Three Kingdoms

jade.

It’s unclear who was the first person to discover jade, and I don’t know what the psychological state of the first person to bring jade to the Chinese political arena was, but there is no doubt that he succeeded. He succeeded in turning an object that was originally worthless into something with value beyond the object itself.

This may sound convoluted, but it was common in later generations.

In Fei Qian's hands, he was playing with a piece of jade.

According to the standards of later generations, this piece is a fine white jade.

The color is delicate, lustrous, and feels warm to the touch.

In the place of origin of this piece of jade, it was just like an ordinary stone, lying on the ground among the soil and weeds. But now, through a series of operations, its value has doubled and it is worth a lot of money. If it is carved with patterns or decorated with gold and silver, then this piece of jade will be even more expensive.

But there is a problem. This problem is that when people find that this kind of stone is very valuable, they will find that they just need a hoe, not even a hoe. As long as they find a suitable place, even if they use hand planing, no luck. If it's too bad, some rough stones can be excavated, so will the price of jade remain high?

From "unparalleled treasures" to "precious things", and then all the way down to "ordinary artifacts", and finally "worthless". In fact, the process of interpretation and change is sometimes not as long as imagined. Just like aluminum was originally more valuable than silver, some people said that the so-called "mithril" was the original aluminum, but what happened later?

Fei Qian placed the jade on the table and smiled.

On the table, next to this piece of jade that looks like a raw stone, is a carved jade seal. There is also a table on the left and right sides of Fei Qian's lower head. The same jade stones and jade seals are also placed on the table.

This was the way to solve this problem, and of course, this method has been used in later generations.

Use official or semi-official organizations to attach certain values ​​to these things. However, another auxiliary condition is needed, which is "rare".

This rarity does not have to be "rare" in the strict sense, or "orphan", etc. This kind of rarity only requires a concept. Some people may realize during this process that this thing may not be really rare, nor may it really be worth that much money, but it is just like the financial market, or the market for certain specific targets. Everyone All the participants felt that they would not be the last to stand, and they all felt that they could make a fortune from this matter.

"Report!" The attendant, Chen Changwen, and the attendant, Lu Zijing, would like to see you..."

Fei Qian nodded slightly, "Please." 』

Before the Han Dynasty, Fei Qian would sometimes see some compassionate nobles on paper and say, "The clouds cover the sun, and the wanderer does not care to return." "Missing you makes people grow old, and the years are suddenly too late", even like Cao Cao lamenting the desolation of "there is no cockcrow for a thousand miles", and then I feel that these people have a sense of worry and have strong emotions, and they are facing the times. A cry that reaches deep into the soul against fate...

But the reality is that these people may indeed be like this, but overall, they have completely different attitudes.

Because from ancient times to the present, all the upper class basically do not engage in specific physical work. They will consume most of their energy and physical strength in fighting for a higher position.

Of course, it is also possible that at certain times, they will stand together, brag about each other, and say some nonsense that seems to have deep thoughts about society, but is actually meaningless, so as to show their noble characteristics, which is more interesting. However, these people who basically do not work will habitually require other workers to work according to their standards.

Just like Chen Qun and Lu Su.

If we talk about literature, I believe if Fei Qian said that if two people write an article on the spot, whichever article is better will be supported, and then it is impossible for two people to write an article worthy of being passed down through the ages, just like Chen Lin The same as "An Essay on Discussing Cao Cao".

Therefore, it is okay to be compassionate towards others, but it is also okay to eat people and drink their blood.

Don't Chen Qun and Lu Su know that once they launch a plan to embezzle Jingzhou, it means that thousands of people will die as a result? Displacement is even minor, and is more likely to cause the entire county's population to be consumed in the war. Once the peaceful period of a few years or more than ten years in Jingxiang is broken, how destructive will it be?

Therefore, it is somewhat interesting why the Chinese nobles chose jade as their representative. Jade is a stone, but not a stone. It looks and feels warm, but in fact it is hard and cold inside...

