Chapter 47 Only by learning to read can one become a superior person.
Next came the announcement that each prefecture would send someone to read three eulogies daily to show the new king's filial piety. No one could possibly object to this; they would simply shout "Your Majesty is wise!"
The specific arrangements will be made by the Left Chancellor; each prefecture only needs to send someone to cooperate.
The first court assembly thus officially concluded.
****
The two empress dowagers left separately, and Ying Zheng returned to his own palace, dismissing the servants who were attending him.
Qin's figure slowly came into view. She unceremoniously chose a seat and took it, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at Ying Zheng: "How was your first court assembly?"
Ying Zheng pondered for a moment and replied, "There's nothing special about them. Those people aren't as difficult to deal with as I imagined."
He smiled slightly, as if he were already twenty-one years old and had been formally crowned, ready to rule in his own right.
"Mother, I'm also curious about how you feel watching people hold court."
"Me?"
Qin's gaze slowly shifted to the void, a look of reminiscence on his face: "At first, I didn't pay attention to this. Later, I got so bored that I started to pay attention to the court assembly. If I were alone, the court assembly would probably be the beating heart, constantly handling national affairs to ensure the country could continue to function..."
She snapped her fingers, and a 3D map of the Qin Kingdom appeared, with major cities highlighted: "The larger cities are my vital organs, while the remaining land is my flesh and blood, and the Qin people within Qin are every strand of my soul."
"Every time I listen to the content of the morning assembly, I wonder if my appearance will change as a result, and what my children's lives will be like in the future..."
Qin smiled and said, "But it seems that those ministers are not considering this."
Ying Zheng nodded: "Of course, the officials in the court, including the late king, are more concerned with how to govern the common people, and do not really care about how the common people live."
"Do you care about them?" Qin asked, adding, "Just tell me the truth, don't lie to me."
Ying Zheng nodded again: "I do care. My mother will be sad because of their sadness, and I will also be sad because of my mother's sadness."
Qin smiled gently and accepted the answer. Sure enough, it was too difficult to find people with boundless love in this era. All the talk of being kind to the common people was just a lie told by those in power. They talked about being kind and having policies to fool the people without missing a single detail. In the end, it was all just hypocrisy.
Ying Zheng's answer wasn't really about loving the people; it's hard to say whether he loved them or not. But his respect for them was enough, and that was a pretty good answer.
A selfish king who loves her is better than a cold-blooded political machine who loves no one.
"It's better to have a nationalistic mindset than a romantic mindset," Qin smiled with satisfaction.
She said, "Of course, if you think that way, then you are already my favorite King of Qin."
Ying Zheng smiled shyly. He hadn't done anything yet, but he had already received such 'praise'.
He received the honor of being favored by Qin as soon as he ascended the throne as King of Qin, and it is no exaggeration to say that he surpassed all the previous kings in this respect.
Qin couldn't sit still. She said she was going to check on the Left Prime Minister's business and then gracefully left.
At this time, Lü Buwei controlled all major state affairs, but he did not have much real power and could be considered a figurehead.
The two empress dowagers probably wielded more power than he did...
After a while, 'Qin' suddenly reappeared. Ying Zheng looked up and asked in confusion, "Why did Mother return so quickly? Did something happen?"
"No, I just came to tell you that I'm leaving Xianyang. But if you have any urgent business, just call me. It won't take me long to come and go."
She just hasn't been actively looking for people in the last few days.
"I understand now. Is Mother going to see the establishment of those chain schools?"
Qin nodded slightly: "Yes, it's related to how effective my future attack methods will be."
"After using it once during the melee with them last time, I felt like I couldn't live without gunpowder. Gunpowder is much better than bronze swords."
Qin spoke to Ying Zheng with a smile, practically saying that if he liked it, he would use it again next time and suggested that he bring more.
"It is their honor if the mother is pleased, and the government will ensure that those schools can be opened throughout the Qin state."
That's true. The current situation is clear: even if someone dares to object, they'd better be careful not to get secretly beaten up by their military colleagues when they go home after court.
Arguing with someone who has military power is tantamount to courting death.
"It's a pity that Zheng couldn't personally experience the war that day and couldn't share the burden with his mother."
Qin shook his head and smiled, "Don't mention it. You are still young. Just wait patiently. Besides, how can a king personally go to the battlefield?"
If so, then at least one should wait until adulthood, and besides, she remembered that the First Emperor of Qin didn't have any skills in this area in history, so she believed it when Li Shimin or Zhu Di said it.
