Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1910: Setting Sail (Twenty-One)

"If we can't find the elixir in the alchemy room, the pharmacy, and Yun Zhongjun's bedroom, then we have to discuss this matter again." Tianming concluded.

Dao Zhi nodded, "I basically understand it. I will go on the boat tonight."

"By the way, arrange a mechanical Suzaku for me." He then looked at Gao Jianli and asked.

Gao Jianli nodded.

Although Master Ban is not here, he still has extra mechanical pilots under his command, and of course he has prepared a mechanical escape weapon such as the Mechanical Suzaku.

"Let's just leave the matter of stealing the Immortal Pill like this for now." Gao Jianli started the next topic, which was also the real highlight, "We have to study the issue of Confucianism."

"Confucianism? Little Sage Manor? What happened?"

Tianming and Shaoyu knew nothing yet, and were the first to ask questions after hearing this.

Apart from them, Xue Nu and Dao Zhi also didn't know what Xiao Shengxian Manor was.

"Ying Zheng wants to visit Xiaoshengxianzhuang." Gao Jianli replied in a deep voice.

This news shocked everyone, and they immediately fell into different emotions.

Dao Zhi scratched his head, subconsciously feeling that it was not good news, but he didn't know where the specific danger was.

The Snow Girl is similar to him.

On the contrary, Tianming and Shaoyu were keenly aware that Ying Zheng had come with ill intentions - of course, they couldn't have guessed the book burning order out of thin air, but Ying Zheng's first public appearance after the assassination attempt had him announce that he was going to Xiaoshengxianzhuang, which definitely meant he was up to something.

The probability of taking direct action against Xiaoshengxianzhuang is not high. It is most likely that they want to take advantage of the situation to force Xiaoshengxianzhuang to take sides or facilitate something.

But the biggest problem for Tianming and the others is——

"Can we get involved in this matter?" Tianming asked first, scratching his head.

It was impossible for them to prevent the emperor from visiting Xiaoshengxianzhuang, nor was it possible for them to meet the emperor on behalf of the Confucians. In general, they could do nothing but watch the show.

If the emperor directly attacks Xiao Shengxian Manor, they can send some people to support.

Gao Jianli replied in a deep voice, "It depends on what Mr. Zhang San says."

"Third Master? He finally shows up again?" Tianming was delighted when he heard that and asked with a smile.

In the past, whenever something happened, Zhang Liang would show up, either to give them advice, or to provide them with information, or both.

But after the Qinglong Project, Zhang Liang never showed up.

Although the actual time was only a few days, it was already very abnormal.

Gao Jianli nodded. "Mr. Zhang San seemed to have been blocked by Mr. Fu Nian, the head of Xiaoshengxian Manor, and was unable to leave the manor. It was not until today that he finally found an opportunity to contact us."

"Fu Nian..." Tianming couldn't help but grin when he heard this familiar name.

Although it was not Fu Nian who brought him the most pain during his short time at school, the most profound torture all came from this old-fashioned and upright Confucian leader.

He was really afraid of Fu Nian.

Just at this time, a Mohist disciple walked into the control room and reported, "Commanders, we have received news from Mr. Zhang Liang of the Confucian School."

Upon hearing this, Gao Jianli directly ordered the pilot controlling the Xuanwu, "Control the Xuanwu to float up."

The pilots who received the order immediately fiddled with the operating console. Tianming and others then felt a faint vibration. Through the observation window of the control room, they could also see that Xuanwu was accelerating its ascent.

Soon, Xuanwu surfaced, swaying slightly with the waves.

Not long after, Zhang Liang, dressed in a green shirt, walked into the control room with a smile.

As soon as he came in, he started praising the mechanical Xuanwu:

"As expected of the famous four spiritual beasts of the machinery, the Vermillion Bird, the White Tiger, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon... Each one of them is not an ordinary creature."

"Having a mechanical fortress that can move freely in the sea will make everything much easier."

Gao Jianli stood up to greet him and said, "The Mechanical Xuanwu is indeed very good, but it's a pity that the Mohists can't make a second one now."

Among the four mechanical beasts, Suzaku and White Tiger are mass-produced machines, while Azure Dragon and Black Tortoise only have one each.

Needless to say, the Mohist school didn't even have the manufacturing drawings for the Qinglong.

As for Xuanwu, although the Mohists retained basically complete blueprints, they were no longer able to build a second one.

The materials needed were too precious and too rare, and the Mohist school was unable to gather all the materials needed for the second machine for hundreds of years.

