Chapter 188: A Gentleman's Virtue is Like the Wind, a Villain's Virtue is Like the Grass

In the main hall, He Borong suddenly understood after being reminded by his son.

The He family cannot handle this matter alone. They need to notify the Zhou family in Tianjing first and act accordingly based on the Zhou family's attitude. At the same time, they need to let the Zhou family understand the difficulties they have faced over the years.

Those ink stones were not given as a gift in vain!
He Borong looked at his son He Qigong with relief and sighed, "I read the Confucian "Plea for Sin" a few days ago, and was still wondering whether I had disciplined you well over the years, but now it seems that I have a unicorn child in my family!"

He is only 28 years old, but he has already reached the sixth level of martial arts, "Ning Gang". He is able to overpower all the geniuses in the prefecture. He also has such insight into the world. After a hundred years, he can hand over the family to his eldest son.

"I can't bear such praise from my father."

He Qigong smiled calmly and turned to look in the direction of Tianjing. "Actually, I want to see the style of the Qilinzi of the Zhou family this time."

There was a hint of thought in He Qigong's words.

Although they had already roughly understood the changes in the situation in Tianjing through information from various sources, they knew that Zhou Tieyi had undergone tremendous changes in the past two months, stirring up the situation in Tianjing.

However, families that have been able to pass on for several generations all know that this change is only the beginning of the turmoil in the court. The Confucians have been promoting the title of "the peerless jester" so loudly, and it is obvious that they will not let the Zhou family off.

Then the He family, which belongs to the Zhou family faction, must be more cautious and may even need to make some preparations early.

"How soon will we leave?"

"Without further delay, I plan to arrive in Tianjing by flying roc tomorrow."

Shantong Prefecture is six thousand miles away from Tianjing. Every morning and evening, there is a flying roc flying between the two places.

······
Lulin Academy.

When the headmaster Lu Shanqing saw Li Jianhu and his party, he did not speak first, but instructed his disciple Cui Yu, "The two of them are seriously injured, you should send them to Doctor Fu for treatment first."

Li Jianhu was moved after hearing this. Just as he was about to start talking about business, Lu Shanqing raised his hand and said with a kind smile, "No matter how important the matter is, we have to wait until your illness is cured before we can talk about it."

"Yes." Cui Yu bowed.

Mo Tianheng hurriedly took his apprentice and his family to express his gratitude, then left with Cui Yu.

After everyone left, Lu Shanqing looked at the white deer playing in the courtyard with a thoughtful look.

Naturally, what Li Jianhu shouted at the foot of the mountain had already reached his ears in advance. The reason why he didn't say it immediately was because there was something strange hidden in it.

Who ordered this?

Although they have different political stances, he has been in a high position for many years. When faced with such political struggles at a higher level, he, like Ho Pak-wing, will not consider right or wrong first, but rather the instigator.

There have been many unjust and wrong cases in Shantong Prefecture, but this is the only one in recent years that could be directly reported to Tianjing.

Logically speaking, the ones who want to do this are none other than the Confucians themselves... But if the Confucians in the Mountain Copper Mansion take action, they should at least inform me so that I don't appear to be so passive.

Could it be that the Mohists wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to take action?

This was the first person Lu Shanqing suspected.

After a cup of tea, Cui Yu returned. Lu Shanqing came back from his deep thoughts and looked at his disciple, "How is the questioning going?"

He asked Cui Yu to send Li Jianhu and his apprentice for treatment. On the one hand, it was to avoid giving others excuses, and on the other hand, it was to take the opportunity to show kindness, open the other party's heart, and take the opportunity to ask for more information.

Cui Yu nodded, "I found out."

"The boy's name is Li Jianhu. His father died in a coal mine, but the burial money was withheld by the Wu family in Xiaoshi Town forty taels. The boy went to the Wu family to ask for it back. The Wu family wanted to use their power to pressure them, but was blocked by the boy's teacher Mo Tianheng..."

Hearing this, Lu Shanqing interrupted and asked, "Mo Tianheng?"

He had some impression of this name, and thought of the appearance of the young man who accompanied the boy, "Hongshan Martial Arts School?"

"Yes."

Cui Yu nodded. It was normal that the teacher had heard about Mo Tianheng, but had not met him in person, so he explained more about Mo Tianheng's identity.

"Mo Tianheng was originally a direct descendant of Hongshan Martial Arts School. A few years ago, at the age of 26, he entered the seventh level of martial arts, 'Spirit Seeding'. Because of a trivial matter, he had a bet with He Qigong, the eldest son of the He family. In the end, his Dantian Qi Sea was broken and he was sent to Xiaoshi Town to avoid the limelight."

