Spring and Autumn I Am King

"Mo Di."

In the Wenxian Palace, Zhao Wuxi looked at this young man with a simple face and rough hands and feet, and said without hesitation: "The Central Plains prohibition will completely abolish Tiandaoism, and believers are not allowed to come and go to preach, you know?"

Mo Di replied in a clear voice: "I am no longer a believer of Heaven and Taoism."

Five years ago, the Southern Party rebelled, Nanzi was given to death, Zishang was exiled from Fusang, life and death were unknown, and Tiandaoism, which had always been regarded as a hidden danger by Zhao Wuxi, was also abolished, and Songdi was razed to a county. Among them, some craftsmen who believed in Minggui and Shangtong did not rebel with Nanzi, but they were also affected by Chiyu and fled south to Chu. In the past two years, these artisan groups no longer call themselves Tiandao believers, but call themselves "Mohists" and lead them as giants.

And the one who led this group of people to change was Mo Di in front of him. He was called Mozi. After this school took off its religious cloak, it gained a lot of influence in Chuyue, and even feedback to the Central Plains.

In such an environment, Mo Di also developed concepts such as "universal love" and "non-attack" that were not found in Tiandaoism.

Lu Ban, who had introduced Mozi to see Zhao Wuxi, coughed lightly and talked about the reason.

"I used to build ships and various equipment for His Majesty in Shu, and planned to use it to attack Chu and Yue. The whole world knew about it. When Mozi heard about it, he got up from Chu and walked for ten days and ten nights. see me."

At that time, Mozi asked Lu Ban as soon as they met: "There is an enemy in the north who has bullied the villain, and I hope to use Gongshuzi's power to kill him! I am willing to give you ten yi gold!"

"The law of Zhao stipulates that you can't fight for revenge personally, let alone." Lu Ban said proudly: "I pursue righteousness and will never kill anyone!"

He is in a high position, if it weren't for the sake of Mo Di's father being an old friend, he would not have seen him, and he would not have been tempted by a little gold.

Unexpectedly, this dialogue fell into the language trap of Mo Di.

According to this logic, Chu Yue has been farming with peace of mind for more than 20 years and has not offended the Central Plains. There is indeed no good reason to attack the Central Plains. Lu Ban pursues righteousness and does not kill a single person, but creates sharp weapons to kill many people. It cannot be called that. for Ming...

Lu Ban has always been stern in words and quick in deeds. How could he say that this eloquent guy used the emperor's desire to destroy Chu Yue as a prevarication. Who would have expected Mo Zhai to take the opportunity to request an audience with Zhao Wuxi.

"When His Majesty heard the name of Mo Di, he once asked the minister about his deeds, so the minister brought him here."

"Oh?" Zhao Wuxi was a little interested. He was aloof and asked Mo Di: "Jiangai, non-attack, this is your proposition, right? Do you want to stop me from destroying Chu Yue? Okay. , you try it, I want to know, what kind of eloquence can Mozi, who is famous in the south, shake my resolve."

Mo Di smiled and said that he didn't dare, but he was very determined to give it a try. He said to Zhao Wuxi: "Now there is a person here, and he wants to steal his car without his Wenxuan, and he wants to steal it. The neighbor has short brown, and he wants to steal it; if he gives up the sorghum meat, the neighbor has chaff, and he wants to steal it. Dare to ask Your Majesty, what kind of person is this?"

Zhao Wuxi didn't answer, he just watched the young man's performance with a smile. In the end, Mo Di could only add to himself, "This person must be suffering from stealing disease."

Wu Xie continued: "Shan, do you want to say that the area under the direct rule of Hao Chao is 10,000 li, and the place where the State of Chu and Yue is 3,000 li, this is like comparing Wenxuan with the chariot. Chaocheng is all over the place, townships and towns face each other, and the people in Lilu are prosperous. In Chuyue, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and the smoke is born, just like the splendid and short brown. Haochao is rich in the world, including Jizhou, Yuzhou, and Yanzhou. , Xuzhou, Yongzhou, Liangzhou, and the plastered land, and although Chu and Yue have Yunmengze where fish and turtles are prosperous, three rivers and five lakes, compared with Hao Dynasty, it is like comparison of grain and glutinous rice bran. Is that so?"

