Usurpation of Mongolia: My father-in-law is Genghis Khan

Chapter 339 Standardize writing and cart tracks, abolish all other schools of thought and exclusively honor the religion of science!
At that time, Zhao Shuo ordered Qiao Xingjian to establish the Inquisition to govern all religions in the world. He demanded that the primary tenet of each religion be that of the Han and Mongol people, and that they should rightfully rule the world.

However, the results were not good.

After all, religion is one of the most tenacious forces in the world. Nations may rise and fall, but religions endure for millennia.

With only 5,000 troops under his command, how could Qiao Xingjian possibly control the thoughts of tens of millions of people and hundreds of millions of square kilometers?

Despite the countless stakes erected and the endless slaughter of people, this practice was strictly enforced only in the various prefectures and cities under the Zhao Shuo Khanate.

The implementation was only so-so in the county towns, and completely non-existent in rural towns.

However, if the Yuan Dynasty doesn't occupy the ideological front, the enemy will. Zhao Shuo decided to take a two-pronged approach.

Firstly, the Inquisition continued to exist and expanded to eight thousand members.

Seven years ago, Qiao Xingjian passed away. After much deliberation, Zhao Shuo couldn't find a suitable successor, so he simply appointed Yin Zhiping, the leader of the Quanzhen Sect, as his successor.

This person was quite capable. According to historical records, the Quanzhen School reached its peak under his leadership. Yuan Haowen's "Record of the Qingzhen Temple" states that "two-tenths of the people in the world were Taoist priests, and their influence was so great that it shook the mountains and seas."

As for whether Yin Zhiping would take the opportunity to promote the Quanzhen School, Zhao Shuo didn't care.

The meat rots in the pot; Taoism is, after all, an indigenous religion of China.

Secondly, it involved establishing a complete education system and combining it with Scientology.

Zhao Shuo announced that he had received a volume of the "Heavenly Book" from the Jade Emperor, and that he would pass on a portion of the knowledge from this Heavenly Book to the world, naming this portion of knowledge "Science".

In fact, it was some of the physical laws that Zhao Shuo remembered, such as mechanics, optics, and acoustics.

In elementary school, there is no content about this "heavenly book"; it only explains how the world came to be.

Not only that, but every year when students enroll, they must first worship the portraits of the Jade Emperor and Zhao Shuo.

In fact, in the Central and Western regions of this era, it was customary to worship the true God and the monarch of the time before meals.

Zhao Shuo's move is unlikely to cause much of a backlash.

As for being unwilling?

If you don't want that, then don't enjoy compulsory education, and don't become an official!
Anyway, it's a required subject in the imperial examinations, so you can choose whether you want to study it or not.

In this era of Chinese civilization, people worship Confucius, the "Supreme Sage and Teacher." Zhao Shuo has essentially dethroned Confucius, which will likely draw opposition from some Confucian scholars.

But as I said before, it's up to you whether you want to learn or not; if you do, you have to learn. If you can't learn, don't even think about taking the civil service exam; there are plenty of other people who do.

Only when students reached county, prefectural, or provincial schools would they begin to study the "heavenly script."

It was not only tested in the imperial examinations, but also accounted for 20% of the total score.

Upon arriving at the Imperial Academy, he encouraged the students to pursue more advanced knowledge.

Zhao Shuo planned to establish an Academy of Sciences, with academicians enjoying the same treatment as vice ministers of various ministries, and the imperial court allocating funds to assist their research.

Of course, now is not the time; we need to cultivate a group of talents in a "scientific" way before it will be feasible.

Zhao Shuo is now mainly waiting for Guo Shoujing. Guo Shoujing is nineteen years old this year and is far from being a master of science.

He was the first president of the Yuan Dynasty Academy of Sciences in Zhao Shuo's mind.

Zhao Shuo even plans to establish a science prize similar to the "Nobel Prize" to reward outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions to science.

Historically, both Newton and Einstein turned to theology in their later years.

