769

  I found a bug myself, so I made some changes to the rewards for side quests in the first chapter. You can go back and take a look.

  "Wait, who are you talking about? Cai Yong, wasn't he exiled to Lingnan by me? Why not find another one? There are many famous scholars among the court officials, why must it be Cai Yong?"

  "Your Majesty, you just promised me with golden words and granted my request. Bian'er has always admired the most famous Confucian scholar in the world, Cai Dafu, and only wants him as his teacher."

  As for the exile, it's not that a single word from the Emperor can't summon him back. Moreover, Cai Yong is also loyal to the imperial court and the Emperor, even if he has committed the crime of speaking out of turn, having been exiled for two years should be enough.

  Moreover, I am not asking Your Majesty to restore Cai Yong's official position, just summon him back and let him be a special teacher for Bian Er, and he will no longer be allowed to participate in court affairs. This way, it can also put Your Majesty at ease."

  "Let Cai Yong be a full-time teacher for Bian Er, this suggestion is not bad, but I still need to think about it. Ai Fei, you go back to Ning An Palace first, I'll come over to find you after I'm busy, remember to wash and wait for me."

  "Yes, Your Majesty can rest assured, I will make sure to wash thoroughly and serve you well tonight."

  Empress He smiled and then returned to her Ning'an Palace, while Emperor Ling's expression changed: "This Cai Yong is the most stubborn and rude. Let him return to the capital, how can I have a peaceful day? It's just teaching Crown Prince Bian his studies, it's okay to find any official in the court. Come on, pass down the order, let Lu Zhi go to Shi Fu to teach Crown Prince Bian."

  On that day, Shi Daoren returned to report to Liu Bian: "Lord Hou, I found the home of Cai Dafu, where only Cai's mother, wife and daughter, and two servants live together. Now they rely on Cai's wife sewing clothes for others to make a living. I left them 1,000 coins in your name."

  "It's done quite well, but you see that their family is still lacking in food and clothing, so send someone to buy some and have it delivered to them. Also, select two or three clever old maids and young girls from the mansion and send them over to serve them."

  Liu Bian said as he took out a gold bar and some jewelry, hairpins and the like to give to Shi Daoren: "The gold bar is for you, while these pieces of jewelry are to be passed on to Madam Cai and her daughter. Just say that it's a student showing his appreciation to his teacher's wife and sister ahead of time."

  "Lord Hou, rest assured, I will definitely handle this matter properly."

  However, the next day brought news that Emperor Ling had sent Lu Zhi to the Shi residence to instruct Liu Bian, which was a great surprise to Liu Bian, as he had been pretending to look for a teacher but his real intention was to complete his mission.

  However, Lu Zhi was also a senior official in the court and was a straightforward and loyal person. Liu Bian still wanted to get along with him, but in order to complete this temporary task, he had to make Lu Zhi yield himself, which made things very difficult for him.

  "How can I think of a way that will not offend Lu Zhi and yet make him voluntarily retreat?" Liu Bian was thinking hard, clutching his hair.

  Lu Zhi, although currently serving as a Shangshu, is both civil and martial, but he was originally from a civilian background. It wasn't until the Yellow Turban Rebellion that the court allowed him to lead troops in battle, so at the time he was appointed Zhonglang General, and later enfeoffed as Shangshu due to his achievements.

  Lu Zhi received the imperial edict and naturally did not dare to delay, so he arrived at Shi's mansion that day. He was not unfamiliar with Shi's mansion because after the assassination of Crown Prince Liu Bian, he had been sent by the emperor to Shi's mansion and met Liu Bei there.

  Lu Zhi was over fifty years old, but his spirit was still vigorous, his eyes were bright and piercing, his face was lean and gaunt, with a few strands of long whiskers fluttering in the wind, giving him an air of elegance. Liu Bian had also met him before and had always had a good impression of him, but today he couldn't help being rude to him.

  Liu Bian invited Lu Zhi to sit down in the study, personally brewed a cup of fragrant tea for him, and then bowed to him. However, it wasn't the bow of a junior to his senior, which made Lu Zhi feel somewhat puzzled. At this moment, Liu Bian spoke up:

  "Your Excellency, please accept a bow from Liu Bian. It's not that Liu Bian doesn't understand the etiquette of being a junior, but rather he has a question to ask Your Excellency. If Your Excellency's answer can satisfy Liu Bian, then he will certainly be delighted and willingly perform the rites of a junior."

  "Haha, Bian Huangzi wants to test me, huh? That's fine. I'll see what kind of difficult questions Bian Huangzi has that can stump me. If I answer and it doesn't satisfy Bian Huangzi, I'm willing to yield graciously."

  "In that case, Liu Bian is being impolite. I only hope that the Imperial Secretary can answer me one question: whose world is this?"

  Liu Bian asked in a low voice, his eyes fixed tightly on Lu Zhi, and he also displayed his innate ability to stabilize his dignity. Suddenly, it made Lu Zhi feel that the prince Liu Bian in front of him was no longer a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy, but rather like when he was young and entered the court as an official facing the former emperor.

  "Whose world is this? The great Han dynasty has been established for hundreds of years, so the world is naturally the Liu family's. Although it has gone through the upheavals from Western Han to Eastern Han, and although there was once Wang Mang's chaos in the imperial court, those who have always sat securely on the throne are the Liu family, so the world is naturally the Liu family's. An ancient saying goes: 'Under the vast heaven, everything is the king's land; within the king's land, everyone is the king's subject.'"

  "Your Excellency's words are wrong. Within the four seas, there are countless living beings, can they all be born for the Liu family? The world is vast, with a population of millions, can they all die for the Liu family? In ancient times, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were able to rule the world because they established their mandate for the sake of all living beings."

  A hundred years later, why did the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors not pass on the world to their own children? It was because they understood that the world was not the world of any one family, but the world of all people under heaven, the world of all commoners.

  Since the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Qin dynasties, how many emperors have there been, but are there any who can be remembered by the people and stand alongside the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors? And why is that? It's because they treated the world as their own private property, could bully and oppress the people at will, indulge in extravagance and luxury, disregard the lives of the people, and only care about their own pleasure. Therefore, the people never remembered them, just like there were no people in their hearts.

  "So, the words of the Prime Minister are wrong. The world is the world of all the people under heaven, not just the world of my Liu family. Although we Liu family members have the good fortune to be emperors, if we cannot bring welfare to the people under heaven, it would indeed go against the will of heaven and the hearts of the people. No wonder today the world is in great chaos, with fires burning everywhere, and the people are unable to survive, their lives lost in vain. Who is at fault? It is the fault of the Liu family."

  Liu Bian spoke with a heroic and stirring tone, causing Lu Zhi's heart to tremble with fear. At this moment, he felt the aura around Liu Bian was like a high mountain that needed to be looked up to, and his words were like thunder and lightning that shook the heavens and stirred up the winds and clouds, rumbling loudly in his heart, leaving him shocked and disbelieving.

  It is by