Chapter 322: Overreaching the Dispute

After fiddling for a long time, I finally logged in and kept prompting that I was abnormal in logging.

This sentence is not unfamiliar to many Chinese people. It was said by Confucius, an thinker, educator, and founder of Confucianism in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Of course, Wu Fan is naturally very clear about this.

I looked up at the person who said something. Standing outside the hall, I was a junior. I was young, about fifteen or sixteen years old, and I had a childish look on it, but I had a certain amount of pride that was not consistent with my age.

This person's name is Yang Xiu, whose courtesy name is Dezu, and is the son of Yang Biao.

Seeing that his father, who had always been mature and polite, was speechless by Wu Fan's words, the young and arrogant Yang Xiu couldn't hold back his anger and shouted outside regardless of the court rules. After calling this, he squeezed through the crowd and walked towards Wu Fan.

Yang Xiu was arrogant in history, and the same is true in this world at present. He has no humility towards Wu Fan, who is more than ten levels higher than his official position. He is like walking on the street and meeting an acquaintance in his randomness.

Although Wu Fan wanted to implement a concept that everyone was born equal, it was a social scene after the success of reform and his beliefs were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Now, the reform has not yet begun. As the highest ruler in the country besides Emperor Cao Chong, the necessary majesty must be demonstrated.

Otherwise, how can you overcome many obstacles and force reforms?

As a result, Wu Fan was obviously a little unhappy with Yang Xiu's performance. Yang Biao, who was standing in the first row of ministers, saw the mood change on Wu Fan's face, quickly turned around and signaled Yang Xiu with a thumbs up, and quickly retreated. However, Yang Xiu deliberately pretended not to understand his father's thumbs up, and still insisted on walking towards Wu Fan.

He thought that the sacred text he had brought out had left Wu Fan speechless, so he deliberately showed an unhappy look, intending to force him to retreat. But he didn't do it according to Wu Fan's intention, but he wanted to see how Wu Fan interpreted it.

It would be better to let Wu Fan look ugly in front of everyone, so that he would bring back some face to his father.

Yang Xiu thought so, and naturally refused to retreat according to Yang Biao's eyes. He came straight to Wu Fan, and made a move to be regarded as seeing the courtesy. Then he stood in front of Wu Fan and waited for Wu Fan to respond.

Although he was a little displeased with Yang Xiu's performance, the necessary responses cannot be omitted. After all, Wu Fan has decided to win the support of most ministers to make the reform better.

Turning his head and looking at the idle eunuch civil servant standing behind him, he waved. The eunuch civil servant walked over with confusion on his face, and Wu Fan said to him:

"You go and cover up his eyes with Yang Xiu."

The eunuch civil servant became more and more confused when he heard this, but Wu Fan, as the Grand Marshal, asked him to do this. He dared not to do it, so he had to walk down the steps and apologize to Yang Xiu. Then he took out a piece of silk cloth from his sleeve and covered Yang Xiu's eyes.

The civil and military officials in the court looked confused when they saw this, and they didn't know what Wu Fan meant. Yang Xiu changed his previous arrogant self-esteem and became at a loss. He wanted to take off the silk cloth covered his eyes but did not dare, so he could only stand in front of Wu Fan.

Wu Fan had no expression on his face and reached out to pull out the Snake-Slaying Sword. With a clanging sound, the silver light shone brightly, and the entire court flashed. The civil and military officials in the court couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw this scene. Yang Xiu's father Yang Biao was even more frightened. He hurriedly stepped forward a few steps and was about to plead with Wu Fan, but he saw that Wu Fan had placed the sword about five centimeters under Yang Xiu's jaw and asked Yang Xiu:

"Zhengbu Yang, where is the sword in my hand now?"

Yang Xiu was stunned by the question, and after a while, he said:

"When my lower eyes are covered and I can't see anything, how can I know where the sword in my hand is placed?"

After hearing this, Wu Fan nodded after realizing it and said:

"So that's what Yang Zhubu said very much."

After pausing, Wu Fan continued:

"So, I will ask Yang Zhubu a further question: Can a frog sitting in a well know the appearance of the entire world except the wellhead?"

Yang Xiu's answer this time was quite fast, and he said:

"The frog in the well had to look up and see a sky, so naturally he could not know the vast world outside the well."

