As soon as spring arrived, the scholars invited by Fu Changfeng were on their way. There weren't many scholars in Shaoming County. Originally, the county school should have been a place for the scholars of the county to study, but for this reason, the county school was basically abandoned under the previous county magistrates.
Therefore, the scholars that Fu Changfeng invited this time were mostly elderly people from other places. As long as they had enough money, they were naturally willing to bring their families to settle here.
"Instructor Huang, these are all scholars I invited from other places. I plan to establish an academy in the county to teach everyone from elementary school children to scholars. If it goes well, I will invite those who have passed the provincial examinations to come and revitalize the stagnant academic atmosphere in our Shaoming County. You are in charge of supervising the construction of the academy these days. Also, spread the word that the tuition fees will be the same as those of other academies. In addition, students from poor families will have the opportunity to work and study. If they can get the top three in their class, they will receive additional gold and silver rewards."
"That's wonderful, thank you, sir. I will definitely supervise this matter properly." In the entire county government office, he, the instructor, was the most idle before this. Seeing that the county magistrate was a man of action, he was afraid that he would be isolated by the county magistrate if he had nothing to do.
Now that he had such a good job, he was no longer idle, so he agreed quickly. As long as the money was in place, his job was easy to do.
The instructor was very proactive in this matter. Before all the scholars had arrived, he had already found a suburban house belonging to the Long family that had been there before. It had not been sold, and the surrounding fields could be rented to nearby tenant farmers. The grain collected by the yamen could also be used to pay the teachers' tuition.
Thanks to the spontaneous promotion by the instructor and others, the people of Shaoming County also learned about this matter. Many families were eager to participate, after all, the scholars invited by Lord Fu were all from other prefectures. It is said that monks from other places are better at chanting scriptures, and these scholars from other places were no exception.
The local teachers have been teaching for so many years, but they haven't produced many outstanding students. Now that a teacher from another place has come, they naturally want to let their own children give it a try.
I've heard that the tuition fees here aren't high, and there are other ways to ease the burden, so many ordinary people want to send their children there.
Upon learning that even the county magistrate's brother-in-law and son had been sent to this academy, they naturally decided to send theirs as well.
On the day of the unveiling ceremony of Shaoming Academy, Fu Changfeng led all the officials to the site to personally show their support. At the same time, there were also three people specifically responsible for registration and enrollment.
"I am very pleased with the establishment of Shaoming Academy. I hope it will promote the flourishing of local learning and produce more talents to help and bring fame to our hometown. From today onwards, any student who is willing to study at Shaoming Academy can earn tuition fees through work-study programs. If they can balance their studies and rank among the top three in their class, I will give them additional rewards."
"Thank you, Your Excellency! Your Excellency is wise!" The people shouted in unison upon hearing this.
Fu Changfeng was initially worried that not many people would sign up, but to his surprise, the number of people who signed up on the first day was more than they had expected. Fortunately, they had foreseen this and had the number of students in the first year controlled.
If other families are willing to send their children to school, they can naturally send them to other private schools, and the tuition fees are not much different.
"My lord, a total of eighty-nine children have registered today. I will certainly continue to do a good job in the statistics and try my best to keep the number of students in the first year within the originally planned range." When Instructor Huang came to talk to Fu Changfeng, he was full of confidence. It felt good to have something to do.
"Very good, Instructor Huang, I'm entrusting this matter to you. I will check on the academy regularly from now on, so you must not slack off. If any teacher is found to be lacking in virtue, you must inform me. You cannot assume that just because I invited him, you can ignore it."
"Yes, sir, I will do my best. Please rest assured." Instructor Huang knew that his superior had been going to the village to supervise the work for the past few months, so he must have other important matters to attend to.
Since changing academies, Xiaofeng and Azhao have had more homework and no longer complain that the academy's teachers are talking nonsense. Sometimes they even need to go home and ask Fu Changfeng for help to understand the teacher's intentions, which makes Fu Changfeng very gratified.
That day, Zhu Nian arrived home with a secret letter. Seeing that Fu Changfeng was not home, he gave it directly to Xi Chun.
"Madam, this is a letter from the capital, meant for the master."
“Alright, you can leave it here. I’ll give it to the master when he arrives.” Xi Chun remembered what Fu Changfeng had said earlier and figured it must have been sent by Lord Hu, so she carefully put it away.
It wasn't until Fu Changfeng returned that the two of them read the letter together. The letter was indeed written by Lord Hu, and it also stated that the instigators of this waterwheel incident were Cao Mi, the Vice Minister of Revenue, and Fang Zheng, the Left Vice Minister of Works. It was precisely because one of them wanted to make money and the other wanted to gain merit that Lord Li's report was delayed.
"So it was these two people. It must have taken a lot of effort for Lord Hu to find out about them. However, there has been no punishment for these two in the recent court gazette. I think someone must have protected them. Now that the plan has failed, I'm afraid he will take his anger out on us victims instead."
"Yes, these people don't do anything for the people themselves, but instead try to steal the credit from their subordinates. And yet they haven't been punished. This shows that there are people protecting them. We need to be careful. Fortunately, we already know who it is, so we know who to guard against in the future."
"Alas, I am only a seventh-rank official at present. Compared with these fourth-rank officials, I am still not just one or two ranks behind. If they want to deal with us, it will be easy for them. The key to breaking the deadlock now lies in the rice yield."
There are strict systems for the promotion of officials. Some may secretly seek help from others, like the former magistrate of Weinan County, or they may simply accumulate seniority. However, the most enviable way is to have a political achievement that can reach the ears of the emperor, which may allow one to rise to the top in one step.
However, not everyone can achieve such political success. If Fu Changfeng wants to compete with these people, this is the only way he can rely on.
Taozi sent people to Jiaozhi to find new rice varieties. After searching for several months, they finally received good news. There was also good news about the terraced fields here. With everyone's spontaneous reclamation, paddy fields appeared on the hillsides suitable for developing terraced fields.
The villagers weren't sure if the news was true or not, but some of them still tried it out.
Fu Changfeng also ordered the construction of similar terraced fields in the official fields. If the water supply is sufficient, the rice yield this year may indeed increase.
However, he instructed his people that this matter must not be leaked before it is successful, and that it should only be carried out within the county.
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