The smile on King Qin's face was also much more natural. He patted the side affectionately and asked Fan Ju to sit with him: "Seeing his exhausted appearance, the widow remembered the situation when he was a hostage in Yan Kingdom. ”

After Fan Ju sat down, King Qin personally poured honey water for Fan Ju, and then continued to smile: "His future is uncertain, and he still wants to make friends with Dacai, and ......"

King Qin couldn't go on anymore, and he couldn't straighten up with a smile.

Fan Ju helped King Qin Shun his back, and also smiled: "And secretly form a family with a close friend?" Is this Zichu too unscrupulous? I'm afraid that Zhu Xiang will be angry with him when he learns about this. ”

King Qin wiped the tears that came out of his laughter and said, "The widow really wants to see how Zi Chu will deal with Zhu Xiang when he learns that he is angry about this." ”

Seeing that his king was like an old naughty boy, Fan Ju couldn't help laughing: "The minister must keep an eye on Gongzi Chu, if something interesting happens, he will report to the king immediately." ”

The two men, who were both kings and close friends, laughed wickedly for a long time before they began to get down to business.

"The widow was originally worried that Zi Chu would be held hostage by Lu Buwei, but it seems that Zi Chu is more capable than the widow imagined. An Guojun is mediocre, there is a son Chu, and the widow is finally relieved. King Qin couldn't help but sigh when he thought of his excellent crown prince.

The outstanding crown prince did not survive him, and whenever King Qin thought of it, he felt very sorry in his heart.

Seeing the Zhao State next door, the first prince of Zhao State also failed to survive King Zhao Huiwen, and as a result, the incompetent Prince Dan succeeded to the throne, and King Qin was even more worried. What if An Guojun becomes the second King of Zhao?

Fortunately, although An Guojun was dissatisfied with him, he was still much better than King Zhao. And seeing Zi Chu like him when he was young, King Qin was even more relieved.

"I'm old, and my husband is old, and I can't keep looking at future generations. Zichu and Zhu Xiang are both young, maybe they will become the second you and me. King Qin said bluntly, "Sir, you have to teach Zi Chu well. After Zhu Xiang comes to Qin, you must also teach Zhu Xiang well. Let Zichu and Zhu Xiang become the second you and me. ”

Fan Ju's eyes were a little hot, and he choked up: "Yes, don't worry." ”

Fan Ju thought that the difficulties he encountered in the first half of his life must have been tribulations paved for the encounter with the king.

The two monarchs and ministers looked at each other affectionately, and the palace people who were waiting raised their heads to glance at them, and then quickly lowered their heads and quietly rubbed the goosebumps on their arms.

It's coming, Jun Shang and Xiangguo have begun to complain to each other again!

……

Shangdang County, Wang Yi breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the order of the King of Qin, pulled out the camp and seriously attacked Shangdang, and prepared to give Lian Po a ruthless blow after beating Shangdang.

He only needs to make a gesture of fiercely suppressing Zhao Jun, so that Zhao Guoguo thinks that Lian is quite timid to avoid war, and the rest depends on Ying Hou and Wu Anjun.

In Handan, the autumn harvest has ended, but this time the winter wheat could not be planted in time.

The annual double-cropping millet rotation requires a lot of labor and sufficient fertilizer to supplement the fertility of the land. Now Handan is sparsely populated and does not have enough manpower to grow winter wheat.

Zhu Xiang repeated his old tricks, hoping that the nobles could send doormen and private soldiers to help. But the winter is bitterly cold, and fertilizing and cultivating land are much dirtier than harvesting, and even if Xunzi also went out this time, he still failed to persuade the nobles.

Almost all of the nobles' disciples were scholars, and scholars were also low-class nobles, and their status was completely different from that of commoners. Asking the scholars to help with the harvest has already made the scholars be humiliated once, let them cultivate the land and fertilize and water, then I am afraid that some scholars will be so angry that they will commit suicide.

Now the temperament of the scholars is quite large.

Zhu Xiang had no choice but to increase the planting area of potatoes.

Even if the potatoes are not planted carefully, they can be harvested after they are sprouted and buried in the soil, which is better than planting nothing at all.

But just as Zhu Xiang was promoting potato planting, he was sued by officials of Zhao State. Because potatoes are poisonous, Zhu Xiang's promotion of potatoes is to use poison to squeeze out fertile land, which is harmful to Zhao State.

Zhao officials believed that pasture grass should be planted in the fields. In this way, we can not only support the front line, but also fertilize the land, and the millet will be harvested in the coming year.

There was no shortage of officials in Zhao who knew about farming. The official's complaint was unanimously approved by the officials who knew about agriculture.

They all think that Zhu Xiangkong has a reputation for farming, but in fact he is just a person who sells his reputation and reputation. He deceived the peasants and earned a good reputation, just to get a bigger job.

