If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

No one expected that the protests by intellectuals would be so large-scale.

At least several thousand scholars had gathered at the palace gates. (In feudal times, scholars were few in number, so several thousand was already a large number.)

"Protest! Protest!"

“Zhou Wu insulted the sages and virtuous men; Your Majesty, please punish him.”

“Zhou Wu is a treacherous minister; his actions are truly destroying the foundation of my Great Dragon.”

"Down with Zhou Wu."

Besides ordinary scholars, students from the Imperial Academy were also among them, and they were the ones leading the way. It's hard not to believe that there were arrangements made by the Imperial Academy involved.

Inside the palace.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, a large number of scholars have gathered outside and are causing trouble."

The guards saw that the troublemakers were all scholars, and that they were only shouting slogans without doing anything excessive, so they could not use force and could only quickly report the matter to His Majesty.

"Causing trouble? What kind of trouble?"

The emperor and the retired emperor were playing mahjong, but upon hearing that scholars were causing trouble, they could roughly guess that it might be related to Emperor Wu of Zhou.

"Your Majesty, it's because of Lord Zhou's plan to build a technical school."

The guards dared not conceal the truth and urgently needed the Emperor to make a decision: to arrest or release them.

"Look, this has come out of nowhere. Emperor, how do you plan to deal with it?"

In the past, the retired emperor would have simply stood by and watched the spectacle, but this time, because Zhou Wu was involved, the retired emperor certainly couldn't stand idly by.

"What can we do? We can't hit these people, we can't scold them, what else can we do?"

Scholars remain the backbone of the Great Dragon Dynasty, but Zhou Wu is making contributions to the Great Dragon in every way. In the past, Zhou Wu was the one to handle things, but this time the emperor is prepared to personally support him.

"Hmph, these scholars, thinking they've read enough about sages and saints, act like they can just stand around pointing fingers and giving orders, but they hide away whenever the country is in danger."

Li Tiancheng was furious. Sometimes he really wanted to teach these scholars a lesson, but he couldn't. This time he just couldn't hold back. If there were no skilled workers, who would build the Gaoli and Dazi?

"Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

Seeing his son about to argue with the scholars, the retired emperor quickly stopped him.

“In the past, whenever Zhou Wu encountered trouble, I would always let him handle it himself. I couldn’t let him feel disappointed every time.”

"Sit down, I'll go."

The retired emperor had also been an emperor, and he knew that if the emperor intervened in such matters, he might not be able to help, and might even cause more trouble.

I like Zhou Wu too, so I'll take the initiative to avoid giving others cause for criticism.

Seeing that his father was actually willing to step forward, Li Tiancheng felt a surge of emotion.

. . . . . .

Outside the palace, the scholars shouted themselves hoarse, but no one came forward to agree to their claim, which only strengthened their belief that they were in the right.

Led by the students of the Imperial College, they shouted even more enthusiastically.

"The Emperor Emeritus has arrived."

As the retired emperor arrived, the crowd gradually quieted down.

"Why is it the retired emperor?"

"The Emperor won't show up?"

"It's probably because the Emperor didn't expect this matter to escalate so much and become so difficult to handle, which is why he had the retired Emperor step in."

"That makes sense. It seems like this matter should be settled then?"

Everyone quieted down, wanting to see how the Emperor Emeritus would apologize. However, what he said completely stunned everyone.

"You bunch of people, have you wasted all your education?"

No one expected that the once gentle and refined Emperor Emeritus would actually hurl insults at this group of scholars.

"Your Majesty the Retired Emperor..."

One of the scholars seemed to want to argue something, but before he could finish speaking, the Emperor Emeritus yelled at him to shut up.

"Shut up! I see you all hiding in your rooms reading all day, you're all going to become idiots. Gao Li, Dazi is the land that countless men of our Great Dragon fought and sacrificed for their descendants. Now that it's our Great Dragon's land, are we just going to let it go to waste and not build it up?"

"Your Majesty, that's not what we meant. I believe no one from the Great Dragon Kingdom would be unhappy or proud of conquering Gaoli and Dazi, but what does that have to do with Zhou Wu opening a technical school?"

The students seemed unconvinced.

"Ridiculous! Do you even know how large the territory of my Great Dragon Kingdom is?"

Seeing that no one answered, they asked about the size of the Great Dragon's territory, but it was clear that this question was no challenge for the people below.

"Our great dragon land, since its founding, has a measured area of ​​approximately 3.03 million square kilometers." (Don't get hung up on the unit of measurement.)

The person who answered first looked smug, as if they had answered a very difficult question.

The others were indignant, regretting that they were a step too slow.

"That's right, 3.03 million square kilometers. Let me give you a brief overview: the area of ​​the Kingdom of Gali is 280,000 square kilometers."

"Hiss~~~~"

All the scholars gasped in shock. They had always said that Gaoli was a tiny place, but no one had expected that this tiny place would be one-tenth the size of the Great Dragon.

"Dalong has gained an extra tenth of land for no reason. Don't you think we need a lot of labor and skilled workers to support the construction?"

The students fell silent. They had acted impulsively, thinking they had only conquered two countries, one of which, Gaoli, had always been considered a tiny place.

The size of the Turkic Khaganate was largely overlooked, and ordinary people had no concrete concept of it. The Turkic Khaganate's strength was only considered in terms of its nomadic nature and cavalry.

"Then do you know how large the Turkic Khaganate was?"

Everyone shook their heads again.

The retired emperor had an expression that said, "I knew it." He knew these scholars were all bookworms who didn't have any independent thought.

"The Turkic territory covers 3.16 million square kilometers, which is slightly larger than my Great Dragon. After my Great Dragon conquered the Gaoli and the Turks, its territory more than doubled, and now it covers 6.47 million square kilometers."

"Wow~~~"

"What! The Turks are actually bigger than my Great Dragon?"

"This is impossible."

"I do not believe."

When the students heard that the Turkic Khaganate was larger than the Great Dragon, they shook their heads in disbelief. If someone else had said this, they might have directly refuted it, but since it was the current Emperor Emeritus who said it, there was really no room for argument. Disbelief was just a matter of their own minds; they simply couldn't believe that there was a country in the world larger than the Great Dragon.

“Zhou Wu’s technical school is currently the fastest way to train skilled workers. If any of you have a better way, I will suggest to His Majesty that the technical school be abolished.”

After the retired emperor finished speaking, his eyes swept over everyone, but no one offered a better solution, and they all lowered their heads.

At this moment, the royal family and Zhou Wu have won a complete victory. What saints and teachings are all bullshit. More than half of the land of the Great Dragon is waiting for everyone to build it up. Who will do it? Are they going to rely on these scholars who can't even kill a chicken?