Chapter 50 Oops, a literary stand-in attack! Back...

Shen Zhiwei took a deep breath first.

She didn't speak directly because she was afraid that if she spoke, she would be laughed at.

Shen Zhiwei couldn't describe his mood at the moment. If he had to say it, it would be helplessness and resignation.

Being misunderstood is the fate of those who express themselves. Although Shen Zhiwei didn't write, she was the one who gave the orders. If her subordinates didn't carry out her orders properly, how could she blame them? It was clearly her fault for not making the orders clear.

Explain clearly...

What are you talking about! What are you talking about! She didn’t send anyone to attack the vassal states, she didn’t! It was all done by her subordinates themselves!

Shen Zhiwei was going crazy inside, but on the surface, his expression became even colder.

Gui Yang and Hu Youan looked at each other in confusion. Is the king happy or unhappy?

On the surface, he seemed unhappy, but logically speaking, the territory was expanded and the faces of those princes who did not obey the king's orders were slapped. Shouldn't he be happy?

Finally, Gui Yang concluded in her heart that the king was so unfathomable. The king was unhappy at this time because he must have thought that the princes would not give up and would definitely start a war again in the future, so he was worried that his people would suffer.

The king is truly so merciful.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Changzhu State is just a small country, adjacent to Bian. Its ruler was once a clan member of the former Duke of Bian. Bian has long been under Your Majesty's control. The capture of Changzhu State by General Chiwei, under the command of the General of the Household, is not a serious matter."

Gui Yang spoke, intending to dispel Shen Zhiwei's worries.

Shen Zhiwei felt even more uncomfortable after hearing this.

This means that there is no longer any prince who would avenge Chang Zhuguo.

She fought and the place was given to her, and she inexplicably marched towards unifying the world.

"As the ruler of a country, you still dare to claim to be king. Do you really have no backup plan?"

"It's just that seeing other princes proclaim themselves kings, they think they have the confidence to become kings too. However, they don't know that a small country like this will be in danger if it declares itself a king. Every prince will be able to get a piece of the pie. When the Changzhu State was destroyed, many princes applauded and cheered."

Gui Yang had a clear understanding of those princes. In those days, there were actually very few princes with the ambition and ability to establish themselves. Most of them were just following the others to claim to be kings and were fooling around. How could they pose any threat?

If this were a cartoon, the colors on Shen Zhiwei's body would definitely be gradually disappearing, eventually turning into grayish-white, cracked stones.

I'm really heartbroken!

"From what the county governor said, do you plan to continue attacking the surrounding small vassal states in the future?"

Shen Zhiwei lowered her voice, and it was impossible to tell whether she agreed or disagreed.

Gui Yang quickly bowed and said, "I am only a small county governor and have no ability to lead troops. The matter of attacking the vassal states is entirely decided by the king and the General of the Central Army. I am only following orders."

Hu Youan continued, "Your Majesty, Bian and An are not far apart. If we continue fighting, we will have to deal with more bordering cities. Bian is mostly plains with few highlands and no natural defenses. It would be better to leave a few vassal states behind."

Hu Youan knew one thing very well, that is, when fighting, the battlefield should best be on the enemy's territory.

In this way, the enemy will suffer greater losses.

If it is all your own territory, once it is destroyed, you have to rebuild it, which is really troublesome.

Moreover, the vanguard army usually directly captures local civilians. Although there are benefits of being granted titles based on the king's military merits, there are still only a few common people who are really willing to serve as soldiers and fight for their lives on the battlefield.

Most people still want to live a peaceful and stable life, so it is best for the vanguard to use other people's people as the substitute.

In Hu Youan's mind, there is a clear distinction between her own family and other families, and she only stands on the side of her own family.

After hearing what Hu Youan said, Shen Zhiwei felt relieved. Very good, Hu Youan didn't plan to fight anymore.

"Well, you should think twice before you act. Don't attack on impulse. The previous chaotic war between the various countries has just ended, and the Bian area has just been recovered. We should focus on development. Once the war starts, it will be difficult to stop, and the people will suffer."

Shen Zhiwei earnestly admonished Hu Youan and Gui Yang, hoping that they would show mercy and stop stabbing her in the back.

She just wanted to complete her mission well and then return to the modern era. She didn't want to get involved in any drama of competing for the throne and becoming the first emperor.

“Here!”

The two trusted ministers (big troubles) directly agreed to Shen Zhiwei's words. Shen Zhiwei could not see any guilt on their faces, so he thought that they agreed sincerely at this moment.

