The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 631 Yang You's Ambition

Shen Cong observed the wine shop opposite the Xingyou Tianxia warehouse for two full days. He found that the warehouse was heavily guarded and the guards were vigilant.

But after two days of observation, the target was locked on a wretched short-haired man. His hair seemed to grow out not long ago, and he should have been a thief monk before.This person came in and out very frequently, and seemed to be in charge of buying horses. Shen Cong kept seeing him leading horses in.

In the evening, when the man came out of the warehouse again, Shen Cong and five of his men stared at him from behind, turned into a narrow alley, Shen Cong stepped forward quickly, covering his mouth with his right hand, Pushing his head back hard to his shoulders, the dagger in his left hand pressed against his neck, and said with a smile: "If you want to live, don't shout, understand?"

Shen Cong was wearing a wide-sleeved robe, and outsiders would never notice that there was a knife hidden in his sleeve. If someone didn't know it, they would think it was a joke among friends.

The man yelled "Wooooow", from his terrified face, Shen Cong knew what he meant, and let go of his right hand.

The man thought that he had encountered a thieves blocking the road, and once he was free, he quickly whispered: "Forgive me! Good man, spare me! I will give you money."

At this time, a carriage drove to the entrance of the alley, Shen Cong dragged him into the carriage, and the carriage sped away immediately.

"As long as you answer my questions honestly, I will spare your life, otherwise you will die."

"Okay, okay, the good man asked... woo woo woo..." But while he was speaking, Shen Guang stuffed a small bottle of medicinal liquid into his mouth. The man pinched his neck and squeezed it hard. Coughed dryly, but Shen Cong shot too quickly, and swallowed it before he knew the taste. Although there was still a little sweetness, he knew it was definitely not candy, and his oily face turned pale .

"This medicine is called Broken Intestine Pill. It is a Miao medicine passed down from Yelang. It is very strange. You must take the antidote within three days after taking it, otherwise you will die from intestinal rot. Taking the antidote is only guaranteed for three days. Time, and then you have to take the antidote." Shen Cong took out a bamboo tube from his arms, poured out a crystal clear pill, handed it to him, and then said: "This is the antidote, I guarantee you will not die for three days."

The unlucky man took it in a hurry, and swallowed it directly. When it went deep into his mouth, it was extremely bitter.

"Idiot, I'm sorry to tell you that what you eat is the authentic Broken Heart Pill. It's just a bottle of diluted bee syrup just now." Shen Cong looked at him with a smile, retracted the dagger, and said happily: "Yes! You eat it yourself, don't blame me."

"You..." The unlucky man was dumbfounded, his face turning pale.

Shen Cong asked with a faint smile, "What's your name?"

"My villain's name is Zhu Xiong!" Zhu Xiong realized that the other party was not a thief, and he was probably in trouble.

Shen Cong pulled off his waist card, and it really said 'Zhu Xiong', No. 30 and No. [-].

"How many numbers are there?" Shen Cong shook his waist card.

"There are 36 numbers in total."

"It seems that you are not doing well! You are all ranked at the end."

Zhu Xiong said with a mournful face: "The villain is just an insignificant little person. He is usually responsible for purchasing poor horses. He doesn't know anything else. Please let me go, sir."

At this time, the carriage had already driven out of Beicheng, and was walking slowly on the official road outside the city. Shen Cong asked again: "What are the warehouses for traveling around the world?"

"Silks and satins, porcelain, tea, medicinal materials, oil, timber, cow, horse and sheepskin, and wool, probably only these kinds of goods."

"anything else?"

"there is none left!"

"Think about it carefully, don't play tricks with me, what else is inside? For example, Mingguang armor, horizontal knife and so on." Shen Cong stared at him coldly.

Zhu Xiong's body trembled, his eyes were full of fear, and he was speechless for a long time.

"Don't tell me, right? I think you really want to die with your intestines ripped out,"

"You already know, why are you still asking me?" Zhu Xiong muttered dejectedly.

"How many armors and horizontal knives are there?"

"I don't know the exact number. I only know that it is placed in the secret room of the warehouse and is very tightly guarded. I only knew it was the armor and the horizontal knife when I was carrying it."

"How did it get here?"

"They hollowed out the golden nanmu log that several people hugged, put the armor and the horizontal knife inside, drove the empty end into the cork, and then knocked the two ends to pieces. From the outside, it looked exactly like the The precious wood is exactly the same, when I first saw it, I thought it was dropped from a high mountain and hit a solid rock, and it became like that."

Shen Cong was stunned when he heard the words, no wonder he escaped the checkpoints, such a treatment is really unpredictable.

"When will these things be sent away?"

