Chapter 284: Aren't you afraid of being attacked if there is no news from Shu?
Chu
The old emperor of Chu also saw the imperial examination system, common people, and official schools for women in Xia, but he did not speak about it in the court. Instead, he summoned several of his sons privately and talked about it at a family dinner.
The old emperor of Chu State took a bite of the meat jerky, glanced at the princes below, and said, "What do you think?"
The eldest prince of Chu said: "Father, I think the move of the Emperor of Xia may seem good, but it is more likely to provoke conflicts within Xia..."
The old emperor of Chu listened patiently to the eldest prince's words, and then asked: "Besides these, what else did you see?"
The eldest prince of Chu was startled, hesitated for a while, and said: "Did you see...the arrogance of the Emperor of Xia?"
The old emperor of Chu was so angry that he started coughing.
The princes immediately took a few steps forward anxiously. Some asked if His Majesty was feeling unwell, while others shouted "Imperial Physician".
The old emperor of Chu slammed the table and said, "That's enough! I'm fine. Leave."
The princes immediately became quiet as chickens and retreated obediently.
The old emperor of Chu called out the names of the second prince, the third prince, and the fifth prince, and asked them to analyze the actions of the emperor of Xia. What these princes said was almost the same as the eldest prince.
That is, the Emperor of the Xia Kingdom wanted to use the imperial examination system to stir up a new class of commoners to compete with the thousand-year-old aristocratic families for official power. This might backfire on him and was not wise.
The old emperor of Chu looked at it coldly, and finally looked at the fourth prince and asked: "What do you think?"
The fourth prince of Chu said calmly, "Father, I don't think the emperor of Xia is that stupid. I think that the emergence of paper and this wonderful copying technique will allow books to appear on a large scale. In other words, as long as we can survive the early stage, we may be able to break the monopoly of the aristocratic families."
The eldest prince of Chu said disdainfully: "How can it appear on such a large scale? To put it simply, the aristocratic families control the scholars. If they order the scholars not to copy books in large quantities, when do you think Daxia will be able to..."
"Brother, please take a look." The fourth prince of Chu State picked up two copies of The Analects of Confucius from Xia State. "These two copies are on the same page. The handwriting and the strength are exactly the same. This is obviously not made by human hands, but by some kind of tool."
The eldest prince of Chu took a closer look and felt a pang in his heart, but he still said stubbornly: "If this is the case, Xia will be in even bigger trouble. I don't believe that the aristocratic families of Xia will allow commoner students to challenge their positions."
The fourth prince of Chu sighed, "I hope so too. But strangely, the aristocratic families of Xia Kingdom did not react much. I don't know why, the officials of Xia Kingdom are very united, and even the little tricks can't stir up trouble."
The eldest prince of Chu said coldly: "Fourth brother, why do you say things that boost others' ambitions and destroy your own prestige? You are like this..."
"That's enough!" The old emperor of Chu looked at the eldest prince with disappointment. "If you have little experience, you should learn to admit defeat. It's not right to keep making trouble. What a shame!"
The eldest prince of Chu suddenly became quiet as a chicken.
The old emperor of Chu looked at the second and fifth princes again: "They have been following the eldest prince since they were young. Now they have no opinions of their own and just follow what others say."
The second and fifth princes of Chu lowered their heads in embarrassment.
The old emperor of Chu looked at the third prince again with a look of disdain: "With your little ability, you still want to sit back and reap the benefits? You are the most stupid person!"
The third prince of Chu State immediately knelt on the ground and said, "Father, I have no other thoughts. I dare not..."
Finally, the old emperor of Chu looked at the fourth prince and said, "You have been smart since you were young. I will leave the paper and book matters to you. Also, keep an eye on Xia. If their imperial examinations are effective, then we can also try them."
The fourth prince of Chu was startled. He said, "Father, I think this is inappropriate! The officialdom of Xia has been unusually harmonious in the past year and a half. Just because their imperial examination system was successful doesn't mean it will be the same in Chu..."
The old emperor of Chu slammed his chopsticks and said, "Are you teaching me how to do things?"
The fourth prince of Chu State knelt down immediately and said, "I dare not."
The old emperor of Chu said nothing, stood up, looked at the fourth prince of Chu gloomily, turned and left.
As soon as the old emperor left, the other princes also left one after another.
The fourth prince of Chu went back with a gloomy face. After thinking for a while, he wrote an encrypted letter and sent it to Shu.
But the strange thing is.
After the letter was sent, it seemed as if it had fallen into the sea and there was no further news.
…
Recently, the spies who had been keeping an eye on the Chen, Chu, and Shu kingdoms sorted out the updates they had collected and sent them to Daxia as quickly as possible.
It was evening when the news from the Three Kingdoms was delivered.
The emperor, the crown prince, the third prince, two prime ministers and ministers were having a meal in a side hall, lamenting the slow pace of silver mining and how they had to raise money from other places to give to the civilian students.
So when they saw the first one, it was the news that Chen Guo decided to give money to the delegation.
The worried-looking Minister of Finance stood up and happily took out his abacus: "That's good!"
The Minister of War approached quietly and whispered, "Sir, General Wu and General Lin have made great achievements in the war recently. Think about it, if you want the horses to run, you have to feed them with grass. See if you can get some of their money..."
The Minister of Finance whispered, "Get lost."
Minister of War: ...
At this time, the Third Prince looked at the information about the fake-dead official and whispered, "Father, I didn't expect the disguise technique to be so useful. Thanks to my ninth sister, I was able to capture a great general."
The emperor's lips curled up gently: "Well, I have to reward him well."
After reading the intelligence on the State of Chen, they began to read the intelligence on the State of Chu.
When seeing the old emperor and the princes chatting in front, the expressions of several ministers were very calm, and they even felt that the words of the Chu princes who vowed and bet that "the classes of Daxia will definitely be in opposition on a certain day" were very funny.
Well, the "sky" of Daxia has been watching.
With a big boss sitting at the top, which class below would dare to rebel? Wouldn't this kill the whole family?
It was not until the court officials heard the words of the Fourth Prince of Chu that their expressions became slightly serious, and they thought to themselves that this boy was indeed a lucky man and had something special.
The Minister of Finance suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, do you want to find someone to secretly "sell" some things to the fourth prince of Chu to inspire them to take the imperial examination..."
The emperor waved his hand and said, "No. It's too much or too little."
The Minister of Revenue thought for a moment and realized that this was true. The old emperor of Chu had much stronger control over the court families than Chen. If they gave too much help, the old emperor of Chu might not be able to survive the darkness in the early stage of the imperial examination, which would be bad.
The Minister of War suddenly asked, "Your Majesty, is there any news from Shu?"
The emperor's expression changed slightly, but he soon calmed down and said, "There is no news from Shu." After saying that, he glanced at the prince.
The prince paused, silently took out a piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and quietly hid it in his sleeve.
The Minister of War sighed and shook his head: "Shu Kingdom seems to have not done anything serious in the past year. I was curious about what kind of information the prince of Chu Kingdom sent to Shu Kingdom. Shu Kingdom dared to ignore it. Isn't Shu Kingdom afraid of being beaten?"
A strange look flashed across the emperor's face.
Just at this moment, a message from the eunuch came from outside.
"The Seventh Princess is here, the Ninth Princess is here!"
Courtiers: !!!