Zhao Kuo said angrily: "Are you arguing?!" You are sophistry! ”

Xun Jing and Lin Xiangru eavesdropped on the crack in the window with their hands, and Cai Ze put his ear close to the wall.

Zhu Xiang took a sip of water and said, "Why sophistry? ”

"Do you dare to say that there will be no meteorites from the sky?"

Liu Xiu stares at you.

"The commanders of our army will be the young General Lian Po, General Le Yi, and General Bai Qi, isn't it okay that the other party is just a rabble?"

Guan Yu stares at you.

"Is it rare to have a story of an archer killing a fortune with one stone? I don't believe it, I'll be able to turn it out of the book for you right now. ”

Our army snipers don't have such skills to get personal merits?

"As for morale and ......people's hearts," Zhu Xiang said, "The generals of our army scattered all their wealth to ensure food and clothing for the soldiers, so the soldiers are willing to die for the generals; Our army has strict discipline, freezes to death and does not break houses, starves to death and does not plunder, so civilians hope that our army will be invincible. Is this hard to understand? Didn't your father Zhao Hao do this? ”

Zhao Kuo's face changed greatly.

Zhu Xiang said: "I gave you a hypothetical condition, and you said that I was a sophistry; Isn't it sophistry that you say that those special cases in the book of war put all the favorable conditions on your own side? ”

"You said that no general in the Zhao State could beat you in the polemic, is it possible that they regarded the soldiers in their own places in the polemic as human beings, and seriously thought about the possibility of the consumption of grain, grass and weapons, and you only need to talk nonsense about millions of male soldiers, morale is like a rainbow, the people are wanting, and the supply of grain, grass and weapons is unlimited?"

"I've heard that you never give rewards to your subordinates, I've heard that you look down on your soldiers, and I've heard that you don't even care about logistics. I want to ask Zhao Junzi, how do you ensure that the morale of the army led by Wang Yi, who eats and lives with the soldiers, will be weaker than you, a person who does nothing? ”

"Smack!" Zhao Kuo covered the cup of water on the table with his sleeve on the ground.

Zhu Xiang looked down and watched the pottery cup roll on the ground a few times, splashing water on the ground and breaking into several pieces.

"Zhao Junzi, fighting is not child's play. Generals and soldiers are flesh and blood, they will cry, they will be afraid, they will be angry, they are other people's fathers, sons, husbands, they are living people, not imaginary numbers when you talk about the army. ”

Zhu Xiang stood up, bowed his hands, his head bowed, and his body bowed almost at right angles.

"I implore Junzi Zhao to go to Changping, condescend to look down, and look at the generals and soldiers around you."

Zhao Kuo sat on the seat, looking at Zhu Xiang's gaze full of gloom.

Zhu Xiang bowed for a long time, but he didn't answer, allowing Zhu Xiang to maintain this difficult posture.

Lin Zhen couldn't stand it anymore, walked into the house quickly, and helped Zhu Xiang up.

Before he could sarcastically say that Zhao Kuo couldn't afford to lose, Zhao Kuo got up directly and left with his sleeves brushed away, without giving Lin Zhen and Zhu Xiang a look.

Xun Kuang and Lin Xiangru immediately hid and didn't let Zhao Kuo see them.

Zhao Kuo was not a big-minded person, and they were worried that if Zhao Kuo learned that they saw Zhao Kuo's failure, it would make Zhao Kuo hate Zhu Xiang.

Zhao Kuo left by car, and the result of this discussion was said to be unhappy and fruitless.

In the hearts of Zhu Xiang and Zhao Kuo, they really thought that this debate was fruitless.

This is not a debate at all.

Zhu Xiang didn't understand: "Ma Fuzi really hasn't tasted defeat in the army, and even Ma Fujun can't win against him?" ”

Lin Xiangru said: "How can a general who has already led the troops discuss the army with Zhao Kuo?" The targets of his military criticism are similar to yours. As for Ma Fujun, Ma Fuzi is his son, and he has already pointed out Ma Fuzi's mistakes and has already shown his attitude. ”

Zhu Xiang was silent.

In other words, civil science experts can only find netizens to argue that rockets must burn anthracite, and the people who really make rockets don't bother to pay attention to him. After discussing with the son of a civil science expert, the old father who really knew how to build rockets and the son of a civil science expert, immediately said to the outside world, "My son can't build rockets, don't pay attention to him."

"Why would King Zhao let someone with no experience in leading troops replace General Lian?" Zhu Xiang couldn't figure it out even if he wanted to break his head.

Xun Guo commented sharply: "Aren't King Zhao and Zhao Kuo very similar?" King Zhao has a deep affection for Zhao Kuo, and it is difficult to understand? ”

Lin Xiangru wanted to scold Xun and insult his lord. But what Xun Kuang said was the truth, he could only snort a few times, turned his face away and didn't speak.

