This is the first time Gu Yanwu has left Jiangnan, or the first time he has entered a foreign land that does not belong to the Ming Dynasty.

Shaanxi and Shanxi, two provinces that once belonged to the Ming Dynasty, are now someone else's territory. Gu Yanwu was invited to participate in the so-called cultural exchange meeting of the Qin State this time, he just wanted to see what this warlord who only knew how to make practical gains had built these two places.

In the past few days, there has been war everywhere, or the drought has been going on. The area south of the Yangtze River is okay, at least the rainfall is quite sufficient, coupled with the huge river system, so that there is no shortage of water in the south of the Yangtze River. But the farther west, the more severe the drought becomes, and in some places there is not a drop of water that can be found in the red land.

Without water, there is no way to grow anything, and the people can only have two choices between life and death, one is to die here, and the other is to flee elsewhere.

Once upon a time, they were more accustomed to fleeing to Jiangnan and fleeing into the arms of the Ming Dynasty. But now, many of them have chosen to enter the Qin State.

What Gu Yanwu saw all the way was arid land, semi-weathered plants, and people fleeing the famine. Many people were willing to flee to the Qin State rather than go south to Jiangnan, which made Gu Yanwu puzzled. But he couldn't stop and ask these refugees, because they were already skinny, and they had reached the point where they could eat everything. A leaf will be very delicious to eat in their stomachs, let alone a compatriot like a human.

Young women are often the first to be eaten, followed by old people. In the end, they had to cannibalize each other in order to survive.

At that time, Gu Yanwu was escorted by the Qin army, so he walked safely by their side. Otherwise, those horses were white and fat, and when they looked at the guards and Gu Yanwu who had a good taste, how could these guys miss it?

"Why, didn't the Qin State send people to support them?" Gu Yanwu asked the guards on the way.

"The drought in Daqin is even stricter than in their hometown, who will save our people there? Besides, Gu Gongzi, didn't you notice that there is always an army behind us? They didn't dare to offend Daqin, but it was easy for them to deal with these refugees. We dropped the supplies here today, and they took them away in less than a quarter of an hour, and even caused the death of more than 100 people in the process, so do you still think the rescue is correct? The head of the guard replied.

"This ......" Gu Yanwu was speechless, he had seen a lot of things along the way, and he was no longer the Lang Man boy.

If today, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is divided, and each province has troops to stand on its own, saying that it wants to clear the monarch's side, but in fact it is just trying to realize its own dream of being an emperor. Besides, nine and a half of the ten so-called emperors are puppets who have been propped up, and the remaining half only have a certain amount of administrative power, and it is better to be called a king than a courtier.

"Okay, I'm ready to enter Shanxi. As for those refugees, if they can go to Shanxi, someone will take them in. There will be a three-month period of psychological reassuring, and then a special area will be set aside for them to live in, and they will be allowed to move after three years. "The head of the guard rarely kindly told Gu Yanwu about the Qin State's resettlement method for these refugees.

"Why is this arranged?" Gu Yanwu still couldn't figure it out.

"Quite simply, they've eaten people, and they don't see anything yet, but when they calm down, the experience becomes a nightmare. Some people can't bear it and will go crazy directly, and some people will become addicted to eating human flesh, and then continue to kill people and eat meat. In order not to hurt the original people, we must deal with it in this way. The guard said very solemnly.

At this moment, even Gu Yanwu was directly silent.

Entering Shanxi, it is indeed drier than other places, but it is much more popular than other barren provinces.

"Actually, even if the weather is dry, there will still be some rain. In particular, there is a lot of water under the land. In the past two years, His Highness has continuously sent people to dig deep wells, and at the same time built one water tank after another, so that the water in the place is more difficult, but not so short of water. In addition, some irrigated crops can be produced. Of course, crop yields are inevitable, but some hardy cash crops have been harvested well, such as watermelons and grapes.

Nowadays, many people in these arid areas have temporarily stopped growing crops and are focusing on cash crops. After the harvest of watermelons, grapes and cotton, special caravans were brought to sell them, and the people sold them for more than twice as much as they used to sell grain. In other words, what they have gained this year is what they have gained in the past two years.

