The seventh month of Yuande, the fifth month in summer (the fourth day of the lunar month). Tianlai novel ww
In the Xiongnu tradition, the most important Dragon City Conference was held on time.
On this day, everything inside and outside Longcheng, covering dozens of miles in radius, was blocked by the cavalry of the Zhongyong Army.
The entire venue was guarded by infantry of the Han army.
The bright Mo Dao and the sharp cold light of the halberd made the leaders of each tribe fearful.
As usual, the various tribes and nobles were arranged on both sides of the flat grassland according to their corresponding status and order, and tens of thousands of herdsmen and cavalry from various tribes surrounded the venue.
"Have you heard?" Lu An was sitting in the audience seat and said to Sima Qian beside him: "It is said that today, the Dragon City Meeting will also be held in the west and north... tsk tsk tsk..."
"I wonder if Maodun and Laoshang will get angry under the Nine Springs..."
Sima Qian nodded after hearing this.
He still remembers it now, when he was very young.
The Xiongnu was China's great enemy. The Xiongnu Chanyu claimed to be the "Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu in the place of birth and moon of heaven and earth."
The Huns even set fire to the Central Palace, and the vanguard troops came to Xiaoguan, and the beacon was lit in Ganquan Palace. People in the whole Guanzhong were panicked.
But now, the once mighty Xiongnu Empire has disappeared.
The Western Huns are just a small, lingering power that will perish sooner or later.
Although the Northern Xiongnu still had some foundation and strength, all their elites were lost to Yan Ji, and their energy and spirit were almost completely knocked out.
Once the Han army is able to control Munan, the destruction of the Northern Xiongnu will be just around the corner.
Therefore, many literary giants in the literary world have written poems and poems to praise China's prosperous times today.
In today's China, the destiny of upholding Heaven is not obvious!
Today, the Han Dynasty has the power of what the Book of Songs says: "The whole world is not the king's land, and the shores of the land are not the king's ministers."
Within the four seas, among the rivers, among the eight wastelands, and wherever the sun and moon shine, there is no country or nation that can compete with Zhu Xia.
Even the Rufus have to bow their heads and admit that China today indeed has the style of three generations.
Even the Huns began to relent.
Look at these tribal leaders at this conference!
Which one is not a big tribe with thousands of towns? Which one is not a powerful tribe with thousands of strings?
But, they are all here now.
Guiyi Chanyu, who was canonized by the Emperor of Han Dynasty, surrendered.
This means that they acquiesced in the identity of the Emperor of Han Dynasty.
From then on, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty had the sacred power to control the destiny of the grassland and formulate the rules beyond the Great Wall.
And this power is probably not possessed by even the Three Kings and Five Emperors!
In the face of reality, both the Western and Northern Huns gave up those unrealistic ideas.
In the past few days, there has been widespread news in Dragon City that the Chanyus of the Western Huns and Northern Huns will hold the Dragon City Sacrifice on the same day.
The most important affairs of the country are military service and sacrifice.
The separation of the sacrificial rites marked the formal split of the Xiongnu Empire.
From then on, the unified Huns Empire was declared destroyed.
Since Jia Yi and Jia Changsha formally proposed the strategy of dismembering the Xiongnu so that they would no longer invade China, the Han Dynasty spent more than twenty years to finally complete this strategic concept!
Sima Qian was already preparing to return to Chang'an to write a biography for the Xiongnu, recording the origin, history, glory and current situation of this once formidable enemy.
And this means that in the eyes of Sima Qian, as a historian, the Huns have been destroyed.
Only a dead person needs a biography! Give it a final conclusion!
However, compared to this matter, Sima Qian was now more concerned about the group of potbellied businessmen on the other side of the viewing table.
In the past, Sima Qian's concept of businessmen came entirely from books.
Regardless of what Han Feizi said: People who are merchants and workers cultivate tools to cure suffering, gather endless wealth, and store it until the time comes, but only benefit the farmers! If the master is not removed, there will be ruined countries and dynasties in the sea.
, don’t be surprised!
It is still what the Book of Zhou said: If there is no farming, there will be no food; if there is no work, there will be no work; if there is no business, the three treasures will be lost; if there are no fish, there will be little wealth.
But in essence, Sima Qian is actually indifferent.
Whether it is Confucianism and Legalism's criticism, exposure and attack on merchants, or the stories of Guan Zhong, Tao Zhugong and others.
In fact, to put it bluntly - what does it have to do with him?
No matter how bad a businessman is, it is impossible to destroy his job.
No matter how useful merchants are, to historians, they are nothing more than a paragraph of text.
However, now, Sima Qian has really opened his eyes.
These days, these guys are the most active group inside and outside Dragon City.
They dealt with all tribes.
Sima Qian even heard that some merchants knew that the other party was from the Western Huns or the Northern Huns, but they still hooked up with them.
He once saw with his own eyes that a whole cart full of weapons was pulled into a tribe's dome.
He even saw with his own eyes that someone sold a whole box of bamboo slips to the Huns.
Sima Qian was really dumbfounded by these behaviors.
