Young Master Gao? Call me Little Grand Secretary!

Shangtong? What's that?

The Mohists advocated universal love and non-aggression, so why did they come up with such a strange term?

Gao Zhao looked at him suspiciously, as if to say, "I'm not well-educated, don't try to fool me!"

"The *Shangtong* is a chapter in which the Later Mohists recorded the words of Mozi!" the old man explained. "Its meaning is that everyone in the world has their own thoughts and opinions, and that clinging to one another's views and criticizing each other is the root of chaos. Therefore, it is necessary to unify thoughts!"

Gao Zhao wasn't interested in the ideas of these various schools of thought from the pre-Qin period. He blinked and said, "So what? What does this have to do with the case I'm talking about?"

"Cheng Zhengshu once said: 'Modern scholars suffer from three flaws: they are obsessed with literature, entangled in textual exegesis, and misled by heresies.'" The old man shook his head and said, "You, you're just a bookworm, unable to adapt!"

Gao Zhao puffed out his chest and retorted, "I don't even read books, let alone study them to death! I'm certainly not a scholar! Get to the point!"

The old man shook his head helplessly and said, "The 'Shang Tong' (a classic text on righteousness) states that everyone's sense of justice is different, and everyone has their own beliefs; even fathers and sons are no exception!"

Upon hearing this, Gao Zhao couldn't help but nod. He and Gao Qiu were exactly like that. Gao Qiu flattered the emperor and wanted to be a treacherous minister, while he himself remained untainted by the mud and only wanted to indulge in luxury and debauchery. Their ambitions were clearly different!

The old man continued, "Although that couple is currently in cahoots, their needs are inevitably different. If you simply try to understand them, find the differences between them, and then take some action, they will naturally become enemies and cause chaos!"

Gao Zhao's eyes lit up. This old scumbag has something! His methods are those of a seasoned artist!

If I were to use this method on Zhang Yunniang...

"Hey, hey! What are you thinking about!" The old man slammed his wine pouch down, displeased. "I'm teaching you how to handle a case!"

Gao Zhao quickly snapped out of his daze, chuckled awkwardly, and said, "I was just thinking about the case..."

"Ha!" The old man sneered, saying calmly, "After you've caused them to create trouble and start attacking each other, it will inevitably lead to the exposure of the person behind it all!"

"What if it wasn't that minor official who personally ordered it?" Gao Zhao immediately offered a new idea: "And what if, when I tried to follow the trail, that person was silenced?"

The old man looked at him as if he were a fool, sighed, and said, "In a conspiracy like this that concerns one's life and fortune, the fewer people who know about it, the better. Cut corners wherever possible!"

"To put it another way, if the minor official uses a middleman, it adds many more variables. What if that person tells their relatives and friends? What if they leave behind incriminating evidence to protect themselves or use it for blackmail? And if it's murder, there will inevitably be traces left; he'll only die sooner!"

"You...who exactly are you?" Gao Zhao looked at the old man with surprise and suspicion. This old guy was definitely not an ordinary person!

"We've only just met, and you're not a beautiful woman, so why are you asking my name? That's overstepping your bounds!"

The old man got up in dissatisfaction, turned and left. Gao Zhao hurriedly chased after him, but found that the further he chased, the further away he got, leaving him breathless and exhausted.

"Put what you've learned into practice. Come back here and wait for me after you've done this well!" The old man's voice drifted over from afar.

Gao Zhao stared blankly at his departing figure, lost in thought. He was clearly not walking fast, so why was he so hard to catch up with? Was he really that weak?

I'm going to be a man who's 1.2 feet tall, how can I be weak!

After listening to the lectures all morning, Gao Zhao had a plan in mind and naturally stopped being anxious!

After returning to the dormitory at noon, he patted Su Mian on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Brother Xuzhi, do you know Shangtong?"

Su Mian frowned slightly and said, "The one from the Mohist school? I've seen it before!"

"Oh! Brother Xu, your knowledge is truly vast!" Gao Zhao exclaimed. "Tell me about it!"