"The battle of Changping is not important, if Zhao Kuo can win, King Zhao can get a good general; If he loses, Zhao Kuo will return to Zhao State, and the loss will only be Shangdang and other places that originally belonged to South Korea. After insulting King Zhao, Xun Guo carefully analyzed, "It's not that King Zhao hasn't thought about losing, but he just thinks that he can afford to lose." ”

Lin Xiangru sighed and bowed his head.

He also knew this, so he stopped persuading after discovering that King Zhao's mind had been decided.

Zhu Xiang's lips moved, and he didn't say anything in the end.

The Battle of Changping was indeed not very important to the Zhao State.

Later generations looked at the map and saw that Shangdang was very close to Handan on the map, thinking that Shangdang was the gateway to Handan, so Zhao had to send troops.

In fact, Shangdang is a highland surrounded by Taiyue Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, and Taihang Mountain. It looks very close to Handan on the map, but it is actually separated by a mountain range. In this era, the Taihang Mountains were a moat, and it was impossible to march from here. If Zhao Guo wants to go to the party, he wants to detour to Lushui.

From the early Warring States period, Shangdang has been fought over by the three kingdoms of Wei, Han and Zhao. Although Shangdang is in the "middle of the world" and culturally is one of the places of origin of the nation, because of the topography and soil, Zhao did not list it as the main target.

Under the advance of Wei Han's troops, Zhao retreated northward, giving up almost all the spheres of influence in Shangdang, and built the Great Wall along the line of Pigao, Duanshi, Guangwolf City and Hyun to resist further attacks by Wei Han.

Therefore, for King Zhao, he is powerful in the party discarded by his grandfather and father, and it is not a big deal to retreat to the Great Wall if he is defeated.

Originally, it was not Zhao Guo who was in the party, and King Zhao sent troops this time, just to try whether he was strong.

As for the grain, grass, weapons and soldiers consumed by the defeat of Changping, King Zhao believed that it could be consumed and would not affect the national strength of Zhao.

Don't talk about King Zhao, everyone in the Zhao dynasty, including Lin Xiangru, thinks so. Therefore, they did not try their best to stop Zhao Kuo from leading the troops, so as not to offend Ma Fuzi and King Zhao.

Zhu Xiang knew that as long as Zhao Kuo could be pulled back into the Great Wall after the defeat, it was indeed as Zhao Guo thought, even if the defeat of the army would not cause much damage to Zhao Guo.

Who would have thought that in the Battle of Changping, only more than two hundred soldiers returned to Zhao in the end?

In June, Zhao Kuo still led the troops to set off.

After walking along Lushui for about half a month, Zhao Kuo should arrive in Changping and replace Lian Po.

This time, Zhao Kuo went to replace Lian Po and brought nearly 100,000 soldiers.

Zhu Xiang sat on the ridge of the field, looking at the sparse millet in the field, and his eyes were empty.

In June and July, the millet was already yellow. This year, the wind and rain around Handan were relatively smooth, although there was not much labor, and the fields were not carefully tended, and the millet in the fields still bore ears, waiting for the farmers to pick and harvest.

The warm breeze of midsummer and early autumn blows, and the golden millet rattles and whirls in circles with the warm wind, as if beckoning to the farmers to tell them that they can harvest.

In the distance, an old farmer with a withered beard and a hunched back like a wheel was holding a scythe with a gap, and was struggling to cut the ears of millet.

Behind him, a child with slender limbs and a bulging belly was leaning over to pick up tassels on the ground.

Children are very short and do not need much effort to pick up scattered grains. After picking up the grains, he quietly stuffed the grains into his mouth and chewed them carefully, regardless of the soil on the grains and cutting his throat.

The old farmer looked back and saw that the child was stealing the grains, and struck the child on the head with the handle of the sickle.

The child did not cry. He held up a yellowed leaf. The old farmer nodded, and he put the leaf in his mouth and chewed it, his expression still happy.

Zhu Xiang's fingers on his sides moved. He wanted to get up, but in the end he didn't do anything.

Ying Xiaozheng stood behind Zhu Xiang and asked with a frown, "Uncle, can I give him my cakes?" ”

Zhu Xiang said: "Don't go." Now there are hungry people everywhere, and if you give them cakes to your grandparents, it will attract many people to loot them, and your life will be endangered. I have already asked people to exchange the gold and gifts sent back by King Zhao for food, and give porridge at the entrance of the village every day in the name of King Zhao. They won't starve. ”

Ying Xiaozheng sat down on Zhu Xiang's legs, regardless of the fact that it would stain Zhu Xiang's clothes, hugged his legs and said, "Uncle has been ready for a long time?" Will they all survive? ”

Zhu Xiang said: "I was ready for a long time, but I don't know if they will survive." ”

Ying Xiaozheng rested his fleshy little chin on his knees and looked at the field in front of him unhappily.

