Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 165 Openly Declaring War on All Scholars in the World
It's been half a month.

For a full half-month after the emperor's grand procession returned to the Forbidden City, the capital was like a scorching hot iron pot that was tightly sealed, with heat churning inside but no sound coming from the surface.

Everyone craned their necks, waiting.

Waiting for the anticipated thunderbolt.

Having executed the vassal king and personally dealt with all the nobles, the young emperor, upon returning to the capital, should have made a momentous move to deter those still harboring ulterior motives.

However, no.

Apart from holding a lukewarm morning court session at the Hall of Supreme Harmony the day after returning to the capital, where he rewarded the accompanying civil and military officials and announced that the decrees of the "Emperor's Camp" in Shaanxi would be gradually implemented in the northern provinces, the emperor remained as calm as a dragon diving into an abyss.

Zhu Youjian's daily routine was as regular as that of an old scholar from the Imperial Academy. He would rise at dawn, attend court at dawn, review memorials from mid-morning to late afternoon, and then read some miscellaneous books of unknown origin under the lamplight of the Qianqing Palace at dusk.

The sharp sword that had been drawn in Shanxi, Jiangnan, and Shaanxi, beheading countless people, seemed to have been casually sheathed by him, as if he didn't intend to use it again for the next three to five years.

The second and third generations of nobles secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The "Royal Naval College" and the "Army Military Academy" that they had been worried about day and night seemed to have vanished like a drunken remark made by the emperor in Shaanxi.

The civil officials in the imperial court then began doing what they did best—guessing the emperor's intentions.

As night deepened, in Han Kuang's study, wisps of precious sandalwood incense rose, casting an uncertain glow on his slightly effeminate face.

He stroked his beard, and speaking to his trusted disciples, his confident tone slowly spread:

"His Majesty is still young. His trip to Shaanxi may have seemed glorious, but in reality, he faced nine deaths and one life. His current silence is not out of forbearance, but rather because... his spirit has been dampened and his strength exhausted. You and I only need to do our duty and wait for the right opportunity."

The student nodded repeatedly, deeply agreeing.

In their view, the emperor was ultimately just a mortal. After being tormented by the mess left by the bandits and the border troops, he realized the difficulties of governing the country and naturally gave up those unrealistic ideas.

Meanwhile, on an official boat bound for Jiangnan, a thousand miles away, Qian Qianyi was drinking with Qian Longxi and several other Donglin scholars by the window.

The beautiful scenery, fine wine, and lovely women swept away the melancholy he felt from leaving the capital.

"Master Muzhai," a renowned member of the Fushe Society raised his cup and laughed, "this departure from the capital may very well be a blessing in disguise for you. It seems His Majesty has heeded our loyal advice and understands the principle of 'governing the country together with the scholar-officials,' no longer engaging in the 'heretical' acts of those military men. This is a sign of peace and prosperity. Your trip to Jiangnan is precisely to appease the hearts of the scholars and officials, a truly great achievement."

Upon hearing this, Qian Qianyi simply smiled, raised his glass to clink glasses, and drank it all in one gulp. His smile contained a hint of self-satisfaction, but even more so, a deep-seated, unspoken amusement.

He didn't argue.

Because he knew that these young scholars needed this illusory victory to boost morale and maintain their pride in "establishing a heart for heaven and earth".

But Qian Qianyi himself knew the truth perfectly well.

Would the emperor be afraid?
Will you refund me?

What a joke!
That young emperor who, in the imperial court, swept his cold, icy eyes over all the officials, and could have a high-ranking minister executed by a single, casual remark; that young king who, in the blink of an eye, discussed the nine generations of his family with merchants in Shanxi and Zhejiang; that young emperor who, with a few words, uprooted the hereditary nobility... and we haven't even talked about the Prince of Qin yet!
The word "concession" has probably long been erased from his mind.

In particular, the decree of "collective taxation" was like an iron rod, deeply embedded in the bones of every gentry and noble family.

Although the implementation of this decree was slow due to the emperor's inactivity, it was like a sword hanging over the heads of countless officials and gentry in Jiangnan; they could not rest easy until it was abolished.

Can the world really be so calm and peaceful?

Qian Qianyi absolutely refused to believe it.

He even had a hint of anticipation, an anticipation mixed with excitement and malice.

