then Li Sao

Luo Ping cleaned the Saohe Pavilion for a while, made himself a bowl of tea, and said, "Your Highness, it's been a few days of delay, do you still remember the homework I gave you last time?"

Zhou Tang nodded: "I remember."

Putting the "Que Luan" on the table, he confessed: "I almost tore through the book, and I understand every sentence in it, but I still don't understand what you mean, little master. What does the emperor's battle have to do with it?"

Luo Ping said slowly: "This book is a miscellaneous talk written by the hermit Fu Yunlin of the former dynasty. It quotes many folk tales and ancient cases. The writing is simple but the connotation is profound. I personally think it is not an exaggeration to regard it as a work of governing the world. You’re still young, so it’s understandable that you didn’t fully comprehend it for a while.”

"A work to rule the world?" Zhou Tang frowned, "The chicken next door ate his rice, he thought hard all night, and finally came up with the idea of ​​trapping and killing the chicken, tearing it apart and eating it before the neighbors found out." Countermeasures or something, is this also called the way of governing the world?"

According to his thinking, this is simply the behavior of a villain.

Luo Ping smiled: "Human nature is selfish. By doing this, he not only kept the family's food, but also brought benefits to himself and his family. What's wrong? If it is used in governing the country, you can set up a trap that the enemy will not know Wouldn't it be a pleasure to lose troops and lose generals, and still offer one's best tribute?"

"Little Master... Do you think this is the right thing to do?"

"There is no right or wrong means, the most important thing is to achieve the goal. From your standpoint, if you blindly be a good person, you will get nothing. Of course, benevolence, righteousness and morality should be shown to others, and take what others have. Don’t get your hands dirty when you’re doing it.”

Zhou Tang was a little dazed, he didn't expect Luo Ping to promote this idea.Is that high-minded person who speaks out for justice the same person as the person in front of me who says "doesn't use the means to achieve the goal"?

He found that he didn't understand the little master more and more.

Luo Ping glanced at him: "Don't go too far, let's talk about whether the battle of Emperor Gaozu was worth it."

"Um... um."

"Last time you said that Emperor Gaozu had no choice but to attack hard. This is not wrong. But in fact, he pushed himself to that point."

"How to say?"

Luo Ping turned the book to a page and asked him, "Have you read this?"

Zhou Tang stretched out his head to take a look: "I've read it, it's a short story in Xianji Chapter."

He has a vivid memory and has been able to repeat it: "It is said that a poor monk of wine and meat rescued a gangster. He let the gangster pretend to chase and kill him, and then hid himself in a rich merchant at the foot of the mountain. The rich merchant took pity on him as a monk. When he encountered such misfortune, he took him in and provided him with food and drink. In the end, the monk joined forces with the gangsters, cooperating inside and outside, and robbed the rich merchants of all their belongings."

Luo Ping nodded: "Although the monk's deeds are disgusting, there are merits. He knows people and uses them well, regardless of the source, and he has grasped the opportunity from the very beginning. If Emperor Gaozu does like him, he can break through Yuezhou , but two or three days."

Zhou Tang liked these examples of fighting, and he became energetic after hearing this: "Little Master, how do you think we should fight?"

Luo Ping whetted his appetite, took a sip of tea and said: "The reason why Emperor Gaozu was unable to attack Yuezhou for a long time was that he missed the opportunity. He fought a tough battle when he was isolated and helpless. Actually If he hadn't beheaded Tuzhou's surrendered general Zhong Ming before, he could have united with Tuzhou to encircle and suppress Yuezhou."

"Zhong Ming?" Zhou Tang had read about this matter in Gaozu Benji, "That's a very unreliable person. Before Emperor Gaozu hit Tuzhou, he was so frightened that he came to seek refuge. How could such a person trust?"

"It is precisely because he is a timid and fearful person that he is easy to use." Luo Ping explained, "Zhong Ming is a treacherous man who betrayed his own soldiers and sold his own city. The emperor killed him at the wrong time.

"If he temporarily accepts his surrender before attacking Yuezhou and encircles Tuzhou on both sides, he can completely avoid head-on casualties and take the lead in that battle.

