As he walked out of the room, Ning Yi sighed.
Li Pin was still in the room. Perhaps she was digesting those thoughts, and perhaps even memorizing some of them. But that didn't matter. He didn't care what he thought about the things that had been said. If he thought about them in the future, that would be Li Pin's thoughts and path.
He had said some of his thoughts, and he hadn't said some of them. Just as he had said, "It's all a joke." This wasn't just a pretense to avoid arousing suspicion. In his eyes, all of this was really just a joke, an irresponsible joke.
To make up for the flaws and loopholes in the regime before him was practically a fool's talk. Of course, he had naturally thought about the problems he was facing. For example, commerce. Commerce was not a shortcoming in the Wu dynasty that urgently needed to be developed. It was already a long board, and it was longer than anyone else. In terms of balanced development, many other systems could no longer keep up with the development of commerce. If commerce was developed, even if it could taste the sweetness, it would still be abnormal. For a country, this abnormality was truly too dangerous.
And Confucianism had already reached the point where it was saturated and overflowing. If it really was possible to take a step forward, refining the division of labor was also a very good direction. On one hand, it could reasonably distribute the overflowing educational capacity, and on the other hand, it could welcome the possible industrial revolution. Of course, it looked beautiful, but the problem was that it was a joke.
The reason for all of this was Confucianism.
Ning Yi said that he worshipped Confucianism. This was not flattery or irony, but admiration from the bottom of his heart. He was used to management and could clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of various management disciplines. In a company with thousands or tens of thousands of people, he could perfect the system and manage the people well. Everyone followed the system and established a cycle, and everything would be fine. But life was not so simple, and a country was by no means so superficial.
Confucianism was not the pedantic and useless knowledge of Confucius. Confucius' Analects of Confucius only taught people the principles of cultivating their hearts and minds, and some rules of life. Later on, the rulers found the key to this rule. They found out how to formulate rules and how to use and guide these rules. Then, generation after generation, they perfected and added to it. If they encountered a problem, they would modify it, fine-tune it, and find a way to compromise. For thousands of years, the top figures of every dynasty were involved in perfecting this set of ruling philosophy. It was like a great wave washing away the sand …
After tearing away the seemingly gentle and pedantic outer layer, this was a truly practical ruling system. In modern management philosophy, if a company could cultivate a company culture and make people feel a sense of belonging, it would take a lot of effort. It was almost the ultimate goal. If modern management was an eight-digit computer program, then Confucianism was a complete set of genetic tree maps. It managed the hearts of tens of millions of people, and no one could feel it at all. People would only feel that it was a matter of course.
Thousands of years of development, evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest. If the Han people were to be considered as a whole, this was practically one of the genes that he had developed. Even in the next thousand years, whoever ruled this land could only use Confucianism in a modified form. It was not that everyone really admired the Han culture, but that if they did not use this model, they would only be eliminated. In terms of exquisiteness and complexity, whether it was the European constitutional monarchy, parliamentary system, church rule, Japan's Bushido, or India's caste system, they were all far inferior to Confucianism.
It was like a large spider web. If you moved, the people next to you would pull you, one link after another, layer after layer. If one wanted to improve internally, no one knew where to put their strength, and no one knew how much strength to use to achieve results. It was like punching the surface of the water. No matter how high the splash was, it would eventually be pushed back. If a person wanted to reform, he would have to face a huge net made up of tens of millions of people. It was the amalgamation of the wisdom of the top figures in every dynasty and every year for thousands of years. It was a huge Taiji diagram. It was like a person's power trying to make a mess in such a system.
As for Ning Yi, he would sit there and think about and appreciate such a system. He would even tremble at the exquisite and peerless ingenuity. He would look at it as a work of art. But if he was asked to reform it, he did not have the confidence to do so. In some dynasties, there would be some peerless geniuses who found the key point, but not many people could have confidence in whether the key point was right or not. In the Northern Song's Wang Anshi's reform, a genius received the emperor's support and persisted for many years. In the end, he was crushed to death by the huge feedback. In the Qin Dynasty's Shang Yang's reform, he found the key point and succeeded. But as a person, he still offended too many people and was finally dismembered.
In China's philosophy, there was Taiji and Yin and Yang. The greater the strength, the greater the feedback. Those who wanted to make vigorous reforms in the Confucian system would not end up well. Of course, those who had certain ideas could use their own efforts to push this system. Li Pin had the qualifications to do so. If she wanted to do it, she would do it. That was why Ning Yi would casually say those things to her.
However, in Ning Yi's heart, internal reforms were arduous and unrewarding. No matter how good he was at scheming and power struggles, with the support of modern theories, or even if he could use Taiji Fist to make the entire imperial court run amok, he was not confident that he could withstand the feedback.
Of course, there was no need to resist it. If he really wanted to do something, Ning Yi would only consider becoming another Liao or Jin and destroying the entire Wu Dynasty from the outside. The ruling system had to rely on the existence of people. After the country was destroyed, the Confucian system would fall into a state of rigidity. People would then be able to take the opportunity to stuff whatever they wanted into the system. At the same time, the many redundancies that the ruling system had produced over the years could be swept away. It was like reinstalling a computer system, and then … waiting to see what it would look like when it was slowly digested.
This was what Ning Yi truly felt was the simplest method of reform. Of course, even if he was just chatting, he wouldn't mention this to Li Pin. What Li Pin wanted was the means of internal reform, so he told her his views on internal reform. Li Pin was not the kind of person who blindly followed and did not know how to think. Even if he was frightened by Li Pin's alarmist talk, he would gradually digest it and turn it into his own view. If this person could really achieve something in the future, Ning Yi would probably watch all these changes from the sidelines and find it interesting.
