Chapter 882: The Imperial Court Establishes Academies

"That's the flavor!"

Hu Qi and Xiang Zhangsong pointed at their junior brother simultaneously and burst into laughter, laughing without any restraint.

The night wind whistled, the banners on the perimeter walls fluttered, and the orange lanterns beneath the eaves swayed, their light flickering.

Liang Qu laughed heartily in response.

The apprentices outside the trio were confused, but seeing the usually stern Cao Shixiong Hu and Cao Shixiong Xiang so joyful, they felt a sense of unreality; infected by the mood, they too grinned.

Moonlight and lamplight intertwined.

Shadows loomed.

Within the looming shadows, there was longing.

Xiang Zhangsong gripped Liang Qu's neck tightly: "Epiphanies, only when spoken from your mouth, Liang Shidi, do they sound as common as a home-cooked meal!"

"Wait," Hu Qi suggested with a straight face, "Let's have Master move the Martial Academy again. Spend some silver, let Liang Shidi Liang have another epiphany. This deal, I think, is worth it."

"Agreed!" Xiang Zhangsong raised both hands in support.

"Another ten years wouldn't be of any use." Liang Qu stopped smiling and looked up at the moon. "Flowers have a day to bloom again, but a man never returns to his youth. I haven't stood on the stakes in the Huaiyin Martial Academy, nor learned martial arts from you senior brothers; what use would moving it again be?"

"That's true."

Xiang Zhangsong let go of Liang Qu.

A sense of despondency suddenly arose in the three of them.

Sadness?

It wasn't sadness.

Perhaps it was nostalgia.

Year after year, the flowers look the same; year after year, the people are different.

"Let's go! Since you're here for the first time, I'll take some time to lead our Liang Shidi to see our new Martial Academy! Thinking back, I was the one who led you back then too."

"Are you still leading them now, Cao Shixiong?"

"Not anymore." Xiang Zhangsong shook his head. "Back then, there were only thirty or forty people in a batch, and we wouldn't get a newcomer for two or three days, so we led them when we were idle. Now, we get over a dozen sign-ups a day, and the academy is huge; where would I find the time? Only you, Liang Shidi, get this treatment."

"I'm flattered." Liang Qu looked back at the apprentices who had taken root and refused to leave. "It's too late, everyone, don't just stand there. Go eat. Those who go home, go home; those who stay, stay. Don't worry, I'll be here for the next three days, no need to rush."

"Three days?" The apprentices in front were invigorated. "Is that true, Baron Xingyi?"

"It's true!"

"Wuhu!"

Cheers rose like a tide.

Certain that they had a chance to see him again, the bustling crowd dispersed like birds and beasts.

Hu Qi and Xiang Zhangsong shook their heads with a laugh, grabbed the cloth bags filled with spikes from the ground, and led Liang Qu along the corridors to circle the Martial Academy, pointing out the sights.

"Our Martial Academy is vastly different from the old martial arts hall. We have everything now. Not to mention the stables—five large ones and one small one, six in total, capable of holding over a hundred large horses. There are also five training grounds, two large and three small."

"Behind the academy, there are nearly forty square courtyards for students to stay in. One large courtyard has four rooms; the larger ones can house fifty people with bunk beds, and the smaller ones sixteen. There are twenty-five cooks specifically for the cafeteria and twenty-five handymen. We have five meal windows a day, adding up to fifty people."

"You wouldn't know, they're all half-grown boys who can eat and poop. The night soil buckets in each room aren't enough. Just for the public toilets, there are ten nearby. The night soil collectors have to come three times a day; if they don't, it would overflow in less than three days."

"Hahaha."

Liang Qu couldn't help but laugh.

Over a thousand people, with seven or eight hundred residing here—eating, drinking, excreting, logistics, and supply; managing it is definitely not a simple matter.

Eating, boiling water, delivering firewood, cleaning, laundry—just doing these rough tasks requires hundreds of people. The monthly wages and food consumption cost no less than a thousand taels. Plus, there are medicinal baths, food expenses, injuries...

If it were the old Yixing Town with a thousand people, counting half as able-bodied men, that would be five hundred. This could solve the employment problem for the entire town.

"Eh, do we have a pharmacy in the academy?"

Liang Qu pointed to a small house inside the Martial Academy.

A vertical plaque for Changchun Medical Hall hung on the left side of the small house, and two servants in cloth shirts were busy inside with scales.

"Yes, a small shop from Changchun Hospital, opened directly inside. There are many common herbs for invigorating blood and Qi. Some apprentices find what the martial arts hall provides isn't enough and open their own 'small stoves.' The black-spotted frogs and golden-threaded leeches you raised were all sent here this year."