Shen Zhiwei waved his hand tiredly and asked them both to go down.

By the way, he gave them a pile of books and papers, so that they could learn more simplified Chinese characters when they were bored and translate the existing books, which could help share some of the burden for Wen Tao and others.

Read more, study more, and think less about trivial things!

The two had heard about simplified Chinese characters when they were in Yongming City. Now, when they flipped through the books and saw books written in simplified Chinese characters, they were even more excited.

The king likes simplified Chinese characters. As the king's most trusted minister, I must learn the font that the king likes and use it flexibly. In this way, when I report important matters to the king in the future, when the king sees the favorite font, he will have a better impression of the person who submitted the report.

Gui Yang has decided to visit Wen Mansion next and pester Wen Tao every day to learn simplified Chinese as soon as possible.

Hu Youan is a little worse. Her main goal is to be able to read simplified Chinese characters and read more military books. She is not in a hurry to learn everything, but is only anxious to strengthen her leadership skills in a limited time.

No matter what their little thoughts were, they both felt that the king's gift of paper and books was a recognition of their previous actions.

The king did not blame them for insisting on attacking Jangju State, which means that the king also agreed with their ideas.

If Shen Zhiwei knew what these two people were thinking, she would turn around and snatch the book and paper back, and give them a few spankings to teach them a lesson.

Although Shen Zhiwei has been the king for more than a year, she is not a native king after all, and is not that sensitive to power. She does not think that the behavior of the two is a big mistake. After all, Gui Yang and Hu Youan are really thinking about the country. Shen Zhiwei is doing bad things herself, and she cannot force others to do the same with her.

After hearing this, Wen Tao felt that the king was even more merciful, and she felt annoyed when she saw Gui Yang coming to see her every day.

The king was merciful, but she was no fool. This time, Hu Youan had taken the initiative to attack Changzhu State, and Gui Yang must have been behind the scenes fanning the flames. Gui Yang's move was an overreach! The king had clearly set the rules, prohibiting county governors from commanding troops. He dared to disobey the king's orders, which was truly cunning.

Wen Tao used to think that Gui Yang was a villain, but now it seems that Gui Yang is not only a villain, but also a treacherous person who intends to deceive the king!

Wen Taozhuan Shen immediately filed a complaint against Gui Yang, saying that Gui Yang was treacherous, full of lies, and good at manipulating power, which was not what a gentleman should do, and he was not fit to be the county governor.

Before this, Gui Yang was the Prime Minister of Jingchang and promoted many of his retainers to official positions. Wen Tao's accusation made that group of people feel that Wen Tao was scolding them.

If Gui Yang was a villain, then how could they be considered good people for trying to curry favor with her in exchange for official positions?

Before Shen Zhiwei could react, the two sides started a melee mode. The world had not yet been unified, but the party struggle had already begun.

Shen Zhiwei received a request for a meeting from a minister today, and another one tomorrow. The court sessions were still once every three to five days, but the working hours had doubled, which made Shen Zhiwei extremely annoyed. He especially wanted to imitate a certain emperor and go into seclusion to practice Taoism and ignore government affairs.

At this moment, Shen Zhiwei thought of the advantages of the Prime Minister and the cabinet system.

But the court is so full of officials that even the basic official positions cannot be filled, so it is simply a daydream to want to form a cabinet.

If Shen Zhiwei wants to live a good life, in addition to working hard, he still has to work hard on his own.

Great, there's no one behind her!

Shen Zhiwei nodded perfunctorily, sent away a minister who came to speak ill of Wen Tao, looked at the closed door, and sighed.

"Don't force yourself to say it, Yanxia. Don't you think they have too much free time?"

Wen Tao always behaves like a gentleman. When she finds fault with Gui Yang, she is always right. When Gui Yang's people want to find fault with her, they just repeat the same thing over and over again, saying that Wen Tao recommended too many of her fellow students.

It just so happened that Wen Tao's fellow disciples were all ministers that Shen Zhiwei had finally met and were willing to fill in the gaps, otherwise her workload would have increased.

It was the king himself who insisted on letting fellow disciple Wen Tao become an official! If you don't like it, why don't you find a bunch of fellow disciples to fill the gap for the king?

Shen Zhiwei really wanted to curse.

"Your Majesty, calm down and wait until winter is over."

Yanxia poured Shen Zhiwei a cup of hot drink and comforted her softly.

After winter is over, Gui Yang and Hu Youan can set off to return to Yongming City. Once they leave, the people of Jingchang will become obedient.

"Wouldn't that mean I'd have to live like this for another month? No, no, no!"

