In the middle of the night, the inn was quiet, as if everyone inside had fallen asleep.
In only one room, a little candlelight could faintly seep out, reflecting on the window paper.
In this room, Zhao Hongrun and the postmaster He Zhirong were playing chess and talking at the same time.
The topic they talked about was how to make the Wei State strong, because Zhao Hongrun never liked empty talk about knowledge. He did not need some boastful old Confucian scholars to teach him etiquette and kingly ways. What Zhao Hongrun wanted to hear were the specific strategies.
However, when hearing Zhao Hongrun raise this topic, He Zhirong couldn't help but smile bitterly, waved his hands repeatedly and said, "How dare a country gentleman speak nonsense about state affairs?"
After hearing this, Zhao Hongrun said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, just treat it as two **** having nothing to do and chatting for a while."
He Zhirong hesitated for a while, and after being urged several times by Zhao Hongrun, he finally said: "In that case, Your Highness Prince Su, please don't laugh at me for being short-sighted... In my humble opinion, if we, the Wei Dynasty, want to be strong, we must have stability both internally and externally."
"Hmm." Zhao Hongrun responded without comment. After all, he was not very interested in the opening remarks before such remarks.
"Let's talk about internal security first. I think it is particularly important to reconcile the relationship between the common people and the common people." Note: The common people in the earliest times referred to "many people or families with surnames", generally referring to famous families in various places.
The squires, wealthy families, and nobles. But the real common people generally have only one name and no surname. Some even have no serious names. There are some "goudan", "gouheng", "dazhuang" and the like.
Nickname. However, in this book, civilians who are not part-timers will have surnames. This is for the convenience of reading and not to be confused with other words. Book friends, just don’t get confused.
Ease class conflicts?
Just as he was about to make his move, Zhao Hongrun glanced at He Zhirong and became slightly interested. Hearing this, he asked, "How to reconcile the relationship?"
He Zhirong paused and whispered: "Give common people hope that they may become nobles."
"..." Zhao Hongrun's eyes flashed with surprise.
In fact, the contradiction between the common people and the nobles in Wei State is mainly reflected in two points. One is the oppression of the common people by the nobles, and the other is the jealousy of the common people towards the nobles.
What these two points lead to is the hostility of the common people towards the nobles. As for the other way around, what kind of hostility can the nobles have towards the common people? The latter cannot enter the eyes of the former at all.
Therefore, the fundamental way to ease the contradiction between the common people and the nobility is to try to reduce the resentment in the hearts of the common people.
The trick proposed by He Zhirong to give hope to commoners or the possibility of becoming nobles is indeed a very clever, but also very ruthless strategy.
You must know that the vast majority of people will only take desperate risks under extreme circumstances. As long as you give them some hope, you can control them well and guide them.
Didn’t the imperial examinations open a convenient door to official career for children from poor families? Note: Poor families do not refer to common people, but generally refer to well-off families. They generally have access to books and can afford private schools.
Children from poor families refer to children from poor families like Kuang Heng in the idiom "cutting through walls to steal light". Common people are generally between poor families and poor families, but they are all common people.
It is undeniable that in fact the Wei court had been gradually improving the status of civilians. For example, the scientific examinations were held every two or three years. During the rural examinations, there were more than tens of thousands of people. However, some of them were wiped out in the rural examinations, and some were wiped out in the county examinations, so that when it came to
When Zhao Hongrun proctored the examination, there were only more than 2,600 people, and the vast majority of these people would still be dismissed, leaving only one or two hundred people with the opportunity to enter the official career.
What a disparity this is.
However, none of the children from poor families and common people were dissatisfied with this and rushed to take the scientific examination. Why? Because they saw hope, the hope of being promoted to court officials and joining the upper class society.
Because when there is no imperial examination, officials need to be recommended, and who are the recommenders? Nobles, distinguished families, and country squires. These people almost only recommend people who are related to them. Children from poor families and common people have almost no chance, unless
It is necessary to establish relationships with those people through apprenticeship and marriage, otherwise it will be difficult for them to have an official career.
It is this recommendation-based official method that once made some well-educated people who wanted to enter the official career but had no way to get drunk curse the court and vent their dissatisfaction by slandering the court.
But today's scientific examination only gives them some hope, but it firmly captures the hearts of these people.
Because of this, Zhao Hongrun secretly said that He Zhirong's move was very clever, but also very cruel.
This man is really insightful!
With just one sentence, Zhao Hongrun felt that the He Yichang in front of him was indeed a far-sighted talent. He really couldn't figure out why such a talent was repeatedly rejected by the scientific examination.
But if you think about it carefully, it is not surprising that the questions in the township examination, county examination, and general examination are all rigid and dogmatic, and talented people are dismissed.
To put it bluntly, even if Su Wang Hongrun, who has won two battles outside and expanded the Smelting Bureau to such a large scale inside, is allowed to take part in the imperial examination, he might even pass the first round of the provincial examination.
No.
After all, examination questions are dead and people are alive. Those few questions are not enough to prove whether a person is knowledgeable and capable.