On this historical timeline pioneered by Zhao Shuo, let all those great scientists join my Great Science Cult!

The seventh decree issued by Zhao Shuo today was to transfer his fifth son, Zhao Xuan, to Bohemia to succeed Zhao He as "Grand Commander-in-Chief of the Pacification of Europe," with his original position being taken over by his tenth son, Zhao Yan.

Zhao He became the Great Khan of Mongolia and was stationed in the central Mongolian grasslands. It was not appropriate for Bohemia to be without a prince in charge.

Zhao Xuan was the fifth son of Zhao Shuo, the second son of Hua Zheng, and the brother of Zhao He, sharing the same father and mother.

He was considered the second most distinguished among Zhao Shuo's sons, after Zhao He.
The eighth decree formally established the official document system of the Yuan Dynasty.

The court officials' edict urging Zhao Shuo to ascend the throne had already used punctuation marks; this time, it was officially promulgated as an edict from the Great Yuan Emperor.

In addition to punctuation, Zhao Shuo made three improvements.

The first improvement is that, previously, many official documents from the provinces outside Zhao Shuo Khanate were written in Persian or Latin. From now on, they shall be written in Chinese or Mongolian, and no other languages ​​shall be used.

The second improvement is that all documents received and sent by each department must be numbered and registered. Without numbering, not only does the efficiency of document processing decrease, but it also easily leads to buck-passing and shirking of responsibility among departments, and officials may even take the opportunity to engage in corrupt practices.

The third improvement is to standardize the capitalization of numbers.

Whether in simplified or traditional Chinese, numbers are written as "一二三四" (one, two, three, four). To prevent tampering, there is also an uppercase form.

However, in this era, the capitalization of numbers was not standardized, with more than a dozen ways of writing them. Zhao Shuo standardized it as “壹贰叁肆伍陆柒捌玖零拾佰仟万亿”.

The ninth decree bestowed upon Yelü Chucai the title of Duke of Xinyan, granting him a fiefdom in Australia, in addition to the land already allocated by the Yuan Dynasty. This fiefdom was to be a piece of land with a circumference of eight hundred li.

If history had unfolded normally, Yelü Chucai would have died long ago.

Empress Naimazhen misruled the court, favoring the Western Region merchant Aodu Laheman and the female captive Fatima, and dismissing former officials such as Yelü Chucai and Zhenhai.

Zhenhai is one of the heroes of the Banzhuni River and has original shares in the Great Mongolian Empire. Even if he retires, it doesn't matter to him. He is quite open-minded.

Yelü Chucai was merely a high-ranking employee, and he died soon after being dismissed from office, feeling depressed.

Zhao Shuo changed history. Yelü Chucai is now the Prime Minister of the Yuan Dynasty, holding the highest position in the court. He is in high spirits, sixty years old this year, and still very healthy.

As the foremost civil official under Zhao Shuo, Yelü Chucai was certain to be granted a dukedom. However, allowing him to choose his own land was already a testament to the emperor's boundless grace.

The tenth imperial edict promoted Shi Tianni to the position of Privy Councilor and appointed Meng Gong as the Deputy Privy Councilor.

Shi Tianni has been presiding over the Privy Council as the Deputy Privy Councilor. Now that the Great Yuan Dynasty has been established, it is time to officially appoint him as the Privy Councilor.

Meng Gong had long been promised the position of "Deputy Privy Councilor" by Zhao Shuo, and now that the Great Yuan Dynasty had been established, he could finally fulfill that promise.

By the way, if history had unfolded normally, Meng Gong would have died six or seven years earlier by this time.

He is not old, eight years younger than Shi Tianni and five years younger than Yelü Chucai, and is only fifty-five years old this year.

Historically, in 1246, Fan Yongji, a former general of the Southern Song Dynasty's Zhenbei Army and then the governor of the Mongol Henan Province, secretly surrendered to Meng Gong. Meng Gong was overjoyed and hurriedly submitted a memorial to the court requesting approval.

