Chapter 399: Prince's Teacher
The three people's clothes were covered with mud, and their hands and feet were also covered with mud, but this did not affect their excitement.
"Sister, look! My brother and Hao'er caught such big fish! There are also a lot of shrimps, and I... I also picked up a lot of wild duck eggs!" Shen Qingxing shouted happily.
As he spoke, he saw Shen Yichuan and Xiao Yunhao, each holding a foot-long fish on a straw rope. Shen Yichuan also had a small bamboo jar on his back, which contained about twenty large shrimps, loaches, shellfish, and snails. Shen Qingxing was holding a small basket with five or six wild duck eggs in it.
Chen Fenghe had never thought that the three of them could have such a bountiful harvest. She was also shocked and laughed, "Did you catch all these? That's amazing!"
Isn't this the so-called 'newbie protection period'?
The three of them were very proud of the praise.
Shen Yichuan said, "Sister, let's eat the fish and shrimp we caught tonight, okay?"
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Even if you don't let me eat it, I have to taste the fish you caught! Put everything here and quickly follow Madam to wash your hands and face."
Dinner was indeed a fish and shrimp feast. The shrimp were boiled, the fish was braised, and they fried some small fish and shrimp, along with a few seasonal vegetables.
A few wild duck eggs were not eaten. It happened that it was time to pickle cabbage and peppers, so Chen Fenghe took out some duck eggs from the space and pickled them into salted duck eggs.
After a few days, when the dried chilies and several other pickled vegetables were almost ready to eat, she took out some butter and other spices from the space and fried them into hot pot base. Everyone took advantage of the weather not being too hot and had another authentic "beef butter" hot pot.
Of course, the fact that butter was used could not be revealed, so Chen Fenghe also put some mutton fat in it and said that it was mutton fat. Fortunately, no one paid much attention to it.
After the winter wheat planted in the village was harvested, the vacant land had to be planted with autumn crops again. Chen Fenghe asked people to plant some corn and soybeans.
After this busy period, I will have more than a month of free time, and the next step will be the autumn harvest.
The private school in the village was finally built.
The problem of the school was solved, but the teacher was a problem.
According to Village Chief Wu, for children in the countryside, it would be enough to find a teacher to teach them a few words. If there were children with a high talent for reading, each family would pay attention to them and send them to the town's school or even the county school where there were better teachers to continue their studies. In the future, they could also participate in the provincial and metropolitan examinations and become a scholar, juren or even jinshi.
"I've asked around. There's a student in town who originally studied hard at home, aiming to pass the imperial examinations. However, his family has been struggling in recent years, so he's thought about going out to earn a living to supplement the family income. An acquaintance in town heard that our village is looking for a teacher, so he recommended him to me. Although he hasn't passed the imperial examination, I heard that he recites lessons every day, so his knowledge must be good enough. The salary he asks for is not too high. Why don't you hire him?" said Village Chief Wu.
Xiao Yunshuo couldn't help but twitch his lips when he heard this, but he still asked, "I wonder how old this student is now?"
Village Chief Wu said, "I didn't ask in detail, but I heard he was probably in his forties."
Xiao Yunshuo: "..."
It is common for someone in his forties to fail to pass the imperial examination. I think he is just a mediocre scholar.
But he is over forty years old and hasn't even passed the imperial examination. I'm afraid he is just a blockhead who can only read books.
Xiao Yunshuo said tactfully, "Village Chief Wu, a child's education is no small matter. If you choose the wrong teacher, it's not a big deal if they can't learn. If they develop a dislike for studying, that would be more trouble than it's worth. Well, there's no rush. I'll have Butler Yun go around and ask around. We'll make a decision if we find anything good. As for the tuition, don't worry. It's fine if the Yun family contributes a little more."
Village Chief Wu felt a little guilty after hearing this and said, "How can I be so embarrassed? Just renovating the abandoned house and turning it into a private school has already cost your family a lot of money..."
Xiao Yunshuo smiled and said, "I also have three children who need to go to school. This is also for our own benefit. The village chief doesn't need to worry too much."
The matter was settled for the time being. After Village Chief Wu left, Xiao Yunshuo asked Yuan Xu, "How long will it take for the teacher to arrive?"
Yuan Xu replied: "According to the news from the Dark Chamber, it should arrive in half a month."
Xiao Yunshuo nodded and said, "Be sure to send someone to secretly protect us along the way. Don't be careless."
"yes."
The teacher Xiao Yunshuo was referring to was the current Prince's Grand Tutor, Lord Xie Gao, who had once been the Prince's teacher.
When the Crown Prince was accused of treason and "died," it was this Lord Xie who led the officials in a hunger strike and entered the Dali Temple prison to clear the Crown Prince's name. It was also him that Xiao Yunshuo saw in prison when he secretly returned to the capital.
Although Lord Xie was an important official of two dynasties, upright and incorruptible, he was the prince's teacher and had once spoken up for the prince. Therefore, Emperor Yucheng did not dare to do anything to him on the surface, but in fact he was very dissatisfied with him in his heart.
