"I have different ideas."
Liu Ling has been taken away and is under strict supervision by Chang En's confidant.
Emperor Wende looked at Liu Zhao and said, "Tell me what you think."
Emperor Wende was in a good mood at this time. Now that his most powerful confidant had been captured, he could rest assured.
"I think it's better to kill Liu Ling directly. Keeping him around will only cause trouble in the future. Besides, he loves to yell a lot, and I'm afraid he'll talk too much and let something slip."
Liu only speaks frankly.
Emperor Wende looked at Chang En.
Chang En nodded slightly, "To prevent him from talking nonsense, I will keep his mouth shut."
"Can we stop him? Do we have to kill a group of people who are accustomed to hearing him every time he speaks? After we kill all the appropriate people, who else can we find to watch him?"
Liu Zhao refuted Chang En.
It's impossible to keep Liu Ling's mouth shut. He always needs to eat and drink.
Chang En broke out in a cold sweat and looked at Emperor Wende, "Your Majesty, do you want to..." pull out Liu Ling's tongue.
Emperor Wende looked hesitant.
Liu Ling's existence must never be known to anyone.
Liu Zhao said in a resounding voice, "Father, Liu Ling's identity has been confirmed. Keeping him around is superfluous. As for those rebels, they are already at the end of their rope and will be wiped out sooner or later."
"Does this traitor know that it was you who captured Liu Ling?"
"Maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't. I kept this a secret and didn't interrogate him on the way. Even the people around me don't know Liu Ling's true identity."
Emperor Wende narrowed his eyes slightly.
He was guessing what Liu Zhao meant by saying this.
Are you trying to reassure him?
Emperor Wende laughed. It must be said that if Liu Zhao could just be a little more sensible, he would become very pleasing to the eye.
Emperor Wende looked at the Minister of the Imperial Household and asked, "Minister of the Imperial Household, what do you think of this matter?"
The Shaofu Household Officer bowed and said, "If Your Majesty wishes to spare Liu Ling's life, you can have him become a monk and have him guarded by someone."
Emperor Wende played with a jade pendant and laughed, "No need to shave your head and become a monk. I can still keep a mere abandoned child of the royal family. I said I would place the heads of his family, wife, children, and subordinates before him, and I will keep my word. I want him to know that if he dares to rebel, I will make him suffer a fate worse than death!"
As soon as the word "death" came out, Emperor Wende glanced at Liu Zhao intentionally or unintentionally, and the hall was very quiet.
Liu Zhao bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am willing to share your worries and capture the family, wife, and children of the traitor Liu Ling."
"It's just a trivial matter. Why does a prince need to personally intervene? I know your filial piety."
Liu Zhao immediately laughed. "Actually, I don't want to go either. What I said just now was all just polite talk. Since the rain in Jiangling Prefecture, the weather has become extremely humid. I'm not used to the weather there and have suffered a lot. I'm very tired. My body is itchy and painful. Father, shouldn't you give me some money for medicine?"
Emperor Wende was so angry that he laughed, "Are you really just saying nice things to me? Do you know that you are deceiving the emperor?"
Liu Zhao chuckled, "In front of Your Majesty, I always say whatever I want. I'm still thinking about Xiaojiu and the other children. Your Majesty, why don't you tell the housekeeper to give me the money right now? I need to hurry out of the palace and head to the mountains."
The Shaofu's beard twitched. "Why do you want the Shaofu to pay? Your Highness is going too far."
Liu Zhao bared his teeth and smiled at the Shaofu's household officer, "Who made the Shaofu rich? This prince went out on a trip, buying food and arresting people, and the journey cost a lot. The Shaofu must make up for the shortfall. In addition, the emperor should also reward his son. No need for anything else, just give him money directly."
Emperor Wende was amused. "Are you so short of money? Isn't the money Gu Jiu earns enough for you to spend?"
Liu Zhao said seriously, "All the money Xiaojiu earns is her dowry. How can I, a grown man, use a woman's money? Besides, my children are growing up day by day. As a father, I can't leave them with a pile of debts. I have to save some money for them, so that they know I am working hard to earn money for them."
Emperor Wende chuckled, "As the saying goes, bad company breeds badness. Just like Gu Jiu, you're all obsessed with money. You step aside first!"
"Son's money?"
"I won't give you a penny less. Why don't you leave?"
Liu Zhao bowed and took his leave, winking at the Shaofu's steward as he left. He would go to the Shaofu to ask for money tomorrow.
The Shaofu household official was a little depressed.
Does he owe money to Gu Jiu and Liu Zhao?
"This brat, he just came back and he's talking to me about money. I think he's crazy because of poverty." Emperor Wende complained.
The Grand Chamberlain smiled and said, "Your Highness has a lot of expenses, so it's normal for him to be short of money. Fortunately, he asked Your Majesty for money openly and honestly, rather than secretly engaging in petty manipulation and abusing his power for personal gain."
Emperor Wende smiled and said, "Liu Zhao has a bad temper and speaks harshly. But he is reliable and does not abuse his power for personal gain. Since Gu Jiu can make money, there is no need for him to go around looking for money."
