Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 515 The world is impermanent
Zhao Guangyi stood beside Zhao Kuangyin with a somewhat humble look on his face. He looked like Zhao Kuangyin's follower and didn't look like Zhao Kuangyin's real brother at all.

"That's what the elder brother said."

He smiled and looked at the vast yellow sand, and said softly: "Now that this place has been taken by us, there is no longer any obstacle to communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions."

"Our spies sent a letter saying that Li Jing is still fighting with the pirates."

"It is possible that he may not be able to come back even when we return to Chang'an City. The world will be in the hands of Big Brother."

A hint of "envy" flashed across Zhao Guangyi's face, but this look of envy disappeared in an instant, leaving only a faint admiration.

Zhao Kuangyin shook his head and smiled, and said as he walked on the yellow sand: "This is also thanks to Xinlai."

"If it weren't for Xinlai's help, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to achieve this."

He looked at Zhao Guangyi and said, "Speaking of this, what do you think?"

"You two have always had the best relationship. Back then, you two were sent by Chang'an University to Rome to be professors. You wanted to observe how their technology and knowledge had developed."

It sounded like an ordinary sentence, but Zhao Guangyi paused in his heart and then smiled, as if explaining casually: "Brother, what you said is not true. Xinlai and I don't have any friendship. We just met a few times when we went to Rome together."

"But I do know where he went."

Zhao Guangyi pointed in the distance and said, "The people below said that something was found over there, so I went over there."

What did you find?
Zhao Kuangyin became interested: "If Xinlai is so interested, it must not be a simple thing, right? Could it be oil? Or natural gas? Or something else."

"Come on, let's go and take a look together."

Longtunzhu Strait

Li Jing sat on the boat, a hint of sadness flashing across his brows. He turned his head to look at the distant continent, sighed softly and said: "By now, Zhao Kuangyin and his men should have taken over the place and then returned to Chang'an City."

"I'm afraid we'll be there soon."

"And now, we have just taken it down. Even if we rush back now, it will be too late."

The ministers beside Li Jing were also standing there. They were a branch of the family that had made a bet but failed - they were also prepared to not be able to go back.

In other words, it was not just the people around Li Jing who were prepared for this, but the people around Zhao Kuangyin were also prepared to never go back and to conquer the Western Regions to establish a country.

When two tigers fight, one will die.

At this time, Li Jing was the dead tiger.

"Let's go."

He sighed deeply, squinted his eyes, looked at the "Shang Continent", and chuckled: "The land of China cannot hold us, there is no place for us, but... this time we have to put our heads on our waists."

"Let's go to Yin Shang Continent."

"My people told me that on the Yin Shang continent, apart from the area occupied by the remnants of the Yin Shang, there is a large vacant area that is also very rich in mineral resources. If we take our craftsmen with us, we can also establish a country there."

Li Jing stood up, his expression serious: "The name of the country is Tang!"

Longxi
Li Zi put down the teacup in her hand and laughed softly.

The Li family really didn't care about the position of the royal family. After all, what could the world do to the Li family? Whether it was the royal family or not did not affect the status of the Li family at all. But when the people of the Zhaojun Li family came to ask if they could "use" the name of the country Tang, the Li family did not refuse.

The two Li families might really be from the same family thousands of years ago, but they slowly separated in the long river of time.

Or maybe there is no relationship between them at all, they are just simply Du and Li.

But so what?

When Liu Xuande supported the Han Dynasty and ascended the throne as emperor, it was firmly recorded in history books. Even today it is still called the "Later Han Dynasty", not to mention the Tang Dynasty established by the Li family of Zhaojun?
I'm afraid it can't escape the name "Later Tang", and it sounds good at that.

If it’s worse, it’s probably “Northern Tang”?
Or something else.

In short, it has nothing to do with the Longxi Li family.

"The dust of history"

“Everyone will eventually take this path back.”

At the beginning of the second year of Hou Longwu, spring.

Zhao Kuangyin returned with his army, and it was also in this year that he established his own huge dynasty.

The name of the country was "Song".

The establishment of the Song Dynasty was just the most ordinary event in this turbulent history. Just like the light dust, nothing caused any waves. Zhao Kuangyin became the emperor of this huge dynasty silently, and also became the ruler of this Central Plains China.

The common people did not feel anything special and just lived their lives quietly.

The only slightly disturbing thing was the early spring of that year. With the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the emperor also established his own reign title, called "Kaibao".

Therefore, this year is also called the first year of Kaibao.

Time passed little by little.

In just one or two years, people forgot about the previous wars and the dust stirred up in history.

The fifth year of Kaibao.

Fengtian Hall
Zhao Kuangyin sat at his desk, carefully reviewing the affairs in front of him. After a moment, footsteps were heard, stirring up a little wind, which brought about countless air currents, and the candlelight behind him slowly flickered.

"His Majesty."

Chen Chen stood there with a normal look on his face: "It's so late at night, I wonder what His Majesty wants me to do?"

Zhao Kuangyin raised his head and waved his hand when he heard this, then he looked at Chen Chen and smiled: "Sit, sit, what's the point of standing?"

He said calmly: "In the past few years, most of the situation in the world has been relatively peaceful. I think it's time to put some things on the agenda."

Zhao Kuangyin pointed to a memorial beside him and said, "Look at this."

Chen Chen's expression remained unchanged. He picked up the memorial and read it carefully. There was nothing extra or strange in it, and it was not that Zhao Kuangyin himself wanted to build a large-scale project or select concubines. It only mentioned two things.

First, "schools" were built throughout the Song Dynasty. These schools did not refer to "universities" but more like "enlightenment schools". Such schools existed in the past, but most of them were private schools, academies, or simply home-run schools where a college student who had passed the imperial examination returned to the countryside and accepted a few students.

