Chapter 180 Zheng Xuan recommends talents...

Seven years was enough time for him to grow from fifty to sixty, and it was also enough time for a child who was only ten years old back then to become the handsome and extraordinary young man he is today.

When Qiao Yan stood in front of him, Zheng Xuan could easily recognize her old appearance from her face, but her charm was far better than before.

People like Huangfu Song and Lu Zhi had been paying more or less attention to Qiao Yan's situation in the past few years, and had been struggling with the ups and downs of officialdom and war. However, Zheng Xuan lived in seclusion in his hometown, gathered disciples to lecture, wrote books, and almost lived his life like a hermit.

We met again suddenly, and for a moment I felt that time had passed so quickly.

After Qiao Yan took his seat, he also mentioned the changes in age with emotion.

Qiao Yan replied, "What do you think of Madam Ma's situation?"

Zheng Xuan had been in Leping for some time, and naturally had met Ma Lun.

If you must count, Ma Lun is a few years older than him, but when they occasionally meet on the road to Leping, he really looks like a man in his prime.

Zheng Xuan smiled and said, "Taishi Ling has her heart set on the sky, not caring about her approaching old age. I should follow her example."

This statement does have a double meaning.

Having the sky in one's heart means both being open-minded and engaging in astronomical work. However, if one must count it, Zheng Xuan also has some attainments in this area.

After arriving in Leping, he was particularly delighted to find that Liu Hong was also there.

He and Liu Hong should be considered as a teacher-student and friend relationship, but he was not the teacher. Rather, Liu Hong, who was two years younger than him, was his teacher in terms of martial arts.

Seeing that Liu Hong's calendar deduction and mathematical records here were getting more and more on track, and that his abilities had changed since the past when he was not valued, Zheng Xuan became more and more certain that he had made the right decision to come to Leping.

People of the same age as him, such as Liu Hong and Ma Lun, do not feel that they are old, and some even want to build a world of mathematics and astronomy here. So why should he feel that he is old?

Qiao Yan’s advice was correct.

Just as he thought of this, he saw Qiao Yan bringing a cup of tea to him.

"When Lord Zheng came to Leping, I was still in Liangzhou and had no time to apologize. I am making up for it by offering you tea today. I hope Lord Zheng will not be offended."

Zheng Xuan took the tea and said, "What crime has Ye Shu committed? Instead, I should be grateful for having this place to escape disaster."

Qiao Yan replied, "That's not right. Lord Zheng is in Gaomi, teaching and preaching. He is well-known in Qingzhou. Even if there are bandits passing through, most of them avoid him because of his age and virtue and teaching in the hometown. This time, I brought Lord Zheng to Leping to avoid Yuan Benchu's call, but you were kidnapped for a while, which really damaged your reputation."

If Guo Jia wanted to bring Zheng Xuan from Gaomi, it would be impossible to do it by just sending a team to sneak him out quietly.

Yuan Shao is now the governor of Qingzhou, and with Liu Bian as the emperor, he has a high degree of control over the counties of Qingzhou.

As a result, the Yellow Turbans, who were supposed to have besieged Beihai in history, changed their intention to attack Beihai and instead spread towards Xuzhou a few months earlier because they were frightened by Yuan Shao's army.

The bandits are like this, so they will be even more vigilant against other forces in the country.

In this situation, Guo Jia had no choice but to use the opponent's force to counter it.

He first approached Guan Hai, who was trapped between Xuzhou and Qingzhou and was hesitant about what to do next.

The person traveling with Guo Jia was none other than Liang Zhongning.

Just like if one wants to persuade the Baibo bandits to surrender, letting Chu Yan go is the most persuasive; if one wants to persuade Guan Hai, Liang Zhongning is naturally the best choice.

Guo Jia went at the right time.

If he had arrived a little later, Guan Hai would have planned to join Zang Ba and Chang Xi.

