Pang Degong and Sima Hui are both very high-level people. If you want to attract them with the ordinary battle for hegemony, it will most likely not have any effect.
But if you discuss social order and natural structure with them, it will definitely arouse their interest.
Because Chen Mu had already inquired before coming here, the two of them had no idea about being an official, dominating, or benefiting society. This shows that they have no political ambitions or ideas about being an official.
Therefore, it is very likely that their ideological realm has risen to the level of studying philosophy like Confucius and Zhuangzi, and they do not care about worldly fame and fortune.
Talking about officialdom with them is a very boring thing in itself.
But in a sense, Chen Mu actually didn't have to talk to them about these things. After all, they didn't seem to have much interaction with him. They didn't want anything to happen, and they wouldn't hinder him.
But for Chen Zigui, who has always been unable to afford an early morning trip, he naturally did not come to Lumen Mountain for a trip.
Ma Hui and Pang De's company have a very high reputation in Jingzhou. It can be said that most of Liu Biao's officials in Jingzhou have close contacts with them. If they can be brought into the camp, it will be much easier to capture Xiangyang.
Chen Mu did not want to wait another eight years for Liu Biao's death before forcing Liu Cong to surrender. Time was precious to him. Counting from the Dong Zhuo Rebellion in 189, it had already taken 11 years to conquer the country.
In history, except for Zhu Yuanzhang's 35th year, many emperors had already unified the world at this time, such as Liu Bang in the 8th year, Yang Jian in the 9th year, and Li Yuan in the 7th year.
The rest of them also completed it within 20 years. Now Liu Bei has very few opponents, so the progress must be accelerated.
Therefore, making friends with these two people is in itself a very beneficial thing for the court.
After sharing the essence of the dynasty's demise with the two of them, Chen Mu added: "So as mentioned above, the reason for the dynasty's demise was the competition for land between the people and the powerful. At the same time, it was also because the powerful powerful occupied a large amount of land but did not pay taxes. The total productivity
There were only so many, and the more the powerful took over, the less the people had left. And the court's total tax revenue was also decreasing. For this reason, the emperor had no choice but to find ways to collect money. In the end, the world still said that the country's demise was caused by the greedy eunuchs.
"The world laughs at the emperor for favoring eunuchs and losing the country. I laugh at the world for being short-sighted and like a frog at the bottom of a well!"
The remarks were shocking.
Pang Degong was in awe, raised his hands and said: "The words of the young master are really enlightening. I would like to ask the young master how to solve this problem?"
"Cannot be solved."
Chen Mu smiled and shook his head and said: "If there is no new change, then the change of dynasties will continue, and the time of change can be long or short. Except for the Great Zhou Dynasty, the short time is like the fifteenth year of the Great Qin, and the long time
It was like the 210 years before the Han Dynasty. The reason why the Qin Dynasty perished so quickly was because Qin Shihuang did not care about the people. Heavy taxes, numerous corvees, and harsh criminal laws were all a reminder. The two Han Dynasties combined could have 400
The situation in the 1980s was only possible because Gaozu and Shizu learned the lessons of Qin's fall, reduced corvee labor and taxes, relaxed and harsh criminal laws, and governed the world with virtue. But two hundred years are enough to produce countless benefit recipients. They are those who
For generations, powerful families and local tyrants have constantly plundered the people's wealth and anointed them, forcing the people to rebel. Therefore, even if my eldest brother Sanxing Han is now prosperous, he will not be able to escape the end of destruction more than two hundred years later. This is the fate of the dynasty, repeated over and over again, and it will remain unchanged for thousands of years.
!”
Sima Hui smiled and said: "I remember that the young master said before that he would establish a prosperous dynasty for a thousand years. But now he said that the dynasty will start again and again in two hundred years. Isn't his own statement contradictory?"
"Of course it's not a violation."
Chen Mu also laughed: "As I said just now, if there is no new change. In my opinion, in this world, people should conform to the world and all things. It is not to let people eat hair and drink blood, but to let people
Learn to use your hard-working hands and wise mind to change and create all things, and this is why I proposed productivity."
"Appreciate further details."
Mr. Pang Degong has learned a lot of new knowledge from Chen Mu today. Even though the three of them have been chatting for a long time, the sun is gradually setting, and the lady over there has come to see them several times and wants to ask them to go back for dinner, but she has no time to pay attention.
Chen Mu said: "Does Mr. Pang know why in the Spring and Autumn Period, the population was less than 10 million, but in our Han Dynasty, the population has reached 50 million?"
