Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 522 What is the intention?
"Chu is a superior country, and the King of Chu is the hope of all the princes. How can he break the contract so lightly?" Zheng Du "questioned" Deng Zhi after entertaining him at a banquet.
The question was naturally about the Chu army's failure to withdraw at the agreed time.
It’s just… since the banquet has already been held, this “questioning” seems quite weak.
What frightened Deng Zhi the most was actually sitting on his knees - he had been sitting on a chair in Chu State for several years, and kneeling was rarely seen in either formal or private occasions. He had long been accustomed to it, and suddenly sitting on his knees again made his legs feel a little numb!
Deng Zhi shifted his posture obscurely and said calmly, "It is not that our Great Chu broke the agreement, but we have sufficient evidence to show that it was Shu who hired pirates to plunder slaves, and repeatedly invaded Chu's overseas territories and even attacked our Great Chu navy."
Deng Zhi spoke without blinking, just as the Chu people had vowed that Liu Zhang would first pacify Hanzhong and then destroy Jingchu.
"Absolutely not! My lord is a benevolent and righteous man, how could he act like this? What's more, the pirates are all Wei people. They are separated from Yizhou by mountains and rivers. How could they trade slaves here? This is obviously something that Wei State did!" Zheng Du completely refused to admit it and pointed the finger at Wei State.
Liu Zhang, who was standing aside, had long been told to let Zheng Du deal with it first. He did not speak at this time, but just sat in the first seat pretending to be mysterious, occasionally looking at Zhang Song on the other side.
"Oh? So the Duke of Shu has finally decided to abolish the system of slavery and selling body parts?" Deng Zhi said in surprise.
Zheng Du was stunned when he heard this, and thought to himself: You are really good at taking advantage of others. I just said that there is no reason for my master to instruct others to "catch slaves", how come you turned around and said you want to abolish slavery and selling body?
There are so many noble families in Xichuan, which family doesn’t have countless indentures?
although……
They could not be considered "slaves", and even most farmers might never see the fangs of their masters using contracts throughout their entire lives . However, the slavery system, or the custom of raising large numbers of slaves in hidden households, was deeply embedded in the blood of the gentry.
In essence, this was not only for exploitation, but also to compete with the "imperial court" for people.
After all, if there is one more hidden household in the family of the gentry, there will be one less household registered in the city princess' household registration. After that, they only need to serve the gentry and do not need to pay taxes to the court. Over time, they only know about the master's family and not the court.
How many hardships and preparations did the State of Chu go through when it wanted to abolish the lifetime contract?
It is better to proceed step by step, and with a large enough stake, "flush" out this bad habit.
The biggest difference between the Chu State's ten-year contract and the previous household registration system was that for individuals, it reduced slavery, but for the imperial court, it truly put every Chu citizen on the household register.
It's not that after being hired, it's the same as if this person doesn't exist for the court...
But now you suddenly bring it up to the Marquis of Shu. Are you afraid that the Marquis of Shu won't die fast enough?
The State of Chu was simply taking advantage of the situation to "charge forward" with its own interests, rather than fully developing its productivity to this point. The system of the State of Chu has always been slightly ahead of its productivity.
For example, Wei now wants to learn technology from Chu, but indentures are still rampant. Not only do they enslave other ethnic groups, but most of the craftsmen in the workshops are "hidden households" from the gentry. Chu's workshop system and technology were promoted by the court, so they naturally took the opportunity to exchange the benefits of hidden households and completely sealed it off with the "Chu Law". Wei's workshops and technology were learned from Chu, and they would not give out "hidden households" for nothing.
As for Shu...
After all, Cao Cao, the King of Wei, had the means to suppress the gentry. If Liu Zhang, the Marquis of Shu, dared to do so, Yizhou would be in civil strife in a matter of minutes.
What? Even if the Chu State came, there would be no more hiding households?
Then following the King of Chu is more promising than following Liu Zhang!
If Bai Tu really let go and was willing to give the Yizhou nobles privileges no less than they do now, I'm afraid that there would be more than one or two families who would be eager to invite the Chu army in...
Zheng Du just moved his mouth, and before he could say anything, Deng Zhi continued, "If the Marquis of Shu really has such a noble intention, the King of Chu and his colleagues in Chu will surely be delighted. From now on, Shu will be the brother country of Great Chu. We are willing to trade even warships... or even give them as gifts!" Deng Zhi looked as if Great Chu was very open-minded.
In theory, these marquises who were granted the Nine Gifts could also be regarded as having their own marquisate, such as the State of Yan.
It’s just that other princes who assisted the Han Dynasty did not boast about their own “marquisates”, but it is not wrong to say it was the Kingdom of Shu.
Zheng Du was so angry when he heard Deng Zhi's words - what do we need warships for? Sailing in a mountain stream?
"Ahem, Lord Deng has misunderstood. There is a reason why servants exist in Xichuan..."
"So the Duke of Shu really wants more slaves?" Upon hearing this, Deng Zhi immediately looked skeptical.
Zheng Du also saw that Deng Zhi was just making trouble, so he stopped begging for mercy and said, "My Shuhou Mansion has never done such a thing. If Chu really wants to use this as an excuse to attack the Han royal family, then my Shuhou Mansion will never sit and wait for death. Given the dangerous terrain and bad mountains and rivers in Xichuan, if Chu is determined to move the people into the city and clear the fields, how many years and how much food will it take to attack Yizhou?
