Regarding the existence of the kind of think tank that takes a salary and does not do serious work, Zhang Jiashi naturally has no good impression at all. Fortunately, this time is not the time when Confucianism was prevalent. As long as Zhang Jiashi wanted to, then he could completely ignore the existence of Confucianism and develop the doctrine faction of the Qin Empire according to his own ideas.

But Zhang Jiashi is very entangled in one thing, that is, if you want to popularize the cultural system, and in the future personnel selection, Confucianism is indispensable in many cases.

Perhaps, the development of the family and even the scholar class in this respect is not inferior to Confucianism, but it is easy to have common ground between the two and the two become one, which is also what Zhang Jiashi does not want to see.

Unless Zhang Jiashi can think of a school that can replace Confucianism in aspects related to the imperial examination.

......

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the guest secretary system can be said to be one of the manifestations of a country's national strength.

Chu Caijin is the most obvious example.

As Qin Mugong, who really established the foundation of the Qin State, among the ministers he relied on, Baili Xi was also not a native of the Qin State.

Baili Xi read poetry and books and learned well, but his family was poor, and the patriarchal system of Yu State was strict, so civilians had no hope of becoming officials. Bailixi's wife, Du Shi, is a very knowledgeable woman, knowing that her husband is a genius, so she encourages Bailixi to travel to the world.

On the day of Bailixi's trip, the pot could no longer be opened at home. Du got up early in the morning, slaughtered the only hen that laid eggs, split the latch to stew the hen, cooked small rice, and gave it to her husband.

After Baili Xi traveled from Nanyang to seek office, he went through the Song Kingdom, Qi State and other countries, because there was no one in the court, he was not hired. In the country of Qi, Baili Xi fell into a predicament, once begging along the street, and continued to seek employment. In Qi Guozhi, he met Uncle Jian, and the two became confidants after a lot of talking.

After that, under the recommendation of Uncle Jian, he went to Yu Country to become a doctor. However, the monarch of Yu State was a monarch who loved money as much as his life, and after receiving the Jin State's weeping thorns and BMW and other property, he agreed to lend the road to the Jin State, so that the Jin State could pass through the Yu State to conquer his neighbor Yu State, which was also the same surname and ally of Yu State. Baili Xi told Yu Guojun the truth that his lips were cold and his teeth were cold, and when the persuasion was ineffective, he closed his mouth and stopped admonishing, and said to his colleague Gong Zhiqi: "Directly persuading stupid people is tantamount to throwing treasures on the road." "Sure enough, after the Jin State destroyed the Yu State, he pointed the finger at the Yu State.

In 655 BC, the Jin State destroyed the Yu State and captured the Yu State and his doctor Baili Xi. Because he refused to be an official in the Jin State, he was used as a slave by the Jin State, and when Mu Ji married Qin Mugong, he married into the Qin State. On the way to Qin, Baili Xi fled back to Chu.

King Chu Cheng, the monarch of Chu State, heard that Baili Xi was good at raising cattle, so he asked Baili Xi to raise cattle for himself. Qin Mugong, who had just become the monarch of Qin, his name was Ren Hao, and he was a monarch with great ambitions. Qin Mugong's adviser Gongzi said: "Then King Chu Cheng must not know Baili Xi's talent, so he let Baili Xi raise cattle." If you ransom him with a great amount of money. Isn't that tantamount to telling people that Baili Xi is a once-in-a-lifetime talent?"

Qin Mugong asked: "Then how can I get Baili Xi?" Gongzi said: "You can buy expensive things at a low price, and exchange the market price of a slave, that is, five black ram skins, for Baili Xi." In that case, King Chu Cheng would definitely not doubt it. ”

When Baili Xi was escorted back to Qin, Qin Mugong personally met with Bai Li Xi. Baili Xi said: "I am a minister of the fallen country, where is it worth the king's inquiry!" Mu Gong said: "It is not your fault that Yu Jun did not need you to make you captive." Qin Mugong personally relieved him of his slave status and consulted with him to discuss state affairs. The two talked for three days, and they didn't agree with each other. Mu Gong was very happy, and wanted to worship him as a doctor and entrust him with national affairs, which was actually to hand over the military and political power of Qin to Baili Xi.

Baili Xi resolutely resigned, and recommended his friend Uncle Jian to be the secretary. In the end, Qin Mugong asked him to invite Uncle Jian to Qin with a very heavy courtesy, and asked him to be the doctor of Qin State with Uncle Jian. Because Baili Xi was a slave exchanged by Qin Mugong for five black ram skins, the world called Baili Xi "Five Doctors".

