Luoyang in Turmoil (Part 2)

Eunuchs had produced famous figures too. For example, Cai Lun had improved papermaking, allowing paper, once usable only by the upper classes, to gradually enter ordinary households.

Paper had already been invented before Cai Lun, but its manufacturing process had been extremely complicated, making it even more precious than bamboo slips. It had truly been expensive then. After Cai Lun improved it, paper remained costly only because it was monopolized by aristocratic clans. For that achievement alone, Cai Lun deserved to be remembered for all eternity.

In an era when Confucianism held power, scientific and technological progress was extremely difficult. Hadn't there been little progress in those areas over more than two thousand years of history?

Then there was Zheng He. Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas represented China's exploration of the oceans in history. To put it bluntly, if not for the obstruction of those Confucianists, how could the late Ming Dynasty have become so pathetic?

That bunch spent every day reading the classics of sages, boasting of their loyalty to ruler and country, yet they were not even as good as some eunuchs. Take Wang Cheng'en and Gao Lishi, for instance. One of Confucianism's most famous figures had once said, "The water was too cold."

Shen Fei had given these eunuchs exceptionally generous arrangements, something absolutely unprecedented in this era. Of course, he had also assigned them certain tasks. For example, while planting the imperial fields, they were to improve some seeds along the way. The newspaper industry was also gradually being handed over to them.

It had to be said that there were quite a few talented people among the palace eunuchs. Some were no worse than those so-called scholars. Moreover, they lacked the scholars' so-called arrogance, making them extremely useful. No wonder so many people