Chapter 175: The Dispute between Confucianism and Mohism
Just when Yan Zhen was hesitant, the voice of the seventh prince Li Hao came, "I'll take the lead this time."

Yan Zhen quickly stood up, bowed to Li Hao and said, "Seventh Prince."

The frantic shouts of the surrounding gamblers also faded away with the call of "Seventh Prince".

Even if they wanted Tianbao Tower to lose money, they didn't dare to shout it out in front of the Seventh Prince.

The constraints that power has on money are evident from this.

Zhou Tieyi stood up, clasped his fists towards Li Hao and said, "Greetings, Seventh Prince."

Li Hao smiled. Compared to the fourth prince Li Jing, his facial features were sharper, his hair on his temples was thicker, and he had similar eyebrows and eyes. Li Jing always looked like he was infatuated with romance and drunk, but Li Hao showed more decisiveness and youthful heroism.

Li Hao walked to the dice cup, put his palm on it, and asked, "Brother Zhou, how about we play another round?"

Zhou Tieyi's character has been repeatedly analyzed by all the powerful people in Tianjing.

In addition to Zhou Tieyi's ability to endure, calculate, and love beautiful women and treasures.

Everyone also discovered a shortcoming of Zhou Tieyi that is not really a shortcoming.

That's gambling!
Zhou Tieyi likes to gamble, and is not limited to ordinary people's gambling tables.

Since he really took off, he first made a ten-year agreement with Che Wenyuan, and then a one-year agreement with Mei Qingchen.

These are all gambles, and they concern the overall situation of the world.

Those who are good at swimming will drown; those who are good at gamblers will inevitably lose.

As one of the bankers of Tianbao Tower and the world, the seventh prince Li Hao fully agreed with this statement.

Zhou Tieyi likes beautiful women, treasures and gambling.

This is a good thing for me, a great joy.

Because of beauty, treasures, and gambling, I can give these three to Zhou Tieyi!
As for his own Fourth Brother, although he has some patience, he cannot just be patient if he wants to fight for the world!
Otherwise, why not call it "endure the world" but "fight for the world"?

So if I want to fight, I must first snatch General Zhou Tieyi from my fourth brother!

Zhou Tieyi looked at the seventh prince Li Hao, who was about the same age as him, and smiled.

I came to Tianbao Tower today not for these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

At first, I didn't know whether Yan Zhen would think that I could do it, so I didn't inform the Seventh Prince Li Hao.

So when he thought the time was about right, he started to embarrass Yan Zhen, with the goal of forcing Li Hao out.

Even though he holds the Tianjing News in his hands and can overpower many chambers of commerce, this tiger skin is actually useless to the seventh prince Li Hao.

Li Hao's mother was Concubine Hua, and his maternal family was General Zuo Jiang Shoucheng.

When a general is away from the court, he may not obey some of the orders from the king.

The power of the Left General Jiang Shoucheng is actually greater than that of the Right General Yuchi Pojun.

Especially now that His Majesty the Great Xia has fallen from the 'sage realm', the position of the Left General in charge of the military affairs of the Northern Five Continents Province has become increasingly delicate.

His Majesty wishes to live forever.

In fact, the one who was weakened the most was the prince!
Even though he didn't do anything bad, he was the biggest loser in this change.

Even if there has been a crown prince for seventy years in the world, can there be a crown prince for five hundred years?
So now the position of the crown prince is really not even worthy of a dog.

If the emperor succeeds in cultivating immortality, it will have nothing to do with you, the crown prince. But if something goes wrong, as long as he is not dead, he will be suspicious and will suspect the crown prince first.

If someone with ulterior motives stir things up a bit, the prince will become a punching bag for the next few years, and anything can be thrown at him. That's why in Fengyu Lake, I suppressed the prince unscrupulously, but the emperor did not speak for his son.

Because he knew in his heart that by practicing immortality, the first person he was dissatisfied with was Confucianism, and the second person he was dissatisfied with was the prince!

Since suppressing the prince has become politically correct, the same applies to the emperor.

If you want to win over General Zuo, that’s easy. Favor Concubine Hua, elevate the status of the Seventh Prince, and suppress the Crown Prince!

In fact, the more critical the moment, the more we should do this.

Let his son restrain his son and fight with each other, so as to prevent the eldest son and the seventh son from having bad thoughts at the critical moment.

Li Jing does not have this advantage of General Zuo.