"I'm not very clear. The horses are ready now. I don't need to go shopping tomorrow. It should be in the next few days." Zhu Xiong was very alert, fearing that the other party would kill him, he stammered in fright. : "My good man, the villain was a monk before, and after he returned to vulgarity, he married a daughter-in-law. The child is only one year old, and there is an old father who wants me to support him. Please don't kill me, I, I am still useful..."

Shen Cong originally wanted to stab him to death with a knife, but when he heard the last sentence, he immediately changed his mind, and said calmly without blushing and heartbeat: "It's not easy to refine Broken Heart Pill. I let you eat it, so I didn't plan to take it." To kill you, as long as you cooperate well, I will completely remove the poison for you after the matter is completed!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Zhu Xiong, who had no idea that he was almost going to see the Buddha, hurriedly agreed: "I will definitely cooperate with Grandpa Hero."

"Take me to your house to see."

……

At night, Shen Cong returned to the inn, saluted Ling Jing and said, "Report to Shangshu, I have gained something today."

"Sit down and talk!"

Ling Jing poured a cup of tea.

Shen Cong took a sip, and then told about his capture of Zhu Xiong. Ling Jing frowned and said, "Aren't you afraid that he will betray you if you let him go?"

"Reporting to Shangshu, he has been terrified by the so-called Broken Heart Pill, and even left a brother to watch at his house, and promised not to hold him accountable afterwards, and rewarded him with fifty gold coins. I believe he will not do the same. Don't dare to betray us."

"Both soft and hard, good trick!" Ling Jing nodded in praise, and then asked: "When are they going to send away the weapons and armor?"

"Just these few days."

"Okay!" Ling Jing wrote a short eagle letter and asked someone to send it to Luoyang tomorrow.

……

The next day, after the court was over, Yang Tong didn't go to deal with official business.After having a cabinet, he has become much more relaxed. He hardly needs to deal with the daily affairs of counties and counties. Provincial decision-making—provincial deliberation under the door—Shangshu Provincial Allocation—Shangshu's various ministries' execution', in this circle, it can be described as interlocking. Some daily matters are handled very properly by the central officials.This also saves Yang Tong a lot of time to think about the actual things.

After thinking for a while, Yang Tong walked towards the Hongwen Museum.

Hongwen Museum is located in Menxia Secretary Supervisor. When the official system was first established in the Sui Dynasty, it was actually "six provinces and six departments", that is, the Minister of Shangshu, the Ministry of Zhongshu, the Ministry of Menxia, ​​the Ministry of Internal History, the Ministry of Secretary and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The former three were founded. At the beginning, it had become the veritable core official office of the imperial court, and the latter three provinces were mainly for the convenience of the emperor, and had little effect on the country. By the time Yang Guang was in power, the Ministry of Internal History, the Ministry of Secretary, and the Ministry of Internal Servants had existed in name only, and the rank of the chief officials had reached Drop and drop.

The function of the Ministry of Internal History is the same as that of the Ministry of Zhongshu. It is the department that drafts the imperial edict. Not to mention the duplication of functions, there are still unclear decrees and responsibilities. Sometimes, a decree is copied by the two provinces, but the text is different. The way of expression is quite different. Officials don’t know who is right and who is wrong, so after arriving at Yang Tong’s place, the Ministry of Internal History was formally merged into the Ministry of Zhongshu, and it has ceased to exist since then.

The Secretary Province is in charge of correcting pictures and books, managing classics, and publishing errors in ancient books.The subordinate officials include 1 secretaries, 1 school clerks, 4 orthographic officials, 12 recorders, Cao who leads the book, Cao Taishi... This official office is relatively leisurely, and its main duty is to correct books. Career has an indispensable existence, so Yang Tong let it continue to exist, but reduced it to secretary supervisor, the chief is only called secretary, and the grade is also downgraded from the third rank to the fourth rank. Zong Zhengqing and Yang You served concurrently; as for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was the department responsible for the daily life of the royal family. As early as Yang Guang's period, it had been changed to Changqiu Supervisor.

The reason why Yang Tong went to the Secretary Prison to inspect it today is because there is also a Hongwen Hall in the Secretary Prison, where the royal family and the children of high-ranking Beijing officials all study here, and the officials of the Secretary Province teach the knowledge of classics, history and calligraphy.

At present, his older children are receiving enlightenment here, and the children of various civil and military officials are also studying here, making up a large class of more than 50 children.

Arriving at the courtyard where the Hongwen Museum is located, there are bursts of childish reading sounds. Yang Tong does not disturb the children who are studying, and directly enters the attic where Yang Tong works.

Yang You's position as Zong Zhengqing is very leisurely, and he has almost nothing to do, so he spends all day in the secretary's prison, leading a group of well-educated people to correct books.

