Since the siege of Hangu Pass, Mengchangjun's international status has been greatly improved. Speaking of Qi, people only know about King Mengchang, but not King Qi Min. This made King Qi Min very unhappy. Out of jealousy and fear, King Qi Min decided to punish Lord Mengchang.
Not long after, someone told King Qi Min that Lord Mengchang was going to rebel. This made King Qi Min even more afraid and at the same time strengthened his determination to get rid of Lord Mengchang.
As luck would have it, King Qi Min was kidnapped by a man named Tian Jia. There were many diners at Lord Mengchang's house, including people of all kinds. King Qi Min firmly believed that the mastermind who kidnapped him was Lord Mengchang.
When things got to this point, even though he was not the mastermind behind the kidnapping of King Qi Min, Lord Mengchang had to run away from home. And running away from home simply means "there is no three hundred taels of silver here", and Mengchang Jun is even more speechless.
Just when Lord Mengchang didn't know what to do, a wise man stepped forward to intercede for Lord Mengchang.
It turned out that when Lord Mengchang was still the prime minister of the country, this wise man once lived in his fief. Once, Lord Mengchang asked Wei Zi to collect rent and taxes. After three trips back and forth, Wei Zi didn't even get back a penny.
Lord Mengchang asked Wei Zi why he came back empty-handed several times. Wei Zi said that he saw a wise man living in the fiefdom of Lord Mengchang, and privately donated all the rent and taxes to the wise man in the name of Lord Mengchang.
The wise man had always been grateful to Lord Mengchang. When he saw Lord Mengchang was in deep trouble this time, he stepped forward to defend him. He guaranteed with his life that Lord Mengchang would never cause trouble. As soon as he finished speaking, he drew his sword and killed himself.
King Qi Min was deeply shocked that someone was willing to die for Lord Mengchang, so he began to seriously investigate and interrogate the actual situation of the person who kidnapped him, and finally concluded that Lord Mengchang was not the mastermind behind the scenes.
Although the grievances have been cleared, a rift has arisen between Lord Mengchang and King Qi Min. Therefore, when King Qi Min summoned Lord Mengchang back to serve as an official, he claimed to be ill and only begged to return to his fiefdom to take care of himself. As long as Lord Mengchang is not an official, the threat to King Qi Min will not be great, so King Qi Min followed the trend and allowed Lord Mengchang to return to his fief for retirement.
After Lord Mengchang left the court, King Qi Min prepared to launch a strategy to unite the Qin Kingdom. At this time, Qin's fugitive general Lu Li happened to be in Qi. King Qi Min followed the advice of his relatives and appointed Lu Li as the prime minister of Qi.
In order to win favor, Lu Li repeatedly made things difficult for Su Dai, so Su Dai went to Lord Mengchang to lobby, hoping to provoke Lord Mengchang to come out.
Su Dai told Lord Mengchang that in order to unite the Qin State, King Qi Min even drove away Zhou Zui, who was most loyal to him, and blindly followed the words of his relatives and appointed Lu Li as the prime minister. From this point of view, Qi and Qin will achieve continuous success. If Qi and Qin really formed an alliance, Lord Mengchang, who had an old relationship with Qin, would definitely be despised.
Su Dai suggested that Lord Mengchang go north to make peace between Zhao, Qin and Wei, and recall Zhou Zui. In this way, it can not only reflect the kindness of Lord Mengchang, but also restore the credibility of King Qi Min. Furthermore, if Qi does not join forces with Qin, other small countries will definitely rely on Qi. In this way, Qi State is still the overlord of the east, and no one except Lord Mengchang is qualified to govern the country with King Qi Min.
Lord Mengchang followed Su Dai's advice and came out again, but his behavior offended Lu Li, who was very jealous and determined to murder Lord Mengchang.
Mengchangjun came out this time, but because he did not have the status of state minister, his affairs were not smooth. At that time, King Qi Min wanted to punish him, but Lu Li tried to kill him. In order to ensure his own safety, Lord Mengchang wrote to Wei Ran, the Prime Minister of Qin, urging him to send troops to attack Qi.
The letter said that if Lu Li realizes Qin and Qi Lianheng's plan, Lu Li will definitely be taken seriously, while Wei Ran will definitely be despised. If Wei Ran had put himself in his shoes, he should have persuaded Qin to attack Qi instead of allying with Qi. If Qin captured Qi, Lord Mengchang would try to persuade King Zhaoxiang of Qin to grant the captured land to Wei Ran.
Wei Ran was very greedy for land and power, so he followed the advice of Lord Mengchang and persuaded King Zhaoxiang of Qin to send troops to attack Qi. When Lu Li heard about this, he was very worried about his future, so he fled Qi.
In 286 BC, after the Qi State destroyed the Song State, King Qi Min became increasingly arrogant. King Qi Min, who was already dissatisfied with Lord Mengchang, decided to get rid of Lord Mengchang.
