[Lightscreen]
[Regarding the Ming dynasty's imperial examinations, we already mentioned earlier the issue that mathematics was not included, as well as the later Northern and Southern Examination Lists Incident. There will be space to discuss those in detail later, so we will not repeat it here. For now, let us return to the Hu Weiyong case.
Wang Guangyang had been sent out of the capital. The imperial examinations were abolished. The recommendation channel was opened. Within the Secretariat, it was now Little Hu who called the shots.
So what should be done next?
Naturally, just like a landlord dealing with his landholdings, the priority was to firmly grasp what was already in hand while constantly seeking more.
Although Hu Weiyong had in practice already become the sole grand councillor, and had even secured Zhu Yuanzhang's favor by cooking river pufferfish that captured the emperor's stomach, in official rank he was still only the Left Chancellor. There still existed the possibility that another Left Chancellor might suddenly be appointed from above.
Therefore, in order to preserve his own power and status, Hu Weiyong had to ensure that every candidate for the position of Left Chancellor remained nothing more than a candidate.
Considering that this was still the early Hongwu period when merit nobles were highly valued, those qualified to suddenly descend into the office of Left Chancellor could only come from the list of great enfeoffments granted in the third year of Hongwu.
Among the six dukes, twenty-eight marquises, and two earls, a total of thirty-six merit nobles, only three were civil officials: Li Shanchang, Wang Guangyang, and Liu Ji.
Li Shanchang was Hu Weiyong's former teacher and had already retired due to illness.
Wang Guangyang had been dismissed by Old Zhu for slacking off.
That left only Liu Ji.
Moreover, this man happened to be from eastern Zhejiang, someone capable of balancing the Huaixi merit nobles.
Thus, even though Liu Ji had already sensed danger and requested retirement, fleeing back home, Hu Weiyong still kept his eyes on him.
Liu Ji, courtesy name Bowen.
When listing historical figures from the early Ming, Liu Bowen may be considered the first to be thoroughly mythologized.
From the praise that says, "Zhuge Liang divided the realm into three; Liu Bowen unified the empire," to the legends that claim Liu Bowen cut all the dragon veins of the world to secure the Ming dynasty, and even to the recent re-creations of apocryphal prophecies from the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming that were compiled into the so-called Shaobing Song which allegedly predicts six hundred years of history, the layers of reinterpretation have never ceased.
After six hundred years of constant embellishment, Liu Ji, who originally regarded himself as a Confucian scholar, has in popular imagination become something else entirely.
A fortune-telling mystic who can calculate destiny, foresee the future, and sever dragon veins.
Compared with the so-called "demonic Daoist Zhuge," the stories about him are even more outrageous.
According to the current work Investigation of the Deeds of Liu Ji, the origin of Liu Ji's later deification generally traces back to a text called The Deeds of Lord Chengyi Liu.
This work claims to have been written in the eighteenth year of Hongwu, but some scholars have also argued that it may be a forgery. It may not have been produced during the Hongwu era at all, because too many passages appear deliberately distorted.
Regarding this matter, Qian Qianyi of the late Ming, the very man who left behind the famous saying "The water was too cold," also conducted a textual investigation in his Collected Essays of Muzhai.
As everyone knows, Liu Bowen initially served the Yuan dynasty. Later he resigned in anger and returned to his homeland before eventually being invited out of retirement by Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, The Deeds of Lord Chengyi Liu clearly records that Liu Bowen abandoned office when the Yuan commander Li Guofeng was inspecting Jiangnan.
Consulting the History of Yuan, we can determine that Li Guofeng arrived in Chuzhou in the eighteenth year of Zhizheng. He remained there for a full year before departing for Sanshan.
Why did he stay for an entire year?
Because during that year Zhu Yuanzhang first captured Lanxi, then pressured Wuzhou, and finally took Jinhua before attacking Chuzhou.
At that time the one defending Chuzhou against Zhu Yuanzhang was Shimo Yisun.
If one opens Liu Bowen's collected writings, one will discover that he exchanged over eighty poems with this very man. Most of these were written during the three years he spent in Chuzhou.
From all this, Qian Qianyi reached the following conclusion.
