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Next, to find a prestigious origin for himself, Liu Kun also claimed that his ancestors were descendants of the famous Song Dynasty poet Liu Yong. Because of the war, they moved to Jingkou, and thus Liu Yong was also honored by the Liu family as the founding ancestor of their migration. It is unknown if Liu Yong would be so angry in the afterlife that he would flip over his coffin lid.
Of course, whether Liu Yong would truly flip over his coffin lid is not important. What is important is that he couldn't move it at all. Starting from Liu Kun, the Liu family had been exceptionally skilled in various inherited arts. To preserve their family's glory and wealth, the Liu family, having committed many acts against their conscience, would they allow Ke Yong to crawl out of his coffin lid?
However, Emperor Zhu did not care if the students felt ashamed. He scanned the students and then instructed Zhang Dequan, who was standing behind him, "Send someone to get some tools like hoes and pickaxes from the village with President Cui."
As Emperor Zhu's words fell, the students present trembled in their hearts.
If not for the long speech of Old Man Cui just now, these students would not have been afraid of Emperor Zhu sending someone to fetch hoes and pickaxes. But with Old Man Cui's words, these students were terrified.
Old Man Cui said: Clearing land cannot be done at any time; it must be done between autumn and spring. Now it is the dead of winter, which is precisely between autumn and spring!
Old Man Cui said: If you clear land in winter, the soil will be frozen solid. A single strike with a pickaxe will only leave a white mark, making your hands ache.
The current situation was that Emperor Zhu clearly intended for everyone to clear land in the dead of winter using hoes and pickaxes. Emperor Zhu did not care if their hands would ache from the impact, nor did he care if their bodies, unaccustomed to labor due to their sedentary lifestyle of studying in classrooms, could endure the hardship of land clearing.
As expected, after Zhang Dequan arranged for men to bring pickaxes, hoes, and other tools with Cui Baoguo, Emperor Zhu smiled and instructed Cui Baoguo, "Arrange for a few people to guide them and teach them how to clear land. I suspect these fools might not even know how to use a hoe or a pickaxe."
However, Cui Baoguo showed a troubled expression: "Your Majesty, our Cuigezhuang village has barely a thousand people, and many of them are women and children. Moreover, we may not have enough tools..."
Emperor Zhu waved his hand with a smile: "It's alright. However many people and tools you can arrange at once, we will assign that many students. The rest of those fools can watch from the side first, so they won't be completely clueless when it's their turn."
After Cui Baoguo bowed in acknowledgment, Emperor Zhu turned his gaze to Liu Heming: "Pick out a few sharp-eyed individuals to supervise. I don't care if these fools can clear the land well or not, but I absolutely will not tolerate them slacking off."
Liu Heming immediately chuckled: "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will arrange these scholar-officials properly and ensure they have no opportunity to be lazy."
Even though they had prepared themselves mentally, the students present could not help but feel a sense of despair when Emperor Zhu's orders were issued.
Those soldiers... they could accurately eliminate students who rushed out of tents at night without harming anyone inside. Who would dare say their eyesight was poor?
And yet, Emperor Zhu wanted Liu Heming to specifically select a few more with good eyesight!
As Liu Heming, Cui Baoguo, and others led the students towards the wasteland in the distance, Zeng Cheng could not help but ask, "What is Your Majesty's intention?"
Emperor Zhu waved his hand with a smile and said, "If these scoundrels did not have Great Ming household registration, if these scoundrels were of barbarian descent, I would have already piled their heads into a Guanjings. Unfortunately, these scoundrels are all scholars of our Great Ming, and I cannot possibly kill them all. Therefore, I can only use this clumsy method to save them, one by one if possible."
Zeng Cheng fell silent.
...
"Bang!"
Xu Zhendong's pickaxe struck the ground heavily. However, the soil did not turn over as Xu Zhendong had expected. Instead, the pickaxe was bounced aside by the hard soil, and Xu Zhendong's hands were also rendered numb and sore from the impact.
Cui Baoguo stood beside Xu Zhendong, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and mockingly said in a nasal tone, "I hear that scholars, without leaving their homes, can know all affairs under heaven. Yet, you, a Jinshi, cannot even dig the ground?"
