Chapter 316: Forty-five, A Commoner Can Be a Teacher for a Hundred Generations

Forty-five, A Commoner Can Be a Teacher for a Hundred Generations

Jiangzhou, Temple of the Most Holy Teacher, on the crowded square.

The crowd of scholars between the high platform where the clay statue of the Most Holy Teacher stood and the red-lacquered double-door gate flowed like a tide, spontaneously splitting into a road in the middle.

The black crowd on both sides of the road turned their heads, watching the white fox-fur figure walking toward the red-lacquered double-door gate without looking back.

"Commandant Ouyang."

On the silent square, the round-faced young man who had asked the first question suddenly shouted.

Facing countless gazes, and ignoring the indignant look of Yue Ziyang, who was pale and frustrated and looked at him like a traitor, he summoned his courage and asked loudly:

"What do you think we should do now?"

He used a respectful term.

Ouyang Rong's footsteps paused, and he turned his head, facing the expectant, confused, or excited gazes of the young scholars.

Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang also stopped. The two were closest to Ouyang Rong. Looking sideways, they found that the white fox-fur young man in front of them had a complex and hesitant expression, his mouth slightly open.

It seemed he had thousands of words he wanted to say to these hot-blooded young scholars.

Finally, Xie Lingjiang and the others only saw him close his mouth, purse his lips, and then spit out eight words as if laughing at himself:

"Study hard and make progress every day."

The crowd reacted with surprise, silence, or thoughtful chewing.

Ouyang Rong and his party left the Temple of the Most Holy Teacher.

Behind the window of the top floor of a high building not far from the Temple of the Most Holy Teacher.

A cold-looking woman in a crimson palace dress with makeup and painted lips slowly withdrew her gaze.

Having arrived early and listened from the sidelines for a long time, she now had a trace of hesitation in her eyes.

Mistress Miao Zhen turned her head and beckoned.

The palace maids standing on both sides handed over the booklet and vermilion pen again.

Mistress Miao Zhen wrote a few strokes in the booklet, hummed, and left the high building with her palace dress dragging on the ground...

"Miss, stop looking, the person has already left with Miss Xie."

Opposite the Holy Temple, in a small alley planted with newly sprouted willow branches, a clear voice of a young girl came from a carriage that had been quiet for a long time.

The carriage curtain at the side window, which had been lifted at a corner, suddenly fell back to its original position.

Hua Xuanji, another cold, indifferent voice came, indifferent to the tone:

"Who is looking at him? I'm just bored and dazed. Caishou, if you talk nonsense again, I'll tear your mouth?"

Inside the carriage, Caishou looked curiously at her young lady's very impatient pretty face.

Although Li Guoer was now the youngest daughter of the Prince of Xunyang and a noble princess of the imperial clan, the bun-faced little maid who had grown up with her was still accustomed to calling her "Miss," just like in Longcheng.

"Then why did Miss let the coachman stop halfway and wait so long? If it's not looking at Young Master Ouyang, what is it? It can't be that you stopped on the side of the road specifically to be dazed, right? Can't Miss be dazed on the road?"

Caishou asked with a puzzled little face, and then sighed:

"Hey, we agreed to go to Mount Kuanglu to participate in the Xilu Elegant Gathering, but we are going to be late. We definitely won't be able to make it before noon."

Li Guoer's expression remained unchanged, and her voice grew louder:

"This Princess heard that there was excitement to see and thought Yue Ziyang could make Ouyang Lianghan suffer, so I came over. As a result, this Yue Ziyang is useless, his words are not as good as Ouyang Lianghan's, and his ability to adapt to circumstances is far inferior to him, so naturally, I feel bored.

"So can't I be bored and dazed? You sharp-toothed little maid, you actually manage your master. Want a beating?"

"Uh, this servant doesn't dare."

Caishou shrank her head and stuck out her tongue. She thought for a while and couldn't help asking in a low voice:

"It turns out Miss valued that Young Master Yue so much before, even if Young Master Ouyang is an acquaintance from Longcheng, you stood on his side."

