Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 531 Children’s favorite poet—Huang Fuzi
This camp outside the city was the barracks of part of the victorious army before, for them to stay temporarily during the ceremony. But now, with the disbandment of the field regiment, most of the soldiers have gone home to prepare for the festival, and the rest have also gone to the city to perform tasks.

Because of the fires during the turmoil, many people were homeless. Therefore, with the coordination of Tuo Huan and others, Zhu Wenkui led a large group of refugees out of the city and lived here. They expanded the barracks and built a new shed on a slightly higher ground next to it.

Although it was only a temporary camp, the camp itself was still meticulously organized by the former legionnaires. Even though they had only stayed outside the capital wall for a few days, they still carefully leveled the land, dug trenches, piled the excavated soil into mounds, and erected wooden stakes on top to form a wall. The barracks and roads are also neat and orderly.

When they left, they took away the ordnance and the team's tents, but these civil buildings were left behind, which made it a lot easier for Zhu Wenkui and others.

They dismantled the wooden walls used as defensive facilities, gathered the materials, and built several large wooden houses for the injured to live in. Others collected various materials and built a shack to live in using the random things they could find.

"This camp looks very messy at first, but after a closer look, it is quite orderly." Tuohuan commented: "Look, the roads and trenches are all neat and orderly. Who arranged it?"

"Both of them." Zhu Wenkui pointed at Captain Jashka and Tang Sai'er: "Both of them know how to set up camp. They are in charge of the layout of the camp."

In comparison, the outside of the camp is a bit more chaotic, but if you look closely, you can see that although the shacks are all kinds of strange and different in height, almost all of them are in a fixed area and arranged in an orderly manner. A trench was dug outside the camp to prevent wild animals, and several drainage ditches extended out.

The outer camps are not as square and square as the circle left by the legion inside. The roads in the camp are also wide and narrow, but all roads are straight. You can see the circle of mounds inside and the small square next to it at a glance. .

"Being able to control these people like this is already very impressive." Tuohuan nodded and praised.

"Then keep looking." Tu Huan had no choice but to say: "She escaped from France and can't go back. If she goes to other places, she won't have much influence and won't be much of a threat. This is still Where can we go? It’s better not to go all the way east to the Ming Dynasty.”

"I know a lot of people in Egypt, and she won't be afraid even if she goes to sea." The heroine Jeanne also said.

"I haven't eaten yet. I'll go back to the city to eat." Zhu Wenkui said: "I originally thought that the tombstone needed to be repaired, but they said that the shape and inscription were fine, and it is fine now. So, I saved a lot. There is no need to change the time spent on consultation and design.”

Guo Kang felt that it was hard to say. After all, their family is very good at dressing up as religious figures and escaping from the sea of ​​fire. The daughter-in-law married by King Wu can disappear like this... I don't understand what is going on. However, it was not convenient for him to say this, so he could only complain in his heart.

"Everyone is working hard for you, but you care about these things. This is your fault." The heroine Jeanne disagreed: "Etiquette and ceremony are all for expressing one's feelings. Once one's feelings are expressed, one will not pay attention to the details. If you pay too much attention to these things, you are putting on airs and alienating others."

"Then I have to show my sincerity. They all died for me." Zhu Wenkui explained: "After all, they are from other places and have their own customs. Our sect does not care about these, but we cannot acquiesce to others. not give a damn about."

"What's going on over there?" Tuo Huan asked Jeanna, "Have you found the princess?"

"I'm telling you, there's no need to make such a fuss out of a molehill." Heroine Jeanne shook her head: "It's not like everyone is religious or crazy. How can it be so exaggerated? You have to dig out these details."

"I asked a lot of French people, but they didn't know." Jeanne said: "Some people said that she last appeared in the house, and she should have been burned to death; others said that she did not go in at that time because she had She was shot, unable to stand up, and had been dragged away; some people even made even more outrageous claims, claiming that they had seen her later, saying that she was dressed as a nun, mixed in with the refugee crowd, and escaped out of the city."

"Oh, it's not a big deal actually. It's just that this time, I have more money." Zhu Wenkui was a little embarrassed: "Some time ago, we took turns to go to the battle and went to the rich families in the city for alms every day. So, whether it is materials or manpower, , are actually quite fulfilling.”

Zhu Wenkui thought about it and felt it made sense, so he nodded in agreement.

"Your Majesty is indeed overly concerned. Our sect hates overly complicated etiquette." Captain Jessica also advised: "The Roman Church always requires everyone to use overly complicated and strict etiquette. This is not for faith at all, but for the sake of faith. It’s just to create artificial thresholds for the purpose of forcibly distinguishing between brothers. This is not something worth learning from, but should be abandoned.”

