Zi Chu looked at Zhu Xiang, who was scratching his ears and cheeks, and then looked at Lin Zhen, who was full of banter, and then rolled up his sleeves: "Okay, leave it to me." ”

That's it, don't ask.

Even if Zhu Xiang really has something supernatural, he is forced to be like this, and the gods are estimated to not be able to fulfill people's wishes, let alone immortality.

From the Three Emperors and Five Emperors to the legend of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the founding monarchs were all assisted by virtuous ministers who received the teachings of the gods. Zhu Xiang is indeed one of them.

They were busy all day and then left overnight.

As they left, a team of spies from the lurking Zhao soldiers secretly left and took the news to two places.

A month later, Li Mu got the news in Yanmen County.

He guessed that Zhu Xiang would come, so he sent someone to lurk around Lin Xiangru's ancestral land. If someone embarrasses Zhu Xiang, he can help.

"Lin Li has also entered Qin." Mu Chang Li let out a long sigh, "Zhu Xiang's hair is actually completely white. ”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, waved the spy away, and leaned back in his chair in silence for a long time.

Zhu Xiang's chairs and stools were especially useful for soldiers in armor, and after returning to Yanmen County, he asked people to make chairs and stools. Now chairs and stools have spread throughout the barracks.

When he was silent, Li Mu didn't think about anything. He cleared his mind and stared blankly at the skylight outside the window.

In the middle of the night, Li Mu stood up and convened his subordinates to discuss the future.

The northern borders of Yan and Zhao were the first line against the Xiongnu. Lian Gong will definitely be able to achieve his goal, then the Yan Kingdom will fall into famine, there will be a shortage of military food, and the northern frontier will bear the brunt. The Xiongnu are expected to seize the opportunity and go north.

If the Xiongnu defeated the northern defense line of the Yan State, they could go around behind the Zhao defense line. He could face a tough battle this winter.

Gong Lian guarded the Zhao State, and now it was his turn.

On the way, Li Mu's heart came to mind with Zhu Xiang, Lin Zhen, and Cai Ze chatting drunkenly by the fire, and remembered the great unification in their mouths.

If the world is unified and Zhao is famine, the monarch can immigrate to adjust grain; The northern defense line can cooperate with each other, and if one is defeated, there will be additional rescue from other places.

"The unification of the world is the only way to save the people in troubled times, and when Zheng'er enters Qin, I will definitely enter Qin."

Li Mu stopped and looked up at the west.

Before getting acquainted with Zhu Xiang, he was only a general-oriented man loyal to Zhao State. He only thinks about how to serve the monarch, not disgrace his family, and make meritorious contributions.

Now he has more troubles.

Not only did he have to fight, but he also had to think about how to protect the people and the country...... Will he come to the point where Zhu Xiang takes the world as his own responsibility?

Li Mu retracted his gaze, continued to look ahead, and took a step.

I will think about it later, and the top priority now is to protect the Zhao State and Li people behind him from the hands of the Huns.

Lian Po also received a report from the spies.

His thoughts are the same as Li Mu's. Maybe many people in Zhao want to take back Zhu Xiang, but he doesn't want Zhu Xiang to return to Zhao State.

Go to the State of Qin, although the King of Qin is brutal, he is the only person who can protect Zhu Xiang.

Speaking of brutality, now you are the real brutality.

He thought of the old and weak women and children who died tragically under his horse's hooves, and recalled the curse of Yan Ren's weeping blood in his ears, and remembered the last letter from Yan Hou who reprimanded him.

Lian Po took a sip of wine, and used the wine to dispel those images and words that appeared.

"Master, King Zhao has given you the title of king, and the letter is Pingjun." The family returns. But for such a big event as Feng Jun, his voice of the good news was not excited.

"Ha, I'm going to Lin Xiangru's tomb to laugh at him, I'm crowned, he didn't!" Lian Po laughed, and then choked on the drink and coughed violently, "Did you run away with that shaft?" ”

Jia Ding said: "General Le has entered Wei. ”

Lian Po coughed and smiled: "Now inform King Zhao of the news of Lecheng's departure." I don't know if he will remove my feudal monarch, hahaha, cough cough. ”

He wiped a handful of tears from his coughed up and continued to drink.

Jia Ding clenched his fists, trying to persuade something, but swallowed the words, so he could only retreat silently.

Le Cheng is a member of Le Yi's clan, Lian Po's deputy general, who has always been very loyal to Zhao and has never been soft in his conquest of Yan.

But this time, he defected from Zhao and fled to Wei.

Le Yi, who had already expected the defeat of Yan and was preparing to flee from Zhao, also went to Wei, Korea, and even Chu, and did not go to Zhao as originally planned.

They did not inherit the fief given to Le Yi by King Zhao, and preferred to start from scratch in another country.

That's nature.

