However, Emperor Qianlong thought that Xue Li was embarrassed by his gaze and laughed triumphantly.

Sherry was secretly crying!

Should she continue to age a little? She's afraid he might suddenly go into heat.

So, you should just follow your mother's example!

As their eyes met, one feigned a coquettish expression, the other raised an eyebrow; one was embarrassed and annoyed, the other smug!

Seriously, this plot is like "A domineering old emperor falls in love with a middle-aged woman who lives a life of quiet contemplation and Buddhist practice"?!

Okay, let's not complain about each other, oily food is healthier...

I wonder which Cinderella grew up to like this kind of story.

It's definitely not a powerful demon; powerful demons only love adult films.

Variety of flavors, but the core flavor remains the same!

Life itself respects the harmony of all life.

Sherry was still playing a game with Emperor Qianlong, where he would flirt with her and she would raise an eyebrow in return.

Then we heard Li Yu come in!

Emperor Qianlong seemed to understand and patted Xue Li's hand.

Sherry had really enjoyed that roasted chicken heart by now; how knowledgeable she was!

"Your Majesty, I should go and keep the Empress Dowager company. Is there anything Your Majesty wishes to say? I will convey it to you!"

Upon hearing this, Emperor Qianlong smiled happily.

"You're so kind. Tell Mother that I'm almost fully recovered and will visit her another day."

"Okay!" Sherry touched his old face and left leisurely.

Emperor Qianlong was quite pleased, beaming with pride as he accepted the letter presented by the secret guard.

Foreigners' paper!

A foreigner's pen!

A foreigner's envelope!

Emperor Qianlong had a bad feeling.

He opened each letter one by one, his expression gradually becoming serious.

"...The Qing Dynasty is nothing but an arrogant paper tiger; our opium is enough to turn it into a sick cat..."

"...When this country's farmers can no longer cultivate the land, its soldiers can no longer hold their guns, and its workers can no longer do their jobs, then this place will become our playground..."

"...If we can use opium to annex the surrounding small countries, we can certainly use opium to devour the Qing Dynasty. When that happens, we can cut off their emperor's head and use it to make wine glasses. That would be absolutely delicious!"

"Whether they ban it or not doesn't affect us; we have plenty of dogs..."

"...I love that confident little look in their emperor's eyes the most; those eyes would be amazing for making wine!"

"..."

Emperor Qianlong read through the letters one by one, and was so angry that the veins on his forehead bulged out.

“Great Britain! Ha, these barbarians! Uncivilized barbarians! How dare these mere ants compete with the bright moon?!” Emperor Qianlong was so angry that he threw the letters all over the ground, as if a celestial maiden were scattering flowers.

"Your Majesty, please calm down!" Li Yu and the guard suddenly knelt down.

"Ha! Have I given them too much face?! Someone, summon Fuheng!" After giving the order, Qianlong picked up the account book and started looking at it again.

As court officials came and went.

Suddenly, some Japanese pirates appeared around the Qing Dynasty. Their attire and language were different from those of the Qing people.

Those people specifically targeted ships at sea for robbery.

Ordinary goods were sold for silver to buy one's life, but opium was simply stolen.

And they especially like hairy foreigners.

Many foreigners who came here to trade have mysteriously disappeared!

During this period, opium appeared in Japan, Russia, Konbaung, and even by thieves who specialized in robbing British ships.

They took their improved opium and sold it back to their own country.

Of course, by the time this path was straightened out, Emperor Qianlong had already followed in the footsteps of the Empress Dowager.

The court officials tallied the number of opium addicts and how many families were torn apart by selling their children to support their opium addiction.

The more the imperial court forbade it, the happier those unscrupulous merchants became.

The Han people were dissatisfied with the unfair treatment they received, while the Manchus were deeply afraid that a Han retaliation would threaten their imperial power.

No one expected that a foreign third party would get involved!

The actual data is even more shocking.

In addition, there were folk rhymes, operas in theaters, and storytelling.

The historical figures depicted were all based on the lustful, incompetent, and corrupt Emperor Qianlong!

When Emperor Qianlong set off to return to Beijing, he made a public appearance, after all, to stabilize the court.

On the way back to Beijing, I heard all sorts of stories about romance and love, but I gave up on that idea.

Those scholars' mouths seemed to be poisoned!

He even wrote a book to satirize the present day!

For the past six months, Emperor Qianlong has been either sick or angry, and when he's angry he's going crazy!

He was so angry when he found out he was famous that he fainted!

Even as I was fainting, I was still thinking: literary inquisition!

Those lackeys deserve to die!

He must ban those books, then those scholars won't need to read anymore...

And that is indeed the case!

The literary inquisitions of the Qing Dynasty were the most severe in the history of Chinese dynasties.

That's fine then.

In order to centralize imperial power, various means were employed.

The literacy rate in the late Qing Dynasty was approximately between 1% and 30%, with the exact figure being disputed.

According to the book "Discovering History in China", a Japanese-American expert specializing in the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties believes that the literacy rate in the Qing dynasty was 35% to 45% for men and 2% to 10% for women, with an average of about 20% to 30%.

The statistics in "Education and Literacy Ability of the Masses in the Qing Dynasty" show that the literacy rate was 30% to 45% for men and 2% to 10% for women.

If we calculate based on these data, the literacy rate in the Qing Dynasty was roughly between 18% and 27%.

Some data also show that statistics before the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1909 indicated that the total number of people with basic literacy in the country was about 3 million, while the population of the Qing Dynasty at that time was about 400 million. This means that the literacy rate was only about 0.1% or 0.7%.

According to the county annals of Shimen County, Hunan Province, there were more than 60 private schools in Shimen County at the end of the Ming Dynasty. By the Shunzhi period, there were 17 schools, and by the Qianlong period, there was only one private school.

The Qing Dynasty decreed: Opening a private school without official permission would result in execution! Elders were forbidden from teaching their children and grandchildren to read and write! Private discussions of academic matters were also prohibited!

Under this oppressive rule, during the Daoguang era, two villages in Shimen County experienced armed conflicts.

When the county government registered names, there were more than 5,000 people in the two villages, yet not a single person knew how to write their own name.

These data indicate that the literacy rate in the Qing Dynasty was lower than that in the Tang and Song Dynasties, where researchers generally believe that the literacy rate was higher than 30%.

It is estimated that the literacy rate during the Qin and Han dynasties was between 4% and 8%.

Although this percentage is relatively low, it is a significant improvement over the literacy rate in primitive societies (about 4%).

During the Ming Dynasty, the government attached great importance to education, vigorously built academies, and produced a large number of literary works such as folk novels.

These factors all contributed to the increase in literacy rates.

It is estimated that the literacy rate in the Ming Dynasty reached about 40%.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming dynasty, the literacy rate in China showed a gradual upward trend.

This is thanks to the development of the social economy, the improvement of the education system, and the rich cultural atmosphere.

However, during the Qing Dynasty, the literacy rate experienced a precipitous decline.

Of all the dynasties in Chinese history, only the Qing Dynasty lacked great figures in science and culture, which was directly related to the suppression by the Manchus.

The Manchu Qing dynasty's policy of keeping the people ignorant nearly led to the extinction of Chinese culture.