"Usually, if a weak apprentice catches a cold, they all get medicine from here. Besides, for the staff in the academy, if they have any minor ailments, they don't need to go outside to find a physician; we calculate it at cost price inside."

"Do people fight?"

"Yes! How could they not? It happens several times a month. Nine out of ten times it ends in blood, and it's impossible to manage." Mentioning this, Xiang Zhangsong's head throbbed.

"I guessed as much."

"Fighting is a small matter," Hu Qi said.

"A small matter? Don't tell me someone died?"

"Heh, you guessed right, Liang Shidi. It almost cost a life! Last month, a male apprentice dragged a female apprentice into his small courtyard—one was sixteen, the other fifteen. If someone hadn't come to tip us off, they would have been stripped bare in the room. That time, my soul was almost scared out of me!"

Xiang Zhangsong looked shaken.

Liang Qu almost choked on his saliva: "And then?"

There was certainly no rule against early romance in the academy, but romance is romance; without being betrothed, one absolutely cannot cross the line.

"Later, we didn't dare let them continue studying and had their parents take them back. I don't know how it turned out, but I heard they are preparing to get betrothed..."

"Strange."

They chattered about many trivial matters.

As the saying goes, in a large forest, there are all kinds of birds. Especially with restless youth, the gossip was much more exciting than in the old martial arts hall.

It was an eye-opener.

"I saw plum blossom stakes in the middle of the lake when I arrived? Is that for water combat training?"

"Do you remember what we taught before, Liang Shidi?"

"I remember, Ape, Tiger, and Crane fist techniques. Li Libo and I learned Ape Fist, and Chen Jiechang learned Tiger Fist."

"Back then, it was just enlightenment, and at best, we could cultivate to the second or third stage. Now it's different. We teach everything up to the fourth stage and even the Galloping Horse Realm. The three enlightenment fist techniques have expanded to seven, covering a wider range."

"Besides the old three, there are Snake, Mantis, Bear, and Horse, and later there is the Whale Breath Qi Circulation Method, etc. Underwater cultivation has miraculous effects. Besides the techniques, we teach all eighth and ninth-grade martial arts, which are lower-middle and middle-class."

"Half of the martial arts are for water combat. That's why the Martial Academy had to move to Sturgeon Cave; the lake is small, making it less prone to accidents."

Liang Qu understood.

People from different places definitely have different inclinations for martial arts.

The North has many open and closing movements, typically Cangzhou, while the South has many water combat techniques.

With two underwater techniques under their belt, it's much easier to 'apply' for a job at the River-Lake Office.

"Can you handle it?"

"We can't. We're exhausted every day. Hundreds of people's accommodation, a pile of messy things—this needs changing, that needs modifying. Now Senior Sister Zhuo and Cao Shixiong Cao plan to come over to help. Our martial arts hall has a large cash flow now, and people even donate money for the Martial Academy's grand competition every six months. It's December soon, the second competition this year."

"What about Cao Shixiong Xu? Isn't he very idle?"

"Cao Shixiong Xu has been here all along! How many years has it been?"

"Ah?"

"When you arrived, Liang Shidi, Cao Shixiong Hu and I didn't have very high cultivation bases. We hadn't learned for two years, and at that time, the martial arts hall was led by Cao Shixiong Xu alone. After we reached the fourth stage, Cao Shixiong Xu became a hands-off manager. Wasn't the spear technique you learned before taught by Cao Shixiong Xu?"

Liang Qu pinched his brow.

"I just thought it was because we were direct disciples, and Cao Shixiong Xu happened to know how to use a spear..."

"Hahaha, that's part of it. Cao Shixiong Xu is the fourth senior brother. Up to him, Master stopped teaching much, only passing down techniques, either high-level martial arts or the Wansheng Baoyuan."

"The daily sparring and practice are all led by the senior brothers for the junior brothers. Master is the head of the academy, Cao Shixiong Xu is the hall master, and Cao Shixiong Hu and I are instructors, giving lectures..."

Chatting under the moon, shadows overlapped and intertwined.

The three talked about a lot.

Liang Qu stepped on the rammed earth training ground. Hu Qi used to spar with him on such a ground, and it was there he first learned the 'essence' of a martial artist.

Now the training ground is larger and wider.

He twisted his shoe tip in the sand, kicking away gravel.

"Cao Shixiong, can you write down the development model of the Martial Academy and give it to me?"

"Liang Shidi, what do you want it for..."

"I have some ideas in my head. If I report them up, maybe I can get some credit."

Liang Qu briefly explained his train of thought.

"Let the Imperial Court open martial academies?" Xiang Zhangsong frowned. "Isn't that impractical? Not to mention the funding from local government offices, where would they get so many people? Where is the benefit?"

"That's why we don't run small ones, we run big ones."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 883 =====