Chapter 490 Daxia 1

Chapter 490 Daxia 1

Chapter 490: Unification of Daxia

Hailing, Haijun East Road, new campus of Hailing Bilingual Middle School.

Shao Quanzhong was wearing a casual suit with a stand-up collar, and was walking in the campus with only Liu Niang as his bodyguard.

After the expulsion of the Tartars, the original long gown, jacket and melon-shaped hat were considered to be things of the old times and few people wore them anymore.

Traditional scholars like to wear Taoist robes, and male college students want new clothing but don’t want to copy European-style suits completely, so new simple stand-up collar clothing came into being.

Shao Quanzhong was a little embarrassed by the new clothes designed by Ningbo tailors. Isn’t this the representative clothing of a certain Double Flower Red Stick of Hongmen?
Fortunately, no one else knew about it. The tailors specially embroidered a nine-clawed golden dragon pattern on the stand-up collar presented to Shao Quanzhong to show the wearer's special status. This was okay, quite handsome, so Shao Quanzhong wore it to have fun with the people.

Since returning from Spain, Liu Niang has been hiding in her own small building in the east courtyard of Qiao Garden.

As Shao Quanzhong's wife, it was impossible for her to hide away in peace. Soon a group of people found Liu Niang and elected her as their representative.

During the Qing Dynasty, people in the underworld were divided into two categories. One category joined the anti-thief organizations such as the Hongmen, Tiandihui, Gelaohui, Taiping Army, and Nian Army, and Tian Xing was elected as the chief leader.

The literary society successfully rebelled and drove out the Tartars. These people were given high positions and generous salaries and entered the Senate.

The other category is more pure martial artists, such as Wang Yongxian’s biological father Wang Siguizi and Huang Feihong who set up his own martial arts school.

There are also some bandits who have set up their own businesses, martial artists who rob the rich to help the poor but do not rebel, and the like, all of whom have now gathered behind Liu Niang.

They are basically obedient citizens who will serve whoever is in power.

Most of the people that Liu Niang had gathered had become the backbone of maintaining public order in various places, such as martial arts coaches for yamen runners and constables. The most powerful one, Huang Feihong, became the chief coach of the Huai Army's special reconnaissance team.

It has been six years since Liu Niang's brother got into trouble. Hu Xiansheng is now serving as the chief of the police in Madrid, and he is doing a pretty good job.

Compared to those lazy Spaniards who indulge in leisurely life and like bullfighting and flamenco, Liu Niang's brother who does not work properly is actually diligent...

Shao Quanzhong said that he couldn't understand the Spaniards and the French, who were completely different from the hardworking Han people who worked hard to make money. As a result, although the two countries were also considered Finnish countries, they have not yet been included in the Daxia economic system, which made Shao Quanzhong very sad.

Shao Quanzhong had a lot of things to do every day and was always busy, so he almost forgot about Hu Xiansheng's affairs.

Liu Niang was always quiet and wanted to take action. Occasionally, she took the initiative to ask to be Shao Quanzhong's secretary, replacing Maria and Ping'er. Now Shao Quanzhong's secretariat was rotated by three concubines.

Hailing Bilingual Middle School was founded by Rong Hui. It was not large at the time, with only a dozen classes. It was located in the Jingwu Temple next to the Huatuo Temple in the center of Hailing City.

It has a long history as an academy. Hu Yuan, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, set up a school there to teach his students.

However, with the expansion of Hailing, the number of students in Hailing Bilingual Middle School has increased. Now it has 67 classes and more than 4100 students. The original academy can no longer accommodate them, so a new campus had to be opened near Tiande Lake in the southern suburbs.

Rong Hui is the honorary president of Oxford University, the executive dean of Xiaoxiangya Science Academy, the president of Hailing University, and the principal of Hailing Bilingual Middle School. She has many duties and is very busy.

Occasionally, he would go to the UK for inspections. At least he was elected as the honorary president, donated a library to Oxford University, and invited a few scientists and professors to give lectures at Hailing University. Some scientists saw that Xiaoxiangya had a good scientific research environment, so they might stay in Hailing.

However, Rong Hui's biggest concern was actually the Hailing Bilingual Middle School she founded. After all, she was really qualified for this position. For those positions that were beyond her personal ability, she was actually just a financial sponsor.

