Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 712 Unknowingly, they became part of the era.
As for whether heroes create the times or the times create heroes, Xia Lin had many answers to consider in the past, but now that he has come this far, he knows in his heart that it is the times that create heroes, but who creates the times?
It is the superposition of countless causes and effects.

Take Gao Shilian's choice today, for example. With his last breath, he kicked his class into the fire pit. Whether he could kick it in or not, he didn't know and couldn't care. If the people behind him could catch him, then he could eventually turn his filth into a "controversial" figure described in history books.

If he fails to handle the situation, the Gao family will be ruined, and he will become a guest on the list of villains in the world.

It is often said that politicians are like gamblers, and now it seems that this old prime minister was indeed a gambler. He gambled that the emperor would return when he died, that there would be capable people around the emperor who could see through his thoughts, and that the reformists would win this last move.

“You won’t suffer any losses over there, so don’t argue with me.”

Xia Lin pointed at Gao Shilian's disabled granddaughter, who looked up and tried to argue with Xia Lin. After all, Gao Shilian's body was barely cold, and their whole family was going to follow the Li Tang delegation north, which was unreasonable in itself.

"But……"

She didn't say a word, but Xia Lin raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face: "I told you not to argue with me. This slap is for your great-grandfather. He risked his entire life's reputation and honor so that you could safely go north. Let me tell you this, if you don't leave today, your whole family will die within three days."

Having been slapped, the eldest daughter of the Gao family looked at Xia Lin in disbelief, but Xia Lin's eyes clearly showed no intention of negotiating with her. He simply pointed to the carriage outside and said, "Get out!"

She didn't speak, but held back her tears as she walked out in her wheelchair. She was then lifted onto a carriage and watched, in a daze, the city of Jinling, where she was born and raised, gradually recede into the distance.

The day after the Gao family left, the Inspectorate arrived and first sealed off the Gao family mansion, then confiscated their property.

The confiscation of the property was carried out by Xia Lin's disciple, who was also the newly arrived head of the Investigation Department. The whole process went very smoothly without any obstruction.

This matter did not actually cause much of a stir, because those familiar with officialdom know that the world is essentially a system of checks and balances and struggles between the power of the emperor and the power of the prime minister. Gao Shilian held power in the court for more than 30 years, fighting back and forth with two generations of emperors, and even gaining a slight advantage.

Now that he's dead, will the emperor spare him? It's always been this way; it's just a matter of settling scores.

However, everyone is saying that this young emperor is still too naive. Gao Shilian has only just died, and he is already so heartless. Doesn't this make everyone in the court feel insecure?

However, they also figured out that this purge was just a three-pronged approach: digging up old cases and investigating old accounts, then hastily framing a crime as both a way to vent their anger and a warning.

Otherwise, if they really wanted to wipe them out, why would they have let the Gao family go? Everyone's smart enough to see through this little thing.

Therefore, this matter doesn't have much room for discussion in the short term; on the contrary, the news of the celebration being postponed has attracted more attention from everyone.

After the celebration ended, the heads of each family gathered together for a meeting. The idea was that such a festival could be held once a year. If it was held in Wei this year, it couldn't be held here next year. It could be held in Chang'an, Ulaanbaatar, or somewhere else.

The Western Regions are not being considered for the time being, as they are too far away and their countries are too small to support such a grand event. The small countries have no objections either, since the budget has already been sent to them, and the preparation funds of three to five million are beyond their means. It is safest to just be a participating country, join in the fun, and make some money.

The local lords and warlords didn't fight over it, after all, these three were the ones who really had the final say in the world. Being invited was already a great honor for them, and if they didn't know their place now, they might really be wiped out.

On the last day this bigwig stayed in Jinling, Liu Heita met with the representatives of the aristocratic families who had sponsored him. They chatted about various things, but the gist of it was that he should take good care of Shandong and resolutely raise the banner of rebellion against Wei. If he could do a good job, he would receive a lot of resources.

Liu Heita happily agreed, but that very evening he asked Li Mi to pass on a message to Xia Lin, requesting to meet with her.

If he and Li Mi weren't mortal enemies, how could he have the audacity to ask Li Mi for a favor, and more importantly, how could Li Mi agree to it?
How to put it? In the struggle for supremacy, there may be grudges, but it is rare to say that there are irreconcilable enemies. You are a hero and I am a hero, and heroes naturally cherish each other.

Through Li Mi's introduction, Liu Heita actually met Xia Lin that evening.