He couldn't wait to see how this naive emperor would manage to stand against the deeply entrenched and interconnected officials and gentry of the land, all by himself!

D.

These four words are the true "ancestral laws" of the Ming Dynasty, engraved on the foundation of the state, and a truth that even the emperor could not easily erase.

Qian Qianyi sneered inwardly. That's right, the Shanxi merchants were raided, the grain merchants in Zhejiang were slaughtered, and even the deeply rooted hereditary nobles in the capital were uprooted by the emperor with swift and decisive measures.

That young emperor's sword was indeed swift and sharp, chilling people to the bone!

But so what?
In the end, those people were nothing more than a few exceptionally thick and unsightly branches on the towering tree of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor's personal pruning may cause the tree trunk to tremble, but it will not damage the tree's foundation.

But now, with this "unified grain payment," His Majesty is going to touch the entire soil on which this great tree depends for survival, and all the gentry in the world!

Would he dare to emulate the Mongol invasion and massacre the people and scholars of the land?
If he kills them, who will govern the prefectures and counties for him?

Who will uphold moral education for him?

Who will whitewash the truth for him?

The emperor's power came from this bureaucratic system, and these gentry were the flesh and blood and the foundation of this system.

To destroy one's own foundation is tantamount to courting one's own destruction!

Therefore, Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi went to Jiangnan to witness it in person.

He wanted to see with his own eyes how the emperor's hand, which stretched out from the Forbidden City and tried to turn the tide, was suppressed and held down by the overwhelming force of the gentry and officials of the land, and finally crushed and broken in a silent struggle!
A gentle breeze swept across the ship's side, carrying away these presumptuous speculations and ulterior motives into the distance.

……

Only a few people closest to the center of power vaguely sensed that something even more terrifying was brewing beneath this deathly calm.

For example, Wei Zhongxian noticed that the emperor had been reviewing memorials much faster lately, leaving him with most of his time for meetings with mysterious craftsmen and Western missionaries, as well as... frequently perusing a secret document that listed the land holdings and kinship relationships of major families in Jiangnan.

The emperor is waiting.

What is he waiting for?
Nobody knows.

But Wei Zhongxian had a vague premonition that the emperor was waiting for Qian Qianyi, Qian Longxi, and the entire Jiangnan region behind him to come up with a self-righteous countermeasure.

This unknown is more unsettling than any known threat.

And the answer to one of these questions was partially revealed to someone on a moonlit night when the stars were few.

Xu Guangqi, a Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion.

When the palace eunuchs appeared silently at the gate of Xu's residence, asking him to enter the palace immediately to meet the emperor, the old minister was filled with doubt and unease.

The emperor had not summoned him alone for a long time.

Since ascending the throne, the emperor, on whom he had once placed great hopes, has become increasingly perfunctory in his replies to the emperor's memorials concerning military training, calendar systems, and the study of natural phenomena.

Xu Guangqi was even somewhat disheartened, feeling that His Majesty had absolutely no interest in these practical studies.

The carriage did not head towards the Forbidden City, but instead turned towards the western royal garden – the Western Garden.

This was the emperor's imperial garden, with its magnificent palaces and the shimmering waters of Taiye Pond, which resembled a fairyland under the moonlight.

When Xu Guangqi was led to a painted boat by Taiye Pond, he saw the emperor dressed in plain clothes, sitting alone at the bow fishing. His leisurely demeanor was completely different from the exhausted state of the people who were talking about him in the capital.

"Zixian, you've arrived." The emperor didn't turn around; his voice carried calmly across the water. "Sit."

Xu Guangqi sat down as instructed, his heart growing increasingly uneasy. The emperor's heart was unfathomable; why was he being summoned so late at night?
"Does Zixian know what I've been doing for the past two weeks?" The emperor finally put away his fishing rod and turned around.

"This old minister is foolish and dull..."

"I am waiting. Waiting for this wind in the capital to blow out everyone's thoughts, so that I can see clearly." The emperor chuckled, his laughter carrying a hint of world-weariness and mockery beyond his years. "Some think I am afraid, some think I am tired. They all think that my sword should be sheathed."

Xu Guangqi felt a chill run down his spine and dared not speak. The emperor stood up, took out a huge scroll from the cabin, and slowly unfurled it on the deck.

