At the same time, a large number of scholars gathered at the gates of the residences of the Xun, Yang, and Chen families, hurling insults at them.

Just then, two other pieces of news also deeply affected all the scholars and officials.

The Taiping Sect is preparing to establish a Taoist academy to recruit students from all over the world for education.

A group of relatives and in-laws also planned to establish schools, to teach not only their own children but also everyone in the world.

These two pieces of news were like a bombshell, shocking all the scholars.

The establishment of academies meant that their monopoly on knowledge would be completely broken.

If everyone goes to the school to study, who will still come to rely on them?

Especially if those peasants who are looked down upon by them can also go to school, won't scholars become a dime a dozen?

If this continues, the advantages we have gained will vanish.

In their eyes, the Empress Dowager was wiping out their lineage, and this act was even more hateful than that of eunuchs and relatives of the empress in the past.

In a short time, the voices against the Empress Dowager, the imperial relatives, and the maternal relatives grew louder and louder.

Apart from a few families such as the Yuan, Yang, Xun, and Zhong families, almost all the scholars joined together, and even many officials got involved.

More and more scholars went to besiege the residences of the Yuan, Xun, and Yang families, and the curses became increasingly offensive.

Words like "lackey," "scoundrel," "petty person," "heartless," and "seeking fame and fortune" are frequently heard.

An old servant from the Xun family rushed to Xun Shuang's study.

"Master, the situation outside is not good. Almost all the scholars in Luoyang are cursing us! What should we do?"

"Heh~, let them curse all they want. They'll shut up when they're tired of it!"

Xun Shuang chuckled lightly at the table, clearly unconcerned about the criticism from the outside world.

"But if this continues, the reputation of our Xun family will be completely ruined...!" The old servant looked at Xun Shuang with great anxiety.

Xun Shuang glanced at the servant: "Reputation? What's reputation worth? Besides, we don't need this kind of reputation!"

"this......"

The servant was slightly taken aback and looked at Xun Shuang in disbelief. He couldn't imagine why Xun Shuang, who always valued his reputation, would say such a thing.

"Alright, you don't need to worry about this. Just go down and keep an eye on the gates. They can't ruin the reputation of our Xun family!"

After saying this, Xun Shuang waved to his servant, picked up a book he had compiled, and began to read it.

"promise!!"

Seeing the master's impatient expression, the servant had no choice but to bow and leave.

After the servant left, he read the letter the emperor had sent him over and over again, a smile appearing on his lips.

The last line of the message read:

Focus on writing your book; don't wait until later. Your fame will last for eternity; it's all for today.

"It's not that we've turned our backs on you, but that you've chosen the wrong path...!"

After whispering something to each other, Xun Shuang took a tinderbox and lit the letter.

After confirming that the message had burned out, Xun Shuang picked up the book and began to annotate and revise it.

Like Xun Shuang, Yang Ci, Chen Chen, and others also received a message from Liu Hong.

In his message to them, Liu Hong directly and frankly told them about his plans to establish a school. He not only promised to publish their books throughout the world, but also pledged to use their books as teaching materials in the future school.

It's not that they didn't stand with those scholars; it's because the emperor gave them far too much.

With fame spreading far and wide and students all over the world, they simply couldn't resist such temptations.

Furthermore, with the mass production and distribution of paper today, coupled with the existence of printing plants, a few pages of paper can record text that weighs as much as a dozen kilograms of bamboo slips, greatly reducing the cost of knowledge dissemination.

Books are no longer so rare, and the knowledge channels controlled by the aristocracy are in grave danger, ready to be destroyed at any moment by the torrents of paper and printing.

Therefore, Xun Shuang and others also saw very clearly that the spread of literature throughout the world and the rise of schools were inevitable, and an unstoppable trend.

Therefore, rather than being swept away by the tide, it is better to seize this opportunity to rise up and find a broader path for oneself and one's family.

Today, the Han Dynasty is like a great wave washing away the sand; those who are ignorant, backward, and short-sighted will be eliminated, while those who choose sides and follow the trend will rise to the top.

This is the choice made by families such as the Yuan, Xun, and Yang.

The scholars surrounded their residence and cursed them for a long time, attracting a large crowd of onlookers.

However, their angry curses had no effect whatsoever; all the houses remained tightly shut. Seeing this, the scholars could only shake their heads and sigh as they left.

At this moment, in the eyes of those scholars, these families had clearly pledged allegiance to the Empress Dowager and intended to seize control of the government together. Their establishment of schools was also a way to cultivate their own power and thus kick out the scholars like themselves.

However, these people were helpless. They couldn't afford to offend the Empress Dowager to begin with, and now with the addition of the Yuan family and others, their power was even greater, and they were simply not capable of dealing with her.

You can't win by playing hardball, and people won't fall for your soft approach.

Just as the scholars were lamenting their helplessness, the Li family of Qingzhou, the Han family of Yanzhou, and the Zheng family of Hedong, among other families, gathered together and extended an invitation to the scholars, preparing to discuss how to deal with the fence-sitting families such as the Yuan and Xun families.

That night, the invited scholars took advantage of the darkness and headed towards the Li family's mansion in the south of the city.

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