Mo Di, who can speak well, was a little stunned, and after a while, he responded: "It turns out that Your Majesty understands this truth, but, from these three aspects, I think His Majesty's attack on Chu Yue is the same as someone who has a disease. Chu and Yue in the south are His Majesty's vassals. They have always been respectful and respectful. They did not dare to neglect their tributes. They also kept in mind His Majesty's last wish and carried out indoctrination, so that Baipu Qunyue also began to imitate the Central Plains Zhangfu. Zhou, the owner of the ship wants to go out to attack the two countries.

"The river is wide, and although Chu and Yue are a small country, they still have a hundred thousand soldiers and armour, and the navy commander is nearly a thousand. His Majesty, who is not accustomed to water in the north, is arguing for it. The results will actually cause heavy casualties on both sides of the North and South, and waste national strength."

"Mo Di, Mo Di, haven't you heard such a sentence? Within the **, the emperor's land; wherever people go, there are all servants. Since Chu and Yue are my vassal vassals, their lands should naturally belong to them. The emperor owns the land and should be included in the dynasty, but it has been delayed. What is this? So I decided to take back the land in Jingzhou and Yangzhou, and let Kyushu share the same style. Why not? This is my reason , even if there is no reason for this, the water equipment made by Gongshuzi for me must be taken from Chu Yue!"

Mo Zhai smiled and didn't speak, but Lu Ban said to Zhao Wuxi with some embarrassment: "This minister is incompetent, when Mozi came to see me, the two of us had already practiced offensive and defensive techniques, and the minister displayed water battles and sieges nine times. With the ingenious weapons, Mozi resisted my attack nine times, the minister's means of attack have been exhausted, and Mozi's defense methods are still more than enough."

This is an amazing thing, you know, Lu Ban is known as a siege master, and he is also very accomplished in the manufacture of water warfare equipment, but today he has a match?

Zhao Wuxi asked, "The technology you and I studied together can't be against him?"

Lu Ban's old face was slightly red: "No, the catapult, ballista, etc., were all offset by him. Now Chu and Yue have learned how to make and defend these objects..."

This is surprising, this Mozi is indeed a craftsman who can match or even surpass Luban...

Zhao Wuxi suddenly felt a sense of love for talent, but Lu Ban walked up to Zhao Wuxi and suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, if Chu Yue has this son, I'm afraid it won't be easy to attack, the minister has a way to solve it. This affliction…”

"You want to kill him? Why?"

Zhao Wuxi ignored it and asked, "You didn't leak those two things, did you?"

"How dare I leak the secrets of the country!"

Zhao Wuxi nodded and said bluntly to Mozi: "Since this is the case, Mo Di, then I will tell you the reason why I must attack Chu and Yue, not only because of my ambition to unify Kyushu, nor only because of the Central Plains. There is no place to put my children and grandchildren."

"I heard that you have been advocating a truce in Chu and Yue, and both love and non-attack, but do you know why the war between countries and countries in this world starts?"

Mozi cupped his hands: "In the past, the merger of the lords was nothing more than for land and population. However, the population of the counties and counties under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains today has exceeded 20 million, and towns of ten thousand families can be seen everywhere. Even though Chu Yue has opened up Jiangnan and Fujian. , together, it is less than 4 million, regardless of the land and population, the Central Plains are not lacking, why bother to conquer?"

Zhao Wuxi said: "The expedition is not because the population is too small, but because there are already too many people in some places... According to the current situation, the population will continue to breed, and sooner or later the land will not be able to hold so many people..."

...

Mo Di was startled, but heard Zhao Wuxi say:

"In the Central Plains, there is such an old saying, don't take a hundred acres of land, and a few families can go hungry."

In an agricultural society, the main employment direction of young people when they become adults is farming. Everyone's ideal is to own a piece of land, with a wife and children on the kang head, and an idyllic life.