In recent years, although Lord Mengchang's power has been declining day by day, and there are fewer and fewer diners in his house, there is still Feng Chen.
At that time, Lord Mengchang was demoted due to Tian Jia's kidnapping of King Min of Qi. On the way back to the fiefdom to take care of his old age, more than 3,000 guests of Mengchangjun's house left one after another with excuses, and some even left without saying hello. Mengchangjun felt sad and sighed: "Guests see that we are losing money every day. They all memorized the text and left without paying attention to the text." (Sima Qian's "Historical Records: Biography of Mengchangjun")
Feeling the indifference of human feelings, Wu Qian of the Song Dynasty once wrote: "I was ashamed of Meng Chang's support for a day, and I sighed three thousand times, and the guest's sweat turned into rain" (Wu Qian's "Congratulations to the Bridegroom: Treasure Fan to Dispel the Heat"). This means that not many of Mengchangjun's three thousand diners are reliable.
At the beginning, Feng Chen also admired Mengchang's reputation for recruiting talents, so he went to join him. Feng Xuan, who came to seek refuge, wore a pair of straw sandals, and was looked down upon by many people.
At that time, there were already many famous people in the diners of Mengchangjun's house. Feng Chen was nameless and powerless, with only a broken sword. Lord Mengchang asked him: "You have come all the way, do you have any advice for me?"
"I heard that you are willing to support scholars. I am too poor to open the pot. I just want to make a living."
With the conversation going like this, Lord Mengchang said no more and arranged for Feng Xuan to live in a lower-class place. Due to the large number of people, for the convenience of management and to stimulate the enterprising spirit of diners, the treatment of scholars in Mengchangjun's house was divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. Feng Xuan lived in low-class housing, and the treatment he received was naturally that of a low-class person. For example, he had nothing to eat but no fish.
A few days later, Lord Mengchang asked the person in charge what Feng Xuan had done recently.
Feng Xuan had a sword, but there was no scabbard. Instead, a straw rope was wrapped around the handle. After dinner every day, Feng Xuan sang while fencing:
"Chang Chao is back, there is no fish to eat!" It means, Chang Sword, we should go home, there is no fish to eat.
After hearing this, Mengchangjun ordered people to move Feng Xuan to the residence of a middle-class diner, so that he could have fish for his meals. However, Feng Xuan still played the sword and sang loudly: "The Changchai is back, and he is out of Wuyu!"
Mengchangjun also arranged for Feng Xuan to go to the residence of the top diners, and there would be a carriage to take him in and out. However, Feng Xuan still played the sword and sang loudly: "The Changchai has returned, and he has no home to call home!"
Feng Chen sang wildly every day. Not only did other diners get tired of hearing this, but Lord Mengchang also became upset and stopped managing him.
More than a year later, Meng Changjun wanted to see how capable Feng Xuan, the bad old man, was. Lord Mengchang had more than 3,000 people in his house. Although he had ten thousand households in fiefdoms, the taxes collected were still not enough to support so many people, so he began to lend money at usury.
This year, the crops failed and the people were unable to pay back the money. Thinking of the food and clothing for more than 3,000 people, Mengchangjun was worried. Someone told Mr. Mengchang that Feng Xuan in the superior guest room was an elder, shrewd and steady, and the best person to collect debts.
After receiving the mission, Feng Chen didn't say much, said goodbye to Mengchangjun and went straight to Xue County. Those who could repay were repaid, and a total of 100,000 yuan was collected in interest.
With the money, Feng Chen brewed a lot of good wine, bought fat cattle, called all the people who owed money to Mengchang, asked them to bring IOUs, and held a grand banquet.
After drinking, Feng Xuan told everyone that the reason why Lord Mengchang made usury was to lend money to people who had no funds to engage in life and production. Lord Mengchang asked for debts mainly because there were too many diners in the house and he had no money to support them. Now that the time has expired, those who can repay have already done so. As for those who cannot pay back, they will be exempted. Finally, Feng Xuan emphasized, "How can you be so negative if you have such a great king!"
After hearing this, everyone was deeply moved and knelt down one after another and worshiped twice.
After hearing about this, Lord Mengchang was furious and scolded Feng Xuan. Feng Xuan said that he held a big banquet to see who was able to repay the debt and who was not. For those who have the ability, as long as they are given a time limit, they will definitely pay it back. For those who are incompetent, even if you give them ten years, they still won't be able to make it.
If the people don't come up and the boss presses, they have no choice but to flee. If the people flee one after another, people in the world will say that the boss is mean and cannot tolerate the people, which will harm the reputation of the boss. Since the people can't afford it, why not forgive their debts? It also builds a reputation.
After Feng Xuan's analysis, Mengchangjun agreed and expressed his gratitude to Feng Xuan repeatedly.
