"Bang." Wang Zhuo slapped his hand on the table and shouted: "How dare you do this? How dare you humiliate our Wang family like this?"
Then he said to everyone dissatisfied: "I have long said that Zixiao must be careful about his ambitions, but you just didn't listen. Now, people are bullying you."
Zheng Song frowned and said, "I never thought that the first person to wave the flag and cheer for that person would be Zixiaoguan."
Lu Xiu said: "I don't think it's strange. The princess is not that kind. I have already guessed which way Chen Jingke fell."
"What I didn't expect was that he would end the game right at the beginning. If it were me, I would definitely wait and take action at the critical moment to ensure that I can get the maximum benefit."
Wang Zhuo sneered: "He doesn't know where he came from, how can he have such high wisdom?"
"I guess at this time he is very proud that he has become a pioneer and will be praised by that person."
Cui Qianhan said: "We must give him a head-on blow to let people know that our noble clan cannot be bullied."
Lu Xiu nodded and said: "I agree with Brother Cui, we must give Zixiaoguan enough lessons to scare the monkeys."
Everyone unanimously approved the decision to target Zixiaoguan, and then began to discuss specific ways to control the opponent.
Public attacks are naturally indispensable, but that alone is not enough. You must give the other party a more direct and profound lesson.
Wang Zhuo was the most active of all the people, and he came up with almost all the poisonous schemes. It could be said that he had almost mentioned all the methods other than sending people to directly assassinate.
It was not that he had a bottom line and was unwilling to assassinate, but that he knew that if he killed Chen Jingke in the capital, it would be a direct slap in the emperor's face.
The nobles were obviously not prepared to meet the emperor's wrath and could not bear it.
Just when their discussion was at its most lively, there was a hurried knock on the door from "Du Du Du Du", and everyone who was disturbed could not help but frown.
Wang Zhuo's face turned cold and he said, "Tell me, what's the matter?"
A servant's anxious voice came from outside the door: "Dear gentlemen, the saint has just announced in the court that schools will be established in all states and counties of the Tang Dynasty to recruit children from poor families and common people."
The room was instantly quiet and you could hear a pin drop.
…
The emperor issued an edict to establish official schools in all states and counties across the country, and all sons of good families could enroll in them.
The whole world was shocked when this news came out.
Then the people suddenly became excited and shouted long live the emperor.
But the top management was completely opposite. After a day of silence, memorials opposing the matter flew to the palace like snowflakes.
"How can we teach the knowledge of the sages lightly? Haha...these people's sages' books have been read into the stomachs of dogs. They have forgotten all the teachings of Confucius?"
"The people can follow it, but they cannot know it... Opening up the people's wisdom may not be conducive to the long-term stability of the court... This reason is quite decent."
"But they forgot that this sentence can also be interpreted as: if it is allowed by the people, let it be done; if it is not allowed, let it be known. Let's understand these two meanings first, and then talk about this matter."
"Building so many schools will cost a lot of money. The imperial court is in dire straits, we have to conquer unconquered ministers, and we have to build the Yellow River... It may not be possible to build more schools, so we recommend that we postpone it."
"This reason is the best, and it is a delaying tactic, which is more convincing than the previous two reasons."
Li Shimin kept complaining about the memorials in his hand. Most of them didn't even have annotations. After reading them, they just threw them into a basket aside.
These memorials will not be destroyed, but will be recorded in books and stored in archives for easy tracking in the future.
Changsun Wugou poured a cup of tea in front of him and said, "I guessed that some people would oppose this matter, but I didn't expect that there would be so many people."
"Normally, these people behave very loyally, and there is no sign of being bribed by the nobles at all."
Li Shimin's face immediately turned gloomy and he said: "Yes, I still underestimated the hidden power of the gentry. Unknowingly, so many officials were bribed by them."
"Fortunately, they have only been in business for a short time. These people have relatively low positions and cannot directly influence the government. If they are given another twenty years, the consequences will be disastrous."
Changsun Wugou sighed and said: "Yes, if we wait until they complete the layout, our royal family may really become the second Sima family."
What they didn't know was that twenty years later, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian relied on the power of the gentry to defeat the Guanlong Group headed by Changsun Wuji.
