Chapter 27: Obtaining Literary Officials (Part 2)

  Everyone was chatting when Aru suddenly pointed into the distance and said, "It's Sister!"

  Zhe Yan rushed over on horseback and jumped down to support his wife, saying: "Why did you run so far? What if you've disturbed the fetus?"

  Wanyan Hu smiled and pointed behind her, it turned out that there were dozens of women following behind her, all of whom had come to welcome their husbands back home. Among them, a few were like Wanyan Hu, with bulging bellies, some sharp and some round.

  The husbands in the ranks had already seen their loved ones, but they all endured and did not dare to move. Yang Yingqi thought: "This team seems to be well-trained! Di and Cao's military skills are indeed impressive!"

  Cao Guangyi waved his hand and said, "Alright, disperse! Go see your loved ones!"

  Dozens of married people cheered and rushed out immediately, while more than 300 others remained stunned and motionless.

  Yang Yingqi said: "New warriors, all arranged in Zuocun. Unmarried men, take your comrades to the village! Gu Dajie is waiting for you there!"

  Yang Yingqi turned around and saw Cao Guangyi staring blankly at his subordinates who were leaving with their families, and laughed: "Hey, on a cold winter's day, Second Brother has become a scaredy-cat!"

  Cao Guangyi scolded him: "Nonsense!"

  Yang Yingqi said: "Knowing good color and admiring young Ai, it's human nature, why hide? Speaking of which, Second Brother, you're also twenty now, it's time to get married."

  Cao Guangyi shook his head and said, "I don't want to settle down here."

  Yang Yingqi asked in surprise: "Then where are you going?"

  "If possible, I'd like to return to the Central Plains..." He then let out a long sigh and said: "But this dream is also too far-fetched."

  As they spoke, the two horses had already approached the village entrance, but upon hearing a commotion at the village entrance, several people were arguing about something.

  Yang Yingqi saw that among the group of people, there was actually Hu Mao, who had helped him with his paperwork, and couldn't help but feel a little strange. He jumped off his horse and asked: "What's going on?"

  The people around saw him coming and said one after another: "Alright, alright, Chief Yang is here."

  Yang Yingqi saw that the people surrounding him were all his subordinates, and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised. He had always attached great importance to literature, but in this northern border area, there were not many people who could read and write, let alone have extensive knowledge. These people were all rough literates, and Yang Yingqi had spent a lot of effort to cultivate them, forming the initial literary system. Therefore, these people were also his closest subordinates.

  At this time, Hu Mao saw him and suddenly blinked his eyes, shedding tears. Yang Yingqi was shocked: "What are you doing! A man has tears that shouldn't be shed! Although you're doing clerical work, every man in our Han department must be able to ride a horse and wear a sword! How can you cry so easily? Did you encounter something sad?"

  Hu Mao was speechless for a moment, only pointing at someone, and after a long time, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "He...he bullied people!"

  Yang Yingqi looked over and saw that it was a middle-aged man with clear eyebrows and eyes, although his clothes were tattered in many places, they were extremely neat and tidy. In his heart, he secretly admired: "Such a person would not be surprising if he appeared in Jiangnan or Bianjing, but how can there be such a refined gentleman in this desolate and cold northern border?" He asked: "What exactly happened?"

  A clever person next to him then explained the whole story.

  Yang Yingqi had an agreement with the Khitan nobles before he left, that all Han Chinese captives would be handed over to the Han department, including Bohai people who could speak Chinese. The Han department did not take people for nothing, but would exchange them for Khitan, Jie, and other ethnic group captives captured by Zhao Yanlang and others. After the Han department's foreign captives were exchanged, Yang Yingqi had Hu Mao ransom more with money. After ransoming the people, Hu Mao and others would ask what skills they had, whether they could read or write, and if they could, they would be assigned to the clerical team.

  The Jurchen aristocrats and the Han clan had a good relationship, and Yang Yingqi's reason for "not wanting his compatriots to be slaves" was also justifiable. This matter originally went very smoothly, but when it came to this middle-aged man, it suddenly became complicated.

  This man is a native of Tiezhou, who was mistakenly captured due to the war and brought to this place. He claimed to be literate, so Hu Mao took him back to his village and tested him with a few questions, also asking him to write a few characters. Seeing that his handwriting was beautiful, he was very pleased and let him stay by his side to help. Hu Mao was Yang Yingqi's deputy, with a high status in the village, and others were happy for this middle-aged man when they saw "Hu Shuxiang" letting him do chores for him.

