After setting the rules, Wang Wuyang arranged beds for the two of them, and then performed the traditional program of the sect - teaching his apprentice to do housework.

Unexpectedly, the two brothers did whatever they were told to do without any complaints. Their diligent and honest appearance made Sanyang lose the pleasure of bullying them.

Moreover, they were too tall and powerful. The three weak scholars from Jiangnan did not dare to play too much for fear of getting beaten.

"Look at him, he works hard without complaint." Hua Shuyang put his hands in his sleeves and glanced at Wang Dingjue who was reading a book. "Unlike you at the beginning, you were always making excuses and acting like it was your life to do any work."

Wang Dingjue rolled his eyes and ignored him.

"You are talking about yourself." Wang Wuyang threw an apple to Hua Shuyang.

"Brother, please don't expose my shortcomings in front of me." Hua Shuyang took the apple, took a bite, and said awkwardly, "Haven't I been used to being served since I was a child? There must be time to change."

"Brother, please lift your feet." At this time, Yu Shenxing came over mopping the floor.

The second prince sat cross-legged on the table, and Wang Dingjue asked, "Zhengyang, is there no one to serve you at home?"

"I have more than 400 servants in my house." Yu Shenxing answered casually.

"Look, what do you think?" The second king laughed at Hua Shuyang and said, "A lazy person is a lazy person, don't make excuses."

"You call me lazy? Who washed your trousers for half a year?" Hua Shuyang sneered at Wang Wuyang and said, "I even know what color you like."

"Brothers, 'Do not bully your fellow brothers and sisters, and avoid criticizing their shortcomings and slandering their strengths.'" Thinking that they were about to start a quarrel, the Yu brothers warned the three of them in unison.

"Uh..." Sanyang stopped talking and everyone read their own books.

With two more of these strict junior brothers, I'm afraid there will be less fun in the future.

~~

In the evening, Zhao Shouzheng came back, and Yu Shensi and Yu Shenxing came to kowtow to their master again, and presented a tribute - donkey-hide gelatin paste to replenish blood and nourish qi.

Zhao Shouzheng was very happy to see his son had two more apprentices, and thought that his son would not have to worry about having no one to take care of him in his old age.

He smiled and called the two men to stand up, and took out two tickets from the cash box, one for each of them, and said:

"Old Four, Old Five, please give us a little gift."

"Thank you, Master!"

The long-legged brother hurriedly took the ticket with both hands, glanced at the amount on it, and his eyes almost popped out.

It turned out to be one thousand taels, and one thousand taels per person.

The brothers' family was a well-known landlord in Shandong. They had thousands of donkeys and even opened an donkey-hide gelatin shop in the capital. They must have a fortune of tens of thousands of taels.

But the Yu family had strict family education, and the two brothers were young. The old man was worried that they would do bad things with their money, so even if they went to Beijing to take the exam, he only gave them twenty taels of silver per month, not a penny more.

Now seeing that the master casually took out so much money, the two were so scared that they quickly waved their hands, indicating that it was too much and they dared not accept it.

"Can I still let you call me Grandmaster for nothing? Each of your brothers also has one thousand taels, Grandmaster, I am not biased." Master Song, the Timely Rain, waved his hand to show that he should not be polite, and said, "Spend it as you like. If you don't have enough, come and ask me for more."

The elders gave it, and they dared not refuse. They had no choice but to kowtow again, and then carefully accepted it. They thought that in the world, they only heard of people getting rich by opening a school and recruiting students, but they never heard of people getting rich by becoming a disciple.

At this time, it was time for dinner and the servants brought the food.

After the three yangs became five yangs, it became too crowded to eat at one kang table.

Zhao Hao asked someone to set up another table and invited the four people to eat in the west room, leaving only Zhao Shizhen and Wang Wuyang at the kang table, so that it would be convenient for him and his son to serve tea and water.

Zhao Shouzheng drank a cup of wine and two songs, then began to sigh.

