Chapter 55: Daddy

  There were still over a hundred buns, but they were placed on a piece of cloth. The yamen runner stepped forward and grabbed the cloth, and in an instant, everything was "confiscated". Another yamen runner walked up to Song Jiu and said: "Ninth Master, the prefect has summoned you."

  Zhao Kuangyi said, "Press down, really press down." Listening to Zhao Kuangyi's tone, it can't be pressed down either. Without even this ability to discern facial expressions and colors, what qualifications do you have to serve as a yamen runner in Kaifeng Prefecture? Song Jiuzi looked up at Zhao Kuangyi and chuckled. With cunning strategies and playful tricks, Zhao Kuangyi could defeat one hundred Song Jiuzis. But Song Jiuzi wasn't stupid either; he had heard some rumors about the tomb relocation incident. He even asked his elder sister, who remembered that during the renovation of the eastern city wall of Dongjing, Song Jiuzi was still young and hadn't understood what was happening. His elder sister had already married out, but she must have remembered. When asked, it turned out to be even more exaggerated than what Zhao Kuangyi said - there were even cases of civilians beating up yamen runners, until the imperial court dispatched the Imperial Guard.

  Looking at it from another perspective, Zhao Kuangyi wouldn't be too happy either, seeing himself doing commercials.

  Song Jiu was not afraid, at this time Zhao Kuangyi's personality had some slight quirks, but before he became a chemical master, he was still a good official, with outstanding abilities, able to win people's hearts, and would not really harm himself.

  Giggling as she walked by, she suddenly heard a soft and gentle voice: "Grandma, I'm so hungry."

  Song Jiuzhuan turned his head and saw an old woman standing by the road with two children, in front of her was a ceramic bowl with some coins inside. The old woman was over fifty years old, the older boy was six or seven years old, and the younger girl was only three or four years old. It was the little girl who spoke up: "Daddy, I want to eat."

  Shout at Song Jiuye.

  The old woman covered the child's mouth with one hand.

  Yu Ping said: "How pitiful."

  Song Jiuxu snatched a few large buns from the hands of the yamen runners. There were beggars in the capital, not many, but this year the river had suffered from drought. When the Song Dynasty was first established, the two taxes were not heavy, with ten taxes for good land and twenty taxes for bad land. The officials were also not many, and it was a kind of light labor and thin collection tax system, but the yield was too low. Once there were natural disasters or man-made disasters, many people had to flee their homes and go out to find food. The court seemed to have sent people to provide disaster relief and exempted taxes, but there were still some beggars who fled to other places, including the capital.

  Don't know if it's a refugee from the river, took the bread in front of the old woman and asked: "Granny, where are the child's parents?"

  "He's dead," the old woman replied woodenly.

  "Here, eat," Song Jiu handed the bread to the two children and snatched a few more from the bailiff's hands, handing them to the old woman.

  It's just a small action.

  Zhao Kuangyi's heart suddenly softened when he saw this, no matter what, Song Jiu was a naughty and unrepentant person, just like that unruly Sun Wukong, but his heart wasn't evil. He also walked to the old woman's front and asked: "Where are you from?"

  "My lord, I am a native of Xingzhou."

  "From Xingzhou?" Zhao Kuangyi's eyebrows furrowed, and the answer was also unexpected by Song Jiu. Xingzhou belonged to the border between Song and Han, and this year it was also affected by the drought disaster. The people in the river lived a hard life, and it would be even harder on the North Han side. Of course, it's easier to understand that the child's parents died. Song and Han fought back and forth, many laborers from North Han died together in battle, everywhere were orphans and widows. As soon as there was a disaster, the mother starved to death, and as a grandmother, she had no choice but to flee to the Song Dynasty like this. Zhao Kuangyi walked a few more steps and said: "Song Jiu."

  "In."

  "This child is calling you Daddy..."

  A group of officials carried bread and were all very happy.

  Song Jiuyi could only dry cough, Zhao Kuangyi said seriously: "It's also a fate for you, your family doesn't have any servants, let the old woman go to your house as a servant, help you with the chores, it's not a big problem, is it?"

  Song Jiuyi was in trouble.

  Yu Ping pulled on Song Jiuyi's sleeve and said: "Ninth Master, you can take them in now."

