At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

No matter how you look at it, he is lucky.

A lucky old man from the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Guo Peng can think about it, but for some reason, there is always a big stone in Guo Peng's heart, which makes him feel bored.

Only one day after Cai Yong's death, on the fourth day of May, Cao Ang took Cai Yan back to Luoyang, and then learned that Cai Yong had passed away yesterday.

Cai Yan was so heartbroken that she passed out from crying at that time, and before that, Cai Wan had passed out from crying several times, and no matter how much she tried to persuade her, she couldn't persuade her.

The two sisters cried miserably. Those who saw it were sad, and those who heard it wept.

Guo Jin was very embarrassed, no matter how much she tried to persuade her, she couldn't stop Cai Wan's sadness, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Cai Yong has no sons in his lineage, and Cai Yong doesn't really want to choose one from his clan to inherit everything he owns.

In order to prevent no one from inheriting Cai Yong's title and inheritance, Guo Peng had an agreement with Cai Yong in the early years.

If Guo Jin and Cai Wan have more than two sons, including two sons, give the youngest son to Cai Yong as his grandson, let him be named Cai, and inherit Cai Yong's title and inheritance.

Guo Jin and Cai Wan had only one son and two daughters all year round. Before and after Guo Jin took a concubine, Cai Wan worked harder and finally conceived another child, a son who is less than six years old this year.

The child's surname was decided to be Cai after birth, and Cai Yong personally named him Yong and gave him to Cai Yong as his grandson.

In the future, this child will inherit Cai Yong's title and inheritance. With Cai Yong's permission, he decided to include this child in the genealogy and accept him as his own family.

Today, in addition to the two sisters Cai Yan and Cai Wan, the little Cai Yong, who is less than six years old, is also guarding Cai Yong's coffin and performing his filial piety in front of the coffin.

Because there were arrangements and preparations in advance, this matter did not cause any twists and turns, so it was confirmed.

Everything about Cai Yong's death was properly arranged, and soon, it entered the stage of mourning. Civil and military officials from all dynasties came to Cai Yong's mourning hall to pay homage to Cai Yong.

The two sisters, Cai Yan and Cai Wan, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying, were unable to attend the meeting, and Cao Ang, who had just returned and had not officially taken office, presided over Cai Yong's funeral.

Can't let the emperor Guo Jin preside over it himself?

Cai Yong's funeral was quite ostentatious. After all, he was the highest-ranking official in the Manchaotang, the only incumbent Sangong-level official, 84 years old, highly respected, and full of peaches and plums.

Officials of the Manchu Dynasty who came to pay homage to Cai Yong had to weigh their status. Only those with sufficient status dared to enter the mourning hall, and those with insufficient status could only stand outside the door as a background board.

The officials who paid homage to Cai Yongling in front of him counted as one, and they were all high-ranking officials and dignitaries.

General Cao Ren.

The chief assistant of the cabinet is Cao Cao.

Staff Tai Shangshu Xizhong.

Xun You and Guo Jia are the servants on the left and right of the staff desk.

Shangshutai has dozens of ministers and ministers under its jurisdiction.

General of the Guards Zhao Yun.

The Wei Army has four generals under its jurisdiction, Guo Dong, Xia Houyuan, Li Dian, and Cao Chun.

There are also a series of middle-level officials who are old with Cai Yong, as well as a series of students whom Cai Yong admired in the Taixue. They cried and sacrificed in front of Cai Yongling, paying homage to this elder who gave them great attention and encouragement. .

After Cai Yong entered the Wei Dynasty, he gradually did not make any achievements and achievements in politics, but put all his energy on education and learning.

After the older generation of Confucian scholars Zheng Xuan and others passed away one after another, and Guo Peng suppressed Confucianism and created new learning, the older generation of Confucian scholars gradually declined, and gradually no one specialized in Confucianism.

