused with other texts. Don't get confused, folks.'

"Easing class contradictions?"

Zhao Hongrun, who was about to settle down, glanced at He Zhirong, felt a little interested in his heart, and asked when he heard the words: "How to reconcile the relationship?" ”

He Zhirong paused and said in a low voice: "Give the hope that commoners may become nobles." ”

"......" Zhao Hongrun's eyes flashed with surprise.

In fact, the contradiction between the commoners and the nobles in Wei was mainly reflected in two points, first, the oppression of the nobles to the commoners, and second, the jealousy of the commoners to the nobles.

And these two points led to the hostility of the common people towards the aristocracy. As for what hostility could the nobility have towards the commoners, in turn? The latter simply cannot enter the horizon of the former.

Therefore, the fundamental way to alleviate the contradiction between the commoners and the nobility is to try to reduce the resentment in the hearts of the commoners.

And the trick proposed by He Zhirong "to give commoners the hope that they may become nobles" is really a very clever but also very ruthless strategy.

You must know that the vast majority of people will only take risks when they are desperate, and as long as you give them some hope, you can control them well and guide them.

Isn't the imperial examination of the imperial court a convenient door to the career of the poor and the children of the poor? "Note: Hanmen does not refer to ordinary people, but refers to well-off families, who can generally get books and can afford to read private schools. And the children of poor families refer to children from poor families like Kuang Heng in the idiom of "chiseling the wall and stealing the light". Ordinary civilians are between the poor and the poor, but they are all civilians."

It is undeniable that in fact, the Wei court has long been gradually improving the status of civilians, such as the scientific examination once every two or three years, there are tens of thousands of people in the township examination, but part of the township examination is brushed off, and part of the county examination is brushed off, so that when it comes to the examination, when Zhao Hongrun invigilated the examination, there were only more than 2,600 people, and the vast majority of these people will still be brushed down, and in the end, only a few or two hundred people will be left with the opportunity to enter the official career.

That's a huge disparity.

However, none of the poor families and the children of the common people complained about this and rushed to the scientific examination, why? Because they saw hope, they saw the hope of being promoted to the court officials and among the upper class.

Because when there is no imperial examination, officials need to be recommended, and who are the recommenders? Aristocrats, nobles, squires, these people will almost only nominate people who have a relationship with them, and the children of the poor and the common people have almost no chances.

It is this kind of recommendation system that has made some well-educated talents who want to enter the official career but have no way to scold the court when they are drunk and idle, and vent their dissatisfaction with slandering the court.

And today's scientific examination only gives them some hope, but it firmly grasps the hearts of this kind of people.

Because of this, Zhao Hongrun secretly said that He Zhirong's move was a very clever move, but it was also a very ruthless move.

"This man is really insightful!"

Just one sentence, Zhao Hongrun felt that the head of He Yichang in front of him was really a far-sighted talent, and he really couldn't figure out why such a talent would be repeatedly brushed off by the scientific examination.

But if you think about it carefully, the questions in the township examination, the county examination, and the general examination are all rigid and dogmatic, and it is not surprising that talented people are brushed off.

To put it mildly, even if Su Wang Hongrun, who won two great victories in two battles outside and expanded the smelting bureau to such a scale inside, let him participate in the imperial examination, maybe he won't even be able to pass the first round of the township examination.

After all, the exam questions are dead, people are alive, and those few questions are not enough to prove whether a person is knowledgeable and capable.

However, just when Zhao Hongrun was happy to see Hunting and was about to have an in-depth discussion with He Zhirong, he suddenly heard a soft sound outside the house.

He Zhirong was about to drop the chess piece, and Zhao Hongrun was drinking tea with a teacup, and the two glanced at the window in unison, but unfortunately the window was pasted with window paper, and they couldn't see what was going on outside.

"That's a lot of guts."

He Zhirong shook his head, with anger on his face.

You must know that in the law of the Wei court, attacking a post station set up in the wilderness is the same crime as attacking the county commander's office, and the army will be properly charged for twenty years, either go to Chenggaoguan or Fencheng and other places to build additional city walls, or go to Shangdang County to lay official roads.

Therefore, generally speaking, even robbers who make a living from looting will deliberately avoid the post station, because if they rob a rich person's house, they will not necessarily provoke pursuers, but if they attack the post station, the local county will inevitably send an army to encircle and suppress, and even when the strength of the county is insufficient, they can ask the surrounding counties for help, or directly ask the court to send troops.

