Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 818: Imperial College Copy

Since arriving in Yecheng, Zhuge Dan has met this famous cousin several times.

However, if we count the number of times we sat down and talked for a while, this was the first time.

Tea leaves as tiny as gardenias tumble in the pot as the water boils. As the color of the water changes, a faint fragrance lingers in the room.

The faint fragrance also reached Zhuge Dan's nose, reminding him of the time he saw his father interacting with the local elders in Xingyang.

They praised each other's family background, boasted about each other's good reputation, confided their sufferings to each other, and sought friendship with each other.

These exchanges, which are often mixed with yellow and white things, are not so clichéd because of the subtle fragrance of real tea. Now, my brother...

"Guoguo, show me your homework."

Although the words were spoken with a gentle smile, the content immediately made Zhuge Dan nervous. He did not feel relieved until he heard "excellent results, worthy of praise".

But after feeling relieved, the first feeling that came to my mind was disbelief.

Because over the past month, he felt that his military strategy had made rapid progress, but it was still far from what Jiang Boyue had achieved.

In the fields of mathematics and engineering, he talked with Zhuge Guoguo and Zhuge Qiao, who were like nephews. Although he could understand every word they said, he could not understand anything when they formed a sentence.

So being so hungry can still be called "excellent" and "praiseworthy"?
Kong Ming saw all these expressions, so his faint smile became more helpless.

During the two years when he entered Yizhou and transferred to Guanzhong, because everything was uncertain, his family stayed in the fortified city of Jiangling to avoid the hardship of traveling.

Although he did not bring his children with him, he had always kept in touch with his wife through letters. Therefore, Kong Ming was well aware of Guoguo's intelligence and Qiaoer's talent in mathematics.

Needless to say, little Jiang Wei, his master taught him with all his heart, and this Tianshui Qilin child also studied diligently. He was able to dabble in various fields like his master, and after reviewing the changes in wars over the past thousand years, he was able to comment on recent wars with new insights.

Considering this, Zhuge Dan's self-harm is, in a sense, justified.

However, there was no need to explain these words in detail. He simply stirred the tea and divided it into two cups.

Gently shaking the tea, which became more transparent, Kong Ming picked up the several pages of paper in front of him, which were filled with writing. While reading them, he took his time to talk about another matter:
"Your Majesty will be returning to the capital soon, and the new Imperial College can be expected to flourish."

The implication was very clear, and Zhuge Dan had no hesitation about it.

From being the leader in Xingyang to knowing the vastness of the world in Yecheng, from being able to debate with young men without losing to knowing talented people of the same age, and from hearing the constant reminder of "You are the younger brother of military advisor Zhuge" since he followed his master Lu Su, all these things urged him not to indulge in comfort.

Seeing this, Kong Ming, who looked up from the stack of pages in his hand, smiled even more:

Since I have sincere friends who share the same ideals as me, and also have successors who will carry on my ideals, what else can I ask for?

The gentle conversation, the faint fragrance of tea, and the bright praise made Zhuge Dan relax unconsciously, and he couldn't help but feel closer to this cousin.

After relaxing, his eloquence, which had been praised by his fellow townsmen in Xingyang, finally came into play here.

He told several small stories about studying in the countryside in a humorous and interesting way, and even made good use of his eloquence to imitate the storytellers in Yecheng at that time and staged a scene of "Lu Zijing's powerful cannon attacks on Cao's army at Hulao Pass".

Seeing that his brothers were all laughing so hard, Zhuge Dan felt relieved, and finally couldn't suppress his curiosity:
"Brother, what is this thing that you just read?"

What he was asking about were the pages of paper in Kong Ming's hand. From Zhuge Dan's perspective, the quality of the paper was excellent and the cover was also quite exquisite. Of course, what made him feel a little rude and asked about it were the simple four words on the cover: "Taixue Chuanchao".

Although it was just a question, in fact, judging from the name and thinking about what his cousin had just said, Zhuge Dan already had some vague guesses.

Since the Western Han Dynasty, prefectures and counties have set up residences in the capital to announce the capital's announcements, the emperor's decrees, and the various situations of the world.

Those who worked in the residence, whenever they heard the imperial edicts from the capital, promotions and demotions in the court, and strange stories, would compete to copy them down, compile them into a report and send it back to the prefectures and counties. This was once called the Palace Gate Copy or the Yuanmen Copy.

Most of the copies of the Imperial Academy were similar. If we recall again, it is said that Lord Xuande recruited many talented people from the grassroots when he was in Jingzhou. After he entered Yizhou, he established schools in Chengdu, Hanzhong and Guanzhong.

And now, Jiang Wei and several others have come to the gate of the Yecheng Academy to discuss academic matters. Although it is said that there were some unpleasantness at the beginning, over the past two months, the students from Hebei have all praised Lord Xuande, and his intentions are evident.

Considering this, it is only natural that there are people who copy the court gazettes.

Kong Ming smiled at this:

"Since you already know, why do you ask?"

Then he simply stuffed the thing in his hand into Zhuge Dan's hand:
"You can also take a look at it, hoping to publish an article to promote your learning in the future."

Seeing his cousin enjoying the tea, Zhuge Dan took it and read it carefully.

This copy was not bound with thread, but was cut into a beautiful long shape and folded in half in the shape of a "Z". In addition to the four large characters on the cover, there was a line of small characters in the lower right corner: "Spring copy of the 20th year of Jian'an". "Spring copy?"

