Chapter 592 Imperial College Lecture
Chapter 592 Imperial College Lecture
Under the iron plate is Wei Liangcai's treasure cave, which is a huge wooden box divided into three compartments. One large compartment is filled with gold and silver, another smaller compartment is full of jewels, and the smallest compartment contains dozens of letters.
Zhao Juan'er lit a candle and Shi Xiaozhen carefully looked at dozens of letters. They did not take the letters away, but they wanted to get key information from the letters.
"what!"
Shi Xiaozhen exclaimed in surprise. The letter in his hand was actually a new letter written by Wei Chong. The content of the letter was that Wei Yue would come to Xuancheng County in the future and asked Wei Liangcai to be prepared.
What does that mean? Are they going to assassinate Prince Jin as well?
Shi Xiaozhen put the letter aside temporarily and continued to read other letters. Suddenly he stopped. The letter in his hand was the one he was looking for. It was written by Wei Zhi from the Secretariat.
After reading the letter, Shi Xiaozhen realized that Wei Zhi was actually Wei Liangcai's nephew. He was a third-level aide and had access to the library where various documents and drawings were stored, which meant that he could get the drawings of the Prince of Jin's Mansion.
Shi Xiaozhen put the letter back to its original place, and the two of them covered the wooden box with an iron plate. Zhao Juaner gently pushed the floor, and with a "click", the floor was restored to its original place. This mechanism was indeed very clever and difficult to find. Even if it was found, it might not be opened, or the floor could only be split open by force.
The next morning, Shi Xiaozhen handed a letter to Zhao Juaner, and Zhao Juaner returned to Jingkou City.
Shi Xiaozhen continued to stay in Xuancheng County, waiting for Wei Yue's arrival.
In the morning, Li Luming, who received the news, hurried to Xiao Xia's official residence. When he walked into the room, he saw Prince Jin standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back, thinking silently.
"This is a humble post, Your Highness!"
Xiao Xia looked back at her, picked up a letter from the table and handed it to her, saying, "There is a letter from Xuancheng County, take a look."
The letter was written by Shi Xiaozhen. Although he was Li Luming's subordinate, the letter was brought back by Zhao Juaner, so naturally it fell into Xiao Xia's hands first.
Li Luming quickly took the letter, opened it and read it, and was immediately shocked. Wei Yue was coming to Xuancheng County, and she immediately realized that Wei Yue had bad intentions.
"Your Highness, who is Wei Zhi?" Li Luming was not familiar with this person.
Xiao Xia said calmly, "He was one of the recruits that year, and was recommended by Xuancheng County. I never thought that he was actually Wei Liangcai's nephew."
"He has access to the blueprints of the palace?"
"His job is to organize documents and archives. He is now a third-level staff member and can go in and out of the library. Fortunately, he has not yet been promoted to a second-level staff member and cannot enter the confidential library. Therefore, he cannot get the current palace blueprints and can only get the Jiangdu blueprints."
"Your Highness, do we need to arrest him?"
Xiao Xia shook his head. "I don't know what Wei Yue wants to do now. Don't alert him for now. We can deal with him later. But we must monitor his every move."
"Your Highness, I suggest that you arrest Wei Yue and Wei Liangcai directly? Don't give them any chances."
Xiao Xia said slowly, "I've also been thinking about this, but I want to use this opportunity to completely uproot the Wei family's influence in Jiangnan, so we should not rush to act and wait and see what tricks they come up with. The key is that we must make arrangements and make sure nothing goes wrong." Li Luming bowed and saluted, "Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will definitely make arrangements!"
In the afternoon, Xiao Xia came to inspect the newly built Jiangnan Imperial College outside the south city.
The Jiangnan Imperial College was also established last year, with Yu Shinan as the principal. It currently has more than 300 students. These students study in the Imperial College for four years, and then will be assigned to various counties as teaching assistants, and then gradually promoted to professors.
So to some extent, Jiangnan University is actually a normal college.
Xiao Xia's carriage arrived at the gate of Imperial College, and Yu Shinan personally greeted Xiao Xia at the door.
Yu Shinan was not only the principal of the Imperial College, he was also the director of the Education Bureau, in charge of education in various parts of Jiangnan.
Xiao Xia greeted everyone and then walked into the school. The Imperial Academy covered an area of 300 acres and consisted of classrooms, dormitories and other buildings, as well as an archery range for students to practice archery.
"Your Highness, I heard that there will be a spring examination this year?" Yu Shinan asked.
The Spring Examination is the imperial examination. Xiao Xia smiled and said, "We can't call it the imperial examination, we call it the provincial examination. It hasn't been held for several years. How about giving the southern scholars a chance in March this year? Is Lord Yu interested in being the chief examiner?"
Of course, Xiao Xia was not speaking casually. One of his main purposes for visiting the Imperial College today was to hope that Yu Shinan would be the chief examiner. With Yu Shinan's reputation throughout the world, he could attract more outstanding scholars to take the exam.
Yu Shinan was a straightforward person. He stroked his beard and said cheerfully, "Since Your Highness has invited me, I will do my best to be the chief examiner."
The two men came to the large classroom at the back, which was like a palace that could accommodate the entire Imperial College's teachers and students. Three hundred students sat neatly on the floor. When Prince Jin walked into the hall, the students stood up together and applauded warmly to welcome him.
Xiao Xia walked up to the podium, waved his hand, and the scholars quieted down.
Xiao Xia smiled and said slowly: "Today, I am invited by Yu Xuezheng to give a short class. What is the content? I will briefly talk to you about Goguryeo. Why did the Sui Dynasty attack Goguryeo?"
There was silence in the hall. Every student was listening attentively. Xiao Xia first gave a brief introduction to the rise of Goguryeo, and then talked about how Sima Yi destroyed the Gongsun family, killed more than 20,000 Han people in Liaodong, and then abandoned Liaodong, which led to Goguryeo taking the opportunity to annex the four Lelang counties established by the Han Dynasty.
"First of all, we must understand that after losing Liaodong, the Hebei Plain will no longer have a strategic buffer zone. The Hebei Plain and the Jiangnan Plain are the two richest lands in our Central Plains Dynasty. No third land can compare with them. The grain produced here is the foundation for the Han people to survive for thousands of years. During the Kaihuang period, Hebei Road was still the largest source of grain for the Sui Dynasty. The Liyang Warehouse is a testimony to the abundance of grain in Hebei. Once we lose Liaodong as a strategic barrier, the Donghu people can invade Hebei at any time. The Donghu people's cavalry will sweep southward. For the next thousand years, our Han Dynasty will never have peace."
After a pause, Xiao Xia continued, "First, everyone understands the strategic importance of Liaodong. Then I will talk about Goguryeo in detail. This is a powerful and ambitious dynasty. If we do not weaken it or destroy it, it will soon unify the entire Liaodong and become a powerful opponent that is no less powerful than the Turks, and it will be eyeing our Hebei.
It will definitely join forces with the Turks to invade the Sui Dynasty from the east and the west. The Turks want wealth and women, while Goguryeo wants land. This is why the emperor wanted to launch a second expedition to Goguryeo. I just advised the emperor to attack Goguryeo a few years later, but I am not opposed to the destruction of Goguryeo.
If the emperor cannot destroy it, then I will be the one to destroy Goguryeo!"
(End of this chapter)