The main income of our Qin State comes from commercial taxes, so the agricultural taxes are very small. Under such conditions, the people's income has actually been further increased. The people have money in hand, they can buy grain in the hands of merchants, these mainly come from the grain in the south of the Yangtze River, and the merchants only charge 1.5 times the normal grain price, which is still an acceptable price for places that cannot produce grain at all, not to mention that their income this year is already more, and they don't care about the price.

As a result, the people's lives were much better than they were when there was no drought. When the income is high, they start to consume, and some consumer merchants will come and sell their goods. After the goods are sold, the government will levy a certain transaction tax, and the whole process forms a positive cycle. Seeing that Gu Yanwu was very curious about the popularity here, the head of the guard wanted him to explain.

He didn't know so much about the details, but it didn't affect his own understanding.

"Brother Tai seems to have read a book?" Gu Yanwu felt that this should not be the knowledge that a martial artist should know.

"Reading? I hadn't read anything before I became a soldier, and I was completely illiterate. However, His Royal Highness has always attached great importance to cultural education, so we train during the day and enter the literacy class at night to learn pinyin and learn to read and write. Nowadays, if you want to talk about not very esoteric books, I can still read them. The chief of the guard said proudly.

"That literacy class, is it much?" Gu Yanwu asked curiously.

"Every village has one, and after a year of popularization, the literacy rate of the entire Daqin has increased from 13.5% at the time of the Ming Dynasty to 57.9% today. It seems that the above people are not satisfied, saying that it is necessary to implement nine-year compulsory education, that is, to let the children of the appropriate age go to school to learn knowledge in nine years, the whole process is completely free, and if the school age is not enrolled, the family will be punished to a certain extent. Some time ago, the weekly magazine seemed to predict that in the next five years, Daqin's literacy rate could reach more than 89.9 percent, and the remaining 10.1 percent would come mainly from refugees who had fled the famine. "For this kind of secrecy that does not involve secrecy regulations, the guards naturally don't mind letting these narrow-minded scholars have a good insight.

"Then this is strange, why is the King of Qin so eager for the people to be literate and literate, but he does not teach Confucian moral culture, so that his people become like Yidi?" Gu Yanwu couldn't figure it out very much.

"The third issue of "Weekly" said that today's Confucian culture is a defective product after the later generations cater to the king's deletion, and teaching this thing will teach bad children. Xu Guolao also agreed with this, and he even revised Confucian literature himself. The new books seem to have been officially published, completely restoring the culture of Confucianism in its most primitive state, and then teaching it to students who need to know it.

What you said, my personal opinion...... Can you eat Confucian culture? Can I be fed and clothed? I don't seem to see any use other than being able to cultivate personal sentiments. Especially when those officials who hold the Confucian culture but don't know how to do anything are spending our taxpayers' hard-earned money in Lang, but nothing can be brought to us, I will feel unhappy.

Taking 10,000 steps back, it is too difficult to understand Confucian culture and even all the works at the beginning. The so-called 'high-rise buildings rise from the ground', the enlightenment of our people has not yet been completed, so you are going to let us run and let us jump? The guard thought for a moment and said.

Seriously, at this moment, Gu Yanwu felt that he really had nothing to say to this guard, and everyone's thoughts seemed to be very different, which made it difficult for him to recognize what the guard chief said. In other words, when you agree with these words, it means that you have denied your experience and thoughts for more than 20 years.

"Alright, it's time to dismount, the post has arrived." At this time, the captain of the guard called out to him.

"Oh...... Good. Gu Yanwu dismounted with him and walked directly into the post station.

He felt that since he arrived in Daqin's territory, a lot of things contained too much information, and he needed to sort it out. The most important thing is that what he is seeing so far seems to be the tip of the iceberg of the entire Great Qin, and he is eager to see the whole picture of the iceberg.

Therefore, he should be more active in asking, more active in seeing, and listening.

In this way, we will be able to understand which is the truth. He loved his teacher, but he also loved the truth even more.