There has always been some controversy about who the five monarchs of the "Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons" are, but there is no controversy at all about the fact that the head of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons is the Duke of Qi Huan. In the case of the decline of the Zhou royal family, the Duke of Qi Huan "honored the king and the princes of Jiuhe", and walked at the forefront of the times. However, fading the gorgeous appearance of the overlord title, Jiang Xiaobai, the Duke of Qi Huan, was just a stupid boy, and when he first became the monarch, he even wanted to close his door and live his own small life!
This was fully evident in qi huangong's first conversation with Guan Zhong. Qi Huangong asked: Can the society be fixed? Guan Zhong replied: King of the King, Shejiding; Jun is not overlord, sheji is uncertain. Qi Huan Gong yue: I don't dare to go to this big thing, but to fix the society. Guan Zhong replied: The subject's immortal correction is also, in order to determine the social jiye, the social ji is uncertain, and the government of the state of Qi is not dead and corrected, and the subject does not dare.
Translated, Guan Zhong told Qi Huan that he must dominate in order to preserve his existing glory and wealth, and if he cannot dominate, he is willing to give Gongzi a funeral, and Gongzi Gui is also the unfortunate brother of Qi Huangong who failed to seize the throne and was killed. Guan Zhong finished talking and turned around, and when he was about to walk to the door, Qi Huangong stopped Guan Zhong and said that you should do it first .)
This is not the end, Qi Huangong brazenly told Guan Zhong his three problems, hunting, drinking, and playing with women. To put it simply, Qi Huangong's daily life is to open his eyes and go hunting during the day, not to fight the prey and not to come back, to drink and drink until he is drunk after he comes back, and to play with women after getting drunk. But for the monarch, this kind of work and rest is really delayed, and there are more than 700 women in the harem alone. But Guan Zhong confidently replied, you just have fun, and the minister will help you govern the world!
So how did Guan Zhong govern the State of Qi, first of all, to withdraw power from the State of Qi and Gao. The nobles of the two surnames of Guo and Gao were not only the Secretaries of qi Shiqing, but also the Shangqing of the Zhou royal family, and the ascension of the Duke of Qi Huan to the throne was all with the support of Guo and Gao, which shows that the two surnames have great power in the State of Qi. However, the nobles of the state and the high school also had their own difficulties, and if they wanted to participate in the government, they had to pay money into the treasury of the State of Qi. Guan Zhong exempted Guo and Gao from making offerings to the imperial court, and at the same time, after Guo and Gao received benefits, they should not interfere too much in government affairs.
Guan Zhong then lightly dispensed with thin endowments in China, and the Chinese people were the most lovely, as long as those in power did not abuse their power and create a general environment of light and thin endowments, the people themselves would create wealth, which was vividly reflected in the Qi state under Guan Zhong's reform. Guan Zhong was not only exempt from military service, but also distributed the fields of the Qi state office to the people, exempted from various customs duties, commodity taxes, etc. Ten years later, "the crown and clothes were worn in the world", and the people of the State of Qi became rich.
If the nobles were cut off to provide offerings to the monarch, then how could Guan Zhong maintain the luxurious life of the Duke of Qi Huan? Some are ways, in simple terms, to harvest the wealth of the people, and it is a good time to be harvested after the people of the Qi country are rich enough. Guan Zhong minted "knife coins" in the State of Qi to regulate the market, and then relied on monopoly salt and iron for profit, and the government received much more income than taxes. However, Guan Zhong's monopoly of salt and iron was much milder than that of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the government only monopolized the sales of salt and iron, and the production link was still reserved for salt merchants and iron merchants, and did not exterminate them.
When Guan Zhong distributes land to the people and exempts them from taxes, he is bound to be ostentatious, but when he engages in salt and iron monopolies to harvest the people's wealth, he is quiet, which is indeed very clever. But this is only the beginning, Guan Zhong will use a non-sharp Qi knife to kill the princely states to support Qi Huan's hegemony, that is, the "Hengshan Conspiracy".
The State of Hengshan was rich in weapons in the Spring and Autumn Period, and if it wanted to conquer the Country of Hengshan, it would definitely lose soldiers and generals, so Guan Zhong decided to conquer the Country of Hengshan with a trade war. Guan Zhong first bought a large number of weapons in Hengshan Country, and then bribed Yan, Qin and other countries to buy weapons in Hengshan Country, and Hengshan State then increased the price of weapons by 20 times, causing the people of Hengshan Country to give up agriculture to strike iron and sell weapons. Guan Zhong then bought grain from Zhao Guo at a high price, which caused neighboring countries, including Hengshan Guo, to sell grain to qi.
Just when the Hengshan state was making a lot of money, the State of Qi suddenly sent troops to the State of Hengshan before the purchase of summer grain, and the Weapons of the State of Hengshan were almost sold out and the grain and grass were insufficient, and could only become the little brother of the State of Qi. Hengshan's strategy is actually very simple, with the price of a commodity soaring, to induce the enemy to abandon the industry, and the deformed development of the industry will cause economic paralysis. When too many people enter the industry, the windfall profits will end, and instead the price will plummet.
Relying on the "Hengshan conspiracy", the State of Qi conquered the surrounding princely states such as Lu, Dai, and Lü, so in history, the State of Qi did not use too many troops on these small countries, but these small countries were only the leaders of the State of Qi, and the trade war was not gentler than the battlefield, which would also bankrupt the enemy countries and spread corpses. Hengshan's strategy is obviously so simple, why is Guan Zhong still trying and failing, and the surrounding princely states are still repeatedly recruited?
The reason is actually very simple, not that no one in the princely states can see through, but driven by several times the profits, it is enough for everyone in the princely states to struggle for it, even if the monarch and the minister of the country can see through, how to manage everyone. Even in today's society, as long as the price of pigs rises, there will be a large number of farmers flocking in, and it will not be long before the price will fall. People today are irrational in the face of profits, let alone the more ignorant ancients two thousand years ago?
In 671 BC, Qi, Lu, Chen, Zheng, and Song huimeng, King Hui of Zhou "gave the Marquis of Qi", and the Duke of Qi Huan officially reigned. Although Qi Huangong still hunts, drinks, and plays with women every day, as long as he does things when he will make an alliance, he can be the head of the Spring and Autumn Five, which is also too easy.
The main reason is that Guan Zhong is too strong, and Guan Zhong's reform in the State of Qi is a sample of the Spring and Autumn Warring States in other countries to change the law and try to be strong, like the content of the later Shang Martingale transformation law, many of which are directly copied from the reform of Guan Zhong. The salt and iron monopoly that the State of Qi relied on for profit was directly used by Emperor Wu of han, but it was quite a bit smashing people's rice bowls and drawing salaries from the bottom of the pot. The concept of "profiting out of a hole" put forward by Guan Zhong is the essence of the concept of the Legalists, and it is also the reason why the ancients went forward to pursue power.
Therefore, although Qi Huan Gong Jiang Xiaobai was a useless disciple, he could also be helped by Guan Zhong to the throne of the Spring and Autumn Five. Therefore, if you are not capable of enough, you do not necessarily have to study hard, everyone's qualifications are different, and you make friends with people with strong abilities, and ask him to help with suggestions, which may not be a good way to "save the country through the curve"! Finally, ask for a follow-up!