Chapter 1 Naturally, Tan Xiaopei had his own selfish motives for doing this. It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with Tan Weiming's performance, nor did he intend to replace the heir apparent, and he certainly wouldn't use such a clumsy method to sow discord between the two brothers. It was simply that, compared to Tan Weiming, he had higher hopes for Tan Weiran's performance in this debate. Indeed, because of Tan Weiran's identity, although he was enthusiastic and diligent in everything he did, it was difficult for him to gather a team of advisors around him. Whether now or in the future, Tan Weiran was destined to be the type of person who filled in the gaps and made up for deficiencies. However, he hadn't experienced enough yet. Although he had handled many matters in the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of War, the Blood Kirin Army, the Danyang City Defense Army, and the Internal Affairs Department in recent years, he hadn't yet established his own character. Instead, after gaining a preliminary understanding of various aspects, he had more time to think about those comprehensive, global, but more abstract issues. Tan Weiran studied economics and accounting with Tan Weixin much more diligently and deeply than Tan Weiming, especially the principles Tan Weixin mentioned regarding the national economic system, core competitiveness, macro-control, economic leverage, and so on. He also put a lot of effort into studying Ye Tao's impromptu Lei Yin Demon Sect and related systems. It could be said that, purely in terms of ideas, Tan Weiran was more avant-garde and comprehensive than Tan Weiming.

After all, the roles of the two brothers were completely different. Tan Weiming was required to understand and grasp the overall situation, to understand knowledge in all aspects, and to understand how to efficiently use and allocate resources to achieve goals. His knowledge construction and way of thinking were based on practicality and feasibility. As for this debate, it didn't matter what Tan Weiming's performance was. What was important was that he could further grasp the abilities and character of those under him. How to make good use of these people, how to discover their other talents beyond their eloquence, was what Tan Weiming needed to focus on.

Tan Weiming would be the future emperor, and Tan Weiran... In Tan Xiaopei's mind, he hoped to cultivate this equally intelligent and diligent son into an assistant who had a thorough understanding and deep thinking of national policies. And at the most critical and urgent moment, he needed to be the one who could stand up, shoulder all the pressure, and do things in the face of all the doubts and pressure. Tan Xiaopei himself had failed to do this back then... And now he believed that, with the deep friendship between the brothers, with the influence and guidance of their remarkably talented sister Tan Weixin, and with his consistent long-term training plan, these two people would be able to end the war in their generation.

Although it was called a debate, this activity actually had very distinct characteristics of a seminar, but it took the form of a debate. And the form of the debate itself was constantly changing. At the beginning, the three parties took turns speaking, each making a presentation, and then debating that presentation. The presentations were conducted twice, the first time in full, without interruption, and the second time with interruptions allowed at any time to ask questions. This form of debate was simply too long, mainly because no matter how well prepared you were, there were always places where you couldn't convince the other party, and there were always questionable materials. No one could convince anyone. Later, after spending a day discussing the rules of the debate, they all agreed that in addition to the three-party debate, a review panel of twelve people would be introduced. After the three-party debate, a vote would be taken to decide which party had won. The people who could sit on the review panel were not simple characters either. Most of them were patriarchs and senior stewards of various major families, ministers of the court of the third rank and above, scholars and libationers from the Imperial Academy and the Imperial College, and even the Yong'an Hall, senior subordinate officials with more than fifteen years of work experience in various departments, famous scholars from Dongping, business representatives whose businesses were large enough to affect the national economy, highly respected old men of the martial world… and so on.

And due to the situation in which the review panel completely disregarded the on-stage victories and losses and the authenticity of the materials after the first debate in this form, they quickly passed supplementary regulations. Before the start of the debate, any party could request to replace members of the review panel to ensure that the review results were fair and effective.

This… basically a jury system in reverse, gradually brought the debate onto the right track. For each topic, everyone had to analyze and prepare to the maximum extent within the time limit, and they also needed to present the materials they had summarized and refined in an extremely concise manner, and they also had to design various debate strategies in the debate…

Although it had a considerable performative nature, which might have damaged the academic meaning of the debate or seminar, the collision of a large number of views and materials in this limited time and space was extremely exciting. The seats on the review panel were certainly eagerly applied for by many people who felt they were qualified, and later, even the audience seats were hard to come by.