Pang Degong pondered: "In the Spring and Autumn Period, each country had very little land, only Guanzhong and Guandong, and wars continued for years, causing serious population losses. The Han Dynasty dominated the world, stretching from Jiuyuan in the north, Nanhai in the south, Xiyu in the west, and Lelang in the east.
As the territory increases, more land can be cultivated, and since civil strife no longer persists, the population will naturally increase."
"To a certain extent, what Mr. Pang said is right." Chen Mu said with a smile, "But this statement is only half right."
"oh?"
Pang Degong asked curiously: "What about the other half?"
Chen Mu pointed to the straight-shaft plow under the far wall and said: "During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, our ancestors were still ignorant. People cultivated by slash and burn, and the harvest depended entirely on God. In the Spring and Autumn Period, people learned how to fertilize and use oxen to plow the land.
, learned how to use iron tools, hoes, plowshares, sickles and other tools, which greatly increased the grain harvest."
Mr. Pang Degong farmed the land himself, so he naturally knew this. He patted his forehead and said suddenly: "I was confused for a while, but I forgot these things."
Chen Mu said with a smile: "Pang Gong used them every day and was used to their existence. But during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was no straight-column plow. And now we in Qingzhou have invented the curved-column plow, which can greatly reduce the time when plowing the land.
People can cultivate more acres of land, and food production will naturally increase."
"rational."
Mr. Pang De nodded with deep understanding. When it came to farming, he was considered an expert.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Chen Mu added: "In addition to tools, the choice of crops is also very important. Pang Gong cultivates more rice in the south, but it takes a long time for rice to mature, one year
It can only be harvested once. In the north, due to the interruption in the growth period, wheat and mu are planted alternately, with two crops in one season. One acre of land can produce six stones of grain every year, and the output can be doubled."
"This is also the reason why the south has always been inferior to the north."
Pang Degong sighed: "I have been farming for many years. Rice has the advantages of rice. It does not require land. As long as there is water, it can be grown on islands, by lakes, and even in mountains. It takes too long to mature.
, the grain production cannot keep up, so the population in the north has always been greater than that in the south.”
Chen Mu said with a smile: "You know, Mr. Pang, in the early years I sent a caravan to Jiaozhi, where I discovered a kind of rice called Champa rice. It has a short growth period. It takes less than sixty days from planting to harvesting. It is different from southern rice."
Alternate planting can be a double crop of rice.”
"You mean Guanglingdao?"
Pang Degong was surprised. He had heard about it, but because it was far away, and Guangling's widespread promotion of Champa rice in recent years had not yet spread to Jingzhou, so he only heard about it, but never heard about it.
Saw it.
Chen Mu nodded and said, "Yes, Cao Cao can have double-cropping rice in Guangling now because he wants it from me. I had planned to promote it in the south, so I just let him go along with it."
Pang Degong praised: "If this matter is true, the south will probably be prosperous."
Chen Mu smiled and said nothing. The Northern Song Dynasty still occupied at least Hebei. Coupled with the double-cropping of rice in the south and even three crops a year in Lingnan, the Northern Song Dynasty even lacked Yanyun, Yunnan, Gansu, Shanxi and other territories, with a population and
The economic strength also crushes other surrounding countries.
After losing Hebei in the Southern Song Dynasty, he almost lost an arm. However, with the greatly improved food in the south, it still persisted for more than a hundred years. By the Ming Dynasty, the south had become a grain production center and an economic center.
Therefore, being able to achieve double-cropping of rice in the south means that the grain production in the south will double, and the Champa rice introduced from Jiaozhi can be said to have contributed a lot. At least in ancient times, this was a leap forward.
Sima Hui quite understood: "So the Shaofu wants to increase food production by transforming farming tools and planting double-cropping rice. This will greatly increase productivity, so that the people will not live in poverty even if their fields are occupied by wealthy people.
Going down will greatly extend the survival time of the dynasty."
"This is just my first five-year plan."
Chen Mu waved his hand: "After I dominate the world in the future, I will spend five years promoting the farming tools invented by Qingzhou, such as the keel waterwheel that can fight drought, the curved-column plow that can improve farming efficiency, and the collection of bird excrement and animal excrement that can improve grain production.
Yield. In addition, Champa rice is widely planted, so that for at least twenty years, the Han people will no longer have to worry about food."
"Only twenty years?"
Sima Hui was quite surprised. Based on this calculation, he would not have to worry about it for at least a hundred years.
