The World Online

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats received from the title ‘Land of Agriculture’.

Land of Agriculture: Production of territory agricultural products increased by 25%, crops ability to withstand calamities increase by 20%, territory agricultural tools research standards increased by 15%, and territory agriculture technique research level increased by 20%.

As expected from the agriculture school of thought; it increased the agriculture related stats of the territory. After the added buff of the title, Shanhai Territory’s agriculture industry would possess a huge lead over other territories.

The addition of the agricultural school of thought meant that he was only one step away from completing the quest—Reappear Philosophers Debate.

Quest Requirements: Restore the prosperous environment of last time, must hold a philosopher debate with deep influence. Out of the 10 school of thoughts, at least three must move into the territory.

The philosophers debate was the first requirement of the quest. As for the second requirement, the Legalism and Agricultural school of thoughts had already moved in. He just needed to recruit one more, and he could complete the quest.

Ouyang Shuo did a simple count, the remaining schools were: Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Logician, Yin Yang, miscellaneous, diplomacy, and minor-talks.

Let us talk about the last school first.

Although it was considered a school of thought, it was not viewed as one of the nine orthodox ones.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and even during the Qin and Zhan Dynasties, the school of minor-talks did not have a huge impact. Only when the Ming Dynasty arrived did it gain fame.

Hence, they could be excluded, and temporarily he did not need to consider them.

In all likelihood, no one from the school of minor-talks would attend this philosophers’ debate.

When mentioning Confucianism, Taoism, and Mohism, these three were the huge school of thoughts. It was really difficult to gain their recognition. Ambition to influence the entire territory permeated Confucianism, so it was hard for them to move in, even when another school of thought had already done so.

Those who did move in could only be Confucianism scholars but not their representative figures.

Taoism focused on ruling by not taking action, so it was hard to gain their recognition in an environment like the wilderness.

Hence, Lao Zhuang and the others would choose to seclude themselves.

Moving on to Mohism, they were similar to Confucianism; they also had ambition. The only difference being that Confucianism had the base and ability to complete their ambition, while Mohism could only develop in the dark.

If they wanted to appear and choose a territory to move into, it seemed like a good choice. The only matter was whether or not the current Shanhai City interested Mozi.

Following which would be the school of logicians, Yin Yang school of thought, and the school of diplomacy. These three school of thoughts had their own focuses. Moreover, if used well, they could be of great help.

One had to mention the difference between the school of logicians and the school of diplomacy.

Similarly, the school of diplomacy developed debating talent. The difference is that the school of logicians focused on logic, while the school of diplomacy focused on politics.

Hence, disciples of the school of diplomacy could become diplomats, while people from the school of logicians could not.

The Yin Yang school of thought promoted the five elements beginning story.

The five elements referred to earth, wood, gold, water and fire. Based on their theory, everything in the universe went along with these five elements. Anything that happened was the result of the five elements acting on one another.

Before the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo would not have believed any of that.

However, during the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo had personally witnessed Liu Bang’s red dragon spirit. Hence, he had no choice but to believe in the five elements. Obviously, when Gaia designed the luck and prosperity stats, it used the concept of the five elements.

If Ouyang Shuo did not remember wrongly, among the basic buildings of a grade 3 prefecture, there was one observatory that was really suitable for Ying Yang school of though disciples.

The famous Qin Tianjian was in charge of predicting the weather and forming the calendar.

The last school of thought was the miscellaneous school, and its representative figure was Lu Buwei.

Strictly speaking, the miscellaneous school was not a school of thought, as it did not have a way of thinking or tradition.

Ever since the placed Lu Buwei into the miscellaneous school, this school of thought was officially formed.

After Qin Shihuang moved into Xianyang, Lu Buwei definitely would not remain there. Who knows whether this legendary figure would appear in Shanhai City.

All things considered, Ouyang Shuo was most confident about the Ying Yang School of thought, followed by the Mohists.

As for how it all went down, he had to wait for the philosophers’ debate.

A few days after, more and more scholars swarmed into Shanhai City.

In the campus of Xinan University, people went to and fro. Especially the book collection house, which was filled to the brim.

Out of all the philosophers, no matter who it was, they would first go to visit Jiangshang and not Ouyang Shuo.

Luckily, the philosophers knew their place and those who went to see Jiangshang were the representative figures.

The normal disciples could only look on from afar and not greet him. If not, Jiangshang, who enjoyed peace and quiet, would probably be annoyed to death.