After waiting for a long time without seeing Zhao Hao take up the conversation, he said depressedly: "You haven't learned even a little bit of the skill of picking up conversation with your father."

"What should we do then?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"When you hear me sighing, you should tell me why father is sighing. Is there something on his mind?" Zhao Shouzheng taught him.

"Okay, go ahead." Zhao Hao nodded and asked Wang Wuyang to serve him another bowl of silver thread noodles.

"Hey, kid, you are already a master, but you don't know how to set a good example." Zhao Shouzheng smiled bitterly, then sighed:

"On my way to the Wenhui today, I heard crying all over the street."

"Oh?" Zhao Hao was stunned for a moment and asked, "Who are you crying for?"

"It's the refugees who fled to Beijing, crying for themselves." Zhao Shouzheng said with sympathy, "I asked around and found out that Shuntian Prefecture had posted a notice, requiring them to leave Beijing within five days. After five days, Shuntian Prefecture and the Five Cities Military Department will search the entire city, and anyone without a pass will be beaten with fifty sticks and shackled for three days, and then sent back to their hometown."

"Isn't this nonsense?" Zhao Hao's relaxed look disappeared when he heard this.

"They are all villagers who fled to Beijing when the Tartars invaded. Who would go to the county town to get a pass before leaving?"

"Yes." Wang Wuyang also said indignantly: "What era is this? Who needs a pass to go out? If we were not going to Beijing to take the imperial examination, we would not have thought of this."

Zhao Shizhen said palely: "I don't have a pass, will the government arrest me?"

At the beginning of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang made too many ridiculous regulations on the spur of the moment, and this road permit was one of them. It required that all soldiers and civilians who left their homes for more than 100 miles must first go to the government to get a road permit, stating their destination, purpose, and return date. If they did not bring a road permit, did not return on time, or went somewhere else, they would be arrested and punished if they were found by the government.

Almost as soon as he died, this absurd regulation became a dead letter. At first, they would check symbolically, but there were so many people running around that the government could not check them all. So starting from Chenghua, the government completely let it go. It was just that due to the ancestral system, the road permit system was never abolished.

Moreover, this method has another advantage. When the officials and clerks want to punish outsiders, they can...

~~

Zhao Hao's family naturally didn't know that this turmoil that affected countless victims was more or less related to them.

If Zhao Shouzheng had not been invited to the Shuntian Prefecture for tea, and if Zhao Hao had not been so angry and gathered so many candidates, the affairs of Cao Fuyin and Ni Tuiguan would not have been known to Emperor Longqing.

Naturally, Xu Fan would not order Shuntian Prefecture to immediately draw a clear line with the maritime merchants, using such an exaggerated method to prove his innocence and dispel the emperor's anger.

However, when important people do things, their motives are always complicated. Maybe they also want to solve the refugee problem that has troubled the court for months...

Lord Xu doesn't want to see anyone freezing to death or starving to death in the capital, so wouldn't it be just as effective if he drove all the refugees out of the city?

It's just the thoughts of the superiors, who knows what the people below are thinking? We can only speculate without any basis.

"As a result, everyone was discussing this matter at the literary meeting today. In this icy and snowy weather, how can the disaster victims survive if they are driven out of the capital?" Zhao Shouzheng said worriedly:

"I'm afraid we'll all freeze to death or starve to death on the road before we get home."

"What was the result of the discussion?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"Da Huoer discussed donating money together to open a porridge factory outside Baiyun Temple." Zhao Shouzheng said, "If everyone donates a little, we can collect 20,000 taels of silver, which should help 20,000 to 30,000 disaster victims survive until the beginning of spring."

Zhao Hao nodded and said nothing.

"They pushed me to take the lead." Zhao Shouzheng glanced at his son and said softly, "However, for such a big matter, I dare not make a decision on my own. I have to come back and discuss it with you first."

ps. The third update is here, please give me your monthly votes and recommendation tickets~~