This is the ideal small state with few people, however, population growth is exponential and theoretically has no limit. In the early days of Zhao Wuxi's establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the total population of the Central Plains was only about 15 million. There was a lot of land and a small population. The government gave each family 100 mu of land, and they could open the supply. However, with the increase of the total population, in recent years, including the hidden households, the population has reached about 25 million. In places such as Hedong, Yecheng, Hanoi, etc., there is a situation of more monks and less porridge in land supply.

Today, he can also alleviate the crisis by opening up places such as Huaibei, Huainan and Bashu, and through the forced resettlement of the population by the government. But continue to develop, in another 100 years, when the population of the Central Plains exceeds 50 million, problems will follow.

In China, in all dynasties, there always seems to be a ceiling for the population. After this ceiling, various wars will erupt, resulting in a sharp decline in the population, followed by a slow prosperity and rejuvenation, starting another cycle.

The increase of this ceiling depends on the introduction of high-yield crops, but once the climate changes drastically and the Little Ice Age arrives, the ceiling will drop back again.

Generally speaking, the cycle of population introduction is as follows: the first stage, the rise of dynasties, the population is sparse, and the proportion of people to land is very low; the second stage, after the war, the per capita income quickly exceeds the living level, and the population increases; With the sharp rise in the ratio of people to land, the Malthusian trap became prominent, the per capita income decreased, and the level of dynastic governance was reduced, which often easily led to the extremely low per capita income level being pushed down below the survival line; then, the fourth stage of social collapse, the world chaos.

Haochao is now in the second stage, Zhao Wuxi estimates that he can live for ten years, and when he reaches his grandchildren, he will progress to the third stage...

In this way, a cycle of reincarnation begins again, the so-called "cycle of chaos".

The biggest enemy standing in front of Zhao Wuxi was not the Southern Party five years ago, nor the Chuyue that still dominates the south, but the dead end of this cycle of chaos.

There are two ways to solve the problem. One is to continuously open up territories, find more arable land, and spread the population through colonial means. Modern Europe relied on the colonization of the Americas to alleviate a general crisis in the 17th century.

The second is to develop science and technology, so that the land can produce more food, so that land can be cultivated in places that could not be cultivated in the past.

Zhao Wuxi planned to grab both hands. He planned to solve Chu Yue while he was still alive, so as to save future troubles for his descendants. At the same time, he also opened the south in advance. When the population of the Central Plains reached a ceiling in a hundred years, the population could flow unimpeded. Entering the vast Jiangnan...

"People without far-sightedness must have near-term worries, Mo Di, you have always wanted to stop the war, but you don't know that if you stop today's killings, you can't stop tomorrow and the day after, but it will be even more tragic!"

Seeing Mo Zhai thoughtful, but still hesitant, Zhao Wuxi knew that he wouldn't feel the same way because he couldn't see the end of China's history two years ago. If I can't convince you, then I'll take the military route."

"Lu Ban! Go down and prepare, and show the two sharp weapons to Mo Di."

Lu Ban was a little flustered, and quickly said: "Your Majesty, this is the most important weapon of the country, how can it be easily shown to others?"

The aged Zhao Wuxi glanced at him, and Lu Ban hurriedly kept silent and went down to prepare.

Mo Di had a vague sense of uneasiness in his heart, but he didn't know why. Zhao Wuxi asked him to sit with him in the palace by the water in Wenxian County, and said to him, "You advocate treating people as a country, if you treat your country as such; If you look at a person's family, if you look at his family; if you look at a person's body, if you look at his body. Is this universal love?"

"Of course, if everyone loves and benefits each other, even if the feudal lords are side by side, the world will still be in harmony, otherwise, even if the world is forced to be unified by domineering, the world and people will still be enmity with each other, and there will be turmoil... ..." He raised his head and glanced at Zhao Wuxi, and said softly, "It was like what happened in Song Guosheng five years ago."

It was a scar in Zhao Wuxi's heart, and it was also a pain in Mozi's heart. The Nandang rebellion, the Tiandao believers, and they were suppressed again. In that chaos, many people died, and many of them were fellow villagers of Mo Di. friend.

"Love will cost a lot, and hiding too much will lead to death. You can't love everyone. If you want to save everything, you can only lose more in the end. Sometimes, you should endure short-term pain, so as to avoid long-term pain. ..."

