I am not a deposed emperor of Han Dynasty

Chapter 462: The Emperor's Big Gamble: If you lose, your majesty will be gone; if you win, you will be guilty of burning books and humiliating scholars!
Liu He turned around silently, walked back to the front seat, and sat back on his couch.

"Mr. Wei Ge, I will rule on the current version of the scriptures and redefine the official school. This is an edict I issued a few months ago..."

"If you ask me to take back the edict now, wouldn't it mean that I would eat my words? How will I behave in front of the people of the world?"

Whatever Liu He decided, no matter whether it was right or wrong, could never be taken back.

After the first time, there may be a second time. Over and over again, where is the power of the king?

"Your Majesty, on the day of the debate, if Your Majesty cannot calm down the disputes between the various factions and come up with a result that convinces the public, it will be even more detrimental to the power of God." Wei Xian bowed even lower.

"Listen to what Mr. Wei Ge said, are you afraid that I don't have enough knowledge to judge the quality of the scriptures, and thus lose my authority among Confucian scholars and the world?" Liu He sneered.

Liu He not only laughed at the old Confucian's self-righteousness, but also laughed at the old Confucian's short-sightedness.

At this moment, I still naively thought that Liu He just wanted to "select a few Confucian classics and establish them as popular scriptures."

But in fact, Liu He wanted to use his copy of the "Thirteen Classics" to start anew and solve the problem once and for all.

This "hundreds of schools of thought converge, and Confucianism is the only one" actually has the second half of the sentence: "The great unification of Confucianism belongs to the emperor"!
Wei Xian was always kneeling on the ground, so naturally he didn't see the emperor's cruel sneer. He just continued talking to himself.

"Your Majesty, judging the scriptures and establishing official schools are important matters. The great scholars in the world are all sages. Although your Majesty is smart and sage, when it comes to understanding the meaning of the scriptures, I'm afraid..."

"Huh? I was able to convince even Wei Qing just now, so why can't I convince other great scholars?" Liu He asked half-seriously and half-jokingly.

"I'm just a weed in this scholarly community, a pearl of rice. How dare you shine like a giant in the scholarly community?" Wei Xian still didn't dare to stand up.

"After all, Mr. Wei Ge is still afraid that I can't win against this world's great Confucian giant?" Liu He stepped forward and asked.

"Your Majesty, forgive me. I'll tell you the truth. Your Majesty will definitely not win!" Wei Xian said again.

"But, I want to give it a try. What if I win?"

The emperor's extremely plain words once again attracted the attention of everyone in the palace - even Wei Xian straightened up.

Except for Wang Shi, everyone had surprise in their eyes.

Although the emperor defeated Wei Xian in debate, he was considered a talented and learned person among his peers.

However, those great scholars who are not serving as important ministers in the court are not as easy to deal with as Wei Xian.

Wei Xian has been an official in the court for decades. Although he is still a loyal believer in Confucianism, he can more or less balance the relationship between practical work and reading scriptures.

Those great Confucians were different. They didn't care whether the emperor would be angry, let alone whether the New Deal could be implemented, nor would they consider compromise strategies.

If you want to force them to lower their heads to drink water, and give up their own scriptures and use other scriptures, it is tantamount to killing them, and they will definitely resist to the death.

These great Confucians, like Xia Housheng who cursed the Emperor as a "tyrant" in the court, all regard Confucianism as their lifeblood and will definitely fight with the Emperor to the end.

When the emperor argues with them, there is absolutely no possibility of winning!
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly, your Majesty cannot win." Wei Xian said calmly.

"I promise Mr. Wei Ge that if I can't convince the world's great scholars to issue a ruling on the classics and establish a new official school, I will never mention the imperial examination system and the Xiang school system again!"

"Your Majesty, are you serious?" There was a hint of ecstasy in Wei Xian's turbid eyes. The emperor was too impulsive and immature to agree to this.

"You are not joking." Liu He replied without hesitation.

"Thank you..." The excited Wei Xian was about to show his gratitude as a big gift, but was immediately interrupted by Liu He.

"Mr. Wei Ge, since I have placed a heavy bet, you don't want to bet with nothing, right? What bet do you want to place against me in this game?" Liu He said with a sly smile.

"Place a bet?" Wei Xian was a little confused. He had never thought that in this greenhouse hall where monarchs and ministers discussed politics, he would hear words that only rogues in the north of the city would say.

"There are no fathers and sons in the casino, and naturally there are no kings or ministers. Has Mr. Wei Ge never been to the cockfighting hut in Beicheng City?"

The emperor began to act against Meng Lang again, and even compared the important affairs of the court to things like lackeys fighting cocks.

However, Wei Xian, who saw a glimmer of hope, stopped to dissuade him. He frowned and said, "Everything I have is given to you by your majesty. Whatever you want me to bet on, just give me your decree."

"Okay, Mr. Wei Ge still has the chivalrous spirit of a young man. I don't want anything else. If I can convince all the great scholars to issue a standard version of the scriptures..."

"Then I invite Mr. Wei Ge to be the examiner of the first national examination and select talents for me. What do you think?"

This was another plot by Liu He to kill people. Wei Xian was the highest-ranking scholar in the court - his official position and rank surpassed that of Gong Sui and Wang Shi.

Moreover, Wei Xian's opposition to the imperial examination system, the education system, and the popular version of the classics will soon spread, and he will become a benchmark for the opposition.

If Wei Xian were to serve as the chief examiner of the national examination in the future and select talents according to the imperial examination system, it would be a very symbolic thing.

