Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 286: Why not quit Beijing?
For the past hundred years, except during the reign of Emperor Taizu, the Imperial College had always provided too many students and too few students with dormitories. Therefore, Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye, who were now unable to make ends meet, learned to shift the blame and threw the allocation of dormitories to Xu Heida of the Shengqian Hall. Xu Heida, who had already hated Zhang Shou's previous request for a dormitories, let alone ordinary students.
Therefore, as long as they had the slightest conditions, no matter whether they were academic officials or students, they were all unwilling to live in the Imperial College. Who would be willing to endure the cramped environment while enduring Xu Heida's seemingly omnipresent eyes?
Xie Wanquan was the same. He was the youngest head of the Imperial College in history, and he was also the head of the Ruxing Hall. He was from a famous family and had unlimited glory. Since he was specially selected to study in the Imperial College, he had a wide range of friends, so he was impatient to live in the Imperial College. Although the cost of renting a house outside was a bit high, his family was well-off, and many fellow merchants were willing to sponsor him, so he could still make a living.
But ever since he went to Rongshui Village and caused a scene, he had some bad luck. First he pretended to be sick to avoid trouble, then his pretended illness became real. When he came back more than two months later, he lost his position as the head of the temple. Seeing that he was in a bad situation, the merchants who had generously supported him at the beginning closed their doors to him. What frightened him the most was that his senior brother Tang Ming, who had always been nice to him, was said to have left Beijing to travel around.
Xie Wanquan certainly knew why Tang Ming hated him - he had heard about the matter of going to Rongshui Village to pick a fight from a certain big boss, so he volunteered and dragged Tang Ming along. And that day, it was because he had said something inappropriate to Zhang Shou at Zhang's house and showed his weakness, and he was even more embarrassed by a few math problems, so Tang Ming was defeated so easily.
As for the embarrassment of their retreat after Grand Tutor Ge descended from the sky, that is needless to say. Although Tang Ming was the champion of the imperial examination, he missed the imperial examination due to illness. He will definitely take part in the imperial examination next year. He will not leave the capital to avoid the limelight, and by the way, he will find a way to improve his literary reputation. Is he going to stay in the capital and become a joke?
Therefore, Xie Wanquan wanted to mediate between Yang Yiming and Zhang Shou yesterday, trying to eliminate the negative impact caused by his past stupidity, and then slowly plan for the future. However, this plan, which should have been very appropriate, was completely disrupted by the self-willed Yang Yiming, so he made such a bold decision in disappointment and despair.
Xie Wanquan could foresee the criticism, cold reception, and even suppression he would face, so he quietly packed his luggage and prepared to return home since last night. He even planned what to do after returning home. First, he would go to see his teacher, then sincerely admit his mistakes, reflect on his self-righteousness in the past three years in the capital, and then concentrate on studying and learning.
He could also learn from Zhang Shou, build a house in the countryside, teach a few farm children, and then learn to distinguish crops in his spare time, so as to avoid being scolded by people like Zhang Shou for being lazy and unable to distinguish the five grains next time.
The only worry was that although his family was relatively well-off and a well-known local landlord, his parents would be very disappointed if they had worked hard to support him to study for more than a decade and spent countless money, only to end up with such a result. The other uncles and brothers would surely rise up to attack him, and by that time, his father's position as the patriarch would be unstable.
As he thought about it, Xie Wanquan, who had already packed up the last bookcase himself, couldn't help but look up at the house he had lived in for three years. Although it was just a small courtyard near the Imperial College, in a place like the capital, the money spent every year was enough for a middle-class family in a small place to live for more than a year.
Therefore, he couldn't help but sigh after watching it again and again: "I really spent a lot of my family's money over the years."
The book boy beside him said with a face full of reluctance: "Sir, are we really going to go back like this? Dr. Yang's words hurt you and insulted your character. You are ruining your future just to turn against such a person. This is too much! There are so many important people in the capital, why don't you go and ask them for help?"
"Words spoken cannot be taken back, and mistakes made cannot be forgotten by others." Xie Wanquan chuckled and sighed, but said to himself in his heart that if he had not been so proud of himself, perhaps he would still be staying peacefully in the Ruexing Hall of the Imperial College as the head of his domicile - of course, with a teacher like Yang Yiming, he never knew when he would be pushed out to fight with Zhang Shou.
