After a long conversation with Gu Yanwu and finalizing many affairs, it was already evening, but Zhu Mingzhong did not leave Gu Yanwu for dinner, and after Gu Yanwu left, he left the imperial study. On the way back to the harem, his steps even seemed a little frivolous.

"Respect the king."

Reading this word, Zhu Mingzhong only had an urge to laugh, after all, this word has too many meanings, especially on the other side of the strait in modern times.

Thinking of Japan, which is closed to the rest of the country, Zhu Mingzhong's eyebrows raised slightly, for the country of Japan, his mentality can be said to be a little complicated, on the one hand, he hopes to enter this country, completely solve the hidden dangers of the future, and on the other hand, he does not want to disturb this Japan that has been closed to the country.

It is not a bad choice to let them just close themselves off from the country and keep locking them up. But how long can such a lockdown last?

How will they react in the face of the drastic changes of the Ming Dynasty?

After all, the Ming Dynasty imports millions of catties of copper from Japan every year, and has to export a large number of goods to Japan. Japan's view of the wind always allows you to learn about the Ming Dynasty and the changes in the world through the Ming Dynasty shippers.

"Hey, things are a little difficult in Japan!"

sighed so lightly in his heart, but then put Japan aside, after all, even Japan is not in the scope of consideration at all now.

Now, what makes Zhu Mingzhong relieved is that under his painstaking management, everything in Daming has been on the right track, even if it is Shaanxi, it will be solved in the next two years, even if they can't be annihilated immediately, as long as they are driven to the Western Regions first, the domestic affairs will basically be stable, and Daming will no longer temporarily turn the crisis into safety, but the problem has been solved, as for the problems in the Western Regions, there will be five to ten or even twenty years to solve them in the next five to ten or even twenty years, in this process, Daming's vitality should have recovered almost.

"When the time comes, it will be really easy and relaxed, maybe, I can also go to Jiangnan or something......."

When mentioning the lower Jiangnan, Zhu Mingzhong naturally thought of the emperor's encounters in Jiangnan in those braided dramas, but it seems that Nanjing himself has been going to Nanjing often in the past two years, but there are no sexual encounters.

"Come on, let's greet the women in your palace first!"

Thinking like this in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong decided to go to see Concubine Yi, it seemed that he hadn't been to her for a while, and he should make her happy.

Concubine Yi is no one else, it is Liu Ruyi's daughter Qian Sunrui, and "Yi" is Tong "Yi", from staying with her a few years ago, to entering the palace as a concubine under a pseudonym, and now she has given birth to a son and a daughter for herself. When I came to the courtyard where Concubine Yi lived, I saw Qian Sunrui, who was wearing a light-colored Confucian and reading a book in the pavilion in the garden, and vaguely Zhu Mingzhong was on her body, and saw the traces of her mother, and she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

She shouldn't blame me!

"Slaves and maids see Your Majesty."

The palace maid's words made Qian Sunrui, who was looking at the book, turn her head, and saw the emperor standing there looking at her, her cheeks couldn't help but burn slightly, and she hurriedly got up and saluted.

"Concubines, see Your Majesty."

"No courtesy."

Zhu Mingzhong said with a smile.

"What book is Concubine Yi reading? Seeing it so fascinating? ”

"Where, Wu Meicun's posthumous work "Stone Records" ......"

As soon as the words came to her lips, Qian Sunrui suddenly realized a problem - Wu Meicun's death seemed to have a connection with His Majesty that no one could explain. There are even rumors that His Majesty ordered someone to sink it into the river back then, but compared to this rumor, she prefers to believe that it was ordered by the surname of the country to do it.

"Oh? Wu Meicun's posthumous work? "The Stone"? ”

Zhu Mingzhong's brows jumped suddenly, compared to the contradiction with Wu Meicun when he entered Jiangbei at the beginning of that year, he was more concerned about this "Stone Record".

But as long as Chinese, there are a few people who do not know "Stone Notes", and his other name is "Dream of the Red Chamber", which is listed as the first of the four famous works of Chinese classics, and is generally believed to be written by Cao Xueqin, but this is also quite controversial. Whether it was written by Cao Xueqin or not, Zhu Mingzhong did not know, but he has been thinking about whether he should rewrite a book "Dream of Red Mansions", and he does not want to let this masterpiece be lost because of his own relationship.

But he didn't expect that this "Stone Story" was right in front of his eyes.

""The Story of the Stone" was written by Wu Meicun?"

His Majesty's rhetorical question made Qian Sunrui's heart tighten, but since he had already said it, it could only be like this. However, because she saw that Her Majesty seemed to be in a good mood today, she could only pray that Your Majesty would not hate this book because of Wu Meicun.

Thinking so in her heart, Qian Sunrui naturally flattered His Majesty in every way, and seeing that His Majesty had picked up the book and read it, she quickly ordered the palace maid to make a cup of the emperor's favorite tea.

Looking at "The Story of Stones", Zhu Mingzhong took a sip, and after only a few words, his brows furrowed.

Although this book seems to be similar to "Dream of Red Mansions", its content is plausible, can it be said that "Dream of Red Mansions" was reviewed, added and deleted by Cao Xueqin on the basis of "The Story of Stones"?