Cui Yu finished speaking and added, "It's really sad to say that back then, Mo Tianheng wanted to ask He Qigong for an explanation for a rickshaw driver. I didn't expect that after a few years, he still has the same personality."

The thoughtful look on Lu Shanqing's face turned into praise, and he smiled and said, "Even though he has worked hard, his ambition remains unchanged, and he can be resolute."

This is already a very high evaluation.

After praising him, Lu Shanqing thought for a while and asked, "Is he taking advantage of this?"

It makes sense that if Mo Tianheng was unwilling to have his Dantian Qi Sea destroyed by He Qigong that day and endured it for several years and finally waited for this opportunity.

After all, in terms of means and knowledge, Mo Tianheng can do it.

But thinking like this, Lu Shanqing's opinion of Mo Tianheng suddenly changed drastically.

This kind of means, insight, and scheming are truly harmful!
Cui Yu thought about the conversation with Mo Tianheng just now, and couldn't help but say something on Mo Tianheng's behalf, "Teacher, I don't think so."

"How come it's not like that?"

Cui Yu replied, "Human nature is good. Since Mo Tianheng was able to fight with He Qigong for a rickshaw driver, he deserves the praise of Master Hongyi for doing the same thing today for his disciple. If we judge others by our own standards, we will be laughed at."

Lu Shanqing was contradicted by his disciple, but he did not blame him. Instead, he looked at his disciple with more admiration.

A gentleman is like jade.

"You, you can be said to have been of consistent character over the years, but if you want to help the people, you can't use the virtues of a gentleman to guess the heart of a villain."

This time Cui Yu did not refute.

Lu Shanqing asked again, "Then how do you think we should deal with it?"

Cui Yu thought for a moment and said, "This matter concerns the situation in Tianjing. I must go to Tianjing and make a final decision. Otherwise, if my Lulin Academy acts rashly, it will mess up the layout."

Li Jianhu’s matter can be a big deal or a small one.

Small, then only investigate the Wu family of Xiaoshi Town. For Lulin Academy, crushing the Wu family is as easy as crushing an ant, especially under the premise that the Wu family made the mistake first.

In the meantime, we can investigate the He family, disrupt the Zhou family's ink stone foundation in Shantong Mansion, and strike at the Zhou family's military supplies line, which is enough to cause serious damage to the Zhou family, but not fatally.

However, in order to achieve this, even Lulin Academy needs to make some careful plans.

Big, investigate the Zhou family...but this is beyond the ability of Lulin Academy and requires the approval of the bigwigs in the court.

The current situation is that the Confucian boss obviously wants to take action against the Zhou family, or at least take revenge on Zhou Tieyi, but Cui Yu is not sure to what specific step the Confucian boss will take, so he said that he should first ask the Tianjing boss for instructions to avoid disrupting the layout.

"If you don't consider the overall situation, you are not qualified to consider a specific area. Your words are very mature and good."

Lu Shanqing said, "Then you will set off tomorrow, take the flying eagle to Tianjing, meet Mr. Dong and explain the pros and cons."

······
Zhou House.

Zhou Tieyi removed his hands from Ada's body, and Ada quickly put on his clothes.

He had an idea before, and wanted to use the authority of [Blood God Son] to study the essence of the 'seed spirit' in Ah Da's body, extract the essence of the Dragon Seal from the essence, understand the specific effect of the Dragon Seal on talent, accelerate his comprehension of the Five Emperors' statues, and help himself perfect the [Five Emperors' Bow] combat skill.

The blood essence of the Bi'an in Ada's body belongs to the earth element, which is just suitable for the image of Huangdi. However, the complete dragon seal is already difficult to form. Naturally, studying the relationship between the dragon seal and talent cannot be completed overnight.

Fortunately, I have been able to gain something from this by relying on my authority, which has already surpassed anyone else in the world. How can I not be satisfied?

After a few days of research, it is already very good to be able to get started.

After figuring this out, Zhou Tieyi left the meditation room in a good mood.

There was already the sound of cicadas chirping in the courtyard of Qilin Pavilion, and the hot sunlight felt a little hot even after penetrating the layers of green leaves.

"It's almost May."

Zhou Tieyi sighed in his heart, unknowingly, he had traveled through time for two months.

The gambling match between my brother and Shenxiu is scheduled for early May, which is about seven or eight days away.