Now, Wei and your country have been in conflict at sea, and the Marquis of Qi and Zheng are also ready for battle. If Yizhou can hold back 100,000 troops of Chu, it will be a worthy death!" Zheng Du seemed very excited.
Zheng Du dared to break the jar because Zhang Song and Liu Zhang were present at the time...
If Deng Zhi really didn't buy it, Zhang Song would give Liu Zhang a look, and then Liu Zhang would just have to reprimand Zheng Du and ask him to leave first, thus changing the subject.
As for the reason for the reprimand?
He could just say that he didn't want the people to suffer, and it also demonstrated the benevolence of the Marquis of Shu. If it were to spread in the future, it would be more beneficial to the Marquis of Shu's reputation.
Of course, the real reason is that the Marquis of Shu does not have that much control over Yizhou. After all... he is a vassal that even the warlords have not succeeded in completely transforming themselves!
If the entire West Sichuan were to be unified with the military and civilians and everything was done with the goal of delaying the State of Chu, even at the expense of the people and gentry of Yizhou...I'm afraid that some people would abandon Shu and join Chu on the spot.
Even if a part of it is temporarily controlled, there will always be "disloyalty" arising later.
If Liu Zhang surrendered to Chu, he would at least have a peaceful life, but if he died in civil strife, he would have to be buried alive with the Shuhou Mansion...
In the history without the White Rabbit Effect, when Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang joined forces and reached the final stage of the attack on Xichuan, Zheng Du suggested to Liu Zhang that a large number of people should be relocated to places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and all the granaries outside that cannot be controlled should be burned, so as to delay until Liu Bei could no longer hold on and naturally retreated...
When Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang heard this move, they broke out in cold sweats.
After all, regardless of whether Liu Zhang can do it or not, if they were to gamble, the Jingzhou army might not be able to hold on!
However, Liu Zhang did not dare to gamble and surrendered directly.
Deng Zhi also saw that Zheng Du was timid inside. He did not show any surprise or fear like the young man that Zheng Du imagined he was easy to fool. Instead, he said calmly to the Marquis of Shu: "How could a benevolent and righteous prince of Shu act like this? If there is such an unjust act, how could our Great Chu army spare the food and grass..."
Zheng Du punched in the air, while Liu Zhang looked at Zhang Song again and again, as if he wanted to know whether he should speak or not.
However, Zhang Song spoke first, "Chu's enemies are now in the north, not in the west. Why did the King of Chu rashly send troops to Xichuan again? Can Mr. Deng tell me?"
Zhang Song also saw that Chu was still not prepared to destroy Shu. Otherwise... if Liu Zhang was a little more resolute, Chu would have to trap at least 30% of its troops here. By then, Chu would have become the target of all the princes in the world - the kind with bad intentions.
However, Zhang Song could not guess what Chu was going to do without important information...
after all……
The State of Chu just wanted to delay for another two or three years, and when the time was right, it would "accomplish success in one battle" at sea, and in one fell swoop weaken the State of Wei and shock the north at the same time. Now... it was just to make people seem less suspicious and vent their anger on the State of Shu - how could Zhang Song possibly have guessed such a thing?
From the perspective of Zhang Song and the people of the world, the balance on the Bohai Sea, which was originally completely on the side of the Chu State, is gradually tipping towards the Wei State, right?
Even the situation in the entire world is now gradually turning in Wei's favor, right?
Zhang Song suspected that several "experts" in the Han Dynasty were trying to induce Chu and Wei to go to war directly...
After all, "everyone can see" now that the reason why the State of Chu was in a state of decline was more because it was separated from the State of Wei by the princes of the Han Dynasty, and the places where it directly conflicted with the State of Wei were all in the seas closer to the State of Wei.
The aggressiveness shown by Wei State even made the Han Dynasty somewhat unwilling to passively serve as its vassal...
Because of their lack of understanding of the State of Chu, especially their lack of understanding of the State of Chu's deployment in Yizhou and Danzhou, they still underestimated the national strength of the State of Chu.
It is not an exaggeration to say that even if Chu did not have artillery and Qi ships, and both sides used the same warships, it would not be possible for them to be defeated by Wei...
After all, the sinking of a flagship ship by the Wei navy was a serious blow, and the sinking of a flagship ship by a noble family basically meant withdrawing from the competition for maritime interests, and the sinking of a flagship ship by the Chu state...the casualties of the soldiers were tragic, but from the perspective of warships alone, this was considered to have boosted domestic demand!
If a full-scale war really breaks out, the State of Chu can launch new warships all the time without destroying any domestic workshop ecosystems - the kind that will be sunk faster than those in battle.
Even if the fleet was replaced two for one, a year later it was Wei that first exploited its people, causing the destruction of many families and the death of many people, while Chu... was still happily completing new orders.
This is also a potential benefit of industrialization - before a war reaches a certain scale, it will not leave its "comfort zone", unlike agricultural civilization, which basically leaves its comfort zone as soon as it uses a knife...
Unless Wei could attack Chu in one go, how could Chu, which had the highest production efficiency and had the support of "the whole world", be able to hold out?
It is even difficult to force Chu out of its comfort zone where "the losses from war are still within the range of boosting domestic demand" and enter a stage where war damages national strength...
Unless, as Zhang Song thought, 30% of Chu's national strength was really tied up in Yizhou, then the princes of all parties would surely seize the opportunity and plunge Chu into a bitter battle state of overdrawing its national strength!
