Li Mu squinted his eyes and looked: "No, that's ...... Zhao Guoshumin? I'll check it out! ”

He immediately blocked the attack of the Qin soldiers and rode away.

"Why are you here, are you fleeing the famine?" Li Mu immediately asked.

Zhao Ren, who was still in rags in winter and had a lot of hay tied to his body for warmth, raised his head and asked, "Are you the general of Zhao State?" Do you know General Lee? ”

Li Mu was stunned and said, "I am Li Mu." ”

The man and the person behind him immediately knelt down and said, "General Li, can you take us away together." ”

Li Mu was stunned: "Why? ”

The man cried: "Last year we sent Zhu Xianggong away, and this year we will send Lian Gong and General Li again. The people who taught us to farm are gone, and the people who fought the Yan Kingdom and the Xiongnu for us are gone, how will we live in the future? I heard that Zhu Xianggong's fief was very close to Zhao State, and the people in our village decided to go to Zhu Xianggong's fief. ”

The man kowtowed: "Please, General Li, take us with you." You're all gone, how are we going to live, how are we going to live......"

The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, and his body kept shaking.

Li Mu dismounted and helped him up: "Could it be that King Zhao has issued some edict that endangers you?" ”

A kneeling man ripped off the grass on his body, revealing the clothes of the soldiers of Zhao State.

He straightened up and said, "King Zhao ordered the defenders of each county to threaten the peasants in the village, and they were not allowed to see off Xin Pingjun and General Li. Without Shinhei-kun, we would have starved to death; Without General Li, we would have been slaughtered by the Huns. We cannot tolerate this. ”

He kowtowed and said, "Please lead us, General." ”

More than a dozen people behind him tore off the hay, exposed their weapons, and kowtowed together: "Please lead us, the general." ”

Li Mu was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time.

"I ...... You ......" Li Mu took a deep breath and kept his head as clear as possible.

He looked at the kneeling man in front of him, and saw the man hiding in the hay and dead wood.

Those people were pushing the cart, and there were big bags and small bags on the cart, and there were old and weak women and children sitting on it, and they really left the village.

"Wait a minute!" Li Mu got on his horse and turned around, anxious.

If he had led the troops himself, he would have been willing to escort these people away.

They had already left the village, disobeyed the military orders, and if they did not follow them out, they feared that they would be put to death.

But now that he doesn't have soldiers in his hands, will the Qin people take over this big trouble?

Li Mu was nervous and informed Lian Po and Lou Yan of the matter.

Lian Po raised his hand, slowly pressed his eyes, and tears overflowed from his fingers: "King Zhao sent troops to forbid them to send them off, but they want to leave Zhao with their family?" Ha...... Haha, is this what Zhu Xiang said about the people's heart? ”

Lou Slow can't hold the crutches: "This, this ......" This is too unbelievable! The people actually know the kindness of Lian Po and Li Mu, so affectionate and righteous?

"But...... But we ...... "it's very difficult to slow down." If he can take away the Zhao people, King Zhao may be angry to death. But they only have so many soldiers, and I am afraid that they will be overstretched to escort the Zhao people out of the Zhao country. What's more, does the State of Qin have a place to feed so many people? If he makes his own decisions, will he be blamed by King Qin?

"Let's take it with us." Bu Dao, who led the troops this time, said, "There is a secret edict in the king, if there are Zhao people who are willing to leave with Lian Gong and Li Gong, they will settle in Changping, Shangdang and other places together." We have food and land, but we are in need of men. They also bring their own food to feed themselves. ”

Lou was so frightened that he almost fell off the carriage: "Secret edict? ”

Bu nodded and said: "Your Majesty still has an edict, if these things really happen, the Zhao people will be led by Duke Lian and Duke Li." Gong Lian and Gong Li can train them to be your soldiers. ”

Lian Po put down his hand, his eyes were red and said, "King Qin, isn't he afraid!" ”

Bu took out a paper envelope in his arms and offered it to Lian Po with both hands.

