In the south of Luoyang City, Biguiyuan, a newly built royal garden in recent years.

It is March, and the flowers in the garden are bright, the phoenixes and pheasants are flying, and the cranes are walking in the courtyard.

Liu Hong, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, was pale and weak, but was full of interest. He squinted his eyes and sat idle in the courtyard, enjoying the feeding of a group of palace maids without inner clothes, and shading the sun and fanning the wind.

Speaking of this garden, there is also a big and small allusion - "Cultivation of Palace Money", a new name of plundering that appeared in the middle period, was established in order to repair it.

Before that, as early as Guanghe, Zi had already sold official positions in Xiyuan today. However, the 1.0 version of the sale was limited to officials who bought officials and took office, not everyone.

Only in the 2.0 version of "Cultivation of Palace Money" can the sales of official positions become popular in the form of "whether one takes office by relying on ability or buying an official, one has to pay for it. But those who take office by relying on ability can get discounts."

However, in Liu Hong's view, there is no way to intensify his official position. Who made the imperial court's control over the local area gradually collapse? Those local tribes only nominally respect the emperor and could actually collect taxes to the court every year, but fewer and fewer taxes.

Even though he knew that selling official positions was a poison to quench his thirst, he had to just live without thinking about the future.

And to be honest, no matter what the reason for selling official positions is, Liu Hong's extravagance and extreme desire in life cannot be washed away.

Although some of the money obtained from selling official positions was spent on building the new army in Xiyuan, in general, the money spent on enriching the country and strengthening the army was far less than that of building gardens.

"Drink~ Oh, hey, it's so boring," Liu Hong, who was weak in body and weak in energy, felt boring to play, and stretched his waist hysterically, as if he wanted to dispel the stuffiness that penetrated his chest and ribs.

But after stretching, a greater sense of powerlessness came back.

"Duan Gui!" Liu Hong was bored and shouted to the Changshou beside him.

"What are your Majesty's instructions?" Duan Gui immediately smiled like a chrysanthemum, and was respectful and pleasing to the orders.

Liu Hong has been favored by the Ten Constables for twenty years.

The core characters such as Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, Jian Shuo, etc., who are the ten regular attendants, are no longer in charge of the emperor's work, but help Liu Hong take charge of the government and military affairs. The commanders around Liu Hong gradually decreased to several people including Duan Gui.

However, Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong are also powerful. Even if they are not served by the emperor on a daily basis, they will always keep abreast of the situation and will never let other eunuchs underestimate themselves.

"What are some new and interesting things in the capital recently? I'm tired of seeing the springs created by Bi Lan, and that's it." Liu Hong asked Duan Gui casually.

The "fountain sprinkler" he mentioned is a kind of landscape similar to the fountain and water method in later generations. It uses a rollover to lift water and store it in a high place, and then uses copper bird and beast heads or toad heads to spray water out.

This thing was designed and created by Bi Lan (also an eunuch) in Yeting Order. It was a beautiful scenery that was just completed in Bi Guiyuan this year. With the Han Dynasty technology, the design and development were repeated many times before it was successful. A copper fountain cost tens of millions. However, Liu Hong only played for a while and realized it was boring.

Duan Gui had a bitter face and felt helpless.

Sure enough, it's coming again! Even the fountain made by Bi Lan can't satisfy His Majesty. What other novel things are there? It's really not easy to keep His Majesty fresh at all times.

He gritted his teeth and thought for a while, and could only say: "In the past two days, I heard that scholars in Beijing are rushing to buy a new book, and have sold thousands of volumes. The above are all stories of filial piety, but some are written vividly. I wonder if Your Majesty is happy..."

Liu Hong looked stern: "What's the good thing about books? Don't read them! I hate those hypocritical preaching the most!"

Such words should not be said as an emperor, but there is no need to pretend to be in front of a confidant eunuch. Anyway, the eunuch would never disobey him.

