The story begins before Li Ran leaves Qufu.
In fact, Li Ran already knew about the drought in Weiguo before he left Qufu.
Shusun Bao told him the news that the Jin State was preparing to go to provide disaster relief.
According to Yang Toji's meaning, before the meeting in Pingqiu, the Marquis of Qi initially did not respect the orders of the Marquis of Jin and refused to come to the meeting. Although he finally came after some threats from him, this also made Jin State suspicious of Qi State.
Now, the Jin State is confronting the Qin Army in the west, so he naturally hopes that his east side can be peaceful.
Therefore, he planned to advise the Marquis of Jin to ask the Marquis of Qi to take the initiative to provide food relief and defend the country. In this way, we can also try again what Qi Guo's attitude is.
If Qi State really agrees, on the one hand, it means that they can live in peace in the east. On the other hand, they can also deal with the crisis from Qin in the west with peace of mind.
The Marquis of Jin felt that there was really no big problem, so he sent Yang Yangui to Qi State to lobby.
But here's the problem.
Before the meeting in Pingqiu, you Yang Tongue had already threatened us once in the name of the King of Zhou and the Marquis of Jin. Now that the Wei Kingdom is suffering from a drought, and the Jin Kingdom itself cannot help it, are you still trying to do the same thing? Threaten me again?
Do you really think that our Qi country is a soft persimmon?
After all, Marquis Qi is also a man with a temper, and of course he knows that this matter is not as simple as it seems. After all, if he agreed to the Jin State's provision of food relief and defense, he would actually be acknowledging the Jin State's status as the hegemon in actual actions.
So, the Marquis of Qi tried every means to deal with Yang Tongue. Anyway, let's talk about it, just one sentence: Your Jin country is the overlord, and you are the boss. Now if something happens to the younger brothers below, then of course it is you, the boss, who is taking care of it. It is none of my business?
This diplomatic setback gradually turned into a diplomatic crisis. Yang Tongue was also helpless. He did not expect that Qi Hou had become so "unreasonable" now.
Moreover, he did not even show any intention of easing relations with Jin.
Yang Yanji felt deeply uneasy. While helpless, he also lamented that Qi Hou's intelligence was too shallow. You, Qi, are given such a good opportunity to show their faces, and you are actually being pretentious with me?
"It's all for your own good! You actually came here with me? It's really a dog biting Lu Dongbin! You don't know the heart of a good person!"
This was probably Yang Yangui's psychological activity at that time.
But having said that, this matter still needs to be resolved. After thinking about it, considering that Qi and Lu were not far apart, Yang Yanzhi simply sent a message to Li Ran and tried to ask Li Ran's opinion.
Li Ran thought that Yang Yangui and Han Qi had finally helped him during the meeting in Pingqiu, so he gave him an idea and taught him how to persuade the Marquis of Qi in a subtle way.
Speaking of which, the method is also very simple. Li Ran only taught his uncle to stop paying attention to the Marquis of Qi and just go to Yan Zi, that is, Yan Ying to talk to him. Entrust him to talk to the Marquis of Qi about this matter, and it will definitely be done.
Yan Zi, Yan family name, Ying, courtesy name Zhong. He was a wise prime minister of Qi State who was praised by later generations.
After that, Sheep Tongue found Yan Ying, and after explaining his purpose, it was just as Li Ran expected. Yan Ying persuaded the Marquis of Qi, and soon he would be able to transport grain to Weiguo for disaster relief.
In terms of what Yan Ying persuaded him to do, the reasoning was actually very simple.
Obviously, if Qi State can assist Wei State this time, wouldn't this be a good thing that can win the hearts and minds of the princes of the Central Plains?
Moreover, the Jin Kingdom will definitely become more unstable in the future. If the various Xia states have other matters, entrust us to Qi State to handle them. Over and over again, won’t the position of hegemony in people’s minds change?
Real hegemony is expressed through actions, not by force, let alone an oath.
To talk about these big principles, anyone who knows a little bit about things can actually understand them. And this is also the fundamental reason why Yang Yanji is confident that this trip will be successful.
But the reason why this matter is stuck here is simply because of his status as Jin Qing.
The words are the same, but the person speaking is different, the time is different, and the effect is different.
And Li Ran's role in this matter was nothing more than that.
Later, Li Ran was already on his way to Zheng Guo.
Originally, this was just a small thing to him. But when he arrived in the state of Zheng, he heard that the Ji clan actually planned to transport a batch of grain to the state of Wei.
So he immediately reacted. If the food from Qi State was transported to Wei State first, would the food from Jishi still be sold?