"If you want to see it, I'll show it to you when I get back."
Qin made a promise without thinking, but it can't be entirely called a promise; at least she made it happen and it didn't drag on for too long.
The two leaders spoke for a while longer. After Qin set up a perimeter in Xianyang, and feeling that there was nothing more to say, Qin left the city.
****
Those who went to establish schools in various places actually set off a few days ago; those who are setting off now are mostly there to take the three printed obituaries with them.
With the advent of paper, printing technology was no longer difficult to achieve. However, considering the current situation, Taishu Jiukai's school still uses woodblock printing, and movable type printing is currently unaffordable.
His school has been open for three years, and the first batch of students has already graduated. Some, like Ji Yu, have entered the court as officials, while others, like Xu Fu, have stayed at the school for further studies and have taken on some teaching duties.
This time, Xu Fu was sent to manage the branch school in the neighboring prefecture, or you could call him the branch school principal. In short, he got a promotion.
He was not overly proud; he focused solely on serving the Left Chancellor and then continued his research.
This experience at the school made him realize one thing: it would affect how many classmates he would have in the future.
Only after studying chemistry did he realize that there was such a field of knowledge in the world that could make one intelligent (and cause him to go bald). How could he be the only one learning such a wonderful thing? He had to get more people to learn it together.
Although he thought that way that day, he was impartial and fair when setting up schools and disciplines. After all, he remembered the instructions of the Left Prime Minister: more in-depth education was not urgent; teaching people to use simplified characters was the most important thing.
Even if it's impossible for everyone to be literate, it would be good if two or three out of a hundred commoners could read.
Xu Fu also looked at the dictionary he brought. Although the characters in it showed traces of the characters currently in use, they were much simpler. It seemed like it would take many generations to simplify them. It was too hasty, but the advantages were obvious.
Although it is not a completely different script from seal script, the two are quite different, and it is naturally quite difficult for people who are already used to writing seal script to learn it.
However, for ordinary people who have no prior knowledge of any characters, these characters undoubtedly lower the threshold for them to acquire knowledge.
Xu Fu took a deep breath and realized something: someone was going to use simplified characters to overturn the table. He couldn't be sure who would win in the end, but he hoped it would be on the side of his teacher, Taishu Jiu.
He then compared the three eulogies in his hand. Apart from the one for King Zhuangxiang, which was proper, the other two deliberately avoided using the same words and phrases. The one for King Xiaowen even contained a lot of nonsense.
Thinking about these things again, there are special officials in various places who publicly read them aloud, and schools will also distribute a large number of printed pages. Perhaps smart people can learn a lot from them.
Of course, as students of the Left Prime Minister and natural members of his faction, they also had to work in secret.
They would promote the benefits of reading and writing, and proclaim that this was a privilege previously reserved for the wealthy and powerful. Now that the opportunity was before them, no one would give up the chance to rise in status.
In contrast, recruiting artisans to manufacture gunpowder was just a pretext. It's not that gunpowder wasn't important, but the best approach was to keep the gunpowder formula under control among a few people. Using gunpowder as an excuse was merely a way to force the court to compromise.
They're doing things openly and honestly, so there's no guarantee that no one will come to their senses later. But if they're tied to the military, even if those people want to take action, they'll have to think twice about whether they're even worth a bite.
While overseeing the construction of the local academy, Xu Fu spoke to the officials around him: "I'll trouble you, sir, to arrange the reading of the eulogy. The Left Prime Minister has instructed that the common people should also be able to hear about the achievements of the late king, so don't just do it perfunctorily."
“Yes,” the official nodded with a smile and said politely, “Even if the Left Prime Minister hadn’t emphasized it, I would have done my best to handle this matter well.”
"Currently, crop yields within the territory of our Great Qin are not low, and commoners have some spare time after finishing their work. Even if you arrest people, you must bring them here to listen to this lecture."
"Yes, yes, I understand."
The official smiled and agreed, saying that they had done enough torment the common people; it was just something they were very familiar with.
When it was read aloud for the first time, the official personally came to supervise. He looked at the sea of heads bobbing below and nodded in satisfaction.
With his competence, he'll surely get a promotion someday, won't he?
However, he soon noticed something unusual: he saw Principal Xu Fu leading a group of people shouting something below.
He frowned and quickly walked around to get there, which took quite a while.