These merchants don't seem to care at all about being discovered doing these things.
They were open and above board, and they dealt with the tribes openly and openly.
Livestock, furs, gold and silver jewelry, and even slaves...
As long as you can meet their requirements, there seems to be nothing you can't sell.
Sima Qian's companion, Uncle Wang, the son of the great farmer Zuo Cao, who had always had a strong sense of justice, couldn't see it and stepped forward to correct and stop him.
Unexpectedly, I was beaten so badly by these guys that two of my bones were broken, and they are still on the bed!
But the Zhongyong Army and the officers responsible for security patrols just sat back and watched this kind of thing.
It wasn't until Sima Qian and others joined the fight that they hurriedly came to mediate.
Even so, their attitude was very ambiguous at first, and they were more inclined to be businessmen.
Until Sima Qian couldn't bear it anymore, he revealed his identity and took out the token gifted by the emperor.
These guys just dealt with that matter in a panic.
The result of the treatment is also muddy.
It's just to arrest the attacker, and then call the master behind him to discuss compensation.
Then a man who called himself ‘Zhang Wen’ appeared.
He came to the door in person with a hundred gold coins to apologize, saying, 'It's all the fault of the slaves. I bumped into all the gentlemen. I'm very sorry...'
Naturally, Sima Qian and others would not accept the other party's statement and money.
But the other party later made a big point and accused Sima Qian and others of "making trouble out of nothing" and "undermining national policies."
It may be because Sima Qian and others revealed their identities, and Sima Qian's identity as a historian was confirmed.
Therefore, this guy talked to Sima Qian about many things.
But now, these things made Sima Qian's mind confused.
On the one hand, Sima Qian himself saw with his own eyes that these businessmen used all possible methods to deceive and deceive people in Dragon City in order to make profits.
The gold nuggets weighing several kilograms were actually exchanged for dozens of stones of grain and a few iron pots.
Hundreds of intact furs are worth hundreds of gold in Chang'an, but here, even a hundred stones of cheese may not be exchanged.
Hundreds of handsome war horses are worth a lot of money in the market.
However, they could only exchange for five hundred stones of corn, one hundred stones of wheat flour, and dozens of stone salt.
And those bronze weapons that had long since been eliminated by the Han army and given to the militiamen were said to be worth astronomical prices.
A bronze crossbow with a hundred crossbow arrows is said to require a mare.
A long halberd weighed no more than twenty or thirty kilograms, but he dared to bid for two male slaves.
In Sima Qian's eyes, these bastards were simply taking advantage of the situation and causing trouble unscrupulously.
They jumped up and down, fearing that the world would not be in chaos.
But on the other hand, what Zhang Wen said made Sima Qian silent.
"I, Zhang Wenye, am from Shu County, and I am a guest of Lord Guiping..."
The fame of Guiping Jun Zhuo Wangsun is known all over the world. He is the richest man in the Han Dynasty. He is the father of Zhuo Fei and the grandfather of Liu Si, the son of the emperor. Sooner or later, he will be a person who can be made a marquis.
What's more important is that this country's father-in-law has a very good reputation in Guanzhong.
If nothing else, he and Cheng Zhengying built Baoxie Road with their own money.
Since last year, the Baoxie Road has been put into operation. From Hanzhong to Baoxian County and other places, thousands of families have Buddhas. Everyone praises the greatness and convenience of this project.
What's more important is that during the several years of construction of the Baoxie Road project, hundreds of thousands of people relied on this project to feed their families.
Especially the poor people in the Hanzhong area, there are countless people who have become rich because of Baoxie Dao.
Not to mention, among the Shu counties, the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family are known as "Confucian businessmen". The people of Shu praised these two abbots for their "gentlemen's etiquette and benevolent policies, and used the benefits of industry and commerce to support farmers."
Ben' is simply the embodiment of perfection.
The reason is also very simple - among the poor people in Shu County, especially farmers, more than 70% of households use Shaofu products faked from Zhuo's and Cheng Zheng's workshops.
The most important thing is that - the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family announced that they "remember the hardships of their fathers and the hardships of the people's livelihood" and lowered the prices of all fake farm tools for Shu people by 30%.
A Quyuan plow that costs 5,000 yuan to buy in Guanzhong is only sold for 3,500 yuan in Shu County...
So much so that no foreign goods can survive in Shu County.
Because this price has already broken through the current cost price of Quyuanli.
It was also because of this that Sima Qian was able to listen to him.
Otherwise, I would have been kicked out early.
But what this man said dealt a heavy blow to the outlook of Sima Qian and his companions.
According to this article, in the past I was in the southwest, using industrial and commercial strategies to attract people from all over the country and use them for the country, without spending a single penny on the treasury or using a single soldier, while the countries in the southwest bowed...
This is a fact. As a historian, Sima Qian has heard that in the past two years, the barbarian countries in the southwest have desperately sent envoys to Chang'an to request for attachment.
There was even an envoy from a certain southwestern Yi country who hanged himself in a bus station without the permission of the emperor. He left a suicide note saying: I cannot have the virtue of the emperor, and my country will perish. I am unworthy of the king and elders...