Li Guoer turned her face away, was quiet for a while, and pouted: "Otherwise?"

Caishou stuck out her tongue and asked quietly again:

"Miss, did Young Master Ouyang accidentally offend you some time ago? You want to see him make a fool of himself."

"No." Li Guoer denied it flatly, paused, and added: "Just hate handsome ones, can't I?"

"Okay, Miss is truly a strange woman, not judging people by their appearance. One day you might become a good story..."

Caishou praised with some surprise, and halfway through the praise, Li Guoer added:

"Ugly ones are also hated."

Before long, the bun-faced little maid whose head had been burned out left the carriage to tell the coachman to change the route.

The carriage under the willow tree started slowly and left the alley.

In the quiet carriage, Li Guoer lowered her head to hold the cat, turned her back to the Temple of the Most Holy Teacher and the crowd of scholars slowly moving away, her jade hand gently brushing the neck hair of the butterfly slave, chewing on a rather strange and impassioned congratulatory speech:

"Study hard... and make progress every day... Ouyang Lianghan, where are you going to 'go up'?"

Biting her lip and dazed, not knowing what she was thinking, she suddenly imitated her great-grandfather, whom she had only seen in portraits:

"The heroes of the world are all in my trap."

The number of people watching the excitement at the Temple of the Most Holy Teacher this morning was far more than Mistress Miao Zhen and Li Guoer.

It also included the sharp-faced butler specially sent by Wang Lengran to see Ouyang Rong make a fool of himself.

This warm and thoughtful Jiangzhou Cishi Wang even drew a batch of soldiers in advance and ordered them to wait in the alley on the next street.

He waited attentively for the scene where someone who was bold enough to go to the meeting alone would be beaten by angry scholars, preparing to clean up his embarrassed and downcast scene.

It would be fine if it were more intense, preferably another Liuzhou tragedy, well, but the bleeding side changed to the Jiangzhou Commandant, that would be interesting.

However, the new news brought back by the sharp-faced butler who ran back in a hurry made Wang Lengran's heart skip a beat, not only because his calculations failed, but he paced back and forth in the hall, frowning and wandering for a moment.

Wang Lengran, whose political sense was as sharp as a dog's, felt something was wrong, and his face couldn't help but become anxious.

In the following days.

The response of the Jiangzhou literati was even greater than Wang Lengran imagined.

It made his heart cold and jealous.

There was the word-of-mouth spread by the participating scholars, there were those who organized it into a book, and there were letters between scholar friends.

The public response between Jiangzhou Commandant Ouyang Lianghan and the Jiangzhou provincial school scholars at the Temple of the Most Holy Teacher spread widely in Xunyang City.

Then it was the entire Jiangzhou literati, then spread to several surrounding provinces, then to the Jiang Nan Circuit literati, and finally spread from south to north...

Perhaps it was because Ouyang Lianghan himself had the top reputation of a gentleman, and any slightly peculiar move would be a topic for everyone, not to mention that it hit the first hot spot at the moment.

It may also be that the local government offices in various places have been shrinking for too long in the wave of young scholars criticizing the Hub and statue building, and they want to use the Jiangzhou case to calm the noise in their own territory for public and private reasons, so they intentionally or unintentionally pushed the waves and helped the spread of Jiangzhou Commandant Ouyang Lianghan's response remarks...

In less than a month, this matter spread throughout the world's literati, causing heated and widespread discussion among scholars.

Correspondingly, the handwritten manuscripts recording the response between Ouyang Rong and the Jiangzhou scholars at the Holy Temple were widely read in the north and south literary circles.

Some supported, some opposed.

Several provincial inspectors and governors spoke publicly to support Ouyang Lianghan, citing the words "study hard, make progress every day" no less than ten times.

There were also some local officials who followed suit, imitating the Jiangzhou Holy Temple case, and responding to angry young scholars in the sage temple to gain fame...

And so on.

Of course, there were also many literati who held the same attitude as Yue Ziyang, fiercely attacking Ouyang Lianghan.

