The Empress' Livestream

Chapter 670: Alliance Meeting at Huangshui (VII)

His words made sense.

Cheng Cheng was not a hot-blooded young man to fall for the bait so easily, but he had to admit that he was emotionally affected.

“Nephew, do you know what you are doing?”

Cheng Cheng was silent for a quarter of an hour. Jiang Pengji was not in a hurry as she quietly waited for his reply.

“I know.”

Jiang Pengji always applied her brain to anything that she did, especially when it came to matters like this which concerned the lives of an entire family.

Cheng Cheng’s face revealed some inner panic as he asked, “So why do you still want to do this when you know?”

Jiang Pengji scoffed and opened her mouth to speak scornfully. Her words were scathing, mean, and biting, pointing out the sickness directly.

“Why? If I were to speak falsely and say empty words that feel good, I would say that it’s naturally because of this cherished dream that you’ve had all your life to let your tens of thousands of books be passed down and made known to future generations. If I were to speak the truth that is in my heart, I would say that it’s because I want to change the world, get rid of the rot, establish new standards, eliminate vice, and exalt virtue. After all, this world belongs to the people, not just one family or household. And it is most emphatically not a toy that the latter can use to manipulate political power, control the world, or do whatever they want. The landowning aristocratic families control great power, but they are unwilling to get involved in practical matters. Instead, they are living an indulgent life, deteriorating and rotting away in luxury. Uncle Cheng, you are learned and erudite, do you really think that it’s only the royal family who is at fault for the world becoming so chaotic now? Is it the fault of the royal family alone? Those who play power games behind the scenes, do they bear no fault?”

Cheng Cheng listened for a long time, lost for words as he stood rooted to the spot. He said with much difficulty, “Lanting, you are also from an aristocratic family.”

Even though Cheng Cheng agreed with her remarks, and occasionally had such thoughts of his own, he’d never dared to speak out.

“To me, the common people are far more important than individuals or familial clans. If the latter can be sacrificed to fulfill the former, I am willing to do all that I can.” Jiang Pengji calmly said, “If the disaster that is the aristocratic clans are left unchecked, the world will only become more chaotic. Uncle, have you ever thought about this? What if the forces in the Central Plains continue to weaken and the barbarian forces continue to strengthen? What will happen then? I’ll say something that could be considered as alarmist talk... This dynasty may be no more. It’s very impossible. ”

Cheng Cheng’s face turned deathly white. His heart rattled more intensely. Even his fingers were trembling.

Jiang Pengji was putting more and more pressure on Cheng Cheng. The livestream viewers who were quietly observing had noticed that the atmosphere seemed odd.

The reticent Huang Shaotian: Um... Can someone tell me what happened? If I didn’t miss anything, the host was just promoting the rice paper and printing technologies to Cheng Cheng, right? How did the topic change so drastically? I feel like the atmosphere is about to freeze.

The gentle and lovely Han Wenqing: To the user above me, gossip and game less, read more. In our time, printing technologies is not a big deal. We can buy a copy machine as long as we can afford it. But in the host’s era, printing technologies are a provocation to the entire social system. Do you understand?

The reticent Huang Shaotian: I don’t... Don’t you f*cking play games too. You have an entire series of IDs. Everyone knows everyone!

The clever and skillful Yu Wenzhou: To put it simply, education is quite a luxury in the host’s era. Most of the available books are solitary copies, which leads to the fact that culture is only passed down to future generations in a very limited stratum. This is the advantage of the landowning gentry, it’s a bit like solidifying the social classes. Because of this, if the aristocratic class is damaged every time a great calamity happens, it also means that the civilization of the entire era is impacted.

This audience seemed to be typing more slowly, only posting more comments after some time passed.

The clever and skillful Yu Wenzhou: In modern times, families with average incomes can provide their children with an education. They can move up in society if they seize their opportunities. Each generation has a better life than the previous one. It was different in ancient times. Here, I seriously criticize the theory of “education is useless.” Is China from twenty years ago, where opportunities could be found everywhere, the same as the China of today? The children of the peasants are peasants, and the children of the gentry are gentry. The gentry is superior to ordinary people and books are a very important medium. If books are no longer the privilege of a small number of people, what do you think will happen? The host is under great pressure.

