Chapter 88: Earning Family Foundation

The Prince of Badong pointed his finger and laughed: "Good for you, Wang Yang! Interesting! This discussion... I'll judge you as the winner! From now on, the commandery school will be the only official school in Jingzhou!"

Hearing this, Liu Tan raised his head suddenly, moved his pale lips, and seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he was powerless to speak.

The smile on Xie Xinghan's clear and beautiful eyebrows melted like snow.

And Liu Cheng looked at Wang Yang, his eyes becoming more and more gloomy.

A burst of cheers erupted from the commandery school students!

All the scholars who studied the *Modern Text Book of Documents* were beaming!

And those Confucian scholars who studied the *Ancient Text Book of Documents* were dejected, like eggplants beaten by frost.

Xu Bozhen and Shen Linsi had faces full of unwillingness, but they had no confidence to go to the Prince to argue. They knew that if there were no accidents, from today on, the learning of the *Modern Text Book of Documents* would probably flourish in the world, while the *Ancient Text Book of Documents* lineage would gradually decline and eventually have no power to contend with the modern text.

Ten soldiers carried five large baskets full of coins, shining brightly under the sunlight.

The Prince of Badong said casually to Wang Yang: "These one hundred thousand coins belong to you."

Wang Yang, who was poorer than his face at this time, felt his heartbeat speed up!

He knew before that the winner would have a reward of one hundred thousand coins, but knowing is one thing, seeing it with his own eyes is another.

With these five large baskets of ancient coins placed here, Wang Yang instantly felt dazzling!

However,

He couldn't accept it.

Promises must be kept; this is Wang Yang's principle of life.

After Wang Yang entered Jingzhou City, he had no money. The first night's accommodation was provided by the Black Man, and the first bowl of snail porridge was also drunk at the Black Man's house. A-Wu sold her hair, the Black Man pawned his knife; he remembered all these favors.

Perhaps some people would say that since the money has been repaid, the favor is repaid, and there is no need to spend energy.

But human feelings are not calculations. Calculating back and forth not only makes it boring, but also makes it impossible to make friends.

Wang Yang bowed and said loudly: "Your Highness! This junior does not want the one hundred thousand coins, but only wants to ask Your Highness for a favor!"

Actually, Wang Yang had thought about declining only half of the reward, so he could still get fifty thousand coins, but first, he was afraid the Prince wouldn't help, and second, doing so would be too cheap, making people doubt his identity as a member of the Langya Wang family, so he had to decline it all.

Everyone was silent, not knowing what Wang Yang meant.

The Prince of Badong looked at Wang Yang, his expression peculiar: "Ask me for a favor?"

"Yes." Wang Yang took a piece of paper from his sleeve and presented it with both hands: "Please grant the two military household father and daughter to this junior as retainers."

The guard stepped forward and transferred the paper with A-Wu and the Black Man's identity information to the Prince of Badong. The Prince of Badong didn't take it, just looked at it from a distance and said coldly:

"I don't like helping people. The one hundred thousand coins were promised by the Prince in advance; it's your business if you don't want them."

Wang Yang's heart skipped a beat,

This face changed too fast!

"However..." The Prince of Badong suddenly remembered something, and his tone changed, "However, if you can help the Prince with a favor, it will be different. Jingzhou had a small drought last year, grain prices soared, and scholar-official grain merchants hoarded goods and raised prices, and the price climbed higher and higher. The government office repeatedly issued rewards to prohibit people from increasing rice prices, but the prices did not fall but rose."

Speaking of this, the Prince of Badong turned to ask Kong Zhangyu: "How much did you say it rose to yesterday?"

Kong Zhangyu immediately said: "Rice is three hundred and twenty-four coins per hu."

"If you can lower the rice price, the Prince will handle the matter of turning military households into retainers for you."

Wang Yang thought for a few seconds, looked up and smiled, and said loudly:

"This is simple, my family's grain transport ships will arrive in three days, fifteen large ships, all new rice! I will sell them at the original price. Ten days later, another thirty ships of grain will arrive, and I will still sell them at the original price!"

Hearing this news, others were fine, after all, it was the Langya Wang family, transporting a few ships of grain was nothing. But Xie Xinghan's eyes showed suspicion.

The Prince of Badong asked casually, and didn't expect Wang Yang to have any way. Now hearing that Wang Yang really had a way, he said happily: "Are your words true?"

Wang Yang said: "Of course it's true! If the rice price doesn't fall in three days, I am willing to accept the Prince's punishment!"

"Good! It's a deal! Three days later, the Prince will host a banquet to reward your merit! Don't let the Prince down..."

"There is one more thing, the military household I want to keep is a soldier at the A-Qu garrison, who is going to be transferred to Tianmen Commandery tomorrow. If the schedule is missed, the consequences..."

The Prince of Badong waved his hand: "Then what's the transfer? Forget it!"

Wang Yang said happily: "Thank you, Your Highness!"

The Prince of Badong left, but the five large baskets of money remained. I don't know if he meant to exchange help for help, so the money should be given; or if he simply forgot about the money.

Perhaps this fickle Prince didn't care whether he wanted the money or not. People buy several ten-thousand-coin folding fans casually. So wealthy, I think he doesn't care about one hundred thousand coins.

He doesn't care, but I do!

Wang Yang was indifferent on the surface, but he was happy in his heart!

Hahahaha!

After being a pauper for so many days, I finally earned a family foundation!