There are many such "small class" schools in the Tang Dynasty.

Most students study based on their own talents after they become adults and receive enlightenment, or they find a famous teacher and then start formal study after they are admitted to university.

Zhao Kuangyin actually had this idea after he pacified the world, but at that time the world had just been stabilized, and if he was impatient to do this, the finances would definitely not be able to support it.

He pressed his forehead and said, "Now is the time. I want to start doing this."

After reading it, Chen Chen just exhaled slowly: "Your Majesty, if you really want to do this, I'm afraid you will offend a lot of people."

He hesitated and said, "And according to your plan, while implementing this plan, the university examination will change from once a year to once every five years. Will this cause a certain degree of burden on the world today?"

Zhao Kuangyin sneered, he looked at Chen Chen and said: "Zi Shi, don't you know why I do this?"

Chen Chen pressed his forehead: "Of course I know."

"Although there are many scholars in the world today, the university's examinations are still too "profound". Few ordinary people can really read or even have culture, so most of the people who pass the examinations are still those from nobles or poor families. Among the students every year, only one or two percent are truly ordinary people."

"Can"

He said hesitantly, "Although you can indeed suspend the university assessment and make the world more fair by doing this, future generations and those so-called scholars will not think you have good intentions."

“They will just say you pushed the big test and won’t give them a chance.”

Zhao Kuangyin stood up, passed by Chen Chen, and patted him on the shoulder: "I don't care what they say, and I don't care how my name will be recorded in the future."

"The big exam must stop first."

"The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was the prosperity of the upper and middle classes, but the prosperity of the Song Dynasty must not be the prosperity of the upper and middle classes."

"I have established three types of schools: 'primary school', 'primary school' and 'high school', so that all people in the world can afford to read and learn to read."

He said silently: "But"

Zhao Kuangyin pressed his chest and said, "I am afraid that this will be stopped by the next emperor."

He smiled bitterly: "If this matter cannot continue, then what will become of the world?"

"Those so-called educated scholars will form aristocratic factions, just like the scholarly cliques at the end of the Han Dynasty. They will control the channels for advancement and make the examination unfair."

"What? Do you know?"

"At the end of the Tang Dynasty, because the emperor did not impose any restrictions, scholars were able to control some of the university admission quotas. They came up with something called "admission based on talent and special abilities," which allowed the children of the academic elite to enter extremely good universities with very low scores, and they would be no different from other people after graduation."

"I heard that there was a scholar who usually claimed to be upright, but he still admitted his daughter to Huzhou University. That is one of the top 30 schools in the entire Tang Dynasty!"

"His writing is good, but what kind of shit is her daughter writing?"

"But they can do it openly like this."

"Because the upper-class academic cliques are too strong, they all know each other and are even from the same faction."

"This is not advisable."

"So, the exam must be stopped. Wait until the three types of schools I mentioned are gradually promoted and all the people can go to school, then the exam can be resumed."

Zhao Kuangyin looked at Chen Chen and said, "I would rather the development of the Song Dynasty stagnate for a few years than let me, the Chen family, and my Zhao family ancestor, the First Emperor, see that the world we fought so hard to conquer has become a meat pie divided up by those termites."

Chen Chen couldn't help but feel a little helpless when listening to Zhao Kuangyin's wish, but in the end he still couldn't get rid of the "agreement" in his heart, so he could only say: "Your Majesty has said so, what else can I say?"

"I can only sacrifice my life to accompany His Majesty."

Zhao Kuangyin finally let out a sigh of relief, and said with a slight smile: "With Chen's help, even if I die one day, I don't have to worry about these plans being tampered with."

He slowly returned to his seat and leaned against the back of the chair.

The night wind was blowing gently, blowing across his cheeks.

In the fifth year of Kaibao, the emperor issued an edict to stop the imperial examination.

The whole country was mobilized to build the three types of schools: "primary schools", "primary schools" and "higher schools". Each township must have five primary schools, three primary schools and two higher schools. At the same time, an imperial edict was issued ordering students from the Xianyang Academy in recent years to go to local areas to build the three types of schools: primary schools, primary schools and higher schools.

The grand "grassroots education" plan began.

In later generations, this year was called the "first year of literacy."

It was also in this year that the lower-class people were finally able to learn to read. Although learning to read might not be of much help to their future, having the ability to use it and not being able to use it are two different concepts.

The sixth year of Kaiyuan was the first year when the major examinations were stopped.

Many academic and literary families in the Song Dynasty became anxious. They suddenly realized that this was an opportunity specifically aimed at them - no matter how powerful they were, or how well they could hide their manipulations from the emperor, if the exams were gone, what else could they do?
This is certainly a harm to the Song Dynasty and Zhao Kuangyin, but it is an even greater harm to these people!
King Jin's Mansion

Zhao Guangyi, who had changed his name to Zhao Jiong, was sitting in his mansion with a kettle in his hand, watering the flowers in the garden in front of him. In front of him stood a middle-aged man with an equally calm expression, who was "Zhou Xinlai".

"Xinlai, what do you think the emperor is thinking?"

Zhao Jing had a puzzled look on his face: "Why stop the exam just to build this so-called school? What's the point of those people at the bottom reading so many books?"

"In the end, they are just consumables that drive the development of the times."

His voice was cold but his face had a gentle expression. He often claimed that his father was the most ordinary person and that he was also an ordinary person, but he didn't really think so in his heart.

"King Jin"

"The last King of Jin became the emperor."

"Xinlai, do you think this king still has a chance?"

(End of this chapter)