The new campus of Hailing Middle School has been completed and put into use. Shao Quanzhong stopped by to take a look and express his support for his wife's work.

Tiande Lake is untouched, and the lake reflects the blue sky, full of natural beauty. The south bank of Tiande Lake is covered with green grass, and a large number of sports venues have been built one after another, all for students to exercise.

Students in sportswear gathered in baseball stadiums and football fields. The people in Hailing are wealthy and the students are fond of sports. Rong Hui started baseball and regularly competed with the middle school leagues of Meiyi. There were wins and losses, but Shao Quanzhong felt that winning or losing was not important, as long as it was lively.

Football was brought up by Taizi Jiming, who studied here for a year. He is currently contacting secondary schools in the UK to set up a league.

Shao Quanzhong strongly supported students to do more sports. He did not like weak scholars who only studied hard. He believed that the six arts of a gentleman of Confucianism should be revived.

In front of him was a tennis court that he had never seen before, and a group of students wearing "Ronghui-style women's clothing" gathered around and cheered.

When Ronghui was this old, Rong Hong and his wife had already started to look for a husband for Ronghui, and within two years, they had already trapped Shao Quanzhong.

Nowadays, times have changed. Most of these female students at their prime age are still unengaged, and many have already started dating their classmates freely. They are all full of youth.

This is good, but Shao Quanzhong is also worried. For the sake of study, students' marriage age is naturally pushed back, which will slow down the population growth rate.

Of course, Daxia has not yet encountered a population crisis, so it is too early to worry about this.

The one playing tennis turned out to be Rong Hui. Shao Quanzhong scratched his head. He remembered that Rong Hui only liked to play badminton?

What's even more embarrassing is that looking at the score, Rong Hui actually lost. Who is so disrespectful to the principal?
Um, the athlete on the opposite side is tall, about 1.68 meters tall, and it’s Dongmei who I haven’t seen for a long time.

Rong Hui, dressed in sportswear, seemed to have regained her youth. She put down her tennis racket, wiped the sweat off her face, and came to Shao Quanzhong, "Brother Shao, I didn't expect Dongmei to be a tennis player. I can't even beat her."

"Hui'er, how is Dongmei's study going?"

Rong Hui was very pleased. "She was originally a maid of Li Hongzhang's second wife Zhao Xiaolian. Zhao Xiaolian was a lady from a wealthy family, and her maid was trained to be well-versed in literature, chess, calligraphy and painting."

"I let her audit classes starting from the first grade of primary school, and I also gave her extra lessons in person at Qiaoyuan. Four months later, she has been promoted to the first grade of junior high school, and will soon be able to skip another grade and become a normal-age middle school student."

"She basically only needs to learn simple elementary and middle school math and basic physics and chemistry knowledge. She doesn't even need to learn Chinese."

"You said she might be at risk of miscarriage, so I asked her to do more exercise to strengthen her body. But it got out of control. Now she likes playing tennis."

Well, Dongmei was treated as a concubine, with an annual salary of three thousand taels of silver and three thousand bushels of corn from the Qing government. She didn't need anyone to pay for her schooling, and she could even afford a high-end hobby like tennis.

Wenxiu also allocated a small building for Dongmei in the east wing of Qiaoyuan. Dongmei is now a noble student with excellent conditions.

Under Ronghui's care, she transformed herself from Li Hongzhang's concubine into a very promising modern girl.

"Brother Shao, others don't know Dongmei's identity. There are already many outstanding young men pursuing her. You'd better be careful that Dongmei will not be married off."

Shao Quanzhong waved his hands, "It's all a small matter. I don't want her. She is younger than my son. How can I do that? She can marry whoever she wants."

Rong Hui smiled and shook her head. Dongmei herself didn't think so. She was given to Shao Quanzhong as a gift by Li Hongzhang and had already regarded herself as Shao Quanzhong's concubine.

Seeing that Shao Quanzhong's wives and concubines all had their own careers, she felt that she was not worthy of her position. She was studying and training hard, trying to achieve something and then join Shao Quanzhong's harem. She was working very hard now.

A plainclothes guard quickly ran up to Hu Liuniang, whispered a few words, and Liuniang stepped forward.

"Sven has returned from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is waiting at Qiao Garden. Something big has happened. The six provinces controlled by the Literature Society have collectively requested to change their flags and unify Daxia. Yuting, you should go back quickly."

(End of this chapter)