Early in the morning, by the river, Xue Daoguang had been meditating all night.

There is also burned-out artemisia grass next to it, which is used to smoke mosquitoes. If it weren't for Zhu Ming to smoke Bai Sheng, Xue Daochang would have been carried away by mosquitoes when he looked inside.

"Dao Chief, it's time to go!" Zhu Ming shouted.

Xue Daoguang slowly opened his eyes, got up and said, "Let's go." ”

Zhu Ming asked, "Have you ever figured it out?" ”

"It's already clear, Xiaoyou is messing with me," Xue Daoguang glanced at him, "I don't want to debate the Taoism with Xiaoyou, but I can walk with Xiaoyou." When can you really let go, only then can you be considered successful in cultivation. Xiaoyou, what you said yesterday ruined my 20 years of Taoism! ”

"Hahaha!"

Zhu Ming laughed: "How can it be so terrifying? The Dao Leader just has a few more ideas, and your Qi cultivation is not in vain. ”

At this time, Xue Daoguang was still trying to annotate Ziyang Zhenren's "Wuzhen Chapter", and his own Taoist scriptures had not even begun to be summarized and compiled.

Dao heart is not very firm, and now it is mixed with some great benevolence and righteousness by Zhu Ming.

"Brother Zhu, the cakes are here, there are eighty of them!" Bai Sheng came over with his pocket.

The village is small, but the people are doing well.

Just because this is the last stop of the Hanzhong boat, you must walk further. Whether it is an official delivery shop or a tea delivery shop, the official soldiers will not attack the people of the village.

If the force is too hard, the peasants will all escape, and it will be difficult to supply here, and they will drink the northwest wind in the future?

The eighty breads that Bai Sheng brought at this time were the wheat he carried with him, and he spent money to ask the people in the village to burn them this morning.

Other scholars and officials are also asking the villagers to make cakes, and they don't know how long they will have to go.

Zhu Ming led the cornucopia, the horses carried clothes and food, and Bai Sheng and Shi Biao carried dried shiitake mushrooms on their backs, and set off towards the north in the middle of the morning.

There were more than 200 people in the group.

In addition to officials, scholars, soldiers, and people, there were also some small merchants and ordinary travelers. Some of them, who have been staying here for two or three days, do not dare to go alone, for fear of meeting bandits in the mountains.

After walking for half a day, everyone stopped to rest.

Zhu Ming pointed to the water and asked the official who was traveling with him: "These rivers look quite wide, why can't you sail again?" ”

The official messenger came from Yangzhou to deliver an official document to Tokyo, and replied: "There is a reef under the water, and the current is very fast, and if you don't pay attention to it, the ship will be destroyed and people will die." And in some places, the slender man can't go, so don't think about letting them pull the boat. ”

The water transportation of the slope has always belonged to the flower in the mirror.

The Han Dynasty also wanted to carry out Cao Yun through Bao Shui, requisitioned more than 50,000 people, and dug hundreds of miles of plank roads, but the Cao Yun plan was finally scrapped for four reasons: the water is turbulent and the stone is large.

Zhu Ming turned to look back at the official tea team, all the people were carrying tea leaves, and the tea sacks were stacked, far above their heads. The tea leaves are tied to wooden shelves, and when they take a short rest, they bend their knees and squat, and their feet can support the ground with less effort.

In addition to tea, some people also carried grain on their backs, and even the village soldiers who held tea carried a little grain on their backs.

Zhu Ming actually wanted to ask why he didn't use mountain horses or wheelbarrows to transport tea.

It didn't take long for Zhu Ming to understand.

After walking a long plank road, you suddenly have to climb a steep slope, and it is not easy for a wheelbarrow to push it up.

Mountain horses should be fine, but raising horses requires money and food, and exhausting a horse is a huge loss. But the people don't care, they only give some rations, they don't need to pay wages, and they don't have to compensate if they are tired.

For tea horses, horses are more valuable than human lives!