The Imperial Household Secretary said, "Shanhe Academy relies entirely on Madam Zhao to support it, and the monthly expenses are enormous. I suspect the couple really don't have much money left."
Emperor Wende nodded. "Gu Jiu established the Shanhe Academy, allowing students all over the country to study for free, benefiting a large number of poor students. This move is worthy of praise. If all wealthy people were like Gu Jiu, making money while still caring about the people's livelihood, I would have much less worries. I remember that in last year's imperial examination, more than twenty students from the Shanhe Academy passed the imperial examination."
Chang En said hurriedly: "Twenty-three people in total."
"I still remember that among these twenty or so people, several came from poor farming families. The others weren't wealthy either, most of them from ordinary people. Very good, very good! The court needs more officials from this kind of background. We can't let the children of official families control the court and monopolize the imperial examinations."
The Minister of the Imperial Household nodded repeatedly, "Your Majesty is absolutely right. The rich remain richer, and the poor remain poorer, precisely because the rich have practically monopolized the imperial examinations. Over the past few decades, the number of Jinshi candidates from the two lists combined, who came from impoverished farming and ordinary families, is less than a hundred. This is truly worrying."
"Less than a hundred people?" Emperor Wende's face changed when he heard this number.
In other words, over the past few decades, ninety-nine percent of the several thousand Jinshi candidates in the two lists came from official families or wealthy families.
No wonder the people are getting poorer, but the rich are getting richer.
The Minister of the Imperial Household added, "In just a few years, Shanhe Academy has produced 23 more Jinshi from farming and commoner families. This is truly commendable. It's not that children from farming and commoner families can't read, but rather that they don't have the opportunity to study and meet good teachers."
Emperor Wende nodded repeatedly, "Old Ancestor, do you mean to break the existing rules of the Imperial College?"
"If we want more peasant children to study, take the imperial examinations, and serve the court, the most fundamental thing is to change the state of county schools. The Imperial College is just a side issue."
"It's difficult!" Emperor Wende sighed helplessly.
"Your Majesty is right. This will require a large investment of funds from the court."
However, given the Ministry of Revenue's current income and expenditure situation, it is already difficult to pay officials' salaries on time and meet the army's food and fodder needs.
Spending one million taels of silver every year to develop basic education is just a dream.
Basic education cannot be developed overnight.
You have to persist year after year, for ten or twenty years, before you can see results.
Too slow!
The investment is simply too much.
If children from farming families want to study, they ultimately have to rely on their family members.
Therefore, the Shanhe Academy founded by Gu Jiu is particularly precious.
Not only is education free, but even food, clothing, housing, pens, ink, paper, and inkstone are all free.
To support so many students, the annual expenses would probably be over one million taels.
The Imperial Household Supervisor said, "Madam Zhao established the Shanhe Academy, benefiting scholars, the imperial court, and the Great Zhou Empire. The expenses involved are enormous, probably no less than one million taels a year. No wonder Your Highness seems so broke."
Huh?
is that so?
Emperor Wende asked, "Shanhe Academy's annual expenses require over a million taels? Is it really that much?"
The Minister of the Imperial Household said seriously, "Your Majesty, you may not know that students at the Shanhe Academy receive everything free of charge, from food, clothing, housing, to writing brushes, inkstones, and paper. The academy's teachers are all hired with high salaries."
In addition, the academy built a library with many rare and precious books, all of which were purchased with money. In short, every penny spent by Shanhe Academy was a penny lost by Madam Zhao.
Madam Zhao could hardly earn a penny from Shanhe Academy, and even lost her reputation, because few people knew that the owner behind Shanhe Academy was actually Madam Zhao.
This is a massive, ongoing expense that could crush anyone. Madam Zhao, however, has persevered through the years, expanding the Shanhe Academy to benefit more and more students. It's easy to understand why His Highness constantly demands money.
The Shaofu Household Manager spoke with great sincerity, trying to clear Gu Jiu's name.
Chang En secretly glanced at the Shaofu Household Order, wondering in his heart how much benefits the Shaofu Household Order had received from Gu Jiu and Liu Zhao to make him spare no effort to help speak.
There is no point in saying something like this coming from someone else's mouth.
But when it came out of the mouth of the Shaofu Household Manager, the effect was very different.
The Minister of the Imperial Household was in charge of the finances. He said that the annual expenditure of Shanhe Academy was no less than one million taels, and Emperor Wende would certainly not doubt it.
Who knows how much Shanhe Academy spends?
It just comes out of your mouth.
However, Chang En would not express his guess.
He is a man of measure.
Know what to say and what not to say.
Emperor Wende tapped the table lightly. "Gu Jiu funded the establishment of Shanhe Academy, benefiting countless students and should be commended. Liu Zhao has made great contributions to disaster relief and captured Liu Ling for me. I will not let this meritorious official feel disappointed. I understand this matter clearly. Please step aside, old ancestor."
The Shaofu household steward bowed and accepted the order, then left the hall.
Emperor Wende asked Chang En, "How should I judge Liu Zhao's merits?"
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