Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 382: Confucianism disrupts the law with literature, while knights violate the law with force [Request for subscription]

Liu Kuan lowered the carriage curtain and said, "Let's go back home."

Ah Hu, who was following him today, asked, "Master, why don't you go into the store and take a look?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "The store is so busy, wouldn't it be a delay for me to go in? Besides, I came here just to understand the store's sales situation. These accounts show it, and the situation in front of me also shows that the store is doing well. There is no need to look any further."

"Oh." Ah Hu scratched his head, as if he understood, but also as if he didn't.

Seeing that Ah Hu didn't seem very smart, Liu Kuan shook his head.

After getting married, Ah Rong became a steward, helping to manage the Sanwei Bookstore (which had become a chain store). Ah Hu was okay at running errands, but being a personal servant was not very interesting.

"I'll find a marriage for Ah Hu later, arrange for him to work outside the palace, and then buy two smart servants from the officials."

This is what Liu Kuan thought in his heart.

The carriage wobbled and soon returned to Liu's house.

Then Liu Kuan received good news—Su Caiwei was pregnant again!

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After the golden autumn, winter comes in the blink of an eye.

This year seems to be a little colder than previous years. There was a heavy snowfall in the south of the Yangtze River in the first month of winter, and two more in a row in the twelfth month.

Although the people of the Ming Dynasty have lived a much better life in recent years, the Jiangnan region does not have much experience in dealing with heavy snow. As the year draws to a close, some disasters have been reported from local areas.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty now has both wireless telegraphs and sufficient money and food, so it is easy to deal with a minor snowstorm.

In the past few months, Liu Kuan was still in charge of the affairs of Tiangong Academy and assisted in school affairs. Although the prefectures and cities in Zhili started to set up schools in August and September, or replaced official schools with schools, various problems were reported, which required the Ministry of Rites to deal with and make some adjustments to the policies.

Fortunately, Liu Kuan was only in charge of the overall affairs of Tiangong Institute, and he was only co-organizer of the education reform, so he was not too busy.

On this day, Liu Kuan was drinking tea in his office and handling official documents from the Tiangong Academy when he was called away by a eunuch from the palace.

When he entered the palace and came to Fengxian Hall, he saw Zhu Biao there with a serious expression. Liu Kuan knew that something big must have happened.

After he saluted, Zhu Yuanzhang heard: "The Gwangmyeong Guard of Goryeo reported back that on November 19th, Wang U (the deposed king of Goryeo) sent people to assassinate Lee Seong-gye. The attempt failed, and Lee Seong-gye exiled Wang U to Gangneung."

"On the fifth day of the twelfth month, Lee Seong-gye's accomplice, Yun So-jong, claimed that the current Goryeo King, Wang Chang, was not of Wang U's bloodline. Lee Seong-gye then demoted Wang Chang to a commoner and exiled him to Ganghwa Island, enthroning Wang Yao, a member of the Goryeo royal family, as king instead."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and continued, "Although Wang Yao is over forty years old, he is mediocre and weak in character, and has long been drained of his body by alcohol and sex."

"If nothing unexpected happens, within a year or two, Lee Seong-gye will probably lose his composure and attempt a rebellion to usurp the throne, as he did in history. Then, it will be time for the Ming Dynasty to send troops to take over Goryeo."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not explain it, Liu Kuan guessed that this series of political changes in Goryeo must have been secretly fueled by Guangmingwei spies and even manipulated the situation behind the scenes.

After Zhu Yuanzhang learned from him that "Lee Seong-gye usurped the throne and established the Joseon Dynasty", it became easier to do this.

After explaining the political changes in Goryeo, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Liu Kuan, if we were to send troops to Goryeo at the request of the Goryeo royal family, do you think Lee Seong-gye would submit or lead his troops to resist?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, I only know that it was Lee Seong-gye who usurped the throne and established the Joseon Dynasty. I don't know much about him as a person, so it's difficult for me to make a judgment on this matter."

At this time, Zhu Biao said, "Father, I think that Li Chenggui is a bit afraid of death and not so tough. He will most likely submit to me."

It is not surprising that Zhu Biao had access to a lot of Goryeo intelligence sent back by the Gwangmyeongwei, so it is not surprising that he understood Lee Seong-gye's character.

Zhu Yuanzhang actually made the same judgment, so he nodded and asked, "If he really surrenders, what should we do?"

