So what if I traveled through time? I'll continue to roll in another place

Zhou Yao listened carefully to Qiu's narration, "I have a booklet I compiled. Zhaoji is a national history, and many contents are inconvenient to elaborate on. So I verified and supplemented many contents myself, striving to record completeness and truthfulness."

There were very few people in the court who were interested in national history, and it was rare for anyone to listen to Qiu Zhe talk so much.

"Although the Thirteen Classics written by Empress Yang is profound in content, I always feel that there are still some gaps. In addition, we are not familiar with or understand the places like Confucius and Mencius, Qi, Wei, Tang and Qin that appear in the book. Although these ideas are good, if we only study them without understanding them, they will become a tree without roots and water without a source, which will be a waste of so many good ideas." He sighed.

Currently, the court is promoting Empress Yang's version of The Thirteen Classics, and there are very few people like Qiu Zhuo who can express their opposition so openly.

"We still have to extract theories from reality. Even if they are not as profound and refined as what Empress Yang said, they are derived from reality. Or we can test the principles in the Thirteen Classics more often in official duties. We cannot just memorize them blindly for the sake of passing the imperial examinations." Qiu Zhuo said.

"Mencius said: It is better to have no books than to believe in them completely. This is what he meant." He took a sip of tea and sighed again. "Look, the Thirteen Classics are so powerful that even if I want to reflect on it now, I still have to quote it."

He laughed at himself, "So everyone thinks I'm just dreaming. I think that if we only study without thinking, it will only make the court dependent, and it will only stagnate."

“If one studies without thinking, one will be confused; if one thinks without studying, one will be in danger.” Zhou Yao knew this.

"Yes, that's what I mean, haha." Qiu Zhuo said with a smile, "But it's really impossible to learn all the Thirteen Classics. How can anyone surpass her?"

The two of them had a great time, and Zhou Yao sent Qiu Zhuo back to his residence. Tang Shuyi had not yet returned home, so Qiu Zhuo asked him to wait for a while, and then returned to the study to get his manuscript for him.

"My dear nephew, this is the national history I have compiled over the years. You can take a look at it first and give me some suggestions when the time comes." Qiu Zhuo said modestly.

"Thank you, uncle. I will study it carefully." He bowed, took the manuscript respectfully, said goodbye to Qiu Zhuo, and asked the servant to drive the carriage back to Xiao's house.

Zhou Yao told Xiao Yueshan everything about his conversation with Qiu Zhuo today.

"Of course. The Thirteen Classics were gradually developed from the Five Classics of the Han Dynasty and were finally formed in the Southern Song Dynasty. They are the result of two thousand years of efforts by many of China's top thinkers. They are the lessons learned from the succession of many emperors and generals. It is amazing that Qiu Zhuo can reflect on this point." Xiao Yueshan said.

The two of them read Qiu Zhuo's manuscript together. Qiu Zhuo's national history was compiled based on important figures as indexes, and according to the classification of historical books, it should be considered a chronicle.

This history book is written in great detail, elaborating on the emperor's political achievements, words and deeds, as well as the impact of events. When recording historical facts, Qiu Zhuo paid great attention to deeper exploration of the cause and effect relationships and authenticity of events. Qiu Zhuo even personally inspected many places.

"I didn't expect Qiu Zhe has some potential like Sima Qian." Xiao Yueshan praised as he looked at the thick manuscript.

However, since it is both a biography and a chronicle, it is difficult for Zhou Yao and Xiao Yueshan, two people who are not majoring in history, to read.

The reign-year calendar system always made them feel discontinuous. In addition, there was no family planning here and people had three wives and four concubines. There were many historical figures and they were very complicated. Sometimes they often read the wrong generation, which made it difficult to read.

Xiao Yueshan waved his hand and said, "Hey, why don't we just convert it to the Gregorian calendar? Just set the year when Chu Guoding was born as 1000, then sort out their timeline and give him the entire family tree, then it will be clear at a glance."

They acted as soon as they said they would. These past few days, Zhou Yao had been on duty at home with Xiao Yueshan to sort out Qiu's history books.

Chu Guoding spent most of his life fighting wars in the south and the north. In addition to the story about the attack on Ningguo that Qiu Zhuo told him at the banquet, there are also records of his attacks on other countries and the recovery of various ethnic groups.

Xiao Yueshan suggested: "With our strength, we can't come up with anything new. The Thirteen Classics is a Confucian classic, and there are not many military strategies. How about we focus on the Thirty-Six Stratagems and combine it with the story of the founding of the State of Chu to summarize it into military thought?"

Fortunately, Xiao Yueshan was a liberal arts student who loved to read "leisure books". She finally remembered all the Thirty-Six Stratagems by memory. Some of them were popular, such as Concealing the Heaven and Crossing the Sea, Encircling Wei to Save Zhao, Killing with a Borrowed Knife, and Taking Advantage of the Fire. However, some of them were not so easy to remember, such as Pretending to be Mad, Pulling the Ladder Out after Climbing the Roof, and Flowers on the Tree.

Fortunately, most of the stories here are well-known idioms, and many of them are very vivid, so it is not very difficult to complete them one by one.

Zhou Yao admired her memory very much, but Xiao Yueshan admired Queen Yang even more. She racked her brains just to think of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, but her sister memorized thirteen books.

The Thirty-Six Stratagems are divided into six sets of six strategies each, namely, Stratagems for Winning a Battle, Stratagems for Fighting the Enemy, Stratagems for Attacking a Battle, Stratagems for Mixed Battles, Stratagems for Joint Battles, and Stratagems for Defeat. Sixty-six is ​​thirty-six, and there is art in numbers, and numbers in art. The harmony of yin and yang, the opportunity lies in it.

Xiao Yueshan selected some appropriate examples from Chu Guoding's war stories and sorted them out, and finally applied relevant strategies.

Besiege Wei to Save Zhao, there is no Wei or Zhao here, so it is hard to explain; smiling but hiding a dagger, secretly marching through Chencang seems to have affected the emperor's positive image a bit.

Therefore, she did not try to get too many strategies, and only chose to discuss six strategies with more neutral meanings, namely, waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out, watching the fire from the other side of the river, luring the tiger away from the mountain, turning the tables, and running away.

The two discussed this idea with Xiao Zheng, and he agreed very much. "This idea is quite innovative. If Master Zuoqiu takes your sermon, he will definitely win first place."

He saw Qiu Zhuo's manuscript and was amazed at his old friend's persistence. "I didn't expect that Brother Qiu has completed such a huge project in these years. If it can be printed into a book, it will complement Zhaoji and will definitely enhance each other."

After reading the two people's speeches, Xiao Zheng made some adjustments to some of the wording and writing structure.

"If I had known that Yao'er and Shan'er were so creative, I would have kept these good ideas for myself." He joked with a smile.

The two of them worked together to improve the manuscript, and Zhou Yao was able to take it to Zuo Qiu Zhi to report.

"I just said not to repeat what the ancients said, but in the end I can only plagiarize our ancestors." Xiao Yueshan looked at the finished manuscript and smiled helplessly.

"There's nothing we can do. There's a lot of plagiarism in the world." Zhou Yao understood and it was good enough as long as he could get the job done.

Moreover, their sermon did not originate from Confucian classics, so I wonder if Zuo Qiuzhi would really use it.

Whether in ancient times or modern times, the harder workers work, the more sad and wasted their time becomes.