And Cai Yong was able to keep pace with the times. When he was young, he had enough energy to learn, so he learned some things that people at the time thought belonged to [heretics], such as music, astronomy and geography, and so on.

And these are also new learning contents in the Wei Empire, which are very popular and occupy a considerable weight in the imperial examinations. Therefore, Cai Yong became one of the few academic masters who can gain a firm foothold in both the old era and the new era.

This also brought him lofty status and fame.

His death is a sad event for those related to him.

But the weather is getting hotter now. Although Guo Jinte approved a lot of ice, considering the problem of Cai Yong's body, the mourning hall will only be set up for three days. After three days, the mourning hall will be removed, and Cai Yong's body will be transported back to Chenliu's hometown for burial. For safety.

Anyone who is willing to see him off can see him off, or they can go to Cai Yong's grave to pay homage after that, it's up to them to choose.

To show her filial piety, Empress Cai Wan and her elder sister Cai Yan will send Cai Yong for the last journey from Luoyang to Chen Liu's hometown, and then return to Luoyang.

On this point, Guo Jin also agreed.

On the day of Cai Yong's funeral, the weather was fine and the sun was shining.

Guo Peng stood on the Luoyang city wall, watching Cai Yong's funeral procession slowly leave Luoyang city from a height, heading east.

An era is over.

And when will his era end?

Guo Peng let out a long sigh, sending his last condolences to Cai Yong.

In late May, Cao Lan took Guo Chengzhi directly to Chenliu to worship Cai Yong, and then returned to Luoyang with Cai Wan.

Cai Yan was very sad, and decided to stay in Chenliu's hometown for a little longer and spend more time with Cai Yong, but Cao Ang had no choice but to ask Guo Jin for leave and stay with his wife for a while.

Other than that, there's only one hiccup.

After Cai Yong's funeral was officially over, his old servant who had been with him for decades committed suicide in front of Cai Yong's grave.

The Cai family was grateful for his loyalty, so they built his tomb next to Cai Yong's, so that he could continue to serve Cai Yong in another world.

Cai Yong's death is a major event, but this major event does not prevent the Wei Empire from continuing to move forward.

On the third day of June in the third year of Xingyuan, Emperor Guo Jin announced to the world that Guo Chengzhi, the eldest son of the emperor, would be conferred the crown prince. He held a grand canonization ceremony in Fengtian Hall, and then officially announced to the world that Guo Chengzhi would be the crown prince and establish the country.

The candidate for the third emperor of the Wei Empire has been determined. Guo Jin's status as emperor is completely stable. There is no one or event that can hinder him. He can exercise his power smoothly and govern his empire without hindrance. .

On June [-]th, the governor of Yunzhou, Tian Feng, and the governor of Jiaozhou, Manchong, signed a joint statement, saying that the southernmost section of the main artery of the Shu Road had successfully merged with the Jiaozhou Road, and the official roads of the two prefectures were completely connected.

After a long period of 18 years, the Shu Road Artery Project finally came to an end.

Guo Jin was very happy, and immediately ordered to congratulate the responsible officials, craftsmen, and peasants of the entire Shu Road artery, generously opened the treasury and his own internal treasury, rewarded each of them, and announced that together with the good news of the canonization of the crown prince, amnesty for the world .

The completion of the Shu road project was of great significance to the Wei Empire. People at that time may not have had a deeper understanding, but the people of later generations must have a very deep understanding of what this 18-year long project means.

After the main artery of the Shu Road was opened, Guo Jin did not stop her footsteps.

After the amnesty, he immediately ordered to mobilize some capable officials and all the coolies on the main artery of the Shu Road to the construction site of the Grand Canal.

The Shu Road, one of the two century projects of the Wei Empire, was completed, and the next step was the Grand Canal project in the central and eastern regions.

It has been ten years since the official start of this project in Yande six years ago. The Jiangnan section has already been completed, and the Central Plains section is almost completed. Now only the waterway connecting to Luoyang needs to be further widened to increase transportation capacity.

