APSIL -Chapter 118 The Foundations of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and the Source of the Conflict

A master of the art of misdirection, Zhang Shou was extremely confident that even if Lu Wan turned around, his seemingly innocent action of wiping Zhu Ying’s tears would not reveal any flaws.

Only after Lu Wan had completely disappeared beyond the gate did he finally lower his hand. Then, he smiled apologetically at Zhu Ying, who was still standing there in a daze.

“Minister Lu’s words—how much is true and how much is false—no one can really tell. I thought it would be better to scare him a little.”

Zhu Ying was both embarrassed and furious. Especially when she saw that Ge Yong, Chu Ying, and Qi Jingshan were all smiling knowingly, her anger grew even stronger.

“A-Shou! If you wanted to frighten him, why did you have to say that I cried?”

“Because in his eyes, you’re not someone who would normally cry from anger. That’s exactly why saying you cried would shock him.” Zhang Shou chuckled like he was coaxing a child. “A person like him is cautious and suspicious. Frighten him a little, and he might not sleep or eat properly for several days.”

“After all, we can’t do anything to him right now.”

He then looked completely innocent.

“Besides, who told you not to trust me and suddenly rush out to confront him? If I didn’t scare him a little, what if he went back and decided to fight desperately, joining forces with those who hate your father and launching an all-out attack?”

“I…”

Zhu Ying was speechless.

After a long while, she finally lowered her head.

“I didn’t know you had already met him yesterday and questioned him. I’ll apologize, alright?”

“Of course not!”

The first four words came out so firmly that Zhu Ying’s face instantly turned pale.

But Zhang Shou immediately continued: “Just now, you were magnificent when you questioned him. You were so imposing that even Minister Lu, the Minister of War, was intimidated, let alone me.”

“If there was anyone at fault, it was me for not explaining everything to you beforehand. How could I possibly let you apologize to me?”

“I…”

Zhu Ying’s face turned bright red after hearing the end of his sentence.

She suddenly shouted: “You tricked me again!”

Seeing Zhu Ying reveal the innocent attitude of a young girl, Ge Yong could not help clicking his tongue.

“Look at that. Even a sharp-tongued and fierce girl like Yingying has been subdued by Zhang Shou.”

Chu Ying exchanged a glance with Qi Jingshan.

Today, Zhang Huaili had directly fallen because of Zhang Shou, while Lu Wan had indirectly lost because of him.

Furthermore, Zhang Shou had received support from both Wang Jie and Zhou Xun, gaining authority that a mere Guozijian Doctor should never have possessed.

When one thought about it, Ge Yong’s closed-door disciple might have exceptional talent in mathematics and remarkable luck with women, but his fortune in official circles was also extremely impressive.

At that moment, Zhang Shou had already finished teasing Zhu Ying and walked over with a smile.

“Teacher, Elder Chu, Elder Qi, today His Majesty suddenly brought so many people here. Why didn’t I see Chu Kuan, the Director of Brush Holder of the Directorate of Ceremonial, who came to the Guozijian that day?”

The moment he said this, Ge Yong’s face immediately darkened.

He stepped forward angrily and suddenly raised two fingers, stabbing toward Zhang Shou’s forehead.

Having already experienced his teacher’s frightening technique before, Zhang Shou instinctively shifted sideways.

Ge Yong’s strike missed.

“You still dare dodge?”

“You still have the nerve to ask about Chu Kuan!”

“Yesterday you went to the outer office of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and a whole group of fools thought you were the Second Prince. You caused trouble for no reason!”

“Do you know what kind of place the outer office of the Directorate of Ceremonial is?”

“That was the place where the founding Emperor once castrated people!”

“The earliest batch of eunuchs in the Directorate of Ceremonial were all selected from orphans of northern barbarians and southern tribes. From the age of three or four, they began brainwashing and education. At five or six, they were castrated.”

“Even the word ‘brainwashing’ was invented by the founding Emperor!”

“After generations of this, they were all raised to be absolutely loyal. Even if their ancestors or parents stood before them, they would still cut them down without hesitation!”

Zhang Shou immediately sucked in a breath.

At that moment, he thought of the Ottoman Empire’s devshirme system.

The Sultan would send people into conquered Christian villages to recruit children, then take them away and raise them as elite soldiers of the Janissary corps, completely separating them from their families.

