Chapter 82 – One Year

This year in Huangzhou was destined to be turbulent.

After reorganizing Huangzhou’s officialdom and formally establishing the Three Bureaus, Zhan Changfeng chose Qingya Commandery, which bordered the sea, as a pilot zone for the new governance.

Qingya Commandery was the poorest among all the commanderies of Huangzhou, with the smallest population. It governed thirteen small fishing villages where the people made their living by fishing — and correspondingly, the folk customs were relatively simple and honest.

Though it might seem a little cold-blooded, in the eyes of those in power, simplicity equated to malleability and ease of guidance. Painting on a blank sheet of paper was always easier than writing on a black one.

Zhan Changfeng established the Military Arts Academy in Qingya Commandery, taking in children from impoverished families and cultivating them from the ground up. The oldest among the children could be no more than eleven years of age.

She wanted clean, blank sheets of paper — she wanted to teach them a different way of thinking before their minds could be assimilated by worldly convention.

At the same time, Zhan Changfeng had Fang Heng lead a group of scholars to study the culture of Cangyun Ravine and compile new teaching materials.

This set of teaching materials was divided into nine grades, progressing from the simple to the complex. The first grade covered the most fundamental literacy and arithmetic, with a study period of three years. The first goal Zhan Changfeng set was to ensure that every child in Huangzhou could receive a first-grade education within the next ten years.

Furthermore, grades one through six contained knowledge suitable for everyone to learn, but from grade seven onward, the curriculum became more specialized — divided into areas such as administration, military affairs, water conservancy engineering, and agricultural cultivation.

Even before this educational system had fully taken shape, it had already shaken the academic world. The grand ambitions behind it were beyond anyone’s daring to speculate.

As time went on, it was no longer only literary scholars and academics compiling these teaching materials — canal workers, veteran farmers, and craftsmen all poured in to contribute.

Behind this educational framework lay Zhan Changfeng’s vision for reforming the future officialdom. She wanted specialists to hold corresponding official posts, rather than allowing men who could recite a few lines of poetry and verse to direct the affairs of state.

This also meant that future government positions would be more streamlined and more grounded in practical reality.

Yet at this time, the changes brewing in Huangzhou had not yet caught Shenzhou’s attention. Outside, people were still fighting tooth and nail over that seat above ten thousand others.

But Yu Zhen’s mind wavered, unsettled. Jun Wenjiu set down his wine jug and burst into loud laughter. Outside the corridor, a fine rain fell like ox hair, drifting through the passage of time.

“Hall Master…”

They stood outside this era’s history, so of course they could see things a little more clearly. It was only that Yu Zhen dared not admit it — that Crown Prince Changsheng would actually do something like this.

“She — does she truly intend to change the current state of things?!” Yu Zhen felt as though she could see the carriage of fate turning a corner, being driven toward a different future. How could she dare!

Jun Wenjiu propped his head up in his hand, his expression somewhere between dreamy and admiring. “There are many extraordinary people in this world. To think I would truly encounter one.”

What Yu Zhen saw was Zhan Changfeng’s actions defying all common sense. What astonished her was the boldness with which she overturned the old order. Perhaps she also thought, just a little, that Zhan Changfeng had a screw loose — going to all this thankless effort for something with such slim prospects of success.

Jun Wenjiu, however, was marveling at her ability to steer the course of the world, admiring her efforts to enlighten the common people, and puzzling over that wild ambition he could not see through.

“I’m not worried about the rest of it — but if she truly intends to reestablish the martial path of Shenzhou, how should the Bureau of Patrol conduct itself?”

Yu Zhen turned his attention to the matter itself. He had no doubt that if the martial path of Shenzhou were to rise, Xiaohan Town would inevitably be exposed to the world, and these cultivation practitioners, along with Cangyun Ravine, would naturally appear before the eyes of all people.

The Bureau of Patrol was undeniably the intersection between the cultivation world and the mortal realm. When the path of cultivation and the mortal world collided and converged, what were they to do? Was the Bureau of Patrol’s purpose not to ensure that the two remained mutually non-interfering and mutually unimpeded?

Jun Wenjiu reminded him, “The Bureau of Patrol does not involve itself in worldly affairs. If the mortal world wishes to change, let it change. You need only meet all changes with constancy.”

Yu Zhen remained uneasy. Together with Cui Gu and the Deputy Hall Master Liu Zhao, he went to Qingya Commandery to visit the Military Arts Academy.

Qingya Commandery’s poverty was well known to all. The newly built Military Arts Academy, at first glance, was nothing more than a few large tile-roofed houses standing in a sparsely populated wilderness. It was difficult to imagine that this was the beginning of change.

Zhan Changfeng did not ask about their purpose in coming, and simply said, “Since you are here, allow me to show you around.”

Yu Zhen was forthright enough about it. “That suits me perfectly. I’ll trouble the Crown Prince to lead the way.”

As Yu Zhen walked along, he noticed that the buildings were arranged according to the Eight Trigrams. As they passed the Li position, a ruler suddenly flew out of a window. He naturally dodged it, but it still gave him a fright.