"Brother Wang! I am Zhou Qiao of Runan, I have long admired your name! Meeting today, I hate that we met so late..."

"Young Master Wang! You said that the commentary made by Kong Anguo in the *Ancient Text Book of Documents* is also fake..."

"Mr. Wang, may I ask how to interpret the sentence 'The human heart is dangerous, the Dao heart is subtle'?"

"Let everyone go! I am a member of the Lujiang He family! I have a friendship with the Langya Wang family..."

"My teacher is above, please accept a bow from the student!"

"Young Master Wang! There are three younger sisters in the family, all with city-toppling beauty, please come to the mansion for a visit!"

"The *Ancient Text Book of Documents* is elegant and mellow, far surpassing the *Modern Text*! You actually dare to reverse right and wrong, slander the classics of the sage, I want to go to the Imperial Academy to report you!"

"Wang Yang! Do you dare to discuss the *Book of Documents: Yu Gong* chapter with me? If you have true talent and learning, come and discuss with me!"

"......"

As soon as the discussion ended, Wang Yang was besieged by Confucian scholars, and even Liu Zhao, Yu Yuling, and others couldn't get close. Wang Yang couldn't answer at all and couldn't get out. He was thinking about a major event in his heart. Seeing that he was surrounded like an iron bucket, he had a flash of inspiration and shouted:

"Everyone! As the saying goes, learning alone without friends leads to isolation and ignorance! I will host a banquet at the commandery school tonight, everyone drink wine and discuss learning, isn't it pleasant? Tonight's banquet only invites thirty people, those interested please leave a name card with Mr. Liu!"

"Also!"

"In the 'Chengde Bookstore' in the South Market of Jingzhou, there is *One Hundred Questions on the Book of Documents* written by me, which mentions one hundred difficult questions about the *Book of Documents*, half of which are related to the authenticity of the *Ancient Text Book of Documents*. Those who can answer thirty questions will be honored as guests by Wang! Fifty questions, Wang will treat as a close friend! Seventy questions, Wang will treat as a teacher!"

Someone in the crowd asked: "What if I can answer one hundred questions?"

"Then go wash and sleep! Wang doesn't make friends who are too good at bragging!"

Everyone laughed.

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Note: You can refer to the historical materials cited by the author for the value of one hundred thousand coins. When Yuan Tan-shen was the magistrate of Lincheng County in the Southern Qi Dynasty, he saved one hundred thousand, and then went home to buy a house to support his brother. The history book says "no private savings," which means one hundred thousand coins were used for buying a house and living expenses for supporting his brother, so it should be considered a small fortune. Wu Di of Song, Liu Yu, sent his daughter to marry, and the cash sent was no more than two hundred thousand (*Book of Song: Annals of Wu Di*: When the princesses married, the delivery was no more than two hundred thousand, without brocade, gold, or jade.)

Of course, Wu Di of Song practiced thrift, and the history book records this to illustrate his thrift, so two hundred thousand can be considered small for the Emperor to marry his daughter. For example, Dao Zhi, who was contemporary with Wu Di, this guy had a duke title and was wealthy, spending one hundred thousand a month (*Book of Southern Qi: Biography of Dao Yanzhi*: "Zhi was wealthy and supported himself thickly, spending one hundred thousand a month for one person"), for him, one hundred thousand was nothing. Moreover, Dao Zhi was not considered a top rich man at that time.

The currency system, prices, gold and silver prices, etc., will all be presented little by little in the later chapters, don't worry. Converting the purchasing power of ancient currency into how much RMB today is actually roughly converted based on rice prices and gold prices (by the way, *Book of Southern Qi: Biography of Prince Yuzhang Yi*: "Yi was the governor of Jing and Xiang provinces, because grain was too cheap, he allowed the people to use rice as mouth money, and the evaluation was one hundred per hu," one hundred coins per hu is considered an excellent evaluation, which shows that the regular price of rice in Jingzhou at that time was no more than one hundred. The price reported by Kong Zhangyu in this chapter is three hundred, which is nearly three times higher).

This kind of conversion is really meaningless, because the value of other things in ancient times, including grain, fluctuates greatly, and it is completely two concepts after the modern industrial society. The further back the era, the less reference value it has.

So if you want to understand the prices at that time, you still have to reconstruct the price system at that time. For example, if you want to know the prices in *Jin Ping Mei*, you don't need to know the value of Ming Dynasty currency, the background of silver circulation, inflation or deflation, just understand how much money each person and each thing spends, and you will know the wealth of each person and the expensiveness of each thing. Based on this, every gesture of the characters will show their mood, and every time they open their purses, their personality will be seen, whether stingy or luxurious, sometimes stingy and sometimes luxurious, all have specific reasons, and the motives and likes and dislikes will be clearly revealed.

Zhang Zhupo said of *Jin Ping Mei*: "Writing about lust is scary, but writing about money is even more powerful, it is truly a pen that chases souls and takes shadows." This is truly an unchanging insight. The word "money" is an important key to interpreting the book. Without understanding this, one can only look at the characters' images, personalities, moods, social relationships, situations, events, and plots superficially, and cannot grasp the essence.

I once organized the spending of *Jin Ping Mei*, which is to classify all the places where money is used, compare them, and then I immediately understood the purchasing power of currency and prices at that time. I also did it for the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but I haven't subdivided it, but since I wrote this novel, it's just another kind of classification. ===== CHAPTER 89 =====