"yes."

Meng Shulan didn't hide anything, but the smile on her lips disappeared.

Seeing the change in Meng Shulan's expression, the emperor moved his lips slightly, muttered for a moment and then said: "I know you are blaming me."

Meng Shulan said nothing, but acquiesced.

After Wen Zhemao left the palace at the age of six, Meng Shulan was only one year old, and she did not have much interaction with Wen Zhemao after that.

But just because he went to southern Xinjiang to supervise the army when he was thirteen years old, but ordered all the water thieves who had surrendered to be executed in public, it can be seen that he is not a kind-hearted person.

Southern Xinjiang has many water bodies and abundant rainfall. It suffers from floods all year round. Many water thieves have no choice but to turn into bandits.

Originally, after the water thieves were put down, it was time to recruit strong men to build water conservancy projects and strengthen fortifications.

Year-round floods have led to crop failures, leaving the victims without enough food to eat, making it difficult to recruit enough manpower.

However, the water thieves who plundered merchant ships to feed themselves became stronger. If the surrendered water thieves could be put into water conservancy construction, more than half of the manpower problem would be solved.

However, Wen Zhemao ordered all of the water thieves to be executed on the grounds that their banditry was hard to change. However, he instead mobilized border guards to repair water conservancy and allocate military pay and rations to provide disaster relief.

This move made the ignorant victims feel grateful to Wen Zhemao, but they did not know that arbitrarily mobilizing border guards and arbitrarily using military pay, especially military rations, was a taboo for military strategists!

In the past, Meng Shulan might have praised Wen Zhemao, but after four years in Western Xinjiang and managing military affairs for four years, he knew very well what military rations meant to the soldiers.

The duty of border guards is to guard the border, and they face people from other countries who will not have any sympathy for them.

If other countries take advantage of the turbulent situation on the border and launch a large-scale attack while their border guards are deployed, what will the soldiers who are short of troops and food do to defend the border?

Once the defense line is lost, the previously repaired fortifications and rescued victims will be plunged into disaster again!

So what’s the point of doing what you did before?

Even judging from the terrain distribution of Wu'an, once the defense line of any of the four frontiers is lost, there will be a vast plain! The enemy can march straight in and attack Huanglong!

If the country will not survive, how will the people live in peace?

Wen Zhemao was lucky. The southern Xinjiang defense line was close to the sea. If the Japanese pirates wanted to launch a large-scale attack, they had to cross the sea and land ashore first, so there were no major military campaigns for many years.

If he dared to do this in Western and Northern Xinjiang, those people in Xirong and Xueyuan would have already broken through the defense line!

He believed that the emperor, as someone who had personally led troops on the battlefield, would not fail to understand this truth.

However, the emperor still praised Wen Zhemao profusely and asked him to assist in the Ministry of War. Later, he helped him in various ways and even asked him to assist in the six ministries.

But Wen Zhemao was never satisfied.

The more the emperor delegated power to him, the more he wanted, and he kept making small moves in private.

He adhered to the fact that this was a family matter of the royal family, and kept in mind what his mother and concubine said about the way to be a minister. Even if he pretended to be powerful in the palace, he would not be tainted by these imperial power struggles at all. He would just pretend that he knew nothing and could not see anything.

, a fool who cannot hear, a blind man, a deaf man.

But at this time, Wen Zhemao had already killed his brother, his father, and started a rebellion. He wanted to ask the emperor why he had allowed Wen Zhemao to do so for so many years.

If the emperor is unkind, how can people in this world survive?

Is this kind of Wu'an Jiangshan Sheji what he wants?

Meng Shulan felt angry in her heart, but said nothing.

Although the emperor is his uncle who dotes on him, he is the emperor first and a relative second.

The emperor was silent for a long time. He did not ask Meng Shulan about his purpose of coming, nor did he talk about the reason why he favored Wen Zhemao. Instead, he asked Meng Shulan: "Shu Lan, do you know how Wu Anguo came to be?"

Meng Shulan was a little dissatisfied with the emperor's avoidance of Wen Zhemao's question. She pursed her lips slightly, but still answered respectfully: "The previous emperor was cruel and unkind, and the people of the world were in a state of frying, and the people were in dire straits. Emperor Gaozu was dissatisfied with the previous emperor.

The tyranny of the country arose, and it took three years to overthrow the previous rule and establish a new country. Because of the use of force to overthrow the tyranny and establish a country, and to pray for peace and prosperity for the country and the people, the country was named Wu'an."

The emperor asked again: "Then do you know the origins of the four frontiers and the four great families?"

Meng Shulan frowned and didn't understand why the emperor was asking these questions. It couldn't be this time to test his homework, right?

But when the emperor asked, Meng Shulan could only answer: "The so-called four frontiers refer to the four defense zones that divide the Wu'an border according to the terrain. They are guarded by three of the four families and the royal family for generations."

"The Four Families refer to the four major families who followed Emperor Gaozu to conquer the world and were later enfeoffed after the founding of the People's Republic of China. They are the Yan family who guarded the Xihou town in Western Xinjiang, the Guo family who guarded the Beihou town in Northern Xinjiang, and the Guo family who guarded the Fengzhen town in Southern Xinjiang.

The Li family of Nanhou and the Xu family have been prime ministers for generations."

"The Eastern Xinjiang bordering Daliang was guarded by the emperor of the current dynasty who conferred the title of Zhendong Marquis. Therefore, the Zhendong Marquis was generally not hereditary."

After hearing this, the emperor nodded slightly, but then asked: "Then do you know that the four major families today were actually the five major families in the previous dynasty?"

Of course Meng Shulan knows this.

Whether it is the royal family or the four major families, they were already a large family that dominated one side in the previous dynasty.

So when they rose up, the tyranny of the previous dynasty was resolved within a year.

In the next two years, the forces led by each of the five families were reconciled and compromised, and finally, under the consideration of all parties, the current Wu'an Kingdom was formed.

They were all very simple questions. The emperor himself taught the history class to him. The emperor had already taught these things, so the emperor himself should know best whether he knew these things.

But since the emperor asked three obvious questions in succession, if it wasn't because the emperor was too busy, it was because there was something not obvious among these obvious questions.

This time, Meng Shulan did not answer, but asked: "What do you want to tell me?"

The emperor looked at him in silence for a moment, and then said: "What you said before, except for the current territorial management of the four major families and the royal family, is all false."

Meng Shulan was shocked, but the emperor continued without pausing: "There were no five great families in the previous dynasty, and the four great great families today did not follow Emperor Gaozu to conquer the country."

"Gaozu was not from a wealthy family, he was just a mud-legged person."

"The Xu family is not a family of advisers. The ancestor of the Xu family who was the same generation as Emperor Gaozu was a magician who made a living by telling fortunes."

"The Li family is not a family of military commanders. The ancestors of the Li family were just businessmen who ran around, had some skills, and practiced both black and white."

"The Guo family was a serious general, but they were not taken seriously by the previous emperor. They were framed and executed, leaving only an orphan living outside. Later, he revolted in the north and rebelled against the previous dynasty."

"The Yan family..."
Chapter completed!