Chapter 1124 Little Transparent

Chapter 1124 Little Transparent

Chapter 1124 Little Transparent
Outside Kaiyang Gate in the south of Luoyang, there were crowds of carriages and horses, creating quite a grand scene.

Yu Liang quickly rolled back to Yingchuan and was unable to attend the ceremony, but many scholars and officials who were affiliated with the Yu family attended the ceremony to see the King of Qin off.

Shao Jin's face was not very good. He looked back at the officials in the palace, snorted coldly, and said, "Send them all away."

King Qin You Xinzuo's face turned pale.

God bless them, no one called these people over, they all came on their own. The King of Qin may have underestimated the importance of his eldest son status and its appeal to those who were lucky enough to get promoted. Some people would do anything to get ahead.

Just as the officials of the King of Qin led the guards to disperse the crowd, in a corner where not many people were paying attention, the King of Han Shao Yan was quietly leaving.

The king's military advisors, Yang Lang and Yang Shiyan, saw him off for several miles. When they were about to part, they noticed Shao Yan's expression and asked, "Why are you so worried, Your Majesty?"

"No worries, I just feel lost." Shao Yan shook his head, retracted his gaze, and said, "When my sixth brother went on tour, there were countless people who saw him off with courtesy. Back then, we brothers studied together, learned martial arts together, talked and laughed happily, and had no taboos. There was no difference. But now, there is a world of difference, how different!"

After that, he took out a chessboard and chess pieces from the carriage, handed them to Yang Lang, and said, "You have coveted this for a long time, so I give it to you."

Yang Lang took it and asked playfully, "Don't you regret it?"

Shao Yan was amused by his attitude and felt much better. He said, "I never thought of returning it after I gave it away."

Yang Lang handed it to his nephews and said, "Since the king has given me this gift, how can I let the king go alone? Let's go to Xiangcheng together."

Shao Yan was stunned and said, "Isn't it in your family..."

"It's all right." Yang Lang pulled Shao Yan into the carriage and said, "Let's go."

"Things happening in the mansion..." Shao Yan said.

"Just give it to the big farmer."

"Okay." Shao Yan didn't waste any more words and nodded in agreement.

When Lieutenant Dong Zhi saw this, he immediately led his guards to clear the way.

Also accompanying him were Han Wangyou Wei Hong, Wenxue Wang Guang, Zuo Changshi Dong Jingdao and others, who rode on two ox carts and headed south together.

King Han is a little bit invisible among Shao Xun's sons.

Rumor has it that if it weren't for the purpose of enthroning the eldest son as King of Qin, King Han would never have been enthroned. He was even inferior to the seventh, eighth, and ninth princes, and was the "worst" among Emperor Liang's sons.

Among the officials in the palace, although Teacher Yang Lang was born in the Hongnong Yang family, this family had already fallen into decline. The typical feature was "the loss of status in marriage and officialdom", that is, the status of the family involved in the marriage was greatly lowered, and no one became a high-ranking official.

Yang Lang's son even married the daughter of Su Shuyan, a Wuhuan man, which was really laughable.

You know, Yang Lang's father Yang Zhun was once the governor of Jizhou in the Jin Dynasty, but his grandchildren ended up in such a mess?
You Weihong and Danong Liu Qu were both from Hedong. They were hired by their mother, Concubine Pei, and were not important figures in the two families.

Wang Guang, the literary scholar, and Dong Jingdao, the left attendant, came to the door on their own initiative. They were surrendered people of Liu Han and had a low status in the Liang Dynasty. They were not assigned official positions, so they used their connections to get to the Prince of Han's mansion and got an official position.

Lieutenant Dong Zhi was the son of Dong Wu, the leader of the "Xia Ba" tribe in Hedong. Shao Yan met him when he went to visit his relatives in Pei's house. He was loyal and righteous, and skilled in skills, so he was hired as a lieutenant. Of course, this was secondary. The most important thing was that Dong Zhi brought fifty soldiers to surrender, all of whom were quite capable.

Thus, the Prince Han’s Palace, which was pieced together like this, came into being.

No one paid attention to the King of Han, and no one envied the King of Han. He was just a nobody. If the emperor hadn't thought that he was sixteen years old and couldn't stay at home all the time, perhaps not many people would have paid attention to him.

On June 20th, the convoy arrived at Xiangcheng County. The prefect Sima Que personally went out of the city to greet them and hosted a banquet in the inn.

Most of the attendees of the banquet were county officials and local scholars - to be honest, there were actually no noble families in Xiangcheng County worth mentioning.

Shao Yan had the lowest alcohol tolerance among all the brothers. He would blush after taking a sip, so he only drank a few glasses and then left.

When the officials of Xiangcheng saw this, they were all a little surprised.

The next day, Shao Yan drove directly to the digs and pavilions by the Ru River for inspection.

Yang Lang followed behind and observed carefully.

Several servants of the palace held the account books brought from the Sinong Temple and did not allow anyone to interfere. Only the palace guards checked them one by one.

Sima Que was terrified watching from the side.

The palace is now under the jurisdiction of the Sinong Temple, but the local counties also have the responsibility to assist in the management. On weekdays, the people of the Sinong Temple have always prevented them from interfering, which made Sima Que very nervous, hoping that something would happen and implicate him.

Yang Lang was observing everyone's expressions and thinking to himself: Judging from the few barns that have been opened, there may not be any problems with the Xiangcheng Mansion, but it's hard to say about other places.

If the emperor wanted to attack Li Cheng, theoretically, he only needed to check how much money and grain there were in the account books. But the Yuzhou government had not been checked for many years, and this was the most important grain-producing area in the country. The stored grain had to be transported to Xiangyang by the Duzhi Xiaowei of Xuchang and Chenxian, and then transferred to Jiangling by the Duzhi Xiaowei of Xiangyang and handed over to the Prince of Julu.