"So, Your Highness, please take a deeper look."

"Well, my little master taught you the right thing." Zhou Tang thought about it and accepted it humbly.

To Luo Ping's relief, Zhou Tang soon learned to infer other cases from one instance, and had a lot of his own opinions on various cases.

For example, regarding his father's pacification of Xijiang, he has been able to evaluate from an objective point of view: it was not a "stick to the territory" announced to the people of Dacheng, but an aggression and exploitation of Xizhao, but the strong is king, Justice is always on the winning side.What the father did was exactly what Luo Ping said, take other people's things and don't dirty your hands.

Afterwards, whenever he thought of a new point of view, he would tell Luo Ping and ask Luo Ping to analyze it for him, and Luo Ping would solve his doubts one by one.

Sometimes Zhou Tang's ideas are rough, but they are very innovative. If they are carefully designed and crafted, they will surely become a surprising and winning strategy.He does have a talent for governing the country, which cannot be concealed even if he wants to.

Luo Ping is not like Taifu Shaofu in the Taiyuan Academy, who makes students read with shaking heads. Most of the time, he just throws him some messy books for him to read. If he doesn’t understand, ask him. Test him.

His questions are always very tricky, but it has to be said that Zhou Tang benefits a lot every time he solves them.

Although he doubts how he knows so much at such a young age, he often satirizes him with "what an emperor, arrogant! Frivolous! Pervert!", but he can feel that Luo Ping is really teaching him the way of an emperor .

He was teaching him how to put the country and the people into his bosom in a legitimate way.

----

Luo Ping is a little hungry.

He felt that it was not good for Zhou Tang to eat too many pastries, so he ate all the pastries he brought while he was concentrating on his studies.When Zhou Tang came back to his senses, the pastry box was empty.

He said with a bitter face: "Little master, didn't you bring it here for me to eat? I am growing up, how can you steal my rations, I am going to starve to death now, what should I do?"

Luo Ping licked the dregs off his hands, causing Zhou Tang to gulp, not just because he was greedy or something.

"Your Highness, at your age, you should eat well, don't always count on snacks to fill your stomach." Luo Ping said brazenly.

"Then, can you cook for me, little master?"

"..." Luo Ping was silent.

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow you bring me the food you cooked for me." Before he could veto it, Zhou Tang packed up his books, ran out of Sweeping Hexuan and returned to the palace.

Thinking of being able to taste the craftsmanship of the little master, Zhou Tang felt so beautiful.

Luo Ping was not as happy as him.

He has walked in the world twice in his life, experienced all kinds of ups and downs in the world, and has already become a genius. If there is anything he can't handle, it is cooking.

In the previous life, when Zhou Tang was closest to him, he also asked him to cook for him.Luo Ping learned from the cook in his house for a long time, and the food he made would not even be eaten by dogs. Later, Zhou Tang also despaired of him.

I think it will be the same this time around.

However, it doesn't matter if you do it to the child once, let him learn a lesson.

Thinking this way, Luo Ping took a tied food box to the Imperial Academy the next day.

An editor sitting closer to him sniffed and said, "Do you smell the smoke?"

Another person said: "Hey? It seems to be true. Could it be that there is a fire somewhere!"

Everyone suddenly became nervous. The Imperial Academy has a large collection of books, and the Wenyuan Pavilion is the place where the emperors of all dynasties stored important documents.

So everyone was busy looking for the source of the fire, and the Hanlin Academy made a fuss all morning, but found nothing, not even a single spark, and finally had to let it go.

Only Luo Ping sat there calmly, repairing his own books and writing his own manuscripts.

Because only he knew where the smoky smell was coming from.

Zhou Tang saw the commotion outside for a while from the window, and heard people yelling "Where is the fire?" He felt strange, looked outside, and found nothing unusual, so he didn't care.

Little did he know that what caused the commotion was the lunch brought by his wife....

At noon, Luo Ping came.

Zhou Tang was looking forward to him, the brush was spinning in his hand and it was about to fly.When Luo Ping stepped into the door, he jumped off the chair and snatched the food box from his hand.

"Huh? What's the smell?" Zhou Tang wrinkled his nose and asked.