There was millet in the fields, but they were as uninhabited as the wilderness.

It is hard to see a man who works as hard as his grandfather and grandson to harvest the fields.

It's not that the villagers are lazy. There is no one in the family to work, but the taxes have to be paid. They toiled hard, hungry and tired, and grabbed the little food they had harvested, and after paying their taxes, they had to eat more. It's easy to starve to death.

The villagers can consume as little food as possible by staying at home and lying still. If the levied officials came, the villagers who were half starved would say to the officials, "All the grain is in the fields, let the officials collect it themselves, and take it all, and they don't want it at all."

In addition to the fact that they will only step out of the house when they are really out of food, there is another situation. Just like the pair of grandchildren in the distance, the old man was sick and dying, and he hurried to harvest the grain, and he died of exhaustion in the field, and the harvested grain paid the tax and could provide for the young children in the family.

This is the wisdom of today's farmers.

Zhu Xiang's soup kitchen could not save their lives in order to support their young son.

Ying Xiaozheng asked, "Can't you let the nobles' disciples help harvest like last year?" ”

Zhu Xiang replied, "No." In fact, the harvest of the doormen was only a symbolic leading role, and it was the soldiers under the command of King Zhao and the nobles who were actually engaged in the labor. But now Handan doesn't have so many soldiers. ”

Ying Xiaozheng asked, "But I see that the officials in Handan City are still holding banquets, and there are still many people attending the banquet shoulder to shoulder. If you let these people go to the fields, you will definitely be able to harvest most of the grain. ”

Zhu Xiang replied: "Those who have so many shoulders next to each other are scholars, and they have a higher status than the doormen, and they will not go to the ground. The peasant family had hoped that the king would work in the fields like the peasants, and they saw this. But in reality this is not possible. ”

Zhu Xiang rubbed Ying Xiaozheng's head: "Everyone goes to a high place in the hope that they will no longer experience hardship. If those who should not be allowed to go down to the earth are allowed to go down to the earth, then there will be no virtuous people under the king. ”

When Zhu Xiang and Ying Xiaozheng asked and answered, Xunzi used the sword at his waist as a crutch, standing in the shade of a tree not far away, and also looking at the barren but indeed harvested fields.

Xunzi once thought that Zhu Xiang would not understand his thoughts and would not become a Confucian.

Now he found out that Zhu Xiang may be his confidant.

Confucianism scolded the peasants and the Mohists for not knowing how to be inferior and inferior, and dragged the kings and nobles into the mud, saying that all living beings are equal, which is crazy.

Do Confucians really agree that some people should always be on top, and some people should live to cultivate the land all their lives? The Confucian ideal of Datong society makes it very clear that this is not the case.

They just told the truth, believing that the ideals of the peasant family and the Mo family would never be realized.

If this is not possible, why spend so much energy doing it? This is not good for the country, for the family, or for the people. A political ideology must first be realized before it can be implemented.

Xunzi thinks that the sky is constant, Xunzi thinks that the king is uncertain, and Xunzi also mentioned "people's heart" instead of "scholar's heart" for the first time.

But Xunzi said that virtuous people should start from the beginning and work hard for the unification of the world; There must be a distinction between kings and courtiers, and courtiers cannot claim to be nobler than kings.

Some scholars in later generations criticized Xunzi for being groveling and flattering to the king, and inferior to Confucius and Mencius.

Looking at Xunzi's life, I can't come to such a conclusion.

Xunzi just saw the current trend and chose a political idea that is most beneficial to the moment - absolute monarchy, centralized power, and unification of the world.

Xunzi knew that he would be infamous. Because in doing so, he lowered the status of the scholars in the world who could have been on an equal footing with the king.

But Xunzi has never been afraid of his posthumous name. Only occasionally, he would lament, wondering if he would ever meet someone who understood him.

Xun Kuang used the long sword as a crutch, walked to Zhu Xiang's side, and reprimanded: "Since you know, why do you lament meaninglessly? Lamenting is of no use and will only make you decadent. ”

"Yes, Teacher." Zhu Xiang stood up with Ying Xiaozheng in his arms.

Xun Guo bowed: "Do what you can." ”

Zhu Xiang said: "Yes." ”

When Zhu Xiang and Xunzi were talking, the old man, who felt that his physical strength was not good, walked back with the harvested ears.

"Zhu Xianggong!" When the old man saw Zhu Xiang, he immediately walked over with brisk steps, as if his fatigue had disappeared.