In Shazhou City, various restaurants and teahouses were discussing the Shazhou Conference. As soon as Liu Yan and Yang Yan entered a teahouse, they heard a few people dressed as scholars at the next table talking loudly:
"King Jianning finally understood that these barbarians serving as soldiers alone cannot govern Longyou well!"
"Yes, yes, Master Han's article has spread all over Shazhou City. I heard that the traitors in Ba Mansion are thinking hard about how to deal with Master Han's heroic article!"
Yang Yan and Liu Yan have been reading in the inn these days. They did not expect that the situation in Shazhou has changed so much in the past few days.
Yang Yan called Dr. Tea, handed him a penny and asked, "Dr. Tea, who is this Mr. Han?"
Dr. Cha was the one who knew the local trends best. After accepting the copper coins from Yang Yan, he immediately said: "This Young Master Han is a literary figure highly regarded by the wealthy families in Gaochang. Now he is very popular in Longyou! Mr. Han wrote a
This is a magnificent article, ready to be presented to His Highness King Jianning at the Shazhou Conference."
"Isn't this meeting not yet started? How come Mr. Han's article has already been circulated?"
Dr. Cha smiled and said: "Isn't it true that several princes in Gaochang thought Mr. Han's articles were wonderful? Marquis Dong specially asked engravers to engrave Mr. Han's articles, and then printed thousands of sets and brought them to Shazhou City.
I distributed it everywhere, and now everyone in the city who is a bit literary knows Mr. Han’s articles.”
"Do you have any articles by Mr. Han in your tea shop? Can you let me read them?"
Dr. Tea smiled and said: "There are some, Sir, please wait for a moment and I will take them out right away!"
After a while, I only saw a framed article being carefully taken out by Dr. Cha. It seemed that Mr. Han's article was indeed very good. Dr. Cha had framed the article and prepared to pass it on to his descendants.
Yang Yan took the scroll and read it carefully with Liu Yan.
This article was not in parallel prose, which surprised both Yang Yan and Liu Yan.
Yang Yan and Liu Yan were both literary scholars. Nowadays, when the imperial court is opening courses to recruit scholars, they all need to write four or six parallel prose with neat parallels and high format requirements.
When the imperial court issued orders and the government delivered official documents, they were all written in parallel prose. Such articles were complex and obscure, and ordinary people could not understand them at all.
Perhaps in order to win the public support of the people in Shazhou, this article was written in relatively easy-to-understand "ancient prose".
Ancient prose is prose from the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. The writing is not rigidly adhered to the format. Ancient prose is mainly for reasoning. The wording and sentence making of the article are not gorgeous, nor do they require neat dialogues.
As young people, Yang Yan and Liu Yan both hated fake and empty parallel prose.
Nowadays, young scholars in Guanzhong have also begun to advocate writing in ancient Chinese, but this is still an initiative among ordinary scholars and has not yet been able to influence the imperial court.
Yang Yan quickly finished reading Mr. Han's article, and he praised the verses: "It is indeed a magnificent article. Although it is not a parallel prose, its overwhelming momentum has not diminished at all!"
Liu Yan frowned and said, "The article is an excellent article, but the point of view of this article cannot be agreed with by Yan."
Yang Yan also nodded and said: "It is indeed a bit biased, but Mr. Han who wrote this article will definitely be famous throughout the ages with the Shazhou Conference!"
Although Liu Yan didn't like the point of view of the article, Han Gongzi's article was indeed excellent from a literary point of view.
Yang Yan said: "The views in this article can indeed be defended."
Liu Yan also said: "It is indeed true. The article begins by saying that agriculture is the foundation of the country. This is indeed true."
"Encouraging farming and encouraging farmers is a great righteousness. This article stands on top of righteousness and can be regarded as invincible."
Yang Yan also nodded, this is the brilliance of the article.
The article starts from agriculture and believes that agriculture is the foundation of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and the granting of land by soldiers is the foundation for the Tang Dynasty to rise from the chaotic times of the late Sui Dynasty, and puts forward the concept of agriculture first.
Regarding this point, the scholars of the Tang Dynasty all recognized it, and so did the majority of the people.
The article then extended that since agriculture is the foundation, then King Jianning ordered the Bafu to specialize in salt and iron, which violated the national policy of putting agriculture first.
If the government is like this, then the people will only follow the example and stop engaging in agricultural production, and instead participate in industry and commerce.
Nowadays, many people in Shazhou and Guazhou have given up farming and chosen to work in workshops.
This was tantamount to destroying the cornerstone of agriculture in the Tang Dynasty and setting a bad example for the people.
Regarding this argument, neither Liu Yan nor Yang Yan had any objection. Nowadays, the industry and commerce in the three states are prosperous, but the people are also uneasy and unwilling to farm properly. This is also what Liu Yan and Yang Yan have seen along the way. The article is not exaggerated.
At this time, the article took another turn, this time it was about "profit".
This made Liu Yan and Yang Yan's eyes light up. Gentlemen are ashamed of speaking out. Since the Han Dynasty, only Confucianism was respected, and there are not many scholars who dare to openly speak out.
The second paragraph of Han Gongzi's article talks about this "profit".
The Bafu controls the mountains, rivers and mines and specializes in salt and iron. This is to keep profits in the hands of the government, but Mr. Han believes that this is "competing with the people for profits."