"..." Luo Ping just smiled and said nothing.

After opening the food box, Zhou Tang took a quiet time for a cup of tea.

After all, he didn't have the courage to eat that meal, and what seemed to be pork ribs was still oozing blood beside him.

After laughing twice, Zhou Tang put down his chopsticks and said, "Little master, I am suddenly not hungry anymore."

Luo Ping said flatly: "Don't eat if you're not hungry."

Zhou Tang seemed to have been pardoned, and secretly swore in his heart: he would never order the little master casually in the future, the consequences would be too dire.

Luo Ping added: "You don't need to study today, I have other homework for you."

"what?"

"Go to Chaoyang Palace."

"Chaoyang Palace?" Zhou Tang was very surprised, "What am I going to Chaoyang Palace for? That's the residence arranged by my father for Heng'er. How can I go there?"

"I don't care what method you use, you must get close to Chaoyang Palace."

"Why? Why do I have to go there, I'm sure I'll get a bad nose." Zhou Tang was very dissatisfied.

The emperor's doting on Zhou Heng and his overprotection are well known in the palace. Even Zhou Heng's biological father, Zhou Feng, had a hard time meeting him, let alone the evil son of a woman who cursed the descendants of the Zhou family.

"I dont go."

Just as he was making a fuss, Zhou Tang's stomach suddenly growled—hungry.

Luo Ping smiled and said: "If you get close to Chaoyang Palace, maybe you can get a meal from the emperor's eldest grandson, or else you will be hungry all day, or do you think you can't even handle a young child?"

"Little master, are you using the aggressive method?"

"You can say whatever you want." Luo Ping said seriously, "I'm not kidding you. I want you to go to Chaoyang Palace because you can learn things there that I can't teach you."

"Is there anything you can't teach me?" Zhou Tang was curious about this.

"Riding and archery, martial arts, internal strength." Luo Ping smiled wryly, "Your Highness, I'm sorry, but I can't do martial arts."

Zhou Tang also restrained his joking expression. Indeed, although Luo Ping could not be called slender and weak, he looked rather thin and gentle. He was not a martial arts practitioner at first glance.

"But how should I learn?"

"We can't do this matter openly, so let's do it secretly. Your Highness, you only need to do three things when you go to Chaoyang Palace - pretend to be pitiful, gain sympathy, and be a rascal. I hid it myself."

"Pretend to be pitiful... to gain sympathy... to be a rascal?"

Zhou Tang was in a mess. Are these things a prince should do?

Looking at the back of Zhou Tang hesitantly going away, Luo Ping rubbed his temples.

He has his own considerations.

In the previous life, Zhou Tang started late, and did not hire a master to practice martial arts until he was 14 years old.Since most of his muscles and bones had already been shaped, he suffered a lot and was almost divided by that cruel master.

During that period, Luo Ping just encountered the first trough in his life, and he was only thinking about how to return to the court as an official, so he couldn't control Zhou Tang's affairs.These are all what he heard from Zhou Tang who became the emperor later. He felt heartache as a bystander, let alone a young boy who experienced that pain.

Therefore, he wanted to try his best to let him practice martial arts earlier in this life, to alleviate his pain, and also reduce the danger of endless assassinations and assassinations he would face in the future.

In addition, he also has a desire that is a bit greedy.

He hoped that Zhou Tang and Zhou Heng could establish a certain amount of friendship and stop being hostile like in the previous life.

What he promised the chief judge was "to keep the descendants of the Zhou family stable." Speaking of which, Zhou Heng is also one of his responsibilities.

Luo Ping's mind was full of these things that were constantly being cut and sorted out, and Luo Ping felt a deep headache.

He picked up the food box and walked to the library near Wenyuan Pavilion.

Squatting there was a majestic mastiff named General Wei, who was raised by Li Xueshi as a gatekeeper. It looked very vicious, but it was actually very docile, basically unable to play the role of gatekeeper.

Luo Ping said in his heart that he also burned the ribs for this meal, and mixed bone broth with the meal, it would be too wasteful to throw it away.So he put all the food in front of General Wei.

After a while, he still packed up and dumped.

Really, not even dogs.