And those debate topics were even more sharp than the last, some were even somewhat rebellious. For example, the first debate topic was "Justice and Legitimacy", which focused on the various countries that had also split from a unified country at that time, including Dongping, of course. Usually, people would probably break out in a cold sweat even thinking about this kind of topic, let alone debating it in broad daylight. Then there were "Extravagance", "Development and Overdevelopment", "From Unity to Division", "War and National Development", "Policy Consistency and Policy Consistency", "The Achievements of Traitorous Officials", "Collecting, Organizing and Fabricating Evidence"... and so on. These topics involved all aspects of a country, but because they were themselves some major historical propositions, and the time and space of the materials were not limited, everyone had a great deal of room to play. As the debate progressed, when Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had to participate more and more deeply and enthusiastically, the debate not only explored history, but also added many reflections on various policies of Dongping, and even reflections on historical research itself. When sayings and theories such as "Practice is the Only Standard for Testing Truth", "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones", "Macro-Control", "Finance, Liquidity and Excessive Liquidity" emerged one by one, everyone realized that this debate might have a profound impact on the future of Dongping.

Even more enlightening was the extremely solid data that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had produced while doing a lot of analysis and sorting work. This data irrefutably showed to what extent the unified dynasty, when the countries including Dongping split from it, was corrupt, to what extent the living standards of ordinary people were low, and to what extent the wealth accumulated by corrupt officials was concentrated...

And what shocked them was that through research on some public data, they discovered the truth about Chen Jia, who was considered the last great loyal minister of the empire, and his so-called family retreat after the empire's demise: Although the Chen family disappeared somewhat inexplicably, almost all the families and industries that had various connections with the Chen family enjoyed wealth and prosperity in the following decades and centuries. Although the last years of the dynasty and the period after the dynasty's demise lacked detailed documents and records for a long time, making it impossible to track the whereabouts of the Chen family, some families that suddenly rose within a few years after the empire's demise, through local chronicles and the records of local literati and celebrities regarding changes in the surrounding situation, still entered Nie Rui's field of vision... Such a thing was too sensational. When the news spread, not only Dongping, but even Northern Liao, Western Ling, and Chunan were touched. But the evidence was there, and everyone couldn't help but believe it.

This may be the first time in this space-time that the study of history was not tirelessly conducted by one or two scholars with profound knowledge in their own homes, but by several teams, with joint analytical efforts. It may also be the first time that the knowledge of accounting and economics has entered the category of historical research, but the groups of numbers were so shocking.

While the debate was going on, less than ten days after each debate ended, the "Historical Research" printed by Bao Wentang would surely turn the entire process of the debate into exquisite printed matter and put it on the shelves. It was impossible to keep this series of debates secret because too many people were involved in it. In the case that it was impossible to keep it secret, Tan Weixin's choice was to keep the official release in her own hands, so as to avoid the outside world from spreading more and more mysteriously. "Historical Research" was probably the first irregular academic journal in this space-time. Although historical research was a form of live recording, from the perspective of reading, from the perspective of understanding the views of all parties, it was not very concise, especially under that debate rule. Not being on the scene was a great loss in itself. "Historical Research" could not fully reflect the debate, but this series of books still became the first bestsellers in this space-time. Taking the first volume as an example, the first print run was three thousand copies, and then it was reprinted eleven times, with a total of over forty thousand copies printed in the two years after its publication. This space-time did not have technologies such as photographic plate making. Although Bao Wentang had begun to use a series of extremely modern technologies such as lead movable type, copperplate paper, color printing, and thermal glue binding, it was unable to solve the problem of plate storage. Each printing required re-plating, and all twenty-two versions each had slight changes due to differences in technical details, and there were also problems such as typos due to process flow problems, which caused many scholars a headache. And some bibliophiles of this era took pride in being able to produce a collection of all versions...

"Historical Research" was not only widely spread in Dongping, but also spread to surrounding countries. Later, the three debate groups also published a series of books based on their respective research results, such as "The Melancholy of the Empire" (author Tan Weiming), "Salvation and Leisure" (author Feng Zi), "The Sunset of the Empire" (author Qin Zeheng), "Chen Jia's Scam" (author Shi Wei, Li Mian), "History of the Imperial System" (author Qu Yan), "Natural and Man-Made Disasters" (author Mu Anlong)... This series of books, known as the "Great History Library", occupied the desks of almost all princes and nobles, from the king to ambitious petty officials, in the entire Middle-earth continent in a very short period of time. And after supplementing a large amount of solid material, those papers that Ye Tao dictated and Feng Zi wrote were finally published, and Tan Weixin's name was added to the first batch of published two-volume "Thunderbolt Cliff Essays" after Ye Tao and Feng Zi. This set of books not only made Ye Tao a famous scholar and historian in addition to being the number one craftsman in the world, but also spread this research method and attitude towards history.