Lian Po tore open the envelope, and two general tokens fell out of it, one engraved with his name and the other engraved with Li Mu's name.

King Qin was actually ready for a long time?!

Lian Po and Li Mu looked at these two tokens, their faces seemed to cry and laugh, as if they admired and hated.

This is the worst enemy of their Zhao State, the old King of Qin.

"Please Lian Gong and Li Gong make a decision quickly." Bu couldn't hide the proud expression on his face, "We haven't left Zhao Country yet. ”

This is our king, the king of our Qin country!

Lian Po and Li Mu put away the token with trembling hands, each ordered the family, and went to appease the Zhao people in front.

On the hill next to him, Cai Ze looked into the distance, and his bright smile made his originally immodest face even more distorted.

The hearts of the people, the hearts of the people, the hearts of the people!

"Xunzi, Zhu Xiang, you won the bet." Cai Ze smiled, "No, we won the bet." ”

He's got involved in it himself!

Before leaving the Qin State, Xunzi had a debate with the King of Qin about the "righteous soldiers".

Originally, the two old men were just eating and drinking enough at Zhu Xiang's house, chatting and quarreling while teasing Zheng'er. Zhu Xiang dragged a stool to join, and somehow it turned into a bet.

The movement of the people of the Seven Kingdoms is very frequent. The peasants who were far from the city did not even know which country they belonged to, and they paid the tax to whoever came to collect it.

In some of the more obscure areas, farmers even had to pay taxes to two or three countries.

This is the case with the peasants in the land where the three Jin and Jin meet.

Unlike the upper-class scholars who hated the tyrannical Qin, during non-war periods, the common people not only did not go around the Qin people, but also took the initiative to enter the Qin.

When the Qin State attacked Shangdang, the civilians ran to the Zhao State just because they were fleeing the war and were refugees. It's not that they don't want to enter Qin.

When the Qin State developed Kanto and Bashu, it absorbed a large number of people from the Three Jin Dynasty. The Qin king issued many edicts to encourage immigrants, sent them to open up wasteland, granted them household registration, and exempted them from forced labor.

The Seven Kings have discovered that population is the most important part of national power. When the Three Jin Dynasty was fighting endlessly, the Qin State "stole" the population from the Three Jin Dynasty with great fanfare.

The Qin State could not support hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war, but now the Shangdang and Changping that the Qin State had just defeated, as well as the Bashu and Chu lands in the south, were all sparsely populated because of the war, and the more dry food they had, the better.

What is the use of an empty city? What Qin wants is population!

Xunzi's political proposition of unifying the world is to "rejuvenate the righteous soldiers". He believes that the Qin State is strong and already has the foundation for the Xingyi Army, and now it is time to change its appearance, from the violent Qin to the Ren Qin, and unify the people's hearts when the world is unified.

King Qin naturally scoffed at Xunzi's remarks.

Can "benevolence and righteousness" still allow the city and the common people to run to the Qin State on their own legs? In the end, it's not about falling to the front. Pillage is much more efficient than prey such as guarding under a tree.

Zhu Xiang said: "Lian Gong lost his reputation and power for the sake of Zhao people, and Zhao people are all grateful to Lian Gong. Why don't you try it in Zhao Kingdom? It is absolutely appropriate to leave this matter to Cai Ze. ”

So Cai Ze received a letter. What the teacher and his friends want to do coincides with what he wants to do.

"Now do you still say that people are not human, heartless and ruthless?" Cai Ze put his hands behind his back and turned to look at the people in front of him, "Xunzi said that everyone can learn benevolence, righteousness and honesty, and benevolence, righteousness and shame are not the ethics of scholars. I hope that you can see more people in your eyes like Teacher Xunzi. ”

The assistants he brought behind him were not officials of the Qin State, they were all Confucian scholars.

"Yes, Gong Cai."

Confucianism gave up. They took this lesson to heart.