However, these fierce arguments among the literati spread the Jiangzhou Holy Temple response further and longer, becoming the cusp of public opinion in the world in early spring.

One word becomes the law for the world, a commoner can be a teacher for a hundred generations.

Ouyang Rong also helplessly became the kind of opinion leader he had mentioned before.

As the first person to eat crab, his calm and sharp performance at the Holy Temple stood out among the local officials in various provinces who were burying their heads like ostriches.

These naturally also attracted close attention from the Great Zhou imperial court far away in Luoyang.

In the court of the Divine Capital, most of the pro-Li ministers who tended to be conservative in the establishment privately expressed their stance and praised the matter.

An elderly and taciturn purple-robed minister rarely spoke.

"Jiangzhou Commandant Lianghan, his temperament is firm and bright, his talent is excellent for economy, his integrity is strong, and his reputation is flourishing. He is a rare talent in Jiang Nan."

The old man commented publicly at a birthday banquet, and for a time, this remark spread throughout the Divine Capital, and people talked about it with relish.

Night, Shangyang Palace.

The main hall named "Guanfeng" was tall, imposing, neat, and solemn.

The eighteen candles, each as thick as an infant's arm, hung from the trays on the palace pillars, casting the shadows of a group of Vermilion-Robed Qi-Observers, who were slowly retreating, onto the gold-brick paved floor.

The main hall was empty again, with only the echo of fingers tapping lightly on the gold-inlaid jade armrest.

On the dragon chair at the head of the main hall, the Great Zhou Empress Wei Zhao sat high, her gray hair under the crown combed meticulously.

She tapped the armrest with her curved fingers, looking down at the small booklet presented from Jiangzhou thousands of miles away.

"A good 'debate on boat and water', this child has great courage... Heh, study hard and make progress every day, interesting..."

A faint, imperceptible smile appeared on the corner of the dragon-robed old woman's mouth.

A short while later, the rhythmic tapping in front of the dragon chair stopped abruptly.

She turned her head and said:

"Did Rong Zhen."

"Here."

A cold young girl walked out of the shadows behind the hall pillars, wearing a crimson palace dress the same as Mistress Miao Zhen's, who was far away in Jiangzhou.

Compared to the palace-dressed woman far away in Jiangzhou, the palace-dressed girl was much more petite, in her green years, and was also a colorful-clothed female official serving before the imperial throne.

The dragon-robed old woman gave a few orders without raising her eyelids.

The cold girl named Did Rong Zhen left immediately, went to the Imperial Study of the Ziwei Palace overnight, retrieved a memorial that had been pressed at the bottom of the box for a long time, and presented it to the imperial desk.

Hua Xuanji, she retreated into the darkness behind the hall pillars like a transparent person, without any sound.

Empress Wei Zhao picked up the memorial and browsed it with drooping eyes.

The man's handwriting on the memorial was elegant and unrestrained, with thousands of words, calculating an account that made her quite big-headed.

Why is he like the old man of the country, liking to calculate accounts?

After a while, Empress Wei Zhao slowly put down the memorial, supporting her chin with the back of her hand, and the aged face with loose nasolabial folds showed a thoughtful look.

A moment later, she suddenly said:

"Did Rong Zhen, copy this memorial, omit the name, send it to the Hall of Government Affairs, let the gentlemen discuss it, and then draft an imperial decree and present it."

"Yes, Saint."

In the darkness behind the hall pillars, the cold girl's palace dress covered the cold floor, and she knelt to receive the decree.

When transcribing this memorial that she only felt was long-winded and ordinary, she glanced at the four-character name and ignored it...

The next morning, at the Hall of Government Affairs meeting where Master Di was absent,

The gentlemen curiously discovered that a colorful-clothed female official favored by the Empress had sent an unsigned memorial, and they passed it around...

In the afternoon, the Hall of Government Affairs drafted a brand new imperial decree and sent it back to the imperial desk in the palace.

Empress Wei Zhao reviewed it and drew a circle with a vermilion pen.

The next day, an imperial decree was issued to the court and made known to the world.