"It is not easy for universities to travel between places, so we have decided to divide the year into four parts according to the four seasons, and at the end of the year, we will select the best of the four parts as the annual copy."

Zhuge Dan nodded silently, thinking that this arrangement was reasonable, but when he turned the pages again, he felt a sense of familiarity again.

In short, there are only two things that can be read smoothly: one is the title of each article, and the other is the author of each article.

"Using Water to Cut Off Materials and Borrowing Water to Extract Oil, Outline of the Reform of Water Conservancy Workshop" - Jiang Wan from Xiangxiang

"New System for Granary Construction by Regulating the Air and Water Supply from the Upper Reaches" - Mi Zhu of Donghai

What is money? A thousand-year evolution of shells, gold, grain, cloth and paper since the Xia Dynasty - Liu Ba of Lingling

"Reading Zhou Bi Suanjing's Theory of Measuring the Sky from "A Day Travels a Thousand Miles but Deviates by One Inch"" - Zhang Song from Chengdu

"A Brief Discussion on the New Interpretation of the Printing of Seal and Official Scripts in Jinshan Pottery Inscriptions" - Fa Zheng of Fufeng

"Mathematical Comparison of the Three-Meshing Method of Gears and the Advantages and Disadvantages of Lubrication Clearance" - Huang Yueying from Miannan
……

After a quick look, many of them were names he had heard of when he heard the rumors about Emperor Liu. From these articles that were difficult to read, Zhuge Dan clearly knew how big the gap was between himself and these talented people of the time.

When he turned the page again, several familiar names came into view, which made Zhuge Dan's eyes widen:
"The Essentials of Building a Glass Greenhouse and the Summary of the Best" - Zhuge Guoguo in Longzhong

"A brief account of the skill of calculating and calculating, and the customization of the rules and regulations" - Zhuge Qiao of Langya
On Horse Administration - Jiang Wei of Tianshui

Compared to the previous ones, the ones written by the two nephews are very easy to understand, and both are accompanied by illustrations. They are brief descriptions of how to build a greenhouse and make new mathematical tools, and both include advantages and disadvantages compared to the improved past, which is quite comprehensive.

On the contrary, the one written by Jiang Wei was the one that Zhuge Dan found most fluent to read. Firstly, it was because he had a basic understanding of military strategies, and secondly, it was because Jiang Wei’s wording was not awkward and was therefore quite easy to understand.

Therefore, it was the biggest shock to Zhuge Dan. He originally thought that military strategy was about changing tactics on the battlefield, but an article explained clearly what it meant that the one who has more plans wins. The difficulty of raising horses was only revealed at this time, which made Zhuge Dan a little discouraged.

Seeing the wrinkled face of a boy who was only thirteen years old, Kong Ming found it very interesting. However, Zhuge Dan quickly adjusted himself and turned to ask Kong Ming:

"Brother, if I were to enter the Imperial College, the books that Bo Yue used to read..."

“Everyone can read it.”

"That's good!"

Kong Ming could understand this mentality. Young people like to compare everything, not to mention their peers.

The copy in his hand turned to the end. The copyist seemed to have made an intentional bend here, so that when he turned it over, all four pages could be opened together.

Reading from left to back, page one is a poem titled "Sorrow and Anger". The simple lines "The Han Dynasty lost power, and Dong Zhuo disrupted the natural order" captured Zhuge Dan's mind.

He was born in the seventh year of Jian'an, when Dong Zhuo had been executed for ten years, but the chaos at that time still seemed to have no end in sight.

Since he was a child, people have been telling him what troubled times are, what the Han Dynasty is, what a well-governed world is, and what peace is. However, Zhuge Dan did not understand the meaning of the articles he read. The poems and articles in front of him were like a woman's slender hands reaching into blood, showing him the cruel twenty years that had passed.

He only knew that in the twelfth month, Cai Wenji entered the academy as a woman and debated fiercely with Jiang Boyue to save the last bit of face for Yecheng, but he never thought that her life story was like this...

Keeping the name "Chenliu Cai Yan" firmly in mind, I moved my eyes to the left. Page 2 seems to be the earliest Yuanmenchao, with a list of the Xinghan Manifesto. It reads very elegantly, especially when placed next to the poem of grief and indignation. Its intention that the troubled times are over is also quite straightforward.

Looking further to the left, an article titled "Three-part Loss and Gains of the Five-tone Scale, Using Mathematics to Determine the Theory of Music" also signed by Cai Yan of Chenliu made Zhuge Dan open his eyes slightly.

With the Revival of Han as a partition, on one side are poems and essays recording grief and indignation, on the other side are new interpretations of music theory, on one side are the suffering of separation and chaos, on the other side are the joy of studying. Zhuge Dan was speechless.

I could only twist my neck to look at the end of the copy, where there was neither a manifesto nor a poem, let alone a profound article, but only a simple sentence.

"To bring out the best in the world, to bring out the best in the world, to make the highest virtues manifest, to spread them to the outside world, to spread virtues and bring friendship, this is the result of peace."

Sniffing softly, stroking the page with his fingers, Zhuge Dan wanted to try to say something:
"This is also what I wish..."

He patted his cousin's shoulder gently, and everything was said without words. Then Kong Ming talked about another matter:
"Since you grew up with your father in Xingyang, you must be familiar with the Yellow River. Would you like to come with me to see the river?"

Zhuge Dan was immediately tempted. After all, what young man doesn't want to know the world? But to be on the safe side, he still asked:
"Only the river water?"

"That's not the case. There is also... an old friend from Langya in Jiangdong."

(End of this chapter)