The generals would defect to other monarchs for their own safety and future, but if Zhao washed their hometown in blood, slaughtered their villagers, and made their ancestral land almost dead, it would be completely different from fighting a normal war.

"Go, go, go, all leave."

"Just me, an old man, stayed in Zhao and died in Zhao State."

Lian Po drank and whispered.

Maybe he would have left Zhao after being disappointed before, but not now. He couldn't go anywhere.

Chapter 54: Cold Water Hard Dry Food

Lin Zhen brought a lot of household belongings and books, and the speed of the return trip was much slower. Zhu Xiang finally had the opportunity to observe the situation along the road.

The last time he entered Qin, he was protected by the Qin army, and he didn't have a chance to observe the scenery and people on the road.

Because of the memory hanging, Zhu Xiang's speed of learning languages is extremely strong, and he learned Yayan and the languages of the Seven Kingdoms when he was in Handan. Even if he couldn't understand the dialect, he was able to chat with the peasants by gestures.

Every time he rested, Zhu Xiang chatted with the people around him. Within a few days, he mastered the situation of Zhao State.

Meng Wu secretly glanced at the faces of Gongzi Chu and Lin Zhen, and pretended to sigh in his heart.

He found out that both Gongzi Chu and Lin Zhen would protect Changpingjun as a child, but Changpingjun was not only not a child, but his ability was also very outstanding, how could he hide it from Changpingjun?

Look, after Changpingjun learned the truth, he let the two of them eat dry food for three days. The level of food dropped suddenly, and the faces of Gongzi Chu and Lin Zhen turned blue.

In fact, Zhu Xiang didn't deliberately toss his friends, he just wasn't in the mood to cook and nibbled on dry food by himself.

Seeing Zhu Xiang gnawing on dry food, Zi Chu and Lin Zhen didn't know why they didn't dare to make a fire to cook, so they ate dry food together, looking as if they had been punished by Zhu Xiang.

"Silly fork King Zhao." Zhu Xiang scolded while gnawing on dry food.

Zi Chu and Lin Yi chewed the dry food with difficulty and nodded in agreement.

In the past few days, they have realized the richness of Zhu Xiang's language. The two noble sons never knew that there were so many tricks for scolding.

Today, Zhu Xiang was tired of scolding, and summed it up with a "stupid fork".

"Lian Gong sent troops to Yan State, I am afraid that he will rob Yan State of grain and transfer the famine of Zhao State to Yan State." Zhu Xiang finally sobered up from his anger and thought about other things, "If it is Lin Gong and I in Zhao State, this famine can be alleviated without sending troops, alas." ”

Zi Chu was curious: "The fields of Zhao Guo in the first half of this year have all been harvested, and the first batch of grain will not be harvested until at least late autumn and early winter. According to the grain storage of the common people, they will be without food for at least three months. So you can solve it too? ”

Lin Zhen quipped: "I didn't expect the dignified prince of Qin to understand this, Xia Tong, congratulations, you are a teacher, my uncle is very pleased." ”

Zichu gave Lin Zhen a roll of his eyes and ignored Lin Zhen. Lin Zhen, the more he pays attention to it, the more crazy he becomes.

He really didn't pay attention to it before. But no matter who became friends with Zhu Xiang, his eyes would unconsciously turn to the fields and ordinary people who were not originally concerned, and Zhu Xiang habitually calculated food output and consumption in his mind.

"With me, abandoned fields can be replanted as soon as possible, shortening the harvest time and reducing the time for food shortages." Zhu Xiang said, "With Duke Lin here, he can find a way to persuade the nobles to send food to help the victims, and he can also go to other countries to successfully receive food." In fact, the famine in Zhao is not serious at the national level, and the fields that have been harvested are less than half of the country's total. ”

Zi Chu and Lin Zhen said in unison: "How did you calculate it?" ”

Zhu Xiang was speechless: "Hey, how could you two ask such a thing?" You should know it right away, too. ”

Zichu was a little ashamed, but Lin Zhen was not ashamed and said: "I am only ready to be a virtuous person now, and I haven't thought about it before." ”

Zichu: "......" He looked at Lin Zhen's face and learned a lot. It's yourself who loses!

Zhu Xiang also looked at Lin Zhen's face and once again refreshed his cognition of Lin Zhen.

"Potatoes and other novel foods, King Zhao will make the common people grow them, but he will definitely not make the nobles grow them." Zhu Xiang said, "If you were you, would you rashly change to something you haven't eaten if you have other foods to eat?" ”

Zi Chu and Lin Zhen pondered for a while, their eyes widened slightly, and they suddenly realized.

