I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 111: Guys, come on!
Compared to the fact that Yuan Shu knows all of them, these challengers pale in comparison.

Although Yuan Shu had to admit that the quality of the second batch of guys who challenged him was relatively higher, it was still very limited. Except for a few who were really good, the knowledge blind spots of the rest of the so-called elites were as vast as the ocean.

Either the historical records are in a mess, or the main points of the scriptures are unclear, and the meanings of some ancient characters that have long been recognized are incomprehensible, which is quite like treating illiteracy as ignorance.

If they debated a little longer, extended the topic to a deeper historical level, and cited stories of ancient sages to refute the argument, then none of these people would be able to compete with Yuan Shu in a bayonet fight.

The arguments in a debate need to be supported by evidence, and the evidence used in debates is mostly ancient historical stories, which is a great test of students' knowledge reserves.

However, none of these people could withstand Yuan Shu's several rounds of bombardment and they were all defeated.

There was even one loser who, perhaps due to too much mental pressure, actually confused the stories of Duke Xian of Jin and Duke Huan of Qi, making a huge joke.

Yuan Shu bombarded thirty-six "elite disciples" in the next two days. Only two of them could withstand more than three rounds of Yuan Shu's bombardment, while the others basically only lasted one round.

Moreover, because his opponents were so incompetent, Yuan Shu even felt that he was wasting his time debating with them, and it was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

Finally, Yuan Shu was too lazy to even waste words with them, so he waved his hand and said, "Little guys, come on!"

Yuan Shu ordered Cheng Li, Wei Jia, Lian Da, Shao Yuan and thirteen other Yi Xin Hui cadres to fight on his behalf. Anyone who wanted to debate with him had to defeat one of them to be worthy of fighting against him, otherwise, they were not worthy at all!
Do you think you can just scam Yuan as you please?

Then Yuan Shu’s followers of the School of Mind officially came on stage and began to act as Yuan Shu’s vanguards in the debate.

Because the School of Mind evolved from Ma Rong's school of ancient Chinese classics, it still has basic classics knowledge.

Many people have been Ma Rong's disciples for much longer than Yuan Shu. Even Lian Da and Shao Yuan, the macho types who are more talented in martial arts than in literature, have a solid foundation in Confucian classics.

Even though Cheng Li did not become Ma Rong's disciple, he studied Confucian classics with a Confucian teacher in his hometown and made considerable achievements.

After Yuan Shu inherited Ma Rong's school, although he focused on teaching the School of Mind, he also taught the things in the ancient text classics that he thought were more important. What's more, Yuan Shu also taught the Gongyang Spring and Autumn Annals in the modern text classics.

Although strictly speaking he was not qualified to teach the Gongyang Spring and Autumn Annals, not having the qualifications did not mean he could not. At least his identity was more convincing than Ma Rong's.

Therefore, Yuan Shu did not think that these outstanding Yi Xin Hui cadres under his command would suffer a major defeat in the debate and lose face.

But Yuan Shu soon found out that he was wrong.

It’s not that his subordinates will suffer a crushing defeat, nor will they lose face. Instead... they will be unstoppable and have a long way to go.

Even Lian Da and Shao Yuan, two tough guys in the Yi Xin Society who were famous for not being good at debate or classics, could often gain the upper hand when debating with these troublemakers.

So Yuan Shu found that he had already lowered his expectations very low, but he still seemed to have overestimated the academic level of the New Text School of Confucianism.

He originally thought that although the New Text Confucianism was complicated, with the trend of "simplifying the complex" in recent years, the New Text Confucianism should be revived to a certain extent.

Han Zong's case may be an isolated phenomenon rather than a general one.

But the fact was that these elite disciples who had enjoyed some fame and status in the past were simply unable to withstand the fierce attack of the Yi Xin Society members. This fact not only shocked the onlookers, but also surprised Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu watched more than 30 debates, and only in one did the two sides fight back and forth. The others were decisive victories for the Yi Xin Hui members.

It was a back-and-forth match, and the player who was determined to join this side was the famous big fool - Shao Yuan.

Shao Yuan's ability to debate scriptures is ranked last among the Yi Xin Hui leadership. Yuan Shu feels that his academic ability is even comparable to Xu Chong's, and that he is an outstanding player who should not focus on studying.

Basically no one would think of him as a sutra master.

But despite this, when Shao Yuan debated with his opponent about the emperor's etiquette, he was still able to fight back and forth with the guy who claimed to be an outstanding disciple of Doctor Xunqi. The battle was fierce. The two fought for more than thirty rounds and were tired and thirsty, and kept drinking water.

Shao Yuan probably had never met an opponent who was so compatible with his actual level. He was very excited and became more and more courageous as the fight went on.

On the contrary, that outstanding disciple became more and more exhausted as the battle went on. He could only defend himself but had no power to fight back.

Perhaps in the eyes of both of them, this is a wonderful duel between two evenly matched opponents.

But in the eyes of Yuan Shu and other victorious members of the Yi Xin Hui, this was like two street old women posing and yelling "back, back, back" at each other.

This gave Yuan Shu a feeling - each and every one of these so-called disciples was useless, not good at debating, with poor academic abilities, and no one knew what they were focusing their attention on.

Did they really study hard in the Imperial Academy and under the guidance of those famous scholars?

Are these disciples really elites selected from the more than 30,000 students and opposition talkers?