Duan Gui was also dealing with the errands, but seeing Liu Hong get angry, he quickly explained: "It doesn't matter if Your Majesty doesn't like to read it. I can tell the stories and miscellaneous notes, and there are still some novel and interesting things."

Duan Gui's promotion was such a reason, but he also thought that the story was really interesting and might be able to cope with the boredom of the emperor. On the other hand, he had just accepted a visit from Taichang Qing Liu Yan in the past two days. Both sides didn't know what they had talked about, nor did they know if they had received any benefits.

In short, Duan Gui chose to deal with it in this way, and the internal situation is not worthy of being told to outsiders.

Liu Hong was curious: "You can teach books too?"

Duan Gui smiled charmingly and said, "Because the book is simple and the words are vulgar, just like chatting in the market, you can understand it at first glance."

Liu Hong became more and more curious: "The words are shallow, and they must be very verbose and verbose. How can thousands of volumes be transmitted within a few days? I'm afraid it's not as good as copying."

Duan Gui: "It seems that some merchants used new and ingenious methods, printed like seals, so they spread very quickly."

Liu Hong leaned over there, opened his mouth and waited for the palace maid to feed him a few of the peeled grapes, and casually ordered: "Then you can choose novel and interesting things to talk about."

Duan Gui found a book and trembled with a few stories from recent years. It looked more flesh and blood than acting, and told Liu Hong about it.

After talking for a long time, Liu Hong was indeed attracted and even forgot to continue eating grapes.

"It's like telling stories and jokes, and it's not preaching at all. It's rare that scholars today can write such a popular story." Liu Hong nodded and commented casually.

I have to say that this is completely a crushing moment in the creation of books.

The books from the Han Dynasty were too dry and there was no detail at all, so the interestingness of the story could certainly not be compared with those written by Li Su.

Moreover, many books from the Han Dynasty were not so refined and done at the beginning. Some became more and more difficult during the years of copying - because those who copied books would be impatient. For example, the original text of a sentence was twenty words, so the copywriter would never add modifiers and copy them into twenty-two or twenty-three words.

At most, after copying the original book, add comments between the lines and post barrage complaints.

But it is entirely possible to abbreviate the original twenty characters into eighteen characters, as long as it does not affect the clarity of the narrative. The next time someone borrows your book to copy, it will be slow and feel that it can be refined, so I will copy two less optional characters, and this sentence will become fifteen characters...

Therefore, the story books of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties are actually the product of group wisdom that has been constantly abbreviated by generations. In the end, it became the level of telling a short story with dozens or even dozens of words like "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing".

Liu Hong's aesthetic is even a storybook that is so dry that it is so constipated in "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing". When he heard Duan Gui's retelling of "Xiaoyi Lu", he instantly felt interesting.

When Liu Hong heard the wonderful things, he couldn't help but interact and ask repeatedly:

"When Liu Bei went south to Yecheng, he left the first Zhang Chun, and he was actually in the territory controlled by the Black Mountain bandits, and he escaped the robber's search? How could Zhang Fei roar and shake the snow on the wheat seedlings within a radius of 100 steps? Is the Black Mountain bandits disguised as villagers afraid of Pi Yi?"

"When he finally returned to Lunu County, Liu Bei used such a trick to trick the city gate, which caught Zhang Chun off guard and had to abandon the city and flee?"

Liu Hong had no idea that he had been taken to the wrong house. After listening for a while, he noticed that this story seemed to have nothing to do with "filial piety", at most it was just loyalty.

He then stopped Duan Gui: "Wait! What does these deeds have to do with filial piety?"

Duan Gui then quickly jumped out of a plot and turned to the end: "It's like this. Liu Xuande, whose ancestral home is Zhuo County, Zhuo County, passed by. After chasing Zhang Chun, he could not pursue him because of his official position. Later, after several twists and turns, he abandoned his official position and went home to protect his uncle at home, and gathered in the village to protect the country and the people..."

