In Xiqi City, Ji Fa, who established himself as King Wu of Zhou, was convening various important ministers to discuss government affairs. [Full text reading]

Huang Feihu, the founding king of Wucheng, came out and said: "King, Nandi is urgent, Eshun was defeated by Deng Jiugong and was seriously injured, but fortunately, his surname was saved, and now he is recuperating from his wounds in Nanjun. Since the announcement of the Son of Heaven to the world, the princes of the southern region seem to be extremely fluctuating, and there is a great tendency to besiege the southern county. Eshun was too busy to take care of himself at this time, and he was afraid that it would be difficult for him to go north to cut merchants in the short term. ”

Nangong Shi also said: "Long Anji, the new general of Chentangguan, has a strange technique, and he has defeated several ghost formations in a row, and the chief soldier Li Jing is very cautious, and he does not rush forward, but he can't hold on to it, and he can't take it for a while. The princes of the northern land were shown by the Son of Heaven, and they raised troops in turmoil and sent troops to the north. The king of the ghost side has been forced to withdraw from Chentang Pass because of his scruples about the rear territory. ”

Ji Fa frowned and asked, "How is Dong Bohou Jiang Huan Chu at present?"

San Yisheng played: "Although the Eastern Lu Army has the upper hand, the Eastern Qi Army cannot hold out, and the two sides are still in a stalemate. ”

"Stalemate? Jiang Huan Chu is just afraid that he is still waiting!" Ji Fa sneered, "This Dong Bohou is also cunning, and his attitude has always been unclear, which is intriguing. ”

Jiang Ziya, who was wearing a mask, said: "What about waiting and seeing? When the king first ruled the west, south, and north. Jiang Huan Chu began to use troops against Dongqi, although it was an excuse for the dispute between the princes, and he did not express his intentions, but after all, it was a statement to the king. Qi Hou Yueji is the concubine of the Son of Heaven, in public and private, with the wisdom of the Son of Heaven now, he will never give up. Therefore, now Jiang Huanchu is difficult to ride a tiger, and he is in a dilemma. He only needs to use means at the right time to cut off his retreat, and then Jiang Huan Chu will only have one way to oppose business, so why not be used by the king?"

Ji Fa's face was a little pale, and he bowed his head and said: "Father Xiang is right, please bother planning the affairs of the East Land at that time." It's just that, if today's Zi Jing meditated out of the pass, repented before, and sentenced the two people before, issued the text to refute the six major crimes listed by the lonely king, and blamed the lonely king. This time, the hearts of the people in the three places are fluctuating, I don't know what good plan you have?"

The civil and military affairs of the main hall were silent, and even Jiang Ziya fell into contemplation, because the "Essay on Rebellion" written by the Son of Heaven himself was really powerful - from the aspects of righteousness, justice, virtue and other aspects, it effectively refuted the six sins of the "Texts of the Princes". Originally, it seemed that the six crimes committed by the Son of Heaven really made the world feel cold, but now it seems that these six crimes seem to have been forcibly added by Ji Fa to realize his ambitions, and they can't stand scrutiny at all. What's even worse is that many of the examples cited by the Son of Heaven are compared with Ji Fa's father Ji Chang, Ji Chang is known as a sage, admired by the world, and won the hearts of the people of Xiqi.

Ji Fa looked at the helpless civil and military ministers, and a wave of anger rose in his heart, and shouted: "Could it be that you are watching the lonely king being pointed at by the world?"

Su Hu hesitated for a while, and then said, "The king, the subordinates have some plans, I don't know if it's feasible?"

As soon as Ji Fa heard that someone had an idea, he quickly calmed down his anger and said, "Su Hou doesn't hurt to talk about it. ”

"The first major sin refuted by the Son of Heaven is to put the people first, this time in the west and north to restore the old system, won the hearts of the princes and scholars, as for the foolish people and slaves, lowly people, and have little combat power, if it is peacetime, but can use its king to show his name, now the situation is critical, the king does not have to spend energy on these untouchables, if it is a reversal, it will chill the hearts of the princes and soldiers. There is a good saying, the king is the king. Two tigers fight, the winner comes first. If the king's forces defeat the merchant army and ascend to the throne in one fell swoop, the king's affairs are not the king's final say?"