Liu Kuan had some thoughts about this matter, but he didn't say it.

Zhu Biao said, "Since we are sending troops to suppress the rebellion at the request of the Goryeo royal family, even if Lee Seong-gye surrenders, we cannot treat him well."

"Therefore, I think that at most, the Li family should be relocated to the capital and allowed to become a wealthy man. On the other hand, after Wang family requests submission on behalf of Goryeo, they should be granted a title in order to stabilize the hearts of the people in Goryeo."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in satisfaction. "Your thoughts are exactly the same as mine. It seems you already have the ability to govern the Ming Dynasty well."

Zhu Biao cupped his hands and said, "It's all thanks to my father's good teaching."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked again, "Liu Kuan, what do you think?"

Liu Kuan said, "I agree with what Your Highness has said." Zhu Yuanzhang felt bored and simply stopped asking about Goryeo. Instead, he said, "In ten days or so, it will be the Chinese New Year, and after that it will be the second day of the Lunar New Year. This year, you made excuses and didn't show us a movie during Mid-Autumn Festival. You must prepare the videos and movies for the second day of the Lunar New Year."

Liu Kuan was not surprised to hear Zhu Yuanzhang remind him to prepare the video. He replied, "Your Majesty, don't worry. I have already prepared part of it and I promise not to disappoint you."

"Then we'll wait and see."

"If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

"Go."

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It’s the New Year, and Liu Kuan’s family is happier than in previous years.

Because both Liu Ruoxu and Liu Ping'an received certificates of merit - although Liu Ping'an is one year younger, both Liu Kuan and Zhu Huilan have higher expectations of him than Liu Ruoxu, so he also entered the preschool class in August.

And thanks to Zhu Huilan's preschool education and Liu Kuan's tutoring in mathematics and general knowledge, Liu Ping'an ranked third in the class in the final exam and was awarded the honor of "Excellent Student".

As for Liu Ruoxu, she did study intensively before the end of the semester under the supervision of Liu Kuan and Su Caiwei, and improved her grades significantly, so she won an improvement award.

The second day of the New Year arrived in the blink of an eye.

At noon, Liu Kuan took Zhu Huilan, Su Caiwei, Liu Ruoxue, Liu Ping'an, and Liu Ding'an to the palace to pay New Year's greetings, and took part in the Zhu family's regular program on the second day of the New Year - the royal movie viewing party.

As for Liu Changan and Liu Ruoyue, they were left in the mansion because they were too young and were taken care of by wet nurses and maids.

Imperial Palace, Dashan Hall.

After Liu Kuan and his family had exchanged greetings and paid their respects, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Liu Kuan, this should be the new song video, right?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Of course I'm prepared."

"Then bring it up quickly and show it to us and the Queen."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan responded and went to the imperial desk, calling up the song video collection prepared on the tablet.

Zhu Yuanzhang now had some understanding of later songs, so he asked, "How many songs have you prepared this time? What are their genres?"

Liu Kuan smiled and replied, "This time, I have prepared six martial arts golden songs for future generations."

"A martial arts golden song?" Zhu Yuanzhang was puzzled. "Why do later generations admire the so-called knights who broke the law with their martial arts?"

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang had heard some stories about knights when he was a child and a teenager. At that time, he admired and yearned for knights.

But when he gradually grew up and matured, and eventually became the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had a different view of the chivalrous men who relied on their martial arts skills.

According to the "Records of the Grand Historian", Han Zi said: Confucians use literature to disrupt the law, while knights use force to violate the ban.

Although the original text written by Sima Qian in "Records of the Grand Historian" opposed Han Feizi's words, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that Han Feizi was right after reading it - if Confucianism and chivalry cannot be controlled by the court, then they will disrupt the court's rule!

The fact that later generations were able to write such hit songs with martial arts as the theme clearly shows that they had great admiration for martial arts.

Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally puzzled.

Liu Kuan put the tablet away, pondered for a moment, and said, "We can't say that later generations worshipped knights. It should be said that in later generations, due to some reasons, martial arts has become an important element of Chinese culture."

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more puzzled and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Your Majesty, this is a long story, and it's not very important. Why don't you watch the video first?"

"That's fine."

Zhu Yuanzhang said this, motioning Liu Kuan to go down, and he operated it himself to play the song video.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)