Xu Zhendong did not get angry. He merely shook his hands, gritted his teeth, and raised the pickaxe to strike again.
"Bang!"
Using a pickaxe to dig in winter is absolutely a foolish act. Although the front of this tool also has an edge, the edge of a pickaxe is two inches long and has a certain thickness. In spring, summer, and autumn, it can be considered a sharp tool for tilling the land. But in winter, it is completely useless.
Cui Baoguo chuckled, looking at Xu Zhendong, whose hands were once again aching and numb. "Switch to the hoe. Without a hoe, you won't be able to clear even an inch of land all day today."
"When you lift the hoe, place one hand further back, and the other hand closer to the hoe. When the hoe strikes down, the hand closest to the hoe should quickly pull back, and at the same time, force the hoe down."
"Also, don't grip with both hands too tightly, or after a couple of strikes with the hoe, your hands will be covered in blisters."
Xu Zhendong dared not argue with Cui Baoguo anymore. He dutifully switched to the hoe and began to dig again and again.
However, this time, digging was not much better. If he was bounced away when using the pickaxe before, now with the hoe, he could only dig the tip into the ground by an inch. His hands still hurt, and they were still numb.
Xu Zhendong even felt a flicker of despair in his heart.
According to Emperor Zhu's instructions, each student had to clear a mu of wasteland. However, with each strike of the hoe, he could only dig an inch into the ground. The soil he could turn over was only a tiny area around the tip of the hoe. To clear a mu of land? He would probably die of exhaustion trying!
Seeing Xu Zhendong's despair, Cui Baoguo sneered, took the hoe from Xu Zhendong's hands, and dug down with force.
With the same "bang," Xu Zhendong could only dig the tip of the hoe into the soil by an inch, while Cui Baoguo could dig the tip deeply into the soil.
Cui Baoguo gripped the hoe handle with both hands, let out a grunt, and exerted force. The tip, deeply embedded in the soil, lifted a large clod of frozen earth.
Xu Zhendong stared blankly at the small pit he had managed to dig with all his might, then at the large pit Cui Baoguo had dug. A thousand curses wanted to burst from his lips.
You, a farmer who has been working the land all his life, are comparing your strength and land-clearing skills with me, a scholar?
Cui Baoguo casually handed the hoe back to Xu Zhendong and said with a cold smile, "Master Jinshi, do you know how difficult it is to clear land now? The grain you eat is cultivated by us common folk, clearing land inch by inch. The clothes you wear are also sewn by women, stitch by stitch. If you cut off our livelihoods, what will you eat? What will you wear? If there's no food or clothing, how can you still act so high and mighty?"
Xu Zhendong felt a sense of wordless defeat.
Or rather, for the first time, Xu Zhendong felt that his education was utterly useless. He had first been fooled by Hu Yan and Zhang Xijin's family's dog, and then he was mocked by Cui Laohan and Cui Baoguo. What was the use of studying?
He couldn't even argue logically with these commoners in front of him!
If he could, Xu Zhendong would have preferred his poems and literary works to be exchanged for strength, so he could finish clearing this piece of wasteland sooner.
Or perhaps Emperor Zhu could change the terms and let us compete with these commoners in studying!
The more he thought about it, the more displeased he became. Xu Zhendong simply and silently took the hoe from Cui Baoguo's calloused hands, pondered it carefully, and then raised the hoe again, striking down heavily.
Xu Zhendong's contemplation was of no use. Although he imitated Cui Baoguo's posture of using the hoe, and although he exerted all his strength, the result was still a "bang," with the tip of the hoe only digging an inch into the soil.
Cui Baoguo chuckled and looked at Xu Zhendong, saying, "Master Jinshi, you can't even dig the ground properly. How dare you go to the Forbidden City to annoy the Emperor?"
Xu Zhendong's face immediately darkened, but Cui Baoguo seemed not to notice and continued to mock him.
