Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 790 Liu Banxian

[Regarding the selection of candidates for the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty, we have talked about the issue of not including mathematics a long time ago, as well as the later case of the North and South Lists. There will be space for detailed discussion at that time, so we will not go into details here, and let's go back to the Hu Weiyong case.

Wang Guangyang was sent away, the imperial examination system was abolished, the recommendation channel was opened, and our little Hu has the final say in the Secretariat.

So what's the next step? Of course, just like a wealthy landlord treats his land, hold on to what he has and crave for more.

Although he actually achieved the position of sole prime minister and also captured Zhu Yuanzhang's stomach by cooking puffer fish, in terms of official position Hu Weiyong was only the left prime minister. After all, there was still the possibility that a left prime minister would be suddenly parachuted in.

Therefore, in order to maintain his own power and status, Hu Weiyong had to ensure that all candidates for the Left Prime Minister remained at the candidate stage.

Considering that it was the early years of Hongwu and meritorious service was still important, the person who was qualified to be parachuted into the position of Left Prime Minister could only be on the list of great rewards in the third year of Hongwu.

Among the thirty-six nobles, including six dukes, twenty-eight marquises and two earls, there were only three civil officials, namely Li Shanchang, Wang Guangyang and Liu Ji. Among them, Li Shanchang was considered to be Hu Weiyong's teacher and had retired due to illness, and Wang Guangyang was pulled out by Zhu Yuanzhang because of his provocation. The only one left was Liu Ji, who was from eastern Zhejiang and was just the right person to check and balance the nobles in Huaixi.

So even though Liu Ji had already retired and fled when he saw the situation was not good, Hu Weiyong was still thinking about him.

Liu Ji, whose courtesy name was Bowen, was the first person to be deified among the historical figures of the early Ming Dynasty.

From the praise of "Zhuge Liang divided the world into three parts, and Liu Bowen unified the country", to the legend of Liu Bowen killing all the dragon veins in the world to protect the Ming Dynasty, to the recent years when some people dug out various prophecies from the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty and created the "Song of the Baked Bun" which is said to predict events of 600 years, secondary creations can be said to be endless.

After six hundred years of continuous additions, Liu Ji, who originally regarded himself as a Confucian scholar, has now become known among the people as a sorcerer who can predict the future and cut off dragon veins, even more outrageous than Zhuge Liang.

According to the current book "A Study of Liu Ji's Deeds", the source of Liu Ji's deification in later generations generally comes from "The Biography of Liu Gong, Marquis of Chengyi", which claims to have been written in the 18th year of Hongwu. However, some scholars have also found that this biography is suspected of being forged and may not have been written during the Hongwu period because there are too many distortions in it.

Regarding this, Qian Qianyi in the late Ming Dynasty, the one who left behind the allusion of "the water is too cold", also verified it in "Mu Zhai Chu Xue Ji".

As we all know, Liu Bowen served the Yuan Dynasty in his early years. Later, he returned to his hometown in anger and was invited out of retirement by Zhu Yuanzhang. However, it is clearly written in "The Biography of Liu Gong, the Marquis of Chengyi" that Liu Bowen resigned from his post and served under Li Guofeng, the governor of Jiangnan during the Yuan Dynasty.

By comparing with the "History of Yuan Dynasty", it can be found that Li Guofeng arrived in Chuzhou in the 18th year of Zhizheng, and stayed here for a year before leaving for Sanshan.

Why did they stay there for a year? Because during this year, Zhu Yuanzhang first took Lanxi, then forced Wuzhou, and finally went down to Jinhua and attacked Chuzhou.

The person who faced Zhu Yuanzhang in Chuzhou at that time was Shi Mo Yisun. If you open Liu Bowen's collection of essays, you will find that there are more than eighty poems dedicated to or in response to this name, and most of them are concentrated in the three years he stayed in Chuzhou.