Xia Lin, dressed in white, was sitting at a low table writing something. Liu Heita, guided by a guard, arrived at the door and saw that it was Xia Shuai sitting inside. This rising star, who could fight on equal terms with established generals and stars, was somewhat hesitant.

"Come in, what are you doing out there?"

Xia Lin's voice came, and Liu Heita responded and entered the room. He stood there somewhat uneasy. Xia Lin put down his pen and said with a smile, "General Liu, please sit down."

"Thank you for the seat, Commander."

Liu Heita knelt to the side, and Xia Lin got up and went to the cabinet to rummage through it: "Having been away for so many years, it's been a long time since I've had a drink from the bar in the camp?"

As he spoke, he took out a jar of liquor. This was a common grain distilled liquor used as a reward in the Fuliang New Army camp. It was something that couldn't be bought outside. After all, liquor was directly linked to grain, and alcohol was a strategic reserve. Even though Fuliang sold everything, the art of brewing was strictly controlled.

So Liu Heita has now become a warlord, but it's still difficult for him to get the Sanlou liquor he's been longing for.

With a pot of wine and a plate of mixed vegetables, Liu Heita downed the wine in one gulp and felt as if he were back in the old days. He took a deep breath and said, "General, I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"It's not a big deal." Xia Lin laughed. "Even without you, there would be Liu Baita or Liu Lüta. I'm glad it was you. After all, I have confidence in what you can do, but if it were someone else, who knows what absurd things they would do."

"Thank you for your appreciation, Commander."

Liu Heita was still very nervous. He didn't feel this way even when facing the emperor, but he was much less imposing in front of Xia Lin and didn't know how to start the conversation.

"Now that you've taken Shandong, what are your plans?"

"I want to fight Wang Shichong for Xuzhou and Haizhou," Liu Heita murmured. "But Wang Shichong has more than 50,000 men under his command, making him a tough nut to crack. We can only hold out for a while and then look for another opportunity."

"Do you dare to take Luoyang?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Heita's mind went blank for a moment, and he immediately straightened up: "I dare not... General, there is a Hebei Circuit between Luoyang and Shandong."

“Well, Luoyang is now an exclave of the Great Wei. It’s neither worth keeping nor worth abandoning, but since it’s the former capital, it’s unreasonable to abandon it. Back then, the Hongnong aristocratic families still existed, so the Li family in Luoyang couldn’t be openly controlled. Now, all the Hongnong families have collapsed, and Luoyang is almost entirely under the control of the Tang dynasty.” Xia Lin clicked his tongue and said, “You really can’t take it?”

"We can't take it down; the distance is too great, and there are many heroes in between."

"Then take Xuzhou," Xia Lin said, tapping the table. "Drive Wang Shichong back to Jinling to retire. That way you can give your patrons an explanation."

"General...you trust me?"

"Hahaha, you came from my camp, how could I not believe you? I heard you are excellent in every aspect. I originally planned to take advantage of your failure to be selected for the vanguard camp to give you a chance to study at the academy so that you could become a vanguard general. Who knew you would become a deserter?"

"what???"

Liu Heita's hair stood on end: "General...really?"

"How could it be fake? If you have the chance, ask someone to ask your old squad leader. What was his name again?"

"Wang Xiangkui." "Someone come here."

Xia Lin called out, and a personal guard entered through the door. He turned his head and asked, "Go and ask about the current movements of the new army's King Xiang Kui."

"Reporting to the commander, there is no need to investigate. General Wang is now the general of the personal guard battalion, and we are all his soldiers."

After hearing this, Liu Heita's expression was unsure whether to laugh or cry. His demeanor became extremely unpleasant within a few breaths, and he looked like he was about to burst into tears...

"Sigh! Have some ambition." Xia Lin patted his shoulder and said, "You're older than me, so don't put on this attitude. You're a powerful figure in your own right, after all."

"General... I'm suffering so much."

Xia Lin waved his hand: "You know the rules, deserters can't go back. But take Xuzhou for now, we'll talk about the rest later."

"I understand. Please grant me three years, General."

“Three years…” Xia Lin shook his head: “One year.”

“One year…” Liu Heita gritted his teeth: “Fine, one year it is!”

Xia Lin picked up what he had just written on the table and stamped it with the general's seal: "Go find the new army. Borrow fifty political commissars to accompany the troops."

"Thank you, Commander!" Liu Heita's emotions immediately surged. He knew what fifty people meant. He had always wanted to continue the style of the New Army, but he simply couldn't do it. The reason was that he lacked the unique figures in the New Army, namely the political commissars. These people were all elites who came from the academy. They were not only proficient in military strategy, but also good at managing the morale of the army and the people. The most powerful people in the New Army were none other than these people.