Just when the servant was trying to persuade him again, a voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Master, Master! It's bad, it's bad!"
Xie Wanquan noticed that the voice of the attendant outside was anxious, and even a little angry. He felt a pang in his heart, thinking to himself, is it not enough that he left the capital with this attitude? Others still refused to let him go? Just when he was feeling regretful and sad, he heard a laugh from outside.
"We came here to look for someone, not to provoke a fight. Why is that bad?"
Following this voice, Xie Wanquan discovered that the voice of his attendant outside suddenly stopped. After a long while, the attendant cautiously and stammered, "Sir, a guest... a guest is coming. Yes... yes..."
Xie Wanquan finally couldn't bear it anymore, so he simply strode forward and opened the door. But when he saw the two people standing in the yard outside, he was stunned.
But the next moment, he immediately forced a smile and quickly stepped out of the door to greet them. But when he arrived in front of the two people, he just bowed and called out "Dr. Zhang, Master Lu", and saw Lu Sanlang grinning at him.
"Master Xie, you really do what you say. You said you would quit Ruxingtang, so you won't go to the Imperial College now? You are really too bold. Do you know that today in the court, the chief minister Jiang Gelao was the first to attack you, saying that you are betraying your teacher and ancestors, and suggested that you be stripped of your honor and expelled from the Imperial College!"
Hearing a cry of surprise from behind, Xie Wanquan realized that his servant was not very experienced and must have been frightened out of his wits by Lu Sanlang's words. But even though he was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but clench his fists, feeling powerless in his heart. He didn't think Lu Sanlang would make such a fuss because it was something that could be easily found out.
He is just a former imperial student. Shouldn't he feel honored that the Prime Minister challenged him at the morning court?
Zhang Shou coughed heavily to stop Lu Sanlang's malicious threats, and then said with a smile: "Lu Zhu has always been a person who would scare people to death without paying for his life, and he likes to only say half of what he says. You should not take it personally. It is true that Jiang Ge Lao's words were too extreme at the court meeting, but there were also many people who spoke up for you."
This time, Xie Wanquan could not help but be stunned. Instead, his servant rushed out of the house as if he had been pardoned. He mustered up the courage to ask, "Excuse me, Dr. Zhang, the Prime Minister has spoken. Who else dares to help my son?"
"Haha, even the Prime Minister cannot cover up everything with one hand." This time, Lu Sanlang said unscrupulously, "First, it was the Grand Secretary Kong who stood up and choked the Prime Minister back with righteous words."
He repeated what he had learned from a certain source, what Kong Daxueshi had said to Jiang Gelao, and then he smiled and said, "Then, Jiang Gelao, who is always a good guy, also stood up to speak for you. Then, Duke Zhao also found you a backer that many people can't do anything about."
Lu Sanlang proudly told Jiang Gelao's attempt to smooth things over and Zhu Jing's recommendation for Lu Sanlang to work with Wang Jie. Then he suddenly changed the subject and said, "But compared to these people, what my father did was truly earth-shattering."
Hearing that he, a small figure, had become the focus of a dispute between big figures, Xie Wanquan felt as if he were in a dream. Especially when he heard that the Minister of War Lu Wan actually admitted to instigating him and Tang Ming to go to Rongshui Village, he felt his scalp tingling. His first reaction was that Lu Wan was afraid that he would let the cat out of the bag, so he took the initiative to admit it.
But he had already offended Yang Yiming greatly, and had also offended many people by breaking the hierarchy between teacher and student. How could he be so unwise?
The more Xie Wanquan thought about it, the more confused he felt. Unexpectedly, Lu Sanlang then casually dropped the last piece of news that was enough to make him dizzy - Lu Wan actually proposed to resign as the Minister of War because of this matter!
He subconsciously shouted: "Why would Minister Lu do this? I won't tell anyone!"
As soon as he said this, he saw Zhang Shou looking at him with a half-smile, while Lu Sanlang, who had just been talking nonstop, took a step back with a smile and stood behind Zhang Shou. He even thought that the teacher and student were using fake news to fool him and trick him into telling the truth, but he didn't expect Zhang Shou to nod at him.
"Lu Shangshu's resignation was not just for this little matter between you and me. In the final analysis, it was just an excuse. In today's situation, it is not necessarily a bad thing to retire at the right time. Besides, Lu Shangshu has no intention of retiring to his hometown and wandering around in the mountains after being idle. He is still in his prime and hopes to continue to do something solid."