His suicide note was deeply touching, especially shocking the Confucian scholars. They petitioned one after another, asking the emperor to "send envoys to bring kings to distant countries to comfort the hearts of loyal ministers..."
But Sima Qian and his friends never imagined that the truth was far beyond their imagination.
According to Zhang Wen - the barbarian countries in the southwest are indeed crying and shouting that they want to annex China.
But the reason is not that they admire Wang Hua.
However, their fate was manipulated by the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family, which made them mentally and physically exhausted.
In order to escape this terrible fate, they had no choice but to annex and turn their country into the territory of the Han Dynasty. Only in this way could they protect their homeland.
The Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family were able to have such financial strength and courage to benefit the world because of the cheap labor force and wealth obtained from the southwestern barbarian countries.
Otherwise, where would they get so much money and so many cheap iron tools?
Do you really think that digging pits and smelting iron for free will not kill people?
How many people died when Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall?
The Baoxie Road project has been under construction for so long. Who has ever heard of large-scale deaths of people?
But what about the thousands of corpses in the Qinling Mountains?
And this fact made Sima Qian and others feel horrified.
Many people dream about the piles of corpses in the Linqiong Mountains and the wailing souls in the depths of the mines.
This makes it difficult for people who have received "benevolence and righteousness" education since childhood to accept it.
After this incident, Sima Qian's companions also divided into two groups.
One group believes that although Yi Di is an animal that walks on two legs, they are still humans after all.
Mencius said it all - A gentleman's attitude towards animals is that he can't bear to see them alive and can't bear to eat their meat when he hears their voices. Even if his own kittens or puppies die, he will still cry and grieve. What's more, it's a human being.
, or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people!
What the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family did is intolerable to heaven and earth, and they should be told to everyone in the world to expose their ugly appearance.
The other faction thought - what do Yi and Di have to do with me? As long as those who died were not Zhu Xia's brothers, there was no need to worry about it.
Besides, the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family made all the southwestern barbarian countries their subjects without spending a dime from the country or using a single soldier.
This is a great merit!
It should be praised and beautified, how can it be blamed?
Sima Qian himself was trapped in entanglement and confusion. He was just a young man over fifteen years old.
This is the first time in his life that he has left home and traveled around the world.
Reason told him that although Zhuo's and Cheng Zheng's actions were flawed, it was Zhu Xia who benefited in the end.
The sage said: Yi, Di, jackals and wolves must not be disliked, and the Xia are intimate with each other and must not be abandoned.
Guanzi and Confucius also said that the defense of Yixia is greater than the sky.
But no one of the three kings, five emperors, and sages has publicly said that Yi and Di can torture and abuse them at will, and no one has ever done anything similar.
"Your Majesty ordered me to come here to find the answer..." Sima Qian thought to himself: "Is this answer so cruel?"
"Businessmen are devils, evil spirits, and profit-seeking villains..."
"However... if a gentleman is rich, he will practice his virtues; if a villain is rich, he will make his own living..."
"Zhuo family, Cheng Zheng family, they are just small people in Linqiong. They will take advantage of the opportunity and become rich all over the world..."
"I heard that back then, before the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family left their homes, they frequently beat and scolded their workers and domestic slaves, leaving them to live or die..."
"But this is not the case after he is rich and powerful. There are orphans and widows in the neighborhood who cannot support him. The Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family welcome them to their homes and provide them with food and clothing to support them..."
"His workers and domestic slaves are all given clothing, wine and meat every year, which makes him look like Lord Mengchang..."
"This is what the teacher said to me - when people are rich, how can they be benevolent and righteous?"
"Is this what Confucius said - if you have a solid warehouse, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace?"
"In other words...being rich is not a sin, but being poor is?"
Thinking of this, he sighed: "No wonder people in the world say: Even in a country with thousands of chariots, thousands of families, and a county with hundreds of houses, poverty is still a concern... In this way, everyone in the world is willing to do business.
It’s natural…”
After thinking about it, he felt that maybe this was the answer.
But when I thought about it again, I felt something was wrong.
If it was just like this, the emperor shouldn't let him come to see it.
"The emperor means..." Sima Qian held his cheek and thought deeply: "The emperor wants to tell me - only when everyone in the world is rich can all disasters be eliminated?"
After thinking about it carefully, Sima Qian felt that this should be the case!
If everyone in the world were wealthy, naturally no one would steal or plunder, and naturally there would be no wars or disputes.
"It seems that the Za family has the same attitude?" Sima Qian thought to himself: "Maybe I should go to Anton again to see the situation in Anton under the Za family..."
Today's Anton can be described as the pearl of the empire.
At least that's the case in Sima Qian's eyes.
Anton's whale oil, dried fish and gold are famous all over the world. Almost all the officials and powerful families in Guanzhong have these three things.
It is said that in Anton, as long as you work hard enough, you will definitely get ahead.
Therefore, the local folk customs are impassioned, heroic, and heroes emerge in large numbers.