Now Zhu Xiang finally showed his feet, and actually used poison to squeeze the fertile land, affecting the next harvest of Zhao State, and wasting the fertility of Zhao State's fertile land. Such a person who only knows how to gain fame for himself and endanger the interests of Zhao State should be executed!

The court was attacking Zhu Xiang, and King Zhao thought it was reasonable.

For the sake of Lin Xiangru and Lian Po, who was fighting on the front line, and King Zhao already knew that Zhu Xiang was the uncle of the Qin State Proton, if Zhu Xiang was killed, King Zhao would not be able to think of who to adopt the Qin State Proton for a while, so he let Zhu Xiang go, and only let Zhu Xiang pay to atone for his crimes, and did not punish Zhu Xiang.

Lin Xiangru was almost so angry that he vomited blood, and he wanted to enter the palace to reason with King Zhao.

Zhu Xiang persuaded Lin Xiangru.

"They are right, if they don't care whether these civilians live or die, civilians really should grow grass that can feed their horses, not potatoes that consume fertility and can't feed horses." Zhu Xiang said in a deep voice, "And my reputation has aroused the jealousy and vigilance of the nobles in the court. If Gong Lin goes to King Zhao to plead his way, I'm afraid they will dislike me even more. ”

Zhu Xiang smiled with relief: "I have done everything I can, and the people have quietly planted potatoes for their stomachs." So be it, if it goes on, I'm afraid that they will ban the people from planting potatoes and order the civilians to pull out the poisonous potatoes. ”

Lin Xiangru was silent for a long time, and the old tears were rampant: "Zhu Xiang, when Zheng'er leaves Zhao State, you will also leave with you." Zheng'er is the clan of the Qin State, and he can protect you better than me. ”

Lin Xiangru is dead.

Such a Zhao State is not worthy of Zhu Xiang at all!

"The Qin State is not necessarily much better." Zhu Xiang was very negative, "There are also nobles in the Qin State, and they don't necessarily care about the lives of civilians. They may also prefer civilians to grow pasture in fertile fields rather than to grow food to relieve famine. ”

"Ugh." Lin Xiangru patted Zhu Xiang's shoulder, swallowed what he wanted to say, and changed the subject, "I'll pay for it." ”

Although Zhu Xiang wanted to refuse, he finally accepted Lin Xiangru's kindness.

King Zhao asked him to pay a thousand gold to atone for his sins. Even if he sells Zheng'er's private money, he won't be able to make up so much money.

However, Zhu Xiang also scraped together eighty gold, which was all the money he could quickly scrape together. In addition to the house he lived in, Zheng'er's private money and gifts from friends, everything he could sell was sold.

Ying Xiaozheng hugged Zhu Xiang's arm and cried: "You don't have to leave money for Zheng'er!" ”

Ying Xiaozheng took out his father's jade jue again: "Sell this!" ”

Zhu Xiang rubbed Ying Xiaozheng's head and said, "No." Zheng'er's money is kept, and Zheng'er will come to support his uncle and aunt in the future, okay? ”

Ying Xiaozheng cried heartbreakingly.

When he heard that his uncle had almost been killed, he was so frightened that he couldn't sleep for days. Now that everything in the house has been sold, the house has become empty, and Ying Xiaozheng is very sad.

The home he finally owned, many things in the house have traces of his scribbles. It's all gone!

The snow did not stop weeping.

The family finally lived a stable life, why did it suddenly become precarious?

Zhu Xiang coaxed Ying Xiaozheng and went to coax Xue, so anxious that he didn't have time to be depressed.

In fact, when this kind of thing happened, Zhu Xiang breathed a sigh of relief.

The weight of the burden was on his shoulders, and it was difficult for him to do what he wanted to do. Now King Zhao has relieved him of his official position and also relieved him of responsibility. Although this is just an escape and is not noble, Zhu Xiang did unload the spiritual burden.

Escaping, while shameful, is really comfortable. Zhu Xiang was not a noble saint in the first place.

Zhu Xiang needed to use a thousand gold to buy his life, and after Lin Xiangru and Li Mu learned about it, they hurriedly asked people to send gold. Xunzi, Xianghe and Xu Ming also sent money, and even the poor Cai Ze didn't know where to find ten gold.

That's all, the emotional debt between friends can be paid off slowly. What made Zhu Xiang, who had finally lost his mental burden, feel more mentally stressed that the nearby farmers and small businessmen didn't know where they learned about it, and they all had little money to help Zhu Xiang atone for his sins.

Zhu Xiang didn't accept it, so these people quietly wrapped the coins at night and threw them in from outside the walls of Zhu Xiang's house.

As soon as Zhu Xiang woke up, there was a lot of money at the base of the wall.