Wu Fan nodded again and said:

"It turns out that Yang Zhubu knows everything and has no problem with his mind. But why should he use the remarks of a person in the late stage of the slave society hundreds of years ago to question reform? Confucius, Confucius, whose name is Zhongni, is a very influential thinker, but he is just a mortal in the final analysis. In this way, those who regard all his words as sacred scriptures are tantamount to being outside the well, but their thoughts are still in the well. Ignorance may not be your fault, but using your ignorance to question others is your wrong."

After saying that, Wu Fan picked up the Snake-Slaying Sword in his hand, and the blade that was blowing hair immediately broke the silk cloth covering Yang Xiu's eyes with a sound, but Yang Xiu's face was not hurt at all. This move alone made everyone present breathe a sigh of relief, and was deeply impressed by Wu Fan's sword skills in his heart.

Speaking of this, there must be friends who are dissatisfied with Chongjia's refusal to regard the words of Saint Confucius as the Bible, so Chongjia nagged for a few words.

Of course, Confucius was amazing. The ideas and beliefs he proposed had influenced the Chinese people for more than 2,000 years and spread to Japan, South Korea and other countries, forming a Confucian cultural circle. However, in the final analysis, Confucius was also a mortal. He also needed to eat, drink, defecate, sleep, and marry and have children. He could not know thousands of years ago and thousands of years later, just like the legendary gods.

Since he was a mortal, it was inevitable that there would be mistakes. Besides, in the late slave society where Confucius was in, there was no concept of democracy and equality between the ruling class and the people in society. Confucius himself represented the declining slave owner class. Therefore, his remarks must often be biased against the ruling class, at least beneficial to the ruling class. This is also the reason why Emperor Wu of Han, who wanted to strengthen centralized rule, "demolished all schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone" rather than other techniques.

Suppose that after Emperor Wu of Han dismissed all schools of thought, the only ones respected were Taoism, magic, military art, Yin-Yang art, famous art, Mo art... Then, the saints we are talking about today should be Lao Tzu, Han Fei, Sun Wu, Zou Yan, Deng Xi, Mo Zi...

In other words, the reason why Confucius was respected as a saint is that his Confucianism was developed and strengthened by Emperor Wu of Han, and has been spread to this day and has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. This is like religion. When its influence is great enough, people will naturally sacred its relevant representatives to find a spiritual sustenance for their thoughts.

However, our situation belongs to cultural beliefs, but it still does not affect people's "sacred plot" to sacred Confucius.

In fact, other schools besides Confucianism also have many beliefs that have passed down from generation to generation, and are even urgently needed by today's society. For example, the Taoist "inaction" is more suitable for the ruling class - the will of the people of the whole country should not be kidnapped and forced to realize the ultimate ideal of a certain political party. For example, the "universal love" of the Mohist school is suitable for the entire society - love should not be distinguished by relatives, nobles and lows, hierarchies, etc.

There are many similar classical concepts, but they are buried because of the supremacy of Confucianism. This cannot be said to be a killing of the profound and profound Chinese civilization. This is also the fundamental reason why Wu Fan allowed the existence of the Ten University Schools: True gold is not afraid of fire; truth is never afraid of argument, but instead makes the truth clearer in argument.

Of course, Chongjia said this not to everyone abandon Confucianism or even despise Confucius. It just puts things out and explains them, so that everyone can understand the essence of things, that's all. We still need to inherit and carry forward the good ideas in Confucianism. A nation without common beliefs cannot be united.

Let’s look back and talk about the court.

Although Wu Fan's words were not as much as Chongjia said, and they were not very detailed. However, in this world, Confucianism has just been respected for more than a hundred years and has not yet been fully embedded in people's hearts. Therefore, Wu Fan's words naturally received unanimous approval from everyone.

As a result, more people support the reform, which is close to 1:1 compared to the opposition.

Yang Xiu walked down with shame. His father Yang Biao felt relieved when he saw that Wu Fan had not done anything to his son. Wu Fan also fooled Yang Xiu, effectively offsetting his displeasure.

Cao Xiu, the general of the West of Zhen, stood up at this time, changed his previous respect for Wu Fan, and said with great displeasure on his face:

"I would like to say nothing about the specific matters of reform mentioned by Grand Sima Wu. I feel deeply puzzled by the fact that the army did not completely obey the emperor's dispatch. If the military power holds the military to rebel, wouldn't the emperor be left alone?"

