Master Yuan, start!

After explaining the two strategies, Cen Yuying sighed again, "Alas, if the governors and governors-general of various places had been more conscientious, our great China would not have become the state it is today!"

"Dad, according to what you said, if the governors and governors-general of all places support one side, then whoever you support will win, right?"

"No!" Cen Yuying stood up and walked out of the door. Before leaving, he said to his son:

"Whoever wins, we'll help!"

While Cen Yuying and his son Cen Chunxuan were planning in their study, other places in the capital were also busy.

The closer it gets to the end of the year, the more lively the capital becomes. Everyone knows that the emperor will be getting married after the first month of the new year. According to the traditional customs of the court, this happy event will definitely require rewards.

2 The expenses of the people in Beijing will certainly be much higher than in previous years, so many merchants who travel all over the country are rushing to transport goods to Beijing in the last few days of the year.

9. Furs from outside the country, seafood from Shandong, snow frogs from outside the Great Wall, Korean ginseng, silk from Jiangnan, and novelties from foreigners.

4 One by one, truck by truck, local specialties were shipped to the capital as if they were free. There were many precious items among them. This made the escort agencies in Shanxi and northern Zhili, which usually saw a continuous decline in business near the end of the year, boom again.

0Today, they finally had some free time. Led by their escort leader, the escorts from Yuanshun Escort Agency braved the wind and snow and walked into a restaurant called "Liuliting".

4 He asked for a few tables in the main hall, a few jars of good wine, and a few pounds of beef, then leaned back in his chair, put his thighs up and listened to the storytelling.

5Which play was it? It was a new play that had just become popular in Beijing during the twelfth lunar month, called "Huang Feihong and the Lion King's Battle for Hegemony."

6 As for Huang Feihong, he was a well-known martial artist in the South and had also worked as a bodyguard for several years. The bodyguards of Yuanshun Escort Agency had naturally heard of him.

4 So when the storyteller asked the guests in the hall what they wanted to hear, the group of escorts who were drinking and eating meat below became noisy and clamored to listen to Huang Feihong's storytelling.

Chapter 114 The Loom of Destiny

"Crack!"

The gavel banged, and everyone in the restaurant who had been talking and laughing fell silent. The storyteller in the hall began to narrate in his unique voice:

"Speaking of which, the Danying Kingdom, oh, now it should be called the German Kingdom, tried to forcibly lease land in Xiangshan, Guangdong two years ago.

Huang Feihong, the martial arts instructor of the Guangzhou Navy, happened to be teaching martial arts to his disciples here at that time. Seeing that the Germans were trying to seize the land, he was so angry that he decided to compete with the naval commander Felix.

Huang Feihong declared that if the Germans could defeat him in the lion dance competition, he would stop obstructing them; otherwise, he would force the Germans to withdraw from Chinese territory.

When the storyteller reached this point, Tan Sitong, who was standing on the second floor listening to the story, laughed, turned around, opened the door, and went back into the house.

"Master, this storyteller's story is too bizarre. The Germans had never set foot in China before, so how could they know what lion dancing was, not to mention that lion dancing techniques require three to five years to master. How could the Germans win in a sudden competition?

Even if the lion dance incident is true, I have seen Master Huang before when I was traveling in Guangdong. His lion dance skills are superb, and there are few rivals in the whole of Guangzhou. It would be easy for him to deal with the Germans who have never danced lions before!

Feilu Group

Tan Sitong was born into a family of officials and was taught by famous scholars in the capital since he was a child. His father was now the governor of Gansu. Naturally, he had no interest in telling stories full of mistakes and omissions.

So I felt bored after listening to the beginning and planned to go into the room to continue discussing some knowledge about governing the country and benefiting the people with the master.

"Resurrected Tan Sitong, now the country is in trouble, and the court has no signs of recovery. The people have been pent up with anger in their hearts for a long time and can't get rid of it. Using this street storytelling to get rid of the resentment in their hearts is also a helpless solution." After hearing what Tan Sitong said, a person in the room could only say helplessly.

The person whom Tan Sitong called "Master" was named Liu Renxi. He was Tan Sitong's former teacher and was from Liuyang, Hunan, the same province as him.

After Germany forcibly occupied Guangdong, Liu Renxi was filled with grief and indignation, and wrote eight poems in the style of Haiguo, denouncing the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Minister of the South China Sea, Li Hongzhang, who signed the contract.

Because of this incident, he was demoted by his superiors, so he resigned in anger and stayed in the capital.

