Seeing that Li Di was coming, Xu Ping and Li Chan hurried forward, saw the greeting, welcomed him to the table and sat down.

He took off the cloak on his body and handed it to his followers around him. Li Di sat down. After Xu Ping and Li Shen also sat down, he said, "It's okay tonight. I heard that Li Tong is here to welcome you, so I'll come and take a look."

Xu Ping hurriedly bowed: "What kind of virtue is the right person? My husband is here? After these two days, I will go to visit my husband!"

Li Di smiled and said, "You are the one who is the one who is in the country. As usual, the officials of the past and counties are under the rule and are under your assassination. When I arrived in Mengzhou, it is naturally my duty to fulfill my friendship with the landlords to welcome you."

"If my husband said this, the subordinates were really ashamed!"

Li Di said: "Okay, don't talk about these false rituals tonight. Sit down and eat and drink, and talk some gossip."

Xu Ping then sat down again, one on the left and one on the right side of Li Shen, and was with Li Di on both sides. Because there were these veterans and important officials under his rule, they often had their official positions far above the transshipment envoy. In order not to affect official duties, the court had a special order, and the official affairs were as follows. The letters sent by prefectures and counties to the grain office were specifically stipulated that no matter what the identities of the prefectures were, they had to be written in the following format. In this sense, just by errands, Li Di, the former prime minister, was really a subordinate official of Xu Ping. However, with Li Di's identity, he would become the prime minister at any time when he entered the court again, and the transshipment envoy was just a middle-level official with low power and heavy responsibilities, and it was impossible to directly enter the two prefectures. In this sequence, Li Di's identity was far above Xu Ping.

This is the ancestral family law that gradually matured from the time of Emperor Taizong Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, that is, "to prevent things from being guarded and to be controlled by the slightest order", which is reflected in this way, which is "to fight against each other". That is, small officials in the local area hold great power, and important officials are restrained to prevent local powerful factions. In fact, Mengzhou's civil affairs are mainly based on the magistrate Li Shen, which also implements this principle.

After drinking a few rounds of wine, Li Di said to Xu Ping: "I heard from Judge Li Tong that you will sort out the new policy of Jingxi Road for a year recently for future generations to refer to. I wonder if this is the case?"

"What my husband said is right. I am about to take advantage of this time when the end of the year is approaching to complete this matter."

Li Di nodded: "Ducao has done a good job on Jingxi Road this year. I have been an official for decades and have never seen the increase in money and grain to the level of Jingxi Road last year. What is even more valuable is that the government has increased its money and grain, but the people have not suffered, but have improved with the days. As the saying goes, there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world. If it is not in the official position, it is in the people. In other words, if it is in the official position, it is not in the people. If the government has too much money and grain, it will inevitably be stripped of the people. However, it was not like this last year. There must be something different from the past. The old sayings in the past are probably useless."

Li Shen said: "My husband's words are the key points. The treasury of the prefectures and counties on Jingxi Road is full, but the people are not stripped of. Even if it is Mengzhou, it actually has benefits. Judging from the money and silk, there are so many more warehousing this year than in previous years. It is just that the price of silk has dropped, which makes money and grain have not increased income. I often visit the states. Not only is the life of the people not as difficult as before, but they are much more active than before, and many things that they could not afford before are now used."

"In fact, where does the wealth in the world come from? In ancient times, people dressed in animal skins, ate wild vegetables, ate raw vegetables, and drank blood. If they wanted to have a full meal, they could only think about it. Now, even poor families actually lived much better than when the wise men were arduous. If the wealth in the world came from, where did we get more wealth now?"

After hearing Xu Ping's words, Li Di smiled and said, "Although the way of heaven is constant, the world is impermanent. Judging from the past and the present, it is not wrong to say that the wealth in the world is fixed. Xu Ducao, you do not compare with others in your work, but in the classics, don't find anyone to write it."

After drinking for a long time, Xu Ping's face turned a little red, just concealing the embarrassment after listening to Li Di's words. Li Di was straightforward. After his death in history, Zhao Zhen wrote a monument specifically for him was "Shizhi". He was really not polite at all. Although Xu Ping was familiar with the scriptures, he had the knowledge of his previous life as a foundation and could not really calm down to study these knowledge of his predecessors. The classics were their shortcomings. If you just pick a sentence or two from the books of the predecessors, Xu Ping could write it out and write an article in a simplified manner. This is the strength of his strategy. However, due to the fundamental differences in the world view, outlook on life and values, he could not understand the subtleties of the theories of the predecessors. This is the weakness of the classics. If you want to use the classics to explain your theory, Xu Ping was really showing off his skills in front of the top scholar Li Di.

After drinking a sip of wine to cover up his embarrassment, Xu Ping said: "What I said is that what we are looking for this year's ancient books have been decided by Wang Gongchen, the magistrate of Fangcheng, and Li Liu, the magistrate of Fangcheng."

Li Di nodded: "This candidate is better than that. Wang Gongchen is the top scholar, so his articles are naturally good. Li Yue, the magistrate of Fangcheng, has also heard his name and read one or two of his articles. He is indeed insightful. In terms of the foundation of classics, Li Yue is no less than Sun Fu of Taishan and Hu Yuan of Suzhou. Only when he participates, your ideas can be established."

As an official and a Jinshi, the scholars of the folk did not have this priority. In fact, most of the founders of academic schools in this era and famous figures were not successful. Sun Fu, the founder of the Taishan School, who was the first to win the Jinshi, failed four times, and Sun Yuan, the founder of the Suhu School, made Jiangnan a major Neo-Confucianism, failed seven times. If Li Wei had not met Xu Ping, he would have failed many tests in history. Their academic and ideas were spread through lectures and were also famous.

This is a characteristic of the times. The imperial examination is not the meaning of the classics. After all, the imperial examination is a selection examination. As long as the suitable talents can be selected, it is not a ability examination. Passing the imperial examination does not mean that you have the ability to be an official. Most officials who are from Jinshi are actually mediocre. However, the selection of officials cannot be carried out. Whether it is suitable or not depends on the evaluation at work. Because great scholars often fail the exam, they say indignantly that the imperial examination system is unfair, which is actually unreasonable. The great scholars who passed the imperial examination, such as Zhu Xi in history, were not actually very outstanding officials. Forcibly changed the selection examination into a ability examination, changed from focusing on poetry and essays to focusing on classics, and finally evolved into eight-legged essays in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which had no positive significance.

It is precisely because of this that Li Wei's reputation is much heavier than his official position. Among the officials on Jingxi Road, he is much more famous than ordinary magistrates. Xu Ping's choice of Li Wei has already made this matter more theoretical.

To establish a law of all ages, it is far from enough to rely solely on the extra money and food collected by Xu Ping on the West Road of Jing. It must also be supported by widely recognized theories. For example, Sang Hongyang of the Han Dynasty, Di Wuqi of the Tang Dynasty and Liu Yan of the Tang Dynasty made revolutionary contributions in financial thoughts and measures, but none of them formed a systematic theory, and often the political failure was lost. Another extreme example of the Legalist school has the practice of Shang Yang's reforms, and Han Feizi's theory, no matter how he belittled and opposed it in later generations, it has been circulated. Even thoughts such as "respecting the root and suppressing the end" were absorbed by various schools in later generations. In fact, many of the financial management ideas in this era came from Legalists. Han Fei listed industry and commerce as the "five pests", and Shang Yang believed that scholars, merchants and skilled people were the theoretical basis for valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce.8
Chapter completed!