Cao Xiu's performance was completely expected by Wu Fan, because he was one of the relatives of the Cao family. Wu Fan's reforms were aimed at weakening the imperial power, and the relatives of the Cao family must be extremely dissatisfied with this. In other words, if Cao Xiu was as happy as usual at this time, Wu Fan would have to be more careful whether he would secretly stumbling on him.

Wu Fan smiled at Cao Xiu and said:

"General Cao only considered one thing, but not the other. Although the emperor's direct command over the army was weakened during the reform, the emperor was still the supreme commander of the army. In addition, while this reform, the army also needed to adhere to the principle of supremacy of the interests of the country and the people. If this principle is violated, the emperor's orders will not be obeyed. Let me ask, even the emperor's command over the army is subject to such many restrictions. How can other people in charge of military power lead the army to seek power and cause chaos?"

When Cao Xiu heard this, he was speechless. He came out impulse to question Wu Fan, but did not think about too many things. After hearing what Wu Fan said, Cao Xiu realized that his worries were really untenable.

But Wu Fan asked Cao Xiu again at this time:

"General Cao, I will ask you another question: These fifteen reforms have many actions to weaken the imperial power. If all of them are implemented, the emperor's existing power will be greatly reduced. Over time, this established system and concept will become more and more popular. In this case, if you are a local general, even if you hold up to hundreds of thousands of soldiers in your hand, and all these hundreds of thousands of soldiers obey you, will you risk the torture that will be tortured that if you are defeated, you will be tortured to death and seek death to seize the position of emperor with little power?"

Cao Xiu was stunned by the question, then waved his hand and said:

"I can't say this, how could I have the will to seize the throne?"

Wu Fan smiled and said:

"I'm just an assumption. Everyone here also heard it. It's just an assumption."

Cao Xiu then thought about Wu Fan's problem carefully, and soon realized that although Wu Fan was weakening the imperial power, he made the emperor's position stronger. Because the emperor's position after the reform was more like an empty shell, just pretending to be an empty shell, but whoever wants to seize this empty shell will have to bear the most sentencing charge and will be tortured alive in prison for the rest of his life.

The efforts are not proportional to the returns at all. Who would do such a loss-making business?

As a result, Cao Xiu suddenly realized that although he was dissatisfied with more than a dozen other reforms, he, who had been refuted by Wu Fan, could only silently return to the train at this time.

Next, several people raised doubts about the reform, and Wu Fan refuted them all. All the civil and military officials in the court heard it very suddenly, and many of them had begun to have longing for the appearance of the country after the reform.

Even more than half of the ministers who were originally in the conservative opposition began to change their positions, either speechless and neutral, or directly support Wu Fan's reforms.

At this point, the ratio of ministers who supported and opposed reform has changed from 3:7 at the beginning to 7:3 at the present time.

Both are just in a mess.

Yang Biao, the first to speak out against reform, stood up again and bowed to Wu Fan:

"Wu Grand Sima, I am so stupid that I cannot understand the essence of reform. After refuting the arguments of Wu Grand Sima, I finally saw some signs. However, the intensity of these fifteen reforms and the wide impact of the impact are unprecedented. Once they fail, the consequences will be unimaginable; but if they succeed, the whole country will be completely renewed. Although I am old, I still have a heart to serve the country. I am willing to assist Wu Grand Sima, just to make the country strong. I do not seek to make contributions to this move, but to be innocent of future generations."

Most of the people who expressed the same ideas as Yang Biao were old ministers, such as Wang Yun, the chief censor who had never spoken. Although he was Wu Fan's father-in-law, he was not easy to speak out at first. However, after hearing Wu Fan's refutation, many old ministers, including Wang Yun and Yang Biao, changed their ideas.

However, these people are often persistent and cautious in their work, and are old and have no desire to be promoted in fame and fortune in this life. As long as they are not labeled as a "stubborn conservative" by future generations, they will be satisfied if they are left to blame for future generations.

This is what Yang Biao said, "I don't ask for merit in this action, but I want to be innocent of future generations."

After hearing this, Wu Fan nodded. Although he didn't say anything, he had never expected to win the support of some old ministers. From this point of view, Wu Fan was very pleased at this moment.

Next, no one from the civil and military officials in the court stood up to question the reforms from Wu Fan. Wu Fan let everyone disperse, but he still had to stay in Yecheng and wait for the specific implementation of the reforms in the next few days.

Just as the ministers whispered to each other, talking about their views on reform while dispersing; Xiahou Dun, who had been standing silently, raised his head and looked at Wu Fan and said:
Chapter completed!