After hearing this, Liu Hong found that the first time he saw the story, he could actually prepare so many thrilling and exciting processes in the links outside of "preaching".

Although I am a little confused about the main and the secondary, I complain without any reason, I have too little preaching, and my intention is not high enough.

But I have to say, this story sounds really exciting.

After a while, Liu Hongcai patted his thigh and sighed: "If "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing" and other unofficial histories were written in this way, why would I not like reading?"

In a subtle way, Liu Hong imagined Liu Bei, who had only fought one or two insignificant battles, as a general.

As the saying goes, Pompeii fought well in the war, but not as well as Caesar's "The War of Gaul".

It is better to fight the emperor in war than to show off his peers. The enemy secretary wrote "About War" well. (Clausewitz was a staff officer for Blücher and Schánhorst in his early years, and fought with Napoleon with the two generals. Clausewitz was a bad record when he was a staff officer, but he was awesome in writing).

The generals of the generals are very professional things. A layman may not be able to understand them, and the emperor will not understand them even more. They can only read the results or the stories.

When the result is confusing and the reasons for victory or defeat cannot be attributed to specific people, it is very important to take credit among a group of colleagues, stand out, and be able to brag. It is very important that someone in the court helps you brag.

It will definitely achieve twice the result with half the effort, and will magnify your actual merits on the battlefield several times.

Pan Feng, Zhang He, Gong Qi Chou, in the process of challenging Zhang Chun, his actual performance may not be worse than Liu Bei, but no one helped them to brag.

It can only be said that Li Su is good at playing, and Liu Yan is just going to use these two chess pieces, colluding with others and hyping together, so that today's situation can be achieved.

Thousands of volumes were sold in Luoyang City in a few days. Such a grand occasion would be impossible without reaching the sky directly.

After Liu Hong sighed for a while that he was "misunderstood by boring books", he finally noticed more problems.

"I seem to have heard of this about Liu Bei before?"

Duan Gui: "Your Majesty, Liu Bei abandoned his official position and refused to be recruited. It seems that someone mentioned it at the last court meeting. If you ask him about it for details, it is all because the old slave is not very clear about state affairs."

Duan Gui still maintained his character of "only serving the emperor and not the government" very carefully.

Liu Hong thought for a while and nodded: "No wonder, I think it was during the court meeting that I had to find a few meritorious people to inspire morale in the court. Therefore, Li Su's "Xiaoyi Lu" spread so quickly."

Although Liu Hong was licentious, his IQ was not low. He soon realized that this thing was so popular and so abnormal that there must be a pusher from the court behind it.

However, this kind of pushing hand seems to be beneficial to the Han Dynasty at present, because the Han Dynasty needs such a typical example to magnify the spirit of a patriot.

So Liu Hong did not intend to investigate who was helping Liu Bei promote it.

Since it is a good thing that is beneficial to the court, why do you need to check it so clearly? It is rare to be confused when you are a person.

He asked Duan Gui for some information. He heard that Liu Bei was also a relative of the Han Dynasty, so he refused to join Zhang Chun and was so steadfast.

So, Liu Hong asked the eunuch to summon the minister Liu Yu to meet him, wanting to ask if Liu Yu had any arrangements.

——

PS: It’s the third week of the new book, and it’s time to seek fans for each book once again. I’ll give a reward of 1 yuan to identify the number of fans who are chasing the update. It also allows the editor to see my value and add a little confidence and confidence to myself.

Book friends who have already received reward records do not need to give rewards anymore, because the number of fans will not increase. As long as you have never given a reward of this book, please ask for 1 yuan. It is not for this little money, just look at big data and stimulate creative inspiration and motivation.

Every 100 more active fans during the new book period, the first day of the release, the number of fans will be 3,000 more words. Everyone can read the number of fans on the web page to keep accounts, and the same is true. (After 500 people, the list of fans on the web page cannot be displayed, but I will still convert them according to the proportion. It will not be very accurate, but it is also very different.)
Chapter completed!