Since the various disciples all moved into the Juxian House, squabbles would obviously occur.

As they said, in terms of studies, there was no first.

When philosophers met, they would naturally debate and disagree with one another. Needless to say, during the Warring States Period, every school of thought had some animosity with others.

As the representative of Ouyang Shuo and the organizer, Xiao He decided to just move in. He brought men to help settle disputes and fights.

In the end, Jiangshang had no choice but to make a stand.

He officially announced the start of the first proceeding—reading. The philosophers did not need to debate with one another. They would just move into the book collection house first for a week.

No one dared to go against Jiangshang’s announcement.

Hence, this small storm was calmed.

Apart from squabbles and disagreements, the scholars who moved in were also gourmets.

Not everyone was like Lao Zhuang, who did not care about anything.

Let us not mention how much they knew about their own school of thought. Solely their material needs made one frown.

When the forest was big, there were many kinds of birds.

Based on Xiao He’s words, there were numerous frauds among the scholars.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this report, he was not furious. As a lord, he should possess some magnanimity. He ordered Sangu Restaurant to provide food and drinks for Juxian House.

Only then did the scholars’ cries for food calm down.

There were even some shameless people who directly went to the restaurant to eat. They would not pay and directly say: I’m from X school of thought before leaving straightaway.

Such an action really brought shame to the various school of thoughts.

These scholars basically did not belong to the main branch or schools. The names they spoke out were ones that Ouyang Shuo had never heard about.

Speaking of which, the Warring States Period was said to have hundreds of school of thoughts. As for how many there actually were, the people at the time did not verify. If one was exaggerating, one person alone could be considered a school of thought.

They also did not care about the goal or proposition that the school of thought would hold, just raising its flag first without thinking.

On this topic, even famous school of thoughts like Mohism started to fade. As for other obsolete ones, it was even harder to survive.

Who knows how Gaia created them.

Some people only wanted to make use of the philosophers’ debate to obtain a sense of existence.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not take them lightly.

Who knows? Maybe amongst them, one or two would be real talents. As long as he got one of them, he would be earning. Who cares about the food money?

Even if he did not get any, he would be earning a good reputation.

These scholars were getting good food and wine here, so when they went back, they should at least put in a few good words, right?

Each one saying one good sentence was enough to make Shanhai City sound like heaven.

Reputation seemed obscure, but it was really useful at crucial moments.

Take the Quru Order as an example. The other territories gained benefits, and only Shanhai City obtained nothing. Wasn’t this caused by reputation?

Based on the information he received, Di Chen had recruited a few talents from Xianyang City, making Ouyang Shuo’s eyes red with envy. Even the other members of the Shanhai Alliance had obtained rewards.

Thinking about how Gong Chengshi bragged on the alliance channel, Ouyang Shuo really wanted to beat him up.

So disappointing!

The only thing that Ouyang Shuo felt happy about was that the Confucian Scholars from Xianyang City did not chose to join any territory. They followed Meng Zi and the rest to Shanhai City for the philosophers’ debate.

Whether or not he could take the chance all depended on this event.

On this topic, along with the older generation of each school of thought arriving, only Laozi and Han Feizi had not appeared.

Ouyang Shuo found this really surprising.

Ouyang Shuo had specially let Lianzhou Governor Wei Ran rush back to Shanhai City to accompany Lu Buwei. He did not have high hopes that he could make Lu Buwei work for him.

To say the truth, even if Lu Buwei was willing, Ouyang Shuo still had his worries.

This person was too smart, so Ouyang Shuo did not dare to use him.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo was interested in Suqin and Zhang Yi, these brothers from the same school.

It was mentioned before that Shanhai City did not have any diplomats.

With Ouyang Shuo’s experience from his last life, diplomats grew more useful the later the game proceeded.

The battles between lords could be categorized into three stages.

First, everyone developed themselves and did not disturb one another.

Second, territories would swallow up one another.

The current wilderness was in the second stage, and this stage would last the longest.

The last would be the stage where everyone tried to hold on.

After the swallowing of one another finished, one region would have many overlords standing off against one another, making it hard to unify the area. Such a situation was like the Warring States Period in history.

At that time, diplomats would take the center stage.

Apart from that, the further the game went on, the greater the threat the lords would have to face from the aboriginals.

With the China region as the example, its surroundings would have people joining in like Mongol, Nuzhen, and Xixia.

One could even say that they were stronger than other lords.

Conquer outside or ensure your territory was safe and peaceful.

This decision solely lied in the hands of the lords.