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

Everyone in the lecture hall was waiting for the over-eighty-year-old academic luminary on the podium to give the answer.

Yan Chongnian sat upright in the large leather chair, leaning back slightly, his hands clasped together on the table, his chest rising and falling steadily, showing no sign of losing his composure.

Faced with Zhao Shuyao's probing questions about "economic accounts" and "the life and death of the lower classes," he quickly filtered out the specific data that could easily lead him into a quagmire.

Getting bogged down in trivial details is a scholar's weakness; elevating the discussion to the level of national affairs is where a titan like him truly shines.

"Zhao Shuyao, your approach is very interesting." Yan Chongnian spoke, his voice coming through the microphone, carrying a kind of magnanimity and inclusiveness that comes with the passage of time.

His gaze passed over Zhao Shuyao and fell upon the hundreds of students in the back row.

"I must admit that if we simply follow the single economic theory you just provided, it will indeed lead to a huge misunderstanding of this great historical monarch to some extent." Yan Chongnian spoke slowly, enunciating each word clearly.

"However, when we do historical research, we must not look at issues in a one-dimensional way. You can't just calculate the financial accounts of Jiangnan. You must combine the social environment at that time and also look at the overall domestic situation at that time before making a comprehensive judgment."

Zhao Shuyao stood still, a polite smile on his lips, quietly acting as a listener.

"You just asked why he went to Jiangnan, and why he went six times in a row?" Yan Chongnian raised his voice, his tone carrying a grand narrative quality. "Actually, the answer is very simple. At that time, the Jiangnan region had just experienced a change of dynasty, and the situation was not stable. There were a large number of opposition forces in the countryside who were using the banner of anti-Qing restoration."

"The primary purpose of this southern tour was to demonstrate the imperial court's power and deter those who were tempted to act. Secondly, it was to strengthen the central government's direct control over prosperous regions. Thirdly, it was to inspect the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, which are crucial to the national economy and people's livelihoods." Yan Chongnian placed his hands on the table, leaning forward. "Which of these three points isn't more important than the deficit of several million taels of silver?"

Immediately, a soft rustling of notes came from the audience. Many students preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam subconsciously scribbled in their notebooks, because this perfectly matched the standard answer in the textbook.

Yan Chongnian recognized this positive feedback and, without hesitation, delivered his prepared, weighty conclusion.

"You only see that ordinary people have to serve a few more months of corvée labor in a short period of time, which may have harmed the interests of a small number of people to some extent," Yan Chongnian said, shaking his head in a compassionate tone.

"But if you look at Kangxi's entire long reign, his enormous contributions to our country are enough to overshadow these minor flaws."

"Before this, our ancestors had a vague concept of territory. It was he who clarified this in the treaty. It was he who, under tremendous pressure, recovered the island of Taiwan. It was also he who, with extraordinary courage, quelled the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, saving the Central Plains from the flames of war that tore it apart."

Yan Chongnian pressed on, revealing his final trump card: "More importantly, in his later years, he announced a national policy that would benefit future generations—to increase the population and never increase taxes. He achieved the ultimate in reducing taxes and corvée labor, explicitly stipulating that no additional poll tax would be levied on future population increases. This was an unprecedented innovation in the long history of feudalism spanning two thousand years!"

A proud expression appeared on his wrinkled face: "It was precisely because of this unprecedented policy that the population exploded to its maximum extent at that time, laying the foundation for the later 400 million compatriots. Isn't that an undeniable fact?"

Yan Chongnian looked directly at Zhao Shuyao and gave his final closing statement: "Therefore, my point of view remains very clear: Kangxi is one of the greatest emperors in our history, and his achievements cannot be erased by the account of deficits."

After a well-structured and grand narrative was delivered, a few scattered claps even rang out in the lecture hall.

The student council president in the front row breathed a long sigh of relief, seemingly regaining a sense of security. The people in the back row, however, were biting their pens, their brows furrowed, thinking that Professor Yan's words made a lot of sense. The policy of "never increasing taxes" did indeed sound like something that would greatly benefit ordinary people.

Hundreds of eyes refocused on the tall, upright young man in the center of the podium.

After listening to the whole process, Zhao Shuyao quickly dissected every link in the other party's logical chain in his mind, stripping away the fancy words and leaving only the core essence of the exchange of interests.

Instead of immediately refuting, he shook his head very slowly, three times in a row.

"Professor Yan." Zhao Shuyao raised the microphone, his voice calm and without a trace of anger, "If the great achievements you just mentioned were in a junior high school history class, everyone would definitely applaud enthusiastically, but we are all adults who study history today."

