After saying goodbye to Su Song, Du Zhongxiao walked slowly back to the inn. When he arrived at the gate of the inn, he stopped, glanced at the bright moon in the sky, and breathed a sigh of relief. This time he went to the capital and bought books he needed, but Du Zhongxiao was not satisfied with the communication with other scholars except Su Song. For some reason, Du Zhongxiao always felt that there was a gap with the scholars at this time, including Ouyang Xiu and others.

This is an era that urgently needs change, and everyone knows this. Although opponents of the Qingli New Deal in history were called conservatives, they actually did not oppose change, but their thoughts were different from Fan Zhongyan and others.

Governing a big country is like cooking a small freshman. In Du Zhongxiao's opinion, if you want to change the government, you must first have a deep understanding of social reality and thus propose targeted reform policies. However, the contact with Ouyang Xiu and others these days gave Du Zhongxiao the feeling that he talked too much and did too little things really. When talking about politics, he would talk about it from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the politics of the past dynasties, and then I would think what I think. What is the current social reality? If you really ask, no one can understand it.

How can you do things without any problem by setting a goal first, and then cutting your feet to fit your shoes? But Du Zhongxiao also understood that it was Ouyang Xiu and others who had the right to speak in history. It was very dangerous to have different ideas from them. It was not that Du Zhongxiao did not want to do something for this era, but that reality was that protecting oneself was the best choice.

The first problem of reform is why we need to change and how to change. The core problem is who we are responsible to. Don’t think that bureaucrats are responsible to the emperor in general, so there will be no ideological dispute between reformists and conservatives. As the emperor, as the emperor, most of the time, actually represents the whole of politics, and his role can be calmly switched. Referring to the reformists today, and reusing the conservatives tomorrow, will have no burden on the emperor.

This is something Du Zhongxiao himself didn't think of, so he wisely avoided it when he encountered discussions on political issues.

In the future, one must have a political policy, or ideology, which cannot be avoided. Pragmatists may be able to have high positions and generous salaries, but they will not leave much imprint in history. This era is the most obvious. If it is said that the influence on real politics is profound, it will not be until the generation of Wang Anshi and Sima Guang that they will surpass the Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng of this era. But when it comes to historical influence, Lu Yijian is far from comparable to Fan Zhongyan, and it is likely that even Ouyang Xiu is beyond the reach of Ouyang Xiu, although Lu Yijian has always had a high position.

If you want to put your own mark on the historical process, choose a path and hold a flag, it is inevitable. This is exactly where Du Zhongxiao is walking on thin ice and trembling. There are several paths in front of Du Zhongxiao. Like Ouyang Xiu and others, finding role models from history is nothing more than to return to the ideal Three-generation rule and put forward some theoretically correct but almost no feasible reform proposals. Or like Lu Yijian and others, they are good at dancing in real politics and maintaining the situation. The most different choice is to learn from the history textbooks of previous lives, develop productivity, reform production relations, and move from feudalism to capitalism. Even directly learning from European experience, constitutional monarchy, parliamentary president, and even the political system and development route have been arranged. However, in the classical era of China, does this really work?

Du Zhongxiao looked at the bright moon in the sky and shook his head with a wry smile. In fact, the more the history and politics textbooks are explained, the more it means that this path is absolutely not feasible. The summary of later generations often explains why we are behind, rather than why we are not behind. If we really follow the textbooks to learn European experience, most of the past ten thousand cliffs are a cliff. Not only ourselves, but also the entire country and nation probably cannot find a way out. The final outcome is just to lead the way for other nations, and it will not be better than the historical ending.

He sighed deeply. Du Zhongxiao understood this at least. If he couldn't even understand this principle, it would be better not to participate in politics in this era, but it would be better to be a rich man with peace of mind. Productivity determines production relations, but production relations are not a fixed template. If you take it to the reality, everything will be fine. Support capitalists and divide the three rights according to the three rights, and capitalism will flourish? Because history can't go back, the textbooks will say this. If you really believe in this, from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China in history to the countries of all sizes and big and small in the world, they are almost all victims.

In Du Zhongxiao's previous life, most countries that have successfully developed had several common characteristics, but there must be some aspects that are different from the standard template. If you maintain this difference, you will continue to move forward and forcefully trap the template, and it will collapse.

It’s nothing else. The templates summarized in textbooks have ideological and philosophical premises. Without the same ideological foundation, it is like an elephant drilling needle hole, which cannot be overcome no matter what. This is a dialectical relationship between universality and particularity. If you can’t tell the difference, you will cut your feet and walk on your feet. History textbooks summarize the development template, which is to instill ideology. The European citizen revolution thus caused the capitalist revolution and would not appear in China. Similarly, the struggle between the large planters and industrial capital in the Americas will not appear in China in this era. History is the memory of civilization and cannot be washed and started over again.

A Jinshi exam is required, and an official must be done, otherwise he will not be comfortable in this era. But Du Zhongxiao has always been confused about what route he takes after becoming an official. This is the reason why he is close to the scholars of this era. The life principle set by Du Zhongxiao for himself is to look at the road steadily and move forward cautiously, but this road is too difficult to walk, which makes him feel bored from time to time. He is confused and gets along with scholars, no matter whether he understands the classics or talks about real politics, he can't talk about the same thing.

Shaking his head, Du Zhongxiao was about to go back to his room, but when he turned around, he saw a few shadows in the distance. After a closer look, it was the few people sitting at the tea stall next to him when Wu Kejiu was looking for him in the evening.

The figure saw Du Zhongxiao staring at this side and suddenly left quickly, not knowing where he went.

Du Zhongxiao felt a vague feeling in his heart, and couldn't explain what it was for. He stood there for a while, but had no idea, so he had to go back to the inn. According to his idea, he had perfected the booklet of steamed wine in the past few days and returned to his hometown to prepare for the imperial examination. However, when he returned, he was always a little unwilling to accept it. Someone came to Beijing to take care of him, and he met many big names, and only brought a few books back. Isn't it a waste of time?

On the edge of the Bian River, several big men flashed out of the dark shadows. Seeing that Du Zhongxiao was gone at the entrance of the inn, they breathed a sigh of relief.

The leading man said: "That young man who can steam wine is very troublesome. He is still looking around outside when it's late!"

Another person said, "This guy has a booklet for steaming wine. We touched it back and offered it to me. It was a credit to use it to steam wine yourself. Since we met it, we must not miss it."

Someone said, "We should not cause trouble when we are instructed by our husband to pick up his family."

As soon as these words were said, several people didn't speak. After a while, the leader said, "Of course, my husband's affairs cannot be delayed, but the money at hand cannot be pushed out in vain. We looked at the people of the Zhang family and watched here. The man surnamed Wu who I met today also wanted this booklet, which was just for us. After inquiring about the news, Peng Tiexia took his husband's family on the way in the past two days. When we waited for them to leave Kaifeng Mansion, we went to get the booklet of steamed wine and took it all the way west. Who knows? As long as the boy surnamed Wu is with us, everyone thinks he was looking for someone to pick it up, how could he think of us? I have decided, let the two stay here, and we will act according to the opportunity!"
Chapter completed!