"Oh?" Lao Zhu was doubtful, but for Zhu Biao's sake, he finally opened the memorial.
Originally, he thought that what was written in this memorial was just a memorial written by Li Shanchang to support the collection of business taxes and beg for forgiveness from the palace.
But the more he looked, the more serious Lao Zhu's expression became.
"Come on! Go to Xuan Laowu and Mr. Liu to see us!"
After reading the memorial, Lao Zhu couldn't help but stood up suddenly, walked around the palace and thought for a while, and finally called Erhu and asked him to summon Liu Bowen and Zhu Su to the palace for discussion.
…
At this time, Zhu Su was still worried about the Imperial College affairs.
The emperor's seizure of the iron coupons for military talismans had already been widely circulated in the city. The literati were all celebrating, thinking that the emperor was going to put the weapons into the treasury, release the horses to Nanshan, and rule Yuanting across the Great Wall.
Originally, now that the Ming Dynasty has taken back Liaodong and Yunnan, the ancestral land is already in its hands, and the Beiyuan Dynasty is at the end of its power, there is no need to spend so much tax money every year to support so many people just to fight with Yuanting. soldiers and warriors. Your Majesty's move is just to imitate the old wisdom of Zhao Kuangyin, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, who released his military power with a cup of wine. Next, he will treat the literati with courtesy and rule the world with the scholar-bureaucrats.
It happened that at this time, the cakes drawn for the nobles that night were spread like wildfire, and the literati could not help but shout: Not only did they not abandon the warriors, but they wanted to entrust them with titles, so that they could be called lonely and powerful. Above the literati?
This...how is this okay? Who is it that slanders His Majesty?
Then it happened that at this time, Zhu Su asked Song Lian to compile the first edition of the Imperial Education Program, and "On China" came out. The book starts from the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Zhou rites, goes through the rise and fall of China for thousands of years, and finally points out that the rise of China lies in pioneering and enterprising; Its downfall lies in being complacent. All those who read should inherit the learning of their ancestors, inherit the aspirations of their ancestors, and explore the blue road to expand China.
This article is the result of Song Lian's painstaking efforts and eloquent words. It is a wonderful piece of writing. But it just stung a hornet's nest. The literati, in vain of the knowledge in the text, accused the Imperial College of deceiving the public with monstrous words, slandering the public, and talking about vulgar martial arts in such a high-sounding manner. This was forgetting their ancestors and worshiping martial arts and suppressing literature.
Suddenly, among the literati in the Imperial College, everyone was shouting for beatings, so much so that many of the former graduates who had persisted were forced to withdraw from prison due to pressure. There are not many people left in Nuo Da's Imperial College.
It has simply become a big joke in the country.
"How can this not make sense? How can this not make sense!" As the author of the article, Song Lian was trembling with anger. "There are many well-educated people among these people, but they ignore the meaning of the article and insist on dragging the article into superficial civil and military disputes!"
"Husbands of the Huaxia, obeying the etiquette and etiquette, are the best in the world. Let overseas people know the etiquette, know the integrity and shame, and follow our system of the Huaxia. This is exactly what the sage said to spread education widely and benefit the world! How can we simply talk about military affairs? "
"These people are taking things out of context and making them far-fetched... It's really, really unreasonable!"
Old Master Song's face turned purple with anger.
"Why are you so angry?" Liu Bowen, who had taken over the post of tutor, comforted Song Lian with kind words. "Your Highness has not made up his mind before. How can this generation of scholars understand the subtle meaning of the saint's words? They just use the saint's learning as a step to advance. Even the words of the saint have been changed beyond recognition by such people over the past thousand years. What’s more, Brother Song’s writings?”
"In my opinion, there must be someone from North Korea behind this matter. It won't be that simple." Liu Bowen asserted.
Zhu Su nodded secretly after hearing this, and he thought so. These literati were all instigated. Although there was a reason why the dissatisfaction among the literati with the "new learning" they admired had accumulated, but there must also be someone behind them who was fanning the flames. Zhu Su could even guess that the identities of these people must be the civil servants in the court. Seeing that Li Shanchang was unreliable, he deliberately caused trouble, hoping that the court would be so anxious that they would not care about their evasion of business taxes.
"How can matters of learning be used for court disputes?" Song Lian was even more angry. What the Imperial College was doing now was a major event that affected China for hundreds of years and reshaped the study of saints. He could not tolerate the fact that someone was using this to cause trouble.
"It doesn't matter. In the long run, this matter is not a problem at all. Our country is a government school, and those people who make noise are ultimately a disease of mustard. As long as the imperial examination selects talents according to the new learning method, those literati will just I also need to learn something new about my nose." Zhu Su said. "It's just a bit of a headache in the short term. First, the number of students is dwindling. The Imperial College has such a great reputation and cannot end up with no students to teach."
"The second is the voice of doubt about "Hua Xia Lun". Although "Hua Xia Lun" is full of true knowledge and insights, there must be people who can discern gold. But most people in the world are followers of the trend. If we cannot suppress this evil trend, I am afraid that It is not good for the spread of new learning.”
