People in the Qin Dynasty, entertained during the Warring States period

This reminded him of the famous dish "Shark Fin with Bear Paw" that Paoding later copied from Haiyue Xiaozhu, but he wondered what it tasted like.

He craved her for almost half the summer back then. If it weren't for the issue of protecting animals, he would have stayed at his beautiful boss's house for several more days.

Just as Cao Ze was about to sit down, a handsome old man with an almost otherworldly air walked in.

"Haha, I've really caught up with the chef's dishes. I'll stay for ten days or half a month this time to really enjoy them."

Gongzi Mou approached, glanced at Cao Ze a few times, and then calculated with his fingers, "Hey, you're the Cao Ze that Old Lu was talking about, right?"

"I heard some of your stories about Journey to the West in the State of Wei, and that's how you lured me here. That Journey to the West is truly amazing, full of gods, demons, and strange tales, so wonderful!"

Gongsun Long snorted, "I was wondering why you old codger wrote to me asking for it."

Lu Goujian introduced to Cao Ze: "You should have heard of Wei Gongzi Mou, a member of the Yang Zhu school of Taoism."

"Preserve the true nature of things, and do not let material possessions burden your form."

Cao Ze cupped his hands and said, "Junior Cao Ze greets senior."

Gongzi Mou waved his hand, "No need for formalities. We believe in not giving away a single hair or taking a single penny."

"If you don't bow to me, I won't bother to return the bow."

Cao Ze smiled and said, "Senior is so carefree."

Unlike the extreme moralism of the Mohist school of universal love, the Yang Zhu school advocated "valuing oneself," "acting for oneself," and "treating material things lightly and valuing life," among other things.

Unfortunately, it has been misinterpreted by later generations, who only know the exquisite selfishness of not giving a single hair, while ignoring the restraint of not taking a single penny.

Jingni sat next to Cao Ze, and hadn't uttered a word since she came in.

This is already quite surprising.

In the small farmhouse, besides her, there are already three grandmasters and one half-step grandmaster of Taoism.

No wonder all the missions involving the various schools of thought in her past work within the Luo Wang organization were of a high-risk level.

This is indeed a force that cannot be ignored in the world.

Cao Ze thought to himself, he knew that the Daoist sect in Qin Shi Huang's time couldn't possibly only consist of the Heavenly and Human sects on Mount Taiyi.

The Liezi School, the Yang Zhu School, the Huang-Lao School, the Lao-Zhuang School...

It is comparable to the eight major schools of Confucianism and the three branches of Mohism.

Everyone was relaxed and started eating right away.

After tasting the dishes prepared by the butcher, Cao Ze was deeply impressed, saying that they were far superior to a certain Fangshan restaurant in later generations.

It's so delicious! It's even better than the chef at Guo Kai's mansion.

I'd love to come and freeload a few more times if I had the chance. It would be even better if I could recruit the butcher to be my private chef.

The butcher, who was eating nearby, felt that Cao Ze's gaze was a bit strange, like a broker eyeing his goods, and he couldn't help but feel a chill.

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat, so Cao Ze picked up another piece of pork kidney.

After the meal, at Gongzi Mou's request, Cao Ze told a story from Journey to the West.

He thought to himself that if Luo Wang Yan Ri and Xuan Jian came to assassinate him together, he would definitely come over and show Yan Ri and Xuan Jian what the world was like.

However, it was just a thought; he didn't have the influence to have Yan Ri and Xuan Jian act together.

After listening to Cao Ze finish telling the new Journey to the West, Wei Gongzi Mou narrowed his eyes and said with a smug look, "How wonderful, how wonderful."

Cao Ze smiled faintly. Speaking of seniority, this person is one of the founders of Quanxing in the world of one person.

Suddenly, a thought struck Cao Ze, and he had a guess.

Is it possible that he didn't actually leave the world of Under One Person, but simply traveled back two thousand years?

Chapter 104 The Hundred Schools of Thought

Cao Ze returned to Handan with Jing Ni and Li Wu.

On the way, I kept pondering my earlier guess.

Think about it carefully, according to the world view background of Under One Person.

The Battle of Zhuolu was a major battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You. The sorcerer Feng Hou used his magic to help the Yellow Emperor defeat Chi You.

However, the background of Qin Shi Zhong is that the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden helped the Yellow Emperor achieve victory.

But this was only an era where myth and history intertwined; who can know the truth of the historical events?

Cao Ze thought about it carefully again.

According to the theory of "Under One Person".

At this time, Han Fei was a naturally gifted genius, and Zhang Liang was a master of divination.

Obviously, how could that be possible?

In the Qin Dynasty, Han Fei was clearly just a young nobleman who was proficient in the Six Arts.

He's considered a fighter among ordinary people, but among those who have cultivated, he's a complete novice; he probably couldn't even beat his younger sister, Honglian.

