The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

On the top of Yangcheng, Heifu and a few soldiers walked behind, and in front was a middle-aged man named Master Tang who called himself "Qin Mo". He was about 40 years old, dressed in cloth, but behaved very elegantly, and brought two young disciples with him.

One was called Cheng Shang, about 30 years old, a taciturn person, just holding a ruler in his hand, before going up to the city wall, he visually measured the height, and when he reached the top of the city wall, he measured the distance between the battlements. The other was called Tang Duo, in his twenties, with a lively temperament, and asked questions as soon as he got on the city wall.

"Master Tang, is this the Yangcheng you once told us about, where the great master Meng Sheng guarded the city for Lord Yangcheng?"

Master Tang leaned on the battlement and looked down, saying with emotion: "It is here that the great master Meng Sheng of the Mohist School and Lord Yangcheng of Chu State were on good terms. They were teachers, friends, and ministers. Lord Yangcheng even gave Meng Sheng his fiefdom and gave him a jade pendant as a token to let him guard this place. Meng Sheng took the Mohist School to this place to settle down, and the elite Mohists gathered in Yangcheng."

Another disciple Cheng Shang also said at this time: "Indeed, I measured it with a ruler. The walls of Yangcheng have traces of the Mohist school's city-building techniques, and they are higher and thicker than the walls of ordinary counties. It may have been built by the Mohists at that time."

Master Tang nodded: "It's a pity that even with this wall, we are still outnumbered. Later, Yangcheng Jun was implicated in Wu Qi's incident and fled to another country. King Jing sent people to take back Yangcheng, but Meng Sheng didn't want to open the gate because he didn't have the token jade. King Jing sent troops to besiege Yangcheng, and Meng Sheng kept his promise to Yangcheng Jun and defended the city to the death. As a result, a total of 180 Mohists died with him..."

Tang Duo clapped his hands and exclaimed: "Magnificent..."

Cheng Shang interrupted: "Meng Sheng caused the elite Mohists to die with him for his personal relationship with Yangcheng Jun. How magnificent is that?"

Tang Duo retorted: "Cheng Shang, the great man Meng Sheng is doing the righteousness of the Mohists. He believes that he has a close relationship with Yangcheng Jun. If he doesn't die, no one will trust the Mohists in the future and regard them as teachers, friends, and ministers."

Cheng Shang sneered again, "This is a misunderstanding. The righteousness of Mohists is like that of a frivolous knight who sacrifices his life for the survival of a city, a pond, a monarch, or a lord? The righteousness in the Mohist Scripture is clearly the righteousness of benefiting the world! Meng Sheng gave up the greater righteousness for the sake of the smaller righteousness. After this incident, the Mohist School declined!"

Tang Duo was so angry that his face turned red: "If you can't even keep the smaller righteousness, how can you practice the greater righteousness? Besides, who said that the Mohist School declined and died? Aren't we still here? Meng Sheng passed on his teachings to Tian Xiangzi, Tian Xiangzi passed on his teachings to Fuzi, who then entered Qin, and that's how we Qin Mohists came into being... It was precisely because of the great man Meng Sheng's death of Yangcheng Jun that all the lords believed in Mohists, and the Mohist School became a prominent school!"

The two disciples were arguing with each other, and Master Tang was a little embarrassed. After letting the two of them quiet down, he turned back and bowed to Hei Fu, saying, "Thank you, General, for taking us to the city to have a look. I'm sorry for the discord among the disciples."

"How dare I."

Hei Fu returned the greeting, because Master Tang was said to be a little famous in Xianyang, and even Li You had to respect him a little, so he specially arranged for Hei Fu to lead the three of them to the top of the city wall.

Hei Fu was slightly moved by the past stories of the Mohists told by the three people just now. He said: "In fact, I have been stationed in Yangcheng for two months, but this is the first time I have heard of Meng Sheng's story. The local people have forgotten that the Mohists guarded the city here..."

Mr. Tang disagreed: "The people are forgetful. After all, it was a thing of the past 150 years ago, six or seven generations ago..."

"Is it because it is too long ago?"