In name, these two men are Tao Qian's subordinates for the time being, but in reality, their nature is close to that of bandits, making it more likely that Guan Hai will find a place to stay.

But this visit of Guo Jia and Liang Zhongning changed Guan Hai's plan.

Of course, it is useless to rely solely on Liang Zhongning.

The reason why the Qingxu Yellow Turbans that rose again during the Zhongping and Guangxi years still used the name of the Yellow Turbans was not to carry on Zhang Jue's legacy.

They simply couldn't think of a reliable slogan. Thinking that some years had passed and the influence of Qiao Yan's debate on Zhang Jue had almost disappeared, they decided to use the name of the Yellow Turbans again, based on their own lack of education and the idea that they might as well borrow a ready-made theory.

Guan Hai was a smart man. He knew that things like talismans and water for curing diseases, which were most memorable for their harmful effects, should never be used again, but the slogan of dividing the land and property was still retained.

In this case, the Yellow Turbans are not necessarily the Yellow Turbans, and Guan Hai and Liang Zhongning are not on the same side, so there is no emotional card to play here.

But there is one point that can be used to convince Guan Hai.

Even Liang Zhongning, who was forced to revolt, acknowledged that the people of Bingzhou were living in harmony. Even he, who had once been betrayed by Qiao Yan and had lost his power and fallen into the position of guarding the border, acknowledged that Qiao Yan was a great man of the time, and he really worked for him sincerely.

Why couldn't he choose to cross the state and go to Bingzhou to find a future for himself?

The path that Guo Jia then showed him was indeed feasible.

When Yuan Shao's Qingzhou army launched a siege on him, Guan Hai, under the command of Guo Jia, divided his troops into two groups. One group continued to play hide-and-seek with Yuan Shao's troops, while the other group went straight to Gaomi and kidnapped Zheng Xuan and several of his disciples, such as Cui Yan and Guo Yuan.

People at that time would never dare to harm a great scholar. Therefore, when Guan Hai sent a message to Yuan Shao that he just wanted to find a safe place to escape to Xuzhou and seek refuge with Zang Ba, and that was why he asked Zheng Xuan to go with him, Yuan Shao did not suspect anything.

As early as when he tried to hinder Qiao Yan's advance, Yuan Shao, at the suggestion of Ju Su, had invited Zheng Xuan to Yecheng to set up the Imperial College, but unfortunately Zheng Xuan refused.

The sudden incident of Zheng Xuan being robbed even made him feel that this might be a good opportunity to persuade Zheng Xuan.

Beihai and Donglai are located in remote areas and are prone to chaos. Zheng Xuan is also old, so it is better for him to go to Yecheng for stability.

However, once they entered Xuzhou, the Yellow Turbans and the dozens of people they held hostage disappeared without a trace.

Yuan Shao intended to chase into Xuzhou to investigate, but Zang Ba claimed that not only had he not seen Zheng Xuan and others, he had not even seen Guan Hai who threatened to surrender to him.

After all, Xuzhou was not Yuan Shao's territory, so he could only stop there.

When he received news from Zheng Xuan again, the other party had already quietly arrived in Bingzhou.

How did he get through this journey?

The news released from Bingzhou simply said that Guan Hai felt that if he entered Xuzhou, he would be driven around by others and would inevitably be constrained. He thought it would be better to see that Ying Shao, the governor of Taishan County, was a man with no great ability and ruled the place like a king.

So he just passed through Xuzhou and turned to Mount Tai without stopping.

However, Zheng Xuan spoke earnestly on the way, moved him with emotion and explained the reason to him, so that he gave up the idea of ​​bringing disaster to the people's livelihood.

But Guan Hai was worried that he would inevitably be wiped out by Yuan Shao if he returned to Qingzhou, so he pleaded with Zheng Xuan to find him a way out, on the grounds that he was a refugee who also wanted to survive. In the end, he passed through Yanzhou and went to Bingzhou.