Of course, it’s not that the materials are so rare that it would take hundreds of years to collect enough. The main reason is that the Mohist school has never paid much attention to it.

The most important value of Xuanwu is to serve as the core of the power system of the Mechanical City. Only one core is needed, so even if there is a failure, the pilots of the Mechanical City can repair it immediately.

Considering the high cost of Xuanwu, there is obviously no need to build a second one as a backup.

As for the value of Xuanwu as a high-tech submarine from the pre-Qin period, it is not important to the Mohists, because the ability to dive and fight underwater... is indeed not a very important function.

Even for the Mohists today, although Xuanwu's diving ability can help them hide, its value is very limited. It does not mean that the Mohists will really have no way to hide without Xuanwu.

Not to mention the Mohist school of the past.

As for underwater combat... the Empire has no underwater troops, so how can it compete with sharks in the water?
Of course, the combat effectiveness of Xuanwu after landing is still quite good, even top masters can't do anything to him, his combat effectiveness far exceeds that of Baihu.

However, considering the outrageous difference in manufacturing costs between the two, Xuanwu's cost-effectiveness is too low, especially since Xuanwu's offensive power is actually average.

After the Mechanical City was gone, what was lacking in manufacturing Xuanwu was not only the materials, but also the corresponding equipment.

The Mohists almost completely cut off the possibility of creating Xuanwu again, and even creating Baihu and Suzaku in a short period of time was difficult.

Zhang Liang smiled when he heard this and said calmly, "One is enough."

There are indeed no uses for having too many Xuanwu. They were not very useful in the past, and they are not much stronger now.

The hot-tempered Big Hammer interrupted these meaningless small talk and said bluntly, "Okay, let's not discuss mechanical beasts. No one understands them."

"Let's get down to business, Zifang."

"Brother Tiechui, you are quick to speak." Zhang Liang smiled and walked forward while talking about the main topic, "You should have more or less guessed that Ying Zheng's visit to Xiaoshengxian Manor this time is not for good reasons."

Shao Yu interrupted and asked, "Why did Ying Zheng suddenly take action against Confucianism?"

After all, he and Tianming had been Confucian disciples for a period of time, and they were somewhat concerned about the safety of Confucianism.

Even though Tianming suffered a lot at that time, he still liked Xiaoshengxianzhuang very much in his heart.

"Knights violate the law with force, and Confucians disrupt the law with literature." Zhang Liang replied calmly, "The empire has never had any goodwill towards Confucianism, and the only goodwill it has comes from the eldest son Fusu."

"But now you also know that Fusu has moved away from the center of power." "Although Senior Brother Fu Nian expressed his obedience to the emperor on behalf of Xiaoshengxian Manor, the emperor did not seem to be willing to accept it."

"So what exactly does Ying Zheng plan to do?" Tianming asked.

"There is no clear news at the moment. I can only guess, a guess with a high probability." Zhang Liang replied in a serious voice, "Ying Zheng may want to use his assassination as an excuse to force Xiaoshengxian Manor to assist him and promote the Book Burning Order."

"Book Burning Order!?"

This word shocked everyone, and many guesses emerged in their minds.

Although they could not accurately determine the three specific words Zhang Liang said based on the pronunciation alone, everyone basically made the correct judgment.

Burning books... For all schools of thought, burning books is absolutely unacceptable... Burning other people's books is another matter.

Gao Jianli was the first to speak, his face gloomy, and his tone became more serious as he asked, "What on earth does he want to do!?"

"As the name suggests, book burning." Zhang Liang was very calm and said lightly, "Based on the existing intelligence, Ying Zheng intends to burn almost all privately collected books in the world, and only Xianyang can keep them for archival storage.

"In addition, local governments can keep local records, and ordinary people are only allowed to keep books on medicine, divination, and tree planting."

These two short sentences were like the collapse of heaven and earth to Gao Jianli and others.

Even if one is as confused as Tianming, it is not difficult to feel how shocking this news is.

"Is he crazy!?" Gao Jianli's cheeks and eyes were almost squeezed into a ball, and he barely squeezed out a word from between his teeth.

"Maybe." Zhang Liang smiled and agreed with this.

Others followed suit and started shouting in a noisy manner, and their words were basically all about criticizing and insulting Ying Zheng. A rough guy like Da Tiechui even directly criticized the other party's immediate family members.

Zhang Liang looked at the chaos in front of him and did not think that Gao Jianli and others were overreacting.

Even he, when he first learned about the Book Burning Order, had a reaction not much different from theirs.

Ultimately, this matter is too crazy and too outrageous.

