Zhao Weiwang in the Warring States Period

Most importantly, he succeeded.

As a mere businessman, he successfully supported the king of the world's most powerful country. Looking at China for 5000 years, Lu Buwei's achievements are really unrivaled, and he is the only one!

The idiom "exotic goods can live in" comes from Lu Buwei's investment that people still talk about after 2000.

What Lu Buwei invested in was the proton that Qin State sent to Zhao State Handan before, Zhao Yiren, a son of the current Prince An Guojun of Qin State.

This Zhao Yiren is the historical King Zhuangxiang of Qin.

This King Qin Zhuangxiang is actually not the point, the point is that this King Qin Zhuangxiang gave birth to a son to inherit his throne, and the name of this heir is Zhao Zheng.

Zhao Zheng is Qin Shihuang!

The guy Lu Buwei invested in is Qin Shihuang's father!

More importantly, when Lu Buwei was about to invest in Zhao Yiren, Qin Shihuang's father, Zhao Yiren was just a guy who couldn't be ranked at all.

At this time, the monarch of Qin State was Zhao Yiren's grandfather Qin Wangji, and then Zhao Yiren's father, An Guojun, succeeded to the throne after Qin Wangji died, and Zhao Yiren's hope could only be expected after An Guojun's death.

But the problem is that An Guojun has more than 20 sons, and Zhao Yiren is just one of them who cannot be ranked. Moreover, Zhao Yiren's mother Xia Ji is also a concubine with no strength. How do you think about the possibility of Zhao Yiren inheriting the throne of King Qin are infinitely close to zero.

Before getting to know Lu Buwei, Zhao Yiren didn't even dare to dream that he would one day become the king of Qin.

But under the sole control of this Lu Buwei, this infinitely close to zero possibility was abruptly realized by Lu Buwei!

Lu Buwei also took advantage of this to make a fortune, from a businessman who was rich but had no social status to speak of, and transformed into the prime minister of Qin, the most powerful country among the seven heroes.

It was with the assistance of Lu Buwei that the young Qin Shihuang was able to grow up step by step, and finally became the first emperor in China's 5000 years who could rule the world through the ages.

Even in some unofficial histories and rumors, Lu Buwei is very likely to be Qin Shihuang's biological father

Of course, Zhao Dan didn't ask Lu Buwei to come here today to verify Qin Shihuang's life experience, and he wasn't those aunts who have short parents every day, so why gossip?

Zhao Dan's real purpose is actually very simple, that is to get in touch with this future famous figure of Qin, and see what kind of person this Lu Buwei is.

So Zhao Dan coughed, and said to Lu Buwei: "After hearing that you are the Grand Duke Wang, I don't know if this is true?"

Taigong Wang is one of the many titles of Lu Shang Jiang Ziya, the founding hero of the Zhou Dynasty.

The reason why Zhao Dan asked this was because Lu Shang, like Lu Buwei, belonged to the Lu family with the Jiang surname.

Seeing that Lu Buwei's face turned red slightly, he said: "Back to Your Majesty, Tai Gong Wang is the ancestor of Buwei."

The reason why Lu Buwei blushed is actually very simple. After all, his ancestor was the founding hero of the Zhou Dynasty, was named the Grand Master of the Zhou Dynasty, and was also the founder of the old overlord Qi State among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. He belonged to the top class of nobles. As a result, when he arrived at Lu Buwei's place, he had become the last businessman among the "Scholar, Farmer, Industry and Commerce", and no one could look up.

But Zhao Dan would not give up asking just because Lu Buwei blushed, only to see Zhao Dan smiled and said: "Since you have this family background, why do you want to embarrass your ancestors by holding this business business?"

Lu Buwei took a deep breath, knowing that Zhao Dan was deliberately making things difficult for him.

Although Lu Buwei didn't know why Zhao Dan made things difficult for him, but Lu Buwei knew very well that he had been pushed to the edge of a cliff.

If he can't pass this hurdle, it is almost certain that as long as today's incident gets out, his reputation of Lu Buwei will be ruined.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, not too many people were ruined because of a trivial matter, let alone being questioned by the king.

So Lu Buwei straightened his body, first bowed and saluted Zhao Dan, and then said in a deep voice: "Buwei disagrees with what the king said."

"Scholars, farmers, and businessmen are the four peoples of the country. The scholars rule the country, the farmers attack the chestnuts, the workers attack the weapons, and the merchants attack the goods. The four peoples perform their duties, and the country can prosper. If there is no one, the country will not prosper. The Taigong hopes to seal it in the camp. Qiu, there are few people in the land, so the Taigong persuaded his female workers to be very skillful, and they can use fish and salt, so that the characters will return to them, and Qi can be strong and exterminate the princes. This is the way of merchants and merchants, which is beneficial to the country. How can you make your ancestors feel ashamed and evil if you follow the way of your ancestors to make a living?"

What these words mean is that the four classes of scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen are all part of the country. If any one is missing, it is like three missing one on the mahjong table. This game of cards will not allow the country to continue.

When Jiang Ziya was sealed in Yingqiu, there was a sparsely populated saline-alkali land, so Jiang Ziya encouraged the women of the Qi State to weave embroidery, and asked the men of the Qi State to fish and dry salt to sell in other countries. Developed through commercial transactions and grew into a powerful country, this is where the way of merchants is beneficial to the country.

