Just then, Fu Youde said, "Your Highness, the five thousand prisoners you requested have all been delivered. The Prince of Zhou has sent word that the remaining five thousand prisoners will be taken to Beiping in the spring."

Huang Zicheng was excited and immediately stood up and said, "Your subject has a memorial to present!"

Zhu Xiong Ying nodded slightly and said, "Speak."

Huang Zicheng felt this was an opportunity, and he needed to seize it to prevent the Crown Prince from going astray. "Your Highness," he said, "our Ming Dynasty has now established its rule over the world and should implement benevolent policies. Foreign barbarians do not understand civilization..."

Zhu Xiong Ying suddenly understood. This Huang Zicheng was the type who'd gone mad from studying too much; this idealist was single-mindedly focused on governing the world according to the teachings of the sages. And any advice he offered was truly foolish.

Zhu Xiong Ying chuckled and said sarcastically, "Oh? According to you, I should treat those prisoners well. Give them land, make sure they are well-fed and clothed, and teach them manners. Is this the way of the king that I should be practicing?"

Huang Zicheng seemed not to understand, and said, "Our Great Ming Dynasty was founded on etiquette and ruled the people with virtue. When have we ever been tyrannical and oppressive? When have we ever bullied the weak with our strength? Now that our Great Ming Dynasty has established its rule over the world, why should we recklessly resort to war..."

Zhu Xiong Ying's face hardened, and he rebuked, "Minister Huang, you are a scholar, you should read more. What you say was popular among the literati of the former Song Dynasty. Then tell me, we should respect people like Wen Tianxiang, Zhang Shijie, and Lu Xiufu. Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about civil administration. Was civil administration as good as Jingkang, or as good as Yai Shan?"

Zhu Xiong Ying continued without any politeness, "Go back and read the words of the sages carefully, and don't just think about 'benevolence'. I remember that Confucianism does indeed take benevolence as its core, but it does not teach people to be blindly benevolent, much less to be foolishly kind!"

Huang Zicheng was startled. He didn't know what he had said wrong to make the Crown Prince so furious.

Moreover, he had already heard that the Crown Prince disliked Confucian scholars. But let alone the Crown Prince, even the Crown Prince and the Emperor sometimes didn't have many options when facing scholars from all over the country.

But now it seems that the Crown Prince is closer to the Gongyang faction?

Can revenge be taken even after nine generations? It can be taken even after a hundred generations!

Zhu Xiong Ying didn't care what Huang Zi Cheng was thinking. He believed that barbarians wouldn't understand concepts like benevolence and kindness. As for the so-called benevolent rule and virtuous governance, Zhu Xiong Ying thought they were just idealistic fantasies of Confucian scholars, unrealistic and impractical.

Huang Zicheng is a capable person; he does have some talent. However, such a person absolutely cannot be important, much less a strategist. Because such a person has truly become dull-witted from excessive studying!