However, Emperor Lizong Zhao Yun refused, fearing the Mongols and unwilling to accept surrenders or defections. Furthermore, he feared that Fan Yongji's submission would increase Meng Gong's power, and thus harbored suspicion towards Meng Gong. Therefore, Zhao Yun rejected Meng Gong's request, citing Fan Yongji's "unpredictable betrayal and submission." Upon hearing this, Meng Gong was disheartened, sighing, "Those who have spent thirty years pacifying the Central Plains, now their ambitions can no longer be realized." He fell ill and soon died.

In any case, Zhao Shuo acted swiftly the day after his ascension to the throne, issuing ten decrees in quick succession.

Yang Weizhong quickly drafted all ten imperial edicts by the afternoon of that day. After Zhao Shuo reviewed them, the ten edicts were sent to the Hall of State Affairs.

There is a procedure for the imperial court to issue imperial edicts.

Once everything is drafted, it must be sent to the Council of State Affairs, under the supervision of at least two prime ministers, and then submitted to the Secretariat for review.

Only after being reviewed by the Secretariat can it become a complete imperial edict, which becomes the national will of the Yuan Dynasty, and hundreds of millions of its people must obey it.

Of course, Zhao Shuo was the founding emperor, and his authority was too great. The prime ministers rarely requested Zhao Shuo to modify his decrees, and the Secretariat was practically a mere formality.

Zhao Shuo was conflicted about this. If he strengthened the authority of the Secretariat and the Chancellery, he would feel uneasy. But if he didn't, future emperors might not all be wise rulers, so such a system of checks and balances was indeed necessary.

There's nothing we can do but trust the wisdom of future generations.

Zhao Shuo's Council of State now has three prime ministers.

Yelü Chucai, the Prime Minister and Grand Secretary.

Yuan Haowen, Minister of Rites and concurrently Vice Chancellor,

Chen Wei, Vice Minister of State Affairs.

Chen Wei was a man of exceptional talent, excelling in both literary and military arts. He was not only a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) in the first year of the Kai Xi era of Emperor Ningzong of Song, possessing expertise in finance, but also a master of military affairs, fighting across Fujian, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, suppressing numerous rebellions. Historically, he also repeatedly resisted Mongol invasions in the Jianghuai region, making him a truly versatile and capable individual.

In the history that Zhao Shuo changed, he took the initiative to join Zhao Shuo and is now an official who serves as the Grand Councilor of the Yuan Dynasty.

According to custom, Zhao Shuo's edicts required the signatures of two prime ministers, not all three. Only when there were doubts would all three prime ministers be required to review and discuss the matter.

So, each of the three men took three copies of the imperial edict to read and signed their names.

"Zhao Yun can rest assured now."

What Yelü Chucai looked at first was actually the edict that conferred upon him the title of duke.

However, he was too embarrassed to add his own name to the edict, so he set it aside and waited for the other two prime ministers to add their names.

Then, he signed his name on the edict posthumously honoring Zhao Shuo's five generations of ancestors.

After all, Zhao Shuo's ancestors for five generations were all dead, so the edict itself only had some ritualistic significance. It was just a matter of building the Imperial Ancestral Temple and carving a few memorial tablets; no one would pay much attention to it.

But it is clear that Zhao Yun benefited the most.

Although it has long been said that Zhao Shuo was a descendant of Emperor Taizu, he never explicitly stated this in his edicts.

Now that Zhao Shuo has posthumously honored his ancestors for five generations, he can naturally match the genealogy of the Song Dynasty imperial family.

In a sense, Zhao Yun can also be considered a member of Zhao Shuo's clan.

In that case, he could comfortably assume the title of "King of Song".

Otherwise, why is Yelü Chucai only a duke, while Zhao Yun was granted the title of king? How could his contributions to the Zhao Shuo Khanate possibly be greater than Yelü Chucai's?
"Yes, setting a unified era for China, and demonstrating to hundreds of millions of people around the world the long history of our Chinese civilization, is a great achievement of our dynasty in terms of cultural and historical development. Our Ministry of Rites will certainly do its best to consider which era is best."

