In April, each province held a provincial examination. Because there were too many students in each province, prefecture, state, and county, and the examination room capacity was limited, in order to prevent those with poor academic ability from going back and forth in vain, there must be a screening before the three-year examination. This screening was called the imperial examination. The imperial examination was presided over by the provincial education officials. According to the rules, only those who ranked first, second, and the top three in the third class were allowed to take the provincial examination.

However, those who ranked third in the imperial examination or did not take the examination could take a make-up examination once one month before the provincial examination. Those who passed the examination would be allowed to take the provincial examination, which was called "Lu Yi".

In addition, the selected, excellent and deputy tribute students in the imperial examination did not need to take the imperial examination. Students who were selected as Confucian scholars could also be exempted from the autumn examination.

The officials who are close to the people in the prefectures and counties still have one or two flexible quotas in their hands. Normally, the academician will not reject their recommendations to show that he is wise and has listened to all sides.

Therefore, at this time, most of the students of Yufeng Academy rushed back home to take the exams, and only a small number of people who had obtained the qualifications for the provincial examinations through various channels remained in the academy to attend classes.

In short, the academy has become quiet for the time being, and Zhao Hao no longer needs to show up all the time to make his presence felt. He finally found some time to visit Kunshan Agricultural College next to Huazang Temple.

Yufeng Primary School was on holiday that day, and Zhao Hao, the incompetent master, finally remembered that he still had two little disciples, so he asked Secretary Ma to call Xu Guangqi and Wang Heng and take the two kids to see something new.

Wang Heng was the only son of Wang Xijue. Zhao Hao had always regretted not being able to accept Chef Wang as his apprentice. When he went to Taicang to visit Wang Mengxiang, he accepted his son as his apprentice to comfort himself. After all, they were both runners-up, so it didn't matter.

But because he was only a six-year-old kid at the time, Master Zhao used the excuse that the child was too young and let him start his education at home first.

In fact, Zhao Hao wanted to take Wang Xijue's daughter Tan Yangzi as his apprentice, but unfortunately he couldn't open his mouth...

As for Xu Guangqi, he was the disciple Jin Xuezeng accepted on his way to Chongming when he passed through Shanghai. The child was also six years old at that time. Zhao Hao didn't even let go of Wang Zheng, who was not yet born, so how could he let go of this big bull? Although it is still a calf now, it is better to raise it from a young age so that the milk it squeezes out will be delicious.

The Xu family was originally a wealthy merchant family, but they were repeatedly robbed during the Japanese invasion. When it came to his father Xu Sicheng, the family had already fallen into decline. Xu Sicheng worked hard to make the business better, but in the first year of the Longqing reign, he lost everything in speculation in raw silk and was left with a lot of debts.

Just when the family was in despair, Jin Xuezeng appeared. He was a newly-minted Jinshi and the magistrate of a neighboring county who wanted to accept disciples on his behalf. Of course Xu Sicheng agreed to such a good opportunity, and so Xu Guangqi also became a registered disciple of Master Zhao.

At that time, Jin Xuezeng was short of people, so he simply asked Xu Sicheng to go with him to Chongming to take up the post. Xu Sicheng was good at writing and calculating, so he became his draft signer for the mortgage room and also managed the county magistrate's private accounts. Now he has become Jin Xuezeng's indispensable right-hand man.

Last year, Master Zhao opened Yufeng Primary School, and he sent people to take these two children to school. Although they were not taught personally, the textbooks they used were compiled by Master Zhao himself, so he was doing them justice.

Now eight years old, Xu Guangqi and Wang Heng are already second-grade elementary school students.

They were wearing white and black-rimmed robes from Yufeng Primary School and had their hair tied in buns. One had a round face with a hint of pink, and the other had a pointed face with a hint of pink. They looked very cute like little adults. When they saw Zhao Hao, they bowed and called him "Master".

"Well, not bad, not bad." Zhao Hao smiled and said to the round-faced child: "Wang Heng..."

"Master, I am Guangqi..." the round-faced child said helplessly.

"Haha, really? How come you've gained so much weight that Master couldn't even recognize you." Zhao Hao pinched Xu Guangqi's cheek awkwardly. He was forgetful and had only met these two kids a few times, so he must have made a mistake.

"My grandfather also said that I was too greedy and lost weight." Wang Heng quickly came to the master's rescue, saying, "I have changed after not seeing you for a few days."

"Oh, hahaha." Zhao Hao couldn't help laughing and touched his head and said, "This child has such a sweet mouth."

“Come on, Master will take you to broaden your horizons.” As he said this, he held a child in each hand and walked towards the gate of Kunshan Agricultural College.

Secretary Ma followed behind, thinking that these two disciples finally looked more coordinated with the young master. The others were too old...

~~

Kunshan Agricultural College covers an area of ​​more than 200 mu, surrounded by clear water on all sides. It has fields, vegetable plots, mulberry, hemp, and almond trees, water wheels, mills, and barns, creating a bucolic landscape.

In fact, this was the original Wuben Academy in Liyang. After moving to Kunshan, Zhao Hao thought it would be fine to keep the original name. But Ma Yilong disagreed. He had long been fed up with those scholars who were called agricultural scholars but were actually only interested in their studies. He felt that these people were simply wasting his time. So he insisted on not using the word "academy" anymore and changed the name to the more straightforward "agricultural college", so that those who wanted to study would go to Yufeng Academy, leaving only those who really wanted to study agriculture.