"Therefore, whether it be wealthy merchants or officials, they all hope to see you stir up trouble. They want to use your momentum to force His Majesty the Emperor to change his course and for the Great Ming to return to the old path of primarily relying on agriculture and the taxes of ordinary people, while keeping commercial taxes low, allowing officials to regain more privileges."
"For those wealthy merchants and officials, it's best if they succeed. If they fail, it doesn't matter, as they have sufficient backing and confidence. You, however, are merely tools being used by them."
"Therefore, they support your unrest because they want benefits, and you truly cause unrest because you are stupid!"
Because you are stupid... because you are stupid... This sentence was like a resounding slap, directly hitting the faces of all the scholars. It was a repeated, back-and-forth, non-stop slapping. Many scholars, despite their anger, could not find a single word to refute Zeng Cheng, and could only let their faces turn as red as monkey bottoms.
After a long while, the leading scholar could not help but sigh deeply, bowed to Emperor Zhu, and said, "Your Majesty, I have been too foolish. If not for Your Majesty and Elder Scholar Zeng's reprimand, I fear I would have committed a grave offense. I hope Your Majesty will punish me severely!"
Emperor Zhu let out a cold laugh and remained silent. However, one of the students also bowed and said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, we students have realized our mistakes. We hope Your Majesty will be magnanimous and spare us this time, allowing us to continue serving the Great Ming with our useful lives."
Hearing a student openly beg for mercy, Zeng Cheng wished he could rush into the crowd of students and beat that foolish beggar to death. Inciting thousands of students to surround the Forbidden City and cry to the imperial palace was a typical act of coercion, considered a great disrespect in any dynasty. At worst, it could be considered treason. And now they were begging for mercy?
His Majesty choosing to come out and meet with you students indicated that His Majesty did not truly harbor murderous intentions, or at least did not intend to kill these thousands of students. But with your begging, this matter has once again turned into coercing the Emperor for a special pardon. This is like lighting a lamp in a latrine, looking for shit!
However, before Zeng Cheng could figure out how to intercede for these students, Emperor Zhu let out a chuckle, paced over to the leading scholar, examined him up and down, and said, "I remember you. You are a student who entered the Imperial College from the Liaodong Provincial Administration Commission. Your parents are farmers. You were able to study this far, firstly because your parents supported you through your prefectural studies, and secondly, because of your own achievements, not only receiving stipends but also being recommended to study at the Imperial Academy."
The leading scholar was slightly startled, then bowed slightly again, saying, "Your student is humbled."
Emperor Zhu said, "Why are you humbled? Although I am the Emperor of the Great Ming, I am also a nominal supervisor of the Imperial Academy. I always know some students who perform well."
That's a must. It has little to do with valuing talent and more to do with the intelligence reports from the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Ke Zhiming had already sent the relevant information of these leading students to the palace long ago. It would be strange if Emperor Zhu did not know.
Smiling slightly, Emperor Zhu turned his gaze to the student who had pleaded for mercy. "I know you too. Although your family is not a wealthy one, your family's conditions are quite good among the students."
However, Emperor Zhu was not as accommodating this time. Instead, he sneered and retorted, "How do you think I treat you students? Have I wronged you in any way? As the late Duke Wenzheng of Song once said: If one family cries, why let the whole region cry? How do you think I treat the scholars and merchants of the empire? Have I wronged them? Have I let them cry family by family?"
The meaning of "one family cries" and "the whole region cries" is actually quite easy to understand. After all, they are all students who have entered universities or even the Imperial Academy, and they know certain historical allusions.
The regional divisions in the Song Dynasty were called "Lu," such as Jingxi Lu, Jingdong Lu, Hebei Lu, Hedong Lu. In the Great Ming, these are called Provincial Administration Commissions, which are not the same as road names like Haitang Road or Jianshe Avenue.
Therefore, the "one family cries" mentioned by Fu Bi refers to officials who have been dismissed crying with their families due to the loss of their positions. The "whole region cries" by Fan Zhongyan refers to the common people of a certain Provincial Administration Commission crying because of an incompetent official. It does not refer to people crying on the same road.
But knowing this historical allusion was of no use, because Emperor Zhu was asking whether he had made those local worthies and gentry cry family by family.