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

Zhao Shuyao held the microphone, his gaze unwavering, meeting the imposing eyes behind the podium.

The lecture hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The attention of more than 500 students was all shifting back and forth between the two. The student council member standing in the aisle still maintained his accusatory posture, but Zhao Shuyao completely cut off any eye contact with him.

"Since we are discussing academic matters and exploring the qualities of ancient emperors, we must put the public evaluation standards for 'sage rulers' from different dynasties on the table." Zhao Shuyao's voice was unhurried and resonated in the spacious classroom through the speakers.

His mind quickly went to the accounts of the imperial treasury and national expenditures of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were originally the data he had prepared for his graduation thesis.

"Throughout history, there's one red line that every ruler who can be called a sage or enlightened monarch in historical records would never dare to cross: large-scale construction and building of palaces." Zhao Shuyao raised his chin slightly, his tone tinged with a hint of teasing.

"For example, Emperor Wen of Han wanted to build a terrace. When he calculated that it would cost 100 gold pieces, which was equivalent to the wealth of ten middle-class families, he immediately stopped the construction. This is the value of a sage ruler. But in the Qing Dynasty, which you admire so much, the bottom line of this standard seems to have suddenly become a spring."

Yan Chongnian, standing on the podium, frowned and rested his fingers on the edge of the table. He keenly sensed that the student wanted to change the battlefield of the debate, shifting from the ethereal "integrity" to the concrete "domestic affairs".

This is a dangerous sign.

Zhao Shuyao didn't give the other party a chance to interrupt, and began to speak faster: "Let's take the 'Kangxi and Qianlong Prosperity' that you mentioned as the most perfect one, and the Kangxi Emperor who has been praised to the skies in all kinds of period dramas."

"No matter how much you label the emperors of the Ming Dynasty as 'eccentric,' whether they were carpenters or Taoists, they basically stayed obediently in the Forbidden City. Few of them had the penchant for building gardens all over the world."

"But what about Emperor Kangxi?" Zhao Shuyao stretched out two fingers on his left hand and gently waved them in the air. "Everyone should have seen period dramas with queues. The most familiar one is Chengde Mountain Resort. Beijing gets a bit hot in the summer, and this wise emperor felt uncomfortable. So, from the moment he truly came to power, he started a massive construction project in Chengde, building this super palace that covers more than five million square meters."

A few extremely faint gasps came from the surrounding student group. Many history students certainly knew about the Summer Palace, but few would usually equate it directly with "the behavior of a tyrannical ruler".

Zhao Shuyao looked at the students below the stage who were starting to stare blankly, and a smile appeared on his lips: "Building one is fine, but this is just the beginning. This massive project continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty."

"What I just mentioned is only one place in Chengde. They also built Changchun Garden, Yuanmingyuan, and Qingyi Garden in the western suburbs of Beijing. In addition to Zhili, there are also many imperial palaces of various sizes in Jiangnan."

At this point, Zhao Shuyao paused for a second, his gaze sweeping across the room, his tone revealing an extreme contrast and a sense of humor.

"So the emperors of the Qing Dynasty spent 200 out of 365 days a year on tours and 100 days in gardens to escape the summer heat. This kind of extravagant construction projects, which used up the wealth of the entire nation just to satisfy their own comfort, would have caused the censors in the court to break the pillars of the Forbidden City if it had happened in any of the Han, Tang, Song, or Ming dynasties. The historians would have definitely written down the description of them as 'incompetent rulers who were arrogant, extravagant, and wasteful of resources and manpower' in the history books."

Zhao Shuyao spread his hands, looking at Yan Chongnian, whose face was ashen: "How come, in your hands, and in the mouths of some contemporary experts, this behavior is not only not a black mark, but has become a monument to their 'diligent governance and love for the people'?"

The history majors in the front row exchanged glances. The fear they had initially felt due to the authority figure began to crumble quietly under this clear and down-to-earth logical breakdown.

Yang Wei sat behind Zhao Shuyao. He understood. It was an extremely intuitive logic: how could a leader who spends all his time using public funds to build luxurious villas and travel everywhere be a hardworking and good leader?

"What Zhao Shuyao said seems to make some sense..." A girl wearing glasses on the right side of the aisle couldn't help but whisper to her roommate, "When we were teaching about finance in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wanli was so stingy when he wanted to build a mausoleum for his imperial concubine that he was scolded by his ministers every day."

This kind of empathy began to spread in the lecture hall. What the students needed was not tedious memorization of years, but this kind of penetrating logical comparison.

The student council member realized the atmosphere was tense and tried to interrupt, "Don't stray from the topic. We're talking about the governing quality of the entire dynasty..."

"I'm talking about the quality of governance!" Zhao Shuyao turned around and retorted, "Taking the taxes paid by the people to build private gardens for themselves, you call that high quality?"

"Does this mean that the standards for historical evaluation can be lowered infinitely when it comes to the Qing Dynasty? In more than two thousand years of feudal society, there were very few rulers who could be called sage emperors, but the Qing Dynasty suddenly started to mass-produce them?"