Soon, they came to the small square. In the middle of the open space, there was a tall machine covered with oilcloth. In front of the machine, a group of schoolchildren were studying with their husband.

They talked all the way and walked into the camp. They saw the heroine Jeanna rushing over to greet everyone.

"You're back so soon?" she asked, "Have you eaten?"

"If someone is particularly entangled in this, it only means that he does not approve of you. Whether or not he respects religious precepts and customs is just a reason. Maybe if you enter the church with your left foot, you are insulting him." He shrugged: "This kind of People just ignore it.”

"It's strange. Did it really explode?" Tuohuan was very confused: "There must be some traces, right?"

"This didn't delay the school, it's really good." Tuo Huan praised again.

"Anyway, everyone has everything they say, and they often contradict each other. I actually don't think it's reliable, but I don't know who to believe." She spread her hands and said, "I can only keep looking."

"It's okay. We have already told Jin Yiwei about this matter. They are at fault this time and are willing to do their best to help us find it." Zhu Wenkui said.

"No." Heroine Jeanna shook her head.

"Everyone is working overtime and rebuilding, and there is no one to take care of the children. I thought it would be better to gather together and go to class. This Mr. Wu was also temporarily found from the city. He is very responsible and allows him to have free time on weekdays. Just help him take care of his children."

Over there, the teacher also saw them and called the children to get up and come over to welcome them. Next to him, Li Li, whom he had met several times before, was squatting next to a pile of wood, whittling a stick with his sword. Seeing someone coming, I quickly put down my things and rushed over.

"Hey? Is it your turn today?" Zhu Wenkui asked: "What are you..."

"It was supposed to be Lao Li today, but he had something to do in the city, so he changed shifts with me." Li Li replied, "I'm sharpening pens for everyone. I'll make some pens for use later."

"The craftsmanship is pretty good. Work harder and you can make all the study utensils yourself." Zhu Wenkui encouraged.

"Don't look at him like this, he is the most educated among our group." Tang Saier told everyone: "Although he comes from a remote place, his family is actually a cultural person passed down from his ancestors. Unlike I am a person who has studied elementary school."

"No, Miss Third has received the award." Li Li said modestly: "In this life, I will never have the opportunity to take the imperial examination, and I have always been a little unwilling. Therefore, I also want my children to read more. In the future, there will always be opportunities to use it. .”

"Then you just need to take our test." Tuohuan immediately began to recruit: "We don't pick people here. You can take the test if you know Chinese characters."

"Ouch! Thank you Taiji!" Li Li's eyes lit up and he became energetic: "The Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty didn't take me, but there is a place where I can take the exam. By the way, your country - uh , In our Qin State, what are the contents of the imperial examination? Like the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, are they based on Zhu Xi's annotations?"

"The exam is much easier here." Tuohuan told him: "When we take the local exam, we randomly find examples from the official document format and ask everyone to write a five hundred-word article. If you can write it, you will be considered. If you are selected as a scholar, you can work as an errand in the county-level government; you can also take the imperial examination after that, and you must memorize passages from several designated scriptures according to the requirements of the year. If you can write it three times, you will be considered a candidate and you can be appointed to any position. position."

"Are these too simple?" Li Li was a little skeptical: "What about the Jinshi at the top?"

"Jinshi has not been recruiting people for several years." Tuohuan told him: "That requirement is too high. It is actually an honorary title given to writers. We actually don't need people of this level to participate in administrative work. So if it's empty, it's empty." "Then why not recruit?" Li Li asked puzzledly.

"We are all in contact with Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and we also know that the scholars and candidates here are actually just borrowing their names. The exam itself is to check whether their cultural level is enough to participate in civil service work." Tuo Huan explained: "But at that time, the imperial court felt that we still had to deal with Eastern countries. We are all at this level. What should we do if we are laughed at?"

"So, when we were selecting Jinshi, we directly copied what they did and asked everyone to write policy papers and so on on the spot. However, this is really too difficult. Candidates often force themselves to do it, and often write in a mess, citing metaphors. It’s unjust. So often no one can qualify for a long time.”

"That's it...but if you still don't want to relax the standards, this is acceptable." Li Li nodded and said: "After all, these people are used for external exchanges. It is enough to have a few scholars to support the scene."

"Yes."

"Then how often does this exam take place?" Li Li continued to ask.

"It won't work this year either. It shouldn't be possible." Tuo Huan thought about it and said.

"The level of the candidates is limited. If you don't pass the exam, you won't pass it, but the exam itself still has to be held, right?" Li Li asked curiously: "Is there too few people who meet the standards and there is nothing that can be done?"