Lin Zhen sneered: "King Zhao learned about the yield of potatoes from Changping, and he wanted to fill the granary quickly, so he ordered the common people to plant potatoes instead. But he has no right to demand that the land of the nobles be converted into potatoes, and the nobles will not change their fields to potatoes! ”

Zi Chu rubbed his head and said, "How could I not have thought of this? Most of the Qin State had been converted into counties, and all places obeyed the orders of the King of Qin. But Zhao was different, most of the land was in the hands of the nobility. ”

At this moment, China is similar to the Middle Ages in Western Europe, in the fiefs of the nobility, the monarch implemented a tax system. That is, the king asks the nobles for the amount of taxes, and as long as the nobles can pay enough money and grain, the affairs in the territory are decided by the nobles themselves.

If the nobles were kinder, they might pay taxes out of their own pockets and reduce taxes for the common people of the realm; The aristocracy wanted to be poor and luxurious, so they paid more taxes, and after paying the taxes, the excess fell into their own hands.

The same is true for conscription, the king of the common lord is not the master of the common people, and if the king wants to send troops, he has to ask the nobles to send troops.

This can be proved by the several wars fought by the Zhou Dynasty in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the emperor of Zhou issued an edict, and the vassal states took their men and horses to fight.

In order to avoid being controlled by others, in fact, in addition to the Qin State, other places are also implementing the county system to expand the influence of the monarch. But while administrative and military power is largely vested in the monarch, the economy is not.

In addition to the feudal monarch being able to make the decision on the land on his own territory, the nobles' private manors can plant whatever they want, and will not ignore the king's orders.

Therefore, the famine in Zhao State was just a disaster for the common people, and the nobles would sit back and relax, and even be very happy. Because when the common people fell into famine, they could only borrow grain from them, and they could get more land at a low price or even no price.

Because of the Battle of Changping and Zhu Xiang's departure, Pingyuan Jun and Pingyang Jun were also alienated by King Zhao. Otherwise, Lin Gong, Pingyuan Jun, and Pingyang Jun joined forces, and with Lian Po and other veterans to exert pressure, they would be able to suppress the selfish nobles of Zhao State and let them cede their own interests for Zhao State.

It's a pity that Pingyuanjun and Pingyangjun took the initiative to bear the fault of King Zhao in order to avoid civil strife in Zhao, returned to their fiefdom, and could no longer ask about the political affairs of Zhao. The clan and high-ranking officials of the Zhao State who are now participating in politics in the Zhao Dynasty are obviously more willing to collect wealth for themselves through the hands of King Zhao.

"The potato planting experience I gave is very clear. Even if you don't write it, people with a modicum of common sense know that no crop can be sown in the cold and snow. Zhu Xiang said, "When they ordered the farmers to plant potatoes instead, they were aiming to make the farmers lose their harvest." ”

Lin Zhen was sluggish.

He looked at Zhu Xiang, and his voice seemed to laugh and cry: "Really? Even Father didn't think about this, he just thought that the nobles who unanimously agreed to change potatoes were just stupid. ”

Zhu Xiang said vaguely: "Because I was born in a common people, I can only guess after watching too many things like this." ”

In fact, it was because of the strategic height of the political textbooks of later generations that he could see the key at a glance.

It is written in the textbook that the feudal era was the era of landlords and peasants, and all interests revolved around the land.

Just as it is the nature of capitalists to chase profits, it is also the nature of landlords to carry out land annexation. Even if King Zhao lived in the palace and didn't know about the fields, most of the nobles supported the stupidity of sowing seeds in winter, which was against common sense, and there must be a plan. What could this conspiracy be but the farmer's field?

Just like during the period of Qin Shi Huang, the group of ministers of the Qi State controlled the court, happily watching the Qin State conquer the south and the north and not make a move, just in order to collect a little more money from the envoys of the Qin State, and finally led to the collapse of the Qi State, the group of new ministers in the Zhao State court also wanted to make a handful, and did not take the interests of the Zhao State to heart at all.

Zhu Xiang took a sip of the water in the bamboo tube and swallowed the dry food in his mouth: "King Zhao Huiwen is a Ming Jun, and the people he excavates are basically talents. Pingyuanjun and Pingyangjun also have the ability to recognize people, and most of the two of them are friendly with the original ministers. The country of Zhao is so big, there are so many talents, and after the people who are good friends with Pingyuan Jun and Pingyang Jun are marginalized, even if King Zhao wants to cheer up, there is no one to use. Now the court of Zhao State is full of stupid and selfish people. This is the disadvantage of the election system. ”

"Huh?" Zhu Xiang's words turned sharply, and when he heard it, Zi Chu and Lin Zhen's brains were almost knotted.

Zhu Xiang said: "The recommendation system is naturally linked by the recommendation of people. When the nominee leaves or disagrees with the king, the king may not trust them because they cannot betray the nominee, and it will be difficult for the person they recommend to continue to serve the king, even if they have a heart for the king. ”

Zichu immediately sat up straight: "Then what kind of talent election system can avoid this drawback?" ”