Xia Lin gave him fifty of them at once, ostensibly for a temporary transfer, but Liu Heita knew in his heart that this was Xia Lin's way of reassuring him!
"Go on, go back and rest soon."

"By the way, Commander, several families have come to see me today..."

Do you want to be emperor?

Liu Heita shook his head hastily: "I don't want to! I just... I just want to make something of myself. I'm the commander's soldier, and I can't let him down."

"Then don't get cocky. You need to know what those people really want you to do."

"Understood, thank you for your guidance, Commander."

As the fireworks faded and the excitement gradually subsided, the celebrations and trade continued, but the important people gradually left.

As life and production in Jinling gradually returned to normal, people's attention naturally began to turn to the results of the imperial examinations and the Gao Shilian case.

The case of Gao Shilian spans nearly fifty years and involves thousands of people, ranging from salt and grain transport corruption to imperial examination fraud. Many cases that had already been settled are now being reopened and scrutinized, but Emperor Jingtai doesn't seem to care much about them.

This smokescreen was actually quite effective; at least most of those involved weren't worried because they assumed Emperor Jingtai wouldn't hold a grudge against them for things that had happened over the past few decades.

Furthermore, Emperor Jingtai's focus during this period on the imperial examination results only boosted the confidence of these individuals.

But no one knew that the secret investigation by the underworld had already begun to settle accounts with Gao Shilian, collecting evidence bit by bit from the outside. Some of the noble families sensed something was wrong, but the problem was that they didn't seem to take it seriously, thinking it was just a routine matter.

"These kids from Jiangnan Road are really amazing."

Emperor Jingtai was sitting in the Ministry of Rites' examination hall, looking at the answers to the southern examination papers one by one. How could someone get full marks on such difficult questions? Who could argue with that?

"Is that the piece of trash who handed in the paper after writing just an answer?" Emperor Jingtai suddenly pulled out a paper and slapped it loudly. "Disgraceful thing!"

Xia Lin was also there grading papers, but he was grading the northern papers. Besides the two of them, there were about twenty other people grading papers in the room, but they were all quite far away and couldn't hear their conversation.

"Aren't you annoying? How did you know it was me on a paper with the name unfurled?"

"Only you, you dog, would add a hook when you write the character for 'person'." Emperor Jingtai continued slapping the examination paper: "Disgraceful! I even specifically instructed them to pay close attention to this Lin Musen!"

Xia Lin kept her head down and didn't say anything, but the roots of her ears were already red.

After all... it's a little embarrassing, the sect's patriarch, to have been caught handing in a paper after only writing an answer.

"This is from mid-spring... Hey, mid-spring!" Emperor Jingtai straightened up: "Damn it! How could he possibly answer this question?"

"Let me see."

Xia Lin came before Emperor Jingtai, and sure enough, the scroll in his hand was clearly written by Lao Zhang. After all, Lao Zhang was the only one in the world with this style of writing. His writing was so distinctive that it was known as the best in the world, and no matter how others tried to imitate it, they could only fall short of it by a fraction.

"This bastard," Xia Lin rolled up his sleeves and examined it carefully, "there's something here."

"Yes, he's got some talent." Emperor Jingtai sighed. "Tell me, if he hadn't been implicated in the cheating scandal, would he have been the top scholar that year?"

"I don't know if he'll become the top scholar, but he'll definitely be punished for disrespect and his entire family will be wiped out." Xia Lin looked at Old Zhang's answer, straightened up, and called out, "Teacher Hu, come here for a moment."

A teacher grading papers walked over quickly: "Master Xia."

"Take a look at this candidate's problem-solving approach."

That teacher, Mr. Hu, was the Dean of the Science Department at Fuliang Academy. He was only thirty-two years old, but he was also a top genius in the field of mathematics.

He wore thick glasses and had messy hair, imprinting the stereotypical image of a science-oriented man back to the seventh century AD...

"A genius! Such a genius!" After reading it once, Teacher Hu said, "I never expected such a solution, it can be so simple. We usually use exhaustive search, but he extracted the total number... Genius, truly a genius. Your Majesty, Lord Xia, I want this man! You must give him to me no matter what."

Xia Lin exchanged a glance with Emperor Jingtai, who coughed and said, "I'm afraid... I can't give this person to you."

Xia Lin quickly said, "Let's talk about it some more. Let's see if there are any other geniuses first."

(End of this chapter)