When he arrived in Bingzhou, he should have sent Zheng Xuan back, but because Zheng Xuan's old friends Cai Yong and Liu Hong were both there and consulted him about classics, astronomy, and mathematics, Zheng Xuan stayed there temporarily and his return date was uncertain.

This statement——

That is to say, it is acceptable on the surface.

In any case, Yuan Shao would not believe a single word of it.

Even after being defeated by Yuan Shao, Guan Hai still had about a thousand men. Where did they get the support they needed to cross the states and borders so that they didn't die of hunger and cold on the road?

There must be something fishy going on.

And if Qiao Yan was willing to answer, he would definitely tell him that it was the support provided by the Mi family of the East China Sea through the caravan.

At the instruction of Qiao Yan, Guo Jia told Mi Zhu in a letter that the several gifts he sent to Bingzhou the year before last enabled Qiao Yan to restart the Silk Road after taking Wuwei. Once Qiao Yan gained something from the Silk Road, the distribution rights in the Central Plains would belong only to Mi Zhu.

Qiao Yan's successful attack in Liangzhou also made Mi Zhu certain that the investment choice he made that year was absolutely correct.

Now he just needs to spend some money on food and winter clothing, which is not really a problem for him.

With this support, the team disguised themselves as a merchant caravan after entering Lu State from Taishan County. It was hard to tell that they were once bandits in Qingzhou. Finally arrived in Bingzhou successfully.

Yuan Shao was so angry that he was almost dying, but he couldn't blame Yu Qiaoyan for kidnapping Zheng Xuan and taking him to Bingzhou.

Since even Zheng Xuan himself had no opinion on this, he did not have the confidence to comment.

He also couldn't blame Cao Cao and ask why he didn't stop someone from passing through his Yanzhou Dongjun.

Everyone knows that Dongjun is a long and narrow area. Guan Hai and others passed through Jiyin and Chenliu, and only passed the westernmost border of Dongjun before entering Henei County.

So instead of blaming Cao Cao, he might as well blame the governor of Henei, Wang Kuang, for all the stupid things he did here in order to establish himself.

You should know that Chang Lin, the current Shangdang County official, was forced into Bingzhou by Wang Kuang.

Zheng Xuan wanted to enter Shangdang County via Hanoi, but the locals would only provide cover for him.

At this time, Zheng Xuan's disciples who were still left in Gaomi wrote to him, saying that they wanted to pass through Qingzhou and Jizhou and go to Bingzhou to follow their teacher.

Yuan Shao was furious, but he knew that if he didn't want the scholars to die on the way to Jizhou, he had to send them to Bingzhou safely.

But although Qiao Yan had the upper hand in the game of snatching people from Yuan Shao, what Zheng Xuan saw and heard after arriving in Bingzhou also made him feel that the trip was worthwhile, so Qiao Yan still had to apologize to Zheng Xuan.

Seeing Qiao Yan's sincerity, Zheng Xuan waved his hand and said, "In extraordinary times, we should do extraordinary things."

If Qiao Yan had not further improved paper, books today would still be preserved on bamboo slips instead of paper.

However, Zheng Xuan saw various books in Leping that had been converted into paper records, properly bound, and preserved in a strict environment. She felt that in today's environment, she was not talking nonsense when she said that this was the place where people could concentrate on studying classics.

She regarded Liu Bian, who was supported by Yuan Shao, as a false emperor. She did not want him to build an academic center to attract scholars and students, thereby confusing orthodoxy. Therefore, she had him brought here, which made sense from her point of view.

As for the process, there is no need to say more since the results are good.

"It's good to have Mr. Zheng's words." Qiao Yan's face relaxed a little, and he said, "With Mr. Zheng here, the prosperity of academic studies in Leping will be in sight."

The situations of Zheng Xuan and Lu Zhi are somewhat different.

