Chapter 1056

“This Ge Yiren is a fence-sitter. I have never understood why Your Majesty still keeps him.”

Li San did not have a good impression of Ge Yiren. Although he had no evidence that Ge Yiren had done anything detrimental to the Empire, his cautiousness always made him suspicious.

“I don’t want to keep him either, but this kind of person still has many uses. At the very least, his promotion of New Confucianism is effective. An ordinary person, whether a commoner or an official, would not accept the ideas of New Confucianism.”

“That’s true. This Ge Yiren had great influence among the Confucian scholars in the past. Ever since he began promoting New Confucianism at Your Majesty’s command, many Confucian scholars had no choice but to change. After all, Ge Yiren was once an important figure in Confucianism and a role model for Confucian scholars throughout the world.”

Xiao Ming nodded. Confucianism in the former Great Yu Empire could be said to be the state religion. In the process of establishing the Empire, he inherited the legacy of the Great Yu Empire, instead of overturning everything and starting from scratch like a true founding emperor. This was the reason for so many lingering problems in the Empire now.

This Confucianism was one of the legacies. In fact, he did not completely abolish Confucianism, but adopted the method of removing its dross and keeping its essence, turning the Confucianism that was holding the Empire back into a positive force.

“Therefore, I will use him. Governing a country is not just based on my personal preferences. If he can best achieve my goals, giving him a grand secretary position is worth it.” Xiao Ming said.

He then looked at Ge Yiren’s memorial and continued, “However, you must continue to keep an eye on his every move. From this incident, it is clear that Ge Yiren is still a double-dealer, and we cannot be careless.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Li San bowed.

After giving Li San the order, the two talked about other intelligence of the Empire. Only then did Xiao Ming let Li San leave.

After Li San disappeared from the Imperial Study, Qian Dafu said, “Your Majesty, it seems this government decree has indeed offended most of the nobles. The Empress Dowager’s words are still valid. Your Majesty must be careful. In this old servant’s opinion, no one in the Empire now has the power to rebel. They themselves are also very clear about this. Under such circumstances, I am afraid they will resort to more covert conspiracies and schemes, including harming you, Your Majesty.”

“Are you saying I need to strengthen the security of the palace?” Xiao Ming said with a smile. Qian Dafu’s view was quite accurate. Through the two subversive measures of military reform and political reform, he now had a firm grip on the Empire’s political and military power.

And even if the nobles were dissatisfied with this policy, they had no power to cause trouble through military force. At most, they could only curse him behind his back as a tyrant.

However, precisely because they could not use aggressive means to oppose him, they would instead resort to covert actions to undermine the government decree he had introduced. In the future, the conflicts surrounding the privileges of the old nobles would probably continue for a while.

In fact, his purpose in introducing this government decree was not to completely eliminate the nobles, because he understood that once the old nobles disappeared, new nobles would be born again. Since ancient times, a small group of people would always hold the majority of the power, and a small group of people would hold the majority of the wealth. As long as private ownership existed, it was impossible for humans to establish a great commonwealth. This was the pyramid-like social structure of humanity that was born after the advent of private ownership.

But even so, a solidified pyramid structure was terrifying. He just wanted to make this pyramid more fluid, so that common people could enter the top of the pyramid through hard work, and those at the top who did not work hard would naturally decline to the bottom.

This was not a continuation of the former Great Yu Empire, where the entire imperial family was supported by the power of the Empire, and powerful families monopolized resources and relied on exploiting the common people to pass down their wealth for thousands of years. After all, if this state of affairs were to continue, the entire society would lack vitality, which was why the former Great Yu Empire was so many years behind the West.

“Strengthening the security of the palace is naturally necessary. Also, from now on, I will personally taste Your Majesty’s meals.” Qian Dafu said seriously.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming frowned. Sometimes reality was just that cruel. It would be an honor for him to die in a foreign war, but it would be a humiliation to be poisoned and killed by someone. And the fact was that there were probably many people who wanted him dead, and now that this government decree was implemented, there was a new batch of them.

“I appreciate your effort, but now there are fewer and fewer people I can truly trust around me. The term ‘solitary ruler’ is quite fitting.” Xiao Ming gave a wry smile.

Qian Dafu laughed. “This old servant has no children and no one to worry about in this life. I only wish to dedicate my life to the country and serve Your Majesty, hoping to leave a name in history.”

Hearing this, Xiao Ming suddenly laughed. He said to Qian Dafu, “No problem. In the future, I will establish a ‘Pavilion of Meritorious Officials’ for the Empire, and you will also be a part of it, for the people of future generations to look up to.”

Qian Dafu’s face flushed with excitement. He was once a scholar, but his fate was not good, which led him to this situation. However, he still held the idea that a person who has learned literary and military skills should sell their services to the emperor’s family.

“In that case, this old servant will have no regrets even after I die,” Qian Dafu said, tears glistening in his eyes.

Xiao Ming patted Qian Dafu on the shoulder at this time. Since he came to this world, he had very few people he could truly trust.

From the time Qian Dafu followed him to establish the foundation of the six prefectures, he had done the most tiring work and received the least rewards. It was precisely because of this that he had taken care of his relatives.

Some people say that emperors are heartless, but the hearts of men are made of flesh. That was just a delusion of outsiders who thought that an emperor must make cold-blooded decisions.

Just as they were chatting idly.

At this time, a young eunuch arrived at the door, bowed, and said, “Your Majesty, Chief Grand Secretary Pang has arrived.”

“Let him in,” Xiao Ming said.

Pang Yukun was the instigator of the government decree against the nobles. The day he mentioned the matter of private schools, he already had the intention of attacking Fei Pei and his group.

Xiao Ming had simply gone with the flow. In this way, he lost the support of some of the old nobles, but he gained the full support of this new group of nobles led by Pang Yukun.

Compared to people like Fei Pei and Duke Tang, Pang Yukun and his people had followed him for a longer time and were more thoroughly assimilated by him. Although they were also nobles in their own right, they were quite low-key and treated the common people as equals. It could be said that they were very popular with the people. This was what he wanted the other nobles to emulate. Unfortunately, the actions of people like Pang Yukun were out of place in the eyes of people like Fei Pei and were always looked down upon by them.

“Your Majesty.” Pang Yukun looked a little haggard. He said, “After the newspaper published the government decree, many nobles vented their resentment on me. On my way to the palace, I received many cold stares.”