How could this place where so many students gather have fallen into such a state?

In fact, Yuan Shu’s idea is a little problematic.

He did overestimate the academic level of the Luoyang City academic community, but at the same time, he also underestimated the academic level of the Yi Xin Society, which he founded.

He viewed and built the Yixin Society as a political and military group. He did not intend to cultivate the Yixin Society in the direction of an academic group. The Yixin Society was his political and military team to seize power in the future. Although the members of the Yixin Society all joined because of their recognition of Xinxue, their main purpose after joining was political and military, not academic.

On the academic level, Yuan Shu naturally has his own school of psychology to take charge of.

But despite this, Isshinkai's academic capabilities are still very strong.

After Yuan Shu led the debate trend in the Ma family mansion, out of admiration and yearning for Yuan Shu, the entire group of Ma's disciples would spontaneously hold debate competitions when there were no group activities.

In the process of Yuan Shu selecting disciples and recruiting members of the Yi Xin Society, the ability to debate is also considered as an important reference item. The number of debates and the winning rate are very important references.

Therefore, during the period of mourning for Yuan Shu, the students living in Maoling County and Liangzhuang, in addition to attending lectures and helping with farming, most often did debates on scriptures, and it could even be said that there was no day without debates.

Just like a national sports team that practices every day, or an elite military force that practices every day, the academic and debating abilities of the Yi Xin Hui members have made great progress through day-to-day debate activities.

At the student level, they are the elite!

The higher the status, the stronger the ability; this is one of the underlying logics of Yi Xin Hui.

In contrast, the academic abilities of the corrupt and decadent representatives of official schools in Luoyang City are no longer good enough.

The New Text School of Confucianism, which occupied the position of official learning and even had a complete monopoly, had dominated the official learning system of the Eastern Han Dynasty for a hundred years after it drove out Zuo Zhuan.

During this hundred years, the academic capabilities of the entire New Text School of Confucianism not only did not improve, but instead continued to decline.

This is the negative impact of monopoly.

They closed off the inheritance, cut off the delusions of outsiders, turned official learning into family learning, and kept the important inheritance in their own families. Even the disciples of the doctors of the Imperial Academy found it difficult to obtain the true inheritance.

Not to mention whether these true teachings are meaningful.

Even if some talented people have made some academic breakthroughs, it is meaningless if they cannot get recognition from the major inherited families.

Within the entire system of New Text Confucianism, there is only one person who has achieved some results over the years. This person is called He Xiu and has a considerable reputation.

But unfortunately, he was involved in the Party and Faction Persecution and was on the imprisonment list. Now he is imprisoned in his hometown in Shandong and cannot go out. It is obvious that he cannot bring any help to the useless Modern Literature School students in the capital.

The academic ability of the Modern Literature School was thus stifled, making it difficult to develop.

At present, the conflicts between Ma Rong's disciples and students are now commonplace in the system of the Modern Literature School, and are even worse than before.

In the ancient literary school, having money and resources could still help a student become a disciple, but in the modern literary school, having money or not is not important. What is important is family heritage. If one’s family background is not good, no matter how rich one is, it is useless.

In Yuan Shu's view, the ancient literary school is a piece of iron that has begun to decay, while the modern literary school is simply rust itself.

People with good backgrounds do not need to study academic subjects too much to become "masters" or "celebrity". People with bad backgrounds will never be able to grow even if they are talented.

In comparison, the ancient literature school at least maintained the most basic mobility from disciples to apprentices.

Not to mention that after Yuan Shu reformed the system, the School of Mind focused on academic ability, selecting outstanding people for positions and providing them with ample channels for advancement.

As long as you are strong enough and have excellent academic ability, no matter where you come from, whether from a big family or a humble family, you can become a disciple from a student, or directly join the Yi Xin Society.

Yuan Shu pays special attention to selecting people with excellent abilities, no matter what the abilities are, be it farming, debating, or military affairs, as long as you have outstanding abilities in a certain aspect, Yi Xin will let you onto this big stage.

Comparing the two, this one-sided situation is not something that was unexpected.

So Yuan Shu felt a lot more relaxed.

This bunch of useless people from the Jinwen School couldn't even win a debate with the Isshinkai members, mainly from the Security Department, who he brought with him, and they still want to fight him in person?
Are they worthy?

For two consecutive days, Yuan Shu arranged thirteen generals to attack and killed thirty-six elite disciples arranged by Yang Ci, Zhang Ji and others, with each general killing more than two and a half heads.

Only two people defeated Shao Yuan and Lian Da in the debate. When they were very surprised to challenge Yuan Shu, they were hit head-on by Yuan Shu and were driven away in one round.

Big win.

Every victory would arouse warm cheers from the onlookers, and every victory would bring further growth in the reputation of Yuan Shu, Yi Xin Hui and Xin Xue.

Generally, victory requires many twists and turns, but Yuan Shu’s victories came one after another without any twists and turns.

Yuan Shu continued to give speeches, continue to stir up emotions, gain fame, continue to sway public opinion in Luoyang City, and gradually began to put pressure on the official school of modern literature.

Yang Ci and others originally wanted to use this powerful attack to interrupt Yuan Shu's speech, suppress his arrogance, and thus gain the confidence to negotiate peace. However, their attempt failed to suppress his arrogance, and they were instead beaten badly.

The face is gone.

(End of this chapter)