It was only afternoon, and he was just an idle and bored son-in-law of a merchant family. After he finished speaking, he tossed the idle talk to the back of his mind and walked out of the academy. When he arrived at the gates of Mount Yu Academy, he saw two carriages parked in a corner on the side of the road. Some attendants and bodyguards were probably waiting for someone. Seeing the carriages from the Prince of Yong's residence, Ning Yi was slightly puzzled. He turned his head to look in the direction of the academy.
Could it be that brother and sister had come to challenge the academy again and had missed him?
It was good that they had missed each other. Ning Yi shook his head with a mischievous smile and left. At this moment, he had not eaten lunch and was preparing to go to a restaurant near the academy to eat something. As he turned the corner, he saw Xiaochan walking over from the other side of the road. Passing by the shade of a large pagoda tree, she saw him and smiled as she waved her hand. "Son-in-law." Sunlight shone down from above the pagoda tree.
Following behind Xiaochan was a servant, holding a box in his hands. Recently, quite a few refugees had suddenly entered the city. Although public security was generally good, the Su mansion still repeatedly warned that female servants had to be accompanied when going out to avoid any mishaps. This servant had probably been ordered by Xiaochan to act as an attendant and bodyguard. At this moment, he had already seen Ning Yi. Xiaochan turned her head and said a few words to him. Afterwards, she nodded slightly and bowed in thanks, sending the servant back. The servant was somewhat overwhelmed by the favor. When she was in a good mood, Xiaochan was always the most polite, treating everyone amiably and amiably.
At the same time, a pair of brother and sister sneakily emerged from the gates of Mount Yu Academy that Ning Yi had just left. Seeing that Ning Yi was nowhere to be seen, they returned to being open and aboveboard. Zhou Junwu looked at the two sides of the street, his shoulders slumping. "Elder sister, that Ning Yi is very formidable."
Zhou Pei was somewhat silent, frowning. After a long time, she glanced at her younger brother and said, "I also know that he is very formidable."
"Then, do we still test him?"
"Of course, we have to ask him." Zhou Pei thought for a moment and walked towards the carriage. "But we'll come back when we're ready."
"Yes, yes." Zhou Junwu followed behind and nodded in agreement. "He can actually defeat that Li Pin. He's so formidable. How formidable is he … but I don't quite understand what he said … Elder sister, do you understand …"
"Shut up."
"Oh … but I think …"
The voices of the siblings disappeared from this side of the street as the carriage set off. On an early autumn afternoon, white clouds drifted leisurely. On another street, on the other side of the street, Ning Yi and Xiaochan were going to a nearby restaurant.
That night, Zhou Pei sat in the garden of Prince Kang's Mansion in a daze. There were no lamps around, and no servant girls came to disturb her. The young girl, who had the status of a princess, had always liked to think in such a quiet environment. She wore a long dress, and her hair was still wet after bathing. She took off her shoes and socks and leaned against the pavilion in the garden. It was close to the middle of July. The moon was bright, and fireflies were dancing in the flowers and grass nearby.
Zhou Junwu was not at home that night. After dinner, he went to play with Grandpa Consort. At this time, he was also sitting in the garden of the Prince Consort's Mansion to enjoy the cool air. While the other children were running around and playing, he secretly repeated what he heard today to Kang Xian.
"Grandpa Consort, does that Ning Yi make sense?"
Kang Xian frowned, and his gaze was as serious as a bottomless abyss. He had always been known for his seriousness in learning, but in front of children like Zhou Pei and Zhou Junwu, it was a different kind of seriousness. He rarely looked at them like this. Unless he was really talking about something very important with Elder Qin and the others, he would not look at them like this if they were just friends.
"He … That's all he said?"
"Yes. Elder sister seems to understand some of it, but there should be a lot that you don't understand … I think he's very impressive. Even that Li Pin admitted defeat. Grandpa Consort, can I invite him to be my teacher … "
At the same time, in the Su mansion. In the corridor on the second floor of the small building, Ning Yi had long forgotten the messy things he had said during the day. At this time, he was sitting leisurely in the pavilion with Su Tan'er, Chan'er, Juan'er, and Xing'er, peeling oranges and eating leisurely. Of course, it was not really leisurely. After eating an orange, Su Tan'er wiped her mouth and stood up. "I'm full. Husband, eat slowly."
"Hey, you don't have to eat so fast."
Ning Yi's tone was casual, but it was a style that Su Tan'er was quite used to. There were still many oranges in the small bamboo basket on the table. Su Tan'er turned around and smiled helplessly. "I still have things to do …"
"Do you need help?"
"No need. Husband, eat the oranges."
Su Tan'er smiled sweetly and turned around to return to her room. She had been quite busy recently. The flood was coming, and the city gate was about to be sealed. She had to make plans for all kinds of things first. Then, she had to transfer the funds she had at hand and secretly accumulate them in preparation for a big move. Although she was tired, she seemed to be in good spirits. Perhaps there had been a breakthrough in the matter of the royal merchant.
Everything seemed to be going quite smoothly, just like this life …
*****
I've always been doing theories and ideas seriously. Some people like them, while others don't. Perhaps these kinds of things are always strenuous and unrewarding, but in a self-consistent world, what should be done must be done.
Next, we officially entered the second half of the Pool of Dark War, the royal merchant.
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