There is free manpower, why use horses?

"I'm tired, let's rest!"

Climbing up a hillside, there are people who take the test and lie down directly, regardless of whether the ground is dirty or not.

The officials, merchants, scholars, and travelers who delivered the official documents all decided to stop and rest.

Only those township soldiers and people who carried tea, under the urging of the tea officials, continued to rush desperately. If you move slowly, you will be scolded, and if you don't do so, you will inevitably be whipped.

Zhu Ming sat on the hillside, watching one after another people, trying to walk in front of him. Their expressions were numb again, as if there were no thinking machines. They couldn't see anything else except the mountain road in front of them.

"How difficult it is for people's livelihood!" Ling Gu Xu couldn't help but sigh.

Min Zishun said: "This official rule is corrupt, and the officials of the Tea and Horse Division have withheld layers of deductions and put the burden on the people. They could have raised Sichuan horses to transport goods, but they refused to pay even that money. ”

Yangzhou belongs to the Sichuan and Shaanxi roads, and is the most harassed by tea servants.

From the officials and gentry to the merchants and the common people, they all hated it. The profits are all attributed to the tea and horse division, and half a dime is not distributed to the locality, but it still disrupts the local order.

But what can be done?

Behind the Tea and Horse Division stood Cai Jing, who was deeply involved with the Northwest Frontier Army, and was able to make countless sums of money every year. A petty official of the Tea and Horse Division dared to call the local governor to drink.

On the first day of abandoning the ship and walking, the tea transport team disappeared.

After walking for another half a day, Zhu Ming looked at the river, it was no longer a reef, the scattered reefs were visible to the naked eye, and the slightly larger boats didn't want to pass through at all.

Zhu Ming observed the terrain of mountains and rivers along the way, and asked Li Hanzhang at this moment: "San Lang, how did Zhuge Wuhou use flowing horses to transport grain from here when his troops went out of the valley?" ”

"It may just be a false rumor, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms may not be accurate." Li Hanzhang said.

Zhu Ming guessed: "Is it possible that the flowing horse is a kind of boat and vehicle that can be passed by land and water." When the boardwalk or road is stable, push the cart forward on wheels. When crossing the mountains, remove the wheels, change the car to a boat, and move forward by the slender man, only need to build a fiber plank road in part of the road. Big boats can't pass here, but small boats are easy. ”

Li Hanzhang thought for a while: "There is also this possibility." ”

In the evening, they rest in the mountains.

Chen Yuan sat cross-legged beside Zhu Ming, and the rest of the candidates also came around.

Chen Yuan asked: "What Da Lang said yesterday is the unity of knowledge and action, and this is also good. But if this person's thoughts and thoughts are all evil thoughts, wouldn't the unity of knowledge and action harm others and oneself? ”

"So first of all, conscience." Zhu Ming said.

Chen Yuan shook his head: "Mencius said: Those who can do what people do not learn are also good and capable; Those who know without concern also have their conscience. In this way, conscience can be understood without consideration, and it is innate, not acquired. These words are in conflict with Gewu Zhizhi. The knowledge caused by the object is not the conscience as Mencius said. ”

Zhu Ming bowed to Wang Yangming in his heart: "There is no good and no disgusting body, there are good and malicious movements, knowing good and knowing evil is conscience, and going to evil for good is a thing." ”

Chen Yuan pondered silently, and the scholars were also pondering.

Suddenly, Chen Yuan clapped his hands suddenly: "These four sentences are secretly in line with the avenue of moderation: the predicate of the mandate of heaven, the predicate of recklessness, and the predicate of cultivation!" But it also comes from the mouth of Lingzun? ”

Zhu Ming nodded: "Yes." ”

Chen Yuan sighed: "Brother Yuanzhang, what a great Confucian!" ”

The same four sentences, spoken in different people's mouths, mean just the opposite, Zhu Ming directly turned Wang Yangming's idealism into materialism.