But Chen Mu smiled and said: "Since we are striving for a thousand years, how can we be complacent because of the improvement in a short period of time? I even think that twenty years is too long. The people are multiplying and countless mouths are crying for food. If
If productivity cannot be increased, how can we support so many people?"
Pang Degong sighed: "The young master's far-sighted vision is beyond my reach. All these things really make people feel as if they are beyond their reach."
"The young master just said that that is only your first five-year plan, what about the second one?"
Sima Hui asked again.
Chen Mu continued: "Mr. Shui Jing, do you still remember what I said just now that people should learn to adapt to and change everything?"
"Of course I remember."
Sima Hui nodded. He felt that every word Chen Mu said could not be forgotten.
Chen Mu laughed and said: "I observed the kettle boiling water and found that when the steam boiled, it would push the lid. I was thinking, if I could create a mechanism and let the steam act as the driving force, would it be able to drive the kettle?
The machine moved forward. So I asked Ma Jun, who invented the keel waterwheel, to develop this mechanism. It finally succeeded and became a steam engine."
"Steam engine?"
Sima Hui asked in surprise: "What's the use of it?"
"Look, you two, the steam is stirring inside, pushing several long rods inside the machine back and forth. These long rods are connected to the wheels outside, driving the wheels to roll."
Chen Mu drew a model diagram of a steam engine on the ground, pointed to the ground and said: "The wheels running on specially laid rails can make vehicles weighing ten thousand kilograms run behind the steam engine, which is comparable to a horse running at full speed.
In the future, if all the subway lines are used, it will only take three or four days to go from Youzhou to Jingzhou, and even to the Western Regions, it will only take less than ten days."
Pang De's and Sima Hui's faces became even more serious. At their level, how could they not know what consequences the improvement in travel efficiency would have? This would greatly increase the mobility of people and materials, and at the same time increase the court's ability to resist disasters.
Ability.
At that time, the most troublesome thing when there were droughts, floods and other disasters was disaster relief. When food was transported from Luoyang, the victims would have died of hunger long ago.
Therefore, the system implemented at that time was to build a large number of warehouses in counties and counties. A part of the grain collected from tax revenue every year must be stored in county warehouses and county warehouses. Once there was a famine, each county would open warehouses to release grain to solve the problem of disaster relief.
question.
The idea is good, but the system is dead, and people are alive. Collusion between officials and businessmen, and reselling of official warehouses often happen. In times of famine, rats can often run around in the warehouses. Then local officials bully them.
Hiding it and watching the victims starve to death, this kind of thing has happened in all dynasties, let alone the Han Dynasty, so it cannot fundamentally solve the problem.
Years of famine are the most prone to unrest, and the demise of a dynasty is often inseparable from natural disasters. With the advent of the steam engine, the court can immediately deliver materials to the disaster area to rescue the victims and prevent the victims from causing chaos because they cannot survive. In this way,
It can once again delay the demise of the dynasty and make the dynasty's rule more entrenched.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! To a certain extent, this is a good thing. Because no one wants the world to be in chaos all the time, and everyone wants to live in peace and contentment. So even if Chen Mu’s various methods are
In order to continue the dynasty, his core thoughts and fundamental concepts are for the people to survive, and this is enough.
"If there really is such a thing, the Shaofu's achievements can be said to be the best throughout the ages, and the saints of ancient times are nothing more than this."
Duke Pound sighed.
"saint?"
Chen Mu sneered: "There is no saint in this world. Even Confucius is just a tool deified by Dong Zhongshu and Han Wu in my eyes. Compared with me, he is nothing."
"this......."
Both of them were shocked by Chen Mu's words and didn't know what to say for a moment.
After hesitating for a moment, Sima Huicai said: "Young Master, this is a bit exaggerated. Confucius advocated etiquette, music, benevolence and righteousness. It is precisely because of Confucianism that we have today's Confucianism. How can you not take saints into consideration just because you have small achievements?
Woolen cloth?"
Chen Mu shook his head and said: "You two, I once thought that you were all the wise men in the world, but unexpectedly you were just talking nonsense without any thoughts of your own, which really disappointed me."
Sima Hui no longer dared to show any contempt and said seriously: "Please make it clear, Master."
"What is a saint?"
Chen Mu stared at the two of them with sharp eyes and said slowly: "A saint is just someone who sums up his life experience and summarizes some principles of life, and then teaches them to the world."
"For example, Confucius said benevolence. People naturally have benevolence. This is everyone's moral character. But was this invented by Confucius? No, among the three emperors and five emperors, who is not famous for benevolence and righteousness?"