Yuan Haowen also signed his name on an imperial edict.

"This……"

Chen Wei frowned slightly as he looked at Zhao Shuo's imperial edict, which claimed to be inspired by divine intervention and advocating for the development of science. He didn't sign it and pushed it aside.

About an hour later, all ten imperial edicts were attached and should have been sent to the Secretariat.

Chen Wei stood up, picked up the edict again, and said, "Prime Minister Yelü, Prime Minister Yuan, shouldn't we reconsider this edict?"

Yelü Chucai said, “What is there to deliberate? Your Majesty is ordained by Heaven and received the decree of the Supreme God when you ascended the throne. Isn’t this a blessing for our Great Yuan? It would be best to announce this to the world as soon as possible.”

"But the problem..."

Chen Wei looked around and lowered his voice, saying, "The problem is, His Majesty still needs to announce parts of the Heavenly Book. Could the Jade Emperor be wrong? If someone finds fault with this Heavenly Book, wouldn't that greatly harm His Majesty's and the reputation of the Great Yuan Dynasty?"

Yelü Chucai shook his head and said, "Your Majesty wielded a three-foot sword to establish a new dynasty. Who can say that you were not ordained by Heaven and protected by the heavens? Moreover, Your Majesty's wisdom is more than ten times greater than ours. What you can think of, Your Majesty cannot even think of? Furthermore, as early as when Your Majesty was conquering Khwarazm, there was already the title of 'Calamity of God.' How could this be without reason?"

Yuan Hao asked, "Think about it again. If everything in that heavenly book is proven true, what benefits would it bring to our Great Yuan?"

"If it's true..."

Chen Wei gasped, "His Majesty will replace Confucius as the Supreme Sage and Teacher! He... he's suppressing all other schools of thought and exclusively honoring this so-called science! And he himself is the Grandmaster of Science! No, the founder of all religions!"

Yuan Hao asked, “Your vision is still a bit narrow. His Majesty is more than just a sage and teacher. Even if Confucius spread his knowledge, did he unify China? Let alone expand China’s territory. The emperors of China throughout history have merely been like King Wen of Zhou who wrote the Book of Changes. How can they compare to His Majesty’s heavenly book? His Majesty is a sage sent by heaven, the first person under the heavens throughout history!”

"In this way, even if our Great Yuan Dynasty declines, who would dare not continue His Majesty's lineage? This is the way to the eternal prosperity of our Chinese nation!"

Yuan Haowen was indeed a Confucian scholar.

However, he wasn't that devoted to Confucianism.

Historically, Yuan Haowen even went so far as to bestow upon Kublai Khan the title of "Grand Master of Confucianism." While Kublai Khan was knowledgeable in Confucianism, how far did he fall short of being a Grand Master?
Besides, didn't Zhao Shuo still leave a place for Confucianism in the education system he established?

Yelü Chucai chimed in, "Furthermore, how similar is there between the Zhou Dynasty's enfeoffment of feudal lords and Your Majesty's current enfeoffment of the entire realm? And how similar is there between Your Majesty's standardization of official documents and Qin Shi Huang's unification of writing?"

"And there's the standard gauge for trains!"

Chen Wei said, "Isn't His Majesty building railways to connect the rivers of China? Hasn't the court always planned to use steam engines in vehicles to connect the whole world?"

As the Prime Minister of the Empire, he was naturally well-versed in the development plans of the Great Yuan Dynasty.

"Standardize the written language, standardize the gauge of carts, and eliminate all other schools of thought to exclusively promote the religion of science?"

The three looked at each other, and almost simultaneously blurted out the answer, their eyes practically gleaming.

Chen Wei said, "Our Great Yuan Dynasty will surely surpass the previous dynasties and usher in a new era for China. As prime ministers of the Great Yuan, we are fortunate to be able to follow in His Majesty's footsteps and leave our names in history!"

He truly regretted not signing his name on that imperial edict.

"

(End of this chapter)