January 1, 258 BC, Handan.

On this day, Zhao Dan was originally sitting in his side hall of Longtai, working as usual.

A sudden news interrupted it all.

"The king, there is a man from Yan who called Cai Ze, who claimed that he could relieve the king's worries and seek to see the king."

"Cai Ze?" Zhao Dan, who was writing quickly, stopped his movements, and after thinking for a moment, a smile appeared on his face: "Call him in."

After the Battle of Changping, Zhao Dan issued a recruitment order, hoping to recruit talents from all over the world for use by Zhao State.

Since Zhao defeated Qin and became one of the overlords, Zhao Dan's recruitment orders naturally received attention from many scholars. Many scholars who were not valued in other countries came to Handan to look for opportunities, and Zhao Dan once met many of them.

However, Cai Ze's appearance was really beyond Zhao Dan's expectations.

Zhao Dan recalled information about Cai Ze in his mind. As he thought about it, the smile on Zhao Dan's face became stronger and stronger.

If the records in history books are not wrong, then as long as Cai Ze is used well, he will definitely be a great helper for Zhao Dan and Zhao State.

Half an hour later, Cai Ze appeared in front of Zhao Dan.

Although he had already made some psychological preparations based on the information in his mind, when Zhao Dan saw Cai Ze, he couldn't help but frown slightly.

In these days, if you want to gain a little reputation in politics, there is one thing that can be said to be a must-have, that is, the handsomeness of appearance, which is the so-called "appearance".

There is a widely rumored saying that "appearance is born from the heart". Therefore, in the eyes of the ancients, once a person looks ugly, his heart will definitely be dirty and dirty, and this person cannot be valued.

During the Three Kingdoms, Wang Can, one of the seven sons of Jian'an, ran to Jingzhou to join Liu Biao. Before he saw the real person, Liu Biao originally planned to marry his daughter to him and entrusted him with important tasks, but when he saw the real person... Well, "he was not good-looking", he married his daughter to Wang Can's brother Wang Kai, and then did not use Wang Jie.

This is nothing. During the Tang Dynasty, it was clearly stipulated that scholars must pass the official selection review of the Ministry of Personnel after passing the imperial examination. These reviews are divided into "body, words, books, and judgment". The first "body" refers to the review of body shape and appearance. It can be said that the principle of "ugly people are not officials" is stipulated in the form of laws and regulations.

Zhu Yu also recorded two related things in "Pingzhou Ketan".

Cai Que, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, recommended a man named Wang Jiong to be the supervisor to become the chief secretary. When Emperor Shenzong of Song heard the name of this person, he happily agreed.

This is not because Wang Jiong has great abilities. On the contrary, Wang Jiong is a person with a poor character, has never studied any books, and has gossip and scandals from time to time, and has a very bad reputation.

The reason why Song Shenzong agreed to Cai Que's recommendation was entirely because Wang Jiong was very handsome. According to the description of ancient books, he was "silly and cold jade, with a beautiful appearance, and was nicknamed "Qijun Wang Jialang".

Just because Wang Jiong was handsome enough, Song Shenzong gave him an official position without thinking.

This proves that in ancient times, the generals could not only be a meal, but also an official...

When Song Zhezong was the same prime minister, Cai Que recommended another person to Song Zhezong, the son of Song Shenzong, who was a very famous talent, named Yuan Yingzhong.

But this time the result was completely the same as the last time.

Yuan Yingzhong is absolutely excellent in terms of talent, but unfortunately he has one big disadvantage, that is, his appearance is not good.

Yuan Yingzhong's face was covered with pockmarks, his shoulders were high and low, and his walking posture was strange. He could be said to be an absolute ugly man. It made Song Zhezong very upset and felt it was very annoying.

So Song Zhezong clearly rejected Cai Que's recommendation this time without much consideration.

Feng Menglong once commented on this in "Ancient and Modern Tanjiao": "Yuan Yingzhong is a knowledgeable person with a reputation as an elbow. He is not afraid to recommend him because of his appearance."

These are not just the people who are discriminated against because of their appearance.

The famous talented man Zheng Banqiao also said in "Zheng Banqiao Collection: Banqiao's Self-Report" that he was "small in appearance, and people were all easy to do... All the ancestors looked at each other, so be careful not to interact with him."

Even talented people are like this, so those who are neither talented nor ugly will be treated even worse.

Therefore, the ancients valued appearance very much.

The higher the appearance and the more handsome you are, the easier it is to get through. On the contrary, if you have a low appearance, it will be difficult to get through. The lower the appearance, the harder it will be.

Cai Ze, who appears in front of Zhao Dan, is such a guy with a very low appearance.

How low is Cai Ze's appearance?

According to records in the Records of the Grand Historian, Cai Ze once invited Tang Ju, a famous minister of Wei State, to look at his fortune.

Tang Ju was a very famous minister. He was once famous for his prestige for Li Dui, a powerful minister of Zhao State who had not yet made a fortune. He also predicted that Li Dui would become famous in the future. He can be said to be a very outstanding minister at that time.

Tang Ju said to Cai Ze at that time: "Mr. I have a strong nose, huge shoulders, big face, frown, and knee cramps. I heard that the sages are not in agreement, so why should I be the master?

This means that Cai Ze's nose is facing the sky, wide shoulders, convex forehead, collapsed nose bridge, and skewed legs. With so many shortcomings, his appearance can be said to be quite low.

Although Tang Ju's words were somewhat joking, from what Zhao Dan saw with his own eyes, Tang Ju's words were indeed a little exaggerated...

Cai Ze's appearance is really low.

Moreover, Cai Ze's clothes were quite simple. Zhao Dan could even see that there were several patches of all sizes on it, which was enough to prove Cai Ze's current dissatisfaction.

For a moment, Zhao Dan looked at Cai Ze with a strange look.

Cai Ze seemed to have long been used to others looking at him with such eyes. There was no strange expression on his face, but he saluted Zhao Dan very generously: "Cai Ze, a man from Yan, has seen the king."

Zhao Dan nodded slightly, put away the strange thoughts in his heart, smiled on his face, and his tone of speaking seemed very gentle: "I admire you for a long time, please sit down."

When Cai Ze heard this, the expression on his face couldn't help but be surprised.

Cai Ze is just a poor and destitute scholar nowadays. He can be called "Looking for a long time" by a king like Zhao Dan, and "Please sit down"?

Maybe it's just a kind words from Zhao Dan.

However, even so, Cai Ze was quite excited and thought to himself: "It is said that King Zhao Dan is polite and polite. Now he is well-known when he sees it. No wonder he can lead Zhao to rise to the world and defeat the Qin army in Changping and dominate."

You must know that it is because of Cai Ze's appearance that he has encountered obstacles in Yan and Wei. Now that he has arrived in Zhao, which is stronger than Yan and Wei, he has received unprecedented courtesy. How can he not make Cai Ze excited?

Cai Ze took his seat.

Zhao Dan smiled at Cai Ze and said, "I heard that sir can relieve my worries."

Cai Ze said seriously: "Back to the king, Ze really has this ability."

When Cai Ze said this, he looked quite confident.

Zhao Dan glanced at Cai Ze curiously and said, "Since that's the case, then I want to ask sir, why are my worries?"

Although the book is written in such a way, it is impossible to believe in ancient books in everything. I still have to test Cai Ze's level.

Cai Ze coughed and said slowly: What the king is concerned about is nothing more than the prime minister of Qin Fan Sui. If the king wants to give his minister a hundred taels of gold, he can relieve this worry."
Chapter completed!