"I owe you a country?"
The young lady from the Zhao family almost thought she was hallucinating.
The young scribe said casually: "Yes."
Then he turned to Qishan for confirmation: "Yes or no?"
Qishan: “…”
The young lady of the Zhao family didn't know Qishan's background, nor could she connect it to national hatred or family feuds. The young man did know a little bit - he heard that Mr. Jiang Sheng and Mr. Xun Zhen had an old grudge against Qishan, and the three of them usually didn't bother to even glance at each other and disliked each other.
She boldly guessed that this young scholar who claimed to be a distant relative of Mr. Qishan was of the same nature as Mr. Jiang Sheng and Mr. Jiang Sheng
"Could it be that the chief clerk destroyed your homeland?" The young man didn't know how to address the young scholar, and was not sure whether he was an enemy or a friend.
Young scribe: “Yes and no.”
His calm attitude emboldened the boy to continue asking, "Yes and no? So it's 'yes' or 'no'?"
What kind of answer is this
The young scholar asked the boy, "Have you ever heard of the three strategies of 'Qi silk and Lu silk', 'Buying a deer to control Chu', and 'Buying a fox to conquer Dai'?"
The boy's cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
He shook his head: "I am not well-educated, I have never heard of it."
The young scholar did not deliberately embarrass her.
"According to the records of the Thief Star, these three lines were all written by one person. His name was Guan Zhong, and he truly achieved 'conquering the enemy without fighting'. Take 'Qi silk and Lu silk' as an example. It is said that there were two neighboring countries, one was Qi and the other was Lu. Both countries were good at weaving. The silk produced in Qi was called Qi silk, and the silk produced in Lu was called Lu silk. Guan Zhong made a petition and ordered the people of Qi to wear Lu silk from top to bottom, and the common people followed the order. Merchants in Lu saw that it was profitable, so they bought Lu silk and sold it to Qi."
The young man heard this and seemed to be thinking about something.
The young lady of the Zhao family frowned upon hearing this and asked, "This man is really strange. Since he is from Qi, why does he advocate Lu silk? Wouldn't his own Qi silk business be ruined? The money will flow into the hands of Lu for nothing. Aren't you afraid that it will be used to fatten up Lu's soldiers and horses?"
Why bother damaging our own textile industry
The young man said, "Whether to accept Lu silk is not a matter of an order. He can make everyone from ministers to common people wear Lu silk and abandon Qi silk, so he can naturally order Qi silk to be used and Lu silk to be abandoned. Since it is a trick, why would he give benefits to others for nothing?"
The young lady from the Zhao family reacted.
"That's true."
The young scribe tells the second half of the plan.
"As a result, Lu did not have to pay taxes to the people, but its treasury was full. When the king heard about it, he ordered the people under his rule to weave Lu silk. The plan worked, and Guan Zhong made another remonstrance, ordering people to wear Qi silk, ban Lu silk, and stop trading with Lu. The people of Lu were starving, and the king had no money to pay. The people were cut off from their source of survival, and they could not even afford to pay taxes to the king, let alone their own food..."
The young lady from the Zhao family gasped when she heard this.
"Are you targeting a country's grain?" On the surface, Qi was the victim, but unexpectedly, it was Lu itself that was victimized...
"Why didn't the ruler of Lu order all the people in the country to grow crops? Even if they missed the farming season, as long as they grew crops, they would no longer be constrained by Qi, right?" The young man realized something as soon as he asked, "People can go without food for three days, but grain cannot be obtained in three months..."
It takes time for food to mature.
And this time was enough for the State of Lu to be conquered by the State of Qi.
"Sir, the remaining two strategies - buying a deer to subdue Chu and buying a fox to conquer Dai, are they the same?" The young man was very curious about this "Guan Zhong". However, as soon as he read the story, he knew that this part of the Thief Star's words was only of interest to the literati.
The young scholar nodded: "Buying deer to subdue Chu means that the men and women in Chu will abandon farming and go into the mountains to hunt deer; buying foxes to conquer Dai means that the common people of Dai will work hard for fox skins, and the country will be weakened, so the northern Lizhi will take advantage of the opportunity and have to surrender to Qi."
The boy understood what he heard.
"May I ask the chief clerk to use Guan Zhong's strategy on your home country?"