Lu Zhi taught in Zhuo County only because it was a choice he made during a period of idle time during his ups and downs in officialdom. When selecting disciples, he was more inclined to enlighten people from his hometown.

However, Zheng Xuan continued to gather disciples and teach for more than ten or twenty years, and taught his disciples to become future great scholars.

Through this long period of teaching by words and deeds, most of his disciples also inherited his temperament and character.

Zheng Xuan mentioned two people in his subsequent conversation with Qiao Yan.

One is Cui Yan, who was mentioned in the conversation between Jiang Jiong and the Hanyang gentry.

"Cui Jigui was young and simple, not good at speaking, but after he became my disciple, I found that he had learned a lot from the Analects and Han poetry in his early years. He is indeed a wise man." Zheng Xuan was pleased when talking about his disciple, "He has a strong character and is able to give advice. If the government is restored, he will surely be a good minister."

"The same is true for Guo Zi Ni. It is said that this boy has some affinity with Ye Shu. Bingzhou's military farming affairs are in good order, and Zi Ni has also mentioned this. In my opinion, his talent is indeed a national tool, and it is not limited to studying classics. If Ye Shu thinks he can be used, why not appoint him to a post in charge of people's livelihood affairs."

Guo Yuan was a man who, in history, was in charge of work related to military farming.

Under Zheng Xuan's guidance, he developed outstanding character and broad vision. Moreover, because he was proficient in mathematics, he was able to clearly distinguish the various matters concerning the granting of land to the people, especially how many officials and inspectors should be set up in a region.

Even if Qiao Yan was not in urgent need of management talents, he had to be kept.

Not to mention the current situation.

Bingzhou was still on the right track due to the accumulation of several years, but Liangzhou was still in a state of disrepair.

Since Qiao Yan could not give up Bingzhou and relocated too many officials in the military farms to Liangzhou, there was no way she would miss Guo Yuan, who came to her door along with Zheng Xuan.

In fact, it's not just Guo Yuan.

The size of Zheng Xuan's disciples always remained at a considerable number. It is very likely that some of them had never spoken to Zheng Xuan at all, but those who were selected by him were almost all not simple people.

Some people have not demonstrated political talent, but it is likely that they simply did not have the opportunity earlier.

Now that Bingzhou and Liangzhou have this platform for display, someone will always jump out.

When Bingzhou had Cai Yong, Zheng Xuan, Guan Ning and others in its hands, it further gained the appeal of being a cultural center. It could also move to the next stage by holding the children of aristocratic families hostage and tempting them with the benefits of studying in Leping.

She couldn't always rely on children from aristocratic families to serve as her civil servants, so she needed a system to cultivate talents among the common people.

Now that we have enough manpower and reputation, we can start planning this matter.

Her mind raced, but she only replied to Zheng Xuan: "I wonder if the Imperial Academy nun is willing to serve in Bingzhou, or give it her all to help Liangzhou?"

Zheng Xuan replied: "Don't ask me about this. I am only responsible for recommending talents and making connections. I am not responsible for coming up with the corresponding positions."

The implication was that Qiao Yan should talk to Guo Yuan himself while he continued to study academically here.

But this sentence is enough!

The talent has come to her, and she should be the one to add the final fuel to the fire.

Qiao Yan bowed to Zheng Xuan again and walked out, planning to talk to Guo Yuan and Cui Yan tomorrow.

It was getting late now, so she decided to go back to her residence in Leping to rest.

However, just as she walked a short distance, she saw a group of children dressed in the uniforms of Leping Academy gathered in front of her.

Before Qiao Yan came closer, one of the girls, who acted like a leader, suddenly grabbed the sleeve of the boy next to her and said loudly, "From now on, I, Lu Lingju, will protect this kid Lu Yi. You are not allowed to bully him just because he is from Lujiang."

"Lu Yi, recite the books you read to them, so that they don't think they are superior to others."

Qiao Yan held his forehead and paused.

Has her Leping Academy developed to this stage?