Chapter 1259 Scholars and Soldiers
The village school is by the water and the teacher is in the farmland.
Back to the sun, face to the earth.
Li Ziyu now looked like a piece of charcoal, wearing a coarse linen shirt and planting rice in the paddy field with his trouser legs rolled up.
But when he raised his eyes, he saw his teacher, Master Yao, trying hard to learn the methods taught by the old man in the village, while his fellow apprentices were even more clumsy in planting the seedlings, and one of them even slipped and fell.
Li Ziyu shook his head helplessly and walked over to Master Yao, who was stubbornly about to plant the rice seedlings. "Teacher, you and your fellow apprentices should take a break."
Old Master Yao frowned, looked up at Li Ziyu, shook his head and continued to lower his head.
But when Li Ziyu stretched out his hand and looked up, he found that several old farmers were silently correcting the place where he and others had just planted the seeds.
"Ah~~~" Old Master Yao sighed and laughed at himself, "Even if I read a thousand words, it's still no match for half a bucket of manure. Haha, I thought it was just planting rice seedlings, but I didn't expect to be so clumsy. I ended up causing trouble for you guys."
Li Ziyu immediately said, "Teacher's expertise is not in this, why are you sighing like that?"
As he spoke, he supported Master Yao onto the ridge of the field and bowed to the old farmers to apologize.
Several old farmers were in high spirits. Although they didn't know who the old gentleman who came today was, since County Magistrate Li called him teacher, he must be a man of great learning.
A well-educated person would go to the fields and look at it as something new and interesting, without worrying about whether it would cause any trouble or not.
Yao Yuanzai naturally bowed to apologize, then looked at the happy faces of the old farmers, and then saw their dark skin and calloused hands.
It was so hard, but we still couldn’t get enough food.
Yao Yuanzai was silent for a moment, then turned back to look at the shed where the leaks were found and said, "Let's go and let the teacher see where you live."
Li Ziyu smiled, then supported Yao Yuanzai and walked towards the greenhouse.
When the teacher came over suddenly today, Li Ziyu was actually also scared.
However, after arriving, Yao Yuanzai and others saw Li Ziyu helping farmers plant rice seedlings in the paddy fields, which led to the scene just now.
Walking into the shed, Yao Yuanzai looked at this simple place, which could be said to be like a cowshed, and looked back at himself. He was no longer the student who looked like a delicate and elegant young man as he did in the capital.
Yao Yuanzai's face softened and he turned his head again.
Inside the shed was a bed and a table with paper and pen on it. "Do you usually handle your business here?"
Yao Yuanzai looked at Li Ziyu.
Li Ziyu helped the teacher to sit down beside the bed, then picked up the kettle and bowl. "It's been busy with farming lately, so I've been here most of the time, only occasionally going back to the county government office."
Yao Yuanzai looked at Li Ziyu's brilliant smile and said, "The heart is neither good nor evil, yet it has both good and evil intentions. Knowing good and evil is conscience, and doing good and eliminating evil is the study of things. Is it here that you understood the words of the Empress, 'Unify knowledge and action, and study things to attain knowledge,' and wrote these two lines for me?"
Li Ziyu nodded and handed Yao Yuanzai the water bowl with both hands, revealing an embarrassed look: "I've seen a lot, and I've thought a lot. I'm here alone at night, looking at the sky, and my mind is wandering. When I thought of this, I wrote a letter to the teacher, but I haven't figured it all out yet. I'm still thinking about what the queen said. When you came all the way here without telling me in advance, I didn't prepare anything."
Yao Yuanzai touched the hard bed and cursed, "What are you preparing for? You are learning and gaining great knowledge here, and I am delighted by this. You have come to see my proud student, so what are you preparing for me?"
After saying this, he took the water bowl from Li Ziyu's hand, looked at Li Ziyu's current state, and finally couldn't help asking: "But what about your body? Even though you pulled me away from the medicine pot over there, I still saw it. And the strong smell of medicine, do you think I'm too old to smell it?"