When Wu Zetian came to power, she directly introduced the power of the gentry into the center, and the two families joined forces to completely bury the remaining power of the Guanlong Group.
The noble clan has a long history, and the most important thing they lack is patience. They have plenty of time to make arrangements in subtle ways, such as subsidizing talented scholars, such as using clan girls to win over geniuses.
Although Li Yuan and Li Shimin were very afraid of the gentry and consciously excluded their power from the center, they used this subtle and silent method to penetrate little by little.
This kind of layout can last for decades, and you will not see the results, but your descendants will always gain something if they continue to do it.
In their previous life, they had indeed waited for the day of harvest.
By the end of the Tang Dynasty, there had been 524 prime ministers, of whom 172 were from the gentry, or almost one-third.
Among them, there are 78 people from the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes, and 61 from the Guanzhong gentry. You can imagine how powerful they are.
Some people may say, isn't there still two-thirds left? That's fine.
Don't get me wrong, although the remaining two-thirds are not considered nobles in the family world, they are definitely not commoners.
Either they are spokesmen trained by the nobles, or they come from powerful families that are inferior to the nobles, and prime ministers from common people are rare.
But something unexpected happened in this life. Under the influence of Chen Jingke, a time traveler, Li Shimin decided to take action against the nobles.
Originally, the nobles were not willing to expose their true strength easily, and the people they used before were all people who showed their true strength.
But once the academic and political system came out, they could no longer keep their composure. This was killing them. Don't worry about whether the people you had won over before had the right to speak. Let them stand up and speak out.
Then this situation happened.
In the first few days, it was only the officials in Beijing who complained against the academic and political system. Soon local officials also began to complain against this matter.
The reasons for the opposition of those local officials are even simpler. The local area is too poor to support the establishment of schools. I hope the saints will think twice.
Seeing these memorials, Chen Jingke couldn't help but feel chilled in his heart.
He had already underestimated the power of the nobles, but now he realized that the other party was far more powerful and terrifying than he imagined.
All the noble families in the world combined, including their servants, are less than 20,000 people, but they can influence hundreds of thousands of people.
The key is that most of these people are scholars and state officials.
No wonder Li Shimin had been hesitant to take action before. If he took action without any preparation in advance, the consequences would be disastrous.
Fortunately, they used feudalism as a bait to win over nobles. There is a saying that only free system can defeat the system. Learn and apply it. Only groups can fight against groups.
Li Shimin looked at the secret message in his hand and said: "There are changes in Shandong and Jiangnan, but fortunately I ordered the generals to stay in those places in advance. Those people are too afraid to really raise troops."
Chen Jingke said sincerely: "Your Majesty is wise, that is, you. If it had been anyone else, the world would have been in chaos."
Li Shimin heard his sincere praise and said happily: "Haha... Now you know why I waited until now to take action."
Chen Jingke said: "I understand, I thought things were too simple. I didn't expect the nobles to be so able to hide their strength. What are you going to do next?"
Li Shimin said: "The people who benefit the most from official education are actually poor families and local big families. They are on the side of the imperial court in this matter. I am going to use their strength to establish the official education system."
"Although the power of the gentry is huge, it cannot compare with the poor and wealthy families all over the country. With their support, the establishment of official schools will be unstoppable."
Official education is not compulsory education. Chen Jingke knew this truth from beginning to end.
Those who can afford to go to official schools are basically from poor families and local wealthy families. Ordinary people can't even afford to eat, so how can they afford to study.
Of course, that doesn't mean that ordinary people don't have opportunities, but the opportunities are relatively slim.
But there is never absolute fairness in this world, and Chen Jingke cannot change this.
What he can do is to do his best to promote knowledge and allow more people to have access to advanced knowledge.
At least in name, the academic system stipulates that all good family members can enter, which is a huge improvement compared to the time when the gentry had a monopoly on learning.
Therefore, although Chen Jingke was helpless, he was not depressed. First, let more people be exposed to knowledge and cultivate more scholars.
Then we should find ways to increase productivity. Only when productivity is increased can we have the capital to provide compulsory education. You cannot become fat with one bite, so you must do everything step by step.