When Ji Fa heard this, he couldn't help but nod. In his opinion, the people are indeed as Su Hu said, when there is peace, they can also use some benevolent coaxing and coaxing, and win the name of loving the people, but now it is an extraordinary period, but it is not so "appeased". At that time, Ji Fa was the heart of the princes of Qi, and had restored the old slavery system in the northwest two places, although the people were quite dissatisfied, but the princes were praised, and many of them expressed their loyalty to the Western Zhou Dynasty, if the Son of Heaven chose the "people", then he chose the "scholars". In other words, from the very beginning, when Ji Fa wanted to rebel, he could only choose the path of "Shi", because the Son of Heaven was so popular with the people, even his dead father Ji Chang could not compare to the Son of Heaven.

Jiang Ziya also nodded secretly on the side: At this time, there is indeed no turning back, even if Ji Fa revokes the old system and re-wins the hearts of the people, the people's popularity cannot be compared with the Son of Heaven, but will lose the support of the princes and nobles, and the gains will definitely outweigh the losses.

Ji Fa praised: "Su Hou's words are reasonable! But that text has a great impact, and Su Hou can have a way to deal with it." ”

"The only way to do this is to insist that the old system of the ancestors in the first sin cannot be abolished, unite the princes and nobles, and encircle the great merchants. The king pacified the north and south, and the three major deeds moved the world. And in this Son of Heaven's text, there is an accusation that the king has a connection with the ghost side, and the ministers think that this article is detrimental to the king's wisdom, so they should refute it with all their might," Su Hu said, gritting his teeth and bowing down: "If there is still criticism, the king only needs to shirk this crime on the ministers, and he can be safe." ”

Ji Fa's eyes when he looked at Su Hu were a little different, and he hurriedly went down to help Su Hu up personally: "Su Hou treats Gu with such sincerity, how can Gu be trapped in Su Hou's disregard? What Su Hou said before is all reasonable, and the last one is a joke, and there must be no such remarks in the future." All the Aiqing present are the same as Su Hou, they are the arms of the lonely king, and the lonely king can swear that he will never abandon and share the wealth!"

This greatly mobilized the active surnames of the ministers, and they all bowed and saluted: "King Longen!"

This contrived made the depressing atmosphere just now enliven up a lot. Ji Fa gave Su Hu an extremely satisfied look, Su Hu comprehended, retreated to his original position, and secretly rejoiced that thanks to the wise man of the wind cockroach by his side, he came up with a good plan. What is this trick called "wanting to capture the old and indulge", this time, not only shows ability and loyalty, but also blocks Ji Fazhen's way to use him as a substitute for the dead ghost, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Jiang Ziya opened his mouth and said: "Su Hou is loyal, and heaven and earth can learn from him. The last sentence reminded the old minister that the king could push the ghost side to worship the black tiger's body, and there was no proof of his death, and then the three major deeds of Pingbei were made a big fuss, highlighting that the king was a ghost party with virtue. As for what Su Hou said earlier, it is also very reasonable. Our army is now no longer what it used to be, and its combat power is outstanding, and if you take the combat power and equipment displayed by the merchant army when fighting against the ghost side, it is definitely not an opponent of our army. Those crimes are okay, but after all, there is a suspicion of disloyalty, and now it is to find an opportunity to seize the opportunity to unite the princes of the world in the name of the crusade against the emperor. ”

Ji Fa seemed to think of the "secret weapon" of those armies, and then looked at Jiang Ziya, who had an extraordinary background, and his confidence suddenly swelled: "Father Xiang is reasonable, so he will act according to Father Xiang's performance, and at present, he will not move, while stabilizing the princes in the west and north, while waiting for the opportunity." ”

Just when Ji Fa pacified the interior of the north and south, Chaoge came with the news that the Son of Heaven had Feng Rui Concubine Shang Qingjun as the queen of the Great Shang. Shang Rong, the old prime minister who had lived in seclusion for many years, was also invited to go out of the mountain and was crowned as a Taishi, and assisted the government together with Bigan, Jizi, and Meibo. Shang Rong is a veteran of the three dynasties, and was once known as the right-hand man of the Great Shang together with Wen Taishi, with prestige and popularity, and he is still above the competition, and many important ministers in the court are his "protégés". Although Shang Rong was old, when he heard that the country was in trouble, he still accepted the comeback invitation of the Son of Heaven without hesitation, and the news of his departure from the mountain also made Chaoge feel excited.

The daughter of Shang Rong, the new queen Shang Qingjun has the reputation of the first talented woman in the big business. It is said that Shang Qingjun is extremely smart, and he does not love pearls and jade treasures in his life, but only loves three things.

The first is the Zihao pen used for writing; the second is snow-bright paper, I heard that the Empress Shang also made a poem "white as frost and snow" to praise it, and the third is the exquisite and beautiful, high-quality and inexpensive Western pottery handicrafts. The cost of these three things is not high, and even civilians can afford to use them, especially paper and pen, which are the representatives of knowledge, fully demonstrating the connotation and character of the queen.