But he didn't know that Jishi would have this idea before. Isn't this a mistake?
Li Ran's so-called "miscalculation" actually meant that he did not expect that the old patriarch would want to be greedy for such wealth.
He also had a relationship with Ji Xian in Jiangnei, Jin State. Although he does not advocate judging people by their appearance, sometimes it can at least play a role in assisting judgment.
At that time, he felt that although Ji Xian was a businessman, he was at least a relatively upright and noble businessman.
So how could he have thought that Ji Xian would take advantage of the drought in Weiguo to make such a fortune? This was something he never expected.
When he came to the State of Zheng this time, he also passed by the State of Wei. He saw with his own eyes that the State of Wei was now starved to death, and it was too miserable to see. If Xi Xian is truly broad-minded, benevolent and righteous, and a person who is good at business and reasoning, then the food to help Weiguo this time should definitely not be transported and sold.
Isn't this kind of behavior abandoning the life and death of the people of Weiguo? The people of Zheng are human beings, and the people of Wei are human beings, so why is it so bad!
"I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it! The leader of the Ji clan seems to be upright, but secretly he is such a person! He is really a hypocrite!"
After listening to what Li Ran said, Sun Wu understood what was going on. At that moment, his attitude towards Ji Xian changed 180 degrees, and he had no good impressions at all.
Li Ran hurriedly waved his hand to signal him not to talk nonsense, and said:
"We still don't know whose idea it was for Ji to transport grain to the Wei Kingdom for sale. If it wasn't the old sect leader's intention, then wouldn't we have blamed the wrong good person?"
But who would have thought that Sun Wu said:
"No matter who comes up with the idea, since he has agreed to it first, it means he is convinced! If he sees evil and does not stop it, but goes along with it, it is ten times more evil! ... Hey, in the end, it is not the one who suffers. The hungry people of Weiguo?!"
As he finished speaking, his face was filled with indignation.
Li Ran was a little stunned when he heard this and looked him up and down.
"Sir, this is..."
"I didn't expect that Chang Qing would now have such a heart for the world."
"Nowadays, the princes are at odds with each other, and the people are competing with each other. It is really rare for someone like Chang Qing to consider the life and death of the people of other countries.
Li Ran's admiration came from the bottom of his heart and was not false at all.
Logically speaking, the world should be one family. Back then, when King Wu of Zhou divided the princes into feudal lords, wasn't it just so that all countries could help each other and make the world one family?
But in this era, the people of Jin look down on the people of Qi, the people of Chu look down on the people of Jin, and the people of Wu look down on the people of Chu. This kind of thinking of comparing each other is really normal.
Therefore, when most people face a disaster similar to that of the Weiguo people, at the public level, most of them laugh at the joke, and there are very few people who can really cry out for the misfortune of the Weiguo people.
Therefore, it is naturally very surprising that this high-level discussion is now coming from the mouth of a commoner with Sun Wu's status.
"Changqing is elegant, Li Ran is ashamed of himself!"
Li Ran couldn't help but feel ashamed when he thought of this. He stood up and bowed deeply to Sun Wu. At the same time, he was in awe of Sun Wu.
"Sir! How can this be done!"
"Wu talked nonsense without knowing the seriousness of it. It disturbed the gentleman. Please don't blame him."
Sun Wu also followed him and bowed.
Unexpectedly, after Li Ran helped him up, he said seriously:
"Today, Chang Qing's words woke up the dreamer, it was like an enlightenment, so wonderful!"
"Yes, Chang Qing is absolutely right! There is a saying in "Shang Shu": "The spread of evil is like a fire igniting a prairie fire, and it cannot be spread far away." (Translation: The spread of evil is like a spark of fire igniting a prairie fire. Once Once activated, you won’t be able to face it anymore.)
Having said this, Li Ran suddenly realized another extremely serious problem!
"Ouch! Not good!"
"gentlemen?"
Seeing the sudden look of horror on Li Ran's face, Sun Wu couldn't help but ask.
But when he saw Li Ran put his forehead with his hand, he said thoughtfully:
"If... we all think it is evil, then the sensible people in the world will definitely think so too! If we let this matter go unnoticed, in the future, if the priest realizes the bad impact of this matter when he comes back to his senses, then it will be terrible It’s really too late!”
"So, regardless of whether it was Ji Xian's idea to transport grain to Wei for sale, even if it is for the lives of tens of millions of people in Wei, it is also for Ji's help. We should do this Reach out and take a tube!"
Li Ran made up his mind, and a look of no doubt appeared on his face.
Li Ran is the best at conspiracy, but now, for such a great cause, he is absolutely bound to do it!