As an old man, not an emperor, he told Mozi: "Don't dream of perfection in everything!"

...

While speaking, Lu Ban had already been ordered by Zhao Wuxi to prepare the preparations.

"Come on, Mo Di, come and see, can you come up with a defense strategy for these two things?"

Mo Di and Zhao Wuxi stood on the Linshui Terrace, facing the vast river. He saw several sailboats on the river. Among them, the big boat was empty, while the other small boats were fully armed. Standing sailors, they are quickly approaching the target ship, it seems that they are going to perform a combat show...

What happened next moment made Mo Di stunned.

He saw that, without any warning, a viscous flame was sprayed from the small boat. Some of these flames fell directly onto the big boat, and they ignited when they met. Some fell into the water, but strangely, instead of being drowned by the water, they rushed towards the big ship even more fiercely.

In the blink of an eye, the besieged ship was set on fire and slowly sank into Hanoi...

"This is..." Mozi is good at defending the city and boats, and he already knows a lot about how to defend against the rocket smoke and arrows. However, in the face of this mysterious green flame, he is somewhat helpless.

"This is called 'wild fire'. It is an artifact that Jiangnan boat masters are about to equip, and it can burn everywhere. You think that although the people of Chu Yue are good at water warfare, what will happen if they encounter this kind of weapon?"

Thinking of the green flame that is like a ghost and can't be quenched by water, Mo Zi's heart palpitated and thought: "If I were on the boat, all I would do is kneel down and pray for Haotian and the ghosts and gods to save..."

Seeing that he was silent, Zhao Wuxi smiled and asked Mo Di to take a car and go with him to the outskirts of Wenxian County.

The car was only halfway through when Mozi heard an earth-shattering loud noise, followed by a slight tremor on the ground, and the horses neighed in panic.

"What is this?" He knew where his unease came from, and Lu Ban really hid the real artifact.

After getting off the carriage, he found that he was taken by Zhao Wuxi and Lu Ban to a dusty hill.

...

There is a heavily guarded military camp here, which requires a lot of inspections to enter, even if the emperor is there in person. After entering inside, I saw all kinds of people walking around in a hurry, or carrying boxes after boxes of things, and I didn't know what they were, but Mozi could smell the air filled with a smell. A pungent, bizarre smell that seems to be carbon and sulphur? But not quite like it.

Some people used a horse-drawn ox cart to pull a heavy black ball, and when the emperor passed by, he signaled Mozi to touch it.

"It's an iron ball..." Mo Zi became more puzzled, but he also vaguely guessed the possibility: Could it be that the loud noise just now was replaced by an iron bullet instead of a stone bullet, and then shot out with a larger catapult or ballista?

Zhao Wuxi didn't answer, just let Lu Ban lead the way, and the group arrived at a spacious school grounds.

There are several huge bronze wares placed here...

It looks like a lofty statue, and it looks like a large bottle. One end is slanted and one is closed, and the other is closed. It has a diameter of three inches and a weight of about seven or eight hundred pounds. , seems mysterious.

One of them has been placed on a wooden platform, and in front of it is a newly built high wall.

Just like what I just saw on the big river, this is also an acting venue.

Mozi's heart skipped a beat, he didn't know what he would see, but he saw Zhao Wuxi saying "let's go" to Lu Ban, and then he watched Lu Ban and the craftsmen and soldiers play with the bronze giant.

Mo Di saw that some serious-looking craftsmen took out the black powdery objects from the mysterious wooden box, took the amount they wanted to use with the utensils, put them into the tail of the bronze ware, and drew a thick thread out... …

When the soldier placed a ten-pound iron bullet into the bronze vessel, another group of craftsmen held rulers and arc rulers for measuring distances and angles. After measuring for a while, they nodded, and the soldier behind the bronze vessel was Raised the torch and lit the thick wire...

The lead squeaked and disappeared into the barrel of the gun in an instant. Before Mo Di could react, he heard a loud noise like thunder!

"Boom!"

Mo Di was so startled that his toes tiptoed, his whole body was more than two inches taller, and his ears, head, and even his open mouth trembled in the sound.