After Chen Qun and Lu Su sat down, they both saw the jade stones and jade seals placed on their desks. Not only were they slightly stunned, but they then looked at Fei Qian.

Fei Qian raised his hand slightly, indicating that they could take a closer look, "This is the jade from the snowy mountains of the Western Region." Among the green ridges, there is an unnamed mountain, ten thousand feet high. The top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round and almost no trace of human life. Occasionally, I unearth a cave under the ice and snow. It is warm all year round and has colorful energy rising. I explore it curiously and find this jade. ...』

In fact, these are just water-flow jade.

Picked up by an unknown river.

"oh……"

Although Chen Qun and Lu Su may not both believe Fei Qian's descriptions, it does not mean that Chen Qun and Lu Su will expose it immediately. They expressed their praise for the jade, but they also speculated that Fei Qian was on the table. The specific purpose of placing jade.

Then soon, they no longer had to guess, because Fei Qian said directly: "As the saying goes, a gentleman has no excuses, and jade never leaves his body." Both of you are humble gentlemen and deserve this jade. You two have come a long way, so I would like to express my gratitude without courtesy. This jade is just for its use. I hope you will not refuse it..."

"A gentleman is virtuous, and jade is also virtuous. The moist jade embodies the virtues of a gentleman, and the cold helps the frost recall the power of a doctor." ” Fei Qian said that as long as he opened his mouth, others would rarely get a chance to speak. “Guanzi once said that jade has nine virtues, including warmth and beauty, and benevolence. Those who are sensible to their neighbors know it. Being firm and not frowning is righteousness. Being honest but not prudent is the right thing to do. Fresh but not dirty, clean. It is brave to be able to break without giving up. All flaws and defects are visible, and it is the essence. It's lush and lustrous, and it's connected but not majestic, which is how it looks. Knock on it, and the sound will be clear and far-reaching, pure but not killing, which is also a word of speech. Therefore, the master treasures it, hides it as a treasure, cuts it as a talisman, and how can the nine virtues be revealed..."

After Fei Qian finished speaking, he stopped, which meant that the two of you could talk freely.

Of course, later I felt that the nine virtues of jade were not enough, so I added some more after thinking about it, and came up with "eleven virtues". As for why it was not "twenty-one virtues" or more virtues, Confucius might have figured it out. Have you thought about it all, or do you feel that you need to leave some room for future generations?

Chen Qun and Lu Su both looked dull, and even their nods showed some confusion.

Now, don’t we want to talk about the issue in Jingzhou? These pants have been taken off... Well, the topic has been prepared, and I have even thought about how the other party will criticize and how I want to refute, but then they start talking about jade? I don’t want to talk about jade at all!

Um?

Chen Qun looked at the jade on the table and suddenly understood something. Then he didn't immediately express his opinion to Fei Qian, but looked up at Lu Su opposite him and found that Lu Su was still a little confused. , he smiled, a gentle smile, as gentle as jade, "What the knight said is true." "Those who are sensible to their neighbors know it well. Being strong and not frowning is righteousness." Therefore, a gentleman should speak of virtue when his neighbor understands the principles and understands the great righteousness..."

Lu Su looked at the jade, then heard Chen Qun's voice, raised his head and saw Chen Qun's smile, then looked down at the jade, suddenly a thought came to his mind, and he couldn't help but suddenly said, "Exactly, exactly." yes! "It is lush and lustrous, connected but not connected, which is the appearance. Knock on it, and the sound is clear and reaches far away. It is pure and does not kill. This is the word." Your actions are upright and bright. How can you show off your virtues and false righteousness? And Ming Hu? 』

Fei Qian smiled slightly. "You two, since you both regard jade as beauty and virtue, even if you are not talented, you can't bear to monopolize such rare jade from the Western Regions. I wish it would be beautiful in China and be virtuous in thousands of families. I wonder if you two would be willing to transfer it to me." A beautiful gentleman? 』

Chen Qun and Lu Su were stunned again. Because they didn't expect that a dignified Han hussar general would actually sell jade in person. They thought Fei Qian was borrowing the jade to talk about Jingzhou, but they didn't expect it to be true. He seemed to be just talking about jade...