Zihao pen is a small part of the back of the rabbit black needle tip hair as the main raw material made, its long and sharp, suitable for the pen, durable, there are many high-level workshops in the big business, [***] Zihao pen. There is an indispensable raw material for making snow paper, which is a kind of snow hemp unique to the north, and the paper made is delicate and smooth, white as snow, so it has the reputation of "snow light". And Xitao is a kind of handicraft unique to the West, and it is also quite famous in the world.

Shang Qingjun is gentle and beautiful, virtuous and virtuous, versatile, after being canonized as the queen, although he is deeply favored by the Son of Heaven, he regularly persuades the Son of Heaven to focus on political affairs, so the ministers respect the new queen very much, and they are also full of praise for the actions of the Son of Heaven to abolish Dada and establish Shang Qingjun.

The Son of Heaven deeply favored the Empress Shang, loved the house and Wuxia, and also fell in love with the three things that Shang Qingjun liked, and every time he must write with a purple pen and snow-light paper, and also specially sent someone to arrange a palace dedicated to holding Western pottery handicrafts to please the Empress Shang.

This matter gradually spread, from ministers and nobles to commoners, they followed suit. Many people don't use these things at all, they just use them to collect and show off. For a while, everyone was proud of owning these three "treasures", and it became a popular trend. And the value of these three things has also risen again and again. Zihao pen is a local specialty of Dashang, but it is just enough, and the production materials of snow paper, snow hemp and western pottery, must be "imported" from the west and north. The urgent demand of the market has also made the originally inconspicuous snow hemp and Xitao suddenly become in short supply.

As early as the beginning of the popularity of Sanwu, the branches in the west and north began to buy a large number of snow hemp and western pottery, and sold them to the territory of Dashang.

Although the merchants and the two places were in a state of hostility, they did not explicitly prohibit the merchants from accessing, and the prices of snow hemp and western pottery transported from the two places to the merchants were frighteningly high, often increasing dozens or even hundredfolds. Seeing that the profits were so great, the merchants of the western and northern regions also began to follow the example of the wealthy merchants, and continued to sell the two goods to the territory directly under the jurisdiction of the great merchants, and indeed reaped rich rewards.

For a time, two items were in short supply.

Slave owners and commoners in the northwest saw that snow hemp and western pottery were profitable, and began to grow hemp and pottery in a swarm, setting off a production boom. The growth cycle of snow hemp is short, easy to plant and harvest, and under the urging of high prices, people give up the original grain planting halfway and replace it with all the same color of snow hemp. Similarly, the trend of digging and making pottery was also prevalent in the west, and there were fewer and fewer people growing grain.

In a short period of time, the merchants made huge profits, and also created far more tax revenue for the Western Zhou than in previous years. Ji Fa was actively preparing for the war, and the capital consumption was huge, and these tax revenues were undoubtedly the best supplement, and he was very happy at the moment, not only did not stop it, but let this high-profit production go.

The only thing that felt something was wrong was Jiang Ziya, who had advised Ji Fa that agriculture should not be abandoned. But at this time, including Ji Fa, the nobles and gentlemen in the northwest and the northwest are all making a lot of money, and even the civilians have made a small fortune, and the interests of the bright and bright are in front of them, who will listen to them?

Ji Fa was not persuaded to do so, and he also ordered incentives and punishments to encourage farming and punish those who did not grow grain. But the people below are the windfalls, and this encouragement is just in the ears of the wind. Slave owners, big and small, all of them were in disobedience to the yang and yin, growing grain on the surface, but behind the scenes, they were making pottery and growing hemp, and some were even willing to pay a fine for not growing grain to make that big money. Ji Fa also turned a blind eye to this kind of behavior - why not take advantage of the personal preferences of the queen mother and continuously earn money from big merchants to replenish his army?

Just when Ji Fa and even the people of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Land were smiling, Zhang Zixing was also covering his mouth and snickering. Because all this was going smoothly according to his plan, the boom in hare breeding in the territory of the Great Merchants had already been quietly and gradually controlled, and the cultivation was vigorously rewarded, while the rich merchants in various places were ostensibly vigorously trafficking in snow hemp and Western pottery, but secretly they were quietly hoarding grain.

At present, the only thing Zhang Zixing has to do is to wait for the arrival of the autumn harvest, and then show his hole cards in one fell swoop, and the power generated at that time is no less than the energy of the super nuclear bomb.

(To be continued)