Zhan Changfeng seemed quite accustomed to this. “The group inside is debating the effect of irrigation channel layouts on crop yields. Farmers tend to be direct in their ways — please forgive them.”

“Of course, of course.” The three of them listened from outside the wall for a while, and before long their ears were stuffed full of all manner of regional dialects — they couldn’t make out what the people inside were actually arguing about.

With so many dialects, one had to wonder how they managed to communicate at all.

Moving on to the next building, the group peered through a slightly open window. Inside, several people with disheveled hair were buried in piles of books, while another had their backside stuck up in the air, lying on the floor scribbling away. Cui Gu was curious and leaned in for a closer look — and suddenly found himself face to face with an angry, unkempt-bearded, dark-eyed countenance. Slam! The window was flung shut!

Cui Gu rubbed his nearly-struck nose. “…”

What kind of people were these!

Zhan Changfeng explained from the side, “They have been working day and night to organize the existing arithmetic texts and have not rested for months. A little irritability is inevitable — please forgive them.”

The three hastily replied, “Ha, of course, of course.”

They moved on to the next building. This time, Cui Gu had made up his mind to keep his distance from the windows — but before he even reached the door, a sharp-eyed person spotted them, and a crowd surged out, dragging all three of them inside.

“I’ve heard that the martial path follows the heart, while the cultivation path follows Heaven — what exactly is the difference between the two?”

“Are Heavenly principle and human desire fundamentally at odds?”

“Can a person continue to exist after death in the form of a ghost cultivator? What conditions are required to become a ghost?”

“May I ask what you think of the story where Zhuangzi’s mother died, yet he laughed?”

“Should men and women in terms of gender, and the old and the young in terms of age, be treated equally or be dealt with separately?”

“Do you relieve yourselves? Where do you do it? Do you wipe with paper or just cast a spell?”

Hey, that last one went too far!

Yu Zhen scrambled out in a sorry state, straightened his Daoist crown, and said, “They…”

“They are researchers studying cultivation civilization. They are a little enthusiastic — please forgive them.” Zhan Changfeng smiled slightly. “Your Bureau wouldn’t refuse these knowledge-hungry souls, would it?”

Better another monk than this Poor Monk. Yu Zhen quietly pushed Cui Gu — who had been about to break free — back inside. “Of course not.”

Deputy Hall Master Liu Zhao was rather more clever. After slipping out, he immediately locked the door, completely cutting off Cui Gu’s escape route.

“Ahem,” Liu Zhao said, straightening his rumpled clothes, “Crown Prince, why do we see no one practicing martial arts or studying literature?”

“At this hour, they should be at the training ground. Come with me.”

The training ground lay at the center of the Eight Trigrams layout. The space was extremely vast, spanning at least three li in both length and width, with various zones within it — some for striking posts, some for archery, some for horse riding. But what was most striking was that, apart from the instructors, all the students were children.

As they looked on, they even spotted a row of the youngest ones standing in military posture. Both boys and girls were among them.

Yu Zhen and Liu Zhao fell into thoughtful silence. A sight like this would not be strange in Cangyun Ravine, but in Shenzhou, it felt rather peculiar.

“What are they here to learn?” Yu Zhen ventured to ask.

Zhan Changfeng replied, “To learn how to be human beings.”

“And once they have learned — what then?”

“To know what they themselves ought to do.”

Yu Zhen stroked his beard. “Does the Crown Prince believe that her decisions are necessarily correct? Before the results are in, is the turmoil caused truly worth it? Things have gone on this way for thousands of years — must they really be changed? And what you are doing — how is it any different from manipulating the lives of others?!”

“Not necessarily correct, but better than the past. Worth it. It must be changed.” Zhan Changfeng looked at him directly and answered the final question in an unhurried tone. “I am indeed manipulating the lives of others…”

Zhan Changfeng gestured toward the people in the training ground. “But they have no power to resist.”

Yu Zhen’s expression grew grave. He could not fathom her state of mind.

Zhan Changfeng smiled softly. “In the future, they may question me, they may resist me — but you have no right to judge whether their lives are being manipulated.”

Yu Zhen fell silent, and then found he had nothing more to say. “I cannot understand what you are thinking.”

Zhan Changfeng was unbothered. “Just as you cannot do what I am doing.”

Liu Zhao was a man of martial pursuits and had far less of that philosophical meandering. “Is practicing martial arts not also a happy thing? It’s certainly better than rotting away on one’s small plot of land.”

He only knew that most of these children had been sent here by impoverished families. If they had stayed at home, the better off among them would have spent their lives toiling for a living; the worse off would have been sold into servitude, or would not have even reached adulthood before dying of starvation.

To be able to study literature and practice martial arts at the Military Arts Academy, to eat their fill and keep warm, to fight for a different kind of path in life — was that not a good thing?

Liu Zhao’s words eased the tension somewhat. Yu Zhen took the opportunity to step down gracefully. “It is I who was seeing things too narrowly.”

(End of Chapter)