In front of the gate of the Guozijian, the sky was slightly bright, and although the spring rain had passed overnight, the rain was still falling.

In the iron pot in the shed over there, the porridge and rice were still "gurgling", and the aroma of rice was everywhere, and the porridge and snacks that had been served on the table were still in their place.

In the past few days, nearly 1,000 people have gathered, and some people have already fallen. The spring rain is taking with many of them the last bit of energy.

A man with a long beard who was kneeling on the ground struggled to lift his friend who had fallen beside him, but as soon as he changed hands, the soldier who had just been helped up fell down, straight down.

He's dead.

Dead!

The gray-haired man looked at his dead friend, his hands raised high, and then a cry of tearing liver and intestines came from his throat.

"Heavens, are you going to watch us all die here?"

The rain hit his face, and I don't know if it was tears or rain.

In the shouts of the old scholars, those who were still active gradually stood up, and they shook their bodies to stand up, and their weak bodies looked like they would fall down at any time.

Seeing this, Wang Fuzhi waved his hand, and immediately someone carried the stretcher, rushed over, and put the fallen soldier on the stretcher.

The soldiers pushed the soldiers away, and then the four of them lifted them up, struggling to lift the stretcher to their shoulders. Then walk forward.

Walk in the direction of the Royal Palace.

In front of them, Wang Fuzhi's face changed suddenly, and he shouted behind.

"Where are you going?

Go to the face saint, go to your majesty!

I don't know who said where they went, but unfortunately, His Majesty is not in the palace.

Your Majesty is there?

When the scholars from all over the country went on a hunger strike in front of the palace, Zhu Mingzhong, as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, instead of paying attention to them, chose to travel, of course, the place of travel is not far away, that is, the Qinghe Academy located in the west of the city, after years of development, the current Qinghe Academy is not only the largest academy in the country, with thousands of students, but also the center of the west of the city, the academy is more shaded by green trees, especially the plum forest inside and outside the school, every time the ice and snow, when the plum blossoms are in full bloom, it is extremely pleasing to the eye.

Although the plum blossoms have long since withered by this time. However, the spring scenery in this academy is still pleasing to the eye, and I don't know how many tourists are attracted here, especially on the lakeside in the academy, I don't know how many poems are left, and on the lakeside side, it is the residence of the professors and gentlemen of the academy, and Zhu Zhiyu's residence is also here.

"I'm here for a while."

Sitting in the teacher's study, Zhu Mingzhong smiled bitterly.

"In the past few days, in the eyes of those scholars, I am a heinous faint king!"

Faint!

Zhu Mingzhong didn't feel unfamiliar with this term, and even he didn't mind much, after all, he knew the future and understood his responsibilities, and he had to promote change at any cost, which was not just a few steam engines, a few looms or a few warships, and a few cannons, but a change that was no less than the European Reformation.

And where did the greatest resistance to this "Reformation" come from?

It is those conservative scholars, and every era has its conservatives. In the face of conservatives, there is only one choice, which is to stick with it and not make any concessions.

"If Your Majesty is a faint monarch, then I am afraid that there will be no more Ming monarch in this world!"

As Zhu Mingzhong's teacher, Zhu Zhiyu naturally knows His Majesty very well, and in his opinion, compared with the Ming Jun from ancient times to the present, His Majesty can be called a Ming Jun.

"Mingjun?"

Shaking his head, Zhu Mingzhong replied.

"I, I never wanted to be Mingjun!"

Facing Zhu Zhiyu's incomprehension, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"Throughout the ages, the people of the world have looked forward to the blue sky, but the more they look forward to the blue sky, the more it shows how dark the world is. If the world is prosperous, why do you need a wise man? In my opinion, the so-called Ming Jun must be based on the premise of the decline of the dynasty......"

His Majesty's answer made Zhu Zhiyu slightly surprised, but he was not surprised, after all, he knew the difference between His Majesty, and he also knew that for His Majesty, he had always hoped that the system would improve the Ming Dynasty, so that the Ming Dynasty could still be in the prosperous era when there was no Ming Jun, or even a faint Jun, but, is this possible?

