Chapter 38 A Debate
The classical literature major has access to a large number of ancient books and classics. They read through all the books that recorded the Western Regions during the Qin and Han dynasties, such as "Records of the Grand Historian", "Book of Han", "Book of the Later Han", and "Wei Lue", and listed these contents to prove that Liu Hongmin's thesis is highly credible.
No one had ever studied world history in this way before. Liu Hongmin opened a door for them, and it seemed like there was a whole new world inside the door.
Their subjective initiative was mobilized, and under the leadership of Ge Chaoguang, they did a lot of research. According to the schedule theory proposed by Liu Hongmin and referring to the topographic map of Central and West Asia, they re-drew the route map of Gan Ying's mission and proved that Gan Ying finally arrived at the Mediterranean.
Some students who were interested in military affairs specially studied "The Expeditions of Alexander". The author of this book was Arrian of ancient Greece, which was the earliest historical work recording Alexander's expeditions to the east.
Soon, they discovered that Alexander, with 550 spearmen, relied on his own two legs and ran more than kilometers in just ten years, conquering million square kilometers of land.
You should know that the Long March of our army took two years and covered 25,000 miles, which averaged more than 6,200 kilometers per year. This has been hailed as a miracle in the history of human warfare.
Although the Long March required climbing snow-capped mountains and crossing grasslands, the marching speed was sometimes very slow. But no matter how slow it was, could it be slower than conquering a city?
Even if the cities in Central and West Asia are small and have no walls, they can still hold out for three to five days even with fences, right? Three to five days for one city, one hundred cities for a year.
Moreover, his enemy, the King of Persia, had 20,000 cavalry. Even if the spearmen could restrain the cavalry, wouldn't they just run away if they couldn't defeat them? Could two legs chase four legs?
If the Persian king was so stubborn, would he have waited until Alexander came to attack? He would have been destroyed long ago.
Even if the battle is just a formality, and you can just open the gates and surrender when you reach the edge of the city, then how do you solve the problem of food and grass? You can't just fight to support the war, right?
That's 30,000 troops, how much food do they need every day? There are deserts in West Asia, how can the local food supply 30,000 troops?
How many people would be needed to transport it from Greece? Without vehicles, the baggage force would be at least ten times the combat force.
Moreover, after ten years of fighting, Alexander's army not only did not decrease but increased by 30. Let's look at our Long March, which went from 3 to in two years. It is obvious which one was a real war.
This textual research article immediately caused the professors of world history to jump up and down and curse, "Why are you from the Chinese department meddling in this academic debate within our history department?"
Instead, the students felt something was wrong. If Liu Hongmin was the only one talking nonsense, it would be fine. But the entire class of classical literature majors testified for him, which was a problem.
Although the Classical Literature major has a good relationship with Liu Hongmin, it is definitely not to the extent of getting involved in this mess for him.
In addition, the Chinese Department’s comments on “Unnamed Lake” have shaken many students studying world history. The professor is indeed an authority, but “Unnamed Lake” is also an authority.
The Chinese Department's article has nothing academic about it, they just said that anyone is allowed to express their opinions. The title of Liu Hongmin's paper says it is speculation, but they don't even allow speculation. This is not the academic atmosphere that Peking University should have.
Voltaire once said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!"
Students studying world history deeply agree with this sentence in the article. If Liu Hongmin is not allowed to speak, what is the difference from a few years ago?
The special period has just passed, and the students have not forgotten this period of suffering. Now seeing that the world history is suppressing Liu Hongmin, they suddenly feel sympathetic and naturally stand on Liu Hongmin's side.
Cha Jianying organized students and went to the history department's teaching building to demand an open debate.
"If you don't argue, you won't understand. If you don't explain, you won't be clear. Since you think Liu Hongmin is wrong, let's talk it out face to face."
The professors felt ashamed when they were blocked by so many students. Not accepting the challenge meant they were afraid, so they had no choice but to accept the challenge. They were optimistic and did not think that these Chinese students had much historical knowledge. Experts were fighting amateurs, and I had the advantage.
However, they didn't know that Cha Jianying and his team had an insider in the History Department.
Professor Tao asked Zhao Zhizhong to send a list of books to Zou Shifang, and Zou Shifang immediately sent the list to Ge Chaoguang.
Ge Chaoguang led his classmates majoring in classical literature to look up materials and summarize the information, which was then handed over to Cha Jianying, who then had his classmates majoring in literature design the speech.
Cha Jianying was the first to take the stage as the first debater, and he started with a bunch of questions.
"Dear professors, in our country, if we want to confirm whether history is real, we mainly rely on the double dialectics, that is, historical books plus archaeological discoveries. So, are there any historical records about Alexander's Eastern Expedition? I have read "Alexander's Expedition", and the records in it are not as good as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Its author Arrian didn't even know military common sense..."
After talking about dozens of unreasonable records in "The Expeditions of Alexander", Zha Jianying finally asked: "What do you professors think about these issues?"
There was complete silence on the other side, and the four world history professors didn't know how to answer.
They have never examined Alexander's Campaigns in this way, so naturally they cannot answer these questions.
This world history book was published in China as early as the 20s and has always been used as a basis for studying the history of Alexander's Eastern Expedition.
This is true not only in China but also abroad. The rest of the research materials are basically from the 17th and 18th centuries, which are too far away from the Alexander period, and the content is basically derived from "The Expedition of Alexander".
Many foreign scholars have questioned the authenticity of this book, and some people in China have also questioned it, but they were all suppressed by these world history students.
These people regard it as the golden rule, so how can they allow others to question it?
"Little girl, you are still young and don't understand the value of this book. In the process of history, it will be copied many times, and it is normal to have copying errors. It must not be like this at the beginning, but since we haven't found the original version, we can only use it to study Greek history..."
Cha Jianying frowned. This professor didn't take this debate seriously at all!
Then she would not be polite. "Professor, can I assume that most of the content in Alexander's Expeditions is false? Perhaps Alexander only conquered Egypt or the Red Sea, and may not even have set foot in Central Asia or South Asia?"
"H-How dare you say that?"
The professor was so angry that his nose was crooked. "This is simply nonsense!"
(End of this chapter)