Even though Li Hao has this innate advantage, Zhou Tieyi still doesn't think Li Hao will win, unless Li Hao can persuade the Left General Jiang Shoucheng to stage a military coup, come to power like Li Shimin, and then win over the various schools of thought.

But this path is too difficult, and Li Hao has not yet demonstrated this ability.

Of course, he is not without any chance at all, after all, he is only seventeen years old.

But I came here today not to curry favor with the Seventh Prince, but to offend him!
Now, besides trying to win over General Zuo, His Majesty the Great Xia is certainly suspicious of him.

Therefore, at this time, it is even more impossible for me, the emperor's "lone minister", to lean towards that side!
The purpose of forcing the Seventh Prince Li Hao to come out today is to let him know his limits and not to put himself on the spot by being polite to him!

If he is really a smart man, then after today, he should be hostile to me, but he should leave some room for me!
"No gambling."

When Li Hao heard Zhou Tieyi's answer, the smile on his face froze.

Zhou Tieyi said with a smile, "Seventh Prince, let's start the game. Today, I want to win back all the losses I've made before!"

The reason why he put the gambling in the lobby was to take the opportunity to tell everyone that I came here for revenge. I lost a lot in Tianbao Building before, so I wanted to win back now that I am in power.

The reason is simple, direct, and conforms to basic logic, and that's enough.

Just like when he won the jade pendant from the Seventh Prince in Fengyu Lake, there was a reason for the two of them to become enemies. Now he was just expanding that reason, connecting the past and the future, and it wouldn't be abrupt.

Anger flashed across Li Hao's face and he swept the dice cup away.

Four, five, six, big.

"Since Brother Zhou is unwilling to gamble again, let's end it here today."

Li Hao took the opportunity to order them to leave.

Zhou Tieyi smiled triumphantly and shouted to the people around him, "Someone go to Zhou's house and tell them to move the silver. There will be a reward!"

Li Hao turned away, and when he reached the top floor of Tianbao Tower and sent others away, the anger on his face subsided, revealing a bit of deep thought.

He wants to conquer the world, so he is certainly not a fool.

A moment later, Li Hao's adviser Qi Xuanyi walked in alone.

"Your Highness, you were too anxious just now."

Qi Xuanyi and Li Hao have a special relationship. Qi Xuanyi has Li Hao's trust and they can talk to each other face to face about many things.

Li Hao was not angry at Qi Xuanyi's criticism, but bowed and said, "Please teach me, sir."

Qi Xuanyi smiled and said, "Zhou Tieyi has to be a lone minister now, and the person he should not get involved with the most right now is His Highness."

He did not tell the reason directly, but let Li Hao think about the reason himself.

Qi Xuanyi continued, "So he came here today just to offend Your Highness, but at the same time remind Your Highness that your relationship with him is like a gamble. You can win and lose, but the rules cannot be broken, and you cannot use dirty tricks. Everyone should keep a little face so that we can meet again in the future."

A lone minister!

After Qi Xuanyi pointed out the key, Li Hao understood what Zhou Tieyi wanted to express. After all, he knew his current situation well.

If Zhou Tieyi and I get together, it will only give others an excuse to attack both of us, which is not good for anyone and may even be worse than being as incompatible as fire and water!
Li Hao smiled bitterly and said, "It's really me, Meng Lang. He gave a good reminder."

However, the more this happened, the stronger Li Hao's desire to conquer Zhou Tieyi became.

Since ancient times, those who have conquered the world cannot do without famous generals and counselors.

Zhou Tieyi's talents are that of a famous general as well as a strategist!
In Li Hao's eyes, Zhou Tieyi was even more attractive than all the beautiful maids in Tianbao Tower combined.

"Is there really no chance to subdue him?"

At this point, the young Li Hao's tone was actually a little ruthless. For a monarch, if he couldn't subdue a person like this, then naturally he couldn't leave him to others. Qi Xuanyi thought for a while, "The time is not right yet."

······
Inside the study of Simin Mansion.

In accordance with his father's request, Dong Xiu De invited Tang Anshi, the Minister of Education, Zhang Shizhong, the Chief Academician of the Imperial Academy, Wang Jizhen, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Qing Kongming, the son of Si Lu, and Wang Mingyi, a disciple of Che Wenyuan.

After entering the study, everyone bowed and saluted, "Greetings to Simin."

Dong Xingshu was wearing a dark blue brocade robe with bat patterns. He sat on the imperial chair and nodded, saying, "Please don't be polite, everyone. Please take a seat."

Everyone took their seats in order according to their official rank.