As a result, 90% of the students transferred to other schools, and only Shi Jizhi and Xiaomao stayed. Although agriculture is the foundation of a country, who the hell wants to plant rice in the fields all day?

Although he was prepared, Ma Yilong was still so angry that he almost vomited blood.

Fortunately, Jiangnan Group has a lot of farm managers who need to be trained. Most of those farm managers and agricultural technicians are literate and familiar with farming. Most importantly, they really want to learn farming, can endure hardships, and are willing to use their brains. This makes Ma Yilong very happy, and he feels much happier than teaching those reluctant sour people.

Over the past year, he has trained two batches of 200 qualified agricultural technicians, and has retained 20 graduates to teach. Currently, there are more than 300 students in school at the same time.

When they entered the gate, they saw a piece of snow-white Kun stone about ten feet high with six powerful characters "Relieve the hardships of the people" written on it. It was the handwriting of Mr. Ma Yilong from Menghe.

"As a scholar, no matter what you do, you must not forget the people." Zhao Hao smiled and taught his two disciples, and asked Shi Jizhi who came to greet him, "Where is Mr. Menghe?"

"I'm teaching agricultural technicians." Shi Jizhi is the executive vice president of the Agricultural College. His teacher is old and can't take care of so many things, so he has to take care of all the big and small matters of the college.

"Let's go and take a look." Zhao Hao said with a smile.

"Sir, please come this way." Shi Jizhi led Zhao Hao through the I-shaped classroom. There were agricultural technicians teaching in the classroom, and the professors were graduates who stayed in school last year. In the series of schools founded by Zhao Hao, "old teachers teach new teachers" is a common phenomenon, otherwise where can we find so many teachers?

We can only solve the problem from scratch first. It will take time to cultivate a qualified teaching team from rough to fine.

After passing the teaching building, you will see green farmlands in front of you. Small signs are inserted on the ground with different class numbers and names written on them.

Shi Jizhi told Zhao Hao that this was the students' learning field. Adhering to the spirit of "knowledge gained from books is shallow, and one must practice to know it thoroughly", Ma Yilong allocated half an acre of land to each student, and taught them how to farm scientifically, starting with land preparation and seedling cultivation. When the students finished harvesting by themselves and stored the grains in the warehouse, it was time for graduation.

During the entire farming process, Ma Yilong would patiently teach them how to plant rice, how to weed and kill insects, and how to fertilize, irrigate and drain, devoting a lot of effort to it.

"In addition to teaching, the teacher also absorbs the strengths of various schools in his own experimental fields and constantly improves agricultural techniques." Shi Jizhi smiled and said to Zhao Hao: "But all the people combined cannot inspire the teacher as much as you alone."

"Hey, don't say that. I'm just speaking casually." Zhao Hao waved his hand modestly.

"That's true." Shi Jizhi pointed at the rice seedlings in the field and said, "This year, the spring was cold and the temperature was not up to standard. If it weren't for the young master's black smoke seedling method, the early rice would have been delayed."

“As long as it works, it works.” Young Master Zhao nodded with a smile. The so-called black smoke seedling method is actually to spread a thick layer of chimney ash in the cellar where Ma Yilong grows seedlings.

The black color absorbs heat during the day, and the ash layer keeps warm at night, which can raise the temperature of the soil by several degrees and provide nutrients to the seedlings, naturally without delaying the farming season. In later generations, before the popularization of mulch, rural areas used this method to grow seedlings.

As they talked, they came to where Ma Yilong taught - next to a string of ponds in the farmland.

The students gathered around Ma Yilong, notebooks in hand, and listened to the old man's loud voice:

"The mulberry-based fish pond is not a new idea. It has been used in Huzhou for many years and is very mature. It is especially suitable for collective production on your farm. Go back and dig the depression deeper to make a pond. Pile the excavated mud around the pond to form a high base. Plant mulberry trees on the base and raise fish in the pond. Raise silkworms with mulberry leaves and feed fish with silkworm pupae and feces. The silt in the fish pond can be used to fertilize the mulberry trees. Repeat this cycle, and both sides will benefit. You can get ten times the crop yield."

The students’ eyes lit up when they heard this. Their income was linked to the income of the farm, so how could they not learn such a magical technology?

"It's not easy to achieve a virtuous cycle and obtain the highest benefits. Generally, the ratio of pond to base is between six to four and seven to three. But after my exploration, I found that the best ratio is five to five. The pond should be dug into a rectangle like this, with six to ten centipede-shaped mouths connected together..."

The wind was warm in mid-spring. Zhao Hao brought two disciples and Shi Jizhi to listen quietly as Ma Yilong explained the secret of high yield in the mulberry-based fish pond.

The old gentleman explained everything in detail, like he knew everything by heart. When he got to the key points, he bent down, grabbed a handful of black, wet fertile soil, and explained to these agricultural technicians who had nothing to do with them how to judge the soil quality, improve the soil and retain fertilizer...

Zhao Hao's eyes suddenly became moist. If he didn't know who Mr. Meng He was, who would have connected this old farmer with rolled-up trousers, a straw hat, and skin as rough as tree bark with a former Hanlin?

In fact, Ma Yilong was a scholar of the same period as Zhang Juzheng. While Zhang Juzheng was already a powerful university scholar, Mr. Menghe returned to his original simplicity and became a farmer.

So the question is, who is greater between these two?

P.S. I just wrote one chapter, I will write more...