"I think the current Emperor is probably a little too hasty. How can the court's matters be so trifling?”
"That's right, how old are the heirs of the Eight Virtuous Kings? How can they convince all the officials if they suddenly rise to the second rank?”
"No wonder Grand Preceptor Pang didn't oppose it. It's obvious that His Majesty is just messing around. When he's done messing around, he'll know that governing the world isn't as simple as he says!”
.......
After the court session, the civil officials gathered together and discussed in low voices. Although they did not dare to oppose Zhao Zhen's authority on the surface, they had all sorts of private conversations.
Of course, they thought that they were far away from Zhao Xuan, but they didn't expect Zhao Xuan to be so powerful that their conversation fell into Zhao Xuan's ears word for word.
Hearing their conversation, the corners of Zhao Xuan's mouth curled into a cold smile. Now that he had the military power in his hands, the next thing he had to deal with was this group of civil officials.
Although Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Taizu, valued literature over martial arts, at that time, he was not used to the arrogance of civil officials.
In the Taizu and Taizong dynasties, the status of civil officials was only slightly higher than that of ordinary generals, but it had not reached the level of later generations.
In the Song Dynasty, the era where civil officials were spoiled to the point of no bottom line was the era of Zhenzong and Renzong, which was Zhao Zhen and his father, Zhao Heng.
These four lines of the Prodigy Poem were written during the True Sect era, when they started to support civil officials.
During the reign of Emperor Renzong, due to Zhao Zhen's benevolence and the policy left behind by his ancestors, the power of the civil officials increased rapidly.
In the middle of this, Fan Zhongyan, Fu Bi, Han Qi, and a large number of capable officials appeared, but they also completely dragged the Song Dynasty into a situation of civil and military strife.
Therefore, even with a famous general like Di Qing, the Northern Song Dynasty still had little to gain in military affairs.
The person who sang the title of top scholar outside Donghua Gate was a good man!
The conversation between Han Qi and Di Qing completely ignited the arrogance of the civil officials, even though Han Qi had said this in response to the corruption case in the military.
However, from then on, the Northern Song Dynasty no longer had any talents. As a result, during the Huizong period, the commander of the crusade against Fang La's rebellion and the alliance of Jin Annihilation became a eunuch, Tong Guan!
Generals had completely lost their status.
Therefore, the two Song dynasties only lasted for more than 300 years!
To Zhao Xuan, strengthening the country and the army was only the first step. To truly build the foundation of the Han people, the first step was to break the tradition of only respecting Confucianism.
Confucian culture had its essence, such as cultivating one's character, governing the country, benevolence, righteousness, rites, and music. These elements were not considered dregs.
However, the argument that the Analects of Confucius ruled the world was purely nonsense.
Philosophies couldn't solve the problem of people's livelihood, nor could they solve the law of nature. Therefore, Zhao Xuan wanted to set some rules for the Confucians.
Speaking of which, Zhao Xuan was quite glad that he was in the Northern Song Dynasty. At this time, Confucianism had not been ruled by rubbish like Confucianism.
After the chaos of the Tang Dynasty, the Confucian scholars were confused and had come up with all kinds of theories.
For example, the Taishan School, the Lianxi School, the Utilitarian School, and the School of Knowledge.
Among them, many schools had a long history. For example, the Lianxi School was actually the predecessor of Confucianism.
The founder of the Lianxi School was Zhou Dunyi, who wrote "The Love of the Lotus" in the language textbooks of later generations. His disciples were Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao brothers, who later founded the school of Confucianism.
The School of Utilityism, also known as the School of Achievement, focused on doing things. In a sense, Wang Yangming's study of the mind was based on the thoughts of the School of Utilityism.
As for Guan Xue, the founder of Guan Xue was Zhang Zai. His theories weren't very famous, but his slogan was shocking.
"To establish the will of heaven and earth, to establish the lives of the people, to inherit the ultimate arts of the past saints, and to create peace for all generations!”
These four sentences were Zhang Zai's thoughts on Guan Xue.
In short, the current era was a chaotic one, and this was the perfect time for Zhao Xuan to strike.
At this time, he only needed to set the rules for the scholarly faction and set the rules for thinking.
In that case, whatever science it was in the future, it could just play with its balls!
However, before this, Zhao Xuan knew that he had an important matter to do. If he succeeded, he would be able to easily set a trap for the scholarly faction.
After leaving the palace, Zhao Xuan returned to the residence of the Eight Virtuous Princes. As expected, he was summoned by his father as soon as he reached home.
Unsurprisingly, after a series of exhortations and warnings that accompanying the emperor was like accompanying a tiger, Zhao Xuan was allowed to leave.
After leaving, Zhao Xuan brought his men to the city north camp.
This was originally a camp of the Imperial Army, but Zhao Xuan had long since taken it over and made it the Black Dragon Cavalry's camp.
However, there were only so many Black Dragon Cavalry. In the future, this would be the main camp of the Dragon Stallion Guards.
Zhao Xuan rode his horse into the camp, where the Black Dragon Cavalry were undergoing their daily training.
"Prince, is there a mission for us to take action?”Seeing Zhao Xuan enter, a black-armored commander immediately came forward and asked.
"No, I'm not looking for you this time. Go and call Ye Feng over!”Zhao Xuan said to the commander of the black armored cavalry.
"Yes, sir!"
Soon, a tall and sturdy man walked into Zhao Xuan's tent. However, he did not wear the Black Dragon Cavalry's armor because he was not a member of the Black Dragon Cavalry.
"Ye Feng, how's the training of your subordinates these past few years?”Zhao Xuan looked at Ye Feng who walked in and asked indifferently.
"Reporting to Young Master, this subordinate has been training them all this while, not daring to relax even a day. If we were to compete again, they would definitely not be inferior to the Black Dragon Cavalry!”Ye Feng said confidently.
That's right, Ye Feng and his subordinates were all members who had been eliminated during the Black Dragon Riders selections.
However, their strength was not to be underestimated. Back then, they were eliminated because it was Zhao Xuan's first time forging the Black Dragon Cavalry, and the selection was extremely strict.
After the elimination, Zhao Xuan didn't give them up. Instead, he instructed them to train in peace in the camp.
It was all for today!
Those 1,000 soldiers who had been eliminated back then would now become the most qualified junior officers of the Dragon Xiang Guards.
With them, no matter how many commandants the Zong Prince Manor sent, they would not be able to affect the Dragon Xiang Guards.
This was the reason why Zhao Xuan dared to let his relatives join the Dragon Xiang Guards.
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