"New learning is our century-old plan for the Ming Dynasty, and it must not be lost. The most urgent task is to let everyone in the world know the ideas in "Hua Xia Lun". It is best to compete with each other and clear up the nonsense of those people. If you refute it point by point, it should be spread throughout the world, so that everyone will know the bad intentions of that old scholar."
"As for students, I have an idea." Liu Bowen said with a smile. "Confucius said that there is no distinction between education and distinction, so it is better to take this opportunity to recruit the sons of poor families into prisons. Previously, I have trained hundreds of sons of farmers in the imperial village."
"These children are so smart and clever. They just fill the quota for the Imperial College. Moreover, if people from poor families have the opportunity to continue studying, they will definitely flock to them. Who cares about the rumors of those old scholars."
"Good." Zhu Su also nodded. "Those who oppose the new learning are actually mostly landowners, squires, and people who claim to be heirs to farming and education, but in fact they have nothing to do with it. It is we who have exposed them for thousands of years, who have been clinging to the weak and conservative, regardless of the country's justice, and are willing to stand aside. Talking about romance and unwillingness to seek happiness for the world will cause their backlash."
"However, many students from poor families agree with our new learning. We can set up an admissions examination, and those who can pass the examination can study at the Imperial College for free. Only by cultivating our own literati can we compete with the old literati. "
When Song Lian heard this, he also nodded. The old man turned his anger into joy and said with his hands: "Wonderful! In this way, those people slandering us have become a way to select talents for my new school! After blowing away the yellow sand, we will see you. Jin, don’t let those half-hearted supervisors go!”
Liu Bowen also nodded. Then he said: "As for the second point, does Your Highness have a plan? Nowadays, the trend of slandering my new learning is very rampant. Those people have no intention of arguing with us, but only want to smear me."
"It needs to be able to prevent my new learning from being stigmatized."
"I do have a solution for this matter. But..." Zhu Su looked confused. In the past few days, the Xin Xue literati led by Fang Xiaoru have also argued in public with those students who slandered Xin Xue. However, most of these literati are obviously not here to reason. To put it bluntly, these people are just like later generations. Keyboard warriors, they don't care about whether the truth is right or wrong, they just want to use words to smear and spit out the budding new knowledge.
Originally, Zhu Su was not afraid of such trolls at all. Isn't it just a matter of comparing whose voice is louder? As long as we use the two weapons of leaflets and newspapers, sooner or later these trolls will be sprayed until they lose their armor. After all, most people are just mindlessly following the trend. As long as they have control over the direction of the voice, they will naturally switch sides to Xinxue.
However, Zhu Su encountered a big problem. Most of the working capital he could use now had been invested in the two bottomless pits of steelmaking and firearms research and development. He did not have enough to run a large newspaper that could supply the entire Jiangnan area. money. Moreover, he did not dare to take possession of something like this that was related to the right to speak. It would be best to let Lao Zhu or his eldest brother Zhu Biao come forward to take charge of it. By the way, the law banned private newspapers from the beginning, completely eliminating the big issue of public opinion. The killing weapon is in the hands of the imperial court, which is the safest way.
Otherwise, it would be terrible if someone realized the power of public opinion and he, Zhu Su, set a precedent and let others use the weapon of public opinion to counter the imperial court.
You must know that those old literati were extremely good at using public opinion and suppressing imperial power.
But now, the imperial court has only collected a mere 100,000 taels of business tax. Although Lao Zhu took care of the nobles, there is no conclusion yet on how to check the taxes. Zhu Su had no choice in this matter. After all, the imperial court had no one on hand. After all, Yushitai was just a high-ranking Confucian scholar who was not familiar with ordinary affairs. The people in the household department were in the same group as the literati. Let them investigate themselves. What secrets can be found?
We can only wait for Lao Zhu to use thunderous tactics to scare one group of people, and then frighten another group of people. Only with this stupid method can we get the first crack at the commercial tax law?
"Well, to put it bluntly, I still don't have the money to make trouble." Zhu Su sighed. Originally, I just wanted to ask for some money from my cheap daddy to study and develop basic technology, but I didn't expect that I had to come up with new skills myself and purge the nobles, but the money still didn't show up. Now he has added the work of rebuilding the Imperial College and running a newspaper office, which makes Zhu Su even want to encourage Lao Zhu to start a big case and confiscate the house, and use the stolen money to settle the matter first.
Science and technology are always the primary productive force of a country and cannot be delayed! If I remember correctly, in a few years, the Japanese and Southern and Northern Dynasties will be unified. If before that, Ming Dynasty cannot be allowed to form a weapons chain and have the strength to deter Japan while rejecting Yuanting in the north.
Let the Ashikaga shogunate successfully unify the Japanese country, and it will be even more difficult for the Ming Dynasty to do this again.
"Your Majesty, Fifth Highness, Mr. Qingtian, your Majesty has summoned you." Just as he was thinking about it, he heard someone coming from outside to report.
(End of chapter)
