GBP Chapter 1211 Since I can't beat them, I'll choose to join them.
Chapter 1211 Since I can't beat them, I'll choose to join them.
Yang Shaofeng sometimes admired himself—for the sake of that dish of vinegar, he had tricked Zhu Laowu into dismantling the short and ugly man several years in advance, and had also been causing trouble at the Dengzhou border market for several years. He had essentially made one scheme after another before finally completing his plan.
In contrast, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were far too crude. Not only did they all like to play with the Yan Kingdom map, but their Yan-Yun maps were also very short, often revealing their true intentions in just a few words.
"VIP?"
Yang Shaofeng chuckled dryly, saying with a hint of schadenfreude, "You, Minister Xue, should go find His Highness the Crown Prince. He is the president of Dengzhou University. I, Yang, haven't been involved in Dengzhou University's affairs for a long time."
"Of course, the Minister of Personnel may have a different opinion. After all, the students of Dengzhou University are all considered reserve officials for the Ministry of Personnel. If you, Minister Xue, get rid of one, the Ministry of Personnel will lose one."
“If the Ministry of Personnel loses one official, the officials from other ministries, supervisory commissions, temples, and monasteries might fight to the death with the Minister of Personnel.”
"Tsk tsk, the officials of our Ming Dynasty are really full of energy. They are all in their fifties or sixties, but they can start fighting whenever they want. They don't seem to get tired of fighting every day."
Faced with Yang Shaofeng's mockery, Xue Xiang merely snorted with a dark face and said, "What can this lowly official from the Ministry of Personnel do to me? Let's just say whether or not the students from Dengzhou University will be given the opportunity!"
Ok?
Judging from your attitude, you old fool Xue, you seem ready to fight me to the death at the slightest provocation?
What's wrong? Have you been reading too much Water Margin?
"Here you go," Yang Shaofeng said with a smile, eager to see the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites clash. "Since Minister Xue has spoken, I will certainly assign you a few people."
Having received Yang Shaofeng's promise, Xue Xiang immediately changed his tune and laughed, "If you had said so earlier, why bother arguing?"
At this point, Xue Xiang couldn't help but sigh and said, "Tell me, is there something wrong with this person?"
"If they wanted to become officials, the Ming Dynasty certainly gave them opportunities."
"As long as they want to make money, the Ming Dynasty did not prohibit them from engaging in commerce or setting up workshops."
"And they're still not satisfied. Just because the tax farming system made them happy for a hundred years, they keep trying to revive Hu Yuan."
"I'm fucking scared. What if these bastards support another Yuan dynasty and then betray our Great Ming?"
Yang Shaofeng stared blankly at Yang Siyi.
Isn't this a bit too forward for someone you don't know well?
Seeing Yang Shaofeng looking at him with a completely bewildered expression, Yang Siyi immediately laughed and said, "Does Your Highness think that what you just said doesn't sound like something an old man like me would say?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded, but Yang Siyi shook his head slightly and said, "When it comes to causing trouble... I can't beat you. Since I can't beat you, then I'll join you and go cause trouble for others with the Prince Consort."
"Moreover, I've discovered that messing with others is actually quite interesting, especially tricking those barbarians. After you've tricked them, you can even hear them say thank you, which makes it even more interesting."
So, Yang Siyi, you want to both recruit people for yourself and use this opportunity to pledge your loyalty?
Seeing Yang Siyi, who joined the fight when he couldn't win, and acted all self-righteous, Yang Shaofeng was speechless.
All right, just be happy.
Yang Siyi took another sip of the small dragon ball and said, "As long as the manpower assigned by the Prince Consort is in place, the task of compiling the teaching materials will be taken care of by this old man."
"The same goes for organizing the writing system for the barbarians. Your Highness, please rest assured. It's just two barbarian languages. I guarantee I'll handle everything perfectly."
Yang Shaofeng immediately perked up.
Ultimately, the task of creating scripts for France and Byzantium still had to be done by the clerks of the Ministry of Rites. It just so happened that Xue Xiang, that old scoundrel, was so rotten to the core that Yang Shaofeng rarely encountered such a like-minded official. So, he seized the opportunity and asked in a flattering tone, "Is that universal phonetics really so amazing?"
Xue Xiang chuckled, picked up the small dragon ball, took a sip, and said, "Your Highness should know that the Chinese characters of our Great Ming Dynasty are pictographic, and strictly speaking, the characters and sounds are separate."
“If we trace back to seal script from a thousand years ago or even earlier ancient characters, we can mostly infer their meaning from their form.”
"Through thousands of years of evolution, these characters have deviated from their original form, but they can still strike a chord with people."
"The barbarians have sounds but no written characters. To trick them, all we need to do is pick two sets of phonetics to annotate their sounds, and that will be enough for these barbarians."
Since he had already reaped the benefits, Xue Xiang didn't mind giving some pointers to the prince consort who was described by his superiors as "unlearned and incompetent."
"The advantage of doing this is that it allows for extremely fast character creation. A few scribes can create a set of characters in just a few days."
"The drawback is that this set of texts lacks the power to directly touch people's hearts; it must be combined with sound to move others."
"..."
Xue Xiang talked on and on about how to use the "Hongwu Zhengyun" to help the barbarians create their own writing system, but Yang Shaofeng became more and more confused as he listened.
Later, Yang Shaofeng was completely bewildered, and his eyes gradually turned towards those of a college student—a bewilderment tinged with a clear-eyed stupidity.
So, what kind of tactics should I prepare to torment Yang Siyi?
We can't just let him off the hook because he's shown his loyalty!
……
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering how to torment Yang Siyi, Mosha, the envoy of the Timurid Khanate, was looking with a beaming smile at his former follower, who used to be called Babur but had now changed his name to Xia Zhong.
"You can rest assured, Mr. Xia, your parents, wife and children will soon be sent to the Ming Dynasty to reunite with you."
Without any threats or tests, Mo Siha tried his best to appear more sincere: "I ask for nothing else, nor will I make things difficult for Lord Xia. I only ask that Lord Xia, for the sake of our past relationship, put in a good word for me with the Prince Consort."
Xia Zhong smiled and cupped his hands to Mo Siha, saying, "You're too kind, Vice Envoy. I was born and raised in the Khanate. Although I have been favored by the Prince Consort and am fortunate enough to be registered in the Ming Dynasty, I will never forget the Khanate's kindness in raising and nurturing me."
Mo Siha didn't believe a single word Xia Zhong said.
Xia Zhong didn't care what Mo Siha was thinking, and continued, "I came to see the Vice Envoy this time for two reasons: first, to catch up with old friends, and second, for the Vice Envoy's sake."
Mo Siha's heart skipped a beat, and he asked, "What does Master Xia mean?"
Xia Zhong smiled and said in a low voice, "When I changed my name to Xia Zhong, the Vice Envoy should have heard it too—I am a descendant of Chunwei, but isn't the Vice Envoy also a descendant?"
As Xia Zhong finished speaking, Mo Siha's heart began to pound wildly.