There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 260 Getting Angry
cabinet.

"His Majesty is angry!" Gu Jing sighed, looking at the official document in his hand.

Wang Ruoyu said, "It's understandable that we're angry. These students have repeatedly crossed His Majesty's line. Last time, they only gathered in the local area to submit a petition, and His Majesty made concessions, granting these students the grace of reopening the imperial examination. But this time, they've gone too far, actually openly gathering more than fifty students from Jingzhou to go to the Han King's palace to kowtow to the emperor. What does this mean?"

Lin Wenchang also said: "These scholars who kowtow to the emperor have ulterior motives. If they really have opinions about the official gazette and feel that the new laws of the Han Dynasty and the new rules of the Women's Admonitions are inappropriate, they can submit a memorial to the emperor in public instead of kowtowing to the emperor to appeal for justice. What grievances could they possibly have?"

Although these students did not hold official positions or titles, they still had the student status of the Great Han Academy. As long as they had the student status as proof, they could freely submit memorials to the emperor.

This was a supplementary revision made by Nie Yu after careful consideration since the last time a mass petition was intercepted and rejected by the local government. The purpose was to avoid blocking the channels for public reporting and supervision.

Dai Yi frowned, his thoughts not on the students, but on the punishment: "Your Majesty's decree is too harsh. The ringleader is guilty, but expelling him from the academy is already a severe punishment. To order the Ministry of Justice to punish him without leniency is to make an example of the students who came to the capital!"

Gu Jing said, "The King's decree is very clear. Next month, the Han Dynasty will allow its scholars to openly debate and discuss the new provisions of the 'Admonitions for Women' and the 'New Laws of the Han Dynasty' in the official gazette. This is the King's concession and an act of kindness towards the scholars. But with kindness comes deterrence; kindness and severity must be combined. The King has already tolerated the scholars once and given them additional grace, so of course he cannot allow them to act recklessly again and again."

"And this approval document?" Lü Zhihong asked.

Liu Jun personally made the decision: "There's no need to discuss this document. Since His Majesty didn't consult the cabinet, it means the decision has been made. The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Justice should take the document and carry it out. Also, send someone to inform the Ministry of Posts and Communications to make sure they take it seriously and prepare for the debate in the official gazette in advance."

The debate on classics in the official gazette of the Han Dynasty was, frankly speaking, somewhat similar to the salt and iron debates of the Western Han Dynasty. Both involved internal conflicts that were resolved by convening scholars from the common people and the court to engage in a public debate and verbal battle.

Nie Yu's idea was simple: to use public debates in the official gazette to spread the outdated practice of foot binding and the idea that women could show their faces in public, rather than just making it a superficial policy.

Moreover, debating classics is very time-consuming. The salt and iron debate in the Western Han Dynasty lasted for more than five months before a reasonably satisfactory result was finally reached.

This similar outcome was merely a slight concession by the Western Han court, which reduced some of the state-run salt and iron industries and relinquished some of the state-run profits to merchants and powerful families in the prefectures and kingdoms.

Once a debate on classics actually begins, it usually quickly evolves into a struggle over academic or moral traditions. The Salt and Iron Debate, for example, started by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of government-run and private salt and iron industries, and later became a debate between Confucianism and morality.

Is it more or less about righteousness than about profit?

This led to the evolution from radical Confucian scholars who were war-mongering to conservative Confucian scholars who advocated peace through marriage alliances.

In any case, the salt and iron industries were originally state-run or privately run, so they were no longer important to scholars in the private sector or those in the imperial court.

The same principle applies to the Han Dynasty today, because this was a public debate on classics issued by the Han government, with the approval and supervision of the King of Han. It was a rare opportunity to make a name for oneself by establishing one's academic lineage and teachings.

Whether or not women should bind their feet is such a ridiculous and controversial issue.
Who the hell cares about this crap?
……

Two days later.

Outside the main gate of the Prince of Han's Mansion.

On the very first day of the kowtow ceremony, officials from the Ministry of Rites came to register each student who came to kowtow.

After that, no one came back. Instead, the soldiers were ordered to keep a close watch on them, and no one was allowed to leave or even stand up to stretch their muscles.

Don't they all like to gather in crowds to petition the emperor?

Then kneel down in the street and have your fill!

Fortunately, the King of Han was merciful and only made them kneel, but did not say that they would not be given food. Three of the street vendors had already started doing business directly around the students who were kneeling before the palace.

Because the students paid generously, they preferred to pay with the latest Da Han Tong Bao coins. These Da Han Tong Bao coins were quite remarkable; they were made with ample copper, much heavier than the coins held by the vendors, and their craftsmanship was more exquisite and beautiful, without any roughness or impurities.

Steam-powered coin minting machines were not difficult to create. With blueprints and ideas, craftsmen produced the finished product in less than a month.

With the steam-powered coin minting machine, steam-powered coin minting in the Han Dynasty quickly entered the small-scale production stage.

The reason for small-scale production is that copper materials need to be used sparingly, and the Han Dynasty cannot dump all the copper coins into the market at once, otherwise the copper coins in the hands of the people will depreciate rapidly.

By minting coins using steam engines, the Han Dynasty was slowly issuing new coins, the Da Han Tong Bao, while simultaneously rapidly recycling the old ones. The recycling value of the old coins depended entirely on their copper content; the more copper and the heavier the coin, the more valuable it was.

