Chapter 181 Inviting Zhuge Wolong

After taking control of Guobei County, Rosen entered the dungeon.

In the deepest part of the dungeon, an old man was huddled in a corner.

Rosen stood outside the cage and looked at the old man.

The old man seemed to sense that he was being watched and looked outside the cage.

"Who is your honor?"

"Zhuge Wulong?" Rosen asked.

"Since you know it's me, are you here to kill me? Or are you here to let me go?"

Zhuge Wulong's tone was very indifferent, as if he was not talking about his own life and death, but about a person who had nothing to do with him.

He was the only sane person in the world. Every time he wrote a poem or a book, he would be arrested, but would be released soon after being arrested.

He enjoyed great reputation both among the people and in the imperial court.

However, he gradually gave up hope after being imprisoned and exiled again and again.

"I'm here to ask you, do you want to work with me?"

"What?"

"Build an ideal country in my mind," Rosen said.

"What is your ideal country?"

"A highly developed and relatively fair country."

"What is developed? What is relatively fair?"

"The word 'developed' can also be understood as 'advanced'. It's like 2,000 years ago, people still used bamboo slips to record text, but now we use paper. This is advanced. Another example is that 2,000 years ago, the rice yield per mu was 200 kilograms, but now it is 500 kilograms. In the future, my plan is to increase the rice yield per mu to 1,000 kilograms. This is advanced."

"And this advancement is not limited to one or a few aspects, but far exceeds the current era in terms of economy, medicine, humanities, and production."

Rosen paused and continued, "As for relative fairness, my theory is that there will still be a powerful class, but the powerful class can no longer arbitrarily decide the life and death of a commoner as they do now or in the past, and once they blatantly violate the law, they will also be severely punished. However, they still have certain privileges and the distribution of benefits. They will weaken class relations and abolish the so-called division between scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans."

"Why can't it be absolutely fair?" asked Zhuge Liang.

"It's impossible. Absolute fairness is equal to absolute unfairness." Rosen said, "For example, a general accompanies me in conquering the world, and when it's time to reward him, I tell him that our country is absolutely fair, so he won't be rewarded. Is this reasonable?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Wulong fell into deep thought.

"People are not absolutely rational. There are relationships between people of different social classes." Rosen said, "What I mean by relative fairness is that everyone needs to pay taxes, whether they are commoners or nobles. Secondly, even commoners have channels for upward mobility, but the children of the rich and powerful will have more advantages."

"You mentioned the advantages of the rich and powerful. Can you tell me in detail?"

"For example, a government office needs ten civil servants, and the children of the rich and powerful also participated in the assessment, but they were not able to compete with the common people. Therefore, the children of the rich and powerful cannot use their power to squeeze out the positions of the ten common people. However, his family is able to smooth over the relationship and add a position for him. Of course, all of this is illegal. Once exposed, he will be liquidated."

"Can the current Ji Dynasty do this?" Zhuge Wulong asked again.

Rosen shook his head: "It's impossible, because the current Ji Dynasty has turned the unreasonable into reasonable. The interests of the powerful are deeply rooted, and they will not give up their own interests."

"I am Zhuge, and I pay my respects to my lord."

Rosen's words moved Zhuge Liang.

In fact, Zhuge Liang has also come into contact with various rebels over the years.

Many rebels hope to recruit Zhuge Liang into their group.

Some rebels simply want to overthrow the current rule, or they want to satisfy their own ambitions.

There are also some people who have lofty ambitions, to make the world a better place and to save the people.

It’s just that these people are unable to come up with a detailed policy approach, and all they do is speak empty and false words.

Only Rosen's theory of development and relative fairness impressed Zhuge Liang.

This was the first time that Zhuge Wulong took the initiative to walk out of the cell.

Guobei County is getting better day by day under Rosen's governance.

This change is huge, mainly because Guobei County was originally too chaotic.

Things can't get any worse, so any change will be particularly obvious.

At the same time, Rosen registered all the people in Guobei County and issued identity cards to everyone.

Then came the rise of industries such as steel, cement, glass products, and pharmaceuticals.

"My Lord, why did the situation in Guobei County improve so quickly even though you didn't issue any decrees?"

"This is the advantage brought by advanced productivity. In the past, Jichao's industry was too single. Agriculture accounted for 90% of the country's tax revenue. Once there was a problem with agriculture, the country would fall into turmoil, and farmers have the lowest risk resistance. Now I have brought a lot of industry to the residents here, freeing the farmers from the fields and allowing them to enter all walks of life."

"But the fields need manpower. Guobei County can still rely on external food to survive, but a country cannot do this. If the people of the entire country leave the fields, then who will farm and produce food?"

"This is what I need to do next. For industrial upgrading, we need to increase food production on the one hand and improve planting efficiency on the other. In the past, it was the limit for a young man to plant ten acres of land in one season. My future goal is to be able to plant hundreds or even thousands of acres of land by myself."

"This is impossible……"

"It's not impossible." Rosen shook his head. "But it will take some time to develop. In the country I envision, we will first liberate the farmers in the fields and vigorously develop industry and commerce. Once industry and commerce have reached a certain scale, we will cancel the agricultural tax."

“Can the agricultural tax really be abolished?”

"Yes," Rosen replied confidently, "It's not just about abolishing agricultural taxes, we also need to provide agricultural subsidies."

In modern society, because agricultural income is low, a large number of farmers leave the land, so agricultural subsidies are needed at this time.

"Teacher, Yan Chixia is back, and he has captured more than a dozen monsters."

"Come with me to see him," said Rosen.

Although Zhuge Liang had extensive knowledge, he had never seen a monster.

He is protected by good fortune, and most monsters dare not approach him.

So he followed Rosen to meet those monsters.

When Rosen found Yan Chixia, the courtyard was crowded with all kinds of strange monsters.

Zhuge Wulong looked at these monsters curiously.

"Just kill those who have eaten humans." Rosen said to Yan Chixia.

"Brother, I have dealt with all those monsters that have eaten humans. None of these monsters have ever killed anyone."