To sum up, Qian Qianyi concluded that when Zhu Yuanzhang led his army to attack Chuzhou in the 18th year of Zhizheng, he encountered Shi Mo Yisun who sent Ye Chen and Hu Shen to fight against the Ming army. Although Liu Bowen was not on the front line of the Yuan army at that time, he must have been under Shi Mo Yisun's command.

As for whether Liu Bowen offered advice to fight against Zhu Yuanzhang, Qian Qianyi believed that he should have. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was already famous at that time and had no shortage of people to join him. There must have been a reason why he suddenly took the initiative to ask Liu Bowen for help.

Knowing the enemy's name before the battle is the most appropriate explanation. 】

Kong Ming never thought that he would hear his name here again.

It just seems that Liu Bowen, who is listed alongside him...

"Second brother, later generations say that this dragon vein is the national vein? Then Liu Bowen is much more like a demon than a military advisor!"

It could be heard that the person who said this was trying to lower his voice and whisper, but in the end, every word was heard by Kong Ming. So Kong Ming knocked on the other person's head with a bit of helplessness:

"Yide, don't talk nonsense. The younger generation also said it, similar to me, but they all took the rumors as the truth."

"In any case, this person was able to assist Emperor Hongwu in restoring China, which is definitely a great achievement."

However, having said that, when Kong Ming heard the name "Evil Taoist Zhuge" from later generations, he shook his head with a look of confusion on his face.

Pang Tong on the side shook his head and whispered:

"Kong Ming's previous worries were true."

Xu Shu was a little confused when he heard this. Pang Tong recalled the words briefly and said:

"The cheaper the price of paper, the more people will be able to read and write. Then every family will be able to write history and every household will be able to compose records."

"However, when people record events, they may flatter their ancestors or criticize their enemies, and they cannot write truthfully. As a result, the events that are passed down to later generations are inevitably very different, and it is difficult for later generations to argue about them."

Xu Shu nodded unconsciously, thinking about it. Before he could figure it out, Zhang Fei leaned over again and asked:

"Pang, you are joking. There are few historians in later generations who can write truthfully. The Song Dynasty even confused loyalty and treachery. So there is no need to be so harsh on the people, right?"

This is true, Xu Shu nodded vigorously:
"The more records we leave behind, the more our descendants will understand us at this time, which is not a bad thing."

"Let's follow what Kong Ming said." Xu Shu suddenly smiled:
"Liu Bowen's contribution to the battle against the Yuan army is a great achievement. If Yide can sweep the frontier and save future generations from this trouble, how much more will his contribution be?"

These words immediately made Kong Ming shake his head and smile. Such a light pause in the conversation reminded him of the days when they were both commoners and could comment on the world. Unexpectedly, after a few years, although they had experienced some twists and turns, they both finally achieved their old wishes.

However, Kong Ming was also a little confused about Xu Shu's words:

"It is difficult to sweep the frontier areas, and it is even more difficult to manage the frontier areas and prevent them from causing trouble."

After all, whether it was the Turks in the Tang Dynasty, the rise of Liao and Jin in the Song Dynasty, or the Ming Dynasty that seemed to have been destroyed by the threat from the north, all of them show the difficulty of governing the north and incorporating it into China over the past two thousand years.

Zhang Fei was eager to try it out:

"Doesn't this just show how great his contribution is? Moreover, I have the help of the military advisor, and the military advisor has also consulted with the Light Curtain for two thousand years. He will surely be able to resolve this problem and prevent future generations from suffering. Why do you say it is difficult?"

Liu Xie saw and heard Zhuge Liang's gentle words, Zhang Fei's heroic words, the emperor's uncle's laughter, General Guan Yu's encouragement, and so on. All of a sudden, the difference between the emperor's uncle and Cao Cao became increasingly clear.

……

In Guangzheng Hall, Qian Chu scratched his head:

Why did he vaguely remember that "the water is too cold" seemed like the words in the couplet when the Ming Dynasty fell, and it didn't seem like a good thing to say?
Could it be that Qian Qianyi is also a descendant of our Qiantang Qian family?
(End of this chapter)