Ying Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly: "Didn't you see the registration book?"
Shuanghong smiled and said: "You can always go to the library and have a look and count to see which school has the emptiest bookshelves."
After saying that, he lowered his voice again and said seriously: "I borrowed the book. I should have come back as soon as possible, but I couldn't handle the matter properly. I was unwilling to do so. I found a more remote place to watch and wait. Taking advantage of the gap between their handovers, I put some laxative into a cup of tea, delayed for a moment, and hurriedly flipped through the records of the last month."
"In addition to His Highness, several other Highnesses have also sent people to borrow books, especially His Highness, the eldest son of the Emperor. However, most of the books they borrowed were Confucianism, and among them were quite famous Confucian scholars..."
Ying Zheng sat at the table and listened to what she said. He couldn't help but nodded slightly and said with approval: "You did a good job."
Shuanghong was so stunned by his smile that her soul flew away. After a few moments, she came back to her senses. She blushed slightly and said in a panic: "This slave is just following orders."
Looking at the expression of the sixth prince, he knew that he was thinking something, so he quietly blessed himself and retreated.
Ying Zheng didn't notice this - in his opinion, the people around him should be so informed.
He just strengthened his original judgment.
The emperor is indeed an emperor with great ambitions.
When he should be stingy, he was stingy enough.
He reduced the expenses of the harem and even his own daily expenses. Apart from the fixed annual ancestor worship activities, he almost never left the palace for hunting. There were not many concubines. In order to save money, he did not even let his sons leave the palace to open a mansion. The eldest prince and the second prince have several children, and they are all crowded in the palace.
But when it was time to give generously, he was generous enough.
Knowing that the Zhou Kingdom was located in the west, it was a cultural desert with few local talents, so he spent a lot of money to recruit talents from all over the world and appointed people who were not from the country to serve as leaders. The head of the prime minister tried his best to reform the old system against all opinions, and his actions could not but be said to be drastic and drastic.
What is good from the top must be followed by the bottom. Among all the countries, only the Zhou Kingdom has the loudest voice for reform and has gone the furthest on this road. It is not surprising.
And the eldest prince, who was originally the destined prince, did not seem like a successor who could carry out the emperor's hopes.
This is a world where many elements are mixed. The official system is a bit like the Tang and Song Dynasties, and state relations are a bit like the Warring States Period. However, the development of the political form and the level of social productivity are much more mature than during the Warring States Period.
For a country, this is a double-edged sword.
The ability of the people to accumulate wealth means that the people's lives are relatively prosperous. When the people are rich, the country is rich, and only when the country is rich can we begin to talk about the country's strength.
But this also means that the gap between the rich and the poor is rapidly expanding. The top elites are harvesting social wealth non-stop. This society will become more and more fragmented until the bottom cannot bear it, uprisings occur frequently, and eventually the upper class is violently overthrown, and everything is reshuffled. .
The economic base determines the superstructure. Nowadays, productivity is developing rapidly, but the superstructure is still the same as in ancient times. If we don't start a top-down reform now, I'm afraid it will be rolled over to the other side in a few years. Crushed by the wheels of history!
What the emperor has to do now is to open up the channels for the lower class people to rise to the upper class and try his best to ease the contradictions - he has actually completed most of this arduous task.
Diversion of conflicts through external campaigns, just like what Qin did in the past, made the people timid in private fights, brave in public battles, and promoted through military merit.
And to a certain extent, he even did better than Qin - because he and Prime Minister Jiang Maoyan had already started testing the imperial examination in Zhou!
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
It is true that the elites are displeased by the promotion of the lower class through military merit, but they also have to admit that the emergence of this new group of military meritorious nobles has indeed brought vitality to the country.
And the most important thing is that they themselves can’t take advantage of this merit!
Which of the emerging military aristocrats has not experienced hundreds of battles and licked blood with the tip of his sword?
They are not greedy for the titles earned by wearing their heads on their waistbands.
But the imperial examination is different.
This is destroying the foundation of the old aristocracy!