Through long-term indoctrination and military training, these people remained unmarried for life. They had no wives and no children, becoming the strongest force directly under the Sultan.

Later, when the Janissaries abandoned the celibacy system, the devshirme system gradually disappeared as well. The Janissaries became a mixed group of all kinds of people, and that once-famous army eventually declined.

Although celibacy and eunuch systems were not identical, the principles behind them were surprisingly similar.

Because Zhang Shou had been distracted by these thoughts, he failed to dodge this time.

Ge Yong’s finger landed directly on his forehead.

Zhang Shou stood straight and did not avoid it again. He awkwardly said: “That day at Yuehua Tower, when Chu Kuan mentioned that His Majesty wanted me to become a Guozijian Doctor, I proposed a condition.”

“I asked him to find those people who had caused trouble here before and let them become my students.”

“I was only asking him about those students.”

“Oh?”

Only then did Ge Yong withdraw his hand.

He frowned slightly, appearing somewhat conflicted.

Qi Jingshan, who had personally experienced the incident where people blocked the gates of the Ge residence, knew that Zhang Shou had judged those troublemakers to possess at least some mathematical knowledge.

He immediately asked with interest: “What did Chu Kuan say?”

Zhang Shou thought for a moment, then simply told them everything Chu Kuan had said that day.

When he mentioned that the remaining mathematics students of the Guozijian had mostly failed to advance in official careers, and many were eventually taken by powerful families to teach their servants, the expressions of the three mathematics masters became extremely unpleasant.

Only when Zhang Shou explained his own reply to Chu Kuan did Ge Yong’s stiff expression finally soften.

“Household servants of wealthy families are arrogant and bully those beneath them while disrespecting those above them.”

“Even if they learned some superficial knowledge of mathematics, most of them have corrupted intentions.”

“Before discussing whether the Guozijian, a place of purity and learning, could accept them, others would never tolerate being placed alongside servants.”

“Even if we recruited them, they would easily corrupt the atmosphere.”

“You did the right thing.”

“First examine those whose backgrounds are clean. If there are not enough, hold an examination to recruit students.”

“I, Old Qi, and Old Chu will support you.”

Seeing Qi Jingshan nod slightly and Chu Ying repeatedly agree, Zhang Shou finally asked the question that had troubled him for days.

“Teacher, Elder Qi, Elder Chu…”

“I don’t understand.”

“You are all masters of mathematics. If you insisted, and His Majesty also insisted, the Nine Chapters Hall of the Guozijian would not have declined into its current state.”

“Why me?”

Zhu Ying finally recovered from her complicated emotions.

Hearing Zhang Shou’s question, she was stunned.

When she saw that Ge Yong and the other two did not answer, she could not help saying: “Of course because A-Shou, you teach well!”

Ge Yong immediately laughed.

“Little Yingying, you are only half right.”

“Zhang Shou, you produced two excellent students in Rongshui Village. Later, when Zhang Chen and Lu Sanlang came one after another, you discovered Lu Sanlang’s potential.”

“From this perspective, you have extraordinary luck when it comes to students.”

“More importantly, your students are all young men in their prime.”

Chu Ying, who originally did not intend to speak, also added: “That’s right.”

“In the past, even talented mathematics students entered the Guozijian mainly for official careers.”

“They were either in their twenties or even their thirties and forties.”

“They couldn’t wait forever.”

“Once their official careers became difficult, who would continue studying mathematics?”

Qi Jingshan also smiled.

“The three of us are examples.”

“Old Ge was praised by the founding Emperor as belonging to a generations-old prestigious family.”

“Old Chu came from a wealthy household. After passing the imperial examination as a stepping stone, he simply lost interest in becoming an official.”

“As for me, I was a second-rank successful candidate in the imperial exam. I managed the Imperial Astronomy Bureau and eventually rose to become Grand Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.”

“Wang Datou was discovered by Old Ge because of his talent and forcibly dragged onto this path.”

“Together with Old Ge’s disciple who once served as Minister of Revenue…”

He paused meaningfully.

“Count them.”

“The number of high-ranking officials in the court who truly understand mathematics is extremely small.”

“But among the younger generation, there are almost no successors.”

“Even Old Ge’s own descendants barely understand mathematics. Old Chu and I are the same.”

“Our former students are now all in their forties and fifties.”

“The Ten Mathematical Classics…”

“They are simply too profound.”

“Few young people are willing to put in the effort to study them.”