After speaking, Zhao Shuyao's smile faded, and he looked at the podium with a calm and expectant expression: "Professor Yan, you say that the Qing emperors were diligent in their duties and loved their people. I ask you, how can such an almost insane amount of construction work be worthy of the title 'sage ruler'? Even if the Manchus plundered the wealth accumulated over the previous thousands of years and had the money to build, how come they couldn't even protect the gardens they built themselves?"

Yan Chongnian sat upright in the chair, his facial muscles stiff from forcibly suppressing his emotions.

Having dominated various large-scale forums in China for decades, he rarely encountered a younger generation with such clear thinking and a direct grasp of the pain points. He keenly judged that Zhao Shuyao was using the "economic account" that ordinary people at the bottom of society could easily empathize with.

If one were to argue along the logical trap of "it's wrong to spend money on garden renovations," this academic giant would have completely lost.

We must elevate this situation and crush this arrogant graduate student from a political perspective.

In just two seconds, Yan Chongnian sneered, adjusted his posture, and reached for the microphone.

"shallow."

Yan Chongnian uttered those two words with a condescending tone.

"Zhao Shuyao, I thought you had at least read a few professional books on Ming and Qing history, but now it seems your vision is limited to calculating the daily necessities of a village."

Yan Chongnian shook his head, his gaze sweeping across the room, trying to regain control of the classroom.

"You only see the money the emperor spent on building gardens, but you completely misunderstand the historical context and the power struggles among major nations at that time! Back then, the Qing Dynasty was truly a nation where all nations paid tribute. Were those palaces and gardens really just for the emperor's personal enjoyment?"

Yan Chongnian raised his voice, making it booming: "That's to showcase the prosperity and power of the Central Plains dynasty to the surrounding vassal states and the world! Doesn't the majesty of a nation need to be displayed through magnificent architecture?"

The atmosphere below the podium paused slightly, the students momentarily stunned by this grand political perspective.

Yan Chongnian seized upon this shift in atmosphere and pressed his advantage: "Let's talk about that so-called summer resort you mentioned, the Chengde Mountain Resort. You think Emperor Kangxi went there to cool off? Ridiculous!"

He pointed to the table with his finger: "The students here can go and look up the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty. The real purpose of the Chengde Mountain Resort was the 'Mulan Autumn Hunt.' What was the situation in the surrounding area at that time? The nomadic peoples of the northern grasslands have always been at odds with the Central Plains dynasties. The Ming Dynasty built so many sections of the Great Wall and fought for hundreds of years, and what was the result?"

Yan Chongnian smiled smugly and presented his most prized conclusion.

"But have you noticed that since the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, there has never been another large-scale, protracted war between the Central Plains and the northern grasslands? Why is that?"

"This is the result of the Qing emperors' annual northern tours, where they met with Mongol princes in Chengde and formed alliances with them. The Mountain Resort was essentially a political and united front center without walls, where they displayed the military might of the Eight Banners and pacified the tribes of the grasslands."

The old man's voice resounded in the lecture hall, as if he held the truth in his hands.

"The money spent on building a garden and on countless autumn hunts was used to secure hundreds of years of peace on the northern border. Compared to the tens of millions of taels of silver spent on years of war during the Ming Dynasty, which is more worthwhile? Were the emperors and strategists of ancient times really less intelligent than a student like you who has never left school?"

The student council member in the aisle immediately took the lead in applauding, and several students in the front row who were trying to apply for Yan Chongnian's doctoral program also joined in.

This rhetoric, which whitewashes "building a garden for pleasure" into "a far-sighted united front strategy of a major power," is indeed very deceptive within academic circles.

Yan Chongnian looked at Zhao Shuyao with disdain in his eyes: "As for what you said about going to Jiangnan and building a palace there, the hardest thing for the Qing Dynasty to win over after entering the pass was the hearts of the scholars in Jiangnan."

"The emperor's trip to the south to repair gardens was for the purpose of inspecting water conservancy and strengthening the connection between the central government and the prosperous south. Some of the money was necessary for the stability of the country!"

"Moreover," Yan Chongnian leaned back in his chair, his tone becoming very confident, "the Qing Dynasty's treasury was full at the time, and tax revenue was increasing year after year, which was more than enough to cover these expenses and did not harm the foundation of the country at all."

"This point is clearly recorded in the household registers of all dynasties. It is an academic joke to try to apply the petty logic of an ordinary person to the operation of a vast empire."

After a long rebuttal, the entire lecture hall was completely enveloped by Yan Chongnian's rigorous and grand narrative. Many students who had just thought Zhao Shuyao was right began to waver again.

"It seems... Professor Yan's explanation does indeed have a deeper reason."

"Yes, if we don't build the garden and hold the alliance, and instead fight with the Mongols, the number of people who die and the amount of money spent will be enormous."

Whispers broke out again, and the wind seemed to have been forcibly reversed by Yan Chongnian in a very short time.