After chatting for a while, the group quickly got down to business. When Wang Zhibo mentioned building an irrigation canal in the northern part of Zhengyang County, Li Guang immediately became interested.
Wang Zhibo introduced the farmland situation in the northern part of Zhengyang County. In years with favorable weather, the harvest in the northern area is quite good, but this is rare, and most years are characterized by drought and water shortage.
Next, Wang Zhibo shared his idea: to build two intersecting irrigation canals to completely solve the irrigation problem in the northern region.
Li Guang nodded and said:
"There are many successful examples of building irrigation canals to divert water to irrigate farmland."
Every year, the imperial court invests huge sums of money in water conservancy projects, with the aim of increasing grain production so that everyone in the country can have enough to eat.
Magistrate Wang's plan to build an irrigation canal in the northern part of Zhengyang County was a bold and innovative undertaking.
But we don't know anything about building irrigation canals. We must find someone knowledgeable to do this. It's a project for the future, so we must pay attention to the quality of the canals so that future generations can benefit from them.
"I know that. The provincial government also attaches great importance to this project and has sent people to the Ministry of Water Resources. The Ministry of Water Resources will arrange for personnel to conduct an on-site inspection and finally come up with a plan for building the canal."
“That’s excellent. As Magistrate Wang just mentioned, the biggest problem in building the irrigation canal is the lack of labor. Currently, the country is at peace and the border is secure, so there will be no war for a long time.”
After leaving enough troops to defend Shuixian Village, the remaining 100,000 soldiers were all dispatched to the northern part of Zhengyang County to build irrigation canals.
Wang Zhibo was overjoyed to hear this, knowing that with the support of the army from Shuixian Village, the irrigation canal construction project could be completed on time and to a high standard.
Before they knew it, it was lunchtime. Zhao Xian invited Wang Zhibo to his home, and Wang Zhibo readily accepted.
During the meal, Zhao Xian told Wang Zhibo that a new academy was under construction in Shuixian Village and would be open for classes soon.
The new academy is currently short of teachers and would like to ask Wang Zhibo for help in finding a few.
Wang Zhibo immediately agreed. He was determined to help develop education in Shuixian Village and would find several outstanding teachers to teach there.
After lunch, Wang Zhibo returned home to quickly prepare for the construction of the irrigation canal.
Two months later, the survey work was completed, everything was ready, and the canal construction project officially started.
Li Guang mobilized 70,000 troops to the northern part of Zhengyang County to participate in the construction of the irrigation canal project.
This is the hottest time of the year, and also the busy farming season in the countryside.
Ancient schools also had holidays, more accurately called "farming holidays." There were at least two or three farming holidays a year, and the timing was not fixed.
When it's time to harvest wheat, the students are given a holiday so they can go home and help with the harvest. Similarly, when it's time to harvest rice, the students are given a holiday so they can help with the harvest.
Whether they were teachers or students, everyone needed a break during the busy farming season. No matter how young the children were, they all had to help with farm work.
The construction of the new school building is basically completed, and the students are still on holiday for the busy farming season. The new school building will be put into use after the busy farming season ends.
At this time, Ruan Fang and several old teachers at Wufang Academy were not idle. They still had a lot of things to do before the new academy opened.
On this day, Wang Zhibo came to Shuixian Village again, bringing two people to see Zhao Xian. Zhao Xian knew that these were teachers that Wang Zhibo had invited for the academy, so he invited them into the room.
During this period, Wang Zhibo has been busy with the construction of the irrigation canal and has gotten quite tanned.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Zhibo introduced the visitors to Zhao Xian, who was quite surprised upon learning about their situation.
One of them was very young, only in his twenties, named Du Yi. When he was a teenager, he wrote a parallel prose piece called "Preface to the Phoenix Pavilion," which was hailed as a classic. Du Yi became famous throughout the world because of this and was recognized as a talented scholar of the Northern Dynasties.
Later, Du Yi entered the provincial government. Due to his youthful arrogance and unruly behavior, he was ostracized and later framed by his colleagues, and was dismissed from office and sent home.
Despite such a huge blow, it did not change his personality much. Finally, one day, he received devastating news: his father, who was a county magistrate in a remote area, was swept away by the flood while controlling the flood and lost his life.
The death of his father was a huge blow to him. Du Yi, who was preparing to make a comeback, disappeared from public view and seemed to be forgotten.
Today, Wang Zhibo brought Du Yi along, which greatly surprised Zhao Xian. Since Du Yi was willing to come to Shuixian Village to be a teacher, it means that his state of mind has changed a lot and he is no longer the unruly and dissolute young man he was a few years ago.
The other person Wang Zhibo invited was in his thirties and named Yu Jie. He looked very honest and kind. Although he was not good-looking, he was a very famous painter at the time and was also quite learned. He would be absolutely qualified to be a teacher.
After learning about their basic situation, Zhao Xian took them to the academy and introduced them to Ruan Fang and several elderly gentlemen.
Ruan Fang was overjoyed upon learning of the two individuals' situation. With two more celebrities joining the Wu Fang Academy, it would be difficult for them not to become famous.
At this moment, Yu Jie walked up to Ruan Fang and said:
"Professor Ruan, I have a son named Yu Qianwen, who is six years old this year. I would like to bring him with me to study at Wufang Academy. Is that possible?"
"Of course, there are plenty of rooms in the new academy. Mr. Yu can bring his wife over as well, so that the whole family can be together and look after each other."
Upon hearing this, Yu Jie sighed and said, "My wife has had a hard life. My son died in childbirth the year he was born. Over the years, I have relied on my son for survival and have never remarried."
Ruan Fang was also very surprised when she heard this. She did not expect that Yu Jie had been raising his son alone with great difficulty since his wife passed away.
Logically speaking, when Madam Yu passed away, he was only in his twenties and was very famous at that time. Remarrying would have been no problem. So why did he choose to remain single and raise his son alone?
Of course, these are all Yu Jie's family matters, and it's not appropriate for me to ask too much. All the academy can do is to take good care of him.
Ruan Fang quickly arranged accommodations for the two of them. Yu Jie went back and brought his son, Yu Qianwen, to the academy.
The busy farming season had passed, and Wufang Academy officially opened for the new semester.
On the first day of school, Wufang Academy was bustling with activity as many people came to see the newly built academy.
At the beginning of the school year, many people brought their children to register. Most of these children came from private schools in neighboring villages.
This caused great hardship for the school teachers in the neighboring villages, as they had no books to teach when the children came to the Wufang Academy in Shuixian Village.
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