  Who would have thought that this middle-aged man, instead of showing any excitement, raised some questions to test Hu Mao. At first, Hu Mao responded casually, but who knew that the middle-aged man asked more and more in-depth questions, from the old chapters of Confucius and Mencius to the new interpretations of Wang Anshi, every sentence quoted classics and allusions, without a single plain word. In the end, Hu Mao couldn't even understand what he was saying, let alone answer, and just stared blankly.

  Yang Yingqi thought to himself: "This middle-aged man can actually make Hu Mao cry, it seems that he has read a lot of books. I just don't know whether his expertise lies in rhetoric or practical knowledge."

  Hu Mao pointed at the middle-aged man and said to Yang Yingqi, "Young Master Yang, he's too bullying! He actually said that my learning is not even worthy of holding his shoes! And he said that if he comes to the Han Department, he will be in charge of all matters, and I will have to assist him! I... he..." Obviously, he was just asked by the middle-aged man and felt extremely embarrassed, and now he couldn't help but choke up again.

  Yang Yingqi said to Hu Maoshou, "If you can't make progress in your studies, then just work hard and study diligently from now on. What's the point of crying?" Pointing at the middle-aged man, he asked, "What is this madman's name?"

  The middle-aged man pointed at him and said: "You little kid, what's your name?"

  Yang Yingqi was only "fourteen or fifteen years old", but he had a peculiar status in the Han Department. The people around him saw that this middle-aged man was so rude to Yang Yingqi, and they were all angry. Hu Mao said loudly: "Yang Pu, this is the most learned young master of our Han Department! You must not be rude!"

  Yang Yingqi smiled slightly and said: "Yang Pu? It turns out that we are also considered to be of the same family."

  Yang Pu sneered, "A young whippersnapper who still reeks of his mother's milk dares to claim he is the 'most learned'? Ha! The northern wilderness is indeed a land of illiteracy. Doesn't your village even have an educated adult?"

  Hu Mao and others were about to erupt, but Yang Yingqi waved his hand to calm them down, and asked Yang Pu: "So, you actually have some learning. Why did you end up in this place?"

  Yang Pu snorted and laughed: "A scholar encountering a soldier, with reason that cannot be made clear! Confucius had the troubles of Chen and Cai, how much more so for us!"

  Yang Yingqi smiled and said, "A sage is not someone our kind should casually compare to. Hmm, I'm not familiar with the classics, nor do I want to engage in a battle of wits with you. Earlier, didn't you say that if you were in charge of the Han department, all matters would be under your control?"

  Yang Pu said lightly: "If I am willing to stay, it is only natural that I should occupy this position."

  Yang Yingqi smiled and said, "I've long wanted to get rid of this mundane task in the village. The question is whether you have the ability! The livelihoods of several thousand people can't be managed just by writing a few crooked poems or reciting a few chapters of the Book of Rites."

  Yang Pu sneered: "A ten-mile radius, a small town of thousands of households, can be pacified with just a flip of the hand."

  Yang Yingqi heard this familiar-sounding phrase and smiled: "Oh? Then you try saying something about the strengths and weaknesses of my department."

  Yang Pu said: "I heard that the establishment of this village was all done by you, and it seems that you have some knowledge. If we talk about agriculture, animal husbandry, and craftsmanship, there are also many things worth praising. You only have two or three thousand people, but you have already laid the foundation for these eight villages in advance, so I think you must have a plan for future events."

  Yang Yingqi's eyebrows rose in surprise as he said, "Go on."

  Yang Pu said: "Unfortunately, what you can anticipate is only one or two years, three years at most. There is no ten-year plan in your mind, let alone a hundred-year vision. Therefore, the system of this Han village, if applied to one or two years, seems brilliant everywhere. If applied to five or six years, some flaws will appear. If applied to hundreds of years, it will become clear that the builder of the village has no foresight at all!"

  Yang Yingqi burst out laughing and said: "Well said! Come, come, come to my place. The other day I just got two taels of good tea, which is pre-rain Longjing, hard to find outside the Great Wall. We'll have a cup of tea while chatting."