After entering August, the temperature dropped significantly.√∟

Chang'an is no longer so hot.

Even at noon, there was a gentle breeze blowing.

The footsteps of autumn are getting closer and closer.

The most obvious change was that Changle Palace, one of the two palaces in Chang'an City, became noisy again.

The Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager who went to Ganquan Palace to escape the summer returned to their core positions of power.

Every day, countless ministers and nobles tried their best to squeeze into Changle Palace and appear in front of the Empress Dowager.

At the same time, the return of the Empress Dowager dealt a heavy blow to the Confucian faction.

Originally, the Confucian school wanted to make a big splash in this year's examinations, strive to defeat Huang Laoxue, who was in power, and become a prominent school - at least to let people see the power of Confucianism.

In the beginning, Confucian's plan went very smoothly indeed.

Among all the reference scholars, the Confucian factions together accounted for nearly 60%!

In other words, the total references from other schools such as Legalism, Huang Lao, Mohism, etc. are not as many as those from Confucianism.

There are many people, there is strength!

As long as there are no political flaws in the end, Confucianism will undoubtedly become the biggest winner in this examination!

You can better show your muscles in front of the world, and at the same time, gain the attention of more nobles and important ministers.

only……

It just happened that there was a political flaw!

Lu Ru, the shit-stirring stick, fully inherited the shit-stirring spirit of their predecessors.

Turned a good situation into a mess!

It took nearly fifty years for the Gongyang School and the Yanshi School to reverse their image. They were destroyed overnight by the Lu and Confucian scholars!

On the surface, in the fight, the emperor was giving each other 50 blows!

That is to say, the rangers who killed people were killed, and the troublemakers of Lu Ru's group were severely punished.

But in fact……

The current Confucian factions would really rather the emperor let those murderous knights go!

Because, first of all, putting dignified scholars together with a group of illiterate people is a loss of value.

That’s all!

If you don’t have face, you don’t have face!

However, Guanzhong, which was transformed by the Qin people, has a tradition of keeping brothers outside the wall to resist their insults.

No matter what kind of pig brains you have inside yourself, Guanzhong people have nothing to say when facing outsiders, roll up your sleeves and have a fight first!

Not to mention the Rangers, a group with complex composition and profound backgrounds!

The rangers in Guanzhong have a strange symbiotic relationship with the landowners, merchants and nobles in Guanzhong.

Many rangers are actually black gloves for some big shots, used to do dirty things that they are not suitable to do.

The emperor chopped off the heads of three knights, exiled a dozen of them, and imprisoned seven or eight of them.

The knights did not dare to hate the emperor, so they had no choice but to target the Confucians who caused trouble.

In the eyes of the rangers in Guanzhong, the brothers who died were all killed by Confucianism!

They don't care. Your Gongyang sect is actually similar to the Lu Ru sect except for the books they read, but in fact, their thoughts and behaviors are completely different.

What's even more troublesome is that even the people in Guanzhong feel that this incident is a provocation by the Lu people against the Guanzhong people...

And the rangers have various channels to establish relationships with those carnivores.

Most of the meat eaters in the imperial court were Guanzhong people who were born and raised in Si. Although most of the noble ministers were immigrants, they all made their homes in Guanzhong.

So...after this series of wonderful chemical reactions...

When Empress Dowager Dou returned to Chang'an from Ganquan Palace, she learned about this matter within two days.

When it comes to dissatisfaction and hostility towards Confucianism, Empress Dowager Dou is definitely the most extreme of all the empress dowagers in the Han Dynasty!

The old lady is old, her eyes are blind, and her mind is as small as the eye of a needle.

Yuan Gusheng's offense to her last year has always been deeply grudged in her heart.

She was even more disgusted with Lu Ru's arrogance and arrogance.

Think about it, if you are a devout religious believer and firmly believe in your beliefs, but there happens to be another guy who crazily attacks your beliefs in front of you, and even claims that his beliefs are ten thousand superior to yours.

times.