Subsequently, the two of them chatted briefly there, and then Zhu Zhiyu slowly talked about those scholars who were on hunger strike, although he has always advocated practical learning, but he is also sympathetic to those scholars.

After all, it is fair to let the readers familiarize themselves with the Four Books and the Five Classics, and then use the content of the book as the background to make the question. And relatively outstanding talents, no matter what kind of topic they face, even in the form of eight strands, will still get a good ranking. Facts also provide a good proof that so many capable people with lofty ideals in our dynasty were selected through the eight-share imperial examination. ”

Looking at His Majesty, Zhu Zhiyu said quite tactfully.

"The imperial examination is just like the entrance examination of various academies today, it is only a mechanism for talent selection: through the examination, the talents of the world are selected, so that the selection of scholars is fair, which is the original intention of the imperial examination. Therefore, the minister thinks that these eight strands are not useless, as for the "practical learning" ......"

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Zhiyu said helplessly.

"Practical learning is all practical knowledge, and there are new things every year, even in Qinghe Academy, it is difficult to follow the new learning from time to time, let alone remote places? Naturally, the students there don't learn what they actually learn. After all, the actual learning content of the academy entrance examination has changed from less than one percent in the past to two percent now, and it will further increase in the future. ”

Although he is a disseminator of practical learning, he needs to take into account the interests of the vast majority of poor people in the world. Many children from poor families do not have the ability to buy a few books about practical learning every month. They say that they don't even live where the latest practical knowledge is disseminated.

Just like arithmetic, when the scholars in Guizhou thought that there was only "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" in the world. In Qinghe, the scholars can learn the latest arithmetic knowledge, as well as knowledge from the West.

When they think that there is only "Da Ming Law" in the world, in fact, Da Ming is not just a Ming law?

It was this disparity that made them know that if they could not maintain the eight-strand scholars who used the Thirteen Classics, then the vast majority of the poor would be excluded from the civil service examination in the future. Because they don't have the means and they don't have the financial resources to learn the new ones.

That's why they put all their hopes on the Eight Strands. After all, that's the fairest. Even the poorest children of poor families can afford to buy those few scriptures, and they can rely on their ingenuity and wisdom to finally become officialdom and change their fate.

That's the root cause of their insistence. They insist not because they don't know there are civil service exams. Rather, it is because they know that the civil service examination, which is increasingly inclined to practical learning, will inevitably exclude most of the poor children who have no money to buy books and enter the academy in the future.

"Imperial Examination ......"

After a moment of silence, Zhu Mingzhong said in a deep voice.

"It's not that I don't want to use the imperial examination to win scholars, but I can't!"

After answering so affirmatively, ignoring Zhu Zhiyu's puzzlement, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"Teacher, do you know why I deliberately separated the civil and military when designing the official system?"

This......

Zhu Zhiyu looked at His Majesty and did not answer, the reason why he did not answer was because as early as three years ago, Shilin had their speculation about the current situation of the Ming Dynasty's "civil and military affairs", and the most convincing guess was what happened to Emperor Xiaolie, which made His Majesty distrust civil officials and did not want civilian officials to interfere in military affairs.

Of course, there is also a reason that the old system in Jiangbei is itself a "Wenwu Shutu", and now the Ming Dynasty is just following the old system, following the old system before His Majesty ascended the throne.

Now that His Majesty said this, he naturally seemed a little curious.

"In fact, every time I read history books, I always think, why in the Warring States and Han and Tang Dynasties, my famous ministers in the Central Plains can be both prime ministers and generals, and they can level the world when they go to the horse, and they can rule the world when they get off the horse? Looking at the famous ministers in the history books, all of them were sages of the time, and no one criticized the generals at that time, at most it meant a person, not a group. But why, since the Tang Dynasty, the situation has changed, the so-called civil and military all-rounders are becoming more and more rare, especially in the Song Dynasty, all-rounders are almost not seen in the history books. And at this time, there is another word in the history books "civil and military disputes", and before the Song Dynasty, officials in the court often practiced "party disputes", and when blocking the needle, whether it was a civil official or a military general, it was likely to be the target of the other party's attack. But they will never be attacked because the other party's identity is a military general. Therefore, there is no civil and military rivalry. Therefore, whenever I read history books, I always reflect on this issue. ”

His Majesty's rhetorical question made Zhu Zhiyu a little surprised, the whole person seemed extremely focused, and he really hadn't seriously considered this issue.