When Zhu Yuanzhang led his forces to attack Chuzhou in the eighteenth year of Zhizheng, he encountered resistance organized by Shimo Yisun, who dispatched Ye Chen and Hu Shen to oppose the Ming army. Although Liu Bowen was not present on the Yuan front line, he must have been serving under Shimo Yisun at the time.
As for whether Liu Bowen provided strategies to oppose Zhu Yuanzhang, Qian Qianyi believed that he probably did.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang had already gained a considerable reputation and never lacked people willing to join him. If he later personally invited Liu Bowen, there must have been a reason.
To learn of someone's reputation only after meeting them on the battlefield would be the most reasonable explanation.]
Kongming had never expected that his name would appear again here.
But judging from what was said, this Liu Bowen who was now placed alongside him...
"Second Brother, do the people of later generations mean the dragon veins are the same as the fate of the state? If so, then this Liu Bowen sounds even more like a sorcerer than the strategist!"
The speaker was clearly trying to lower his voice, whispering quietly, but every word still reached Kongming's ears.
Kongming immediately knocked lightly on the man's head.
"Yide, do not speak nonsense. The later generations also said that such claims resemble those about me. They are merely rumors mistaken for truth."
"No matter what, if this man helped the Hongwu Emperor restore the lands of China, that alone is an achievement beyond measure."
Even as he said so, when Kongming heard the later generations calling him a "demonic Daoist Zhuge," he could only shake his head with a helpless smile.
Pang Tong beside him also shook his head and spoke quietly.
"Kongming's earlier concern appears to have been correct."
Xu Shu looked somewhat puzzled.
Pang Tong recalled the matter briefly and explained concisely.
"The cheaper paper becomes, the more common literacy becomes among the people. Then every household can write history, and every family can record events."
"But when common people record things, some exaggerate the virtues of their ancestors while others secretly mock their enemies. Few can write with an impartial brush. What is passed down to later generations inevitably deviates greatly from the truth, and for later scholars it becomes difficult to distinguish."
Xu Shu nodded slowly as he pondered this.
Before he could fully process it, Zhang Fei had already leaned over again.
"Strategist Pang is joking. Even the official historians of later generations can hardly write with a straight brush. Look at the Song, where loyalty and treachery were reversed. If that is the case, there is no need to demand too much from ordinary people."
That was indeed true. Xu Shu nodded vigorously.
"The more records are left behind, the more clearly later descendants can understand what we were like in this time. In the end, that cannot be a bad thing."
"And according to what Kongming said," Xu Shu suddenly added with a smile, "if Liu Bowen's plan to defeat the Yuan can be called an achievement beyond measure, then if Yide could sweep the northern frontier so that later generations suffer no such troubles, how great would that merit be?"
This made Kongming laugh and shake his head.
Such quick seizing of another's words reminded him of the days when the two of them were still unknown scholars debating the affairs of the realm.
Unexpectedly, after several years and many twists of fate, both of them had in a sense fulfilled the aspirations they once held.
Yet when considering Xu Shu's remark, Kongming still scratched his head.
"To sweep the northern frontier is difficult. To govern it so well that it no longer breeds trouble is even more difficult."
After all, whether it was the Turks during the Tang, the simultaneous rise of Liao and Jin during the Song, or even the Ming itself falling because of northern threats, all of it demonstrated how difficult it had been for two thousand years to fully incorporate the northern lands into China.
But Zhang Fei instead appeared eager.
"Does that not prove the greatness of such merit? Besides, I have the strategist to assist me, and the strategist has two thousand years of knowledge from the light screen to consult. Surely we can settle this problem so that future generations will never again suffer it. Why call it difficult?"
The gentle words of Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei's bold declarations, the Imperial Uncle's laughter, and General Guan's encouragement...
Liu Xie saw and heard all of it.
At that moment, the difference between the Imperial Uncle and Cao Cao became even clearer in his eyes.
...
Inside the Hall of Broad Governance, Qian Chu scratched his head.
He seemed to recall that "the water was too cold" was a phrase associated with the fall of the Ming dynasty. It did not sound like something favorable.
This Qian Qianyi...
Could he also be a descendant of the Qiantang Qian family?