"That's what happened!"

After repeating the conversation between himself and Chen Chaolao, Zhou Quan did not add any of his own opinions, he looked around and said slowly: "What do you think, do you want to hold this debate?" ”

This place is no longer Xijing Luoyang, but Yingtianfu. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Five days had passed since his meeting with Chen Chaolao at the White Horse Temple, and it took him three days to rush to Bianjing, but surprisingly, he only met with the current regent Zhao Shu and the prime minister Li Bangyan at the station, and stayed for a day before rushing to Yingtianfu.

Because the future imperial court building was still under construction, he was only handling government affairs in the temporary palace, and this conference hall was a little small, after all, there were twenty or thirty people crowded here.

Zhou Quan's two academies, three Taiwanes, and twelve heads of the military, plus some of the heads of the military, gathered here.

There has never been a meeting of this scale before, and it is usually the heads of relevant departments who gather together, and there is no one like this.

Therefore, it is also known as the first imperial round table of the Chinese Empire.

Everyone attending the meeting was also a little excited, and when they first entered the venue, they didn't dare to greet each other, as if they saw this as a court meeting of the Great Song Dynasty. It was Zhou Quan himself, who greeted everyone one by one and chatted with them until the clock rang and the official meeting time came.

At the ring-shaped conference table, except for Zhou Quan sitting at the top, the rest of the people can only distinguish their respective positions by the distance close to Zhou Quan. In Zhou Quan's left hand is Sun Cheng, and in his right hand is Dong Changqing, and then Wu Yang, Bai Xianxian, Wang Qinian, etc. are lined up in turn.

is different from back then, and now Zhou Quan is surrounded by talents, including Sun Cheng, who he cultivated, and Dong Changqing, who joined in. It's just that among the people present, most of them are administrative personnel, and only Wu Yang and Ye Chu represent the military.

"If there is anything to convene, if you are not satisfied, you can see you directly on the battlefield." Ye Chu said proudly: "These guys, there are more than enough failures, and they have to be instructed in everything, as if they will not turn around without them, they should be eliminated!" ”

Although the number of military personnel is not large, but the weight is very heavy, after all, since the establishment of the Escort Army, it has won many battles on the battlefield, it can be said that Zhou Quan's current foundation is completely fought by the military.

But this does not mean that the voice of the military is the only voice, Dong Changqing did not speak, and Bai Xianxian, who sat down a little lower, said: "I can't say that, although there are some old scholars, there are more than enough successes and failures, but not all old scholars are like this, otherwise Dong Gong and I would not be sitting here." In addition, the book of sages naturally has its own reason, and you can't deny the theory of sages because of a few scum, otherwise why should you include some sage articles when you set up teaching materials in the school? ”

Bai Xianfeng is the secretary of the Ministry of Education, and it is his duty to speak from his own perspective.

But Ye Chu laughed and didn't speak again, but glanced a little farther away.

Sure enough, a person in the distance stood up and said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, I don't agree with Bai Shangshu's words, I think that the weight of the so-called sage articles in the curriculum should be reduced, and the weight of arithmetic and practical skills training should be increased, only in this way can the twenty-year railway plan of the monarch be realized!" ”

Speaking is the Ministry of Railway Shangshu Zhan Tianzuo, he has long been a master craftsman, at this time Xuzhou to Yangzhou Xuyang railway has been completed, he is also because of the merits of the Beijing-Xu, Xuyang two railways, Zhou Quan was appointed as the Ministry of Railways.

Just this spring, Zhou Quan put forward an ambitious "20-year railway plan", hoping that in 20 years, the railway network will be initially built in the whole of Greater China, and the total mileage can reach 40,000 miles. The most important constraint on this plan was not money, but manpower - there were not enough railway engineers, not enough bridge engineers, not even enough skilled road builders and car builders.

Therefore, Zhan Tianzuo has long been dissatisfied with the teaching of so-called sages in the compulsory education school, and he feels that instead of spending time on these empty principles, it is better to spend more time teaching arithmetic and practical skills.

Six years ago, Duan Tong resigned from the military and transferred to civilian positions, and after the establishment of the Ministry of Industry, he was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry. Even from the interests of their own departments, they don't want too many sage articles in the school, and they don't want those who have only memorized a few articles to pass the imperial examination to run to their own departments to become officials, and laymen lead insiders.

But there are also those who support Bai Xianxian, Wang Qinian, who is the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"I think that the book of sages is still needed, at least after reading the book of sages, these surrounding vassal states will be more obedient. Japan is an example, and the people we send out are sometimes not as good as the scholars sent there by the king. Wang Qinian said softly: "In addition, as far as I know, people who have read the moral articles of the sages are also better to govern. ”

As soon as Wang Qinian spoke, there was a brief silence in the conference hall.