Regarding the deadline for the "Praise-Virtue Copper" and the construction deadline for the Buddha statues in the four directions, all provinces in the world were granted extensions ranging from three to six months depending on the situation.

At the same time, the imperial decree also appropriately relaxed some construction specifications for the Great Zhou Praise-Virtue Hub and the Buddha statues in the four directions, and appropriately reduced the budget...

The issuance of new regulations caused a heated discussion.

For a time, the slight change in the attitude of the Great Zhou Empress and the unfathomable holy heart made most of the court officials and local officials astonished.

That morning, at the morning court in the Ziwei Palace,

The two Wei princes were expressionless.

The purple-robed ministers glanced at the figure of the dragon-robed old woman who was as steady as a mountain above.

They exchanged glances silently and bowed their heads.

Luoyang, night.

In Jishan Ward on the south bank of the Luo River, in a prime minister's mansion.

The lights in the study were not extinguished. The elderly and hunched Master Di sat at the table in casual clothes, squinting and browsing the handwritten manuscript that was widely circulated in Luoyang repeatedly by the light.

There was also a middle-aged official in crimson clothes in the study, who was the Imperial Censor Shen Xisheng.

Shen Xisheng sat on a wooden chair in front of the study desk, poured himself a cup of hot tea, and whispered about the latest imperial decree of the Empress's change in attitude, as well as the general reactions of the two Wei princes and the gentlemen in the court.

Master Di bowed his head over the desk, not knowing if he had listened.

Shen Xisheng could only continue to speak with the help of the fat old man's occasional light "hmm" nasal sound.

After a stick of incense, he finished speaking about the court affairs and stopped.

Seeing that the Master still had no reaction, he glanced at the familiar, widely circulated handwritten manuscript in the Master's hand.

"This high disciple of Brother Xie has been in the limelight again recently."

Shen Xisheng said with a smile, mentioning some evaluations of Ouyang Lianghan by other big figures in the court, and asked with interest:

"Master, what do you think?"

Master Di glanced at the strange gadget called an abacus on the table and commented:

"Not doing his proper job."

After a pause, the fat old man nodded slightly: "But it is timely."

Shen Xisheng was slightly stunned, chewed on the four words in front, and had some curiosity in his eyes.

Master Di did not explain.

After a while, Shen Xisheng left with some doubts.

After the person left, the study became quiet.

Master Di reached out and took an abacus, operated it quite skillfully, and shook his head.

This was a strange little gift sent by someone through his mentor, which seemed to be made of bamboo split by hand.

He had been asking for leave at home recently, and studying this thing in his spare time was quite a way to kill time.

"Even I am following him and not doing my proper job."

The old man added a sentence, sighed and stood up, and walked silently to the inner room.

The next day, the Shen Fengge in the Ziwei Palace.

"Ma... Master."

"Hmm."

Master Di, who had been sick for many days, wore a neat and stiff official uniform, carried an abacus, passed by the stunned Shen Fengge officials who greeted him, and walked into the solemn main hall that he had been away from for more than a month.

As usual, he walked to the seat by the window, lowered his head to wipe the thin layer of dust on the desk with his sleeve, and organized the piles of documents.

The Shen Fengge officials either looked sideways or ran to tell each other.

The fat old man picked up a document and looked at it, somewhat worried: "Spending money again."

A brand-new abacus he had brought along was placed by him on the old wooden table full of bamboo slips of the Great Zhou Dynasty's annual taxes and national treasury profits and losses.

The news of Master Di's return from leave spread to all government offices in the palace that morning, and for a time, it shocked the inside and outside of the court.

In the evening, before the Shen Fengge went off duty, the Saint's carriage arrived at the gate of the Shen Fengge as scheduled, and the Empress personally comforted the old minister and bestowed heavy gifts.

Outside the Shen Fengge gate, the Son of Heaven asked with concern, and the old minister answered with emotion.

For a time, in the eyes of everyone, the monarch and minister were harmonious, and the relationship seemed to have returned to the beginning.

The string in the Luoyang court that had been tight for several months finally loosened a little...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 317 =====