Hei Fu smiled and shook his head and said: "No, last month during the autumn harvest, when I was chatting with an old farmer in the field, I learned that 200 years ago, a mayor of Yangcheng built a canal for the people in the local area. The canal is still in use today, irrigating dozens of hectares of land. The people also built a small temple for the mayor and worship him every year. I would like to ask you, why can the people remember the small mayor of more than 200 years ago, but forget the great Mohist leader of more than 100 years ago?"

"It's not that Meng Sheng's righteousness is not as good as that of the mayor, but because Meng Sheng's righteousness has never benefited the local people. So even though more than a hundred people died, and it became famous throughout the world, and the princes were saddened, it did not leave a deep impression on the local people. At most, two or three generations will forget it."

Tang Duo was a little unhappy, and Cheng Shang nodded in agreement: "What the general said is right. This is what I said about the difference between small righteousness and great righteousness."

Master Tang looked at Hei Fu with interest, and began to talk to him instead of treating him as a background. As the two chatted, Hei Fu learned that Master Tang was also in the army when Wang Ben broke Daliang.

"Fortunately, thanks to Mr. Zheng Guo's dam water attack, Daliang was broken, and Qin Mo didn't need to participate."

From Mr. Tang's tone, it seems that he doesn't like war, which makes Hei Fu even more curious. Finally, he couldn't help asking: "Mr. Tang, I have also heard of the name of Mohism, but I only know that Mohists advocate universal love and non-aggression, helping the weak and resisting the strong, but I never thought that you would appear in the Qin army..."

Hei Fu really didn't expect that Mohism would become a friendly army of "tyrannical Qin". If they stood on the opposite side of the Qin army, it would not be surprising.

This question was asked sharply, and Mr. Tang didn't know how to answer for a while. At this time, Cheng Shang took over: "The generals are really ignorant. The kind of Mohists you are talking about are Chu Mo who inherited Meng Sheng's ambition. This group of people claim to be righteous, like to be ascetics, and act as knights. They oppose wars between countries and believe that wars are unjust. Such Mohists have disappeared for many years."

While speaking, he also glanced at his junior brother Tang Duo.

"In addition, there is the Qi Mo School, which focuses on academic debates. They travel around the country and persuade the kings not to annex land. There are only one or two such Mohists left, hiding in Qi, studying those useless rhetoric every day."

After Cheng Shang's explanation, Hei Fu knew that Qin Mo was one of the three schools of Mohism in the world. It has been rooted in Qin for more than a hundred years and has made an indelible contribution to the rise of Qin. However, he did not say how Qin Mo's ideas were different from those of Chu Mo and Qi Mo.

Now that the Legalists are in power in Qin, Qin Mo has gradually been marginalized, but still has some influence. They have provided a lot of help for Qin's military production. When encountering a war, the generals will even bring a few of them with them to give siege strategies and repair those complex siege equipment.

"I see, I am ignorant and rude."

Hei Fu smiled and bowed to apologize. The three Qin Mos met him for the first time, and he did not want to say too much, and then went down the wall.

That night, Mr. Tang and Tang Duo said goodbye to Li You. They were going to continue to follow the Qin army to Shangcai. Cheng Shang, who usually had a stinky face, was left behind. He was ordered to obey Li You's orders and provide some advice when encountering a siege.

In his impression, the Mohists, who were famous for defending the city, now took the initiative to go to the battlefield and give advice to the Qin army attacking the city, which made Heifu feel a little absurd.

But before he could think too much, on the third day after Qin Mo came to Yangcheng, another military order was issued. The commander Li Xin ordered the 5,000 Qin army in Yangcheng to set off immediately!

After restoring morale, Li You ordered the soldiers of Nanjun to prepare for battle and had been prepared for a long time. Now that the military order arrived, he immediately summoned the five military officers of the left, middle, right, front and back, leaving only 500 people to guard the city, and another 500 people to escort the baggage and food with the local conscripted civilians. The remaining 4,000 people all set off early the next morning!

As personal guards, Hei Fu and his men naturally surrounded Lieutenant Li You. Thousands of them moved southward along the gurgling Yingshui River, heading straight for Dun County, Chu State, a hundred miles away...

Hei Fu knew that the war had officially begun!