Although a large number of achievements with great reference value for governing the country were produced in the extremely fierce debates for more than two consecutive months, Tan Xiaopei felt that the gains did not outweigh the losses. Indeed, if these achievements had not been in such an extremely fierce confrontation, with everyone racking their brains to organize and collect materials, and with the guidance and summarization of a large number of experienced, capable, and insightful pragmatists, it was estimated that they would not have emerged until who knows when. In the debate, the intense collision of various governing ideologies, especially the summary and reflection on Dongping's high-speed development over the past ten years, and the vision and plan for the future, all made everyone feel that their horizons had been broadened. However, as these materials spread, other countries outside Dongping also learned about these ideas, knew why Dongping was strong, and also knew why Dongping could become even stronger... This was not a good thing.

Fortunately, there were still many mature and prudent people. Just as the debate was still in full swing, the two brothers, Tan Weiming and Tan Weiran, felt that something was wrong. The two brothers jointly wrote a memorial, proposing to establish a permanent historical and cultural research institution, while superficializing the debate topics and gradually diluting the impact. And those who had participated in the review panel before and after could be invited regularly to make suggestions and discussions on national policies, so as to understand the reactions of all parties in Dongping to different policies.

In this way, the "Historical Research Association" was established in a low-key manner. This institution, which had no real power but only relatively high access to information, brought together experts and scholars from all walks of life, and had sufficient funds to enable those who worked in it not only to live well, but also to conduct extensive field investigations and research, or invite relevant experts and scholars to give lectures and courses... In general, this was an institution that was much more open than the Imperial Academy, the Imperial College, and the Yong'an Hall, but was relatively far from the path of officialdom. But no matter which side it was, they all saw the prospects of this institution, which was bound to be the predecessor of the "Dongping Academy of Social Sciences."

Even after dealing with it in this way, Tan Xiaopei still felt insecure. He still used the excuse of preparing for Tan Weixin and Ye Tao's wedding to call a halt to the debate, and then let Tan Weiran manage the Historical Research Association, and send Tan Weiming back to his Grand Canal Governor's Office until Tan Weixin's wedding. But before Tan Weiming went to Sufu City, he earnestly requested Tan Xiaopei to reuse Ye Tao.

"Those who learn from me live, those who imitate me die." Tan Weiming relayed the extremely confident words that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin said in unison at the time, and said, "Father, elder sister and brother-in-law have never worried about others becoming stronger. That's what they said... I don't know where their confidence comes from, perhaps it's that I have never understood how deep their abilities are. I have never doubted that elder sister actually knows better than me how to develop this country, and I also know that father's evaluation of elder sister is very pertinent. Actually, if elder sister was a man and had a healthy body, I'm afraid she wouldn't be as simple as a great ruler of a generation. To say that she could create an unprecedented situation may be a bit exaggerated, but to make the four seas clear would not be difficult. Father, in the post of Grand Canal Governor, I have only realized that some things cannot be understood by relying on other people's words without truly experiencing and understanding them. It is true that it is inevitable that there will be a lot of talk when Ye Tao becomes a consort and then reuses him, but it would be a pity to put Ye Tao aside. Father trusts him, and I will trust him in the future. Isn't that enough? Father, I understand your ambition and vision, but if there is an opportunity to see the unification of the four countries in your lifetime, wouldn't that be good?"

Tan Xiaopei sighed and said, "How about setting up the position of Prime Minister again in ten years and giving it to Ye Tao?"

Tan Weiming frowned and said, "Then what about these ten years? How many years can the Road and Bridge Department hide him? I'm afraid he won't be able to get through this year. Father, I have a bold idea..."

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Chapter 2 This is the second chapter today. I wish you all a happy new year again. Both of these chapters today are not short, so the attitude is good, right?

I'm not easy. I didn't forget to update while playing in Hangzhou. I was still coding on the train. Everyone remember to support me.