As he wished, the tutor brought him the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Listening to Jian Ning's narration was completely different from reading it himself. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly when he saw that Liu Bei, after becoming the King of Zhongshan, had fallen to selling straw mats for a living.
The Taifu's ancestors were officials from the previous dynasty. His great-grandfather had held the position of Grand Minister of Agriculture, one of the Nine Ministers, in charge of the nation's taxes, grain, salt, and iron monies, as well as the imperial revenue and expenditure. His authority was comparable to that of the modern Minister of Revenue. However, he was later framed and convicted, and after much negotiation, he was ultimately sentenced to exile, with his descendants forever barred from taking the imperial examinations.
Because the Five Kingdoms were already in chaos at that time, the ancestors left a message that the descendants of the Huo family must not neglect their studies even if they had to be farmers for generations. Therefore, until the generation of the Taifu, they always kept their ancestors' teachings in mind, and they had been half farming and half studying, and never took off the hat of a scholar.
After the Dayan Dynasty unified the Five Kingdoms and stabilized the empire, the imperial examinations were soon held. All citizens of Dayan, regardless of their background, as long as they were educated, even those of the Five Kingdoms' royal families, were eligible to take the exam. When this news broke, the nation was in an uproar, and scholars everywhere rushed to spread the word, all claiming that it was the prime minister who had overcome all objections and promoted the most talented, thus issuing this regulation.
All the scholars in the world are grateful to the Prime Minister and the Emperor.
But people's memories are limited. Just over two years later, when the prime minister was accused of treason and paraded through the streets with his hands and feet shackled with shackles weighing dozens of kilograms, the people of the capital erupted in curses. In the cold winter, many people threw rotten vegetable leaves and splashed cold water on the prime minister, who was wearing only a single shirt and pants.
It is not very harmful, but extremely insulting.
Many years later, on such a desolate and quiet night, the Taifu and Blind Liu recalled the past at the same time. One sat sadly under the oil lamp, while the other stood with his hands behind his back, facing the dark mountains and shedding tears in the wind.
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