The remaining part that is busy is the Hebei section, which connects Luoyang to Yecheng.

Originally, this section did not exist. During the four-year Chengtian party struggle in Yande, this section was put on the right track by Guo Peng and included in the scope of the Grand Canal project, connecting Hebei with the Central Plains and Jiangnan to facilitate the future Nanliang North Games.

Guo Peng used the captured Xianbei and Karasuma people in this section of the project. Due to the relatively extensive engineering model in the early stage, a large number of prisoners of war died.

Later, Guo Peng warned the officials in charge of the canal project to treat the prisoners of war a little better, which stopped the momentum of a large number of deaths of prisoners of war.

But until now, the river is being dug and the river is being widened. This kind of high-intensity physical labor is squeezed, and there is not much nutritional supplement. In addition, several sporadic prisoners of war uprisings were suppressed by the Wei army. This batch exceeded one million. Human prisoners of war have gone from ten to four.

They are almost at the end of their strength, and now they need to introduce new labor to supplement them.

Although the coolies on the Shu Road are basically at the end of their battles.

However, quite a few of the coolies on the Shu road were political criminals. To them, Guo Peng and Guo Jin's attitude was to recycle waste. Anyway, they couldn't leave the construction site alive.

Gathering all the forces of the two major projects, Guo Jin gave the Grand Canal project the final one-year construction period, which should be completely completed before June of the fourth year of Xingyuan.

Although the canal project has not been completed as a whole, parts of the canal in the southern and middle sections have been utilized.

Officials and merchants have begun to use the canal for some administrative and commercial work, such as sending messages back and forth.

Through the canal, even the use of horses has been reduced, which is good news for the overwhelmed officials and chariots.

Of course, all of this was done by Guo Jin, and Guo Peng didn't take any part in it.

He strictly abided by the rules he set, and did not interfere with Guo Jin's administration, that is, he showed up at the department from time to time, and continued to strictly urge the department to further promote the lowering of education, and strive to completely lower the school to the county level within his lifetime.

As for the graded education, or the goal of sinking to the first level of the township, it is estimated that it can only be handed over to future generations.

In order to reduce the illiteracy rate of the Wei Empire and effectively increase the rate of education popularization, Guo Peng devoted a lot of energy.

He hopes that this kind of action can actually change the future, provide cultural and ideological soil for future changes, and allow such changes to come as soon as possible.

The break with Cai Yong convinced him that it was impossible for him to be understood by anyone in this era, and he was always a lonely loner.

This made him pay more attention to education and technology, hoping to make achievements in these two things and give him more space and possibility to realize his ideals.

Even if all this is really very difficult and really out of reach, he still has to go in that direction.

An inch is an inch, move slowly, move slowly, even if it is a slow speed, an inch is also beneficial.

As long as he is alive, he must keep moving forward, constantly moving forward.

At the beginning of the fourth year of Xingyuan, after years of preparation, Gewuxue officially became a part of the official disciplines and was included in the scope of the imperial examination.

From then on, any student who took the imperial examination must master the most basic knowledge of natural science.

Taixue, Zhouxuegong, county schools, and the county schools that have been set up at present have fully rolled out the education of physical science.

The teachers of Gewuxue carefully trained by him were assigned to schools in various states and counties to become teachers of Gewuxue and lead students to learn Gewuxue.

Before that, Guo Peng instructed Guo Jin to set up the Royal Gewu Hall of the Wei Empire.

Gewutang will be listed together with Shushutang as an important scientific research institution under Taixue. It will be responsible for writing questions for the content of Gewuxue in the imperial examinations and testing students' knowledge of Gewuxue, so as to guarantee the knowledge of Gewuxue at the most basic level. exist.

Then guide it to the development of science and technology, guide the research of various technologies such as iron smelting, farming, shipbuilding, and city building that the Wei Empire is currently in urgent need of improvement, and use the accumulated theoretical knowledge to serve reality.

