In the south of Luoyang City, the newly built royal garden Bigui Garden in recent years.

It is the spring of March, the flowers in the garden are bright, the pheasants are flying, and the cranes are walking in the court.

Liu Hong, the emperor of the Han Dynasty who was thirty-two years old at the time Chinese New Year's Eve, was pale and weak, but full of interest. Squinting and sitting in the court, enjoying a group of palace maids without underwear feeding, drinking, and shading the sun.

Speaking of this garden, there is also a small allusion - "repair palace money", a new name of looting in the Zhongping period, was set up for the purpose of repairing it.

Prior to this, as early as the Guanghe period, the son of today was indeed an official in the West Garden. However, the 1.0 version of selling officials is still limited to officials who buy officials and take up positions, not for everyone.

The 2.0 version of "palace repair money" has become popular to the point that "whether you take office by ability or buy officials, you have to give money." But those who take office by virtue of their ability can be discounted".

However, in Liu Hong's view, the intensification of selling officials is also helpless, who let the imperial court's control over the local area gradually collapse, and those local Diao clans only nominally respect the Son of Heaven, and the taxes that can actually be collected and handed over to the imperial court every year are getting less and less.

Knowing that selling officials is to quench his thirst, he has to get by, and he doesn't think about the future.

And one thing to say, no matter what the reason for selling the official is, Liu Hong's poverty and luxury in life cannot be washed.

Although part of the money obtained from selling officials was spent on preparing for the establishment of the Xiyuan New Army. But in general, the money spent on enriching countries and strengthening the army is still far less than the waste of building gardens.

"Drink~ Oh, hey, it's really boring," Liu Hong, who was weak and weak, felt that it was boring to play anything, and stretched a deep lazy waist hysterically, as if he wanted to dispel the suffocation that penetrated deep into his chest and ribs.

But after stretching out the waist, a greater sense of powerlessness returned.

"Duan Jue!" Liu Hong was bored for a while, and yelled at the attendants beside him.

"What does Your Majesty command?" Duan Jue immediately smiled like a chrysanthemum, respectfully waiting for orders.

Liu Hong has been pampering the Ten Constant Servants for 20 years.

The core roles such as Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, and Jian Shuo in the Ten Standing Servants are no longer in charge of serving the emperor, but helping Liu Hong to take charge of the government and military affairs. The envoys around Liu Hong gradually decreased to Duan Qi and a few others.

It's just that Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong are also human spirits, even if they don't serve the emperor on a daily basis, they will keep abreast of the situation at any time, and it is absolutely impossible for other eunuchs to empty themselves.

"What are the new curiosities and interesting things in Beijing recently? Bi Lan is tired of seeing the springs, and that's it. Liu Hong asked Duan Qi casually.

The "spring sprinkler" mentioned in his mouth is a kind of landscaping similar to the fountain and water method in later generations, which is used to lift water from a dump car and store it in a high place, and then spray water with copper bird and animal heads or toad heads.

This thing was designed and built by Bi Lan (also a eunuch) in the court, and it is a beautiful scenery that has just been completed this year in Bi Gui Garden. With the technology of the Han Dynasty, the design and development were repeated many times before success, and a copper fountain cost tens of millions, but Liu Hong also played for a while, and then felt that it was boring.

Duan Jue had a bitter face, and he was also deeply helpless.

Sure enough, it's here again! Even the fountain built by Bi Lan can't satisfy His Majesty, so what else is there to be new? It's not easy to keep Your Majesty fresh at all times.

He thought about it for a while, and could only say: "In the past two days, I heard that the people who read in Beijing are all vying to buy a new book, and thousands of volumes have been sold. The above are all stories of filial piety, but some of them are written quite vividly, I don't know if Your Majesty is interested......"

Liu Hong's face was flat: "What's so good about books?" Don't look at it, don't look at it! I hate those hypocritical preaching! ”

This kind of thing should not be said as an emperor, but in front of the confidant eunuch, there is no need to pretend, anyway, the eunuch will definitely not disobey him.