Dong Xingshu glanced at his son, who immediately closed the door of the study. Then he walked to Dong Xingshu's desk and distributed several copies of the paper, which described what had happened in Wangluo Garden today, to everyone in turn.

Some people have already received news similar to Dong Xingshu, such as Tang Anshi, while some people do not know about this yet, such as Wang Mingyi.

After Wang Mingyi read the above content, Dong Xingshu said, "It seems that this "Tianjing News" is the general trend."

The businessmen could see that the Tianjing News had now gained the support of three or even four of the five people in the court, and Dong Xingshu naturally could see it as well.

Having said that, he even looked at Qingkong Ming again.

Qingkong Ming gave a bitter smile, he knew that he was being suspected.

After all, this train merchant has his own name on it!
Even Yuchi Jing, the right general and one of the Three Divisions, could be won over by Zhou Tieyi, so why couldn't he, the son of Si Lu, be won over?
Didn’t Dong Xingshu ask anyone from the Right General’s Mansion for help after seeing what happened today?

Qingkong Ming quickly stood up and explained why he had invested in the Railway Chamber of Commerce that day.

Although Dong Xingshu had just learned about what happened that day, he even knew that Wang Mingyi was now working in the Railway Chamber of Commerce.

But letting Qingkong Ming say it in person was actually to eliminate the distrust between the two.

Sure enough, after Qingkong Ming finished speaking, Dong Xingshu asked, "What do you think of this train chamber of commerce?"

He did not mention the matter of the Tianjing News first, because this matter had already become a trend and there were only a few strategies to deal with it.

On the contrary, he was curious about the Railway Chamber of Commerce, which allowed Zhou Tieyi to use his power to overwhelm others and accomplish something with the help of the Tianjing News.

Qingkongming thought for a moment and shook his head. "Although he did this in a big way, he revealed very little information. Until now, everyone is confused. I have looked at the accounts and the expenditures are reasonable. There is nothing strange..."

At this point, he looked at Wang Mingyi and said, "Perhaps you, Wang Xuedi, know more details about this matter."

Now Wang Mingyi has become Zhang Shizhong's disciple. Zhang Shizhong and Qingkong Gui are of the same generation, so Qingkong Ming and Wang Mingyi are also of the same generation, and Qingkong Ming can affectionately call Wang Mingyi "junior brother".

Seeing everyone looking at him, Wang Mingyi stood up and saluted, then replied, "This Train Chamber of Commerce should specialize in a mechanical creation similar to the flying roc and the spider tower. This creation may be called a train."

Dong Xingshu thought for a moment and looked at Wang Mingyi with appreciation. He thought that since he could answer calmly under the aura of the others, this disciple of Che Wenyuan was indeed worthy of training. He asked encouragingly, "Anything else? Just tell us your guess and we will naturally make the judgment."

Wang Mingyi thought for a moment, "The Train Chamber of Commerce recruits apprentices and calls them technicians, and treats technicians much better than apprentices."

Having said this, Wang Mingyi paused. He naturally knew what the situation was like for apprentices in this era.

If we ask ourselves honestly, the series of rules for technicians set by Zhou Tieyi have at least achieved preferential treatment for technicians.

"So what he needs is probably not the ordinary kind of workers."

Tang Anshi suddenly interrupted, "What is an ordinary worker?"

Confucians have always mentioned the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, but the "artisans" in Wang Mingyi's mouth seem to be different from the "artisans" he understands.

Wang Mingyi thought for a moment, then clasped his hands and said, "Ordinary workers are skilled in their craft and work hard. Craftsmen are skilled, not moral. There is a distinction between the noble and the humble, and there is a strict hierarchy between scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans."

"And the job Zhou Tieyi wants can cross the boundaries between scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans..."

Before Wang Mingyi finished speaking.

Tang Anshi sneered, "I thought the Zhou family was following the tyranny of the Gongshu family, but now he wants to play with the Mohist school's perverse theories!"

Wang Mingyi sighed in his heart.

This is the dispute between Confucianism and Mohism.

The ancient sage Mozi once studied under Confucianism, which is clearly recorded in the classics handed down from the academy.

In the general direction of benevolence and righteousness, Mohism and Confucianism are very similar.

But in another direction, it is quite different.

That is the Confucianism's "ritual" and the Mohism's "universal love".

Confucian "ritual" stipulates the distinction between the superior and the inferior, and the order of the old and the young.

