Chapter Thirty-Four: The First Painting (Part 1)

  "Why not?"

  "Will Dr. Zhang agree?" Song Jiu asked, no wonder earlier when he came in, he saw Dr. Zhang's face looking gloomy, as if someone had died at home, he is a knowledgeable person, how would he be willing to pretend!

  "He also disagreed. Earlier, I persuaded him for a long time, all for the imperial court. Moreover, 'a tall tree catches the wind', do you want to be the first person in the Song Dynasty?"

  "Your Excellency, please don't put a hat on me. This is the first person in academia, and the nature of that first person with Your Majesty is different. However, for the imperial court, I don't care, but there's one thing that's difficult to handle."

  "Just give the answer, and Dr. Zhang won't mention the process. It will be considered as both of your achievements, and it will spread as a good story, which is also beneficial to the reputation of this book house. Moreover, you can use it to establish an even bigger academy in the future."

  "It's not... okay, never mind," Song Jiu originally wanted to say that it wasn't easy to deal with, because the ratio answer for the third question was 81.92%. He remembered this question vividly, recalling how his cousin had brought it up and stumped him for half a day. No wonder it appeared on the middle school exam paper, causing the test-takers to wail in despair. It's just that if you think about it, this porcelain workshop produces this kind of porcelain, ten times out of eight times they produce high-quality porcelain, twice they produce low-quality porcelain, and high-quality porcelain can earn 40 cents per piece, while low-quality porcelain loses 10 cents. The probability of producing four pieces of porcelain to make a profit of no less than 100 cents is 8,192 times out of 10,000 opportunities. If you say it's in the tens of percent, it's still acceptable, but relying on Zhang Doctor using his current bamboo abacus, what level can he calculate the probability to be 81.92%? Is he also a Zuchongzhi? The answer comes out, and others won't believe it either.

  One has to write out the formula themselves, and at least write two thousand words of explanation, deducing dozens of related formulas, in order for extremely intelligent people to understand it. Intelligent but not extremely intelligent people will still be unable to understand it.

  It doesn't matter, Zhao Kuangyin gave himself 150 taels of gold, and he can do whatever he wants.

  "How much?" Liu Gonggong didn't see the rabbit and didn't scatter the hawk.

  81,192 ten-thousandths.

  Liu Gonggong wasn't stupid, and upon hearing this, he broke out in a cold sweat: "How can there be such a complicated answer?"

  "It's not complicated, I really did give away those five hundred bolts of silk."

  "What about the three questions you promised to answer last night?"

  Song Jiucheng took out the three questions he wrote that morning, and Liu Gonggong looked at them again and broke into a cold sweat: "Can they be calculated?"

  "If I couldn't figure it out, why would I write it? It's not for the students, if there are mistakes, it doesn't matter. This is something His Majesty has entrusted to me, how could I dare be negligent? Therefore, yesterday after drinking too much wine, I didn't dare write."

  "Yes, yes." Liu Gonggong carefully folded the paper and Song Jiu carefully hid the gold. The two of them carefully handled the matter, and Liu Gonggong left with a satisfied heart, holding the twenty or so taels of silver given to him by Song Jiu as a reward.

  Receiving the second batch of guests.

  Two more shopkeepers came, just as they were about to speak, Song Jiu waved his hand and didn't even bring a gift. He wanted to take the students away, but it was impossible. He said: "I understand your intentions, gentlemen, but I cannot agree. Firstly, the first student's training period is too short, he can't leave yet. Secondly, this batch of students are needed by the imperial court, and I don't dare let them go. Otherwise, His Majesty will blame me, and neither of us can afford it."

  Everyone looked at each other in dismay.

  "If you all have good intentions, look at it in a year's time. Although the imperial court wants to use it, they may not necessarily use it completely. You can come back then."

  If we follow Song Jiuxiang's approach, one year is not enough, at least three years are needed. Now that the law has been clearly established and two doctoral students are desperately teaching the classics, they will soon be exploited by themselves, and three years will not be enough, at least five years would be better. But this is impossible, the court can't wait, these students' families can't wait either, many families are struggling to make ends meet, and one year is the limit. This is the sorrow and pitifulness of poor families, being an official is no exception, the poorer the family, the more likely their children will become officials with extreme polarization, because they are poor, they can produce good officials like Fan Zhongyan, but also because they are poor, they are afraid of poverty, and the proportion of corrupt officials is higher.

  But the minimum period is one year, and later Song Jiu will also tell this matter to the students.