This shows the status of the post station.

But think about it, the post station system is the most important communication network for transmitting official documents and messages in the Wei State, and once it is paralyzed, the consequences are unimaginable.

At the same time, on the periphery, as Zhao Hongrun expected, some sneaky black shadows were heading towards the post station.

The sound that Zhao Hongrun and He Zhirong heard just now was when someone tried to climb over the outer wall of the post station, and accidentally touched a piece of mud brick that had long been weathered.

"What do you do?" Another black shadow climbed over the wall from outside the wall and entered the courtyard of the post station, and scolded the companion in front of him who accidentally touched the mud brick in front of him: "This is enough for us to eat and drink for a lifetime, be careful." ”

"I didn't mean to......," the figure in front of him replied.

Before he could finish speaking, another figure climbed over the wall and whispered in the same deep voice, "Shut up." …… I'm afraid that the people in the post station won't hear what's wrong? If you don't want to do this deal, go back and don't get in the way of the rest of the people's money. ”

Hearing this, all the figures stopped talking.

"There are guard towers around the post station, go to a few people, slaughter the soldiers who are keeping vigil first, and the rest of the people will search from house to house."

"Oh."

The figures seemed to have decided on the division of labor, and scattered in all directions.

They didn't notice that on the roofs of the houses inside the inn, there were pairs of eyes looking at them.

And the owners of these eyes are the guards who are hiding on the roof.

"What's going on?" This group ......

"It doesn't look like the one who ambushed me at the inn yesterday......

"These people ......."

Looking at the thieves below, the sect guards were a little puzzled, because they felt that this wave of people didn't seem to be very experienced.

I remember that the group of thieves in the inn yesterday, that called a professional, pretending to be the innkeeper, buddy, and guest, even Zhao Hongrun didn't see the flaw, if it weren't for Chen Xiao's words that made the thief who pretended to be the shopkeeper feel shocked, so that Mi Jiang noticed that something was wrong, maybe that group of people could really succeed in killing Zhao Hongrun and his party.

But now these people are good, it doesn't matter if they climb over the wall and kick the mud down, they are still arguing quietly, in this kind of silent night, even the deaf can hear it, right?

"The second wave of assassins we're waiting for, these guys?"

Wei Jiao frowned, he felt that the quality of the two groups of assassins was too different.

At this time, Gao Kuo, who was lying beside him, reminded in a low voice: "It's time to do it, lest these thieves disturb the female dependents." ”

Wei Jiao nodded, although it was said that Miss Su, Una and other female dependents had two daughters by their side, Mi Jiang and Mi Rui, but after all, there were quite a few of these thieves, and if there was anything wrong, Wei Jiao couldn't afford it.

So, he silently raised the crossbow he had already prepared in his hand, aimed at a thief standing in the courtyard looking left and right, and then pulled the trigger.

I heard a pop, and the crossbow bolt hit the thief's chest, only to see the thief grasp the crossbow arrow in his chest, and his throat made a breathing sound like "hehe", and then fell to the ground with a pop.

It's a signal.

Immediately, the guards who were lying in ambush on the roof jumped off the roof with their blades in hand, and swung their blades at the backs of the thieves who were facing away from them and trying to enter the house.

"Ahh

"Ahh

There were a few screams, and the thieves were shocked, but before they could react, they saw the houses on both sides be kicked open with a bang, and immediately, a group of heavily armed soldiers poured out of the house, which was the soldier stationed at this post station.

"Kill!"

With a loud roar, the guards and the soldiers of those post stations flanked back and forth.

Seeing this change, those thieves were in chaos, some killed Zongwei, some killed the post soldiers, and a few thieves actually shouted "I don't want to die" in an attempt to escape over the wall.

"What's going on?"

Because Shen Yu, the head of the sect's guard, was guarding outside the room where Zhao Hongrun was at the moment, Wei Jiao, who commanded everyone on his behalf, looked at the scene in front of him and was really a little surprised.

Because of this group of thieves, let's not say that they are weak, the key is that they are scattered, as if they were temporarily put together.

And just when Wei Jiao took the guards and soldiers to besiege and kill those thieves in the front yard of the post station, in the backyard of the post house, more than 20 figures quickly climbed over the wall.

Silently. (To be continued.) )