Chapter 38: Burning Books and Burying Scholars Ahead of Time
Noon, 12:50.

In the empty classroom, several figures suddenly appeared again.

Since they had entered before, everyone was prepared and not particularly panicked.

After the dizziness subsided a little, everyone turned their eyes to Ying Zheng at the same time.

"Emperor Shi Huang, did you execute Zhao Gao after you returned?"

"Is he already dead, or has he just been imprisoned? I remember that Zhao Gaoyuan was first the Imperial Chariot Officer. Even if his term has not yet come to an end, he is still considered a favorite of the Emperor. We should find a reason to execute him."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Che were the first to ask questions.

They are representatives of the Ming Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. Although Zhang Liang's status was not low, in this space, he was tactful enough to give the right to speak to Liu Che, an emperor whose achievements were no less than those of Qin Shihuang.

Ying Zheng shook his head and said calmly:
"No, I wanted to find out the reason before taking action, but before I could do that, the time was up."

"Liu Che is right. Zhao Gao has served me for many years and has done many things for me. He even helped me resist assassins. If I behead him without any evidence, the court officials will be worried."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered:
"He's just a eunuch. Just kill him. Why should we give an explanation to the court officials? As we say, those who accomplish great things don't care about trivial matters. Those who get in the way deserve to be killed."

"If you don't believe me, ask Liu Che. His ancestors were much more skilled at killing the dog after the rabbit is dead than we are, right?"

Liu Che:......

Liu Che took a deep breath, not wanting to pay attention to this presumptuous old guy, and turned to look at Ying Zheng again.

"The First Emperor, have you tested the elixir since you returned? This is only related to the alchemists, there shouldn't be any taboos, right?"

When it comes to elixirs and alchemists, Ying Zheng's face completely falls.

Before, in front of other people, even if he was shocked and angry after he was sure that the elixir was really poisonous, he couldn't show it completely, otherwise it would inevitably damage the majesty of the First Emperor. But now, everyone present was the emperors and generals of later generations. They were all Song Shen's students and had equal status, so there was no need to put on airs.

His eyes were gloomy and he nodded slowly:

"After two pills were swallowed, a chicken fell to the ground on the spot."

"Just before noon, I issued an order to take away all the alchemists in the palace and in the city of Xianyang, and sentence them to death by being torn apart by chariots, and to bury them outside the city of Xianyang. I also summoned all the people in the city to watch the execution as a warning to others."

"From now on, if anyone dares to use the name of a Taoist priest to defraud others, steal money and kill people, the Qin officials can kill them first and then report to the emperor!"

"After the decree was issued, I heard the system say that I had greatly changed the course of history and awarded 0.5 points, which is about half a point."

"Everyone, what do you think?"

What do you think?
Everyone seemed to be thinking about something, only Zhang Liang frowned and said:

"This seems a bit strange. The burning of books and burying of scholars should have happened around the 34th year of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. These two events are cause and effect."

"If the First Emperor had not burned the books and collections of various schools of thought, the Confucian scholars would not have heard the news and fled in fear that the First Emperor would investigate their failed quest for immortality; if they had not fled with the money, the First Emperor would not have been furious and buried alive hundreds of Confucian scholars."

"In a sense, burying the Confucian scholars alive in advance did change the course of history, but the impact was no greater than changing Fusu's ending of committing suicide."

“Why does the system reward points instead of quotas this time?”

Before Ying Zheng opened his mouth, Zhu Biao and Zhu Qizhen were shocked.

Zhu Biao stared at Zhang Liang and Ying Zheng with eyes wide open:
"What do the Confucian scholars who were killed in the book burning and burying of scholars have to do with the alchemists?"

There was also a gleam of desire for knowledge (and wanting to hear gossip) in Zhu Qizhen's eyes.

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless:
"What are you two listening to? The important thing about this matter is not the Confucian scholars, but the points, okay?" Ying Zheng was even more confused:
"Confucian scholars are alchemists, don't you know?"

"However, I do find what Liu Hou just said interesting...burning books is indeed an effective method."

"Although the six kingdoms have been destroyed, their remnants are still resisting. If we can collect and burn the books of various schools of thought scattered throughout the world, within fifty years, or two or three generations, the remnants of the six kingdoms will no longer be able to stir up trouble."

"Who came up with this idea and suggested it to me? It's a good idea."

The three people from the Ming Dynasty were a little confused.

It was the first time they heard that the Confucian scholars involved in the burning of books and burying of scholars were actually alchemists!

Zhu Yuanzhang was fine, after all, he had never read any books, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with what Qin Shihuang did. But Zhu Biao and Zhu Qizhen, who grew up with Confucian education, had a different world view.

Zhang Liang had a vague idea of ​​why people in later generations were so shocked. It was probably because the history books of the Han Dynasty disparaged the First Emperor, which distorted the causes and consequences of the burning of books and burying of scholars.

He touched his nose awkwardly:

"We can talk about this later, but Liang thinks that we can use a different approach to ask the teacher what he thinks during class. This way, we can find out the different impacts of different events on the course of history."

The class bell rang at the right time.

Everyone moved quickly and took their seats.

Song Shen walked up to the podium, put the lesson plan on the table, and said cheerfully:

"Hello, classmates!"

"In the last class, we talked about the tribes of Yanhuang, Yao, Shun and Yu. Let's speed up this class. Everyone, please turn to the next unit -"

“The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties: The Emergence of Early States and Social Change.”

"The first half of this unit focuses on the feudal system, bronze ware and oracle bone inscriptions, while the second half focuses on the turmoil during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, as well as the Hundred Schools of Thought. Please see if you have any questions. If you have any, please raise them in time."

Everyone quickly opened the history textbooks in front of them and found that the back part that was originally unable to be opened could indeed be opened.

They suppressed their excitement and watched it carefully.

Who cares about those boring prehistoric civilizations?
Now that we have reached the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it means that the next courses will soon move to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and we are about to enter the history that they care about. This is the key point!
The classroom was quiet for a while, and all the students were reading the contents of the book carefully. Although everyone knew something about the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, especially Ying Zheng and Zhang Liang, who experienced it firsthand, it was another experience to look at what they had experienced from the perspective of later generations in history books.

half an hour.

A hand suddenly raised.

Song Shen raised his eyebrows:

"Oh, classmate Ying Zheng, what's your question?"

Sitting in his seat, Ying Zheng calmly raised his questions.

"Sir, I want to know, from the perspective of future generations, which is better, the feudal system or the county system?"

"When I implemented the county system a few years ago, many people in the court strongly opposed it. Even now, more than three years have passed, and many people are still suggesting that I enfeoff each prince."

"Which one do you think is better?"

(End of this chapter)