Others can understand it however they want, but in Zhu Ming's case, "doing evil for good is a thing" must first understand the truth of things, and then go to evil for good. It can be at the physical level, understand and use physical knowledge to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages; It can also be at the level of social morality, recognizing social laws and ethical order, and using this to punish evil and promote good.

Those four sentences are epistemological when read positively, and methodological when read backwards.

So, Chen Yuan and Zhu Ming began to discuss, and the scholars listened quietly, so that Gu Xu lay on the ground to record.

Even Tu Ruhua, who came from Jiangxi, sat next to him and listened attentively. Although they are second-rate goods in Jiangxi, they belong to the first class in Hanzhong.

It was getting dark and the bonfire was rising.

After Zhu Ming and Chen Yuan finished communicating, the scholars began to ask questions.

Tu Ruhua first asked: "How to make the knowledge of Gewu fit the conscience of Mencius's nature?" ”

Chen Yuan replied: "The mandate of heaven is sexuality, so that conscience must know the mandate of heaven and return to the original heart." This is easy to say, but difficult to do, it talks about Confucian numerology. How many sages and Confucians have been studying this all their lives. Confucius said that when you know the destiny of heaven at fifty, you are so young that it may be difficult to understand its true meaning. You must see more, learn more, understand more, and improve the sun and the moon before you can touch the scales and half the claws. ”

Chen Yuan's understanding of conscience is more suitable for ordinary people.

Wang Yangming's conscience and talent requirements are too high, and he can indeed educate many fierce people, but it also makes countless people with mediocre qualifications become fools.

Zhu Ming said more directly and clearly: "First set a big ambition, and then take it as the goal, be a person, learn and do things." This ambition is not necessarily your destiny. I am still young, sitting in the well and watching the sky, and I can only seek great ambition from that piece of heaven. When you climb out of the well, maybe your ambition will change. You can also have big ambitions from an early age, such as helping the world and saving the people, but how to do it must be slowly explored. If one day, for the sake of one's own ambition, he can sacrifice his life for righteousness and die calmly, and he can resolutely abandon his glory and wealth, then he will truly find his destiny. ”

Chen Yuan frowned, he didn't quite agree with Zhu Ming's point of view, but it seemed that the general direction was not wrong, so he didn't bother to correct it.

After answering the many questions of the scholars, Chen Yuan suddenly stood up and began the first public lecture of the new school.

The first thing to talk about is the three theories of self-foundation, Taoism, and square, and he tried his best to explain it in an easy-to-understand manner, and even the officials and traders came closer, just to listen to the stories told by Confucianism.

After talking for a while, a small businessman asked: "Mr. Chen, you said that if everyone follows the rules, the country will be rich and the world will be peaceful." But why do I abide by the law and do business, I can only make some hard money, but those big businessmen who do evil can make a lot of money? My ruler is straight, but I will suffer. The rulers of the great merchants are crooked, but they are blessed. I am drawing squares for my family and country, and my ruler is too short, so I can only draw a little straight line. The big merchants had longer rulers, and they could draw a lot of crooked lines. ”

Chen Yuan said: "You are not wrong, it is not your problem. It is the officials who are not clear about the rule that makes the good people suffer and the bad people happy. I hope you can continue to be a good person, if you have the ability, you will punish those who are bad, and if you are incapable, you will do your own thing. We, the readers, will try to help you as much as we can. We will drive out the traitors and rectify the rule of officials, so that the good people can enjoy the happiness if they abide by the law, and the bad people will be punished for breaking the law. ”

But the little merchant did not believe it, and said in a sarcastic tone, "I am waiting for that day." ”

Chen Yuan pointed to the little merchant and said to the examiners, "This person doesn't believe it, can you blame him?" Not being able to win the trust of the people, this is really a shame for us and other scholars! ”

Most of the scholars bowed their heads in shame, and some people were disdainful in their hearts.

(End of chapter)