The moonlight shone down, illuminating the scene on the scroll clearly. It was not a landscape painting, but a... a magnificent architectural drawing that Xu Guangqi had never seen before in his life.

The drawings are divided into two main parts.

Part of it is this very West Garden beneath their feet, where the pavilions and towers have been outlined, remodeled, and renamed with fine vermilion lines.

The emperor's finger tapped on the blueprint, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement and power, like a deity introducing his divine kingdom:

"This place, Yingtai, I have ordered to be transformed into the 'Academy of Science and Technology,' specializing in mathematics, astronomy, physics, and chemistry. You and Li Tianjing may lecture here."

"That area, with its Wanshan Hall and Daguangming Hall, is spacious and can accommodate a thousand people. I have designated it as the main lecture hall and administrative center of the university."

"My study, the Wenyuan Pavilion, has been expanded three times in size. It houses the imperial library's collection of books, as well as all the Western classics that I have collected and translated. It will be called the 'Wenhui Pavilion' and will serve as the university's main library!"

"And there, those smaller palaces, I have renovated them all and renamed them 'Tianyuan Medical College,' which specializes in anatomy, pharmacology, and surgery; and 'Shennong Agricultural College,' which specializes in breeding, agricultural tools, and water conservancy. Their theoretical classes are also held here."

Xu Guangqi's breathing stopped; his eyes were fixed on the blueprints, and he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

This...this is such a crazy idea!

Transform the emperor's imperial garden, a forbidden area symbolizing supreme power, into a university dedicated to the study of "extraordinary skills and crafts"?

However, the emperor's introduction was not yet over.

His finger slid to another large section of the drawing, which was a large area in the southeast corner of the capital, between the Temple of Agriculture and the Temple of Heaven.

"The investigation of things and the attainment of knowledge, if not put into practice, are nothing but castles in the air." The emperor's voice became deep and powerful. "Therefore, I have built a place for them to put their knowledge into practice in the south of the city!"

"The imperial estate next to the Temple of Agriculture is the royal experimental farm of the Shennong Agricultural Academy, which I call the 'Shanglin Garden of the Capital Region.' I want them to cultivate crops here that yield four, five, or even ten shi per mu!"

"Further east, this complex of buildings covering thousands of acres is my 'workshop of a hundred crafts'! Smelting furnaces, forging workshops, carpentry workshops, textile bureaus... everything mentioned in 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' and not mentioned here, I will make it a reality here!"

"Right here," the Emperor pointed sharply, "is the 'Guanghui Hospital,' the teaching hospital of Tianyuan Medical College. Someone needs to tell them that the human body is the most sacred temple for exploring the mysteries of life, and I grant them permission... to perform dissections. All death row inmates executed by the Ministry of Justice may be sent here."

When Xu Guangqi heard the word "dissection," he felt a chill run down his spine.

In the eyes of the literati, this was tantamount to desecrating a corpse and mutilating its remains, an act that was against heaven and reason!

The emperor seemed oblivious to his expression, his finger finally landing on an area reinforced with dark lines and surrounded by sharply defined fortresses.

"And this is the heart of the entire university, and also my future reliance—the Military Academy!"

"The artillery design center, artillery command center, city defense academy, ordnance factory, and a firing range stretching for ten miles... Sun Yuanhua will be in charge of this place. I want him to use Western methods as the foundation and Chinese methods as the application, to create artillery and muskets for me with longer range, greater power, and faster reloading!"

"Zixian," the emperor raised his head, his gaze fixed intently on the stunned Xu Guangqi, and said, word by word, "Wei Zhongxian hasn't been to Shaanxi these past few months because he's overseeing this massive project. Now..."

The emperor paused, a smile that could only be described as amused.

"Now, the 'Great Ming Royal Academy of Science and Technology' has been fully renovated. It is just waiting for... its students to move in."

Xu Guangqi felt short of breath for a moment.

The emperor's silence over the past two weeks was not due to a loss of vigor or exhaustion; rather, he was appreciating the chess game he had laid out and enjoying the tranquility before the storm.

This is by no means a spur-of-the-moment plan, but a long-planned, implemented, and completed fact!
He originally thought that the emperor would at most open a small Western-style school to embellish his civil and military achievements.

