Chapter 58: Straight to the point

  Zhou Bu Yi repeated to Xu Jing what he had just said to Qin Hui, and added the dull expression on his face when he first opened his eyes, which made Xu Jing so angry that his beard stood up. But since the other party was a child, how could he lose his temper while maintaining his identity?

  Xu Jing's face turned bright red, but she couldn't say a word.

  Wang Fu said to Liu Zhang, "Your Excellency, this is the best outcome now. Qin Hui has already spoken out what he wanted to say on behalf of the aristocratic families, and Xu Jing has refuted them all. We cannot let Zhou Wuyi stir up trouble and add many variables."

  Liu Zhang rubbed his forehead and said casually, "Let's see what happens next. Xu Jing is almost invincible now. I'd like to hear how Zhou Wu Yu refutes him instead. Zhou Wu Yu is a rare prodigy. If he suffers a setback this time, it will also be beneficial for him."

  Zhou Bu Yi got up from Xiao Fu Rong's body, and slowly said: "Mr. Xu's words are just one point of view, business can make money, making money can strengthen the army, strengthening the army can bring peace to a chaotic world, and drive out the barbarians, right?"

  Xu Jing hesitated and nodded: "That's right, so-called..."

  "Wait, listen to me." Zhou Bu Yi interrupted Xu Jing's words, Xu Jing was so angry that he breathed heavily.

  Zhou Bu Yi suddenly sighed and made a painful expression: "Mr. Xu's vision is so shallow, he doesn't understand the good intentions of the sage who emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. No, business can make money, but what about at the same time? Sir, haven't you heard of 'no trickery no business'?"

  "When the common people see merchants can gain benefits, they will surely flock to them like birds. If this continues, society will inevitably prioritize interests over morality, and ethics will decline. I believe Mr. Xu, as a great scholar of our time, would not look down on morality, right? After morality declines, it will inevitably backfire on the economy. At that time, everyone will live in a world of calculation, genuine emotions will disappear, the people's material wealth will increase, but their spirits will be empty, and they will live even more painfully. How can this be endured?"

  "This..."

  Zhou Bu Yi raised the issue of morality to a social level, Xu Jing was speechless, but Liu Zhang was shocked in his heart. How could Zhou Bu Yi's vision be so broad? The decline of morality has led to economic collapse, which has been proven in Europe and America in the early 20th century and in Asia in the 21st century. As an ancient person, he can actually recognize this level, Zhou Bu Yi's wisdom is really terrifying.

  Zhou Bu continued: "The sage said that agriculture is heavy and commerce is light, not to abolish business, nor can it be abolished, because as you said, business can make money, no matter what era, there are people who go into business. The so-called farmer does not wear silk, the silk has no rice, this is absolutely impossible. The reason why the sage values agriculture and suppresses commerce is to prevent business from spreading and maintain social simplicity."

  Moreover, Mr. Xu's logic is a bit jumping to conclusions, who says that making money in business can enrich the country and strengthen its military? Haven't you heard of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period, was there a Zheng state? Among the Seven Warring States, where did the Han state rank in terms of national strength? Both of these countries were based on commerce, so why didn't they unify the world as Mr. Xu said, but instead Qin state relied on Shang Yang's reforms to destroy the six states? One very important item in Shang Yang's reforms was emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, Mr. Xu is a learned man, you shouldn't be unaware of this, right?

  Xu Jing snorted: "You only mention the states of Han and Zheng, why don't you mention the state of Qi? The state of Qi was a strong commercial nation, one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period, and in the Warring States period it was also economically developed, surpassing the other six nations. Such brilliant achievements, aren't they enough to illustrate the role of commerce? This youngster is talking nonsense, not worth refuting."

  Xu Jing felt that arguing with a child was beneath him, but the surrounding scholars were watching and he couldn't back down. The scholars were immediately energized by Xu Jing's words and thought Zhou Xun had nothing left to say. Now they just wanted their respected scholar to refute this child, completely forgetting that they originally also supported heavy agriculture and suppressed commerce.