Duan Qi was also coping with errands, but seeing that Liu Hong was angry, he hurriedly explained: "It doesn't matter if Your Majesty doesn't like to watch it, the old slave can tell the stories and miscellaneous notes, and there are still some new and interesting things in it." ”

Duan Jue promoted it like this, firstly, because he also thought that the story was really interesting, and maybe he could cope with the emperor's boredom. On the other hand, he had just accepted a visit from Taichangqing Liu Yan in the past two days, and the two sides didn't know what they had talked about, and they didn't know if they had received any benefits.

In short, Duan Jue chose to deal with it like this, and the internal situation is not for outsiders.

Liu Hong was curious: "You can also tell books?" ”

Duan Qimei smiled and said: "Because the book is simple and the language is vulgar, just like the gossip in the market, you can understand it at a glance." ”

Liu Hong became more and more curious: "If the words are shallow, it must be sprinkled and verbose, how can thousands of volumes be transmitted in a few days?" I'm afraid I can't even copy it. ”

Duan Jue: "It seems that some businessmen used a new method of kitsch to print it like a seal, so it spread very quickly. ”

Liu Hong leaned in, opened his mouth and waited for the palace maid to feed him a few grapes with peels and seeds removed, and casually ordered: "Then you can pick new and interesting things to talk about." ”

Duan Jue found a book, tremblingly picked out a few stories in recent years, which looked more flesh and blood and didn't look like acting, and told Liu Hong about it.

It didn't take long for Liu Hong to be so attracted that he even forgot to eat the grapes.

"It's like telling a story and telling a joke, it's not preachy at all, it's rare for today's readers to write such a popular story." Liu Hong nodded and commented casually.

I have to say that this is completely the crushing of the creation of the book.

The books of the Han Dynasty are too dry, and there are no irrigation details at all, so the interest of the story cannot, of course, be compared with what Li Su wrote.

Moreover, many books of the Han Dynasty were not so refined and dry at the beginning, and some of them became more and more dry in the course of perennial copying - because the copyists would be impatient, for example, if the original text of a sentence is twenty characters, then the copyist will definitely not add modifiers and copy it into twenty-two or twenty-three characters.

At most, after copying the original book, add notes between the lines and send barrage complaints.

But it is entirely possible to abbreviate the original text from 20 words to 18 characters, as long as it does not affect the clarity of the narrative. The next time someone borrows your book to copy, it's still too slow, and I think it can be refined, so I copy two less dispensable ones, and this sentence will become fifteen words......

Therefore, the storybooks of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties are actually the products of group wisdom that have been abbreviated from generation to generation. In the end, it became the level of telling a small story in dozens or even a dozen words in "Xijing Miscellaneous".

And Liu Hong's aesthetics can even endure the dry to constipation storybook of "Xijing Miscellaneous", and when I heard Duan Jue's "Filial Piety Record", I instantly felt interesting.

Hearing the highlights, Liu Hong couldn't help but repeatedly interact and ask rhetorically:

"Then Liu Bei went south to Yecheng to make the first Zhang Chun, but he actually walked to the territory controlled by the Black Mountain thieves, so he escaped the search of the thieves? That Zhang Fei was able to roar and shake down the snow on the wheat seedlings within a radius of 100 steps? Fear the Montenegrin thieves disguised as villagers? ”

"When he finally returned to Lunu County, then Liu Bei used such a strategy to deceive the city gate, so that Zhang Chun was caught off guard and had to abandon the city and flee?"

Liu Hong didn't realize that he had been taken to the crooked building. After listening to it for a while, I noticed that this story didn't seem to have anything to do with "filial piety", at most it was just loyalty.

Only then did he stop Duan Jue: "Wait! What do these deeds have to do with filial piety? ”

Duan Jue hurriedly jumped out of a plot and flipped to the end: "That's the case, this Anxi Liu Xuande, whose ancestral home is Zhuo County, Zhuo County, after chasing and killing Zhang Chun across the border, because of his official position, he could no longer chase it, and then after several twists and turns, he abandoned the official and left, went home to protect his uncle at home, gathered in the countryside to protect the territory and the people......"