"Principal Xu Fu, what are you doing?"
Xu Fu told his attendants to continue calling out, then turned to the official and said, “Oh, it’s nothing. You know I was ordered to open a school. Since there are so many people here, I’ll take this opportunity to recruit some craftsmen to enroll so they can serve my Great Qin in the future.”
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
The official, amidst the background noise of the saying "Only those who can read and write can rise above others," raised a question mark. He hurriedly said, "Principal Xu, you mustn't be lying to me. Look at what you've distributed; are you simply recruiting craftsmen?"
Xu Fu took a copy and handed it directly to the official, saying matter-of-factly, "What's wrong with issuing this? It's all to sing praises to the late king. Do you think there's a problem, sir?"
The official looked down and realized that he couldn't understand the characters because they were incomplete. How could he know if there was a problem with them?
Seeing his expression, Xu Fu immediately and considerately offered him a dictionary: "It's okay if you don't understand it, you can look it up in the dictionary and read it slowly."
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Author's Note: I recommend my upcoming novel, which I write when I'm relaxing. I'll start writing it once I have a certain number of words saved up (it's mainly for relaxation...).
(Please visit the author's column and add "Infinite Slaps to Everyone's Faces" to your favorites!)
**Text of this article**
Hua Xiangrong transmigrated into a tragic novel...
(Hua Xiangrong: Isn't this just a story about abusing women?)
(A suspicious system: It sees through things but doesn't say anything...)
Suspicious System: Host, you must play the role of a weak and vulnerable female lead, complete the entire storyline, and fulfill the system's tasks while remaining delicate and easily bullied...
Hua Xiangrong suddenly had a bad feeling; something being emphasized like this couldn't be a good thing...
She asked: So what kind of leader are you?
Face-Slapping System: Hello host, I am the Face-Slapping System, the real Face-Slapping System.
Face-Slapping System: Daily Tasks (Face-Slapping 0/100) After completing the daily tasks, you can freely modify one attribute of everyone except yourself. Please choose the changes carefully (Note: If you don't have enough quantity, you can make up for it with quality).
Hua Xiangrong: ...What a slap in the face... Such a good thing?!
****
On her first day back at work, Hua Xiangrong stumbled upon the scene of the male protagonist of a tragic novel beating the female protagonist.
[Hua Xiangrong: System Master, how much do you pay for hitting the male lead?]
[Face-Slapping System: 100.]
Without a second thought, Hua Xiangrong slapped him hard across the face, not forgetting to start crying and putting on a show of her delicate and fragile persona halfway through.
Mo Chengxuan: ?
****
Later, Hua Xiangrong discovered that this was not just a tragic novel; it even contained horror elements and was a small world within the infinite flow genre.
Hua Xiangrong: Huh?
[Face-slapping system: Please select the option to change.]
[Hua Xiangrong: Reduce everyone's combat power to negative numbers, negative one hundred!]
Just as she was on high alert and ready for anything, a player who came in to do a quest, because of her status as the female lead, stopped her and confessed his feelings to her.
Lu Huanong cornered her against the wall, about to speak, when he saw the girl in his arms look up at him with tears in her eyes, her slightly trembling voice filled with expectation: "Are you going to get red-eyed, put your hands on your hips, and then... give me your life?"
Lu Huanong was taken aback. Had he come to the wrong person? Was this a world boss?
[Slap in the Face System: Host, please hurry, there are only three minutes left until midnight. You still need 10 more missions.]
Hua Xiangrong looked troubled. She sobbed and accused him, "How could you do this... It's all your fault. You dragged me to this remote place in the middle of the night, leaving me no choice but to hit you. Please, just a little hug."
She raised her hand to slap someone.
Who is Lu Huanong? As a master of the infinite flow genre, would she let a female protagonist in a tragic novel slap her so easily?
A crisp slap rang out, and Lu Huanong, at that moment, seemed like a weakling, staggering backward from the slap.
[System: ooooohhhhh Host, you did it! 10,000 points!!!]
[Hua Xiangrong: ooooohhhhh, great job, that's me!]
"Waaaah, you shameless bastard, bringing me to a place like this in the middle of the night!" Hua Xiangrong cried weakly as she turned around, staggering like a willow in the wind, yet her steps were firm and her movements swift as she fled the scene.
Lu Huanong: ?!
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Some of these are products of letting loose and having a blast; when I'm tired of writing, I just write something like this to vent my frustrations.
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