"Confucius was only an advocate, not an inventor. If future generations worship him, how can they surpass Confucius and become a more moral person?"
"So I think Confucius is not unsurpassable."
"As long as you adhere to the moral principles advocated by the ancients, such as respecting the elderly, loving the young, honesty, friendliness, benevolence, obedience to disciplines, law-abiding, etc., all the morals that a person should abide by, and show them in life, you will lead people around you to follow you
If it is the same, then you are a person who can be compared to Confucius."
"I have always been against worshiping Confucius, because I feel that Confucius is of no help to us today. First, he cannot make the country prosperous, secondly, he cannot make the people well fed, and thirdly, he cannot make everyone live and work in peace and contentment.
"
"The only role of Confucius is to let us understand those great principles from his thoughts and books. And when we understand these principles and set an example, everyone should become Confucius, or even be better than Confucius. This is
Something that future generations should do.”
"It's like I never thought that I was the smartest person in the world. Maybe at this time, I assisted my brother to conquer the world, made great achievements, and transformed all things so that the fields could produce more food and the people could live a better life. Now I
Yes, but I don’t want there to be no one smarter than me in the next few decades or hundreds of years.”
“I hope that in the future someone will be able to invent and create better things, to find crops that are more productive than corn, wheat, and rice, to write better laws, to create machines that are faster than steam engines, and to allow people to fly in the sky like birds.
fly."
"These wishes may be difficult to realize, but I prefer that everyone in the Han people bravely imagine that houses can be built hundreds of feet high, that people can fly into the sky, and that crops can grow on the ground that yield ten stones per mu.
Food. Because as long as a person dares to imagine, he can realize his dream. Even if the dream is out of reach, how can it be realized if you don't even dare to think about it?"
"So I think Confucius was a saint in the Spring and Autumn Period. Because the world was still ignorant at that time, but after a thousand years, we still can't surpass Confucius, so I can only say that the world is stupid and unmatched. Now I use my own power to drive the great man to leap forward.
It would be humiliating for me at this time to compare Confucius with me at that time."
"And after a thousand years, if someone can once again lead a big man like me to bring about earth-shaking changes in the world, then comparing him after a thousand years with me after a thousand years will be a humiliation for him. I am also nothing in front of him.
"
At the end, Chen Mu looked at the two of them sincerely and said sincerely: "I never think that future generations should surpass their predecessors. Instead, I believe that only by continuous progress and development can future people stand beside us.
Going one step further based on the foundation. In my eyes, Confucius has only a symbolic meaning but no practical significance. Because everyone should be a saint and everyone should surpass the saint!"
Everyone should be a saint, and everyone should surpass a saint?
Pang Degong and Sima Hui were shocked by his shocking remarks and could not speak for a long time.
In fact, Confucius was not deified during the Western Han Dynasty. It was only in the Eastern Han Dynasty that Confucius' status was improved and he was called the national god, with the same status as the Sheji God.
But really speaking, his status is still far inferior to that of later generations who held Confucius to the highest position during the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Therefore, Chen Mu's criticism of Confucius at this time would not cause strong dissatisfaction between the two.
More importantly, Chen Mu's words were shocking.
If future generations cannot surpass their predecessors, what is the point of future generations?
Confucius may have been a saint in the Spring and Autumn Period, but compared with today's people, he could not make the country stable, and he could not feed and drink the people. It is true that the symbolic significance is greater than the practical significance.
But Chen Mu's remarks were telling them that future generations should work hard and be better than their predecessors. Confucius is just a symbol. Perhaps for the Spring and Autumn Period, his thoughts were progressive, but if he was more than a thousand years later,
If your thoughts are still respected by others, it means that the times are falling behind.
It’s not that his thoughts are not worthy of respect. The benevolence, justice, etiquette and ethics he advocated should indeed be observed. But the prerequisite is that if you always regard Confucius’ words as a guideline, then your thoughts will still be stuck in the Spring and Autumn Period and cannot make progress.
People must make progress, and traditional virtues must of course be retained, but social development requires people to have a spirit of continuous expansion and enterprising. If your thoughts remain in the Spring and Autumn Period, you will ultimately be nothing more than a rotten Confucian who clings to the past.
Thinking of this, the two of them felt as if a shackles had been opened in their minds, everything in their minds was so clear, and their thinking suddenly became enlightened.
At that moment, the two of them looked at each other and said sincerely: "I've been taught!"