Everyone knows that among Zhou Quan's most trusted people, there must be Wang Qinian.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he is now presiding over, seems to be dispensable, but in fact his power is amazingly great, and vassal states such as Goryeo and Japan, as well as colonies such as Luzon, can intervene in military and political affairs, no matter how big or small, especially foreign trade, seafaring exploration, these huge investment and huge profits are also within the scope of his work.

More importantly, Wang Qinian has been working in the intelligence system for a long time, whether it is the Ninth Military Intelligence Department or the Sanfa Tai, his subordinates are old everywhere.

The only one who can suppress him is Sun Cheng.

Sun Cheng, who seems to be inconspicuous, is Zhou Quan's most relied on assistant, although he is not much older than everyone here, but he is calm and thoughtful, and almost everything is in line with Zhou Quan's wishes.

On this issue, Sun Cheng also has his own opinions: "The monarch often says that what we are doing is a major event that has not been seen for more than a thousand years, so how can we let what we do be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and how can we let everyone know that we are doing something unprecedented and big?" ”

Everyone suddenly became concentrated, even Zhou Quan, and couldn't help but raise his chin.

And this spoke to his heart.

"The king wants us to read more history, since Dong Zhongshu proposed to depose the hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism, moral articles are the order of promotion. It was the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties when the scholars were in power, and if they couldn't read the articles of the sages, it was also rare for them to be a beautiful official, and even more so after the Li Tang Imperial Examination. Even if the five generations of warriors in the feudal town are in power, Feng Dao's generation can also be the four dynasties and ten emperors. When Sun Cheng talked about Feng Dao, there was a soft laugh among the people below.

"If the monarch presides over this debate and makes a full-scale confrontation between Shixue and Confucianism, as long as our side can win, we can replace it and become the only scholar in the world......"

"Actually, we've won." When Zhan Tianzuo heard this, he muttered.

In their view, Huaxia replaced the Great Song Dynasty, that is, practical learning was better than Confucianism.

"Yes, we know we won, but a lot of people don't know, and you might even say, the vast majority of people don't know. If we can't give it a blow in the front, those moral people in the article are afraid that they will still have a big dream of Qingqiu, like that Yang Shi, and try to pull us back. Rather than let them hide in the shadows, it is better to force them out for a decisive battle, and it is a decisive battle that everyone in the world knows! Sun Cheng said.

"Sacrificing one's own strengths and using one's own shortcomings is not the work of a wise man. When we use our troops, we try to avoid such things. ”

This time it was Wu Yang who opposed Sun Cheng.

He has high qualifications and prestige, especially since he has saved Zhou Quan's life several times, even if it is Sun Cheng, he has to be polite in the face of him.

Although the debate was not intense, their attitudes had already been expressed, so half an hour later, they all looked at Zhou Quan and waited for Zhou Quan to make a final decision.

Zhou Quan frowned, and the argument just now confirmed his previous thoughts.

Through this debate, the influence of the new regime of Shixue and Shixue will be greater, and it will not be like before, even in Xijing, there are people like Wan Baoyu who think that he Zhou Quan is still the prince of the Great Song Dynasty, and he has to obey the orders of the Great Song Emperor.

In other words, it's the fastest way to win hearts and minds.

"As far as I can see, this debate must be opened not only but widely. If you don't open it, there will be one benefit and one hundred harms, the advantage is to save the immediate trouble, and the harm is that there will be endless troubles in the future, and the controversy will be endless. The harm is that it seems that we have made concessions to them, so that they who have failed come out to challenge, and they are also challenged in the field they are best at, but as long as we can win, the old Confucianism will inevitably collapse, and Shixue can replace it, and the name of Shixue can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people since then, so that we can receive the ...... from all over the Great Song Dynasty" Zhou Quan put out the pros and cons he thought of, and finally concluded: "Therefore, I thought that this polemic meeting was still going to be held!" ”

Since he has made a decision, this polemic meeting is bound to begin.

The next thing to consider is how to win this debate. Wu Yang frowned slightly, this was something he was more worried about.

After all, debate is what self-proclaimed morality is good at. In this battle, neither thermal weapons nor steam engines can be used, can you really win with your own shortcomings and the strength of attacking the enemy?

Zhou Quan didn't think so.

If the old literati were to judge, it would naturally be the moralists of the article who won, but this time the big debate, the judge is definitely not them.

"This debate, like fighting on the battlefield, we must go all out." Zhou Quan gave an order, and finally concluded: "Use the polemic method of the industrial age to crush the polemic method of the opponent's small peasant era!" ”

He just wants to let those old literati who think they are good at arguing understand that the times are different, even in the field that the old literati are best at, he can make the other party completely miserable!