The young scholar's face darkened as he said, "He did make this suggestion, but it was seen through early on. The royal court used the same trick to try to make the country Qi Yuanliang was loyal to bleed. Who knew that this guy played a series of tricks. He used this to build momentum and take the lead in shouting. Merchants from neighboring countries saw that it was profitable and came here one after another. They followed Qi Yuanliang's example and signed contracts with their own merchants to advance the flowers for the second year. If they failed to deliver the flowers, they would have to pay ten times the amount, and the upstream would release floodwaters the next year..."
The small country upstream releases floodwaters to the small country downstream...
This is basic operation.
Every policy from the top has a countermeasure from the bottom.
The small countries downstream were naturally on guard against this move by Lao Liu upstream. In addition to the farmland that could not be moved, the common people in the country lived on high ground, and even the buildings were stilt houses. This minimized the losses caused by the flood, and even turned out to be a blessing in disguise - the flood discharge brought sedimentary silt upstream, so the farmland did not need to be specially fertilized, and there were bumper harvests for several years in a row.
The young scholar's home country was highly dependent on imported grain, and the grain depots in various places had at least two years of grain reserves, so the upstream flood discharge did not make it as passive as the Lu, Chu, and Dai countries. They didn't even care whether Lao Liu upstream discharged flood water or not.
result-
The target of the flood was not food, but flowers! All the flowers ordered for the second year were killed, and they could not deliver the goods. A large number of merchants went bankrupt. You should know that these merchants were supported by aristocratic families, and even the royal family was in trouble. Seeing this, several neighboring countries were naturally indignant about the loss and took the opportunity to attack and add insult to injury. Thus, his homeland was destroyed.
Boy: “…”
The young lady from the Zhao family: “…”
The young man understood clearly and said hesitantly: "Well, well, this is also a normal confrontation. Why do you say that Qi Zhubu owes you..."
The young scholar's expression was full of "I don't want to mention it".
Why else
Because he saved Qi Yuanliang out of carelessness.
This guy pretended to be soft and harmless, and made him his best friend. He also wanted to introduce him to his friends. As a result, this guy turned around and made him lose all his money. He went from being rich to being extremely poor overnight.
Boy: “…”
The young lady from the Zhao family: “…”
This grudge is indeed great.
But they don't understand—
When the two met, except for the initial temper when he held Su Shang hostage, they got along fairly well the rest of the time
It's more like friends than enemies.
Little did they know that there was another story behind this.
On the surface, the tiny country is full of love for flowers, but it is not a clean place. The royal family is a place full of filth and dirt, the dirtiest place in the world! The nobles indulged in lust and left their offspring everywhere. The young man was the product of a night of pleasure. His mother already had a husband. His biological mother and adoptive father regarded him as a thorn in their eyes, but because of his biological father's identity, they had to spare his life.
He has been looked down upon since he was a child.
And the biological father
Haha, in order to protect himself, he begged for mercy from neighboring countries everywhere. As the king, he agreed to a series of absurd conditions, one of which was to reduce the area of cultivated land in his own country and purchase food from neighboring countries at a high price. The common people could only buy food to fill their stomachs, and those who could not afford it starved to death. For a time, countless people were starving and there was grief everywhere... Under the flowers and brocade, there was a rotten and smelly skin.
The young scholar had the desire to save the country but did not know how to do it. He gave advice to his biological father several times, but was scolded and beaten in court.
He was dragged away but still kept asking loud questions.
Do you know how many people have starved to death in these years? All these measures are nothing more than adding fuel to the fire.
The other party's indifference chilled his heart.
We are just common people, ants.
The neighboring countries have been destroyed and revived several times, but his tiny country has survived for decades, which shows that the policies adopted by the royal family are not wrong. This little scholar dares to point fingers at him and shout about pleading for the people!
Don't overestimate your abilities!
Therefore, when the young scholar was exiled, he saved Qi Yuanliang by chance and saw through the other party's plan before he stopped it. He even had a crazy idea in his mind - if a country cannot be conquered, it is better to destroy it; if it is not destroyed, it cannot be established, and it can only be established after it is destroyed!
only-
The country was destroyed, but what about the prosperous and peaceful times that Qi Yuanliang promised? This guy just killed his master and ran away!