Guo Jin generally agreed to this request.

But on one matter, Guo Jin and Guo Peng disagreed.

Before the Gephysics textbooks are finalized, the emperor's approval is naturally required, and the emperor's approval is not enough.

"Father, of course Gewutang can be established. It is of course a good thing to do some research and promotion of iron smelting and farming. But father, let alone whether he is true or not, just say this... Wouldn’t it be convenient to release it to the public for enlightenment?”

Guo Jin took the formally determined Gewuxue textbook and read it for a day, then came to Taishan Hall in person, dismissed the others, and raised her doubts to Guo Peng.

Guo Peng looked at Guo Jin's question.

It’s about the part about cosmology. Guo Peng said that the world is a sphere, and everyone lives on a sphere. The sphere exists in the vast and boundless universe. The so-called sky is the universe. manipulate.

Guo Peng tried his best to describe a superficial view of the universe with words that contemporary people can understand, and Guo Jin was dissatisfied with this paragraph.

Guo Peng was not surprised.

"Why is it inconvenient?"

"Father! The emperor, since he was called the son of heaven, since Dong Zhongshu, he has clarified the principle that the monarchy is bestowed by heaven, and the son of heaven governs on behalf of heaven, so his actions are extremely righteous, and all his actions are reasonable and legal, and no one else can question him at all.

This is the consensus of all people in the world. Everyone thinks that there is a spirit in the sky, and the Son of Heaven is really the son of God. Now you tell them that the sky is the universe, and the sunset and moon rise are the natural principles. Isn’t this telling them that there is no spirit in the sky, and everything is right? Is it the law of nature?

Since there is no spirit in heaven, how can the emperor call himself the Son of Heaven?How can it manage on behalf of the sky?Where does imperial power come from?Where does the power of the entire Wei State come from?The entire foundation of the upper and lower efficiencies will be shaken. This is something that shakes the foundation of the country! "

Guo Jin persuaded Guo Peng earnestly: "Father, my son doesn't know whether these things are true, and my son doesn't care whether we live on the same ball. My son only knows that this is a major issue related to the foundation of the state of Wei, so don't be careless! "

Previously, when Guo Jin saw this content for the first time, her status was not stable enough. She focused on consolidating her status and power, and did not dare to question Guo Peng.

But with the passage of time, his status and power gradually stabilized, and today, he is already a real emperor.

When he looked at the final version of Gewuxue again, his doubts and dissatisfaction broke out completely.

Guo Peng stared at Guo Jin for a long time, and the painful feeling when he broke with Cai Yong came to his mind again.

He had to admit painfully that his son was a monarch through and through, a feudal monarch who possessed part of his thoughts but could not transcend the times.

In fact, thinking about it carefully, Guo Peng once expected that his son would be different from other people in this era, but in the end, he never experienced it.

He has never experienced earth-shaking changes, complete changes in production relations and social structures, so he cannot detach himself from them.

Guo Peng has experienced it himself, but Guo Peng exists in this era, and everything he does is in line with the laws of this era. The only exception is dedicated to the imperial examination, which is already a unique major change.

It is undeniable that the production relations and social structure of the Wei Empire have not undergone substantial changes.

Guo Pengceng thought carefully about why China succeeded in that era.

Productivity and social structure have not changed substantially, and are even worse than before.

Starvation, illiteracy, semi-feudal and semi-colonial poor conditions, backward production structure, the situation can be described as extremely dangerous.

But why did the group of idealists succeed?

Later, he thought about the sentence on the Monument to the People's Heroes.

It can be traced back to 840, and since then, the heroes of the people who died in the previous struggles in order to fight against internal and external enemies and strive for national independence and people's freedom and happiness will be immortalized forever.

He got it.

Because the country and the nation have experienced a century of high-intensity oppression, exploitation, and war, the old road has come to an end.