Chapter 131 Salt and Iron Meeting ([-])

"The Master said: 'Those who have a state and a family don't worry about poverty but inequality, and don't worry about widowhood but worry about uneasiness. This makes those who are close close to each other and those who are far away are pleasing. Therefore, those who are good at conquering do not fight, those who are good at fighting do not teach, and those who are good at teachers do not fight. Cultivate it in the temple, and return it to the master. The king conducts benevolent government, invincible in the world, and the evil is spent. ?”

Wang Hongyin quoted scriptures and refuted Sang Hongyang with the classics that the sage said that practicing benevolent government would make the world invincible.

The advantage of citing scriptures is that, you see, this is not what I said, but a sage. How can there be any mistakes in what a sage said? If you refute me, then you think that what a sage said is wrong. If everything you say can be wrong, then you may be a savage who doesn't read.

"Yes, yes, as long as the benevolent government is implemented, the world will be invincible. There is no need to spend so much money to guard against the Huns, so the country does not need to guard against the Huns." Zhang Mu echoed, he and Wang Hongyin are friends , followed along to help, so he continued to add: "Practicing benevolent government is the right way, and fighting for profit with the people to carry out military conquests is nothing more than a single man. King Wen of Zhou was recognized by the people of the world by relying on benevolent government, while King Zhou of Shang Shouldn't we learn this lesson from losing the world because of fighting for profit with the people and conquering by force?"

"Yeah yeah."

"My great man governs the country with filial piety, and should also govern with benevolence. We must learn from King Wen of Zhou, not King Zhou of Shang."

Hearing this, Wang Hongyin smiled slightly.

The Wang family collected hundreds of books, and the six schools of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, law, soldiers and agriculture are the key collections.

In the collection of legalist books, it is recorded that when King Wen of Zhou attacked Chongguo, he was unable to attack Chongguo for a long time, and Chongguo refused to surrender. So after finally capturing the capital of Chongguo, King Wen of Zhou, Jichang, ordered the massacre of the city in a rage.

There is no difference between the ancient sage kings and the present rulers. Didn’t the first emperor slaughter his capital Chang’an because of the witchcraft disaster?

What a joke!
The human heart has always been ancient, and has always been selfish. It has not changed since ancient times, and it has always maintained the selfishness left over from the ancient times.

But that's not the point. Although he knew what happened to the ancient sage kings, Wang Hongyin still respected them in his words, citing the classics of sage kings from time to time to rebuke opponents.

So he continued: "King Wen spent his family wealth and won the hearts of the people with benevolent government. King Zhou collected his private wealth and lost the hearts of the people with his single husband. This kind of lesson has only passed a thousand years. How can we repeat the same mistakes?"

"It makes sense!"

"Listening to your words is better than reading ten years of books."

The rest of the virtuous writers agreed and looked at Sang Hongyang proudly.

Sang Hongyang slowed down and retorted: "The Huns are barbaric and cruel. They can't be influenced by benevolence and righteousness. They have repeatedly invaded the border and killed the Han people. It is time to send troops to exterminate them."

"Because the first emperor couldn't bear the slaughter of the common people, and couldn't bear the thought of you scholars being murdered by the Huns, he expanded his army to attack the Huns in the north."

"Now, you scholars are unwilling to fight against the Huns yourself, but you want the country to abandon the Yantie official camp and prevent the country from fighting the Huns. If the Huns invade the Central Plains, who will defend the country? You say These words are not moral!"

Although Sang Hongyang's words were also very reasonable, but no one agreed with him except the left general Shangguan Jie and the prime minister Tian Qianqiu.

No matter how reasonable the reasoning is, it is only reasoning. Everyone came to the conference for the benefit of their own families, so how could they be persuaded by Sang Hongyang with just a few words.

"Ha ha……"

A virtuous person couldn't think of how to refute, so he could only sneer. There was a salt field near his family manor, so it was impossible to agree with the government-run policy of Yantie anyway. This was a fundamental contradiction.

Just when everyone didn't know how to refute, Wang Hongyin, who had been prepared for a long time, stepped forward.

"In ancient times, morality was valued and soldiers were despised. The Master said: 'If people from afar are not convinced, then cultivate literature and virtue. Once they come, they will be safe.' Self-cultivation and morality are the right way, but now we don't cultivate morality and morality. Instead, we just blindly Believing that force can solve all problems, they mobilized troops to carry out conquests and stationed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the frontier."

"In order to transport logistical supplies to these soldiers, the state conscripted a large number of people into corvée and spent a lot of money, but the soldiers still didn't have enough food and clothing, and the people were displaced because of this."

"The establishment of the salt and iron official camp is just to make money for the corrupt officials who manage the salt and iron, and to make the people poor. This method of making money is nothing but fishing for the country and cannot last long. Therefore, it should be done as soon as possible. Abolish the official salt and iron camps, this is the real benefit to the country and the people.”

Wang Hongyin spoke slowly, what he said was well-founded, and what he said was all facts, not just fabricated things.

It is true that the state stationed hundreds of thousands of troops at the border, it is true that it has recruited people for corvee service, it is true that it has spent a lot of money for this, it has indeed caused many people to be displaced, and it is true that many salt and iron officials have taken the opportunity to become corrupt.

Not only can it be refuted with ancient sage classics, but it can also be refuted in combination with current facts. Such a refutation is absolutely powerful.

Therefore, other virtuous writers once again looked at Wang Hongyin with admiration and admired him more and more.

Most of them can only use sage classics to refute Sang Hongyang, but it is difficult to refute Sang Hongyang with facts, because they seldom really care about the folks, and they don't know much about the reality of the folks.

"Zi Min is right." Zhang Mu echoed with a smile. As for 'Zi Min', it was Wang Hongyin's nickname: "Many salt and iron officials made money out of their own pockets when they were operating the salt and iron industry, and they used this A sum of money can buy officials and nobles."

The rest of the people also followed Wang Hongyin's words to criticize the state policy of the Yantie official camp, exposing all kinds of social darkness brought about by the Yantie government camp, and lamenting for those people who suffered from the dark phenomenon.

"The imperial court carried out the salt and iron official camp, but the result was that these villains made a fortune, even became officials, and even had titles. It's really sad!"

"That's why I said that the Yantie official camp should be abolished, so that these corrupt officials can't use the Yantie official camp to enrich their own pockets and ruin the social atmosphere."

"This statement is justified. If the Yantie official camp is abolished as soon as possible, the counties in the Kanto region will not be full of refugees and mourners."

"Refugees starve to death every day in our county. This is because after the Yantie official camp, they couldn't afford salt, so they went bankrupt and finally starved to death."

"The Yantie official camp of the imperial court is really harmful. For the sake of the common people in the world, the Yantie official camp must be abolished no matter what."

The virtuous writers slammed the government-run national policy of Yantie and iron into nothing, and the whole meeting scene was very lively, like a vegetable market.

Sitting outside, Wang Changjiong also looked at his nephew with relief, stroking his white beard, and was happy that his family had another talent.

(End of this chapter)

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