  Song Ji nodded.

  Zhao Kuangyi then said to the yamen runners: "Each of you keep one, and distribute the rest to the children of poor families."

  This little scoundrel is so dark-hearted, maybe in the future he'll really sell for five hundred or a thousand coins. Poor families' children don't have the good fortune to eat this. The yamen went down to distribute bread, Zhao Kuangyi asked: "You're causing trouble yourself, why bring the students into it?"

  "The two kings, no nonsense."

  "Not yet!"

  "The two princes, I, your humble servant, would like to make an analogy. In the past, when I rented out the walls of the common people's houses on both sides of the Imperial Street to hang paintings, the officials inside the palace laughed at me for being wealthy but foolish. However, I am not foolish. Everyone just didn't understand its value. Not only did it bring in 100 taels of silver per year, but even a rental income of 1,000 taels of silver per year would be worthwhile."

  Zhao Kuangyi still doesn't understand what advertising is, but thinks that handing out bread and hanging up paintings are roughly the same thing. He makes no comment on this.

  "Let me give another example. Suppose Dr. Yan and Dr. Zhang are both men of integrity, considered gentlemen. But if they were to be appointed as local officials or magistrates, how would they fare? In our dynasty's early days, the system was not strict, even if it wasn't in its early days, the system couldn't be too strict, the more complex it is, the easier it is for corrupt officials and tyrannical subordinates to exploit loopholes and oppress the people. Therefore, we need not only officials with moral integrity but also those who can adapt to changing circumstances. I don't know how these students will be used by the court, but certainly a portion of them will be used, and more will be used in the future. My teaching is to cultivate virtue and educate people, taking them to witness the explosion of gunpowder is to let them personally experience the power of knowledge, so they can apply themselves to their studies. Taking them to promote bread is to teach them how to be flexible. Only then can they become officials with both morality and ability in the future."

  It can't be said that Song Jiuyue is wrong, it's just that people in this era find it hard to understand. Reading books is just reading books!

  Zhao Pu read half of the Analects and became a good prime minister. However, those scholars who came later not only read the Analects but also many other Confucian classics. What was the result? To say that the scholars of the Song Dynasty were not too bad, but those of the Ming Dynasty were detestable. As a result, when the Manchu people conquered China, forget about democracy, they didn't even have the qualifications to be slaves. When speaking with the emperor, they had to kneel, rather than standing or sitting as we do now. Yet, one by one, they were very obedient and listened carefully, how strange!

  Some of Zhao Kuangyi didn't understand, but he was a high-IQ person after all. His eyebrows furrowed tighter without refuting. Finally, he asked: "What about the two doctors?"

  They brought some disciples on the riverbank to teach them.

  Let Song Jiuzhi go.

  "This official knows that you are promoting bread, and it just so happens that this official is about to move his tomb. You will make a painting of it, and as a result, the people of the capital city will be talking about your bread."

  "Two Big Kings Yingming, what is easily obtained will not be cherished too much, just like the Two Big Kings who got gunpowder with great difficulty, they will surely cherish it and not take it lightly."

  "Go!" Zhao Kuangyi came over, his face flushed with anger, but he couldn't say anything. He turned to Yu Ping and said, "Yu Niangzi, did you hear that? What's easily obtained won't be cherished."

  As he left with a group of yamen runners, he left Song Jiu with a difficult problem. Seeing the old woman, she nervously pulled the two children into her arms and said: "My Zhang family descendants will not be your slaves."

  It's actually Song Jiu who is troublesome. As a single person, I am carefree and at ease. The courtyard is clean with students taking turns to sweep it, and my clothes are simple, so washing them is easy. As for food, when I'm in the mood, I cook; when I'm not, I go to my sister's place to scrounge for food and repay her later. But now, three more people have appeared out of thin air - what can an old woman do? Two children still need to be taken care of. Servants, even if I were to take on servants again, I couldn't take in servants like you.

  The little girl stretched out her small dirty hand and shouted at Song Jiu: "Daddy."

  "He's not your father!" The old woman was about to hit him. Yutang pulled her back and said softly, "Auntie, Jiulang is a good man who specializes in teaching children knowledge. If you're not at ease, we can sign an agreement to have the child fostered by Jiulang's family first, and when the child grows up a bit, you can set up your own household."