On the one hand, it is because the emerging newspapers in the capital city in the past two years have been soliciting manuscripts from scholars in the capital. If their manuscripts are selected for publication, they can also earn money from them.

On the other hand, it was because many scholars gathered in the capital, and as the wedding day approached, more and more people gathered.

The collision of ideas and clash of opinions among scholars from all over the world in the capital was particularly fierce, and Liu Renxi was reluctant to leave such an environment of flourishing literary style.

After inviting Tan Si to the capital, the two of them thought about seeking a way to save China today from the works of sages and famous people of all ages.

"Alas, how can a common man be like this? We, the sages, must never be so absurd!" Tan Sitong knew that what his master said was true.

So he did not refute it, but could only advise himself again not to indulge in such fictional things.

After calming down, Tan Sitong continued his discussion with Liu Renxi on Wang Fuzhi's theory which had just been interrupted.

Wang Fuzhi's works were introduced to him by his master. You won't know how great they are until you read them.

"Master, I never thought that Mr. Chuanshan, more than 200 years ago, had such insightful insights.

"The people are the foundation; ruling the world is the way; reason and desire require unity, and only when human desires are greatly expanded can the principles of heaven be implemented." Tan Sitong could not help but applaud when he read this. The more he read Wang Fuzhi's works, the more he felt he benefited.

He was particularly shocked today when China had to cede territory and pay compensation time and again, and had to kowtow to foreigners.

Foreigners kept invading, and the imperial court repeatedly gave in. Initially, it thought it was because the foreigners had strong ships and powerful guns, so it bought ships and guns on a large scale. However, even with the foreign guns and guns, it was still no match for the foreigners.

At this time, many people around the world began to reflect on whether there was a problem within China itself and whether the knowledge passed down by the masters was flawed.

Many young scholars began to turn to new studies and began to come into contact with and learn Western ideas such as democracy, freedom, natural human rights, and equality at birth.

But Tan Sitong traveled across most of China in four or five years starting from the age of 19. He always felt that copying foreign things could not solve the problems he encountered during his travels in China.

That's why he accepted the invitation of his master Liu Renxi and went to Beijing to discuss ways to save the country with scholars from all over the world.

When Liu Renxi heard Tan Sitong praising Wang Fuzhi's philosophy, he angrily replied, "It's good, but how much can the court use it today?

"Putting the people first? Now that person is unwilling to even give up his position to his nephew, how can he really put the people first? Paying millions of taels of silver in compensation every year, how does that even seem like putting the people first?"

Upon hearing this, Tan Sitong, who had just been delighted that he had found ideas for saving the country among the Ming Dynasty sages, suddenly dimmed.

Just then, shouting was heard outside the door.

"Well done, Master Huang, you dance well!"

"Master Huang is a famous teacher known throughout the South Country. How could he be defeated by a foreigner?"

"Exactly, exactly!"

...

The escorts cheered loudly, probably because the storyteller had come to an exciting part.

Listening to the cheers, Tan Sitong suddenly remembered the "Westernization Enterprises" established by governors and governors-general when he traveled around China in recent years.

It seems that no one of them is not losing money. They claim to be pursuing Westernization and self-strengthening to get rich, but in fact they continue to pursue the policy of preserving the laws of nature and eliminating human desires.

While traveling in Shanghai, the general manager of the Jiangnan Arsenal asked the workers to understand the court's difficulties and delay the daily working hours by one hour, but he was reluctant to pay them more wages.

“Only when human desires are fully developed can the principles of Heaven be implemented.”

For Westernization, it is the law of nature to produce guns and cannons quickly and well. If one wants to implement the law of nature, one cannot forcibly suppress human desires.

This general manager always wants to extend working hours but refuses to increase wages. This is clearly a disguised form of deducting wages, which is also a suppression of human desires.

If human desires are damaged, the laws of nature will not be implemented smoothly.

Tan Sitong watched helplessly as the workers of the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai went on strike for a whole day, forcing the general manager to partially retract his order and change the demand to add half an hour to the working hours and provide daily meal expenses. Only then was the strike ended.

"Oh, Master, do you know that Yang Shenxiu was arrested and taken to the Ministry of Justice, and had to dig soil in the Summer Palace every day?" Sighing, Tan Sitong no longer had any expectations for the current court.

A year earlier, after hearing in Shanghai that the Germans had seized land in Guangdong, he joined forces with Kang Youwei, a prominent reformist in Shanghai, and several hundred other candidates from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. They sent a telegram to the Qing court, requesting them to "refuse rent, relocate the capital, and reform the political system. Do not abandon the earnest expectations of 400 million people."