Zhao Shuyao took a step forward and slowly paced around the open space in front of the first row of seats.

"I completely disagree with your views."

The first sentence was concise and to the point, without any unnecessary embellishment.

Zhao Shuyao stopped and faced the hundreds of students, his tone carrying a knowing, mocking tone: "Let's talk about the recovery of Taiwan, the pacification of the Three Feudatories, and the establishment of our territory. These were indeed major events, and we did accomplish them."

He changed the subject, a mocking smile playing on his lips: "But in that particular position, is this a bonus? Isn't this an emperor's basic duty? If you look through the history books, from the time Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, 'maintaining national unity' and 'suppressing local separatism' became the fundamental tasks ingrained in the bones of all monarchs of unified dynasties."

"It's like a company owner paying the utility bills on time and preventing the company from going bankrupt. Does that count as some kind of extraordinary feat?" Zhao Shuyao spread his hands, using extremely colloquial language to dismantle that sacred facade.

"If any unified monarch of that time were sitting on that dragon throne, as long as he wasn't stupid, he would have had to quell the Three Feudatories and take back Taiwan, because if he didn't do so, his throne would be unstable. This was out of the instinct to maintain power, not out of any deep love for the people."

The students in the audience were stunned for a moment, and then some of them nodded involuntarily. This metaphor was so down-to-earth that it directly dispelled the mystique of the emperor.

Zhao Shuyao turned around and looked directly at Yan Chongnian: "As for that one unprecedented innovation you emphasized at the end, namely the so-called 'increasing the population and never increasing taxes'."

He deliberately elongated the last syllable of those eight words, and a smile overflowed from his eyes.

"You praise this policy to the skies, considering it the clearest proof of the lightest taxes and levies in history." Zhao Shuyao raised a finger and shook it gently. "But Professor Yan, when you were describing this great policy, you deliberately omitted a crucial background information."

Yan Chongnian's eyelids twitched slightly, but he remained silent.

"As everyone knows, taxes are collected from the land." Zhao Shuyao ignored the reactions on the podium and continued his analysis, "So the question is, who owned the land back then?"

Zhao Shuyao raised his voice, which echoed throughout the lecture hall: "After the Qing army entered the pass, they carried out an extremely bloody 'land enclosure movement.' The most fertile fields and manors in the world were almost entirely occupied by the Eight Banners descendants and Manchu nobles. These occupied lands were called 'banner lands,' and the banner lands enjoyed special privileges, such as not having to pay taxes or paying very little tax."

He watched as the students below the stage gradually changed their expressions.

"In other words, most of the country's core means of production are in the hands of their own people, and have long been tax-exempt. The remaining barren lands belong to the suffering Han Chinese people." Zhao Shuyao's speech became faster and faster.

"These people have been squeezed dry, and their numbers are fixed. At this point, Emperor Kangxi stepped forward and said that no additional taxes would be levied on future births."

Zhao Shuyao paused for a second, then let out an undisguised sneer.

"What kind of great innovation is this? It's like a capitalist today who first cuts the employees' base salary to the point where they can barely make ends meet, then holds an all-staff meeting and passionately announces: 'Don't worry, the company promises that no matter how much work you do in the future, we will absolutely not deduct your pay!'"

"This kind of deceptive tactic of transferring wealth from one hand to the other, this method of using policies to lock up the wealth of the privileged while incidentally earning the gratitude of the common people—is this the emperor you speak of who is a 'great emperor of all time'?"

A collective gasp filled the classroom. The girl with the ponytail who had stood up to refute earlier now had her lips tightly pressed together, her pen scribbling heavily across her notebook.

This approach of applying ancient policies to the perspective of modern working people, akin to a "dimensional reduction attack," resonated deeply with the entire audience.

Yan Chongnian tightened his grip on the thermos cup slightly.

"Zhao Shuyao!" Yan Chongnian couldn't help but interrupt, "You're distorting the facts. Back then, productivity was low; if we hadn't done this, the country simply couldn't function!"

"If he is truly a great ruler, genuinely concerned for the well-being of all people," Zhao Shuyao retorted without giving the other party a chance to regain the floor.

"His first task was to issue an edict ordering all Manchu bannermen to return the land that had been seized, to properly return the fertile fields that had been confiscated to the people of the land, and then for everyone to pay taxes fairly!"

Zhao Shuyao took a big step forward, his gaze fixed on Yan Chongnian.

"But he didn't. On the contrary, he greatly strengthened the power of the Imperial Household Department. What was the Imperial Household Department? It was the emperor's personal steward. They monopolized the most profitable sectors in the country: salt administration, textile manufacturing, and mining. This meant that they were continuously siphoning profits that should have belonged to private merchants and ordinary people into their own pockets!"