As the twelfth grandson of Jiang Ziya, I, Lu Buwei, actually use the principles of my ancestor Jiang Ziya's rule of the country to do business. Since I have carried forward the things of my ancestors, how can I be regarded as embarrassing to my ancestors?

As soon as this remark came out, not only Zhao Dan nodded secretly, but he praised Lu Buwei in his heart that he was indeed worthy of a generation of heroes, even the Pingyang Lord Zhao Bao, who had originally sneered at Lu Buwei, was surprised, obviously he did not expect that in his eyes, he was just "holding up" Such a guy as "the cheap business of merchants" can actually say such brilliant remarks.

Zhao Dan smiled slightly, and said: "Mr. Lu is really high-spirited. If what Mr. Lu said, is the way of merchants able to govern the country?"

If the previous little interrogation was a foreplay, then starting from this question, Zhao Dan's "investigation" on Lu Buwei this time began to officially enter the answer part.

Whether this Lu Buwei is such a talented person as the later generations said, should be judged from the next answer.

And this judgment will determine Zhao Dan's attitude towards Lu Buwei, for example

Kill or stay?

Chapter 25 Zhao Wangdan asked Lu Buwei (2)

If Lu Buwei was caught off guard when Zhao Dan questioned Lu Buwei earlier, then now, this Warring States wizard who is only 32 years old this year and not much older than Zhao Dan has completely calmed down.

This kind of questioning before the emperor was very common in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

The monarch asks the question face to face, and the questioner answers it impromptu.Since it is impossible for you to know what aspects the monarch will ask, this is a test of the answerer's knowledge reserve and ability to adapt.

This is both a test and an opportunity.If you can't pass it, then your reputation will be ruined. Basically, you don't want to go into politics again in this life, but if you can pass this test and be appreciated by the king, then it is not impossible to fly to the sky .

Let’s just talk about other examples, such as the current Prime Minister of Qin, Fan Sui, that guy seized the opportunity to persuade Qin Wangji by virtue of the only meeting, and then stepped on the corpses of Ranghou Wei Ran and Qin’s four nobles to succeed ?

The opportunity is here, it depends on whether you can seize it.

Lu Buwei narrowed his eyes, and didn't speak immediately, he seemed to be thinking about something, and Zhao Dan was not in a hurry, he just smiled and ate the delicious food prepared by the chef of Pingyang Jun's mansion in front of him. If you come up with a proposition, you have to give people a few minutes to sort out their thoughts before they can write.

Zhao Bao on the side was not so calm. This Lord Pingyang looked at Zhao Dan in the hall for a while, and Lu Buwei in the hall for a while, with both puzzlement and surprise in his eyes.

Because the kings of all countries have adopted the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, from the government and the legal level, the suppression of businessmen is relatively serious. From time to time, a few businessmen have to be arrested and sentenced to beheaded to scare those people. The guy who "cuts the root and chases the end".

Therefore, as Si Kou, the highest legal person in Zhao State, Zhao Bao is no stranger to the group of businessmen, so he also knows that Lu Buwei actually started to shift the center of his business from Wei State to Zhao State in the last year or two. And in a short period of time, he made friends with many officials of the State of Zhao, and the business was also very impressive, and he was likely to compete with several top wealthy businessmen of the State of Zhao.

So Zhao Bao sent people to investigate Lu Buwei, and had several contacts with Lu Buwei. Of course, Zhao Bao didn't go to Lu Buwei to ask for bribes, but wanted to see if he could catch something about Lu Buwei's violation of discipline, and then Use Lu Buwei's head as your own merit

It is precisely because of this that Zhao Bao was so surprised and puzzled in his heart. Could it be that this mere businessman is able to say something about how to govern the country?

Amid Zhao Dan's straightforward Hu Saihai and Zhao Bao's expectant and disdainful gazes, Lu Buwei finally raised his head and bowed solemnly to Zhao Dan.

Obviously, this guy is going to start answering questions.

"Back to your lord, I have heard that Lao Tzu once said: Dao can be Dao, it is very Dao. Han Feizi also said: The Dao is the way of all things, and the basis of all principles. The man of reason is the way of things; The reason why it is successful. Therefore, it is said: Tao is the one who makes sense.”

"Based on unworthy views, whether it is the way of merchants or merchants, or the way of governing the country, if you want to succeed, you must know the truth. In the past, Fan Li first helped Goujian to destroy Wu, and then became rich in business in the name of Tao Zhugong. Why? He is Fan Lixiao's way of governing the country, and also understands the principles of business."

"Therefore, the way of merchants and the way of governing the country is nothing more than reason. If you get the reason, the way of merchants is feasible, and the way of governing the country is also feasible. If you don't understand the reason, neither of them can be practiced. The way of merchants and the way of governing the country Where the paths are similar!"

After Lu Buwei said these words, Zhao Dan was fine, but the eyes of Pingyang Jun Zhao Bao who was sitting beside him were all round, and the word shock in capital letters was all over his face!

What Lu Buwei said just now is to say: "Both Lao Tzu and Han Feizi said that things like Tao are very mysterious, and if you want to understand Tao, the best way is to understand it through the laws of Tao, that is, principles. "

"In my opinion, Lu Buwei, the way of merchants and the way of governing the country is actually the same. If you want to succeed, you must master the laws of these ways, that is, the principles. Why was Fan Li able to help Goujian govern the country when he was a doctor of the Yue State? To be able to go into business and become the richest man in the world after destroying the state of Wu and resigning bravely? That is because Fan Li understands the truth."