Not to mention that the talent output rate of the old aristocratic class is much higher than that of ordinary people. The determination and perseverance of the bottom to climb up is much stronger than this so-called talent output rate!
At first, the emperor spent tens of millions of dollars to build the Hongwen Museum and collect books from all over the world. The old aristocrats thought that this was because the emperor felt that his family was short of ink, and wanted to spend some from outside to decorate the facade, and then try the imperial examination. , what is there that you still don’t understand? !
This is preparing for the national imperial examination!
…
Hongwen Museum.
This pavilion, which is well-known in various countries and houses almost all folk collections, is magnificent and majestic beyond the imagination of the world.
At the beginning of the construction, Emperor Zhou strictly ordered that the regulations should not be inferior to those of the Taiji Palace. He even mobilized the craftsmen who built the imperial mausoleum here to speed up the construction.
Now that the Hongwen Pavilion has been completed, it has become a grand sight in the world, and people from all over the world are amazed. However, Emperor Zhou's own imperial mausoleum is still a half-finished project.
Zhu Meng stopped outside the main entrance of Hongwen Hall for a long time, but saw an endless stream of people coming and going. They wore clothes from different countries and spoke with different accents, but the expressions on their faces were exactly the same.
It is a kind of desire that is rushing towards hope.
Go back to Hongwen Hall.
As a person from another country and having never entered the Zhou Dynasty, Zhu Meng could only borrow books on the first floor of the Hongwen Library, and he could only read them in the library and was not allowed to take them out - but even so, he was already a What a great favor.
Ordinary people's books are regarded as family heirlooms. How can they be taken out in a grand manner for people to read at will?
Zhu Meng did not rush to take a book and take a closer look. Instead, he circled the entire first floor from the starting position. The officials guarding the pavilion did not find it strange when they saw this, and even showed a smile on their faces. There is a kind of pride and pride.
It is not surprising that many people from all over the world come to the Hongwen Museum to look like this and are dumbfounded!
Zhu Meng glanced through the classics in the Hongwen Hall. Not only did he show a worried look on his face, but he couldn't help but exclaimed: "It's so elegant!"
The official was standing by. After hearing this, he smiled and said, "Is this your new arrival to the Zhou Kingdom? I want to be courteous to the virtuous and respect the talented and virtuous. In today's world, who else can I master? Our country does not stick to the rules for recruiting scholars. Born, if you are interested, the museum will naturally recommend you."
After hearing this, Zhu Meng's sigh became more and more intense: "All countries believe that death should be treated as life. Some wealthy families even went bankrupt in order to arrange funerals for their parents. Comparison among princes has become a common practice."
"But I heard that Emperor Zhou even suspended the construction of the imperial mausoleum in order to build the Hongwen Pavilion. The expenses for himself and the princes in the harem were also repeatedly reduced. In order to absorb the world's collection of books, he even spent gold Use it like clay, and I don’t feel any regret at all. I’m afraid that in less than fifty years, all those other kings, princes, and wealthy sons will become slaves of the Zhou Kingdom!”
The officials smiled and said nothing.
However, someone said from behind: "'Yu Yu is very literary' - are you a Confucian?"
Zhu Meng turned around and stared at himself.
When he was in his hometown, he was famous for his beauty. He came all the way west to the Zhou Kingdom. On the way, there were many bold women who were impressed by his beauty and wanted to have sex with him. The folk customs in the west were open and informal. Etiquette is enough to prove his great appearance.
But the half-grown boy in front of him, although a few years younger than him, has already shown a unique demeanor, so that even a handsome man like Zhu Meng actually has the admiration of "looking at me with my beautiful eyes". Feeling coming.
When Ying Zheng saw this, he frowned unnoticeably.
He was a little helpless and complained to the people in the space: "Why do you act like this after seeing me?
"Shuanghong is walking with him today, and has been following the Sixth Prince since he was a child. With a slight glance at his expression, he can guess what he is thinking at this time, and can't help but hide his mouth and snicker.
Your Highness, he really doesn’t know how conspicuous he is among the crowd!
