Confucius once said: Do not do to others what you do not want to be done. And what Zhu Jishi, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, is doing now is contrary to the words of the sage, and he is now giving everything to others what he does not want! For example, he exported such good things as Confucianism to the people of all ethnic groups in Southeast Asia, while he himself used the granite head of Confucian scholars in China.

And such an act will of course be opposed by some Confucian scholars and doctors with a sense of justice! Zhu Jishi was mentally prepared for this.

When the expansion of the Russian Empire in East Asia was defeated by the kamikaze suicide ships of the Japanese samurai, the attention of the Ming Dynasty finally turned back to the imperial examination reform, a major event related to the careers of thousands of people - in contrast, the crusade against the country of Annan is simply a small matter, and now the Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty are still different from the scholars of the late Ming Dynasty, not closely related to their own interests, and no one will step on the tail of the emperor Laozi.

Just when Emperor Zhu was about to go to Japan in the name of marrying the Queen of the Ryukyus, a small turmoil suddenly began.

The place where this turmoil began was Sichuan, and the fuse was the Sichuan imperial examination. Sichuan fell into the hands of Zhu Ming at about the same time as Jiangnan, but the Ming court had no time to take care of the affairs of Sichuan for a long time, and did not implement the political reform of "showing talents as officials and going to the countryside as officials" in Sichuan, but followed the management model of the government-government service-gentry-people, and did not open a branch in Sichuan. It was not until the first half of 1850 that preparations for the imperial examinations in Sichuan Province began.

Having the imperial examination would have been a good thing for scholars. However, due to the implementation of the imperial examination and educational reform, the content of the examination in the Sichuan imperial examination this time is no longer limited to the "Four Books", "Five Classics" and Bagu articles. It also added arithmetic, Western studies, military science and other contents. Moreover, before the imperial examination, the contents of the imperial examination reform were announced on the Sichuan editions of "Ta Kung Pao" and "Daming Times", as well as on the newly erected billboards at the gates of Sichuan provincial and county schools. A number of books on Western studies, arithmetic, Ming law, and military science were also introduced to the Confucian students who were preparing for the examination as revival materials. However, it was still met with a strong backlash from the Confucian scholars in Sichuan - compared with Liangjiang, Liangguang, Fujian, Zhejiang and Xianghu. Sichuan in this era was more closed. The Confucian scholars from Sichuan were also more conservative. Moreover, the opposition to Xinxue is far greater than that of Liangjiang, Liangguang, Fujian, Zhejiang and Xianghu.

However, these Sichuan scholars are opposed to Xinxue. But he soon learned how to fight with newspapers. And also creatively invented the way to paste "big-character posters"! The gates of almost every county town were plastered with "big-character posters" written by local Shilin leaders, and the contents were all against Xinxue without exception.

Immediately afterwards, the leaders of Sichuan Shilin published an article in the Sichuan edition of the national old-school newspaper "Journal", calling on all Sichuan scholars to boycott the examination, and also to organize Sichuan scholars to petition Emperor Zhu in response to Tianfu, to respect Confucius and Confucianism, and to stop the act of using the West to learn from the West to disrupt China.

The turmoil soon spread out of Sichuan, and scholars from Guizhou, Guangxi, and Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Beizhili, which were also going to hold imperial examinations in the next step, were also moved. Either go to the government or gather to protest. Even in Hubei and Anhui provinces, where the minds were relatively open, some Confucian students attacked the new-style schools. Chang Dachun, the governor of Hubei, also played Zhu Jishi, requesting that the opening of the Hubei Official School and Wuchang Jishi Academy be suspended. And Han Si, who supervised the army in Sichuan, made a secret fold, asking for troops to quell the chaos, arrest the Confucian students who took the lead in making trouble, and also punish the canonical punishment to set an example!

Although the counterattack of the "old momentum" this time had long been expected by Zhu Jishi, it still caught him a little off guard.

"The root cause of this chaos in Sichuan is that the emperor's steps to reform the imperial examination are too fierce, and the scholars in the world can't accept it for a while. For example, there is no unification today, and there are strong enemies abroad. Stability should still be the top priority at home. ”

In the hall, Luo Bingzhang, the chief university scholar, talked eloquently. Luo Bingzhang's thinking can be regarded as enlightened. However, as an elite from traditional Confucian education, there is still an instinctive rejection of Western learning. It's just that because of Zhu Jishi's authority, he had to promote the reform of the imperial examination, and now when he encounters resistance, he naturally thinks of backing down.

