Although Tang Jian's words seemed abrupt, all three people on the venue could understand them. Fang Xuanling shook his head and smiled bitterly after hearing this, while Li Yan giggled foolishly because the articles he published in the newspaper caused another huge storm.

This is also a matter of blame. In order to commend Qiangui's active businessmen, he boldly proposed the concept of Confucian businessmen in order to attract more wealthy businessmen to purchase land coupons.

Don’t underestimate the power of these two words. What is Confucianism? Confucianism is the foundation for the formation of the scholar class and the foundation for the scholars to control the state power. And what is Shopping? Shopping is a low-level business. A few years ago, the Shopping was in the lowest position among the political class of the Tang Dynasty. As long as you are involved with the Shopping, no matter what position you can reach in the future, you will be despised by people.

Wu Meiniang's father, Wu Shishen, is a typical representative. Although he was named Duke Ying, he was despised everywhere because he was a timber merchant. After his death, his two sons were not good at it. The Duke Ying's Mansion has now completely declined. Many people even don't know that there is such a Duke in the Tang Dynasty.

Confucianism represents the highest ruling class, while merchants are the lowest profession. Although the status of merchants has improved, on the whole, there is still a huge gap with the scholar class. However, Li Yan is better off, and he even took the world's most disgrace to put two words that were originally different, which made countless arrogant scholars angry, so they published articles in newspapers, accusing Li Yan of insulting the sages.

Li Yan was abnormal in his accusations from the scholars. He began to publish articles one after another and debated with scholars who opposed him. If this was the case before, he would probably not dare to think about it. After all, how could a person who could not even memorize the Analects of Confucius compare with those scholars in his articles?

But now it’s different. Li Yan launched a vernacular debate last time, and the Tang Daily also opened a vernacular newspaper. There are even many local newspapers with vernacular sections. With the spread and influence of these newspapers, more and more people no longer reject vernacular. There are even many people who are just new to literacy who can only understand vernacular.

It was because of this that Li Yan dared to boldly post his articles to the newspaper. With his own insights and opinions as a later generation, he had a fight with the scholars. Although there were many people on the other side, it was just one point of noisy, that is, Li Yan insulted the sages and disrespected the ways of Confucius and Mencius.

Li Yan took a different approach and used Confucius's saying "There is no difference" as a weapon, shouting that although merchants value profit, if they receive the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, they will remove all kinds of illegal behaviors in the process of business, and at the same time use the gentleman's love for money and take it as a criterion for behavior. This makes the various behaviors of merchants more in line with the Confucian standards of conduct. In this way, wouldn't it show the broad mind of Confucianism and better reflect the teachings of sages to the world.

It’s true that Li Yan’s theory based on Confucianism has indeed impressed many poets and writers, gradually softened their attitude, and many people even publicly supported Li Yan. The reason why it is so easy for these poets and writers to change their attitude is mainly because Li Yan adopted the correct strategy, did not choose to force the other party to face the other party, and took Confucianism as his own weapon, and used Confucianism to fight Confucianism. No matter which aspect he won, Confucianism would not lose any reputation.

Of course, in such a short period of time, there were still a few scholars who supported Li Yan, and most of them still had old ideas. Not only did they accuse Li Yan in newspapers, but also in the court, the censors often participated in a few books of Li Yan. Even Kong Yingda's stubborn old ministers had published books for several days, participating in Li Yan's insults and despised royal demeanor, etc.

If it weren't for Li Shimin's suppression, and most of the court officials, who would have remained neutral in view of the income of 30 million yuan, would have been punished long ago.

However, this matter is not over yet. The Confucian newspaper still criticized Li Yan for his proposal of Confucian business. The poets and scholars who supported Li Yan also published articles in the Tang Daily and the Industrial and Commercial Daily. In addition, some unscrupulous literati hired by merchants, the two sides are now quarreling more and more fiercely, and it is likely that they will even overshadow the last vernacular incident. It is precisely because of this that Tang Jian kindly reminded Li Yan that he would act cautiously and not be careless.

Li Yan was naturally very grateful for Tang Jian's kindness. After thanking him, he personally sent the two out of the mansion. Looking at the backs of Tang Jian and Fang Xuanling leaving, Li Yan felt a little moved. The reason he met Tang Jian was just because they both loved delicious food. They just ate and drank together, and discussed the rare and delicious foods from all over the world. They had no deep friendship in other aspects. At most, they were friends with wine and meat.

In addition, Tang Jian is usually lazy and lustful, and the impression that Li Yan is actually a playboy with white hair. But he didn't expect that at this time, people could still remind himself. In comparison, because of Fang Yiai, his relationship with Fang Xuanling is closer than Tang Jian. However, Fang Xuanling did not remind himself from beginning to end. Instead, Tang Jian, a friend who was drinking and eating, took the lead in speaking.