The interests of the people that the court competes for are naturally inconsistent with the Confucian philosophy that has existed for hundreds of years. Mr. Han believed that the government controlled mountains, rivers, mines, and monopolized salt and iron. If the government participated in the operation, the quality of the goods would inevitably be poor and the attitude would become arrogant over time.
, and even use these government goods to exploit merchants.
And the people also need to perform corvee labor for the salt fields and mines, which further squeezes the people.
Therefore, Mr. Han proposed that the government should let go of its control over mountains, rivers and mines, let go of the monopoly on salt and iron, and let the common people take over the salt field and mines, so as to "return benefits to the people."
Yang Yan, who once served as the secretary of the Hexi Jiedushi Mansion, said: "The imperial court does exactly what Han Gongzi said. The iron mines under the Hexi Jiedushi Mansion require hundreds of corvees every year, and there are countless casualties in the mines every year.
.”
"Moreover, the officials who manage the iron mines are exploited from top to bottom, and they suffer losses every year. The iron ore produced cannot be smelted at all. The Ordnance Supervisor of the Jiedu Dynasty has to buy iron ore from other states to forge weapons."
"And the armory supervisor of the Jiedushi Mansion is also the same. The weapons they make are rough, and some of them even break into pieces when cut. They are not as sharp as the pig-killing knives made by the people."
Liu Yan also nodded and said: "Master Wu Qi went to Jianghuai to preside over the salt industry. After the salt field was owned by the imperial court, it also caused a salt shortage in Jianghuai. The government-run salt field did suffer from serious internal consumption, and the quality of the salt produced was not high.
We often assign salt merchants to buy it.”
However, Liu Yan still supported Wu Qi's policy of "returning salt fields to the public" implemented in Jianghuai. It was precisely with salt as a means of making money that Wu Qi was able to raise funds without the people in Jianghuai feeling that the taxes were increasing.
A large amount of ordnance, food, grass and money were continuously transported to Fengxiang Mansion to supply the army for the war.
However, Mr. Han's articles all started from the righteousness and centered on the common people, which made Liu Yan unable to make mistakes.
This is what Yang Yan and Liu Yan find terrifying. There is clearly something wrong with this article, but they can't find anything to refute.
Therefore, this article is rigorously discussed and finally puts forward the final conclusion.
The imperial court controlled the "mountains, rivers and mines" and specialized in salt and iron. These were all things that competed with the people for profit.
So as a wise king, King Jianning should not use the salt pool mine to exploit the people. He should return the "mountains, rivers and mines" to the people, open up the salt and iron franchise, and allow ordinary people to participate in the management of salt and iron.
Come.
After reading the article, Yang Yan handed the scroll to Dr. Cha and said to Liu Yan:
"With such eloquent writing, it would be bad for Prince Jianning to dominate the palace."
Liu Yan also nodded. Obviously, the two questions raised in the article can be said to be very clear-cut and get to the point. Now it depends on how the Bafu solves the problem.
As this article spread, public opinion in Shazhou gradually changed. Even some people felt that it was not good for the imperial court to control so many things. If the mountains, rivers and mines could be opened up, ordinary people would just enter the forest to chop firewood at will.
instead of being chased by the official guards guarding the forest.
On April 11, with the attention of the three states, the Shazhou Conference was finally convened.
Because the number of people attending the meeting this time far exceeded the expectations of Li Yan and the players, the governor's office would definitely not be able to accommodate so many people.
Li Yan simply decided to hold the Shazhou Conference on the ruins of Leiyin Temple outside Shazhou City.
The monk's room in Leiyin Temple is still intact and can be used as a resting place for participants.
Most of the back temple of Leiyin Temple was burned down during the monks' rebellion. Now it has been flattened and paved with wooden planks as a venue for debates.
For this debate, Li Yan also summoned Zhang Xian, the governor of Guazhou, Li Xiuzhang, the governor of Xizhou, and Jia Sishun, the governor of Shazhou, to attend the meeting at Leiyin Temple.
Cui Tao, the Sima of the Bafu, and Jiang Lun, the Sima of the Bafu, acted as the representatives to discuss the matter of salt and iron affairs, and debated with Xianliang Literary on the major issues of land distribution and the salt and iron monopoly.
Also attending the meeting were 80 people serving in the government, 70 people serving as district chiefs, 20 people serving in the army, and 30 people representing merchants.
As for the aborigines, 70 people from the wealthy families in the three states were sent to attend the meeting, 60 talented people recommended by the local area, and 12 patriarchs of the old Gaochang tribe were all present, as well as monks, Taoists, Manichaeans, Nestorians, etc.
There are twenty teachers in the sect.
Leiyin Temple is close to Shazhou City. In order to protect the safety of King Jianning, a dedicated player army is stationed near Leiyin Temple.
At the same time, in order to "live broadcast" the meeting to the people in Shazhou City in time, King Jianning also allowed storytellers and tea doctors from all over Shazhou to enter the venue. They could record the content of the debate and then relay what happened during the meeting to the people.
things.
On April 12, King Jianning's carriage came out of the Governor's Mansion and, escorted by elite players, drove to Leiyin Temple.
Yang Yan and Liu Yan, who were standing on both sides of the road, finally saw the majesty of King Jianning's carriage after seeing it.