"However, what Minister Lu wants to do may not make much progress in his lifetime unless he has a lot of helpers. Therefore, Duke Zhao's recommendation that you go to Datong to assist the Governor of Xuanda, Wang Zongxian, may not come true."
Xie Wanquan couldn't help but smile bitterly. Wang Datou was an upright official, and most people wanted to stay away from him. He didn't think that his shallow experience was enough to assist such a chief.
He is not Zhang Shou's two students who came from farming families, nor is he the students of Jiuzhang Hall who have various experiences in accounting and warehouse management!
After forcing himself to cheer up a bit, Xie Wanquan sighed and said, "I am really overwhelmed by the favor shown to me by Duke Zhao and Minister Lu. However, I am not very knowledgeable and talented, so I am naturally incapable of going to Datong. As for helping Minister Lu, I am afraid..."
Before he finished speaking, he saw Lu Sanlang behind Zhang Shou sneering at him. Compared with Zhang Shou's gentle face, he felt uneasy and quickly changed the topic and asked, "What does Minister Lu want me to do for you?"
"Although Minister Lu is no longer the Minister of War, he has lofty ambitions. He hopes to recruit a group of excellent students as teachers to open public schools to teach illiterate people. Of course, most ordinary people don't have much time to study, and even children often have to work. So once a week... ahem, once every seven days is about right."
Seeing Xie Wanquan was stunned, Zhang Shou explained slowly, "Mr. Xie was born into a landlord family, so he must have experienced the strict hierarchy of his family. If the master has an order and it is passed down by word of mouth, the order may be completely distorted by the end. If it is passed down by word of mouth, then even if it is posted as a notice, literate people can often deceive illiterate people."
Xie Wanquan gradually came back to his senses. He tried not to think about whether this matter was a big deal or not, and tried his best to follow Zhang Shou's thoughts: "Dr. Zhang is right. I heard that it is the same with tax collection. Whether the court reduces taxes due to disasters or reduces taxes on normal days, in the end, when it comes to the bottom, it is often not reduced, but increased! It is the clerks who take advantage of the fact that the common people are illiterate and take advantage of the opportunity to do evil!"
Zhang Shou only used the story of three people making a tiger as an introduction, but who knew that Xie Wanquan would actually extend it to taxation. He was speechless.
If we only talk about this level, in fact, from officials to clerks, most people do not want the lower-class civilians to be literate, because once the common people know a lot, it is not easy to fool them - and the more they know, the more they will think, and the more they think, the more likely they are to cause trouble, and if they cause trouble - haha, is there any need to say the result?
Therefore, Confucius' words in the Analects have always been misinterpreted by people using sentence breaks as follows: The people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to understand it.
In fact, what Zhang Shou really wanted to say was that literacy is the most basic condition for unlocking people's learning ability, because after becoming literate, ordinary people can learn a lot of knowledge that requires written materials rather than knowledge passed down orally. When he saw Guan Qiu's imagination bursting out with unlimited information and money, he had fully realized the abilities of ordinary people.
Firstly, there will definitely be a need for more workers who are proficient in reading and writing in the future, and secondly, he also needs the talents emerging from ordinary people.
However, if he simply expressed what he wanted to say with words, it would be pale and powerless. So he pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "Many things cannot be explained clearly in a short time. Anyway, since you said that in front of others yesterday, you definitely can't go to the Imperial College again, but if you leave Beijing like this, are you really willing to do that?"
Seeing Xie Wanquan stopped talking, Zhang Shou said with a smile, "My family will be moving to a new house the day after tomorrow, and we need to move a lot of people and things there. I can't get away from the Imperial College. If you are free, Mr. Xie, can you go over and help me? There are some things that I can ask Yingying to take you to see."
Thinking of how Zhang Shou had cheated the first and second princes with the famous new spinning machine, Xie Wanquan was speechless for a while. Even he, who was once shunned by fellow merchants, had people come to his door in those days, begging him to find out whether the efficient spinning machine was really useful. But when the first prince spread the drawings out to vent his anger, such people disappeared.
If Zhang Shou had not only the new spinning machine, but also other things...
Xie Wanquan was shocked, and then nodded seriously, "I just happened to be free and had nothing to do, so I dare not refuse such a small matter!"