He looked at Mei Juncang, Hu Wenlang and Wu Qian who were standing and waiting in front of the stone table.

They had already taken care of the finalization, printing, and channels of the Tianjing News. Although there was still a lot of paperwork and management work to do, if the three of them couldn't do the rest well, they would be truly incompetent.

"Where's the manuscript?"

Zhou Tieyi sat down casually.

Mei Juncang handed the revised draft to Zhou Tieyi. Zhou Tieyi read the version of the imperial edict first.

"Tips on Growing Flowers".

There is no name on this version, which is a unique Confucian practice of this era for the teachings of the respected. Who would dare to write the names of the Emperor and the Empress directly?

That is a crime of great disrespect.

He read it carefully and found it was better than he had imagined.

Throughout the article, the queen perfectly followed her own ideas and wrote carefully about how to take care of flowers. She also gave examples of three cheap flowers in spring and two cheap evergreen plants in summer, truly making it fun for the people.

What’s more important is that the vernacular text above hardly needs to be revised.

Of course, if the Queen's article needs to be revised, she will probably have to ask for permission.

Zhou Tieyi did not intend to complete the vernacular movement through a newspaper.

This movement must have started with newspapers and will involve all aspects, so the struggle is still long.

After reading the Queen Mother's article, Zhou Tieyi flipped through the "memorials". According to his requirements and previous arrangements, Chang Sun Dan had already taken action.

In this memorial, Chang Sun Dan is now like a "mad dog", biting his own people madly, and also biting Confucianists. He really treats everyone equally. His purpose is to examine himself and examine others while doing so.

Many of Zhou family's former officials, who had committed minor crimes, had already been communicated with, pleaded guilty, and received lighter sentences.

During this period, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Chang Sun Dan, was absolutely hated by everyone in the court.

But if corruption is investigated, the people will surely applaud.

They don't need to know how the corruption is investigated, nor do they need to know what interests are exchanged. They only need to know that Chang Sun Dan is the "honest judge" who is impartial and fair.

What they need is an outlet for their emotions.

It is more difficult to prevent people from speaking than to prevent rivers from flooding, so it is better to dredge than to block.

Confucianism creates gods, so why can’t I create gods?

Zhou Tieyi smiled and waited for the "Tianjing Newspaper" to be published for a while, and then it would be circulated throughout the country. Through these dozens of impartial and selfless memorials to investigate and punish corrupt officials...

Lower-level officials would respect Chang Sun Dan, the people would love Chang Sun Dan, and only those in the court wanted to get rid of Chang Sun Dan.

As long as the Zhou family can keep the card of Chang Sun Dan, then his role will be no less than that of the Confucian Mei Qingchen!
Zhou Tieyi had a smile on his face as he continued to look at the next page, "Military Affairs".

"Why is there still one article left?"

Hu Wenlang clasped his hands and said, "I have already urged Yuchi Jing to submit the manuscript. He said he must submit it within three days!"

There are seven manuscripts in total on "Military Affairs", two of which were written by Yuchi Jing for his grandfather.

After getting his reminder, Yuchi Jing, who had been working as a coachman for a while, became much smarter and the articles he wrote were approved. Yuchi Pojun was naturally very satisfied.

Originally, this matter would have ended here, and the other five articles could have been written by other military heroes.

But I don’t know if it was because he wanted his grandson to become a successful person or because he saw his grandson’s progress, but Yuchi Pojun insisted on writing a letter to himself, and then asked for the publishing rights of an article, and gave it to Yuchi Jing to write.

Naturally, I would not refuse such a thing, so I didn't care about it.

But the first two articles have racked Yuchi Jing's brains. He is now collecting materials and thinking about how to write the next article.

Zhou Tieyi curled his lips and said, "Only 800 words."

He did not push for this matter. It was a small matter after all. Even if Yuchi Jing could not finish it on the last day of the deadline, he could fill it in himself.

The fourth edition of "Beijing Affairs" was almost entirely written by Hu Wenlang. When reading the first edition, Zhou Tieyi wondered whether Hu Wenlang was secretly running an intelligence organization.

Now that he has read the latest edition, he is even more convinced of this idea.

But it’s not a good question to ask directly.

Even if Hu Wenlang had his own intelligence organization, that was his "private property" before he became the editor-in-chief of Tianjing News. Zhou Tieyi had no reason to seize it, otherwise it would only make his subordinates lose their minds.

Before something big is accomplished, leaders are most afraid of competing for credit with their subordinates.