In fact, Zhu Mingzhong himself did not consider this issue in the past. But after becoming the emperor of the empire, he had to think about it seriously.

"What is the reason that in the Han and Tang dynasties, the imperial court was dominated by party disputes, and after the Song Dynasty, the imperial court had both party disputes and civil and military disputes?"

After asking rhetorically, Zhu Mingzhong picked up the teacup, this tea is a new tea just sent from Fujian, although the fragrance of tea comes to his face, but he has never been able to taste the quality of tea.

"Moreover, after the Song Dynasty, although the party struggle between the DPRK and China continued, there was a common point in the party struggle - that is, whenever facing the military attaché, no matter how fierce the party struggle was, everyone could unanimously go to the outside world - that is, when the military attache was suppressed, he could give up his prejudices and join hands to suppress and suppress the military attaché. Why? ”

Taking a sip of tea, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically, he glanced out the window, his expression was a little dignified, and even a little heavy. So much so that when looking into the distance, the gaze revealed in those eyes became more and more heavy.

In the past few years, because of the limited entertainment activities, he can only pass the time by reading books, and the most he reads is history books, after all, from history, he can learn a lot, and he will also get a lot of answers. Reading history also made him reflect a lot, reflecting on many details that he ignored in the past, details that he ignored and did not pay attention to. It was in those details that he felt as if he had found the answer. Find the reason why China has been weak since the Song Dynasty.

It's just that this answer seems a bit heavy, so that many people can't accept it. Even he himself hesitated after getting this answer. There have also been a lot of doubts. He couldn't even understand why this was the case. Why did a seemingly very good starting point actually lead to the decline of China?

"Your Majesty, the disaster of the feudal town at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the chaos in the world for five generations, and the death of hundreds of millions of people, so there was a matter of suppressing military force and promoting literature in the Song Dynasty, all because Zhao and Song were afraid that the soldiers would seize the world, so they would suppress the military generals with civilian officials."

Zhu Zhiyu, who is also familiar with history books, naturally knows the reason, and he almost instinctively attributed all the blame to the Song Dynasty, after all, the Ming people's reflection on the Song Dynasty's two deaths in the world, "suppressing martial arts and promoting literature" is one of them.

Now that His Majesty asked like this, he naturally thought of the past, in the eyes of those civil officials, he regarded the military as a grass officer, since he had already reflected on it, why was it so? Didn't you make the same mistake?

As soon as His Majesty said this, his whole body became puzzled. The reason is not even found at all. The brows immediately furrowed. After giving this answer, he also seemed a little confused.

"So, in that case, why did the civil officials also suppress the generals in the Ming Dynasty? Isn't the lesson of the Song Dynasty's two deaths enough? Why do civilian officials still suppress military generals? Why do civilian officials still regard military officers as grass cowards? ”

Facing Zhu Zhiyu's answer, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically again. In fact, at first, he was also very curious and wanted to know the answer, but no one could give him an answer, and almost all of them had the same answer, either that the generals were tyrannical or tyrannical, or how they pitted the people and harmed the people. Anyway, in a word, if they don't give the generals a little color, they don't know how thick the sky is, and they will definitely continue to trap the people and harm the people.

Zhu Zhiyu's answer also did not have any new ideas, for his answer, Zhu Mingzhong just smiled slightly, but finally looked at him and said.

"The generals are tyrannical, perhaps, the generals are tyrannical, maybe, but ...... In my opinion, the suppression of military generals by civilian officials is just one reason......"

After a pause, four words came out of his mouth.

"Not my race!"