He fiercely criticized the Manchu scholar clique and the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty.

Zhao Shuyao's argument about "height regression" directly hit the most intuitive and vulnerable part of his understanding.

Reporter Wang's gaze remained fixed on the screen. His mind raced as he tried to refute the claims, only to find that the old photos from the late Qing Dynasty in his mind were indeed as Zhao Shuyao had described—emaciated, hunched, and numb.

On the other end of the video call, Zhao Shuyao didn't let the silence last long. He moved closer to the screen and his tone became more direct.

"Reporter Wang, let's put it more simply." Zhao Shuyao's lips curled into a smile that wasn't entirely relaxed. "It's like forcibly pushing an ordinary person who has never been trained into the octagon, and his opponent is Mike Tyson at his peak."

Zhao Shuyao gestured a massive silhouette in the air with his hands: "You're just standing there, looking at your opponent's muscular physique, looking at their shoulders that are twice as broad as yours. How much mental preparation do you need to ensure your legs don't buckle when you open your mouth to speak?"

Reporter Wang swallowed hard, imagined the scene, and shook his head very honestly.

"There's no confidence whatsoever, is there?" Zhao Shuyao put his hand down. "That's why I said that what we've lost in the past three hundred years is not just the quantifiable objects and technologies on the surface."

"What we have lost is our comprehensive confidence and the composure ingrained in our genes. I believe that the sense of loss and despair we felt was the deepest and most painful for our martyrs when we first opened our doors to the world in modern times."

Reporter Wang nodded repeatedly, drawing a heavy circle on the notebook with his pen. The difference in physical form was indeed the most direct form of pressure.

But his journalistic instincts hadn't completely shut down; he adjusted his glasses and raised a question that was prevalent in society.

"Teacher Zhao, I completely agree with what you said about the sense of oppression." Reporter Wang's voice was inquisitive. "However, could this difference in physique be mainly determined by the genes of East Asians? After all, many popular science articles say that racial differences lead to differences in skeletons and body shapes."

Upon hearing the term "genetic determinism," Zhao Shuyao waved his hand repeatedly, directly rejecting this deeply ingrained prejudice.

"Reporter Wang, this is a complete misconception of reversed cause and effect." Zhao Shuyao picked up his water glass, took a sip to moisten his throat, and asked in return, "Do you usually pass by the gates of local junior high or high schools in Guangzhou on your way to and from get off work?"

Reporter Wang was taken aback, not understanding why the topic suddenly jumped to the school gate: "Just passing by, what's up?"

"Have you ever taken a close look at the post-00 generation?" Zhao Shuyao's eyes were bright. "You mean the current batch of fifteen or sixteen-year-old kids. Look at their average height, and then look at the broad shoulders of the boys."

"Are they visually significantly different in physique from our generation, or even from our parents' generation?"

The image of the group of teenagers in school uniforms, each over 1.8 meters tall, flashed through Wang's mind. Sometimes, when he stood with these middle school students in the elevator, he even had to look up slightly.

"Yes, kids these days are indeed taller," reporter Wang replied truthfully.

"Have the genes mutated in these few decades?" Zhao Shuyao spread his hands. "Obviously not. The same genes, the same land, why are they taller now? There's only one reason: from birth, children now get meat, eggs, and milk, so their protein intake has increased."

Zhao Shuyao concluded: "Therefore, genes only determine the upper limit of height, while most of the time, what truly determines the height of ordinary people is the nutrition at the bottom level, which is 'eating'."

Reporter Wang took a deep breath; this logic was impeccable.

But he immediately seized on another key flaw: "But Professor Zhao, since both are ancient times—the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty are both ancient times—according to the common sense of social development, the Qing Dynasty is closer to modern times on the timeline, so its agricultural technology should have been more advanced. Why were people taller in the past, but in the Qing Dynasty, they were starving and became shorter?"

Reporter Wang sat up straight, his eyes gleaming with curiosity: "I really don't know the answer to this question. If I did, I would definitely write about it in the newspaper. I would appreciate it if Professor Zhao could explain it to everyone."

In room 302 of Northeastern University, Zhao Shuyao heard the question and a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes. The other person not only understood it, but also accurately grasped the logical gap in the historical evolution.

Zhao Shuyao nodded slightly, but instead of immediately stating his conclusion, he began by laying the groundwork with basic agricultural knowledge.

"Actually, the reason is not complicated at all." Zhao Shuyao tapped his fingers lightly on the table in a rhythmic manner. "The core issue lies in the decline of basic productivity."

"Regression?" Reporter Wang keenly caught the word.

"Yes, backwards." Zhao Shuyao slowed down his speech to make sure the other person could hear every word clearly. "Everyone who goes to the countryside now, or watches the agricultural channel, knows about the current state of ecological farming."

"It's what's known as the 'mulberry-dike-fishpond system,' which combines planting mulberry trees, raising silkworms, feeding fish with pig manure, and fertilizing the fields with pond mud to form a three-dimensional ecological cycle system, right?"

"This is common sense in modern agriculture," reporter Wang nodded.

"But this isn't a modern invention." Zhao Shuyao smiled proudly. "This rudimentary form of intensive ecological agriculture was clearly recorded as early as the Northern Wei Dynasty in Jia Sixie's 'Essential Techniques for the Common People'."