Shen Zhiwei was furious and got angry for a moment!

What could she do? Now all the ministers in the court were her wings. If one was missing, she would be trapped in overtime hell. Sometimes she really wanted to know how the late king had lived a leisurely and comfortable life before?

Her territory is a little bit bigger than that of the previous king, but she has more ministers than just a little bit more. Why is she getting busier and busier?

I can’t figure it out. I really can’t figure it out.

"We must find them something to do. If they have nothing to do, they can go to the city gate to promote Mandarin!"

Shen Zhiwei saw that learning a new language and writing system was not a challenge for this group of people. They were all used to learning languages. After all, the world was in chaos. In addition to the elegant language, each place had its own writing system. The first thing the officials did when they read was to learn the languages ​​of various countries.

If learning doesn't bother them, let them teach.

The more Shen Zhiwei thought about it, the more she felt that this was a good idea. She didn't expect this group of people to teach any top scholar. Anyway, she was not going to hold an imperial examination. She just let them preach at the city gate and give a class when they had nothing to do. It could be considered as a way to educate the common people.

Teaching is much more difficult than reading. You have to prepare lessons and explain, which takes up a lot of time.

If she met a few responsible officials who wanted to tutor some talented students individually, it would be even more time-consuming. She didn't believe that when they were so busy, the officials would have the leisure to come to her for advice!

The preaching at the city gate quickly became the headline of Jingchang City’s topic list.

Preaching is not a new thing. The first preaching activity was initiated by Yongming City. Setting up a platform to speak out one's own ideas was one of the ways to make a name for one's own school.

However, no king had ever required that when giving speeches on stage, one must not express profound thoughts but must be able to read and write.

Starting from the simplest one, two, three, eight lecturers teach a hundred words a day. After a month, the teaching content is changed.

The officials thought that this request was too simple. It would not take a month. It could be taught in one day. If the same hundred words were repeated over and over again for a month, the common people in Jingchang City would probably have calluses on their ears.

They were not motivated to give lectures, so the ministers requested the king to shorten the lecture time and change the content every seven days.

The king said coldly that if he continued, he would be replaced every two months.

The ministers immediately became obedient, and said that the king's monthly rotation rule was so reasonable, they wanted to rotate once a month as well!

Soon a platform was set up at the city gate. Jingchang had a total of four city gates, and each gate had a platform, which allowed four officials to give lectures at the same time. After seeing that there were four platforms, the officials who went on stage to preach did not look very good.

In a month, they don’t know how many times they have to rotate. It’s really annoying to repeat such a simple course over and over again.

The ministers looked numb, but their voices were quite loud when they were preaching. Shen Zhiwei took a look around on the first day and found that none of the ministers were perfunctory.

Her ministers are really ambitious in every aspect, which is in stark contrast to the king's lazy attitude.

Scary high energy crowd!

Shen Zhiwei thought he would see his ministers looking half dead, but he didn't expect that after walking around, he was exhausted, while the ministers became more energetic as they talked.

Because the ministers discovered that there were many "students" listening to their lectures!

Many officials had gone to Yongming City to study, and they all had their own schools of thought. They all had more or less experience in giving speeches on stage.

At that time, even if you gave a lecture for a whole day, not many students would listen to it. Moreover, the students who were listening would often raise questions. At the end of the day, not only did you have to express your own ideas, but you also had to engage in debates with others, which was exhausting.

Now when they give lectures, the students listen very attentively, and they don’t refute a single word. Instead, they look and listen attentively. Every time I look down and see a row of eyes eager for knowledge, as a lecturer, I feel that my body is instantly filled with strength!

It was just that the students didn't seem to come from well-off families, which was completely different from the situation when he was giving lectures in Yongming City, where the students were wearing gold and silver jewelry and silk and satin.

Some clever officials immediately understood the king's intention and were in tears as they stepped down.

When others asked about it, the ministers were deeply moved and said that their king was the best monarch in the world, and that the king had accomplished many things that others could not do.

There is no discrimination in education, this is the real education!

"If everyone in Jingchang City could read and write, wouldn't the learning culture be even more vibrant than Yongming City? The reputation of the world's number one literary city would surely belong to Jingchang! Wouldn't the world's best minds flock to Jingchang then? Your Majesty is so far-sighted and cares deeply about the world that he could come up with such a brilliant plan. I am truly impressed!"

Gui Yang's lips moved, and a bunch of compliments came out of her mouth as if they were free.

Wen Tao, who was sitting opposite him, smiled and nodded with a look of agreement. This time, she was also shocked by the king's astonishing move.