Zhao Wuxi and Lu Ban were already used to this scene, and they blocked their ears with cork, but Mo Zhai stayed there in a daze.

He saw that the beginning of the bronze vessel was being shrouded in white smoke, and he knew that the iron bullet was no longer inside.

Where is it?

Looking around, Mo Di was stunned.

But I saw that the wall more than 300 steps ahead had been smashed open with a huge gap, a big hole...

The iron bullet flew, three hundred paces, no, more than that, according to his visual estimation, it was three hundred and fifty paces!

A distance equivalent to one mile, even the most powerful Shao-beam artillery and ballista can't shoot that far, right? And the size of this utensil is only one-tenth of those Shaoliang cannons that Mo Di imitated...

"This is..." The buzzing in his ears still didn't ease, and Mo Di needed to open his mouth wide to relieve this symptom.

"This is a cannon, a cannon, not a cannon. Moreover, this is a relatively early version. In the future, it will be farther and farther away, and its power will be more and more powerful!"

Zhao Wuxi proudly stroked the bronze cannon, as if this was his favorite son and grandson.

"I used to think that I would be the king of Yiguan San, the supreme and supreme, but later, I realized that I am also a mortal, and I am also flesh and blood, and I will make mistakes, be compassionate, and die..."

"I once thought, after a hundred years, what can I leave behind?"

"Infamy, good reputation, know that I sin against me. Praise me all over the world, praise me for not being able to stabilize the harem and cause tragedies in the world, who knows all these things?"

"What I want to leave behind are some sharp weapons that can break the law of historical cycles. They can be used to equip weapons and expand territory. This is a domineering military approach. Of course, it can also blow up mountains to open the way and lead China into a new era. This is the way of the king."

Gunpowder, Greek fire, bronze cannons, this is the magic weapon that Luban and Xue Gong's craftsmen have spent twenty years making for him!

This is also the biggest reliance for him to drive out Xi Qin, Chen's Korea, and even Chu Yue to open the four borders, but he is not worried that they will be able to counterattack.

Zhao Wuxi smiled and said to Mo Di: "Gu Yiwu was in Zhaoling back then, and he pointed to the allied forces of the princes and said to the people of Chu, who can fight against them in this way! To attack the city with this, no city can defeat it!"

"Today, I want to repeat this sentence again, can you defend against me? Can Chu Yue be able to fight against you?"

"No." Mo Di was an expert in defending the city, and there were many ways to prepare the city gate~www.wuxiahere.com~ But today, facing this weapon called "artillery", there was nothing he could do.

"Since you can't, then after you go back, you can tell the people of Chu and the Yue people. Either surrender, or migrate, and leave Kyushu."

"If the people of Chu don't want to be my people, they can follow their ancestors, go to the mountains and forests and go to the Lingnan area in the south of Cangwu, or the west like Dianchi Lake, to find the Western Chu founded by Bai Sheng. Take refuge, and make good use of the unknown land in the south and the west of Lishui. The more you don’t want to be my people, then leave Wu and Kuaiji, take their big boat, and go overseas to explore new areas. Maybe, a Another fertile island is waiting for them... As for you, Mo Di, if you are willing to put aside your prejudices, go back to the Central Plains, use your intelligence, and use the new utensils that the Academy has researched over the years to create better things for the world. The future, this is the real, the world is great!"

People are mortal, dynasties are mortal, only history rolls forward, and the dead are so stubborn that they will not give up day and night.

And he is just one of the waves. Although this wave has changed the direction of the entire river, it was originally tortuous, but now, it may be able to flow unimpeded all the way into the sea...

This is his Zhao Wuxi's life, and this is the end of this story...

(End of the full text, thank you for your company, subscription, rewards, and recommendation tickets. There are a lot of things to say, but these few days are really exhausted, and I can’t write any words. There are also some extras, basically Qin Chu Anyway, I can’t go on with the Central Plains. I’m exhausted. Let’s take a day’s rest, and then update a story every other day. Finally, the new book opens in early April, still the theme of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, called “Warring States Bright Moon” ", the book is ready, but it won't be found until April 1st, this should be a pure cool article, I will use my life here in July, hahaha.)