This was not a case of cruelty and harm to the people, because the common people only had so much copper coin; the real majority belonged to the gentry and merchants. The Han Dynasty certainly could not allow these gentry and merchants to profit and develop through this.

The Da Han Tong Bao coin had just been introduced and was still in use alongside the old coins in other prefectures. However, Jingzhou was the capital of the Han Dynasty, and officials and common people alike were already familiar with the Da Han coin and were more willing to accept it.

Meanwhile, a student readily paid five coins, ordered a bowl of soup and two freshly fried dough sticks from the vendor, and was eating them halfway through when he chatted with his classmate, saying, "Do you think the king can really be persuaded by our pleas for an audience?"

The students next to him shook their heads and smiled bitterly: "It's unclear whether His Majesty will be persuaded, but regardless of the outcome, our future careers are likely to end prematurely."

The student, who was eating fried dough sticks and drinking soup, suddenly realized what the other person was talking about: "You mean the king might settle scores with us scholars who have come to the capital?"

The student replied, “It’s not a possibility, it’s a certainty. To be honest, I’m already regretting coming here with you to plead for the king. We could have just spoken up about any problem, and the king wouldn’t have ignored it. This pleading for the king’s permission is actually us humiliating him.”

"Da da da da!" As the two were talking, several officials from the Ministry of Justice suddenly led several squads of soldiers over.

The captain in charge of leading the troops glanced at the students lying haphazardly on the street, some eating, some kneeling, and some simply collapsing, and waved his hand: "Arrest them all, and don't let a single one escape!"

"Ah, what are you going to do?"

"Arresting people like this in broad daylight, is there no law left?"

"Let me leave, and I will no longer petition the emperor."

Before the arriving soldiers even started arresting anyone, they simply walked towards the kneeling students, which immediately terrified several of them.

The students, who were kneeling before the palace gates just a moment ago, seemingly full of grievances, struggled to get up one by one. However, they had been kneeling for too long and their legs had gone numb. Several of them simply collapsed to the ground and could not move.

The student who had started eating fried dough sticks and drinking soup had turned deathly pale: "No, you can't arrest me! I'm a student of Jingzhou University, and my family name is Chen. I'm related to the Queen!"

Unfortunately, it was all for naught. These Han soldiers didn't care about anything else and just went up and pinned the man to the ground.

The official from the Ministry of Justice who was in charge of leading the troops to arrest the man sighed and said, "If only we had known this would happen, why did we do it in the first place? Even if we had any grievances, we could have directly submitted a memorial to the throne. Why did we have to come here to kowtow and force the king?"

The Ministry of Justice simply dispatched a team of city defense patrolmen to arrest people indiscriminately in front of the Prince of Han's mansion.

In order to avoid giving anyone grounds for arrest, the Ministry of Justice had already registered the students a day in advance, and the Ministry of Rites had temporarily sealed their student records.

Without exception, all fifty-plus students were taken to the Ministry of Justice's main hall for trial and sentencing.

Meanwhile, outside, the news of the students of Jingzhou University gathering to petition the emperor had already spread rapidly throughout the city of Jingzhou thanks to the efforts of certain individuals.

A teahouse.

The same group of young masters were there, but this time they didn't drink alcohol. Instead, they all sat around in the teahouse drinking tea, hoping to hear some insider information.

After all, this was a gathering of students from Jingzhou University to petition the emperor. Although almost none of them were officially enrolled at the university, they still had to listen to and support the new regulations on "Admonitions for Women" published in the official gazette.

Several people sat around an empty seat by the window on the second floor. Tea was laid out on the table, and the young master Li, who was at the gathering, was still looking at this year's Enke textbook.

One of them asked, "What do you think the King of Han will do about this?"

Another person shook his head and replied, "It's hard to say! Although the King of Han granted us scholars the privilege of a special imperial examination last time, it still dragged on for almost two years and added several new subjects that are hard to understand. This 'knocking on the throne' might not be so simple either."

Someone else turned and asked, "Brother Liu, you are better informed about this matter than we are. What do you think?"

Young Master Liu was taken aback for a moment: "Ah...oh...right, right, Brother Xu is right."

The young master Xu who asked the question seemed a bit suspicious: "Brother Liu, you seem a little absent-minded these past two days. Could it be that you are not feeling well?"

Young Master Liu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and waved his hand, "No, it's nothing!"

The friends didn't pay any attention and were about to continue chatting about how things were going.

Suddenly, a scholar rushed up to the second floor, panting heavily: "Gentlemen...the latest...the latest news..."

Someone immediately handed him tea, and after drinking it, he finally felt better and said, "The latest news is out: all the students who participated in the kowtow have been arrested, and it was the Ministry of Justice that personally arrested them."

"The Ministry of Justice has arrested someone?" someone exclaimed.

Because the Ministry of Justice is arresting people on such a large scale, it is unlikely that they would do so without the permission and order of the King of Han.

Some people, still skeptical, pressed on, asking, "These are all students from Jingzhou University, the future talents of the nation, and they're all being arrested like this?"

Another messenger said, "They call themselves national talents? I've already inquired. Not only have they been arrested, but their academic records have also been revoked. I'm afraid this matter won't end well."

Bang!

A bench fell to the ground with a thud.

When everyone turned around, they saw someone collapse and sit on the ground.

"Brother Liu, why did you fall? Get up quickly!"

"Oh no! Brother Liu didn't just fall, he's fainted! Quickly, call a doctor!"

(End of this chapter)