It's like turning the opponent's vanguard general into one's own minions, who knows how many enemies can be recruited and surrendered.

Wei Xian naturally saw the emperor's thoughts, but his words had been released and there was no possibility of taking them back.

He thought that the emperor would never have any hope of winning, so he gritted his teeth and agreed to the emperor's request on the spot.

Zhang Anshi on one side, as the chief bachelor of the cabinet, should have stood up to persuade the emperor not to take risks, but in the end he just symbolically asked the emperor to think twice and said nothing more.

He hoped that the young and vigorous emperor would suffer a small loss from the scholar.

Maybe after suffering this loss, the emperor's majesty will be slightly reduced, and it will be easier to listen to their advice, right?
Bingji and Liu De also had the same idea, so the entire cabinet remained strangely quiet and calm.On the contrary, Gong Sui and Su Wu, who were both foreign officials, sincerely warned the emperor, asking him to explain the details to the great scholars in private to gain their support.

Of course, this request was rejected by Liu He: It was just a waste of time, and there should be no room for argument.

"As for the process of debating scriptures, I have to think about it again. Once it is decided, I will naturally tell Mr. Wei Ge and all my dear friends."

As a result, this extremely small court meeting ended in an atmosphere of "everyone has his own agenda". The courtiers who participated in the meeting saluted the emperor with different expressions and then left the Greenhouse Palace.

After a while, only Liu He and Wang Shi were left in the greenhouse palace.

Wang Shi stayed, naturally because Wang Shi was the strategist and vanguard general that the emperor relied on in this battle - they still had many things to discuss.

……

Liu He sat on the couch, and after watching the others leave the courtyard of the Greenhouse Hall, he finally looked at Wang Shi with a more peaceful look.

This old man has gone through many vicissitudes of life than before. It seems that Wang Shi did not work less during the period when Liu He suppressed cholera.

Wang Shi, who was over seventy years old, worked hard on collating the popular version of the classics, and he was worthy of becoming a prince.

"Master Wang, after word spreads about what happened today to Senior General Wei Ge, the great scholars will probably regard me as a thorn in their side and a thorn in their flesh." Liu He laughed and laughed at himself.

"Your Majesty, what you said just now is absolutely correct..." Wang Shi said seriously.

"Which sentence?"

"Whether you are a Confucian scholar or a Confucian scholar, you still want to do something for the world." Wang Shi nodded.

"So what Wang Fu means is..."

"Those senior scholars are indeed troublesome, but ordinary Confucian scholars may not be unwilling to implement the imperial examination system. Maybe they have the same idea as the emperor." Wang Shikai explained.

Liu He remained silent. He understood that what Wang Shi said was true. If the Confucian scholars in the world were really monolithic, how could there be so many schools of thought?
In the original timeline, the final convergence and unification of Confucianism or Classics was also led by imperial power.

"Just to do this, Your Majesty may have to take some risks..." Wang Shi said desolately, with uncontrollable worry in his words.

"What risk?"

"If this matter fails, His Majesty's majesty will be damaged; if His Majesty wins, I'm afraid he will be infamous as 'burning books and humiliating scholars'."

Liu He chewed on Wang Shi's words and involuntarily turned his gaze to the palace door.

Sitting here and looking out, you can only see a narrow patch of sky in the upper part of the palace door - the rest is blocked by the eaves of the palace wall in the distance.

In the past, Liu He felt that Weiyang Palace was like a huge prison, but now looking at it, it is more like a bottomless dry well.

The blue sky as far as the eye can see is the mouth of the dry well.

Before entering this dry well, Liu He would still fantasize about leaving a good reputation in the history books, at least people would give him a temple name in the future.

But if you sit in a dry well for a long time, the world outside the well is already another world. What does it have to do with the small space in the well?

As for Wei Mo's posthumous affairs and posthumous name, it is even less important.

The First Emperor swept across the Liuhe and unified the Central Plains; his books were written in the same text, and his carriages were on the same track; he established weights and measures, implemented the system of counties and counties; he repaired roads and built the Great Wall...

In just a few decades, he has done countless things for the world.

But in the thousands of years that followed, I don’t know how many people cursed the First Emperor as a tyrant!

It wasn't until Confucianism and Confucianism truly declined that the First Emperor was rectified. If the First Emperor could be rectified, what should Liu He be afraid of?

"Does Wang Fu really think that people in the world will say that I am a tyrant?" Liu He asked.

"At least some people would say so." Wang Shi replied truthfully.

"The only one who knows my sin is his Spring and Autumn Period." Liu He once again used Zhong Ni's words to give his answer.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me for assuming your holy will." Wang Shi thanked him quickly. He heard the emperor's determination and courage, and was very moved.

"Master Wang, this debate is like leading an army in battle. You are my military advisor and vanguard. I want to hear you talk about the current situation of the war." Liu He brought the topic back to the topic.

"Your Majesty, just give me a lecture. I must have told you everything I know." Wang Shi replied.

"I want to know now, who are my enemies?" Liu He asked.

Liu He knew that the enemies he faced were the great Confucian scholars in the world, and he also knew that the Confucian scholars in the world were divided into various schools and factions. However, the history books of later generations recorded very little about this, and he could not see the whole picture clearly.

"Your Majesty, do you want to know the general picture or the details?" Wang Shi said with a smile.

"Be concise and explain things in simple terms, which is naturally the best." Liu He replied.

"I understand, I'm afraid it can't be explained in just a few words. I want your Majesty to give you tea." Wang Shi suddenly said seriously.

　Ask for full order!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)