What will happen to you?

I'm afraid it's too easy to slap this hateful guy out of the house!

But what if you are a big shot in a country?

Hanging this guy up as a streetlight is already considered a mercy.

It just so happened that Yuan Gu was so eager to die that he did this kind of thing.

It would be strange if this could make Empress Dowager Dou feel comfortable!

What's even worse for the Confucians is that most of them don't know about this, so Yuan Gusheng's name is prominently among the lobbying team organized by the Confucians.

Then, this matter was brought to the attention of Empress Dowager Dou by someone who was interested.

After Empress Dowager Dou learned about this news, she compared it with the news about Lu Ru's trouble that she had just learned, and she immediately set Thunder Bluff on fire.

Immediately, he called Liu Che over and gave him a lesson.

If it was just like this, Liu Che was just pretending to give Confucianists some painless punishment, then this matter would probably be over.

But the problem is that when the results of the second round of the examination were announced, the matter immediately inevitably slipped into a situation that the Confucianists absolutely did not want to see: in the second round of the examination of scholars with a total of 3,000 people

Among the reference population, the total number of Confucian sects is more than 1,800.

The results of the second round were announced. Among the 1,500 scholars who advanced, Confucianists accounted for almost 900!

Now I've stung a hornet's nest.

In the first round of examinations, you Confucianists accounted for the majority, so forget it!

After all, few of the children of the aristocratic group are willing to go to the grassroots to endure hardships. Everyone hopes to be an official in the Jiuqing Yamen in Chang'an or some comfortable department.

But, your appearance is too ugly, right?

Do you still want to take half of the spots in the second round?

My uncle can bear it, but my aunt can't!

You have to know that more than 80% of the current nobles and ministers of the Han Dynasty are supporters of Huang Laoxue!

Conflicting interests and different political opinions immediately caused the entire aristocratic class to target Confucianism and launch a fierce bombardment.

In the middle of the court, besides Huang Laoxue, there was another major faction: the Legalists. When they saw that the Confucianists were really coming, they would swallow up most of the official positions in the examination.

The giants of Legalism can’t sit still anymore!

In a dispute over orthodoxy, line, or ideology, no one will be polite, let alone talk about gentlemanly conduct.

As a result, anti-Confucian public opinion quickly took shape among the government and the public.

And it's coming fiercely.

In Liu Che's mind, it was almost comparable to the time when various factions united to suppress Confucianism after the Jianyuan New Deal was abolished.

For a time, all kinds of black materials and 'reactionary remarks' about Confucianism were flying all over Chang'an.

Decades ago, even hundreds of years ago, the scandals and dirty things that Confucianism did were exposed.

Among them, the Mohist family contributed nearly 70% of the DPS output!

There is a saying that goes, the people who know you best are not your friends, but your enemies!

As a prominent school during the Warring States Period, Mohism was alongside Legalism and Confucianism. How could it be that its reputation was in vain?

Although the Mohist family has declined, its inheritance has not been interrupted!

If nothing else, you can find a lot of Confucian black material in a copy of "Mozi".

Some even directly dig into some of the not-so-good things Confucius did back then, and even directly attack the hypocrisy of Confucius himself who said one thing and did the other thing behind his back.

There are pictures, truth, facts. There are examples, and even time, place and people.

Even if these are all fabricated, it is not that easy for Confucians to clear their names!

Because the witness of these things is named Mo Zhai!

What's even more troublesome is that these things were compared one by one with the actions of Confucius's disciples and grandsons later, and then everyone said "Oh" and showed the same expression.

That’s all!

Who doesn’t have a dark history?

Disputes involving orthodoxy and discrediting each other's opponents are the norm.

In the past, Confucians could either act coldly and say, "We as Confucianists have our own reasons, and these remarks are groundless and cannot be trusted," or they could simply ignore them.
To be continued...