"In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi's 'Complete Treatise on Agriculture' in the Jiangnan region recorded this highly mature three-dimensional agricultural model in detail."

Zhao Shuyao drew a circular motion in the air with both hands.

"Back then, the people of Jiangnan did not only grow rice. They raised fish, pigs, mulberry trees and silkworms, and even cash crops. This diversified ecological farming provided the people at the bottom with an extremely rich source of protein. With meat and fish to eat, people naturally grew tall and strong."

Reporter Wang put down his pen and stared intently at the screen. He had a vague idea of ​​what was going to happen, but he couldn't believe it.

"But what about the Manchus?" Zhao Shuyao withdrew his hand, his tone turning cold and hard. "The enclosure movement after entering the pass completely destroyed the highly commercialized and ecological farmland in Jiangnan, turning it into single manors for the Eight Banners. In addition, there was the later isolationism and the abnormal population explosion brought about by the equalization of land tax and poll tax."

Zhao Shuyao looked directly at the camera and revealed the truth of history word by word: "In order to survive and feed hundreds of millions of mouths, the people had no choice but to give up all the energy-consuming ecological farming and use all the land to grow one thing - high-yield but nutritionally worthless coarse grains, sweet potatoes and corn."

"The common people of the Qing Dynasty filled their stomachs with sweet potatoes and corn. They wouldn't starve, but they definitely wouldn't grow strong. Their protein intake plummeted for more than two hundred years, and their physiques were shrunk and degenerated."

Zhao Shuyao leaned back in his chair and delivered a weighty summary: "That's why I've always emphasized that the Qing dynasty's setbacks weren't just in science and technology for three hundred years; they ruined Chinese civilization in every aspect, from productivity to culture and thought, and even the most basic physical condition of the people. It was an unfathomable and comprehensive regression."

Quiet.

A full half minute of silence.

On the other end of the video, reporter Wang's mouth was agape, his expression frozen, his hands hovering over the keyboard, his fingertips even trembling slightly.

He never imagined that the delays caused by the Qing Dynasty would be so comprehensive and so deeply ingrained, from the macro-level literary inquisitions to the micro-level mulberry-dike-fishpond system; from the destroyed "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) to the sweet potatoes in the stomachs of ordinary people.

This is an impenetrable chain that has locked a once vibrant nation firmly into the mire of poverty, ignorance, and weakness.

"This is terrifying..." Reporter Wang muttered to himself, completely forgetting that he was conducting an interview, his mind reeling from the sheer volume of information.

If everything Zhao Shuyao said is true, then the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong eras and the so-called Ten Great Military Achievements of the past hundred years were simply a beautifully packaged urn filled with the blood and tears of Chinese civilization.

"Professor Zhao..." Reporter Wang regained his voice, his tone revealing a sense of exhaustion from surviving a catastrophe. "I really didn't expect it to be like this. If your arguments are entirely based on authentic historical materials, then how much historical truth is still buried?"

Reporter Wang shook his head and gave a wry smile: "To be honest, after hearing what you said, I can't imagine what kind of confident life we ​​ordinary people lived in the Ming Dynasty or even earlier dynasties before the Qing Dynasty."

Zhao Shuyao remained remarkably calm in the face of reporter Wang's sentiments.

"Reporter Wang, please don't idealize the past dynasties too much." Zhao Shuyao maintained the rigor of a scholar and did not glorify any feudal dynasty.

"Feudal society has its inherent limitations of exploitative classes. Natural disasters, man-made calamities, and corrupt officials existed in the Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. The lives of ordinary people were not easy in any ancient society."

He changed the subject, his tone revealing absolute certainty: "However, no matter what, the people of the previous dynasty could at least stand up and be human beings. It was much better than being slaves under the Qing dynasty. Anyone who has even a little knowledge of history and is not biased by self-interest has a very clear understanding of this."

Zhao Shuyao smiled and said, "So, you don't need to be so surprised. The truth has always been in those tens of millions of dusty files. It's just that no one was willing to take them out and show them to everyone before."

Reporter Wang took a deep breath and nodded solemnly.

"Teacher Zhao, you are right. Today's interview was the most rewarding experience I have had since I started working in journalism. You not only helped me understand many historical details, but also showed me the integrity of a true cultured person."

Reporter Wang closed his notebook, composed himself, and concluded the interview, having covered all the core topics.

"Professor Zhao, we've just discussed grand historical topics. Finally, I'd like to ask you a question about yourself in a practical sense."

Reporter Wang looked at the young man on the screen with concern. This young man had just completely shattered the academic cliques' false narrative with an extremely brilliant deduction, but he would also face the most realistic retaliation.

"We all know that because of this dispute, your position at the university has been revoked, and with the Yan family's public lawsuit, your path in traditional academia has been completely blocked."

Reporter Wang paused, her tone softening, "Since you can't stay at the university to teach anymore, and you'll soon be graduating, what are your plans for the future? What kind of work do you intend to do?"

In room 302 of Northeastern University, the afternoon sun slanted in through the window and fell directly on Zhao Shuyao's shoulder.

When Zhao Shuyao heard the question, he did not show any disappointment or confusion. He looked up at the screen and gave a meaningful smile.