Of course, Fang Xuanling, as the head of all officials, must have more concerns than the heartless Tang Jian, but this is also why Li Yan has a greater impression of Tang Jian. He thought that if there are benefits in the future, he must be brought to the Tang Mansion, let alone the son or his brother-in-law.

With money in his hand, Li Shimin's courage immediately became stronger. He first praised Li Yan in the court, and then appointed Hou Junji as the chief general of Jiaohe marching on the grounds that Gao Chang was disrespectful to the vassal state, and he sent troops to attack Yanqi without authorization and blocked the commercial route of the Tang Dynasty. Xue Wanjun was appointed as the deputy chief general, and his generals under his jurisdiction also included Zhao Yuankai, Ashinasheer and others, leading 100,000 infantry and cavalry, as well as the subordinate Turks and Qiezi to fight against Gaochang.

However, on the day Hou Junji went to war, in addition to the army, there was also a very large team of merchants who left Chang'an. Unlike the solemn soldiers, all merchants were smiling and directing the hired guards to travel west with all kinds of goods.

On the battlefield of Goguryeo, the wars involving merchants had already seen benefits from the Tang army. Therefore, as soon as the Goguryeo War ended, the Tang Dynasty immediately promulgated laws to encourage merchants to enter the battlefield. Of course, merchants who could enter the battlefield this time must be jointly confirmed by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works and issued certificates, otherwise they would not be qualified to enter the battlefield. This was mainly because they were afraid that enemies would disguise themselves as merchants to spy on military information.

It is also worth mentioning that although the merchants accompanying him carried all kinds of goods, they did not carry much copper coins compared to before, which greatly reduced the weight of the caravan. The reason for this result was still thanks to the intervention of Datang Bank.

It turned out that before leaving, I don’t know who thought of the solution? These merchants who accompanied the army had already deposited all the copper coins they wanted to bring into the bank, and asked the bank to issue deposit certificates of varying denominations to them, and then brought these deposit certificates into the battlefield. When they wanted to buy spoils from the soldiers, they could use the deposit certificate to settle the settlement directly. Anyway, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were the first to recognize the bank, and they were willing to accept this thin piece of paper. In fact, this should be a paper currency spontaneously created by the merchants of the Tang Dynasty.

The departing of the Gaochang army temporarily diverted the attention of many people, which reduced the quarrels about Confucian businessmen in the newspapers, and began to report on the itinerary of the Western Expedition army, as well as the situation of the other side and Gaochang State this time. In addition, many so-called experts expressed their opinions on the role played by the Western Turks in this battle. However, these bricks have different levels and have not yet analyzed any results, but in the end they started to argue first.

Seeing this chaotic situation, Li Yan simply found Li Jing with shameless face and asked him to write an article to analyze it. Unexpectedly, the old man was very happy when he heard it. Without thinking, he wrote his own opinion on the war without thinking. As a result, it immediately caused a great sensation. After all, this was the first senior executive of the Tang Dynasty to publish articles in the newspaper besides Li Yan, and many people could see that the analysis of the undefeated battle of Gaochang in this article by Duke Wei was many times better than those in the newspaper a few days ago.

The army that conquered Gaochang had set out, and there were fewer quarrels about Confucian businessmen in the newspapers. Li Yan finally felt relaxed, but he knew that it was not the time to rest. He took advantage of this time to get the military academy done first. After all, Li Shimin now has money and someone. If he builds a military academy earlier, the military construction of the Tang Dynasty could also get on track sooner.

That day, Li Yan entered the palace early in the morning and went to have breakfast with Concubine Yang first. In another month, the child in Concubine Yang's belly would be born. This was the most critical moment, so Li Yan had to go to the palace to accompany his mother for a while every day.

After the morning court, Li Yan went straight to Liangyi Hall to find Li Shimin. After saluting, he was about to talk about the military academy, but he suddenly heard Li Shimin say, "Liulang, you are here just right, let's take a look at this first!"

Li Shimin said, handing Li Yan a approved memorial, but when he took it, he was immediately shocked. Although the content of this memorial was not much, it was extremely bloody because it was a murderous memorial.

"Father, although these people are hateful, they have killed more than a dozen at once. Will there be too many?" Li Yan asked cautiously.

"Liulang, you are good at everything, and you even perform well on the battlefield. Although you are not as brave as your father, you are also a little brave. But you have to remember that the court is sometimes more cruel than the battlefield. You must not be ruthless when you should kill people!" Li Shimin looked at Li Yan, but said with a calm face. When he was young, he killed countless people on the battlefield, but now he is just killing a few people who should kill, so naturally he will not be ruthless.
Chapter completed!