After Baili Xi became a doctor in the Qin State, he always maintained the idea of loving the people, he was diligent in political affairs, did not sit in a car when tired, did not use an umbrella in the hot summer, walked all over the country, did not use the entourage of vehicles, did not bring armed defense, and won the trust of the people of the Qin State.

Internally, it advocated indoctrination, opened up the wisdom of the people, that is, spiritual civilization, and changed the backward state system of the Qin State in accordance with the official system and court rituals of the Zhou Dynasty; externally, it did a good job in relations with neighboring countries, and did not start wars, so that the Qin State could be ruled in a short period of time.

Once, Baili Xi's prime minister's house was staggered, and the guests and hosts laughed frequently, which was very lively. Baili Xi asked the singers and dancers to play music and sing to hold a church meeting to entertain the guests. After hearing the sound of musical instruments, a maid who was washing clothes in the Prime Minister's Mansion took the initiative to ask to play a song for Doctor Bailixi, and Bailixi readily agreed. The old woman went out into the crowd, and generously played the harp and sang to herself:

Baili Xi, five sheepskins. When I remember to say goodbye, I cook the female, cook and cook, and today I am rich and forgetful. Baili Xi, when I first married me, there were five sheepskins. Cooking suckling chicken when parting, now is suitable for wealth and selflessness. Baili Xi, Baili Xi, the mother is dead, buried in Nanxi. The grave is covered with tiles, covered with firewood, and Huang Li is licked. Chicken. West into Qin, five skins, today rich and noble donate to me.

Listening to this euphemistic, intriguing, and sincere singing, Baili Xi was greatly surprised, so he stepped forward to ask, only to know that it was his wife, Du Shi, who had come to his husband.

Baili Xi's wife Du Shi has not been heard from for decades since her husband left. The family was poor, and when there was a famine, he took his son out to escape the famine. Du begged for food and went to the Qin State, and learned that Baili Xi had become a doctor in the Qin State. In order to get close to Bailixi, she managed to go to Bailixi's mansion and become a laundry maid.

After recognizing each other in the hall, the husband and wife hugged their heads and cried. After the people of Qin knew about this, they were very moved by Bailixi's quality. Qin Mugong also sent people to send many treasures and gifts to congratulate.

Under the assistance and governance of Baili Xi, the Qin State gradually became stronger. However, the Jin Kingdom, a friendly state of Qin and Jin, experienced several major domestic turmoil.

In 651 BC, Jin Xiangong died, and Jin Xiangong's concubine Li Ji wanted her son Xi Qi to succeed him, but was soon killed by the minister Rick. The king has no heir. After the death of Jin Xiangong, the succession of the Jin State became a major problem in maintaining the stability of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Under the premise of doing a good job in his own domestic politics, Baili Xi led troops to escort Gongzi Yiwu back to the country and succeeded to the throne, called Jin Huigong.

Yiwu was unscrupulous, and he had no faith in the outside world, and he did not fulfill his promise to cede the eight cities of Hexi to the Qin state, and the relationship between the Qin and Jin countries cracked.

In 648 B.C., the Jin State suffered a serious natural disaster, Baili Xi said: "Blessings and misfortunes have their own rotations, besides, the Qin State lent grain to the Jin State, not to Yiwu alone, but for the Li people of the Jin State." So, Qin Mugong agreed to transport a large amount of corn to Jin through the waterway. This humanitarian act conquered the hearts of the people of the Jin Kingdom, and was known as the "Battle of Rafting" in history.

In 646 BC, there was also a famine in Qin, but the Jin not only did not give Qin food for disaster relief, but instead sent troops to attack Qin. The following year, the Qin and Jin forces fought a decisive battle in Hanyuan, and after several days of fierce battles, both sides suffered heavy casualties, and the Qin army finally won and captured Jin Huigong alive.

In order to strive for a good external environment for the development of Qin, Bailixi advocated not killing Jin Huigong and maintaining friendly relations between Qin and Jin. Under the threat of Mu Ji's death, Qin Mugong agreed to let Jin Huigong return to China.

In 637 BC, after the death of Duke Hui of Jin. Baili Xi also assisted Qin Mugong to try to bring Chong'er, the son of Jin, from Chu to Qin, and sent Chong'er back to China, expelled Ziyu, the son of Jin Huigong, and established Chong'er as the king, known as Jin Wengong in history.