……（O_O）（●_●）……

When Chen Qun returned to the post house where he had temporarily settled, he was still a little confused. His head seemed to be blocked by the piece of jade. It was hard and stubborn and stuck in his brain, making it difficult to move his brain.

Fei Qian's attitude is very ambiguous, just like the jade in Chen Qun's hand now. It can be called a stone, but after it is hung on the body of a Confucian gentleman, it is definitely not a simple stone. The same is true for Fei Qian's words. If they were spoken by an ordinary person, they would be bullshit. Chen Qun doesn't need to think about it and pay attention to it. But now, the thing under his butt determines that even if it is bullshit, Chen Qun needs to be careful. Smell if there are any special pheromones mixed in it...

Yes, according to common sense, this meeting was weird.

Chen Qun believed that both Fei Qian and Lu Su understood that this meeting was to solve the problem in Jingzhou, but like most negotiations, direct bidding and bargaining were done by the lower-level people in the market. Chen Qun thought it should be a more elegant and obscure expression, and made corresponding compromises, finally reaching an agreement, but he never expected that he would only bring back two pieces of jade, no, one jade stone and one jade seal.

At this time, Chen Qun discovered that he had not even looked at the specific words engraved on the jade seal. He quickly took it and turned it over. However, the slender and twisted seal body was also engraved in reverse, so Chen Qun could not immediately know the exact words engraved on it. What is it? I just recognized the first word, "Wen, what is Wen..."

After all, Chen Qun is not good at carving, and rarely touches reverse-engraved seal scripts. Therefore, Chen Qun could only get up again, dip some ink on the jade seal, and then print it on the paper...

"Wen Yi Ming Tao?" 』

Chen Qun looked at the rubbings and pondered. Almost immediately, he thought, what is the jade seal on Lu Su's side? Is it "respect and straight forward"? Or "respect to know the slightest"?

These are two completely different meanings...

Do you want to ask...forget it, Chen Qun immediately gave up the idea, because he was the same. If Lu Su wanted to know what was engraved on Chen Qun's jade seal, Chen Qun would definitely not tell him.

So, it can only be speculation.

This is somewhat interesting.

Chen Qun smiled slightly, did he look like a hussar now...

Wen Yi Ming Tao has already appeared in "Xunzi" during the Warring States Period. And Xunzi, possessing the natural way of heaven and the art of the emperor, is exactly in line with the current situation.

The issues of heaven, destiny, and heaven have always been a big issue that attracted many people's attention in the Han Dynasty.

Confucius discussed benevolence through the affection of relatives, and regarded destiny as a blind dominant force. After Confucius, his disciples and later scholars tried to make "benevolence", "mind" and "manifesto" interconnect with each other and obtain the support of existence. On the other hand, they rationalized and valuated the meaning of "mandate of heaven" and "the way of heaven".

However, Xunzi took a path that was somewhat similar to Confucius but also somewhat different. Although Xunzi also talks about "the destiny and the way of heaven", what Xunzi pays more attention to is "the way of heaven is natural" and "controlling the destiny and using it"!

Therefore, General Hussar used this jade seal to engrave these four words as a gift to Chen Qun. The meaning behind it is naturally remarkable.

So from this point of view, the jade seal of Lu Su and Lu Zijing should be engraved with "respect to direct the inner"?

This hussar!

Chen Qun took a breath. He suddenly thought of many things, which collided with each other. Then he stood up and walked around the hall twice. This feeling of clearly noticing something but not being able to understand it made Chen Qun very uncomfortable. It was so comfortable that it even made Chen Qun think about having another talk with Guo Jia...

However, Chen Qun slowly sat back down and started playing with the jade seal again. He couldn't act so eager, at least he couldn't let others see his eagerness.

A gentleman should be calm, like jade, calm and measured.

At the same time, Lu Su was naturally playing with the jade in his hand.

Lu Su was not as surprised as Chen Qun about the cavalry general Fei Qian personally selling jade. This was naturally related to Chen Qun and Lu Su's background.

