Chapter 24 third quarter
After Tian Liewu was released and returned home, he enjoyed the family happiness at home with peace of mind every day, while trying to raise three hundred guan coins for Li Hun to settle down with.Even for Tian Liewu, three hundred guan is a big amount. There is still a joke circulating in Bianjing——Tang Xie, the editor-in-chief of "Maritime Business Daily", was the censor before preparing to impeach Wang Anshi. He first asked someone to borrow three hundred guan as travel expenses before he dared to go to the chapter of impeachment.In fact, of course there is a big difference. As we all know, Tang Tie later raised money to found the "Jian Wen Bao".But this talk is actually not far from the "real situation". Officials in the Song Dynasty, regardless of whether they were civil or military, had relatively generous salaries. Coupled with the strong family concept at that time, many officials relied on the support of the entire family when they were born. After they became prosperous, they would inevitably have to give back to the family, such as spending money to build a warehouse and set up schools in the family...even middle-level and senior officials. , will not make ends meet.Like Tian Liewu, who has just been promoted to a mid-level military officer, although he is no longer the same as before, but in fact, he can only change to a bigger house in Bianjing.For many years in the army, the bigger the official, the bigger the expenses. He neither dared to deduct the military salary, nor dared to return the trade without permission. The bag is destined not to be too big.But Li Hun was poorer than him—it was only then that Tian Liewu knew that Li Hunzu was actually from Shatuo.Although the Li family has always been Ban Zhi, but because he was a hero, his father and brother both died in the Song and Xia battlefields, so in addition to a bright house with four walls, there are two sons and three daughters, two nephews and a niece. There are a total of eight children to support, and they are also clinking poor.There was also a compelling reason for him to become a military judge—since his family was poor, there were fewer opportunities for promotion, and the salary of a military judge was better than that of ordinary military officers, which helped his family's predicament.This relegation was really a major blow to Li Hun's family.Li Hun's usual friends in the capital hid far away and refused to show up again.Tian Liewu was a headhunter, so he naturally knew what it would be like for a degraded official to be on the road.In addition to the situation of the Li family, he couldn't let it go and ignore it. He had no choice but to scrape together to raise travel expenses and settling expenses for Li Hun.He didn't dare to look for people like Shi Yue, Tang Kang, and Qin Guan. Fortunately, Tian's family was quite famous among the government servants in Kaifeng Mansion. The yamen servants and catchers are not as snobbish as Li Hun's friends, who collected hundreds of pennies and pennies each, and they managed to collect the money abruptly.
After sending Li Hun away, Tian Liewu had nothing to do even more. Apart from going to Dianmao of the Guard Infantry Division, he wandered around Bianjing City every day, drinking tea in teahouses and listening to newspapers.Until one day, he found a large-scale "Liu Lou Zangshu Pavilion" near Jinliangqiao Street in the west of the city.
Before that, Tian Liewu didn't know that Liu Lou Zangshuge had surpassed Baishuitan Library as early as 15 years ago in Xining, becoming the largest public library in Bianjing and even the entire Song Dynasty.
Under the vigorous advocacy of Sang Chongguo, even in the case of constant wars, the Song Dynasty government’s expenditure on public education has increased year by year-although it is not worth mentioning compared to the huge military expenditure; but after all It is also making progress.As early as the thirteenth year of Xining, Ouyang Fa, who died young, took the lead in proposing the concept of "literacy rate", advocating that the government should make every effort to increase the rate of literate population.After Ouyang Fa's death, Sang Chongguo and Cheng Yi inherited his will. In "The Mandate of Heaven", Sang Chongguo regards it as the government's natural responsibility and obligation, which cannot be shirked.Cheng Yi brought these concepts into the category of "Tao" in his philosophical system.These advocacy actually coincided with the political forces in the Song court that opposed the continuation of the war and advocated recuperation 15 years after Xining.Under various pressures, Zhengshitang ordered for the first time to investigate the literacy rate and school attendance rate of boys in the prefectures and military prefectures except the newly recovered Lingxia and overseas territories.
The results of the survey are obviously not optimistic.You know, in another time and space, in the mid-nineteenth century, less than 10% of the children of the common class in London who could barely read could write even less; and after the compulsory education law was implemented in France in 1881, , the actual school attendance rate is only a pitiful 1.4%!Thanks to the fact that Confucianism has been based on education for more than a thousand years, the situation in the Song Dynasty is not so bleak, but it is bad enough.
In terms of literacy rate, Bianjing is the highest, but only just over 30%, followed by Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Chengdu.In some areas, it is only a pitiful one percent.The national average literacy rate is about 20%.
