Standing on a gentle slope by the sea of mulberry trees, Xu Le's thick, ink-like eyebrows seemed to be about to twitch when he heard the young imperial officer's question. However, he eventually calmed down amidst a series of hurried coughs.
"Decades have already passed. There's not much meaning in arguing about who started the war." Xu Le rubbed the itchy wound on his shoulder through his silk shirt and suddenly said, "But if I remember correctly, it was you who insidiously blew up the Federation's research spaceship."
Regarding who started this bloody and long-lasting war in the universe and who should bear the responsibility of opening the Devil's Box, both the Federation and the Empire had their own firm narratives. Due to the distance between the two star systems, the flames of war raged, and the isolation of communication, there were no overly lively academic wars.
Huai Caoshi looked at him coldly and unexpectedly did not express her opinion. Instead, she walked down the slope with her back to Sang Hai and headed into the city.
Xu Le looked at the sea of green mulberry trees with some reluctance. Listening to the graceful rustling sounds, he turned around and followed her.
…
…
Huai Caoshi then went to a few other places. During this process, he remained silent. Xu Le knew the identity of this young imperial officer. Although he had some guesses in his heart, he lacked sufficient evidence. However, he could already guess that this person's status in the Empire was rather high.
Therefore, he did not understand why this person wanted to bring him, a prisoner who was destined to die, to continue this absurd sightseeing tour. Could it be that the Empire really wanted a hero created by the Federation to admit to the sins of the Federation in front of the entire universe? This kind of speculation did not make any sense.
If Xu Le knew of some of the changes in the Empire's political scene, if this imperial officer was really the legendary figure he had guessed, perhaps he could understand why the other party was deliberately delaying the date of his return to Tianjing.
In the afternoon, two skinny young men and over a hundred disguised plainclothes soldiers formed a strange visiting team, arriving at Li Ban Star's Sangzhi State University.
According to the special decree of the Emperor, Li Ban Star became the only administrative planet in the Empire that implemented indiscriminate education. That is to say, on this planet, no matter if you are a noble or a commoner, or even a serf at the lowest level, as long as your children work hard enough and are outstanding enough, you can get a fair opportunity for education. Even the most outstanding people can get special scholarships provided by the Imperial Family.
This plan was called the Interracial Education Pilot Program. As soon as it was launched, it attracted the angry opposition of the entire noble class of the Empire. Every time they thought about how they were the 38th generation heir of a certain glorious family and had to learn in the same classroom as the son of a certain bumpkin, the nobles of the Empire felt that they smelled something fishy and felt that their dignity had been greatly humiliated. As nobles, how could they live with those commoners and even slaves?
In this matter, the Emperor, who had always appeased the nobles in a gentle way and suppressed the lowly commoners in a bloody way, showed a surprising persistence and strength. Under the strong suppression of the Emperor, the nobles of the Empire's Council of Elders looked at the soldiers and the officials of the Imperial Intelligence Agency at the gate, and only then did they swallow their anger and pass the law, confirming Li Ban Star as the Interracial Education Pilot Program Area.
Even so, when the son of the first serf walked through the gate of Li Ban Star's Yellow Mountain Academy with a face full of nervousness and fear, he still needed the protection of the armed soldiers of the Empire.
On that day, the principal of the Yellow Mountain Ji Academy resigned in anger. In the following year, the nobles of the Li Ban Star sent their offspring to other planets. They would rather spend a huge amount of wealth so that their children could receive a pure aristocratic education, rather than endure the abominable actions of the Emperor on the Li Ban Star.
For the continuous wealth of their territories, these nobles would certainly not leave Li Ban Star, but this could not change a certain trend – as more and more commoners entered the new universities, the atmosphere of the planet became more and more active, or more dangerous.
Of course, these young people, who had become more capable and confident because of their exposure to more knowledge, were incomparably loyal and fanatical to His Majesty, who had bestowed upon them all.
In the center of the first floor of the largest building in Sang Zhi State University, hung a huge portrait of His Majesty, Huai Fu Chai. Every time a student passed by, they would immediately stop their fierce academic debate and stand at attention with a solemn expression on their faces.
Xu Le withdrew his gaze from the portrait and listened to the quarrel behind him. He could not help but frown slightly. His Empire's language was not good, so he could barely hear that the students seemed to be discussing the control of engine output power. The extent of the discussion was relatively shallow, but he still felt a strong sense of vigilance. It should be known that when he was in the Federation, no one would have thought that in the Empire University, there would be so many commoner students discussing academic issues in a relaxed atmosphere.