After listening to my reply last night, I actually asked myself with some confusion: "Shuanghong, I had no intention of getting involved in the affairs of the previous dynasty, but now I suddenly have ambitions, wouldn't you suspect that your master has actually changed?" Personally?"
Shuanghong was startled at first, and then overjoyed.
Your Highness, to put it crudely, you are a full man but you don’t know how hungry you are!
If a demon could seize your body, he would be drooling for a quarter of an hour when he looked in the mirror, and he would be drooling for another quarter of an hour when he saw Empress Shuyi. Where can I be as calm as you and not feel that I stand out from the crowd at all?
The emperors in the space where Ying Zheng asked: "..."
Ah this.
Liu Che, who was usually the most talkative, was speechless for a while.
However, although……
Although our looks are both above the passing mark, we are indeed not as handsome as you...
Of course there will be no such troubles.
He finally found a few words to deal with, but Ying Zheng over there had already figured it out.
"——Don't you guys ever encounter this kind of thing?"
He apologized: "I'm sorry, I accidentally forgot."
Liu Che: "..."
The rest: "..."
The fist is hard!
Chapter 190
Zhu Meng woke up from the beauty of the young master in front of him, bowed his hands and answered his previous question: "I am not a disciple of Confucianism, but a disciple of Huang Lao, but the world's knowledge is similar, and the road leads to the same goal through different paths. , people of the Huang-Lao school, why not use Confucian language?"
Ying Zheng said clearly: "Harmony but different."
Zhu Meng couldn't help laughing after hearing this: "Isn't your respect also using Confucian allusions?"
When Ying Zheng saw that his clothes were very different from those of his native country, he knew that he was a visitor from a foreign country. He also felt that this person's conversation was extraordinary, so he wanted to talk.
It happened that Zhu Meng also had this intention, so the two of them went to the quiet room together. On the way, they saw a young man about twenty-three or four years old coming out of the quiet room next to him with a book in his arms. He couldn't help but stop and watch, with a sigh on his face.
"He is a descendant of the Yinghou family..."
He sighed again: "The Emperor Zhou was very bold in his actions and employing people. In later history books, he will be a figure comparable to King Wu!"
After raising troops to defeat Zhou and establishing the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu Jifa could almost be said to be a saint-like monarch in his time. Zhu Meng's evaluation of Emperor Zhou cannot be said to be low.
Ying Zheng knew why he made such remarks.
Because the young man was born in the Yinghou Mansion, and there was no noble bloodline, let alone the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
On the contrary, sixteen years ago, the contemporary British prince was just a humble horse breeder!
It was when Emperor Zhou inspected the ranch that he discovered this talent. He carefully looked at the horses he fed and their survival rate. He also knew that he would only leave the horse farm when it was dark every day, and he would not dare to go there until it was dark the next day. , even in the coldest month of winter, if a horse is sick, he will sleep nearby at the racecourse and immediately make the decision to promote him to the chief official of the racecourse.
He also promised him that if he could raise thousands of horses for the country, he would be made a marquis!
Sixteen years ago, it was the time when the military title system began to exert its force in the Zhou Kingdom, but even so, the emperor promised a humble horse breeder the opportunity to become a marquis, which cannot but be said to be groundbreaking.
What shocked the other countries even more was that seven years ago, after verifying the number of horses available in the racecourse, Emperor Zhou resolutely fulfilled his promise and made the horse breeder a British Marquis!
People of all kinds have always been humble and despised by gentlemen. Such a phoenix suddenly flew out of such a group, making the rest of the people start to feel excited. At this time, Emperor Zhou issued an order to seek talents from all countries...
Ying Zheng didn't think there was anything mean about raising horses. Wasn't the ancestor of Qin, Qin Feizi, appreciated by the Zhou royal family because he was good at raising horses?
On the contrary, like Emperor Zhou, he admired this Yinghou very much.
"Horse, what a wonderful animal!"
Ying Zheng and his old friends sighed: "Which man can refuse?"
The other people clicked their tongues and agreed, but Liu Che suddenly said something.