"It still needs to be done." Tuohuan scratched his head and said: "When Mr. Qitai was here before, we always asked him to evaluate the papers. He was Jieyuan of the Ming Dynasty and was a Jinshi. We think there is still Authoritative enough. But in the past two years, he has also gone out with King Wu, and several other old gentlemen we can find are not available, so it is more troublesome. "

"Before Mr. Qitai left, we asked him to leave a few questions to prepare for use in the next few years. But later we found that the Ming-style imperial examination question was too difficult, and our examiners could not write it themselves..." He said with some embarrassment: "So now, even if you have the ability, you probably have to wait. Because no one will mark the papers now, the exam will naturally not be able to go on..."

"Ah?" Li Li was dumbfounded: "What should we do?"

"It stands to reason that only one Jinshi can examine other Jinshi, so now, we really have nothing to do." Tuohuan said: "But the Ministry of Rites said that if it is not possible, Mrs. Huang will be invited to preside over next year's exam. Her cultural level should Not inferior to the bachelors of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. In this regard, the authority should be sufficient."

"Then, this lady..." Li Li was a little confused: "I'm not questioning her knowledge. It's just that this exam is not a test against the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It uses the rules of Zhu Xi in the Central Plains? Can a woman be allowed to do so? Will you participate?"

"At that time in the Southern Song Dynasty, women were not allowed to take the imperial examinations, but it was not that they were not allowed to take the examinations of others." Tuohuan said wittily: "So Zhu Xi didn't object to this, right."

"……what?"

Although he still didn't quite understand, Li Li still thanked him politely. Immediately afterwards, he and Mr. Wu took a schoolchild out of the crowd and prepared to show it to the group.

"We have more than 80 children here." Mr. Wu introduced: "Most of them are from poor families and have never been exposed to Chinese characters. I am now teaching them from scratch. But this boy has been taught Chinese characters before. He knows some basic classics. In the past two days, he has also helped us educate other children. Over the years I have been teaching, he has the best basics."

"These are all children from poor families. It's really not easy." Tuohuan nodded and asked, "Where did you receive your enlightenment education?"

"Tell me Taiji, my dad works as a carpenter in a theater troupe." The little boy replied crisply: "There is a big sister over there who teaches us some things when she has nothing to do."

"That's very good. I'll learn more from your husband in the future." After Tuohuan praised him, he said to Mr. Wu, "Then he also learns things alone?"

"Yes, I have arranged some famous poems for him and asked him to recite them first." Mr. Wu said and ordered: "Yang Wenli, please memorize "The Theory of Love and Lotus" that I taught you a few days ago."

"Yes, sir." The little boy became obviously nervous, but he still tried his best to recite: "Flowers of land and water, plants and trees, are very cute. Peonies... uh, ever since... the Tang Dynasty, the people of the Tang Dynasty love peonies..."

"I missed it." Mr. Wu said quickly: "There was another sentence before."

"Uh..." The little boy seemed unable to remember.

"In this article, I told you at the time, what kind of flowers are there?" The gentleman prompted when he saw that no one objected.

"There are lotuses, peonies, and chrysanthemums." The little boy knew this time.

"Yes, look, who is missing?" said the gentleman.

"Oh, I forgot about the chrysanthemum." The little boy was very embarrassed: "That's, uh... flowers of water, land and vegetation. They are very cute. Uh..."

"Who likes chrysanthemums the most?" the gentleman reminded again.

"Oh, Tang Huangchao only loves chrysanthemums, but others love peonies very much..." The little boy tried to carry it by force.

Mr. Wu had a collapsed expression and didn't know what to say for a moment. Guo Kang, Zhu Wenkui and others couldn't help laughing, while Tang Saier quickly asked curiously: "What's wrong with this? I think it rhymes? Isn't it right?"

"No, no. What he said is right..." Guo Kang couldn't help but laugh.

"Why do you remember Huang Chao?" Zhu Wenkui said with a smile.

"I know Huang Chao's poems!" As if to make up for the failure, the little boy also said quickly: "When autumn comes on September 8th, I will bloom and kill hundreds of flowers. The fragrance of the sky will penetrate Chang'an, and the city will be filled with golden armor—— I can do this!"

"Yes, that's right." Guo Kang nodded: "Do you like Tang poetry?"

"That article is too long, and I like Tang poetry very much." The little boy explained: "I taught it to my younger brothers yesterday!"

"Then which poet do you like?" Guo Kang asked.

"Our favorite is the great poet Huang Chao!" the schoolchildren replied happily.

"Okay, okay, this level of education is very good outside." Zhu Wenkui repeatedly said to Tuo Huan and others: "I think we should ask the next one."

(End of this chapter)