In essence, what the emperor wanted was not to burn some bamboo slips or papers, but to completely destroy the "knowledge" controlled by the people and to control all the "knowledge" in the hands of the imperial court, that is, in the hands of the emperor.

For all the schools of thought, this was tantamount to an act of uprooting.

Most of the current schools of thought are a mixture of civil and military. In other words, they are involved in both the government and the underworld, studying and practicing martial arts.

But for any one of them, the most fundamental thing is their academic philosophy, not martial arts.

They can sacrifice the martial part, but the literary part must not be shaken.

In a sense, the various schools of thought were unwilling to hand over the monopoly of knowledge to Ying Zheng.

This can be said to be a dog-eat-dog struggle for interests, but it is not entirely true.

After all, intellectual property is also a legitimate right, and the knowledge of the various schools of thought originated from their predecessors. They have more or less inherited power, and at the same time they are also continuing, expanding and deepening these knowledge - regardless of whether the direction is right or wrong, they are all doing something.

Even leaving all this aside, scholars from all schools of thought generally do not mind sharing their knowledge with others - they are willing to spread it, and hope that their knowledge will be spread as widely as possible. However, they are limited by reality or objective or subjective shackles and cannot achieve unlimited dissemination.

But the emperor is different.

He took back the power to spread 'knowledge' in order to add additional restrictions.

As for "knowledge" itself and the people, it is harmful but not beneficial.

Of course, the vast majority of people today are still struggling with hunger and cold, on the brink of life and death, and generally do not care much about luxury items like knowledge.

If they have the time, they might help to shout a few words, but if they don't, then it's up to them. So the Book Burning Order may cause uproar throughout the empire, but the only people who will really resist the empire are the direct victims, such as the Hundred Schools of Thought.

Of course, the hidden dangers behind it are far more complicated than that.

"We must stop him!" The Snow Girl ended the chaos and shouted coldly.

"What should we do?" Big Hammer asked, scratching his head, "Find another way to kill him?"

Apart from killing the person directly, Da Tiechui really couldn't think of any other way to stop Ying Zheng from doing what he was going to do.

Although his mind was single-threaded, this time, his idea was really correct.

On the contrary, Gao Jianli, who was smarter, failed to understand this and looked at Zhang Liang:

"Zifang, there should be a way, right?"

"Even if it's Ying Zheng, it's impossible for him to really go against everyone in the world."

Dao Zhi followed up and said, "Yes, what's more, there are also the Legalists. Prime Minister Li Si is a member of the Legalist school. They occupy half of the court. Can they accept it?"

Zhang Liang smiled calmly and responded, "First of all, in the imperial court, the proportion of people from the Legalist school is less than half, but most of them are powerful figures, and in terms of power, they account for more than half."

"Secondly, although the Legalist classics were also among the books burned, for these Legalist officials, the interests of the Legalists were not consistent with their own interests."

"In this matter, the more important label for officials who come from the Legalist school is officials, not Legalists."

The emperor's move was to dig up the roots of the various schools of thought, but it did not actually harm the interests of the bureaucrats. In the long run, it was even more beneficial - even if they had no books, they could ensure that their descendants received an education through word of mouth.

As one grows stronger, the other shrinks, which means that no one will be able to compete with their descendants in the future.

"Shit! Have you read all those books?!" Da Tiechui didn't understand much, but he could still understand the simple benefits of giving and taking, so he couldn't help but curse.

Gao Jianli calmly retorted, "But is the emperor really willing to share his power with them forever?"

The emperor did need officials, but official positions were not hereditary.

The current prime minister is Li Si, but that doesn’t mean that future prime ministers will be Li Si’s descendants.

What the emperor wanted was not to destroy knowledge, but to hold the power over who could obtain knowledge in his own hands.

Of course, he can allow the existing bureaucrats to share weal and woe with him for generations, but he can also choose to replace them.

Judging from the imperial system, the latter is obviously more likely - the only hereditary position in the empire is the throne, nothing else is possible, and any titles that can be inherited are all downgraded.

From this perspective, giving the emperor greater power is absolutely disadvantageous to the bureaucracy.

Zhang Liang smiled and replied softly, "Power and power are incompatible, and one will grow while the other will decline."

"A friend of mine once said that there will always be conflicts between the power of the emperor and the power of his subjects."

"But unfortunately, my fellow 'senior brother' who is the head of all officials, he... hehe, is a wonderful person."

Li Si was an out-and-out official fanatic. In this respect, he was worthy of the status of a disciple of Confucius.

But he cared too much about power.