Li Ziyu smiled upon hearing this and said, "It's inevitable that your body, which has been pampered for a long time, will be affected by this. In addition, although the weather has been hot recently, it's still humid, so you may have been affected by the cold. Don't worry, teacher."
Yao Yuanzai listened to Li Ziyu's words, his face was not only full of relief but also a little sad. This rich young man who grew up in a mountain of gold and silver now had to live like this here voluntarily.
And there were several life-threatening situations.
It was this time that the princess returned to Shu and not only protected him, but also protected Zi Yu.
However, Yao Yuanzai was not such a hypocritical person. He did not ask any more questions. Instead, he looked at Li Ziyu and said, "Can you think clearly about why you asked me about my hard work in studying poetry and books but was unable to do anything about it?"
Upon hearing this, Li Ziyu immediately looked at Yao Yuanzai.
But before he could answer, Yao Yuanzai pulled him to sit down.
Li Ziyu was a little flustered, but he still spoke: "I am a dull student. I think that the truth is in books, but being a person is beyond books. Just as I have realized that there is no good or evil, and I do good and avoid evil, I see things in my heart and act on them. This is the greatest truth in the world. I know these farmers are short of labor at home, so I came to help. This is the truth I practice."
Hearing this
Yao Yuanzai looked at Li Ziyu, stood up and bowed to Li Ziyu.
Li Ziyu hurriedly returned the gift and said, "Teacher, I can't bear it."
Yao Yuanzai shook his head: "The wise are the teachers. I am certainly your teacher, but you deserve my respect for what you just said."
Li Ziyu hurriedly bowed and said, "I haven't read for a long time. It's good enough that the teacher didn't scold me."
Yao Yuanzai shook his head. "Books are written for people. Just because you don't read doesn't mean you don't have books in your heart. Ziyu, you've taught your teacher a lesson. When we get back to the capital, I'll tell Mu Xu about the saying, 'Watching rice seedlings turn green in three days is worth ten years of reading.'"
Upon hearing this, Li Ziyu immediately asked, "Teacher, are you going back?"
Yao Yuanzai shook his head. "I'm not going back for now. There's an undercurrent in Shu. If anything really happens, the academy won't be affected. I'm not planning to leave yet. And you can stay here for me. How about setting up a bed for me? I'll keep you company for a while."
Li Ziyu quickly shook his head, but looked at Yao Yuanzai and said, "Teacher, since you can see that Shu is about to go into chaos, it's best for you to leave. This time, the situation will be completely overturned, and your prestige will definitely be targeted. You have been in danger many times during this trip to Shu, but this is actually unnecessary. I believe that the things here will be over soon. You can come back later to deal with the academy matter."
Upon hearing this, Yao Yuanzai smiled and said, "When you get old, you're always a little stubborn, so don't try to persuade me. Besides, those people want to kill me, humph! Just take my head. Before I die, I can see my disciple realize the way of the sage, which makes my trip to Shu worthwhile."
Yao Yuanzai looked at Li Ziyu and continued, "Don't worry about me. Besides, I can't just leave Shu whenever I want. Otherwise, given the princess's temperament, she would have knocked out this stubborn old man like me and sent me back to the capital. There are so many people watching me."
A great scholar is the aspiration of countless students.
Yao Yuanzai was such a great scholar, and many students from Shu came to study under him.
This is why the King of Shu wanted Yao Yuanzai to surrender, and why not a single student came out after the Fifth Prince had his arm broken.
The students all remembered the incident of slapping Yao Yuanzai.
Li Ziyu sighed, knowing that he couldn't persuade the teacher, and knowing how many eyes were staring at him, he could only smile and say, "Teacher, dinner will be served soon. I left two fish in the field that the villagers gave me. I'll cook them for you."
Yao Yuanzai smiled and nodded, but was just about to speak.
The sound of horse hooves came.
The farmers working in the fields stopped and looked back.
I saw dozens of cavalrymen armed with swords and bows rushing towards Li Ziyu's greenhouse.
When they arrived, the leading man dismounted and clasped his fists toward Yao Yuanzai in the shed, saying, "Dian Junming greets Master Yao!"
(End of this chapter)
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