As for whether Zhang Liang knew Qimen Dunjia, it's not quite clear.

Cao Ze thought and thought, but still couldn't figure it out.

He still doesn't know how he time-traveled.

I was just eating a pancake at my beautiful boss's house and choked on it; I didn't realize I was going to choke to death at the time.

He suddenly lost consciousness and found himself in the world of Under One Person. He had finally cultivated to a high level, but before he could even go down the mountain to harm young girls, he was struck by lightning and ended up in the Green Green Grassland.

Most importantly, although he practiced Yin Five Thunder during a thunderstorm, he was not struck by lightning at all!

I just can't figure it out.

Cao Ze was slapping Donkey Brother's big buttocks.

I looked on with a hint of envy at the donkey brother who was happily following behind Ta Xue.

The saying goes, "The beginning of life's troubles is learning to read; once you've roughly memorized your name, you can rest easy."

Ignorance can sometimes be a blessing.

Upon entering Handan City, Cao Ze vaguely heard many people discussing something called "righteous army".

In just a few days, the news spread from the Qin state to Handan.

It seems that the Qin state deliberately sent this message.

But that has nothing to do with him.

As he mentioned before, this refers to shared knowledge and public knowledge.

The Qin state promoted the righteous army, directly transforming previously shared knowledge into public knowledge, thus employing a strategy of open warfare.

In short, surrender and you will not be killed.

Of course, this is too absolute; it simply means that they will no longer indiscriminately kill to gain military merit as before.

It would be easier to understand if we replaced it with the Confucian concept of a benevolent and righteous army.

However, for the six states, these did not pose a fundamental threat, given the Qin army's extremely poor reputation.

This theory mainly originated from another theory of righteous armies, which provided a righteous justification for the unification of the Qin state.

In the words of the Confucian school of logic, it is called "rectifying names," because when names are correct, words will be appropriate.

The so-called "righteous cause" of the Qin state was that the frequent diplomatic conflicts and endless wars among the states were mainly due to the fact that the Zhou dynasty had been destroyed and there was no emperor.

Therefore, the feudal lords fought each other, and the world could not find peace.

Therefore, the army must take unification as its mission, which is of paramount importance.

There is no god in the picture alone, but when you combine righteousness and benevolent army, and add the fact that Qin is still the strongest country at the time, then it becomes interesting.

Unfortunately, after Lü Buwei's death, the adaptive reforms he implemented for the long-term stability of the Qin state were not inherited.

With the resurgence of Legalism, the policy of rewarding military merit through "counting the number of soldiers and awarding titles" also gained importance.

For example, in the thirteenth year of King Zheng of Qin, "Huan attacked Pingyang of Zhao, killed the Zhao general, and beheaded 100,000."

This was the largest massacre in Qin history since the death of King Zhaoxiang.

This once again led to fierce resistance from the Qin army against the six states of Shandong.

As a result, "the army advanced only to destroy its own strength, and even after winning the battle, it returned having lost its strategy."

It wasn't until the State of Wei sent a talented strategist, Wei Liao, to the State of Qin that the trend of Qin using massacres to unify the country was reversed after Wei gained the trust and heavy reliance of Ying Zheng.

The main reason is that Wei Liao inherited the ideology of righteous soldiers, advocating "fighting with righteousness in mind," punishing tyranny, and prohibiting injustice.

In just ten years, the Qin state successfully unified the seven states.

However, another factor that must be mentioned in order to achieve successful unification is—

Before unification, and during wars, Qin Shi Huang was not particularly cruel.

There was no exclusive veneration of Legalism, nor was there any "burning of books and burying of scholars alive".

It even allowed the existence of various schools of thought, including the two major schools of Confucianism and Mohism, and permitted them to become officials.

Therefore, apart from revenge, there was no massacre, and he was even able to treat the virtuous and talented with respect, know how to appoint people to their positions, and be magnanimous.

This is why Wei Liao was able to rise to prominence.

Unfortunately, after unification, things went in the opposite direction; they became unrealistic and took steps that were far too ambitious...

Cao Ze took Jing Ni and her daughter, along with Li Wu, home.

Not long after entering the Snow Pavilion, he received an invitation from Consort Ya.

Cao Ze flipped through the invitation; it was all platitudes. He asked Consort Ya, "The Crown Prince invited me over tonight? What for?"

Consort Ya said, "Tomorrow is the Hundred Schools Society meeting. In the past, it was always hosted by His Majesty, but my brother's health has deteriorated in the last two years, so this task has been handed over to the Crown Prince."

"Guo Kai will be there tonight too, so keep an eye out for him."

Cao Ze nodded. "Are you going?"

Ya Fei smiled and said, "Of course I will go, but we can't act too intimately, lest Guo Kai suspect the relationship between us."