Su Mian hesitated for a moment, but before he could speak, Fan Tong recited directly from the other side: "Master Mozi said: 'In this present time, the people who yearn for the past have just emerged, and there is no time when things are properly established. This is because the people of the world have different opinions, so one person has one opinion, ten people have ten opinions, a hundred people have a hundred opinions...'"

Gao Zhao turned his head and saw Fan Tong reciting a long passage with a smug look on his face. He looked displeased, pointed at him, and said, "If you're so capable, recite the translation yourself!"

"What's so difficult about that!" Fan Tong laughed proudly and said loudly, "Mozi said that in the beginning of ancient times, before there were courts and officials, people had different opinions. One person had one opinion, ten people had ten opinions, a hundred people had a hundred opinions..."

After listening, Gao Zhao nodded silently, agreeing with what the old man had said.

Of course, this wasn't because he was inherently suspicious or distrustful of the old man; he simply wanted to hear more of other people's opinions... Yes, that's it!

The next morning, he went to the schoolmaster to ask for leave, saying that his uncle was seriously ill!

Gao Zhao sighed and recounted how his uncle was in the salt certificate business. All of his family's wealth was used to hoard salt certificates. This time, the imperial court suddenly reformed the system, abolishing salt certificates and replacing them with circulating currency, which caused the price of salt certificates to plummet. His uncle lost everything, fell ill, and was on the verge of death!

Upon hearing how serious the matter was, the instructor naturally granted leave, though he was also quite dissatisfied with Cai Jing's reforms.

Exchanging old salt certificates for new banknotes incurs a 30% handling fee, and the new banknotes are only valid for a maximum of one year. Isn't this blatant robbery?

This has led to a sharp drop in the price of old salt certificates, which have now depreciated by half and are expected to fall further!

……

After leaving Biyong, Gao Zhao went straight to Daxiangguo Temple. Naturally, he couldn't let Lin Chong handle the matter alone.

When he arrived at the vegetable garden, Lu Zhishen was drinking and playing with a group of hooligans, wielding his monk's staff with great flair!

"That fat monk, something's happened!" Gao Zhao shouted from afar.

Lu Zhishen looked up and saw it was him. His face immediately darkened, and he shouted, "You worthless brat, what are you doing here again? Don't go looking for trouble!"

The group of thugs also turned to look. They recognized Gao Zhao, but they didn't know why he had any dealings with Lu Zhishen!

"Enough with the nonsense!" Gao Zhao approached, his expression grave. "Instructor Lin is in trouble, did you know?"

"Nonsense!" Lu Zhishen said unhappily, "I was drinking with him just a few days ago..."

"He got into trouble because he was drinking!" Gao Zhao waved his hand to interrupt, and then recounted how Lin Chong had been arrested.

"Impossible!" Lu Zhishen immediately shook his head in denial. "My brother is an upright man; how could he do something like this to humiliate a woman!"

"Of course he didn't do it..." Gao Zhao started to say, then turned and glanced at the group of thugs, asking, "Are these people trustworthy?"

Lu Zhishen was taken aback. How could he answer this? To say to these people that they were untrustworthy in front of them? What about their past friendship then?

"Of course they're trustworthy; these are all heroes!"

Upon hearing this, the group of thugs immediately straightened their backs and puffed out their chests.

This was exactly the effect Gao Zhao wanted, so he immediately said, "To be honest, Instructor Lin was implicated because of you. It was because we helped you that we offended that judge..."

"You mean Brother Lin was framed by that scoundrel?" Lu Zhishen's eyes widened in fury. "I'll go and kill that scoundrel right now, and then rescue Brother Lin!"

"Foolish!" Gao Zhao shouted hastily, scolding, "That's the Kaifeng Prefecture prison! Do you think rescuing someone is as simple as stealing vegetables from your garden?!"

Lu Zhishen turned to look at the newly planted vegetables in the garden, and recalling the scene of the Beggars' Sect stealing his vegetables, he couldn't help but feel annoyed: "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Gao Zhao smiled arrogantly: "Do you know about the Mohist school's concept of 'harmony'?"