  "I'm illiterate," said the old woman.

  It can't be said that the old woman is unreasonable, as during the Tang Dynasty, the status of slaves and servants was very low. It wasn't until Zhou Wei, Chai Rong, and Zhao Kuangyin worked hard to gradually correct this ugly habit. Those who bought and sold people, especially women, concubines, and maids, couldn't be considered as selling them, but rather selling their services for a certain number of years. For example, "I'll serve you for 10 years, and after that, I'll have my freedom." It felt pretty good, and they could choose to stay or leave. Of course, there were also some bad stories, like the one where the wife of Chen Zhong, the emperor's teacher, forced several slaves to death, which shocked the heavens, and ultimately led to Chen Zhong resigning as prime minister. In short, compared to the Tang Dynasty, they had made countless progress. However, on the other side of the Northern Han, the system was still very backward, and the old woman's son was killed by the Song army. Although he fled to the Song Dynasty out of desperation, he harbored an innate hatred for them.

  A group of students were unhappy, pitifully returning home, but couldn't misunderstand Mr. Jiǔ, who was being criticized by the elderly woman on the side. Some Beijing citizens also heard about Song Jiǔ's story and thought that this young man wasn't bad after all. His parents had passed away when he was young, and the people of the river had taken care of him a bit. After growing up, he immediately repaid the kindness to the people of the river by promoting education, making other citizens feel envious, wondering why their own neighborhood hadn't produced such a scholar? They all advised the old woman, "Don't be unreasonable, that's the order of the Second King, otherwise you wouldn't have had the ability to enter Song's household." Song Jiǔ was not yet married, but if he were, the children of our good family would be willing to send them to the Song household for care.

  The old woman listened and asked Song Jiu, "You really won't let my grandson be a slave?"

  "It's true."

  "Are you really a good person?"

  "He's not a good person, but he can't be considered a bad person either." Song Jiu wiped the sweat from his forehead.

  "My granddaughter is not your daughter."

  "......Actually......it's not!"

  "I want Erda Wang to be the witness."

  Not only were the students and Yu Ping stunned, but even the old villagers on the side were also stunned. Song Jiu gritted his teeth and said, "Good."

  With three people walking towards Kaifeng Prefecture, they bought more fabric on the road. In the Song Dynasty, "scholars and commoners competed to make women's hats with fetal deer skin, and mountain people hunted fetal deer without leaving any behind. At that time, not far from Xuanhe, women's clothing was still adorned with emerald feathers, and recently, they wore seductive clothes." That is to say, Song Dynasty women were bold in their clothing choices, but there were no decent clothing stores, so they had to buy fabric or fur and ask someone to sew it for them. It took two or three hours to finish, and after begging for several months, the three of them had a foul odor on their bodies. Fortunately, Yutong had a solution, using money to buy some old clothes and asking a family to help them wash their bodies clean. The little girl stretched out her hand again: "Dad, hug."

  Song Jiubai was speechless.

  Yu Ping said in a soft voice: "Jiu Lang, just give her a hug, child, don't mind."

  The old woman, feeling some kindness, handed her granddaughter to Song Jiu, but with a wary eye. Song Jiu reluctantly held the little girl and walked into the Kaifeng Prefecture, just in time for Zhao Kuangyi to let him take a look at what the common people were making a fuss about. After listening to Song Jiu pour out his grievances, Zhao Kuangyi burst out laughing, feeling relieved. Then he looked at the old woman and said: "Old lady, remember this well, I am the Second King in the mouths of the common people, the Emperor's younger brother. If you suffer any injustice in the Song household, just come to the Kaifeng Prefecture, and I will take charge for you."

  "Second Great King..."

  Song Jiu pulled her along and said, "Let's go."

  "It won't do," said Yutong, "this isn't doing a good deed, in the future it will be collecting three ancestors back."

  "Yu Ping, let's go back, don't worry, one report will be repaid with another, it wasn't me who asked him, but he who asked me."

  Little sister had a minor car accident, brother-in-law is out of town, so I can only take some time to visit her occasionally. Today I can only update twice, and I'll rush to update once more tonight after returning from the hospital. The updates for next week will be supplemented then.