The two emperors, Wen and Wu of the Sui Dynasty, attached great importance to culture. Because the cultural classics of the Spring and Autumn and Han Dynasties were damaged and lost due to hundreds of years of melee, in 583, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty issued an imperial edict, offering a volume of books and rewarding a piece of silk; as for Yang Guang, he was a A man full of romantic spirit, he recruited scholars to sort out classics as early as when he was the governor of Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. In the nearly 20 years since he took the throne, he has compiled 130 books and more than 7000 volumes.Yang Guang also organized people to compile [-] volumes of "Changzhou Jade Mirror" and [-] volumes of "Qu Yu Tu Zhi", which contributed to the preservation of ancient Chinese classics.

In addition, he also ordered the counties in the world to draw maps of customs and products in various places, and compiled 131 volumes of "Records of Products and Local Customs of Zhujun" and 100 volumes of "Collection of Maps and Classics of Zhuzhou".The local chronicles he ordered to compile during his reign were large in scale. They were not only concluding works connecting the past and the future, but also the beginning of the compilation of national local chronicles in history, which can be said to have far-reaching influence.When Pei Ju went to Zhangye to manage the merchants in the Western Regions, he was ordered to collect materials such as mountains and rivers and customs in the Western Regions, and compiled "Illustrated Records of the Western Regions". Colored drawing, is a masterpiece of geography.

Through the efforts of two generations of emperors to collect and compile books, the total number of books in the collection is as high as 37 volumes and more than 77000 kinds of books.In order to allow the central officials to watch it immediately, Yang Guang also asked people to copy the transcripts and hide them in Ziwei City in Luoyang, Daxing Palace in Daxing, Linshuo Palace in Zhuojun, Jinyang Palace in Taiyuan, and Jiangdu Palace in Jiangdu.

If Yang You wants to finish reading these books, he may not be enough in this life, let alone intensive reading and correction.

The desk is full of books, and he himself is directing the officials under his command to do things. "There are too many books supervised by the secretary. For easy reading, although they are divided into categories such as classics, history, places, and travel notes, I found that many books are both travel notes and books. If certain historical facts belong to a certain category, it is unreasonable, and it is easy for people who are looking for such books to miss it. In my opinion, travel notes can be subdivided into simple praise of mountains and rivers, and history of mountains and rivers. In addition, there are too many books that make people wonder what books exist, so we should write a book that specifically records the bibliography and accurately introduces the content in the book. , this article is put together according to the pronunciation of the first word of the bibliography, and then sorted by the age of the books. Since many previous books have prefaces written by sages, I will give everyone a month to collect and copy them. Then we will sort them one by one.”

The Chinese pinyin and initials and finals created by Yang Tong have already been spread all over the world, and even the aristocratic families who reject Yang Tong have gradually paid attention to it. Therefore, Pinyin has become a way for children to learn and read.

"His Royal Highness, time is too tight."

Yang You thought for a while, then said: "How about this, we can involve the students with excellent grades in Luoyang Academy, and let them collect and transcribe the prefaces of the books, and then we only need to correct them, so that at least half of the books will be corrected." You don't need to handle it; you compile the prologue of the book collection."

Officials gladly complied.

Yang You also said: "The prefaces made by the predecessors may not be accurate, and the future generations may not be inferior to the predecessors. In order to be more accurate and to promote the enthusiasm of the students, we can follow the example of Emperor Gao Zuwen and encourage students to write the prefaces of books. Give some rewards."

When Yang Tong heard this, he couldn't help laughing. Isn't this just an essay contest?

When everyone heard the laughter, they looked over one after another. When they saw Yang Tong, they put down the books in their hands and saluted, saying: "Brother Emperor/The Holy One".

"King Tang's idea is very good, you should follow his instructions."

"Here!" All the officials knew that Yang Tong had something to say to Yang You, and retreated out of the room tactfully.

"Brother Huang, why are you here?" Brother Huang came rashly, Yang You was very happy.

"Xianbai!" Yang Tong found a seat and sat down, and said casually: "Your idea of ​​collecting articles is very good, I think it can be expanded to various university palaces and officialdoms; if a book, how many Hundreds of prefaces are used for reference. Students can save effort in reading, and they can get a general understanding of the true meaning of the book before reading the original text. It is much easier to comprehend. suddenly see the light."

Yang You suddenly asked: "Brother Huang, you mean to print prefaces specially for classic books?"

"That's right!" Yang Tong said with a smile, "One hundred people have one hundred interpretations of "The Analects of Confucius", and some people even have ten thousand interpretations of a single sentence of "The Analects of Confucius". If it is presented, it will inspire endless people. If everyone is like this, do you know what it means to me, Tai Sui?"