With such doubts in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong read dozens of pages, and then deliberately looked at the pages of the book.

360,000 words.

Looking at this number of words, Zhu Mingzhong sighed, compared with the more than 900,000 words of "Dream of Red Mansions" in later generations, it was almost two-thirds less, thinking that "Dream of Red Mansions" might be lost, he said with a sigh:

"This book is indeed a good book, but it's a pity that it's written too generally, if Wu Meicun has time to review, add and delete, I think it will definitely become a masterpiece......

His Majesty's evaluation made Qian Sunrui nod again and again.

"That's not the case, but, even so, this book can be called a strange book, the concubine heard that as soon as the "Stone Record" was published, it was sold for Luoyang paper, and the book club printed a full 50,000 sets, and when the concubine bought it, this was already the second edition, and this time it was 100,000 sets."

Now under the guidance of Zhu Mingzhong, the publishing industry of the Ming Dynasty has learned some of the experience of later generations, of course, it is only a little experience, and more importantly, under the enslavement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the publishing industry that was completely destroyed has been restored, although it is not as good as the late Ming Dynasty, but it has also recovered a lot, especially the industry is becoming more and more developed.

In another time and space, three of the four famous books came from the Ming Dynasty, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were countless books, "Golden Bottle Plum", "Du Shi Niang's Angry Sinking Hundred Treasure Chests", "Romance of the Gods", etc., without exception, are all aimed at ordinary citizens! The emergence of so many "vulgar" means that there is a large demand for reading. From this point, it can be seen that the literacy rate of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty was very high, otherwise how could they understand it?

And now, the resurgence of popularity and the boom in the publishing industry is also due to the increase in the number of literate people. From this detail, Zhu Mingzhong felt extremely pleased, after all, this means that the Chinese civilization, which has suffered heavy losses, is regaining its vitality from yesterday.

"150,000 sets, Daming is currently less than 10 million households, almost 50 households with a set of books......"

Nodding happily, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"But it's only been five years to be able to recover like this, and I'm already very happy?"

Compared with this one, Zhu Mingzhong is now happier that there are so many people reading books, which is the biggest difference between civilization and barbarism.

Seeing that His Majesty didn't seem to care much about this book, the stone in Qian Sunrui's heart finally put down, so he quietly put the book aside. But because of this, Zhu Mingzhong noticed her strangeness, especially after seeing her cover the "Stone Record" with another book, he said with a smile.

"What, Concubine Yi, are you worried that because this book is Wu Meicun's last book, I will let people ban this book, right?"

Seeing that her little caution was seen through, Qian Sunrui smiled with a blushing face.

"How could a concubine be, how could she be so ......"

Looking at her delicate appearance, Zhu Mingzhong laughed.

"Concubine Yi, since Emperor Gao founded the country, the Ming Dynasty has taken the restoration of China's old civilization as its original intention.

After coming to this era, Zhu Mingzhong knew how ridiculous the "History of the Ming Dynasty" compiled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty with three generations of emperors for almost a hundred years was, no wonder they ordered the burning of all the historical archives of the Ming Dynasty immediately after compiling the history of the Ming Dynasty, just to prevent future generations from knowing how they tampered with and distorted the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Just like the literary prison they mentioned in the history of the Ming Dynasty, it is either empty or transferable, just like the ban on Li Zhen's books, although they have been burned many times, they are still popular. Because, the so-called ban is just a decree to move the official schools such as the Zun Jing Pavilion, that is, the official library, in other words, the common people can see and print if you want to see it, but the official library can't have it, that's all.

As for Zhu Yuanzhang, he was very taboo about words such as "light" and "bald", and he didn't even like words such as "monk" and "thief", so someone wrote it in the congratulatory table, and ordered him to be killed because he had been a monk and a "thief", but it was recorded in the history books that the person actually wrote an epitaph for people in the second year of "being killed", the fact is that he lived peacefully to be more than eighty years old and died in the second year of Jianwen, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death. In the "Mausoleum of the Imperial Emperor of the Ming Dynasty", Zhu Yuanzhang himself did not hide the old things about his renunciation and participation in the uprising, but frankly stated this history that seemed to be very unbearable in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" compiled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. It is ridiculous that such a blatant distortion and slander will be regarded by many people as "official history" in later generations.

"Self, nature is no ......"

Hearing that Qian Sunrui seemed a little uneasy, Zhu Mingzhong smiled and comforted.

"Okay, Concubine Yi, this book is a good book, in fact, I even thought that if I have time in the future, I can review and add or delete it, after all, ......"

With a long sigh in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong picked up the book again, and then said.

"At least don't dust the book!"

"Ahh Your Majesty, the concubine blames you......"

Qian Sunrui looked at His Majesty in surprise, she obviously didn't know that Zhu Mingzhong's sigh was because of the memories of "Dream of Red Mansions", only if His Majesty seemed to be like this because of Wu Meicun.

When she saluted to make amends, Zhu Mingzhong said with a smile.

"Okay, you don't want to, order someone to cook, tonight, I will stay with you, I want to make amends, and I will make amends in the evening......"

He burst out laughing, and in his laughter, Qian Sunrui's face became even redder, but with joy......