The iron cavalry surrounded Confucius and his party, and after a while, Yan Zi came out of the carriage. Yan Zi got out of the carriage, completely devoid of his previous arrogance, bowed to Confucius, and said, "Mr. Kongqiu, how can you say goodbye without saying goodbye like this?" Confucius looked at Yan Zi's formation, and also told the truth: Qi Guo can't tolerate me Kongqiu, how dare I be attached to this. Yan Zi knew that Confucius would leave, and he came to see him off, but Yan Zi wanted Confucius to lose convincingly, because in terms of eloquence, Yan Zi had not been afraid of anyone. Yan Zi said: Mr. Kongqiu, Yan knows that Mr. Kong is a capable person in governing the country, but your set of theories cannot be implemented today, if you can give up your theory, I still sincerely invite you to come to Qi State, and we will assist Jinggong together.

Confucius naturally understood that Yan Zi did not sincerely invite him back, but was just reprimanding him. When Confucius heard this, he smiled and said, "I, Confucius, have always been persistent in doing things, and if I choose to leave, I will naturally not go back, unless you can convince me." When Yan Zi heard this, it was clear that he was going to have a debate competition, or it would completely extinguish the spirit of this kid Kongqiu. So Confucius and Yan Zi sat facing each other on the floor, and the others gathered them in the middle, which was the form of debate at that time. When everything was ready, Yan Zi first asked: Now there are more than 140 states of all sizes, and there is a war of war day and night; Tell me, Master, why is that?

Confucius replied: For the sake of the population and the city. Yan Zi smiled and said: The master is only half right. In today's era, the Son of Heaven is incompetent, and the princes are competing to develop themselves in order to protect themselves, and the ultimate goal is to unify the world, and the world is the way to fight for the world! After hearing this, Confucius then retorted: Settle inside, be courteous to the world, submit to the Quartet, and win the world without fighting. After hearing this, Yan Zi smiled and said: The master is talking about self-denial again. The princes compete for hegemony, which ruler does not want to enrich the country and strengthen the army to dominate the Central Plains, they formulate harsh laws, let the whole country fight as one, pay attention to military strength, pay attention to the abundance of armaments and materials, only by eliminating other princes, can they seek permanent survival.

After Yan Zi finished speaking, the debate entered a moment of silence. The branches and branches of the surrounding trees are full of leaves, which seem to be dense, but they can't withstand the breeze, and the leaves fall to the ground when the wind blows. It is a natural phenomenon that trees grow in spring and fall in autumn, but big trees will always stand there, whether they live or die. The tree will die one day, but there will always be a seed that will take root and keep life going. Although, now the tree is not considered a pillar. The trees around the big tree are lined up, and they grow straight and straight, and from time to time they laugh at the big tree: what a fool, if you don't grow on it, the roots will fall deeper and deeper! When the tree is lonely, it will also express its own feelings.

Confucius stood up, glanced at the sky, and sighed: Heaven and earth give birth to man, and then there are clans, clans fight, there are states, states and countries fight, and then become the world, and establish the unity of China. But time has passed, things are wrong, and several generations of emperors have changed their ways without authorization, resulting in the destruction of the Shang Dynasty in the Xia Dynasty and the destruction of the Shang Dynasty in the Zhou Dynasty, what is the main reason for this? The law of etiquette collapsed, the relationship between the monarch and the minister, the father and the son, changed greatly, and the new regime had no choice but to replace the former. The rite I want to restore is not a decree, not a formality, but a truth in the hearts of men. It is to be loyal to the top, the son to the father to be filial, everyone is honest with each other, completely eliminate the war, and pursue the harmony of the world!

Confucius paused, and then said: Just now Dr. Yan said that the world is the way to fight for the world, you are wrong! The battle in the world you said has made the world more than swordsmen and all sentient beings suffer. Dr. Yan only knows that the country is strong, but he doesn't know that the people's will is the heart of heaven, and the people's vision is the vision of heaven. Imagine that the country will dominate the world overnight, and within ten years it will collapse. Why is that? People's hearts are like water, and their desires are hard to fill!

Yan Zi seemed to be moved after hearing this, and said: What Confucius wants, only a holy monarch like King Wen of Zhou can do. But today's world is no longer the world of King Wu.

Confucius replied: I can only summarize this set of avenues of King Wen's rule of the country, and use my life's energy to spread it. The blue sky is in my heart, and I will do my best to abide by it, even if the road is embarrassing. Even if Confucius's wish is not fulfilled in his lifetime, then my deeds will remain in history for future generations to learn. In this way, Kongqiu's merits are already immeasurable!

Yan Zi chased after him with great difficulty, wanting to teach Confucius a lesson, but Confucius was speechless, so he could only bow down and let Confucius go. Confucius collected his excitement and said some words of admiration to Yanzi. The Tao is different and does not seek to conspire with it, which is the common principle of Confucius and Yanzi. Confucius got into the carriage, sighed, and left the kingdom of Qi. The most reasonable person often ends up not staying because no one can really understand him. Great people may not have a comfortable life, which may be the truth of being born in sorrow and dying in peace. The road ahead will be even more bumpy, this great depressed idealist!

Confucius left Qi and returned to Lu, where he was not reused until he was 51 years old, from his current position as mayor to acting prime minister. He once governed a small city in the northwest of the Lu country, and in only three months, the appearance of the city changed greatly, and a good social atmosphere of not leaving the road behind and never closing the door at night appeared. During this period, Confucius exclaimed that he was not confused at forty, which means that when a person reaches the age of forty, he has experienced a lot and has his own judgment; Knowing the destiny of heaven at fifty means that after the age of fifty, we know the difficulty of realizing our ideals, so we do things without seeking results. During this period, Confucius revised the poems, books, rites, and music to teach his disciples.

At that time, the monarch of Lu was Lu Dinggong, but the actual power was in the hands of Sanhuan, who referred to the three major families of Lu Guomeng, Shusun and Ji, who were all descendants of Lu Huangong, so they were called Sanhuan. Lu Dinggong was Lu Zhaogong before, and Lu Zhaogong was driven out of Lu by Sanhuan and died in a foreign land. During his tenure, Confucius decided to demolish the castle built by Sanhuan in order to weaken the strength of Sanhuan. Confucius was not afraid of the powerful, but the castle was forced to stop after it was half demolished. Later, Qi gave 80 beauties to Lu State, and Ji received them all, and since then, the monarchs and ministers have been obsessed with singing and dancing, and have ignored the government for many days. Lu Dinggong knew that he had no real power, and if he angered Sanhuan, his fate would be worse than that of Zhaogong, so he naturally had to get by.

When Confucius was 55 years old, the magnates of the Lu State did not intend to appoint Confucius anymore, and Confucius was also extremely disappointed with the monarchs and ministers of the current dynasty, and decided to leave the Lu State and began his 14-year career of traveling around the world. Confucius understood that his thoughts and actions could hardly be reused by the monarchs of any country. He wanted to implement benevolent government and stop the war, but it was the Spring and Autumn period, and he could only survive by constantly fighting and annexing. He set foot on the lands of Wei, Cao, Song, Zheng, Qi, Chen, Cai, Chu and other countries for the purpose of propagating his ideas. On the whole, the magnates of various countries still treated Confucius with great courtesy, although no monarch used him seriously. Every monarch understands that Confucius's ideas will make the country strong, but this process is too long, and the current environment does not allow it, because at some point, neighboring countries will shoot thousands of arrows at you.