Prime Minister Zuo Zongtang disagreed, and objected: "What is the use of a scholar who can only do eight-share articles? Nowadays, the imperial court is 'ruling the country by scholars' rather than 'governing officials by scholars'. If you don't know how to learn, you just know that you can't do things. The officials of Liangjiang, Huguang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong were all tested with the Bagu article, and how many of them can do things? If you can't even manage the local affairs of your hometown, will it still be of great use in the future? ”

It's not that he supports Western studies, but what he needs most as a Zaisuke is a competent civil servant. If you don't take some practical learning, the selected officials will only do eight strands of literature and can't do things, how can he, the head of the court, continue?

The right prime minister, Zheng Honggang, had just returned from Japan and was extremely appreciative of the ability of the Japanese middle and lower class samurai, so he used what he had seen and heard in Japan as an example to support Zuo Zongtang. In his opinion, the level of Confucianism of many Japanese samurai is not much worse than that of Chinese Confucian scholars, but their ability to do things is much stronger, and they can also be literate and martial, and they can stand up to defend the country at critical moments. Therefore, China's Confucian education should draw experience from Japan's samurai education and attach importance to practical learning.

Luo Bingzhang said angrily: "Lord Wang, the problem now is that the scholars in Sichuan are boycotting the examination, and the scholars in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Beizhili are also unstable, and even Hubei and Anhui have been affected, if you don't take a step back, I'm afraid that the local political situation will be chaotic!" ”

Pan Zengshou, a scholar of Hongru Academy, also echoed: "It's better to take a step back, and wait until the northwest is pacified." At present, the situation in the northwest is quite unstable, and I heard that the new Gongshun Wang Yixu of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has led his troops to leave Lanzhou, and there are signs of betraying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and rebuilding the Manchu Dynasty. The situation on the Mongolian side is not very stable, and Bohai Gong Yixin is also quite dissatisfied with our colonization of the Bohai Sea...... Seeing that there will be chaos in the northwest, Mongolia, and northeast, if the scholars in the country make trouble again, the country will be in danger! ”

Zheng Hong, who was also the secretary of the colonial ministry, obviously also knew about the protest of the Bohai State, shook his head and smiled bitterly.

Liu Peng, who had just been elected president of the Constituent Assembly, coughed and said: "Sichuan scholars are nothing more than a boycott of the examination, in fact, who is it beneficial to show talents as officials and officials to go to the countryside?" It's not Sichuan Shizi himself! If they don't take the test, we will transfer some prefectural and county officials from other places and continue to use officials to govern the people. What do you say, Mr. Rusai? ”

At present, the Royalist Council has gathered a group of politicians and parliamentarians, and its power in the Constituent Assembly and the Eight Provincial Public Bureaus is far greater than that of the Righteous Path. The members of the Constituent Assembly are not the members of the parliamentary democracy of later generations, and the current Ming Dynasty has no soil for parliamentary struggle, and these members are to some extent just mouthpieces to express the emperor's opinions - speaking of which, the system of "tax payment equal to representation" designed by Zhu Jishi for the Ming Constituent Assembly also has a big back door. According to the estimation of the Ministry of Finance, among the provinces of the Ming Empire (Lanfang is counted in the accounts of Guangdong Province), the highest tax is Guangdong Province and Nanzhili Province (including Ying Tianfu), including customs duties and salt taxes, and the estimated tax revenue of the two provinces in the three years of recovery is as high as 46 million yuan (including 12 million yuan in the Grand Duchy of Lanfang) and 30 million yuan, accounting for more than 50% of the total tax revenue of the eight southern provinces.

Therefore, as long as Zhu Jishi controls the public bureaus of these two provinces, he can control the right to speak in the Constituent Assembly, and the public bureaus of these two provinces are respected by the public bureaus of Guangzhou Prefecture, Lanfang Grand Duchy, Yingtian Mansion, Songjiang Prefecture and other three governments and one country. Therefore, the control of the Constituent Assembly of the Ming Dynasty is actually controlled by these three governments and one country, and the economic lifeline of these three governments and one country is controlled by Zhu Jishi!

Now that Liu Peng, the "representative of public opinion", speaks, everyone is naturally silent, and all eyes are on the great tomorrow on the throne.

Zhu Jishi said slowly in a calm voice: "Luo Qing, Pan Qing, the two of you will go to Sichuan to listen to the opinions of the scholars." If they feel that the change is too drastic, the imperial examination can be postponed for another year. If they don't want to take the imperial examination, they won't take the exam! If the imperial examination is not examined, there is no need to conduct the public bureau election in Sichuan, and the military and political theory are just used! In addition, it is decreed that those who have unpaid taxes among the three clans are not allowed to serve as civil officials, participate in the imperial examinations, and are not allowed to run for the public bureau and constitutional councilors! (To be continued......)