He had always believed that the Federation's greatest advantage over the Empire was not in terms of economy, but in terms of education, technology, and the most fundamental way of thinking. Now that the Empire seemed to be quietly making changes, with the Empire's terrifying population base, it might not be too difficult to catch up to this gap.
Huai Caoshi noticed him and frowned. She maintained her expressionless silence and led him to the third floor.
In the conference room at the top of the third floor, there was a history class going on. Hundreds of plainly dressed Empire youths were quietly and eagerly listening to the professor on the podium.
The courseware playback equipment, the line-by-line scanning light filter screen, the old-fashioned laser stylus, all of these were somewhat shabby in Xu Le's eyes. Not to mention the First Military Academy or Ewha University, even compared to the university conditions in his hometown of Donglin, the Empire was far behind.
But he listened very carefully, because the professor from the Empire was emotionally lecturing about the cause of the war many years ago. The professor used the standard language of the Empire's nobles, and he could barely understand most of it.
The history professor of Mulberry State University did not know that there were two special young listeners in the crowd listening to the lecture today. He did not expect that the history he was lecturing at this moment would have any impact on the future history. He was only using the standard teaching materials of the Empire's Royal Education Department to describe the cruelty and treachery of the people of the Federation to the youths of the Empire.
"For a shameless coalition of politicians like the Federation controlled by businessmen, what could make them spend a huge amount of military funds to start a long-term war? The glory of the country? No, they never know how to write the word 'glory'. "
The professor waved the laser stylus on his finger excitedly. The red light dots danced quickly on the ceiling of the conference room, just like the heroic dance of the most common butterfly on this planet before its death.
"It's benefits! Only benefits can make this coalition of businessmen crazy. It's crystal mines! Only crystal mines can sustain their limitless expansion of the Star Domain, and thus alleviate the deep internal conflicts! "
"Two hundred years ago, the Federation's crystal mines were already close to exhaustion. There were only two paths placed before them. The first was to find or invent a new type of energy source as soon as possible, and the second was to immediately find new crystal mines. Otherwise, their spaceships that used crystal mines as a foundation would all be paralyzed, and their space weapons would all become ineffective. In other words, the Federation could collapse at any time."
"However, the Federation's people spent more than a hundred years, yet they still couldn't find new crystal mines. All of this time that could have been used to develop new energy sources was also completely wasted. Why? Because one of the families of businessmen who controlled the Federation's political power had the legal right to exploit crystal mines, and through this authority, they obtained a large amount of benefits. If the Federation developed a new type of energy source, this family's special status would be completely gone. There was no way they would allow this type of situation to happen. "
"Why would the Federation's government allow this type of thing to happen? Because you all must never forget that the government is actually controlled by these families. "
"The Federation doesn't have crystal mines, but the Empire does. When those supposedly cursed Federation exploration spaceships accidentally entered the Empire and discovered this fact, war was no longer avoidable."
"Bandits came to our doorstep. They don't need a reason to rob, so what we can do, what we must do, is also very simple."
The history professor no longer had his initial calm. Clenching his fists tightly, he said angrily, "Beat these bandits to death."
…
…
Xu Le had no doubt that if his identity as a member of the Federation was discovered, he would definitely be torn to pieces by the several hundred angry Empire students in the conference room in the next moment. Fortunately, his black hair and black eyes were the same as those of the Empire officer beside him. Although they were somewhat eye-catching, they only attracted slightly respectful gazes.
After listening to this history class, Xu Le followed the other out of the campus. Outside the door, he was silent for a moment, and then he made a rare request — he asked for a cigarette.
Amidst the waves of smoke, he said to the Empire officer, "This is very similar to our history class. In the history books I've read about this period, it says that the Empire's emperor brazenly launched a war in order to alleviate the racial and class conflicts within your country. "
Silence and cigarettes were good companions for thinking. The reason he was thinking was because Xu Le had to admit that this Empire's history class, for him, was indeed a different angle to look at the origins of the war back then. This was especially the case regarding crystal mines leading to the war. This was the first time he had heard of this.
The family that could control the government was naturally the Tai family in the back of the mountain behind Mochou.
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