The Confucius Mansion was searched and confiscated, but is that the end of the matter?

The Confucius Mansion incident has far-reaching implications, and if handled improperly, it will lead to endless troubles.

The following are some issues that urgently need to be addressed:

First, the *Da Song Di Bao* (Imperial Gazette of the Song Dynasty) criticized the Kong family for crimes, which led to its destruction by Confucian scholars. This challenged the credibility of the *Da Song Di Bao* among the people, with some Confucian scholars accusing it of being controlled by Shi Ziming.

Secondly, the Song Dynasty official newspaper office, which was vandalized, is now unable to operate normally, severely hindering the dissemination of information from the capital.

Thirdly, the Confucian scholars were thrown into prison. What should be done with them afterward? The number of Confucian scholars who participated in the riots was as high as 50,000, enough to form a large army. These were all intellectuals of the Song Dynasty, elite talents in later terms.

Regarding the first and second questions, Xu Churen cautiously suggested to Zhao Huan that a Capital Express could be established under the Great Song Merchant Guild, with the Council of State Affairs taking charge, to issue official correspondence to the public.

To gain the emperor's approval, he further clarified the significance of the Capital Express, stating that its main duty was to exclusively publish events occurring in Tokyo, and that it would not interfere with events in other places. This distinguished it from the Great Song Dynasty Gazette, which could publish events nationwide.

In fact, the State Council certainly wanted to interfere with public opinion across the country, but the Emperor's official gazette had already gained the upper hand. Now, the State Council wanted to regain some control over public opinion, so it had to settle for second best. And this incident involving the Confucius Mansion was precisely the opportunity.

After pondering for a moment, Zhao Huan felt that Xu Churen's suggestion was feasible. It not only solved the immediate problem, but also provided the Song Dynasty Gazette with a semi-checking force. In any case, whether it was the Hanlin Academy or the Council of State Affairs, they were all under Zhao Huan's control.

So the matter was taken care of immediately. In the past, the efficiency of the Council of State Affairs was very low. Even a small matter would take half a day to process. But now, with the Hanlin Academy as their rival and the emperor putting unprecedented pressure on them, the ministers were all like they had been injected with chicken blood, and the entire East Mansion was like a madman.

Before the address of the Beijing Express was even determined, a temporary edition was published from the State Affairs Hall and began to be printed in large quantities. At the same time, official documents were sent to various places by express courier and began to be printed frantically in various prefectures and counties, and sold to the public under the name of the State Affairs Hall Beijing Express.

In this way, Zhao Huan made a good amount of subscriptions through the Capital Express, which made those struggling authors on Qidian in later generations extremely envious.

Before its sale, the Capital Express heavily promoted its pedigree, claiming it was sponsored by the Eastern Palace Political Affairs Hall, making it an absolutely authoritative official publication.

When the news from the capital was published, it caused a nationwide uproar. People were forced to believe that the extended edition of the Song Dynasty's official gazette, which contained accusations against the Confucius family, was entirely true.

Suddenly, scholars all over the streets were beating their chests and wailing, as if their parents had died.

Some people even went insane, burning Confucian classics in their homes, while others jumped into rivers to commit suicide, feeling that everything they had learned since childhood had become a joke.

Of course, there are also those with a good mindset who strongly agree with what the Beijing Daily said about the relationship between the Confucius family and Confucius. They believe that the descendants are unworthy and have produced such scoundrels. It is not a problem with the sage's scholarship, but rather that these scoundrels from the Confucius family have ruined the sage's reputation by abusing their power. They should be abolished. The current emperor is wise and has invited Confucius to the Hall of Heroes.

As a result, the public's resistance to the Song Dynasty's official gazette quickly weakened, and the gazettes in various places gradually began to return to normal.

Another issue facing Zhao Huan was how to deal with the more than 50,000 Confucian scholars.

Is the law just going to let it go because there are too many people involved?

This was clearly not Zhao Huan's style. If a Confucian scholar dared to smash the emperor's things, he was going against the emperor. If he let it go like this, what would happen if the emperor encountered similar resistance when implementing a series of new policies in the future? Would he also let it go like this?

Liu Yanzong was very clear about the emperor's thoughts, Qin Hui was very clear about the emperor's thoughts, Shi Ziming was also very clear about what the emperor was thinking, and the ministers of the two mansions naturally knew the emperor's mood as well. If no explanation was given, this matter would probably develop in the worst possible direction.

Who knows if the emperor might follow Qin Shi Huang's example and "burn books and bury scholars alive"? If that happened, the Song Dynasty would be finished. So the ministers of the two palaces were also uneasy. They definitely wanted to stop the emperor from taking such a drastic measure, but how should they deal with it? They couldn't just lock them all up for ten years or so, could they?

This is such a waste of talent. Some of these scholars already hold official titles and have studied diligently for ten years. They have a bright future ahead of them and are of great use to the country.

In the emperor's study, Censor-in-Chief He Ye once again spoke before the ministers of the two offices. His words were sure to be earth-shattering, enough to make the ministers of the two offices break out in a cold sweat.

"Your Majesty, these Confucian scholars dared to vandalize the Imperial Gazette of the Song Dynasty, which is a blatant disregard for the Emperor's authority. I believe they should all be executed as a warning to others!"

“No!” Wang Boyan immediately stepped forward. “If the court were to slaughter Confucian scholars, it would surely cause turmoil throughout the country. I believe that Confucian scholars should be fined. Firstly, it would serve as a warning to them, and secondly, it would provide the court with some revenue.”

Zhao Huan began to look at Wang Boyan with new respect. He realized that they needed to put pressure on them, otherwise how would they be motivated to make money? Look, even the prime minister is now craning his neck and using crooked ideas to find ways to make money, even here.

Zhao Huan did not rush to express his opinion, but Xu Churen quickly said, "Your Majesty, I second your opinion. This is a win-win situation. The Confucian scholars have been warned, and the court has also benefited."

When it came to making money, Zhou Chao from the Ministry of Revenue was naturally the happiest. He quickly said, "Your Majesty, I second your opinion. I think each person should be fined one hundred strings of cash, totaling five million strings!"

When Zhou Chao mentioned this number, all the ministers present were moved. Last year, Tong Guan spent more than one million strings of cash to buy Yan Yun. Although it was an empty city, it still showed that five million strings of cash was a huge sum.

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