As for the school attendance rate of boys, since the promulgation of the "Decree on Prospering Schools", it has improved greatly.In Bianjing, with Sang Chongguo's continuous efforts and being under the emperor's feet, the school attendance rate was as high as 65%.But what is surprising is that the city with the highest school enrollment rate for boys is Hangzhou. In addition to the developed commerce and the rich style of study in Jiangnan, there are also various technical schools and the existence of Fubo School. An astonishing seventy percent.However, this is only a very small number of prosperous special cases, and the average school attendance rate is less than 40% nationwide.
If you just want to compare badly, such data is naturally something to be proud of.But hiding behind that embarrassing average figure is an even more embarrassing regional and identity difference.For example, except for Bianjing, both the literacy rate and the school attendance rate are much higher in the south than in the north.And military people have become a class with the lowest literacy rate. The literacy rate of military officers is only a pitiful 10%, which is lower than half of the national average!This is thanks to the blessings of Shenwei Ying and Weiwei Temple to have such "decent" data.
Under such circumstances, the two governments had to take some measures to deal with Qingyi's criticism.Measures such as increasing investment in public libraries and giving priority to the promotion of military officers who have been trained in martial arts schools are the products of the two governments' response to criticism.This is indeed a great change. Only a dozen years ago, there were ministers in the two governments who said: "Why do military officers need to be literate?!" But now, even the ranks of the Shenwei Battalion have to learn arithmetic and geometry .
Tian Liewu was completely unaware of these twists and turns. The newly formulated regulations on probing and examination by the Secret Academy and the Ministry of War did indeed reward military officers who could read and write, but these had little effect on the Western Army.The Western Army has been fighting all these years, and what they are talking about is military achievements, and what is worth the test is simply insignificant.But over the years, Tian Liewu's conscious reading has helped him a lot, and he has developed the habit of reading in his spare time.Therefore, I was really overjoyed to see the large-scale Liu Lou Zangshu Pavilion suddenly. From now on, there will always be several hours every day to spend here.
On this day, he miraculously borrowed a copy of "Strategy Examples" translated by West Lake College from Zangshuge—this is indeed very miraculous. This Roman military work was unfairly despised in the Song Dynasty. Most of the books translated by the academy were translations of the original and Dashiwen editions. Until the 17th year of Xining, the scope of circulation was mainly limited to the various academies of the Song Dynasty. Scholars and naturalists welcomed (at that time, naturalists often had expertise in several fields, and there were very few scholars who only specialized in one field), and the number of printed copies was generally only a few hundred volumes, and only a very small number of works were published. It will be very popular, with a print run of more than a thousand copies-and this "Strategy Case" and the other one are obviously impossible to be welcomed by these scholars.The Saiyi Translation Building of West Lake College, which received a huge donation from Shi Yue, originally translated and introduced these two books in the hope that they could be used as textbooks for the military academy. Unexpectedly, the chief officer of the military academy didn’t even bother to read them. ?” He threw the two books into the toilet.Although a lot of money and painstaking efforts were spent, the last two books ended dismal with only 50 copies published respectively.Only the best book collection pavilions and specialized bibliophiles can have these two Western classics that have not seen the sun for many years.Liu Lou Cangshuge has collected this "Strategy Example" for one year. According to its records, this is the first time the book has been borrowed.
Because of his humble background, Tian Liewu never dared to look down on anyone easily.Even if it was the work of a Taixi people, he also had an eye-opening mentality, thinking that since others can write books, they are always better than himself, a big bastard, and there is something to learn from.So it is happily holding it in my hand, ready to read it carefully.Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the library, he was stopped by a person walking towards him: "Is this General Tian of the Dragon Guard Army?"
He froze for a moment, looked at the person for a while, but he couldn't recognize him.Tian Liewu felt embarrassed, hurriedly cupped his fists to apologize, and asked, "Excuse me for being impolite, I don't know how to call you brother?"
The man spoke with a half-baked Bianjing official dialect and said with a smile: "I'm taking the liberty. General Tian didn't recognize me in the first place. Zhao Shizhong is originally from Lingzhou. When the general was in Lingzhou, I met the general once. "
Tian Liewu suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "So that's the case. Why did Brother Zun come to Bianjing?"
Zhao Shizhong said with a smile: "After the imperial court recovered Lingwu, I moved my family to Xiangfu County. This time I wanted to devote myself to studying, but I wanted to get a good reputation, so I can honor my ancestors."