But he never expected that the emperor's ambition was to use the entire nation's resources to build a brand-new, incredibly massive Academy of Sciences to challenge...
"Your Majesty..." Xu Guangqi's voice was dry and hoarse, his lips trembling, unable to utter a complete sentence. What he saw was not a science academy, but a behemoth about to break free of its cage and turn the entire world upside down!
The emperor gently patted his shoulder, rousing him from his reverie.

"Zixian, I know what you're afraid of. You're afraid of criticism from scholars, opposition from court officials, and condemnation from Confucian scholars across the land, who will accuse me of changing the Chinese culture with barbarians and call me a sycophantic villain."

"But I am not afraid."

The emperor turned around, stood with his hands behind his back, and gazed at the Taiye Pond reflecting the waning moon, slowly saying, "The first thing you need to do is to screen out all those so-called chosen ones in the Imperial Academy who only know how to compose poems about the wind and moon and engage in empty talk that harms the country!"

……

The next morning.

An imperial edict bearing the vermilion seal of "The Emperor's Seal" was delivered directly to the Imperial Academy without going through the Grand Secretariat or the Office of Transmission. It was carried by the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and escorted by a team of Imperial Guards.

The Imperial College was as usual at this moment.

Thousands of students gathered in twos and threes, some engaging in lively discussions, others reciting poetry and drinking wine, and still others basking in the glory of their privileged future.

They were the empire's reserve officials, the most prestigious group of scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

When the expressionless eunuch stood before the Biyong Hall and unfurled the bright yellow imperial edict, everyone lazily knelt down, ready to hear some meaningless praise or admonition.

"The emperor is destined to be carried by heaven, and the edict says:"

The eunuch's high-pitched voice echoed in the solemn hall.

"The Imperial Academy is the nation's training ground for talent, and its students are the pillars of the state. However, empty talk harms the country, while diligent practice brings prosperity. In order to identify outstanding talents and promote those with practical learning, the 'Science and Technology Examination' will be held at the Academy in three days. The examination will be presided over by Xu Guangqi, Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion, and all registered students of the Imperial Academy of our Great Ming Dynasty will participate in the examination."

The students in the hall stirred slightly. "Gezhi" (格致)? Isn't that the artisan science of those Western barbarians? What's the point of testing them on that?
The eunuch ignored him and continued reading:
"Those who pass the screening examination will be selected to enter the newly established 'Great Ming Royal Academy of Sciences,' enjoying the honor of being a student of the Emperor. After graduation, they will be employed according to their abilities. Anyone who fails to participate in the examination without a valid reason, or who fails the examination..."

The eunuch paused deliberately, raised his eyelids, and scanned the faces below that were beginning to show surprise and unease.

Then, with an almost cruel calm, he uttered the last sentence.

"...His status as a student of the Imperial Academy and the imperial stipend and privileges he enjoys will be jointly reviewed and decided by the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Clan Court."

silence.

A deathly silence that lasted for more than a dozen breaths.

The words "to be decided separately" stunned all the students!
What does it mean?
Their proud identities, their futures, their livelihoods, even the achievements of their parents—will all be wiped out by this Gezhi exam, which they've never heard of and despise from the bottom of their hearts?!
“Wow——!!!”

After a brief silence, an uproar erupted like a volcano!
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"

"I have spent ten years studying diligently, reading the books of sages and being tested on the sayings of Confucius and the poems of the classics. How can I associate with craftsmen!"

"This is an insult to civility! It is a trampling on all of us scholars!"

Curses, roars, and incredulous screams instantly filled the entire Biyong Hall.

Standing at the forefront of the crowd was Liu Lishun, the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, an old minister over sixty years old who had dedicated his life to upholding the Confucian tradition. At this moment, he was trembling with anger.

He pointed at the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict, his lips turning purple. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't catch his breath, his eyes rolled back, and he fell straight backward!

"Master Jijiu!"

"Quickly! Summon the imperial physician!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Upon receiving the decree, the chief priest fainted on the spot.

This is undoubtedly a blatant declaration of war against all scholars in the world!

A massive storm, originating from the highest levels of imperial power and originating from the core of the Ming Dynasty's highest institution of learning, descended upon the world at a time when no one had anticipated it!

(End of this chapter)