He looked at the money thrown in at the base of the wall, frowned and was silent for a long time.

Ying Xiaozheng looked up at the wrinkles between his uncle's eyebrows, and felt that his uncle seemed to have aged a lot in a few days.

"Zheng'er."

"Huh?"

Zhu Xiang said: "It's nothing. ”

Zhu Xiang originally wanted to say to Ying Xiaozheng that he would remember the kindness of these people and be kind to them in the future.

But he couldn't say it.

The kindness of these people is to themselves, not to the government. The person who should repay these friendships is himself, not a politician.

Zhu Xiang felt as if he had fallen into a spider's web, and the more he struggled to run out, the deeper he was bound by these spider silks.

Chapter 21: Steamed Cake with Jam

Zhu Xiang paid enough fines and was dismissed from his official position, and there were still people in the court who were staring at him, a commoner with an increasing reputation.

For the sake of safety, he even stopped the agricultural guidance work in Lin Xiangru's fiefdom, and stayed at home every day, either listening to Xunzi's lectures with Ying Xiaozheng, or pinching the brush, and using the brush characters that he had no other advantages except for being upright, to record his experience in farming.

Zhu Xiang used his imagination at home to ponder what kind of difficulties the farmers in Handan might encounter this winter, and then wrote down the solutions he had come up with on paper and handed them to Xu Ming.

"Lao Xu, you are a farmer, right?" Zhu Xiang asked.

Xu Ming didn't hide it this time: "I am." ”

Zhu Xiang said: "I know that the farmers do not gather together for farming, but to fight for the interests of the farmers in the court. But you have connections and know how to farm, please do me a favor. ”

Xu Ming took the pale yellow rough paper handed over by Zhu Xiang with both hands, and said: "A farmer is a farmer, and a farmer is a farmer, there is nothing more important than farming, Zhu Xianggong, please rest assured." ”

After Xu Ming left, Zhu Xiang found Xianghe again and took out three drawings: a car, a hoe, and a sickle.

The three-legged chariot was invented during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the hoe formed the shape of lengthening the handle and widening the blade in the Han Dynasty, and the sickle was also formed in the Han Dynasty to continue to the modern era.

These three agricultural tools, which lasted for thousands of years before the arrival of the modern industrial age, were all finalized in the Han and Han dynasties. Without an era of great unification, the common people would not have the spare energy to improve agricultural tools and increase productivity. The imperial court also did not have the ability to promote these agricultural tools.

Zhu Xiang knew that these farm tools could not be promoted, he just hoped that Xianghe could make some new farm tools and let his neighbors use them first. He didn't take out the Quyuan plow because there were not enough ploughing cattle in Zhao State now, and he couldn't use the ox plow.

"You take the drawings, no matter what country you are in, as long as you have the opportunity, you pass them on." Zhu Xiang said, "These drawings are just a direction to think about, and how to improve them depends on you and the craftsmen of the Mo family." I know that you and the farmer don't get along very well, but in this matter, I hope you can cooperate. ”

Xianghe did not deny that he was a member of the Mo family this time. He said: "Without peasants to plough the land, how can we exchange our handicraft work for food and food?" Zhu Xianggong rest assured, this kind of major right and wrong, we have no opinion. ”

Zhu Xiang thanked him.

Xu Ming and others replaced Zhu Xiang to help farmers solve farming problems, and Xianghe and others took Zhu Xiang's abstract drawings to ponder and improve farm tools, and Xun was a little dissatisfied.

He muttered, don't I have nothing to do in Confucianism?!

But he is an elder and is reluctant to go directly to Zhu Xiang to work. So Xun Jing urged Cai Ze to ask Zhu Xiang.

Cai Ze was a little speechless. He is not a Confucian, why does he want to help Confucianism? Xunzi, you have so many Confucian disciples who follow you, look for them!

Although Cai Ze muttered in his heart, he didn't dare to say a word against Xun Qian, so he could only knock on Zhu Xiang aggrievedly.

Zhu Xiang said: "What can Confucianism do? You can't be heard by Xunzi, he will smash your head with a broadsword. ”

Cai Ze: "...... Xunzi wouldn't be so cruel. ”

Zhu Xiang said solemnly: "No, Xunzi will definitely be." Do you know what it means to convince people with reason? As long as the other party can't speak, it's ...... Cai Ze, why is your face so ugly? ”

Cai Ze trembled and stretched out his finger and pointed to the half-open window.

Zhu Xiang looked back and saw that Xun Jing was holding his hands and looking at him through the crack in the window.

Zhu Xiang immediately jumped up from the stool, trying to escape from the door.

Since he had a stool at home, and Xun Xiang did not object to him sitting on a stool, Zhu Xiang didn't like to sit on his knees. Now he's kicking his legs and running fast.