It was just like being assigned random teammates in a game; getting good teammates was more important than your skill in the game.

Explained in one sentence, being born into a good family was more important than studying well.

No matter how talented or clever one was, an entire group of talented people would be crushed simply based on the “background” that they were born with.

For example, those working under Jiang Pengji: Xu Ke, Qiguan Rang, and Yang Si.

Xu Ke had once been registered as a slave. He bore the tattoo of a criminal on his face as punishment, a mark that could not be erased. This was a stain on his life.

Qiguan Rang was of mixed blood. He was born of a man from the barbaric tribes in northern Xinjiang and a woman from the border area of the Central Plains. Similarly, his birth had been thoroughly denounced.

Not to mention Yang Si, whose mother was suspected to have been born in a brothel. He’d grown up eating the handouts of other families.

If they had lived in the heyday of peace and prosperity, the three of them would probably have come to a wretched end. Even if they’d had a good attitude, they could have forgotten about amounting to little more than nothing in this life.

Wei Ci and Fengzhen were from good families who had suffered a reversal in fortunes. They could barely be counted as the down-and-out gentry. By tracing their lineages back to their forefathers, they could, in any case, find an ancestor who could be shown off.

As for Feng Jin, who had been born into an easy life in the nth generation of officials, his style was completely different.

What Jiang Pengji wanted to do was to break the shackles of familial background so that education was no longer a rare privilege. As long as someone had talent, they should have the chance to move up. No one could not change their origins, but they could change their futures.

Someone who was a village farmer could become an emperor in the future!

Even if not everyone could be born on the same starting line as the aristocratic families, they should at least be able to see the hope of reaching an equal level as them or even surpassing them.

Books, printing, rice paper?

These three things were not scary. What was scary was that Jiang Pengji wanted to use them to break the existing system.

This was what Cheng Cheng feared and worried over.

After a long time, his lips trembled and he spoke with a voice as tiny as a mosquito.

“You’re crazy...”

Jiang Pengji was calm and composed. “There can be no country without people, and there is no home without a country. Since ancient times, how many people have shouted that they would serve the country and its people, only to end up selfishly serving their small family when the dust finally settled? I want to fight to become the emperor. This is the realization that a future ‘Son of Heaven’ should have. I do not seek to unite the world, only the nine divisions of China. I wish to usher in a time of peace and prosperity.”

She was domineering and arrogant, causing her uncle to tremble in fear!

Cheng Cheng’s first reaction was that she was too arrogant and audacious, but his second reaction was that this was a matter of course.

A person who dared to provoke or even completely subvert the existing societal system was, of course, a lunatic. Naturally, she was arrogant and audacious!

“Uncle Cheng, you are a scholar.”

Cheng Cheng lost his voice for a moment as if someone had pressed the mute button.

“I think you have an imposing and unyielding character. Nothing in this world can break it.”

Cheng Cheng raised his eyes to look at her.”You don’t need to butter this old man up. So, what do you want to do?”

Jiang Pengji’s lips turned up. “The raw materials for rice paper are mostly sandalwood. Chongzhou is swimming in this stuff. The output is thousands of times greater than bamboo paper, and the production cost is lower. Wooden stamps for printing can be mass-produced. I don’t want to do anything except collect books from all over the world and fill up the library. When one side becomes stable, I’ll build a library and an academy to widely recruit scholars of an appropriate age. There’ll be no comparison of anyone’s background...”

Cheng Cheng smiled with a little derision.

“That’s it? You want to make me into a print carpenter?”

“How could I ask that of you?” Jiang Pengji blinked and said sincerely, “I hope that Uncle Cheng will preside over the whole situation, compile and initiate reading materials, touch up the books and annals, and organize ancient books that had been lost for hundreds of years. I want you to carry on the past heritage and open up the future... Your responsibility is far heavier and more difficult than mine.”

Cheng Cheng shuddered. No one knew how much her words had shocked his soul.

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