The day after Ma Yu finished his lecture for Zhu Shuang and the others, Zhu Biao arrived. He had originally intended to head straight to the tea and pastry shop, but he pulled Ma Yu aside to ask about the issue of Confucian scholars lacking practical skills.
Ma Yu immediately guessed that Zhu Yuanzhang must have been dissatisfied with his words from the previous day and was intentionally testing him through his son. He was well aware of this matter; in his previous life, because Confucian scholars were disconnected from reality, Zhu Yuanzhang had even abolished the imperial examinations in the third year of the Hongwu reign, only reinstating them after the Hu Weiyong case.
As for how to deal with this, Zhu Yuanzhang had already reached a perfect solution in recorded history, so Ma Yu simply had to copy it. Facing Zhu Biao’s inquiry, he offered six words: "Observe the government first, then appoint."
Chapter 72