Tian Liewu knew that anyone whose family was relocated to the east and west capitals must be a powerful man in Xixia for a while.This person's surname is Zhao, I'm afraid it's still unknown.At that time, the nobles of Xixia left their homeland, except for the extremely dignified. Except for some of the ordinary nobles who still joined the army and worked for the Song Dynasty, a considerable part of them were depressed and lived a life of drunkenness. Then the family was in ruins.It's admirable that this person has such great ambitions, and wants to make a name for himself in Bianjing.Yin praised: "Brother Zun is indeed an upright man."
"The general is absurdly praised." Zhao Shizhong hurriedly said modestly, but he was extremely happy in his heart.These old people from Xixia, whether they are Dangxiang or Han people, will inevitably be discriminated against in Bianjing. This is the first time someone has encouraged him so sincerely—from Tian Liewu’s face, there is no sign of pity.He looked at the book in Tian Liewu's hand, and said with a cautious smile: "Unexpectedly, the general has both civil and military skills."
Tian Liewu has heard people say the four-character comment "both civil and military" in various tones many times, but it is rare for him to be as sincere as Zhao Shizhong, and even have a taste of admiration.He smiled shyly, and saw the book Zhao Shizhong was holding in his hand, the top one was "The Destiny of the World"!
He is actually not sociable.At this time, he laughed out of words, "Is this Mr. Sang's book?"
"Exactly." Zhao Shizhong thought that Tian Liewu had also read this book, and he admired it even more. He nodded vigorously and said, "Chang Sang Shan is really a heaven and a man. I heard that the imperial court will recruit Chief Sang Shan and Mr. Cheng to speak directly for Zishantang. The sage also specially sent his servants out to look for the books of the two gentlemen. Some people say that the sage praised them very much after reading them... If this is true, it really deserves the name..."
Tian Liewu had also heard about sending servants to the queen to search for the works of Sang and Cheng everywhere.Of course he didn't understand that this was a blatant hint from Queen Xiang to the court ministers - all the books of Sang and Cheng can be bought in any bookstore in Bianjing, so is there any need for these servants to ask here and there?However, on the emotional scale in Tian Liewu's heart, it is naturally inclined to Sang and Cheng.At this time, Zhao Shizhong was talking enthusiastically about his admiration and reverence for Sang Chongguo and Cheng Yi. He was embarrassed to interrupt his interest, so he could only patiently listen outside Zangshu Pavilion.
Bianjing Xijiaolou Street.At this time, it was late August of the seventeenth year of Xining.As usual, Tian Liewu invited a few friends to have a drink in Qingfenglou.Although he became Deputy Lieutenant Yihui again, the soldiers of the Imperial Army in the Song Dynasty had always been treated well. Lieutenant Yihui was still a military officer of the seventh rank after all. Even if the new official system stipulated that without actual dispatch, his salary would be cut by half , but as long as you live a luxurious life, it is still not a problem to live leisurely in Bianjing.What's more, even after Tian Liewu "prospered", the women of the Tian family still maintained the habit of working. From the mistress of the house to the servant girl, they would take some needlework subcontracted from the big businessmen layer by layer to supplement their income. household.A family like this, as long as there is no major turmoil in the country, will never be poor.However, Tian Liewu seems to have a natural yearning and love for the military career. Although he felt relaxed and stable for a long time when he was idle, but after a long time, he panicked for no reason.But at this time, any news related to the front line can particularly touch his nerves.
"Brother Tian, have you ever heard of it? Xiao Yan Wang and General Murong arrived in the capital yesterday afternoon." Zhao Shizhong said impatiently while pleading guilty.Since the two met each other in Liulou, within a few days, they have become brothers.
"It seems that the Southwest barbarians can be calmed down." Wen Dayou, the inspector of Kaifeng Mansion, said with a smile while drinking wine.Wen Dayou was a stout Northwest man, wearing a black satin gown, he looked dignified and majestic; while Marshaw, who was sitting next to him and drinking in silence, was short and fat, with a very wretched appearance, and his attire Even if he was Wen Dayou's follower, it meant that he couldn't help him.But Tian Liewu knew that the family backgrounds of the two were very different. Wen Dayou came from a client, and Dou Da couldn't read a few words, while Ma Shao's family was a well-known local family and had read books for more than ten years.It’s just that he suffered a lot from his appearance—the Song Dynasty still maintained some legacy of the Tang Dynasty in terms of unwritten practices. People like Ma Shao whose appearance affected the city’s appearance could not pass the exam and wanted to find another family background. Since the "outflow" started, he was also discriminated against, and had to be forced to abandon literature and martial arts.