The matter was related to the war to destroy Cheng, and it had not been investigated for many years. It could also train the prince's ability to handle affairs, so the matter was settled. The King of Han was not well-known and was afraid of being despised. He had to do more to help the King of Han solve his problems.

It's rare that he is determined to cheer up, and we must not let this spirit fade away. A young man's spirit must be encouraged and not discouraged.

I just don't know how long the Hongnong Yang family's reputation, which has already shown a big crack, can last. At the banquet yesterday, the nobles of Xiangcheng were quite polite, but that was because there were almost no nobles in this county. I went to Yingchuan some time later, and I couldn't imagine the scene.

After a long time, the actual grain storage figures of each barn were reported one by one.

The literary Wang Guang brought his guests to write, recorded them one by one, and then compared them with the account books - Shao Xun asked his son to check the mansion, and his son brought his personal officials, and his son's personal officials brought their personal troops and guests to work. This is the characteristic of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, getting paid to work, it's great.

At this moment, this group of people are using rattan paper to record.

Sima Que saw it clearly and said in surprise, "Last time, the Luoyang Bookstore sent me books and I lamented that rattan paper was not abundant. I didn't expect your subordinates to be so extravagant."

Upon hearing this, Shao Yan smiled bitterly and said, "This was provided by Yang Wangqia, the Prime Minister of Huarong."

"Yang Wangqia" was actually Yang Liang, the nephew of Yang Lang. He was only 22 years old this year and was skilled in archery and horse riding - this was another piece of evidence of the decline of the Hongnong Yang family, because the Yang family members actually turned from civil to military and began to earn military merit by risking their lives.

Shao Yan and Yang Liang have a good relationship.

Last year, Liang gave birth to a son and named him Yang Qunqi. Shao Yan also sent someone to deliver a generous gift.

After Yang Liang became the magistrate of Huarong County, he bought properties in the local area. As he did not have enough manpower to open up wasteland and cultivate the land, he simply went the route of commercial farming, letting his servants harvest kudzu vines and then make paper.

A batch was sent to Prince Han’s palace last month, and it came in handy today.

Shao Yan didn't think that using rattan paper was extravagant, but he was more interested in something else, so he asked, "How many books did Luoyang Bookstore send over?"

"Eight copies of 'Fengtu Diseases'." Sima Que replied: "One copy for each prefecture and county. I asked if there were 'Thousand Characters' and 'Ode to Luo Sheng', but they all said that they would have to wait for several months because they did not have enough paper."

"Have schools been set up in all counties?" Shao Yan asked.

"We have found the county doctor, but there are many vacancies for teachers in the counties," Sima Que said.

"Why is it so hard to find?"

"Too low an official position." Sima Que said bluntly, "The county doctor is of the ninth rank, but the county teacher has not been determined. I heard that only the county teachers in Pingyang, Xihe, Taiyuan, Kelan and other places with strong Hu culture are ninth-rank officials, and the county teachers in Yuzhou have no rank. I don't know what the Ministry of Personnel thinks. In this case, unless the family is really not well connected, who would be willing to be a county teacher?"

After saying that, Sima Que changed the subject and said, "In fact, even if the county teacher is given a rank, few people are willing to become an official."

"Why?"

"This kind of official won't be promoted." Sima Que said, "It's very likely that he will be a county teacher until he dies. If he's lucky, he can be promoted to a county doctor, but is a county doctor a high position?"

Shao Yan understood.

This kind of official is really boring and has little appeal to scholars. Unless the counties have a test like the Imperial College, those who pass can become officials, so that they can become a popular and noble official overnight, but how is that possible? In that case, wouldn't the county doctor be equivalent to the county magistrate, or even completely replace the county magistrate?

Shao Yan suddenly thought of Imperial College.

There are not many students in the Imperial College now, and their levels are uneven. It has been three years since the first batch of about 100 "disciples" were admitted in early February of the second year of Kaiping.

According to the regulations, students can take the sutra test after two years of enrollment. In March last year, dozens of students passed the test and lost their titles of "disciples" and became "disciples".

By March of next year, those dozens of young men can take the test to master the two classics, and those who pass can be admitted to the "Literature and History" (ninth rank).

According to my father, if those who have passed the two classics do not want to continue their studies, they will be directly appointed as the Master of Literature and become an official in the Taichang Temple, or they will be promoted to the position of County Doctor and teach in the County School.

If one takes the opportunity to rank the county instructor, he can also be appointed as the county instructor.

According to the old system of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, after having served in the post for two years, the literary master could be tested on the Three Classics, and those who passed the test would be appointed as "Prince's Sheren" - of course, there was no crown prince at present, but officials of the same rank could be appointed.

These are all old systems from the Wei and Jin dynasties, but they were artificially blocked in the past, preventing this channel for becoming an official from running smoothly.

My father really wanted to forcefully clear this channel, and he had been waiting silently for three years without saying anything. Next year, when a group of students who passed the two classics were appointed as officials, it would probably shock many people.

This is truly remarkable, considering that students can continually take exams and climb the ladder.

By that time, the number of county teachers and county doctors will gradually increase, and one day there will be no shortage of people.

The career path of Taixue students will be truly valued, unlike now when fathers issue imperial decrees every year to enroll children from all counties. I still remember when we conquered Jingzhou, after the war, the gentry of Jingxiang were ordered to select their children to enter Taixue, but those people did not take it seriously and did not think it was a reward.

With more county teachers and doctors, there will be more students in county and county schools. With more students, the Imperial College will have a wider source of candidates, which is a complementary thing.

(End of this chapter)