"I have already written a letter to my teacher, inviting him to come and give lectures. Unfortunately, it is difficult to travel in winter. My teacher may have to wait until spring when the flowers bloom before he can set off."

"It's a shame that I didn't have the chance to talk with Master in Yongming City. I thought we'd have more opportunities in the future, but I didn't expect to miss it like this. Please ask Dazai to give my regards to Master. If the opportunity arises in the future, I will definitely visit you."

Wen Tao replied that it was definitely the case, and the two exchanged a few pleasantries and talked about the previous minor conflict.

Gui Yang apologized directly, saying, "It was the Central Bank that acted without restraint and offended the King. A few days ago, Yang T personally confessed his guilt before the King and asked for His Majesty's forgiveness. In the future, Yang will definitely remember the lesson learned today and will never commit the same offense again. Thank you, Taizai, for reminding me."

Wen Tao felt a little relieved when she heard Gui Yang say that he had confessed his guilt. She was not the kind of person who would hold on to others' mistakes, so she immediately praised Gui Yang's attitude of admitting his mistakes and correcting them, and the matter was over.

The fighting between the two factions completely stopped.

No way, it didn't stop at all, instead it turned from an open fight to a covert fight.

Just because the two leaders shook hands and made peace doesn't mean that the people below will also make peace. Everyone has their own temper, and the leader can only restrain them a little, but cannot change others' likes and dislikes.

Neither Gui Yang nor Wen Tao could stop the fighting among their subordinates.

Fortunately, the fighting has never stopped. As long as it doesn’t get out of hand, let them be.

In the eyes of Gui Yang and Wen Tao, the biggest problem now is not the conflicts among the subordinates, but Hu Youan.

"Hu Youan is indeed loyal to the king, but the king only has her as a famous general now. She is unable to support the king alone and is not a long-term threat."

Gui Yang had something in mind. What he actually wanted to say was that Hu Youan had too much military power in his hands and some of it had to be distributed.

Wen Tao pondered for a moment and asked, "Among the lieutenants under the Zhonglang Jiang, are there any capable individuals who can stand alone? Regardless of their background, I can recommend them."

"There's a female general named Chiwei, born into the common people of Donghai. Yang witnessed this before, during the Salt Field Rebellion, when she could hold off dozens of men alone. Also, Yang has a good friend, a relative of his, surnamed Gui and given the name Zuo. He's a disciple of Lord Yongwu and has some basic martial arts skills, but he's never led an army before. I wonder how much of Lord Yongwu's true teachings he's inherited."

Gui Yang first talked about Chiwei and then talked about her good friends.

Anyone with a surname is a noble. The brave and powerful Lord of the Northern Kingdom had made great military achievements, so how could his disciples be incompetent? Gui Yang specifically mentioned that he had never led an army, which meant that his good friend was not a general of the Northern Kingdom and would not collude with the Northern Kingdom.

Wen Tao thought about it carefully and felt that both of them were good choices. She was just recommending them, and whether they would be used or not would depend entirely on the king's opinion.

Wen Tao nodded when he thought of this, "Please ask the county governor to introduce the two to me. It's a pity that the Bian Kingdom has been destroyed and the generals of the Bian Kingdom cannot be used."

"Bian State has had few victories over the years. Their generals are incompetent. Why should we feel sorry for them?"

Gui Yang looked down on the generals of Bian State. Bian State has valued culture for a long time. Their generals are really incompetent. They can't even defend the capital, which was easily conquered by Hu Youan. It shows their incompetence.

The two talked for a while and then began to copy books. One was learning as he copied, while the other was just translating, and wrote some simple and easy-to-understand short stories.

After the podium at the city gate was set up, Wen Tao and Gui Yang also had to go there to preach. The short stories written by Wen Tao were to make it easier for the common people to understand the texts she taught, because the content of her lectures was the most difficult, and she was the one who taught the most difficult ones out of the hundred words.

Since the podium was set up, the number of officials who came to bother Shen Zhiwei decreased rapidly, and basically disappeared. Shen Zhiwei was very happy.

As a result, after a few days of happiness, Wen Tao brought two people into the palace. One of them was a strong and powerful woman with a similar body shape to Hu Youan, and the other was a young man who looked somewhat like Gui Yang.

Shen Zhiwei was stunned when he saw the two of them.

Hu Youan and Gui Yang are still alive and well, so she doesn't need to find a substitute, right?

No, Hu Youan and Gui Yang are not her white moonlight, why is she looking for a substitute!