"Go on, I don't know how many Zhao people will follow Lian Gong and Li Mu into Qin this time." Cai Ze went down the mountain with his hands behind his back, "I'm afraid I'm afraid I'm going to ask the king for a position to guard Changping County." ”

Changping is the place where the Three Jin Dynasty fought, not only is it dangerous, but Zhu Xiang is also easy to be soft on Zhao people, so the king will definitely not let Zhu Xiang come.

This county guard, only he can be the one.

……

At the intersection of 259 BC and 258 BC, a ballad was sung in the countryside and mountain villages outside the city of Zhao.

"The magpie bird sings at home, and quickly enters Qin. quickly entered Qin, Zhu Xiang was in Qin;

The magpie bird sang in the road, quickly entered Qin, quickly entered Qin, and Lian Po was in Qin;

The magpie bird sings in the mountains, quickly enters Qin, quickly enters Qin, and Li Mu is in Qin;

Take your property and family, enter Qin quickly, enter Qin quickly, and the sage is in the Qin country. ”

Zhao Jun, who was guarding the border, closed his eyes and covered his ears. They didn't see anything, they didn't hear anything.

Therefore, in the towering city of Handan, no one knows this ballad.

Chapter 72 Changping Taxes and Payments

Lian Po thought that he would not lead troops again in this life. He didn't expect his decision to be broken so quickly.

He couldn't let go of these Zhao people who had left their hometown.

Lian Po was very complacent about his background as a great nobleman, his talent for leading troops in battle, and his merits in attacking cities and conquering land. He knew that many people said that he had no one in his eyes, not even some Zhao Guozong who had no merit and only relied on his background to show off. He was complacent even when others said that he had no one in his sights.

Lian Po, who even Lin Xiangru once looked down on, naturally couldn't lower his head to look at the mustard-like common people.

Zhu Xiang was treated like a parent by Lin Xiangru for several years, and Lian Po often despised Zhu Xiang because of Zhu Xiang's background and cowardice in refusing to go to the battlefield.

This is true in this day and age. The scholars served the monarch and fought for the monarch.

It was in the Confucian mouth of the sage dynasty Zhou Dynasty when the Shang Dynasty invaded the Shang, the crimes they announced against the Shang king, the life and death of the "countrymen" who were higher than the current Shu people were secondary, and the most important thing was that the Shang king did not pay attention to sacrifices, did not respect the gods, despised the nobles, and appointed slaves.

This is not the hypocrisy of the Zhou Dynasty, but in this era, these are the most important things.

If the Zhou Dynasty raised the banner of "the king of Shang harms the people" to crusade against the king of Shang at that time, then it was the king of Zhou who was defeated.

The idea of loving the people was gradually established in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Later generations who accepted the concept of "loving the people" would add the crime of abusing the people to the deceased monarch of the pre-Qin dynasty.

Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the monarch only cared about the life and death of the countrymen at most, and the countrymen were the "scholars" during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Lian Po was originally such a typical nobleman.

He looked at the Zhao people in front of him who had been reorganized into an army and sighed.

Li Mu asked, "Lian Gong, are you worried about their situation?" ”

Lian Po said: "I'm not worried. ”

Li Mu: "...... "Then Lian Gong, what are you sighing about?"

He wanted to continue to ask, but looking at Lian Po's irritable face, he swallowed the question with interest.

Due to the previous attack of the Qin State, there were many deserted places at the intersection of the Three Jin Dynasty, which became a buffer zone for the power of several countries.

They finally came to this buffer zone, and they didn't have to worry about being intercepted by Zhao Jun.

Lian Po and Li Mu counted the number of people, and there were as many as 30,000 Zhao people who defected to them, of which there were more than 1,000 Zhao soldiers who originally monitored them.

This number does not seem to be much, but considering the population of Zhao State that has decreased over the years, the speed of the spread of news, and the distance of the villagers from their journey, 30,000 people is already a very large number.

According to common sense, there are almost no ways for the villagers to learn about Handan. Maybe Lian Po and Li Mu have left Zhao State for several years, and the people of Zhao State in the countryside and mountain villages may not necessarily know about it.