If the big thing has been accomplished, that’s another story.

This is called being more successful than your master.

Since ancient times, most emperors have acted like this.

Zhou Tieyi actually has a better way to deal with it.

He said, "How are you doing with the journalist organization I asked you to do?"

This was the concept he originally proposed. At that time, he didn't know that Hu Wenlang had such a huge intelligence organization.

Hu Wenlang could sense Zhou Tieyi's fear.

However, he had no way of explaining this matter to Zhou Tieyi. After all, Mo Fei was his biggest trump card, and he would hide Mo Fei's ability as much as possible.

Instead of letting Zhou Tieyi know about Mo Fei’s peculiarity, it would be better to let Zhou Tieyi misunderstand that he has an intelligence organization in his hands.

"After the General Banner reorganized the novelists, I discussed with Elder Shan several times and have been recruiting people."

Recruiting journalists is not like recruiting technicians. In this era, journalists who can write and gather information are considered high-level workers.

Novelists are naturally the most suitable.

Zhou Tieyi thought about it and realized that he was going to take the opportunity to split the novelist. It was impossible to hide as a journalist, but instead it would be exposed to the public. There was no need to set up an intelligence organization like a spy.

It would also be a good idea to recruit some novelists.

Although Hu Wenlang did not look directly at Zhou Tieyi's face, after spending some time with him, he had already roughly figured out one or two things about Zhou Tieyi's personality and habits.

Even if these one or two habits are only superficial, they are enough to deal with common ups and downs.

Zhou Tieyi didn't say anything and didn't laugh, which meant that he did a good job in this matter, but not well enough to satisfy him.

So Hu Wenlang said, "I'm busy with the editor-in-chief of Tianjing Newspaper. Recruiting reporters is tedious, so I want to find someone to share the burden. After thinking about it, I decided to ask Wu Shuli for help."

Among the three people who manage the Tianjing News, apart from himself, the one Hu Wenlang fears the most is of course Mei Juncang, so he wants to cede power to Wu Qian, win over Wu Qian, and prevent Wu Qian from following Mei Juncang, which will be more beneficial to his control of the Tianjing News.

This is also the result Zhou Tieyi wants to see. On the one hand, even if his subordinates all lean towards him, weighing the power of his subordinates and making them check and balance each other is a basic quality of a superior.

Instead of trusting people’s hearts, it is better to trust the system.

On the other hand, training Wu Qian was also part of his plan. By letting Wu Qian take charge of more things, he would naturally have control over more resources. With so many resources at hand, if Wu Qian's legalism still couldn't make a name for himself, Zhou Tieyi would have to replace him.

"good."

Zhou Tieyi nodded and said.

He doesn't like to act mysterious in front of his subordinates. That approach is useful, but it is a way of distributing existing stock without finding any incremental growth.

Your own sphere of influence is obviously in the period of expansion. If you pretend to be mysterious, you will waste a lot of resources and time on internal strife. That's like throwing away the watermelon and picking up sesame seeds. A wise man would not do that.

After nodding, Zhou Tieyi continued to look at the following pages, 'Treasures', 'Oiran', especially the descriptions of the Oiran Zhao Taisui and the monk Shenxiu, which were extremely erotic, even excessive.

But this is exactly what I wanted to see.

In addition to arousing the curiosity of the people, writing in this way can also attract Confucianists. Some things cannot be suppressed just because you, Dong Xingshu, want to.

'Business' and 'Novel' are supported by businesses and novelists respectively, so they are basically qualified and do not require Zhou Tieyi to make further comments.

After pointing out a few places that needed to be changed to be more colloquial, Zhou Tieyi finally made the decision, "When Yuchi Jing's article comes out, use this edition. By the way, print 300,000 copies of the first edition."

Hu Wenlang was a little surprised, because according to the original agreement, there should be 30,000 copies in Tianjin and 100,000 copies throughout the country, with a total of 130,000 copies to be promoted every three days. The printing volume would be increased only after the people got used to it.

However, since Zhou Tieyi dared to say that he would print 300,000 copies first, he must have his reasons. Zhou Tieyi didn't say the reason, so Hu Wenlang naturally wouldn't ask.

Zhou Tieyi looked at Hu Wenlang with a smile, "Aren't you curious why I printed 300,000 copies?"

Hu Wenlang bowed and said, "Of course I'm curious."

Zhou Tieyi looked at the newspaper and replied, "A gentleman's virtue is like the wind, while a villain's virtue is like grass. However, grass has its own advantages."

(End of this chapter)