  It's necessary to stick it out for a year, thinking about graduating as an apprentice. At the very least, you must be proficient in using an abacus, able to write 2,500 commonly used Chinese characters from memory, and recognize over 4,000 Chinese characters. This means that when holding a book or account book, there shouldn't be many characters you don't recognize. Your math skills should at least reach the level of elementary school graduation, mastering some junior high knowledge, and understanding some physics and geography knowledge. Only then can you graduate as an apprentice. As for things like Confucian classics, laws, and regulations, forget about it. It's just that during this time, Song Jiuyi still considered that they were all young people, teenagers over 13 years old, with mature thinking, able to absorb knowledge quickly. Otherwise, one year would not be enough for them to graduate as apprentices.

  However, these people were quite clever. One of them took a look at the Song family's house and said, "Although this is a poor area, the Song family occupies a very large area with many houses. Ninth brother, why don't we invest to help you rebuild two more school buildings? You can expand your enrollment and take in some more students."

  "It's not possible, no one taught them, expanding enrollment will harm them!" Song Jiudao said resolutely. What a joke, they're already busy with their own affairs, and now they want to expand enrollment? They'll be asking for trouble! Maybe in two or three years, some of these students will come back to teach after paying their own way, but how can that happen now?

  Send these people away and look at Sister Wu: "Sister Wu, rare guest."

  "Xiao Jiu, are you blaming me?"

  "Eldest sister, what brings you here today? Three sisters have come together, what's the occasion?"

  "Look at you, all officials appointed by the imperial court, yet none of you have any proper demeanor. Can't you speak like I did to those shopkeepers just now?"

  "That's the shopkeeper, you're my sister, the closest person in the world, and still so serious?"

  "And you, as an official of the imperial court, didn't even bother to inform us," said Elder Sister Lan Hua, stretching out her finger and rapping Song Jiu on the head.

  "Sister, don't hit me, I still need to make a living with my brain."

  "Why didn't you tell us?"

  "What good news does that little official have?"

  "Even a minor official is still an official, but it's also troublesome, how can one attend the early court session from so far away?"

  "Sister, if Rulin Lang is qualified to attend the dawn court, wouldn't that be like a yellow weasel changing from eating chickens to eating grass?"

  "Didn't you go to school this morning?"

  "This is impossible, it's a ninth-grade minor official, it's a reward in nature, don't take it seriously."

  "What's the use of this official then?"

  "It's useful, and every month I can get 4 or 5 guan of money, silk, and grain."

  "Is it just four or five strings?"

  "It's not easy, my seventh brother-in-law used to be a laborer, every month he was exhausted and couldn't even earn two taels of silver. I can just sit at home and receive so much money, what's there to be dissatisfied with? This is the current dynasty, Bei Han has fought so many wars, it's even more miserable, I heard that a grand minister only gets an annual salary of one hundred taels, a jiedushi only gets thirty taels."

  "Nonsense!"

  "Really."

  "You're really talking nonsense. If my sister's husband and I work a bit harder, we can earn thirty taels of silver in a year." Seventh Sister also didn't believe it.

  "Alright, let's assume it's fake, but having one is better than not having any. This is the first point, secondly I'm a scholar and also an official, so doing things will become much more convenient later on. Everything has to start from somewhere, and that starting point can lead to becoming a high-ranking official. Even if you pass the imperial examination and enter the court, at most they'll only assign you as a ninth-rank official, but afterwards you can slowly climb up the ranks.

  How can it be compared? Theirs is a real official position, even a ninth-rank official is stronger than a sixth-rank scattered official with nothing. But there's another advantage that hasn't been mentioned, if he didn't have this official position, then when mixing with Pan Weide and them, it would be very awkward. With this, although the status is still low, at least he can be a small brother. It's not just for Pan Lian'er, but also for He Zhou."

  The fifth sister said: "Elder sister, seventh sister, little nine is right. Having is better than not having. I was at home this morning and others congratulated me when they heard the news. It should be good."

  He sighed again and asked: "Xiao Jiu, I heard that the little girl you used to tease was Pan Mei's daughter?"

  "Indeed, in the inner city district, the news is different from that of the outer city district. Have you also heard about it?"

  "Yes, how do you like Pan Mei's daughter?" As soon as the fifth sister finished speaking, the eldest and seventh sisters nodded together, which was too unrealistic and unscientific.

  "Xiao Jiu, why not do this: go ask that Yu Niangzi, if she's willing, we can each contribute some money to redeem her. Although she's a prostitute, she doesn't look bad and has elegant manners, still a decent woman." Big sister said, it turned out she also didn't agree with Yu Ping. With an ordinary family background, marrying such a beautiful woman as his wife might not be a good thing. However, compared to Pan Jia's daughter, bringing Yu Ping back is more realistic.