These two people were originally from Jingyuan. After Shi Yue was attacked in Weizhou, both of them were recruited as soldiers of Shi Yue's commander-in-chief's mansion.Afterwards, they exchanged information about the military, guarded Shuaisi's safety, and participated in the Battle of Gyeongju. At the end of the Xining Western Expedition, they put down the change of Ren Duo Huan, and the two of them also did little work.Although they are not as good as the soldiers with many military exploits, they are the so-called "seventh-rank officials in front of the prime minister's door".In a few years, they all made inspections in Kaifeng Prefecture.
"I don't think so." Marshall said vaguely while quickly picking up a large piece of fat meat with the chopsticks in his hand and chewing it in his mouth.Everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to continue to explain the reason, but after swallowing the fat, Marshall picked up his glass and took another sip of wine, his eyes slipped towards the dishes on the table, and he stretched out his chopsticks again. To a piece of wild boar.I never mentioned it again.
Seeing him like this, the three couldn't help smiling at each other.Zhao Shizhong didn't pay attention to Ma Shao any more, only turned his attention to Tian Liewu, and asked with concern: "Brother Tian, do you think it will be settled this time?"
Tian Liewu shook his head with a smile, and said: "General Xiao Wang was my instructor when I was teaching martial arts, and I don't even have to talk about leading troops to fight."
"That's good, that's good." Zhao Shizhong said again and again, as if he was putting down a big rock.
Tian Liewu and Wen Dayou both thought it was funny seeing him like this, and Wen Dayou joked, "Why is Brother Zhao so worried? Could it be that there is a good friend in Yizhou?"
"It's what you want." Zhao Shizhong dropped his book bag jokingly, and immediately said with a straight face, "Brother Xu doesn't know something. In the past month, there have been many rumors on our side, saying that the Southwest barbarians will never be leveled. There is going to be big trouble in Yizhou. Some people say that the Khitan people are waiting for this opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity..."
"Liao dogs are also worthy?!" Wen Dayou spat, interrupted Zhao Shizhong, and said loudly, "If they don't come, we will go to the Northern Expedition. Don't say that Youzhou and Datong are Linhuang Mansion, take them down It's just a matter of little effort. What kind of storms can arise in the southwestern barbarians, once the elite of the western army arrives, if it is not for Emperor Taizu's jade ax to draw the boundary, it is not difficult to capture the Dali Duan family to Bianjing..."
Zhao Shizhong looked at Tian Liewu in embarrassment when he heard him spouting big words.Tian Liewu smiled, served Zhao Shizhongman wine, and signaled him to drink and eat.Seeing that the two of them also started to chopsticks, Ma Shao put all kinds of food into his mouth more quickly, and smiled vaguely at Zhao Shizhong: "Wen Dayou's words are like saying that a matchmaker praises his daughter and a monk is not good. Eat wine and meat..."
Zhao Shizhong held up his chopsticks, he couldn't help being startled when he heard the words, and asked, "How do you say that?"
Marshall was too busy eating and drinking, and had no time to talk to him.
Tian Liewu knew that Zhao Shizhong arrived in Bianjing not long ago, so it's not surprising that he didn't know these slang words in the market. Believe me. If you trust him, you will be fooled."
Zhao Shizhong understood what he heard, he couldn't help smiling, and said with a smile: "It's true that I didn't believe it before I got it."
Tian Liewu still remembered the rumor, and asked again: "Do you believe this rumor or not?"
"Of course there are those who believe, some who don't believe, and some who doubt." Zhao Shizhong said, "As far as I know, there are still a lot of people who don't believe. Even if they believe, most of them are worried that the northerners will take the opportunity to go south, which will be unfavorable to the Song Dynasty. What he said was the truth, most of the Xixia people who settled down in Bianjing did not want war.Those who are used to fighting, and those who still have the ambition to make contributions, nine out of ten have already joined the Song army, and a large part of those who stayed in Bianjing were their family members-no one wanted to relatives were killed in a brutal war.
Tian Liewu nodded slightly relieved.But Zhao Shizhong laughed again: "Nowadays, everyone only cares about two things. One is to pacify the Southwestern Yi as soon as possible, so that the price of Bianjing can be lowered. If this chaos continues, life will become more and more difficult. Fortunately, the two famous future Now, half of everyone's hearts are relieved. The other thing is to see if Chief Sang Shan will accept the edict..."
Tian Liewu, Wen and Ma looked at each other silently, no one was willing to answer Zhao Shizhong's words.All three of them have a deep relationship with Shifu, and they respect Shi Yue extremely, and Sang Chongguo is Mrs. Shi's elder brother, so they are not willing to discuss casually.However, the three of them also knew that they could only control their own mouths about this matter.
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