Chen Qun is from a prominent family in Yingchuan. To put it simply, he is like a big landlord in some cities in later generations. Even if he does nothing, he can just rent out the house and be leisurely. He rarely thinks about some business speculation. After all, There is no immediate need. Lu Su belongs to a wealthy family, and Lu Su lost his father when he was young and was raised by his grandmother. Therefore, Lu Su has a stronger sense of crisis and is easier to accept some new changes and things.

At the same time, there is indeed a shortage of jade in Jiangdong, and the Jiangdong nobles are not willing to admit that their level of "gentlemen" is inferior to that of the people in Jizhou and Yuzhou. It is like many "socialites" in later generations who have to protect themselves even if they are buying orders. Like their elegant image, the children of the Jiangdong gentry also needed jade to set off their moral character.

Therefore, there is no problem for Lu Su or Jiangdong to build a jade trade route. At the same time, the establishment of the business can also indicate that Fei Qian does not have much ill-will towards Jiangdong for the time being, or that he does not want to show any ill-will for the time being. This undoubtedly makes Lu Su worry less, at least compared to the half-hearted attitude when they first met. Warning talks are much better.

After all, Sun Quan has done a lot of things. Lu Su originally thought that Hussar might not know, but now he knows that Hussar might know to some extent, or he might know but pretend not to know, but he doesn't want the people in Jiangdong to think that he doesn't know. I don’t know, so I used Governor Zhou’s incident to mean that when I want to know, I will definitely know...

In this case, the problem lies in these four words.

"Respect and know the slightest thing?" 』

Lu Su naturally knew its source, which was of course no problem. Anyone who had read some books would know where the source was. But what was important was not the source, but what did Qiao Qi refer to by these four words?

Lu Su believed that these four words were certainly not used by Qiaoqi to ridicule or ridicule Lu Su himself, because it was meaningless, and Lu Su would not get angry or change his mind just because of mere sarcasm and ridicule. For Lu Su, he felt that if he needed to be angry, it was because he needed to be angry at that time, not because of his personal emotions. Just like in normal times, Lu Su would pretend to be a little slower and a little stupid, which would be easier. It makes people ignore his size and does not easily arouse others' alertness.

But only Lu Su himself knew that if he wanted to, he could be like a warrior, fighting wild beasts with agile movements and killing people in a matter of seconds.

Like those generals who usually use their upright posture and fierce eyes to show their dangerous existence. For Lu Su, he felt that there was no benefit, yes, benefit. This is very important.

Lu Su has a sensitivity beyond ordinary people when it comes to the word "benefits".

When Zhou Yu asked him to borrow grain and grass, Lu Su immediately gave half of it, which was three thousand dendrobium rice. Some people said he was stupid, and some people said he was stupid. In fact, Lu Su didn't feel any disadvantage at all, and even got some benefits. 』……

Just like many girls lying down and spreading their legs for the first time, there will be a second time after the first time. Under the circumstances at that time, Lu Shi, who had 6,000 dendrobium meters and had no ability to protect himself, , just like the girl who has been pinned to the ground. If Lu Su was just like an ordinary person and given dozens or hundreds of dendrobium, of course he could get through it, but who can guarantee that Zhou Yu would be the first to finish the job? After the first time, there won’t be a second or third time? Or if other people feel happy when they see Zhou Yu, will they also want to feel happy with Lu Su?

So Lu Su publicly gave half of it, but actually kept the other half. Later, because of this, the Lu family had the capital to move his family and arrived safely in Jiangdong, unlike some other Jianghuai wealthy families who eventually became Bones.

In history, when Lu Su persuaded Sun Quan, he often clearly stated the "benefits" Sun Quan received, and then it was naturally easier to gain Sun Quan's approval. As for the romance, it is just a romance.

"Could it be..." Lu Su seemed to have thought of something.

This time, Lu Su also firmly grasped the word "benefits", and then, unlike Chen Qun, who was not obscured by some superficial "morality and morality", he vaguely approached the hussar general Fei. The central meaning of potential...