  "Women are really gossipy... Eldest sister, Fifth sister, Seventh sister, it's not as good as you think, is it? On the riverbank, I saw her looking beautiful and sang a little ditty, then she left. The people of the capital misunderstood and thought I was comparing her to some woman named Xiao Ping. Eldest sister, you know that I didn't even know who Xiao Ping was back then. Later, it spread like wildfire, others teased her about it, and she wasn't having it, so she got her two brothers to come after me. I fled to Kaifeng Prefecture and had the Second Duke mediate. As it happened, the Second Duke knew my father was under Pan Mei's command, so he smoothed things over. The second son of the Pan family had me go apologize in person. To make amends, I sang a few more songs. The matter was resolved, and that was that. Yesterday we were still drinking together until the third watch before returning home. Don't believe me? Ask Zhu San."

  "So Father is under Pan Mei's command?"

  "Sister, don't think wildly, Pan Mei has been a horseback rider all her life and doesn't know how many troops she has brought with her, this is what others acknowledge, even if you don't believe it, there's nothing to be done."

  "In short, you're basking in your father's glory, so make sure to worship him properly on Winter Solstice."

  "Alright," Song Jiuxiao readily agreed, not admitting it was impossible. The lover's eyes sparkled with beauty, and Pan Lian'er was stunningly beautiful. Zhao Kuangyi seemed oblivious to her charm; didn't he have a roving eye? Zhao Kuangyin had two deceased wives, yet even if he saw her, he would still be indifferent. If he truly fancied her, couldn't he take Pan Mei's daughter as his concubine? Now it was clear that Zhao Pu didn't have good feelings towards him, but the Zhao brothers weren't hostile towards him either. Although they occasionally intimidated him, leaving him helpless, this wasn't just due to some of his past life experiences, but also because he had benefited from his father's reputation. Zhao Pu saw him as an outsider with ulterior motives, but when the Zhao brothers thought of their father, they would look at him with good intentions. His thoughts weren't entirely accurate; most importantly, it was that sentence on his exam paper.

  After chatting for a while, the two young scholars had to wait for their younger brother's guidance, and the three sisters bid farewell.

  That day, Song Jiu didn't take any action. The next morning, Song Jiu first went to the dock to buy some materials and found a few carpenters and masons. Then he took more than 100 students to the riverbank and let them follow the carpenters and masons to learn how to build houses. With many people working together, the cost of building houses would decrease, and the speed would also increase.

  Seeing him coming, more than a dozen villagers from the riverbank came to ask questions. The day before yesterday when signing the contract, a large group of high-ranking officials' children came, dazzling their eyes, and with the conditions sounding not bad, they signed and stamped together in a muddle.

  A group of people left and only then woke up, the actual conditions were not bad either. The income of the people in Hezhou looked quite high, the land was fertile, they could plant crops, they could plant vegetables, and selling them in the city would bring a good price. Whatever they wanted to plant, they couldn't plant it in water, unless they planted lotus root together. Therefore, they still had to build an embankment, one on the south and one on the north, two embankments stretching for eleven or twelve miles, not counting the side of the Long River, which was only twenty or thirty meters wide and shallow, posing no great threat. But even so, when the summer flood came, there were only over a hundred households guarding the embankment, with many heavy tasks to perform. It was like this for ten years, and in three years, the surrounding embankments collapsed due to flooding. Don't expect help from the imperial court, when the summer flood comes, everyone is tense, who can take care of over a hundred households? In reality, it's also very hard work. So when Song Jiu came, they eagerly looked forward to him, hoping to be relocated immediately, and have some work to do, and receive a considerable amount of compensation.

  Zhao Kuangyin feared leaving a bad record in history, so he didn't let Song Jiu speak. Song Jiu was also worried that his sisters would be scared, so he didn't dare to say anything either. He pulled them aside and whispered: "Everyone, don't ask anymore, it will definitely be demolished, just wait until winter arrives, it's not possible now." After sending away the crowd of civilians, Yan Doctor and Zhang Doctor came over again to try their luck, it was a strange kind of internship after all, and they couldn't even intern in building houses. Would the imperial court let these scholars specialize in building palaces in the future?

  Song Jiuxin was thinking to himself, but his words were loud and clear: "Dr. Zhang, Dr. Yan, what is the concept of 'object'? You see that crane over there? That's just a small part of it. Once this research is developed, it can be applied to military affairs, river engineering, road construction, city walls, mining, housing, utensils... every industry will be driven forward. But all of this requires experimentation. My house is not big enough, should I ask the tenants to move out together? Even if they do move out, some experiments are a bit dangerous, and with neighbors on both sides of the river being ordinary people, can we conduct experiments? This is me using my own money to cultivate talent for the imperial court, and you're still trying to stop me?"

  Dr. Zhang and Dr. Yan stared with wide eyes, unsure whether to believe or not.

  Continue building houses.

  But by the fifth day, everything was different.