In the process of Baili Xi assisting Qin Mugong to fight for hegemony, he also experienced the rebellion of the Zhou royal family. In 636 BC, a war broke out in Luoyang, the capital of Zhou, and King Xiang of Zhou took refuge in Zhuchuan. Baili Xi persuaded Qin Mugong to take King Xiang of Zhou to Qin and take the opportunity to dominate. Because Qin Mugong was worried that the Jin State would be blocked by the middle, he gave up halfway and gave it to Jin Wengong.

After the Jin and Wen princes became hegemonic, Baili Xi continued to repair friendly relations between Qin and Jin, and began to jointly conquer the nearby small states allied with the Chu state, Cao, Wei, and Zheng. In 632 BC, the Qin and Jin armies defeated the Chu army that invaded the Central Plains at Chengpu, causing Yin Ziyu, the highest military and political governor of the Chu state, to commit suicide. The Qin State became the most powerful power in the north after the Jin State.

In the winter of 628 BC, Duke Wen of Jin died. Qin Mugong was anxious to dominate the Central Plains, and ordered Meng Mingshi, the son of Baili Xi, to lead troops to conquer Zheng Guo. Baili Xi and Jian Shu did not agree to the expedition to Zheng State, but the doctor Zheng Gan echoed Qin Mugong and supported the Eastern Expedition. Under the repeated persecution of Qin Mugong, Meng Mingshi led his troops eastward. When he arrived in Huaguo, which was still 80 kilometers away from Zheng Guo, he met a merchant from Zheng Guo, Xiang Gao, who was driving a batch of cattle to Luoyang to sell. This string Gao immediately disguised himself as an envoy of Zheng Guo, drove the cattle to the camp of the Qin soldiers, and claimed to have come to reward the army on the orders of Zheng Guojun. On the way, he found that Zheng Guo was already prepared, and just in case, Meng Mingshi changed his plan on the spot. After the destruction of the slippery country, Meng Mingshi ordered the division to return to the country quickly.

Unexpectedly, the tragedy of Kunshan on the way back to China happened.

The main peak of the Kuoshan Mountain Range is 1,850 meters, the mountains under the peak are cracked in a line, the cliff is precipitous, the world is called "the Cuishan Canyon", there is only a small road that only allows one chariot, beside the abyss, circling and twisting. The Qin army was ambushed by the Jin state, and the army of 300 chariots and thousands of soldiers was completely annihilated. Meng Mingshi, along with Xi Qishu and Bai Qibing, were all captured by the Jin State.

Wen Ying, the wife of Duke Wen of Jin, was the daughter of Duke Qin Mu, and when she heard the news that Meng Mingshi and others had been captured, she said to Duke Xiang: "These three people provoked the relationship between the kings of our two countries, and my father hated them to the bone marrow. It's better to let them go back to China and let their father cook them to death!"

Qin Mugong regretted his decision to insist on conquering Zheng Guo, so he put on plain clothes, cried and went out of the city to the suburbs to greet Meng Mingshi and the others, and said: "I don't listen to Uncle Jian's words, so that the three of you will be ashamed, what is wrong with you? You must concentrate on planning revenge and shame, and you must not slack off!"

After that, Qin Mugong did not adopt the suggestion of Zheng Gan and others to kill Meng Mingshi and others, but restored the official positions of the three and continued to let Meng Mingshi take charge of all the military and political rights of Qin.

Later, in the name of revenge, Baili continued Qin Mugong's eastward expansion strategy. In 626 BC, Meng Mingshi led a vengeful army to fight the Jin army again in Peng Ya, and the Qin army was defeated due to its outstrength to the Jin army. Qin Mugong did not mean to blame at all, and continued to support Meng Mingshi. Baili Xi reflected on the lessons of the failure of the Qin State in the past, reformed the domestic politics again, and implemented the policy of increasing and repairing the national government and reapplying it to the people, so as to make the Qin State stronger. History said: "If there is no impropriety, there will be merit." ”

In 624 BC, Meng Mingshi once again led the Qin army to cross the Yellow River into the Jin Kingdom, and burned all the ferries, expressing his determination to fight to the death. Finally, he defeated the Jin Kingdom and captured the royal officials and suburbs.

After the contest, the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State realized that the Qin State was invincible, so they instructed the Jin troops in all places to close the city gates and not go out of the city to meet the battle. The Qin army crossed the Yellow River from Maojin again, and came to the south bank of the Yellow River in Kundi, on the battlefield of that year, Qin Mugong cried and sacrificed the soldiers who died in battle, and published the famous "Qin Oath".

