The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Li Ge, the Mohist minister of the south, what are you doing in my camp? Are you trying to mediate peace in the city, so that our army will give up attacking Ruyin and Qin will give up attacking Chu?"

As soon as Li Yi said this, all the leaders in the tent burst into laughter. In their opinion, this was of course a foolish dream, but they heard that the Mohists of the south liked to do this kind of thing the most.

Hei Fu did not laugh, but glanced at Qin Mo Cheng Shang, who had a complicated expression. Yesterday, when Cheng Shang said that there might be Mohists in Ruyin City to help defend the city, he could not fall asleep for a while after being woken up, so Hei Fu sat with Cheng Shang for half a night and asked about the origins of the Mohist school's division...

It turned out that in the early Mohist school, when Mozi was alive, there were three different divisions of labor: "those who can debate debate, those who can tell stories tell stories, and those who can engage in work". At that time, although the Mohists had their own analysis, they were still able to work together.

After Mozi's death, the Mohist school became increasingly divided. After the incident of "Meng Sheng and 180 Mohists died in the Yangcheng Jun Incident", the main body of the Mohist school suffered a great blow, and the various schools began to inevitably split. In the end, it was divided into three parts: the Mohist school of the East, the Mohist school of the South, and the Mohist school that entered Qin.

The Mohists of the East liked to talk and tell stories, while this school focused on academic debates. They traveled to various countries and gathered in Jixia. They were obsessed with arguing with famous scholars about names and facts. They had a lot of theories and wrote books, but there were few practical things. They gradually separated from the mass base and became metaphysical.

The Mohists who entered Qin were the "engaged" school, with less empty words and more practical work. After entering Qin, they began to quickly integrate with the upper class of Qin and made many contributions to the rise of Qin. The Qin Mohist master Fu Tun (tūn) was also a distinguished guest of King Huiwen of Qin, so the Mohist school, like the agricultural school and the military school, was allowed to exist as a minority school by the Qin Legalists and was not brutally suppressed.

Today, Cheng Shang and other Qin Mo are also his followers. Qin Mo's disciples often serve in the Shaofu. The so-called "standardized" production and strong military capabilities of the Qin State are inseparable from Qin Mo.

The Mohists in the south are neither academic nor attached to the powerful state system like vines, but continue to walk among the people. They insist on "wearing fur and brown clothes, standing on tiptoe, working day and night, and taking self-torture as the extreme", imitating the ascetic style of the ancient sage King Dayu, and are considered fundamentalists in the Mohist school.

They also inherited the Mohist concept of universal love and non-aggression. In all previous wars, they have played the role of helping the invaded small countries to resist the big countries, and often lobbied the princes to stop fighting.

After explaining all this to Heifu yesterday, Cheng Shang said to Heifu in a yearning but regretful tone: "I heard from Master Tang that when Song destroyed Teng, the Southern Mo was in Teng; when Qi destroyed Song, the Southern Mo was in Shangqiu; when the Five Kingdoms attacked Qi, the Southern Mo was in Jimo, helping Tian Dan defend the city..."

But as the small countries on the Si River were almost destroyed by Qi, Chu and other countries, the scale of Qin's annexation war became larger and larger, and the shadow of the Southern Mo gradually faded out of the world's vision.

Unexpectedly, when Chu was in danger, they appeared in front of the Qin army again!

Moreover, they were on the opposite side!

Li You was from Shangcai. When he was a child, he had heard a lot about Meng Sheng and the Southern Mo, so he knew what this group of people were going to do with his eyes closed! So he directly stated their intentions.

Unexpectedly, Xiang Lige did not deny it, and said calmly: "Yes, Xiang Lige just wanted to persuade the general to stop attacking Ruyin..."

Li You did not directly drive him out, and sneered: "The Mohists are good at arguing, you should tell me your reason."

Xiang Lige bowed and talked freely: "I heard that the laws of Qin are strict. If there is a person who enters someone's garden and steals his peaches and plums, everyone will condemn it when they hear it, and the rulers will definitely arrest and punish him severely. Why? Harming others and benefiting oneself is illegal."

Then, he began to speak at length, and listed many illegal and unjust things such as people stealing people's dogs and pigs, taking people's cattle and horses, and taking people's spears and swords. Finally, he said:

"However, all the above behaviors are not as serious as attacking other countries! Attacking other countries, destroying their gardens, taking their dogs and pigs, cattle and horses, killing their people, and occupying their cities and temples is a great injustice!"