However, the Mohist "universal love" believes that the ruler and his subjects, fathers and sons, and brothers should all be equally loving and friendly, and this will not change due to differences in status. What a father pays for his son is equivalent to what a son pays for his father.

In the eyes of Confucianism, this is simply treason and absolutely intolerable!

Not to mention that the Mohists evolved this into "non-music" and "non-fatalism", and did not advocate the educational role of music or the guiding role of destiny. This was simply a provocation and insult to the Confucian "ritual and music education"!
Therefore, the dispute between Confucianism and Mohism has never stopped.

It's just that the Mohist doctrine is too "weird". From the Holy Emperor to the present, no monarch has dared to publicize it. If the Mohist school had not been so influential and difficult to be kicked out of the court like the School of Diplomacy, I'm afraid that the Mohist school would have been kicked out of the upper nine classes by now!

Hearing Tang Anshi's sneer, Dong Xingshu pondered for a while and said to Wang Mingyi, "Go on."

Wang Mingyi lowered his head and said, "Yes."

"He established a training method for technicians from the ninth rank to the first rank, encouraging the ambitions of the technicians. From the most basic silver and money, to practicing methods, and then to becoming his disciples, he wanted to help the technicians find a clear path to cross classes."

Hearing this, Tang Anshi snorted again. As the Minister of Confucianism, he absolutely could not tolerate such perverse ideas to prevail.

Wang Mingyi waited until Tang Anshi finished his cold snort before continuing, "And I guess the biggest feature of the train's operation is that it only requires ninth-grade Mohist and Gongshu practitioners."

After Wang Mingyi made this guess, everyone frowned.

Although they do not practice mechanical engineering, they know most of the rules of mechanical creation.

According to common sense, the more powerful the mechanical creation, the more powerful the cultivator is needed to operate it in order to fully exert its effect.

For example, the weapon of war, the Spider Tower.

It can play the greatest role in the hands of a fourth-grade Gongshu family monk. A fifth-grade Gongshu family monk can also drive it, but it is difficult to bring out the full power of the Spider Tower. At most, it can exert 80% of its power, and then it will decrease. When it reaches the seventh grade, it is even more difficult to control the entire Spider Tower by one's own strength.

Dong Xingshu deduced in his mind for a while and said, "This train has formed an independent school of thought. Mingyi is right."

"What's his purpose?" Dong Xiu De asked. He used common sense to judge, "It's just a mechanical creation that can be operated by a ninth-grade person. I'm afraid it won't be able to play a role on the battlefield, right?"

Wang Mingyi replied, "This train is probably not used on the battlefield, but like the Yutian Boat, it helps people travel back and forth. And he is making such a big fuss about it, and even recruiting young people with no cultivation to train. I'm afraid there is a way to make the price of the train lower than the Yutian Boat, and even make it easy for ordinary people to use it."

He couldn't be sure of his guess before, but on the piece of paper just now, Zhou Tieyi clearly wrote that this was a major event that "benefits the country and the people". Since according to common sense, this mechanical device cannot be used in military affairs, then combined with the characteristics of the "car", it is easy to infer that it should be used in people's livelihood.

If we can build a cheap "travel boat" to help people travel, it will definitely benefit the country and the people.

"rational."

Dong Xingshu confirmed again, and then he looked at Qingkongming, "This is a good thing, you keep an eye on it, and when his train is built, you will write to the emperor to establish a train company."

In Zhou Tieyi's vision, the most perfect situation would be to build his own train, lay a line first, produce results, and then write to the emperor himself to establish the Railway Bureau.

This will achieve the greatest political results.

But since Dong Xingshu saw the role of the train, it was certainly impossible for him to let Zhou Tieyi have his way in everything.

It is true that no one can take away the orthodoxy of railways, but the credit can be divided, especially the political authority that extends from this credit.

Although Dong Xingshu did not fully understand what a train was, he understood what politics was, so he could see at a glance that this thing would definitely bring new power!

Since Zhou Tieyi dared to say in front of the heads of the Chamber of Commerce that he didn't want money, then what you want must be power.

Could it be that you, Zhou Tieyi, are really so kind-hearted that you don’t want power or money and are wholeheartedly serving the country and the people?
Since ancient times, people have competed to see who has the loudest voice in the fight for credit, but now in the court, Confucianism and Legalism have the loudest voices!
Since Qingkong Ming is a board member recognized by you, you can use the name of Si Lu's son to pressure the businessmen, but you must also bear the consequences of Si Lu's son stealing the credit.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

(End of this chapter)