The gist of the "Qin Oath" is to say: Qin army soldiers, please don't make noise, as a monarch, you must listen to the old man's advice ....... The responsibility for the defeat of Kunshan lies entirely with any one person, and the greed for merit is blinded, so that the army is defeated in Kunshan. If there is such a person who is a minister, he is humble and loyal, and he is generous-minded, and when he sees a wise and wise person, he is willing to recommend him, and he does his duty but never boasts. Such a courtier, even if he does not have superhuman powers, is many times better than a man who talks about it. Let such a reliable courtier protect my Great Qin descendant Li Min, then what else can't be assured. As long as I, the Qin State, can use the virtuous and the able, and beware of the treacherous people, then the Qin State will definitely be able to become a strong country, and the hegemony can be achieved......。 The Qin army buried the bones, sacrificed the souls of the fallen soldiers, and then returned to China.

After two battles, Baili Xi realized that the road of Qin's eastward expansion had been firmly strangled by the Jin State, so he judged the situation and suggested that Qin Mugong avoid the real and attack the false and implement the strategy of developing westward.

At this time, the rapid development of the Qin State attracted the attention of the Dirong State. Di Rong's adviser Yu Yu came to Qin from the Mianzhu countries to investigate. At that time, in the area of present-day Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, there lived dozens of Rongdi tribes and small countries, such as Kunrong, Mianzhu and Zhai in the west of Longshan, Yiqu, Wushi and Shuyan in the north of Jing, Dali in Luochuan, and Luhun in Weinan.

They are backward in production, they drink blood, they wear hair and clothing, and they have their own tribal leaders, and they do their own thing. However, the Dijon people were very strong, they were all good at riding horses and archery, and often raided the border areas of Qin, plundered grain, livestock, and kidnapped their children, threatening the Qin state. The stronger of the Xirong tribes are Mianzhu, Yiqu and Dali. Among them, there are kings in Mianzhu, and their residences are adjacent to the territory of Qin. When the kings of Mianzhu heard that Qin Mugong was virtuous, they sent Yu Yu to envoy Qin.

In order to subdue the Dirong State, Qin Mugong achieved the strategic goal of expanding his power and then dominating the world. He ceremoniously received Yu Yu, showed him the magnificent palace and abundant reserves of the Qin State, and learned from him about the terrain and military strength of Xirong. In order to subdue Yu Yu, Baili Xi asked Nei Shi Liao to give advice. Neshi Liao said that the kings of Mianzhu were closed in Xirong and had never heard of singing, and sending twelve beautiful female musicians would definitely confuse him. Sure enough, after the Qin State sent twelve beautiful female musicians, the kings of Mianzhu listened to the beautiful music of the Qin State, watched the moving dance, enjoyed the blessings of their eyes and ears, drank and had lewd pleasures all day long, and ignored state affairs. waited until the domestic political affairs of Mianzhu were in a mess, and Baili Xi let Yu return to China. Yu Yu's advice to King Rong was refused, and the relationship between the two deteriorated. Under the persuasion of the Qin people, Yu Yu finally returned to the Qin state. Qin Mugong received Yu Yu as a guest and discussed with him the strategy of unifying the Rong people in the west.

In 623 B.C., Yu Yu led the way, and Baili Xi led the troops to surround Mianzhu with lightning speed, and captured the Mianzhu kings alive under the wine bottle. Dozens of Rongdi states successively subjugated the Qin state. The Qin State opened up thousands of miles, the national border south to the Qinling Mountains, the west of the Didao, the north to the Quyanrong, the east to the Yellow River, the country of Pakistan also came to worship, the history called "Qin Mugong dominates the Xirong". Hearing the news of Qin's conquest of Dirong and eliminating the trouble of harassing Zhou, King Xiang of Zhou was extremely happy and sent Zhao Gong Guo to bring a golden drum to Qin Mugong to congratulate him.

Baili Xi entered Qin, bringing Zhou's advanced culture, politics and farming technology to Qin, making Qin from a small remote country into a powerful country that can compete with Jin and Chu in one fell swoop, and became a veritable Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, laying the foundation for Qin's annexation of the Six Kingdoms and the unification of China in the future.

PS: In the "General History of China" documentary published by CCTV, there is an episode that describes the importance of Baili Xi to the Qin State in great detail, and it can even be said that if it were not for the entry of Baili Xi into Qin, I am afraid that the Qin State would undergo fundamental changes in the subsequent historical evolution.