  Zhou Buji burst out laughing "The young man's words are not even worth a smile, but sir, your words are indeed piercing, you've hit the nail on the head. Qi State is indeed a country that relies on commerce to become strong, but do you know how Qi State was destroyed? Qi State's national strength surpassed Qin, yet it sat back and watched as Qin destroyed five countries, until it finally collapsed with a loud crash."

  Everyone thought that the state of Qi was deceived by Qin's strategy of allying with distant states and attacking nearby ones, but this is a great mistake. If Qin can ally with distant states and attack nearby ones, why can't Qi do the same? In fact, it was the merchants who brought disaster to the country. The merchants of Qi had trade relations with all other states, and if they offended any state, they would suffer losses. They used their private interests to hold the country hostage, so the commercially-dominated state of Qi did not dare to oppose Qin's expansion, nor did it dare to expand itself, ultimately leading to its downfall.

  This is exactly the point that Xiaozi wants to make. After profiteering from business, a large number of merchants will emerge, who will use taxes and goods to coerce the country, and use their own interests to influence national policies. However, their interests are often inconsistent with the national interest, just like in the case of Qi State, even if the state is destroyed, the merchants will still be merchants, but the Qi State no longer exists.

  "If Yizhou prospers in commerce, then Liu Xuande will have to conquer the bandits of Hanzhong. The merchants who trade with Hanzhong on a large scale will stop him. If this force is too strong, Xuande will not dare to act rashly. I ask Mr. Xun, how can we solve this problem?"

  Zhou Bu's views were too novel, although not as pretentious as Xu Jingqin, but others still listened with a confused expression, only vaguely feeling that it made sense. Only Liu Zhang was clear in his heart, and he was even more surprised by Zhou Bu's words, because he knew that there were too many examples of business holding the country hostage.

  The appeasement policy before World War II was not that the leaders of Britain and France lacked foresight, but rather that domestic businessmen were unwilling to get involved in war. If the leader wanted to use force to suppress Germany's expansion, those people would vote against it in parliament, and the leader could only step down. If Churchill had become prime minister a few years earlier, he might not have been much different from Chamberlain either.

  In modern times, in order to take care of economic conditions, there is no longer any large-scale war.

  These principles involve too much and are fundamentally without right or wrong. However, Zhou Yiyu, as a person from over a thousand years ago, being able to understand things to this extent is already against the heavens.

  Wang Fu anxiously said to Liu Zhang, "Sir, this Zhou Yidou has rare talent and learning. I'm afraid Xun Jing is no match for him. If we let him refute Xun Jing, it will be a big trouble for us to promote business. Stop him quickly!"

  Liu Zhang slowly shook his head: "Now stopping him would make us appear even more guilty, let's just watch for now. Such a rare talent, it's also a great pleasure to see him discuss the world."

  Xu Jing stood there in a daze, Zhou Bu's words had exceeded his understanding, and he really didn't know how to respond. But not responding to Zhou Bu would mean that he, a great Confucian scholar, was defeated by a young child in front of everyone, which would be a great shame.

  Xu Jing was stifled for half a day: "Are you saying that Emperor Xiaowen's promotion of commerce was wrong? The distribution of goods in the world is uneven, and without mutual exchange, how can we make up for each other's shortcomings? Without commercial wealth accumulation, when disaster strikes and grain harvests fail, how can we provide relief to the victims? Are we supposed to let those victims starve to death?"

  Xu Jing's words were flawed, bringing up Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei. Zhou Bu Yi directly refuted him, which was equivalent to refuting the emperor and showing no sympathy for the disaster victims. Not only would this lead to trouble, but also lose the hearts of the people. That was why Qin Hao was left speechless by this counterattack.

  Everyone thought that Zhou Wuyi would be speechless in response to Xu Jing's point, and some who had high hopes for this young genius were also curious about how Zhou Wuyi would refute it.

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