After the Fifth Prince and Shen Shi'an were demoted and exiled, the situation in the court became even more turbulent. The Second Prince and the Sixth Prince's followers also went from temporarily cooperating to deal with the Fifth Prince at the beginning to a fierce struggle among themselves.
Although Emperor Yucheng knew about this, he did not stop it and never showed any favoritism towards either side.
After all, for him, maintaining a balance of power within the court is the best.
Under such circumstances, any minister in the court who had not sided with the Second Prince or the Sixth Prince became the target of suppression by both sides.
Xie Gao was a powerful official with a high reputation both in the court and in the opposition, and neither side dared to touch him. However, many ministers who had voluntarily served time in the Dali Temple prison with Xie Gao were either imprisoned, exiled, or demoted to remote places.
Seeing the chaotic situation in the court, Xie Gao submitted a petition to Emperor Yucheng requesting to retire and return home, citing his advanced age.
Emperor Yucheng had been worried about how to deal with this annoying old man, and now it was exactly what he wanted, so he pretended to keep him several times and finally approved his memorial.
Xie Gao's hometown was originally in Datong Prefecture, adjacent to Hejian Prefecture.
When Xiao Yunshuo secretly returned to the capital that day, he had revealed his true identity to Xie Gao.
When Xie Gao was on his way out of Beijing with his family and returning home, Xiao Yunshuo had already sent someone to deliver a secret letter to contact him.
However, since Xie Gao left the capital, he has been watched by spies from the court, so the meeting could not be too blatant.
More than a month after Xie Gao returned to his old house in Datong Prefecture, the court's spies saw that he only read and ate every day, and seldom went out to meet friends. He lived a very poor life, with few visitors. No officials from the prince's old party came to visit him to build relationships. It seemed that he would not cause any trouble anymore, so the surveillance on him was gradually withdrawn.
Xie Gao then claimed that he was old and had no wife or children. Coincidentally, his nephew who settled in Hejian Prefecture wrote to him saying that his parents had died early and he was willing to take him, the only surviving elder, home to fulfill his filial duties and raise him until the end of his life. Therefore, he decided to move his family to Hejian Prefecture and only left a few servants in the old house to look after the house and take care of some minor matters.
Xie Gao's nephew actually existed and was actually his elder sister's son.
The Xie family was considered a poor family. His sister had married an ordinary merchant long before he passed the imperial examination. After Xie Gao passed the imperial examination, his sister and brother-in-law did not try to curry favor with the powerful, but continued to run their own business diligently.
Now, Sister Xie Gao's brother-in-law has passed away long ago, leaving behind only a son who is about 30 or 40 years old. He also got married early and has now been married to my grandfather.
This nephew's family name is Yan, and he runs a mutton shop in Youzhou City.
The big-tailed sheep and mutton of Datong Prefecture are very famous. His father met Xie Gao's elder sister when he went to Datong Prefecture to buy raw sheep. Then he found a matchmaker to propose marriage, which made this marriage come true.
Now he has inherited his father's business and is still in the mutton business, but in his area, he has taken it a step further. In addition to selling raw meat, he has also opened a shop selling mutton soup, mutton soup with steamed buns, hand-pulled mutton and other foods. He is living a prosperous life.
The Yan family built a small courtyard behind their shop in Youzhou City, where the family, young and old, all lived.
In addition to this business, they also used the money they earned to buy a few acres of land in the countryside and hired people to help with planting and harvesting on the farm. If the business is not going well in the future, this farm can also be a fallback.
Xie Gao moved to Youzhou City and lived in the small courtyard for more than half a month. Then, he agreed with his nephew to move to the farm on the grounds that the streets were too noisy.
The servants were all those he brought from the capital and his old house in Datong Prefecture, so there was no need for his nephew to make any additional arrangements.
Every once in a while, his nephew would bring his family back to the farm, firstly to see how the farm was doing some chores, and secondly to visit his uncle Xie Gao, have a meal with the old man, spend a day or two, fulfill his filial piety, and let the old man enjoy the joy of family.
The location of this village, as the saying goes, is just a coincidence. It is in a village only a dozen miles away from Shili Village.
Of course, although it was a coincidence, the fact that Xie Gao was taken to Hejian Prefecture by his nephew to spend his remaining years there and naturally moved into a nearby farm was not a coincidence. It was a plan that Xiao Yunshuo decided on after in-depth investigation and careful consideration.
Although the Yan family was engaged in business and their financial situation was not too bad, it was only a small business, barely enough to cover the family's expenses with a slight surplus.
Xie Gao's nephew had already been married to his grandfather. In addition, his family had always been well-behaved. Over the years, he had not had too close contacts with Xie Gao, an important official in the court. The emotional relationship between them was not that deep. Therefore, he had no intention of bringing this uncle, whom he had only met a few times, to take care of him in his old age.
However, if someone is willing to pay him one hundred taels of silver every year to do this, that would be a different matter.
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