"The release of hundreds of schools of thought and the frequent publication of books can be called a grand event in the literary world. The current dynasty will definitely become a holy world admired by future generations." Yang You said very excitedly.

Yang Tong smiled, "Your father-in-law Kong Shangshu invited Confucian scholars from all over the world to compile "Four Books and Five Classics of Justice."

"I know that!" Yang You said dejectedly, "It's a pity that I don't have enough knowledge to participate in this grand event."

"I remember telling you before that our Yang family has famous generals, ministers, emperors, poets, calligraphers, military strategists, and politicians, but there are no educators and saints. Although you can't participate in the " In the process of compiling the Four Books and Five Classics of Justice, but if you do one thing well, Kong Shangshu can only be inferior to you."

"What's the matter?"

"I just heard you said that you want to compile the bibliography, and thought of a way to use pinyin and radicals to index. This idea is very good! But even if the compendium of your book is completed, the influence is far less than that of "Four Books and Five Classics". What I want you to do is to compile a "Dictionary" similar to "Shuowen Jiezi".

"Shuowen Jiezi" was compiled by Xu Shen in the Han Dynasty. It explained the source of fonts and interpretations word by word. After Xu Shen finished writing, he dedicated it to Emperor Han'an. This is the first dictionary in history.

However, due to the fact that paper has not yet prospered, after more than 500 years of vicissitudes of history, the content has long been incomplete. Even after the efforts of Emperor Wen and Wu, the complete "Shuowen Jiezi" has not been collected. As for the one handed down to the 21st century, Most of them are Song Dynasty editions or Qing Dynasty annotations.

"Shuowen Jiezi" created a precedent for searching characters by radicals. Some people call this book "a book that has never existed before, and was created by Xu Junzhi", and most dictionaries of later generations also use this method.

If Yang You can use pinyin and radical indexes to explain in detail the source of each character, different writing methods and meanings in different eras, and introduce the common words of the character, the original meaning and meaning of idioms, then this kind of dictionary will surely be unprecedented. .

The compilation of "Dictionary" is mainly based on collection, sorting out, sorting and transcribing.The origin, image, and interpretation of each word, as well as the detailed explanation of the origin and meaning of each word, must be repeatedly deliberated, thought about left and right, and compared with ancient books to strive for perfection.The academic requirements for the 'editor-in-chief' are not too high, what is tested is the person's care and patience.And Yang You is a quiet character, what he lacks most is carefulness and patience.

Yang Yu will naturally leave this kind of good deed that lasts forever to his family. Once Yang You compiles a profound classic such as "Dictionary", it will be enough to make him a god in one book, talking about the influence and dedication to the entire nation , Ordinary Mingjun can't compare with him.

"Are you interested?" Yang Tong asked.

"Of course my little brother is interested!"

Yang You, who was heartbroken, said gratefully: "Uncle Sun Bao, a doctor in the State of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period, said: "There is a great virtue, followed by meritorious service, and secondly, a good word. Although it will not be abandoned for a long time, these are called three immortals." The younger brother has limited talents. I can't help the emperor, but if the "dictionary" is complete in the hands of the younger brother, it can be regarded as a 'speaking'. The emperor gave the achievements of the world to the younger brother, and the younger brother does not know how to express his gratitude."

He also knew that "Dictionary" did not require too much knowledge, and any well-educated person in the court could complete it, but Brother Huang entrusted this task to him.

As long as the "Dictionary" is compiled into a book, it is tantamount to putting a talisman on one's own body.This is also the characteristic of the times. The status of great Confucians in any dynasty is an absolutely transcendent existence!One person's speech is enough to protect several generations.Even if their brothers are gone in the future, as long as the descendants of his line do not rebel, there will be a Sui Dynasty, and his descendants will be safe and sound.

The two brothers were chatting, when a guard came to report: "Your Majesty, Wei Pushe has something important to report, and he is waiting in Tongming Hall."

Yang Tong nodded, probably Ling Jing had news.

He said to Yang You: "After Xu Shen initially completed "Shuowen Jiezi", in order to make it more solid and perfect, he has not finalized it. It took more than 20 years of research and research, and then "Shuowen Jiezi" came out. The book The reason why it became an immortal masterpiece is precisely because of his prudence, which you must pay special attention to. Don’t make the "Dictionary" a big joke."

"Little brother understands."

"The Secretary's Office should be the place with the largest collection of books in the world, enough for your reference. After the Tang and Wei dynasties are destroyed, the orphaned books collected by some aristocratic families will also be sent here. I don't care what you do, you can find them yourself."

"Thank you, brother!" Xu Shen spent so much time on his own; but Yang You, with Yang Tong's words, can form a huge team. greatly reduced.

Yang Tong confessed a few more words, and walked quickly to Tongming Hall.

(End of this chapter)