However, just when Zhao Hongrun was overjoyed to see Hunter and was about to have an in-depth discussion with He Zhirong, he suddenly heard a soft snapping sound coming from outside the house.
He Zhirong was holding the chess piece and was about to place it, while Zhao Hongrun was holding a teacup and drinking tea. The two of them glanced at the window at the same time, but unfortunately the window was covered with window paper, so they couldn't see what was going on outside.
"What a courageous person."
He Zhirong shook his head, with an angry look on his face.
You must know that according to the laws of the Wei Dynasty, attacking a post station in the wild is the same crime as attacking a county magistrate's office. You will be exiled to the army for twenty years, or go to Chenggao Pass or Fenxing Fortress and other places.
Build more city walls, or go to Shangdang County to lay official roads.
Therefore, generally speaking, even robbers who make a living by looting will deliberately avoid the inn, because if they rob a wealthy family, they may not necessarily attract pursuers, but if they attack the inn, the local county will inevitably
Encirclement and suppression troops will be sent, and even when the county's strength is insufficient, it can ask surrounding counties for help, or directly ask the court to send troops.
This shows the status of the inn.
But think about it, the post system is the most important communication network for transmitting official documents and messages in Wei State. Once it is paralyzed, the consequences will be disastrous.
At the same time, just as Zhao Hongrun expected, some sneaky black figures were moving towards the inn on the periphery.
The sound that Zhao Hongrun and He Zhirong heard just now was when someone accidentally knocked down a weathered mud brick while trying to climb over the outer wall of the inn.
"What are you doing?" Another dark figure climbed over the wall and entered the courtyard of the inn. In a low voice, he scolded the companion in front of him who accidentally knocked down the mud brick: "This is enough for us to eat and drink for a lifetime, be careful."
.”
"I didn't mean to..." the figure in front retorted.
Before he finished speaking, another figure climbed over the wall and whispered in the same deep voice: "Shut up... Are you afraid that the people in the inn can't hear you? If you don't want to do this business, just go back and don't block it.
The rest of the people’s wealth.”
After hearing this, all the figures stopped talking.
"There are sentry towers around the inn. Go and kill some of the soldiers who are keeping watch. Then search the rest of the people from house to house."
"oh."
Those figures seemed to have decided to divide the work and dispersed.
They did not notice that there were pairs of eyes looking at them on the roof of the house in the inn.
The owners of these eyes are none other than the clan guards lying on their stomachs hiding on the roof.
What's going on? This group of people...
It doesn't look like the one who ambushed me at the inn yesterday...
These people...
Looking at the thieves below, the sect guards felt a little puzzled, because they felt that this group of people did not seem to be very experienced.
I remember that group of thieves in the inn yesterday, they were called professionals, pretending to be the owner, clerk, and guest of that inn. Even Zhao Hongrun didn't see the flaw. If Chen Xiao's words hadn't made the thieves pretending to be the owner feel...
They were so shocked that Mi Jiang noticed something was wrong. Maybe that group of people could really succeed in killing Zhao Hongrun and his party.
But right now, this group of people is really good. It doesn’t matter if they climb over the wall and kick the mud off, they are still arguing quietly. In such a silent night, even a deaf person can hear it, right?
Are these the second wave of assassins we are waiting for?
Wei Jiao frowned. He felt that the quality of the two groups of assassins was really very different.
At this time, Gao Kuo, who was lying next to him, reminded in a low voice: "It's time to take action, lest these thieves disturb the female family members."
Wei Jiao nodded. Although Miss Su, Oona and other female family members were surrounded by Mi Jiang and Mi Rui, after all, there were quite a few of these thieves. If anything went wrong, Wei Jiao couldn't afford it.
So, he quietly raised the hand crossbow he had already prepared, aimed at a thief who was standing in the yard and looked around, and then pulled the trigger.
There was a pop, and the crossbow bolt hit the thief's chest. The thief grabbed the crossbow bolt on his chest, sucked in a sound like "hehe" from his throat, and then fell to the ground with a thud.
This is a signal.
Immediately, the clan guards who were ambushing on the roof jumped off the roof with weapons in hand, waving their sharp blades towards the backs of the thieves who had their backs turned to them and tried to enter the house to look around.
"ah"
"ah"
After several screams, the thieves were shocked, but before they could react, they saw the houses on both sides being kicked open with a bang. Immediately, groups of heavily armed soldiers poured out of the house.
The soldiers at this inn.
"kill!"
Following a loud roar, the sect guards and the soldiers at the post station attacked from front to back.
Seeing this incident, the thieves went into chaos. Some of them attacked Zongwei, and some attacked the soldiers at the post station. Some of the thieves actually shouted "I don't want to die" and tried to escape over the wall.
What's going on?
Because Zong Wei Chief Shen Yu was guarding outside the house where Zhao Hongrun was at the moment, Wei Jiao, who was directing everyone on his behalf, looked at the scene in front of him with some surprise.
Because this group of thieves, not to mention that they are weak, the key point is that they are scattered, as if they were put together temporarily.
And just when Wei Jiao led Zong Wei and the soldiers to kill the thieves in the front yard of the post house, more than twenty figures quickly climbed over the wall in the backyard of the post house.