"The power of poor families and local wealthy families is indeed greater, but they are like a pile of loose sand and cannot fight against the nobles, and they do not have the courage." Chen Jingke said:
"It takes a force to organize them. Only nobles can take on this important task... So when is Guan Long going to take action?"
Li Shimin nodded and said: "The other side is also ready, but for them to really take action, they still need an opportunity."
Chen Jingke asked: "What opportunity?"
Li Shimin said: "I told you before that we need to entrust several princes and kings to gain their trust and honor."
Chen Jingke nodded and said, "Are they waiting for your enfeoffment edict?"
Li Shimin shook his head and said: "No, it's not appropriate to make this matter public now. I've sent someone to take your noble messenger to Zhuzi Island for a field trip. When they come back, it's time to take action."
Chen Jingke understood what was going on after a moment's thought. The average emperor really needed to use actual edicts to win people's trust.
But Li Shimin was not an ordinary emperor. His prestige and credibility were very high. As long as the nobles could see the land with their own eyes, it would be enough to win their trust.
At the same point, he said with admiration again: "That's you, it will never be so easy to change someone else."
Li Shimin smiled complacently and turned to talk about another matter: "I'll show you something."
With that said, he took out a memorial and handed it to him.
Chen Jingke took it and saw that it was a memorial from Li Xiaogong, the commander-in-chief of the Qingzhou Navy. He couldn't help but look forward to it. Could there be any big discovery on the Navy's side?
After reading the memorial, he couldn't help being shocked.
Someone actually summed up the various range formulas of artillery?
Although the memorial said that it was derived from the bow and arrow formula in Mochizuki Tan, it is still very powerful.
Wait... He thought of something, and quickly opened the memorial and found the name of the officer who discovered the range formula.
Liu Rengui.
Isn’t it that Liu Rengui, Chen Bu Mu Cao?
There was a resume at the back of the memorial. He read it carefully and found that it was Liu Rengui.
Prime minister and famous general during the Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, he was the commander of the first Sino-Japanese war in history and the naval battle of Baijiangkou.
With a small attack and a large victory, Fusang and the Baekje Navy allied forces were defeated. After hundreds of years, Fusang no longer dared to covet the outside world.
According to history, shouldn't this person be a county magistrate in Xianyang at this time? Why did he end up in the navy as a captain?
Could it be that I was flapped by the wings of a little butterfly? That was really...a joyful thing.
Li Shimin had been observing his expression and didn't think much about his shocked look. He just thought it was because of the range formula.
In the past, it was Chen Jingke who shocked them with new things, but now Datang finally shocked him for a while, and he felt full of accomplishment.
"How about this range formula? Is it accurate?"
Chen Jingke did not explain, but followed his words and said: "I don't know whether it is accurate or not, but it is very rare to think that the range of the artillery is controllable."
"This captain named Liu Rengui is a great talent... By the way, the memorial says that he is the Prime Minister of Xianyang County personally appointed by His Majesty. You really have a sharp eye."
Li Shimin laughed and said: "Haha... At first I just thought he was a critic of his uprightness and couldn't bear to bury such a talent, so I promoted him out of the ordinary."
"I just didn't expect that he had such a high talent in military affairs... Look at what is written in the memorial, his ship-handling skills are among the best, and his gun-handling skills are the best in the entire army."
Chen Jingke decided to help him again and said: "Such a great talent should be put to great use. Being a captain is too unqualified and it is a waste of his ability."
Li Shimin said: "The army is no different than others. Merit is more important in promotion and appointment. If there is no merit, it will not be a good thing for him to be promoted hastily."
"So I asked him to lead the troops to escort the courier to Chikushi Island. The main thing is that he can return safely, which is a great achievement, and I have a reason to promote him."
Chen Jingke said: "So that's it, I said too much."
At this point, he took the opportunity to say: "Speaking of which, I just have an unkind request, and I would like to ask your Majesty's permission."
Li Shimin said with great interest: "Oh, tell me what happened."
Chen Jingke said with some embarrassment: "Ying Guogong's period of filial piety is about to expire, because his two sons have not yet served as officials."
"After all, after the founding of the country, it doesn't look good on the court to be idle like this all the time. So I want to get them to Baiqisi. You see..."