Li You glanced at Qin Mo and Cheng Shang, and it was obvious that he wanted Cheng Shang to refute.

Cheng Shang could only bite the bullet and go on stage, saying: "However, King Chu Fu Chu killed his brother and usurped the throne, and violated the oath with Qin. The army attacked him, just like Yu conquered You Miao, Tang conquered Jie, and King Wu conquered Zhou. This is a righteous army! Zi Mozi did not forbid it!"

"No!"

Xiang Lige immediately seized this flaw and said: "Yu conquered You Miao, Tang conquered Jie, and King Wu conquered Zhou. They were not attacks, but only punished the culprits. Because their people were living in misery, they were punished by heaven. The three kings conquered by heaven, and only in this way could they succeed. They did not burn, kill, and plunder, but established a new order, so that the people could live and work in peace..."

"This..."

Heifu knew that Cheng Shang was an honest man, and Qin Mo was mostly a "doer" school, and was good at practical business, but in terms of debate, how could he compare with Nan Fang Zhi Mo, who was often responsible for lobbying and playing some theories? Suddenly, he was a little speechless.

Moreover, what Xiang Lige said later was also irrefutable based on the Mohist theory that Cheng Shang knew.

"The Qin army entered the Chu territory in the early spring, and the spring ploughing and crops of both Qin and Chu were abandoned! If this war continues until the autumn, the people's harvest and storage will also be delayed. In this way, in a year, countless people in both countries will die of hunger and cold!"

"When the Qin army went to war, countless bamboo arrows, feather flags, tents, armor, spears, swords, and chariots used were damaged and could not be returned; countless cattle and horses were fat and strong when they were brought, but now most of them are thin and weak, and countless of them died and could not return; the road from Guanzhong to Chu is long, and the food is cut off and cannot be continued. Countless people died of illness and fatigue on the road!"

"Furthermore, the general wants to attack the two-li city of Ruyin and the four-li city. Can we capture this place without elite troops and without killing or injuring people? No, the attackers and defenders will kill tens of thousands of people, and the casualties will be thousands. The Chu State has a radius of a thousand miles and hundreds of cities. If we calculate this way, the Qin State will lose countless soldiers!"

These are all things in the "Mo Jing", which are irrefutable theories in the eyes of Mohists, so Cheng Mo was speechless.

Xiang Li Ge took the opportunity to rebuke him and said, "Cheng Shang, you also call yourself a Mohist, but since Mozi, Mohists have advocated promoting the benefits of the world and eliminating the harm of the world. But now you have abandoned non-aggression and universal love, and are fueling the great harm of the world such as unjust wars. Even if you have a clever skill, you are no longer a Mohist, but a fake Mohist! It's Gongshu!"

At the same time as Mozi, there was also a skilled craftsman, who was the famous Lu Ban, also known as Gongshu Ban. Gongshu Ban did not have the Mohist style. He helped the King of Chu to transform siege equipment, invented weapons such as ladders, and assisted the King of Chu in attacking Song and Yue. Therefore, he was regarded as a person who went against the Mohists by the Mohist followers.

Cheng Shang remembered that the Qin army had indeed killed prisoners and other unjust acts when attacking Chu. The idea in his heart began to waver. For a while, he could not speak anymore and could only retreat in shame.

After Xiang Lige rebuked Cheng Shang, he pleaded with Li You: "Therefore, wars have taken over countries and overthrown armies, thieves have abused the people, and the thrones of the gods have been stripped away, and the people have been scattered. It is not beneficial to the two countries of Qin and Chu, nor to heaven, ghosts and gods, and the people. I hope the captain can convey this to General Wang and the King of Qin, and turn hostility into friendship!"

Li You looked a little embarrassed. He originally wanted Cheng Shang to refute this guy, but he didn't expect that he was quite capable in his daily work, but he was not good at refutation, and he was defeated.

But even if Xiang Lige said anything, Li You would not withdraw his troops, let alone ask the King of Qin for a truce. His bright future would depend on this war to consolidate it, so how could he do something that would abandon his favor?

However, just as he was thinking about how to end it now, whether to take this man down and drive him away, Hei Fu, who had been sitting at the bottom and listening to the debate for a long time, stood up!

Hei Fu appreciated Qin Mo and Cheng Shang's practical work style, and was a little unhappy that he was defeated by Xiang Lige's argument. He wanted to save his face, so he laughed.

"Xiang Lizi, you and the Mohists of the Southern Mo, are you still living two hundred years ago, and you don't know the changes of cold and hot autumn and winter?"