Zhang Shou finally understood the true reason behind his appointment as a Guozijian Doctor.

But then Ge Yong delivered the final blow.

“The founding Emperor did leave behind some extremely simple mathematics books.”

“But precisely because they were too simple, officials merely used them to teach their newly initiated children.”

“Later, after the founding Emperor abdicated, his fleet went overseas and sank because of a storm…”

The retired founding Emperor died in a shipwreck?

Zhang Shou immediately inhaled sharply.

Ge Yong suddenly stopped.

It seemed as though he was hesitating whether he should continue.

But eventually, his teacher spoke.

“That disaster was something the court kept strictly secret.”

“Externally, they only announced that the retired Emperor died of illness.”

“This changed many things afterward.”

“After so much bloodshed, although many people still admired the founding Emperor’s achievements, those simple introductory mathematics books gradually disappeared.”

“They were no longer organized into a complete system.”

“Only later did people realize that those things which seemed easy back then actually became difficult to understand if even one or two volumes were missing.”

“His great ships traveled across the world.”

“Wherever they went, the southern and western barbarians they saw were, in the eyes of our people, hardly prosperous.”

“They certainly could not compare to a golden age.”

“Especially the western barbarians whom the founding Emperor repeatedly warned people to be cautious of.”

“All they saw were countless tiny kingdoms.”

“Some places smaller than one prefecture of our empire dared to call themselves kingdoms.”

“When they saw silk and tea, they treated them like priceless treasures.”

“The more people saw, the more disappointed they became.”

“Our empire began developing various cannons from the early years of the founding Emperor.”

“Fire a few shots from a large ship, and regardless of the country, they immediately became obedient.”

“The lands of the western barbarians were not even as fertile and wealthy as ours.”

“People naturally felt that conquering such small countries was meaningless.”

“As for their writings and drawings…”

“One looked like ghostly symbols.”

“The other was considered immoral and improper.”

“Bringing them back would only invite accusations of abandoning proper tradition.”

“Many translated works did not even make sense.”

“In short…”

“Many matters were debated for many years.”

A sentence like “many matters were debated for many years” allowed Zhang Shou to vaguely understand the complexity behind it.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the population of the world was already not large.

People could barely cultivate their own lands completely.

Even if that predecessor had proposed overseas colonization, countless people would have opposed it.

And when exploration revealed that the outside world consisted mostly of tiny countries inferior to their own, many officials would naturally think:

What was the point of showing power in such places?

But what about America?

That was one of the richest lands in the world—perhaps the richest.

Unlike other places, it had no deserts, no wastelands, only endless forests.

Why had no ships gone there to claim land?

Perhaps the fleet organized after the founding Emperor abdicated had been on its way to America when it sank?

Converted to the Gregorian calendar, this era seemed to be before Columbus discovered America.

And the repeated struggles for power within the empire involved not only palace bloodshed but also civil wars.

This naturally made many officials who believed in the empire’s central position think:

Spending resources overseas was unnecessary.

Better to focus on managing their own great empire first.

“Nowadays, the two factions in court are mainly arguing over two matters.”

“One is whether foreign books should be allowed into the country.”

“The other is whether western foreigners should be allowed to permanently reside here.”

“As for ships…”

“The southern and western barbarians greatly admire our silk and porcelain.”

“The court still places great importance on Southeast Asia.”

“The kings and nobles there are easy to satisfy.”

“As long as large quantities of luxury goods are sent there, countless spices, gemstones, and redwood can be brought back.”

“Redwood has always been the founding Emperor’s favorite!”

However, Ge Yong instinctively concealed one more matter.

The third reason was that the court feared the founding Emperor might not actually have died.

Perhaps he had never returned after leaving overseas.

Perhaps his descendants were scattered abroad and had established their own kingdoms.

Therefore, the court had secretly continued searching for them.

Otherwise, although merchant ships were not prohibited, official expeditions required enormous resources.

Why would the court repeatedly send ships overseas?

Why were the empire’s cannons so powerful?

Was it not because the founding Emperor heavily rewarded craftsmen, even personally guiding them?

Only then were those incredible weapons weighing thousands of jin created.

Unfortunately, his descendants lacked his vision.

Some descendants of those skilled craftsmen even ended up living among the northern tribes.

Otherwise…

Even if the northern barbarians allied with the eastern tribes, how could they possibly have been a match for this empire?