Liu Hong listened to it and found that it was the first time he saw that the story could be filled with water and pave so many thrilling and exciting processes in the link outside of "preaching".

Although he is a little unclear, he moans without illness, preaches too little, and his intention is not high enough.

But I have to say, this story sounds really exciting.

After being stunned for a while, Liu Hongcai patted his thigh and sighed: "If "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" and other barnyard official histories are also written like this, why don't I like to read!" ”

Subtly, Liu Hong imagined Liu Bei, who had only fought one or two insignificant battles, as a general.

As the saying goes, Pompeii fought well, not as well as Caesar's "Gallic Wars".

If you fight a war with the emperor, you can't write it well as your peers and the secretary of the enemy army who writes "On War" well. (Clausewitz was an advisor to Blucher and Scharnhorst in his early years, and fought with Napoleon with those two generals.) Clausewitz had a terrible record as a staff officer, but he was very good at writing books).

The general's general is a very professional thing, the layman may not be able to understand it, and the emperor can't understand it, they can only look at the results, or read the story.

And when the results are confusing, and the reasons for victory or defeat cannot be attributed to specific people. It is very important to have a good stand out among a group of colleagues, to be able to brag, and to have someone in the court to help you brag.

It can definitely get twice the result with half the effort, magnifying your actual exploits on the battlefield several times.

Pan Feng, Zhang He, and Gong Qichou, in the process of courting Zhang Chun, their actual performance may not be worse than Liu Bei, but no one helps them blow it.

It can only be said that Li Su played well, and Liu Yan just wanted to use these two chess pieces, and the inside and outside should be combined, and the embarrassment and treachery jointly hyped up, so that today's situation was achieved.

Thousands of rolls were sold in Luoyang City in a few days, and such a grand occasion was impossible if you didn't want to hear it directly to the sky.

Liu Hong lamented his regret for a while that he was "mistaken by the boring book", and finally noticed more problems.

"I seem to have heard some of Liu Bei's things before?"

Duan Jue: "Your Majesty, Liu Bei's abandonment of the official refusal to conquer the country, it seems that someone mentioned it at the last court meeting, and you can ask Zhao Changshi specifically, and the old slave is blamed for not being very clear about state affairs." ”

Duan Jue is still very careful about his character of "only concentrating on serving the emperor and not caring about the government".

Liu Hong thought for a while and nodded: "No wonder, when I think it's the court, I want to find a few meritorious people to boost the morale of the government and the opposition, so this Li Su's "Filial Piety Record" spread so fast." ”

Although Liu Hong is absurd, his IQ is not low, and he soon thought that this thing is so popular and abnormal, there must be a promoter behind it.

It's just that this kind of pusher seems to be beneficial to the Han at present, because the Han is in need of such a model to magnify the spirit of the heroes.

So Liu Hong didn't plan to track down who was helping Liu Bei publicize.

Since it is a good thing that is beneficial to the imperial court, why is it so clear to check? It's hard to be confused if you want to be happy in time.

He asked Duan Jue for some more information, and heard that Liu Bei was also a relative of the Han family, so he refused to be in the same stream with Zhang Chun and was so loyal.

So, Liu Hong asked the eunuch to summon the great Zongzheng Liu Yu to meet him, and wanted to ask Liu Yu if he had any arrangements.

——

PS: It's the third week of the new book, and it's time for each book to seek live fans, ask the real live fan readers of this book, reward 1 yuan, and identify the number of live fans who chase more. It also allows the editor to see my use value, and also increases my creative confidence and confidence for myself.

Book friends who have already had a tipping record don't need to tip anymore, because it won't increase the number of live fans. As long as you have never rewarded this book, ask for 1 yuan. It's not for this money, it's just to look at big data and inspire creative inspiration and motivation.

For every 100 more fans during the new book period, there will be more than 3,000 words on the first day of release. Everyone can look at the number of fans on the web side to keep accounts, and Tong Su is not bullied. (After reaching 500 people, the list of fans on the web will not be displayed, but I will still convert it according to the proportion.) It's not going to be very precise, but it's pretty much the same. ）