"Using the hard-earned money of the people to support your own family and clan, and then issuing a flippant 'never increasing taxes,' is this what you call benevolent governance?"

The lecture hall was completely silent. The students who had been swayed by the "national interest" were now fully awake.

Zhao Shuyao suppressed his sneer and entered a deep state. Instead of continuing to press on the economic issue, he took a deep breath and elevated the topic to another level.

"In fact, exploiting the people and squeezing their wealth" Zhao Shuyao's voice became low. "In the more than two thousand years of feudal history, every dynasty had this problem. In some extremely bad historical periods, people could barely tolerate it by holding their noses."

Turning around, with his back to the podium, he looked at the room full of young, vibrant faces.

"But what disgusts me most, what I find most unacceptable, is not silver or land at all." Zhao Shuyao's gaze gradually sharpened, as if trying to pierce through the river of time, "but rather the century-long ideological castration that the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors inflicted on our entire nation!"

The moment the words "ideological castration" were uttered, it felt as if an electric current surged through the air.

"Our Han culture has been passed down for five thousand years. It has integrity and backbone, but what did they do after they came in?" Zhao Shuyao said, emphasizing each word. "Literary inquisitions killed scholars across the land, making them afraid to speak out. The compilation of the Siku Quanshu was actually the destruction of all books that were not conducive to their rule. They broke the original indomitable spirit of the Han people and extinguished all the sparks of resistance and independence in human nature."

"They truly succeeded in discarding the essence and keeping the dross." Zhao Shuyao's tone revealed a profound sorrow. "They spent three generations building an impeccable system of enslavement, turning the Central Plains into a massive, airtight slave camp, and pushing everyone's servility to its extreme!"

Zhao Shuyao stood upright in the center of the podium, his posture as straight as a javelin.

"Therefore, I have come to the final conclusion." He raised the microphone and uttered those earth-shattering words, "Regardless of whether or not later powerful nations with superior ships and cannons entered, this kind of dynasty that maintains its rule by draining the lifeblood of the nation cannot last long. It must perish! If it does not perish, our nation has no future!"

Quiet.

An extremely long silence followed, then the heavy breathing of several boys in the front row.

This analysis, which elevates directly from economic considerations to the level of national spirit, is like peeling away the last fig leaf of history, revealing the most bloody truth within.

Zhao Shuyao didn't look at the students' reactions. He slowly turned around and faced Yan Chongnian behind the podium.

At this moment, Yan Chongnian's face had turned ashen and his lips were tightly pressed together. Looking at the graduate student in his twenties in front of him, he felt a sense of weightlessness that he could not control for the first time.

Zhao Shuyao looked at him, the sharpness in his eyes completely gone, replaced by an extremely pure gaze of scholarly inquiry.

"Professor Yan." Zhao Shuyao's voice became calm again, yet it carried an inescapable weight.

"I've looked through your resume, and I know that your ancestors were Manchus, that you have a family and a lineage," Zhao Shuyao said calmly. "From your personal perspective, it's perfectly understandable that you want to uphold the glory of your ancestors and want to say a few good words in your article."

Upon hearing this, Yan Chongnian's jaw muscles visibly tensed up.

"What I don't understand is," Zhao Shuyao leaned forward, his tone filled with intense questioning and bewilderment, "why, as a modern scholar and an old teacher, would you use such vast social resources to so vehemently whitewash and promote a dynasty that materially emptied the world and spiritually emasculated its people?"

Zhao Shuyao gently tapped his chest with his finger.

"Even if they are your ancestors, we sit here today as scholars, as recorders of history. We can't let the filter of blood ties prevent us from distinguishing right from wrong, can we?"

Zhao Shuyao's voice echoed in the lecture hall, carrying the unique dignity and sharpness of a cultured person.

"If, in order to save face for one family or clan, we abandon even the most basic moral standards and historical bottom lines, turning white into black and enslavement into a golden age," Zhao Shuyao asked, looking at the once high and mighty authority figure, word by word, "if that's the case, what qualifications do you think we have to stand on this platform, what qualifications do we have to publish books, write biographies, and educate future generations?"

Zhao Shuyao switched the microphone to his left hand, placed his right hand flat on the edge of the podium, leaned forward slightly, and completed this final decisive blow.

"There's an old Chinese saying, 'To teach others, first teach yourself.' Professor Yan, you've spent half your life studying Qing Dynasty history. Before you teach us students how to understand history, have you... truly understood it yourself?"