However, after the telegram was sent, Kang Youwei's newspaper office was closed down and he hid in the concession and his whereabouts are unknown.

If Tan Sitong had not gone north to avoid the limelight in time, he would probably not be able to come to Beijing now.

"How could I not know? The capital was in an uproar after the court was dismissed on the winter solstice. If the Empress Dowager hadn't personally ordered this man to be imprisoned, he would have been pulled out of the Ministry of Justice long ago. Why would he be digging in the ground with his bare hands in such a freezing cold place?"

When Liu Renxi saw what happened to Yang Shenxiu, he felt a sense of sympathy for him.

Originally, Liu Renxi wanted to take advantage of the emperor's wedding parade in the capital to stop the carriage and submit a letter, but now it seems that this move might put his life in danger.

"But if this goes on, Yang Shenxiu's reputation may be in jeopardy. Why don't we report to the court officials and see if we can save him?" Tan Sitong felt a little sorry for Yang Shenxiu's miserable condition, so he suggested.

Liu Renxi pondered for a moment and thought of a man who had become very famous in recent years: "Nine governors-general will arrive in Beijing soon. Perhaps I can go and ask for their help."

　"Governor?"

Tan Sitong's eyes widened. "Master, please don't joke with me. Although I was born and raised in the capital, my father is only the governor of Gansu.

Forget asking for help at their door, I don't even know which way the door of the Nine Governors opens, how can I ask for help?"

Before Liu Renxi could reply, Tan Sitong continued, "Master, you may not know that when I was in Shanghai, I also joined forces with other scholars to write a letter to the court to express my opinion. However, as soon as the telegram was sent, the next day the Governor-General's Office of Liangjiang came to arrest me.

If I hadn't received your letter that night and packed my bags at home to head north, I would have been imprisoned like all the other Jiangnan scholars. Now, if I were to come to you and beg for mercy, wouldn't that be like walking into a trap?"

Just when Liu Renxi wanted to explain, he suddenly heard shouting and cursing outside the house.

Tan and Liu looked at each other, and without bothering to say anything, they quickly pushed open the door to find out what was going on.

I saw that the tables where the escorts had originally sat were in a mess, and a few chairs were missing.

Looking closely, it turned out that the chair had been thrown onto the storyteller's stage.

The rest of the audience in the hall had already scattered like birds and beasts, and a few burly escorts took two steps at a time and rushed onto the stage.

He grabbed the storyteller by the neck and said viciously, "Fuck you, I'm here to have fun, not to be fed shit by you.

Wong Fei-hung's lion dance was better than the Germans, so why did the imperial court still have to cede land and pay compensation? Now the people of the world have been wronged in reality, and they are going to be wronged again in your storybook.

What kind of book are you talking about!!!"

The storyteller was held in the air like a chicken. He had never seen such a scene before.

A few years ago, some bannermen also fought in public, and even attracted people from the Infantry Commander-in-Chief's Office. But at that time, they were just fighting each other, and he, the storyteller, was not involved!

Seeing that the situation was not going well, the storyteller could only raise his fist and beg for mercy three times towards the escort masters on and off the stage who were glaring at Lu Qi angrily:

Jiaoliu86

"Oh, please be kind, everyone. I'm just a storyteller. What this storybook is like has nothing to do with me!"

"Stop your bullshit, this is your storybook. If it wasn't you who wrote it, who else could it be?"

"My dear escorts, I really didn't write this. The scripts for Liuli Pavilion were all provided by the South City tabloids. I just memorized them and presented them on stage. The ending is really none of my business!"

After some further questioning, the escort who was holding the storyteller's neck could only let go of his hand in anger when he saw that the words had nothing to do with the storyteller.

"Bah! It's almost New Year's Day. I was hoping for a good start, but instead I got all this bad luck!"

The escort stretched out his five fingers, took the storyteller's script on the table, and after a flurry of hand movements, he tore it to pieces.

"call!"

The storyteller who survived the disaster patted his chest. For the first time, he felt that storytelling was also a high-risk industry.

"It's Zhao Liu. Since this has nothing to do with him, stop making trouble and apologize to him." The leader of the escorts spoke.

"Yes, fifth brother!" said the escort Zhao Liuying.

Then Zhao Liu helped the storyteller who was slumped on the stage to his feet, patted the dust off the hem of his jacket and said: