Chapter 283 Desperate Conspiracy
The competition among a hundred schools of thought has always attracted the attention of people all over the world.
There were almost no surprises in the results of the previous debate, so the response was not very great.
However, the results of the second round of debates shocked everyone in the world.
"Technology?" Cao Cao showed curiosity when he heard this previously unfamiliar word.
Xi Zhicai handed over the information and said in a deep voice: "My lord, in this debate among the Hundred Schools of Thought, the Mohist School and the Confucian School are nominally on par, but in fact they are the leaders."
"In just one month, not only was the agricultural work under his rule not affected at all, but he also built an iron smelting plant, a brick factory and other factories, greatly improving the productivity of the village."
"Roughly speaking, the resources that the entire village can provide are dozens of times more than before."
Cao Cao was stunned when he heard this: "How is this possible? Could it be that the Mohists have such a powerful ability?"
It’s not that there was no assembly line operation in this era. After all, it already existed in the Qin Dynasty, and the management model under the rule of Cao Cao and others was relatively not backward.
The internal affairs managed by various princes are ultimately aimed at improving the overall work efficiency and productivity of the people. However, even a genius like Xun Yu can only improve it by a few percent on the original basis at most.
Of course, the improvement is much greater than that of the chaotic state.
However, the dozens-fold increase in productivity still completely exceeds ordinary people's imagination.
Xi Zhicai sighed: "That's the truth. Moreover, this improvement in efficiency is not limited to individuals, but affects the entire village, and can even be extended to counties."
"Even if the effect will be greatly weakened, I'm afraid it will still be very significant."
Even in modern society, with all kinds of advanced technologies, development in different regions is still uneven, and there are even quite poor areas, let alone this era.
The difficulty of individual improvement and overall improvement cannot be compared. Just like under Tian Ze's rule today, although the people in Bingzhou and Jizhou are not starving or freezing to death, their lives are not very rich.
Although the governance methods of other schools are effective, their models are almost impossible to replicate, and many models are only applicable to situations where the managers have extremely strong personal abilities.
Although the Mohist model is due to the personal abilities of Mo Chen and others, the personal factors do not actually account for a large proportion, and it is possible to simplify and replicate it.
With the help of science and technology, it is entirely possible to fundamentally improve the overall productivity under one's rule.
There was a gleam in Cao Cao's eyes.
"Are there any Mohist disciples under our rule? Are they willing to serve as officials?"
Are you kidding? Any model that can directly and fundamentally improve productivity, if it can improve it by 10% or 20%, is almost enough to surpass the value of Xun Yu.
Xi Zhicai sighed: "The part of the Mohist School that is currently in charge of technology has already been wiped out by Tian Chengshou."
"Although we may have some descendants of the Mohist branch under our rule, it will probably take more than ten years for them to achieve great success."
"Besides, there are not many skilled craftsmen under our rule. There are only a few among the wealthy and powerful families. The rest were poached by Tian Chengshou a few years ago."
Tian Chengshou, the sixth one!
Cao Cao felt secretly resentful and powerless.
The other party's eyes always seem to see the most fundamental problems and grasp the most core interests, and they are always unaware of it.
While the princes of the world were fighting for territory, soldiers, money and food, this guy was cutting off the source of the problem and directly poaching the population, craftsmen and families.
By the time they reacted, it was too late.
Now, Tian Chengshou told them the importance of these things, but his attitude was already condescending. Most of these precious wealth had already been taken away by the other party, and it was too late for them to wake up. Now that we encourage childbirth, the opportunity has faded, but if we don't encourage it, the future will be a dead end.
The same is true for developing technology.
Can they afford to wait for nearly ten years? By then, who knows what will have happened under Tian Ze's rule, and they will never catch up.
Seeing the disappointment on Cao Cao's face, Xi Zhicai comforted him: "My lord, although Tian Chengshou's reminder was a little late, it was still right after all."
"Even if we can't catch up, we should pay attention to the development of these areas now. After all, this will benefit us in the end and may be useful in the future."
"Besides..." Xi Zhicai paused, a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
"What else?" asked Cao Cao.
"Yuan Chang sent a message that Pang Shiyuan, who is under Liu Bei's command, hopes to discuss the reform with us."
"Reform?" Cao Cao frowned.
"Changing the law at this time? What is Liu Xuande thinking? Doesn't he think he's dying fast enough?"
All reforms are bound to involve bloodshed and affect the interests of vested interests.
From a long-term perspective, reform is beneficial, but during the painful period of reform it is likely to lead to a decline in strength and internal chaos, giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage.
If you want to reform, the prerequisite is a relatively stable environment. Otherwise, once it is interrupted by external forces, the gains will definitely outweigh the losses. And even if it succeeds, it will take a long time to see the effect.
How could Cao Cao not know the benefits and necessity of reform?
Every time he read a piece of intelligence about Tian Zezhi, he felt more hostile to the aristocratic families. Although he usually relied on their power, to Cao Cao, these people were stumbling blocks.
But now is not the time to fall out with the powerful families.
Secret suppression and maintaining the status quo are already the best options.
If they turned against each other at this time, both sides would suffer losses, so Tian Ze easily took it over.
"My lord, you can consider it." Mao Jie, who had been silent on the side, suddenly spoke.
Xun Yu also nodded, and even Xi Zhicai's eyes flickered.
"What do you think? Tell us."
Mao Jie took a deep breath, a solemn look on his face: "My Lord, whether it is population, technology or reform, it must be Tian Chengshou's conspiracy."
"A hopeless conspiracy!"
Among all the people in this world, the only one who could truly move Mao Jie when he activated his talent state was perhaps Tian Ze.
"Tian Chengshou told us why he could win and how he would win. He even told us how to find a glimmer of hope in a losing situation and what choices we should make."
"In fact, from the beginning to the end, we had no other choice. Even if we knew what Tian Chengshou was going to do, we had no way to do it, and we had to follow his path."
After hearing Mao Jie's words, Xun Yu and Xi Zhicai sighed deeply.
The feeling of frustration that they still couldn't win even though the opponent had revealed their cards made them extremely uncomfortable.
Now, it is no longer a matter of what they want to do, but what they can only do.
(End of this chapter)
