After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 935 Site Selection
If he were in Chang'an, Cao Gengyun would not have to worry about not being able to recruit students for the school he and his two old friends opened.

The three of them were all well-known scholars in Chang'an, and Xie Wenzai was the most famous. Of course, he and Lu Bainian were not bad either, but they were not as good as Xie Wenzai in the imperial examination essays. If they were not used to being idle and did not want to be too busy, they would not have only accepted a few students during the years they lived in Chang'an, but declined other local scholars who wanted to send their children, grandchildren, and nephews to study under them.

But in the capital, everything is different.

They have been away from Beijing for more than 30 years. Apart from their relatives, friends and old friends from Wumen, I am afraid that no one remembers them. Xie Wenzai is indeed a third place winner, but there is one third place winner every three years, and many of them stay in Beijing to serve as officials. In addition, there are many top and second place winners, among which he is not noticeable at all. What attracts more attention is actually his identity as a long-time friend of Tao Ge Lao. But even if Xie Wenzai didn't say it, Cao Gengyun and Lu Bainian were not willing to use Tao Ge Lao's name to attract students. It would not only bring trouble to old friends, but also make themselves involved in endless disputes over fame and fortune. Why bother?
But the three of them thought that they were all old scholars, and some of their students had passed the imperial examinations. When they were in Chang'an, they often gave advice on the essays of candidates who passed the imperial examinations. They should do the same thing in the capital. If they were asked to teach elementary school students, they would definitely not be willing to do so, unless they were to teach elementary school students all the way to the imperial examinations. In that case, they would need to recruit only good students, not just a few children from the street.

Lu Bainian hesitated: "How about...we write to our old friends and ask if their children have teachers?" It is always easier to educate children from acquaintances.

Cao Gengyun said, "For our old friends, if their children haven't achieved academic success yet, most of them study at home. They are either taught by their fathers or grandfathers, or they have a respected old Confucian teacher in the family. Few of them study outside. Moreover, if they really want to study in a private school outside, there is also the Tao family's private school. Isn't Jiashu studying in the Tao family's private school in the capital?"

Speaking of this, Xie Wenzai remembered: "Tao Nanshan might move the school at home. He is now the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, no longer an idle official in the government office. There are too many elementary school students in his family, and they are all from official families. It is easy to cause gossip and people say that he is suspected of forming a party. Moreover, many of these students are young and noisy on weekdays, which makes him restless. His house was not big to begin with, and now that he has become the Prime Minister, he has no intention of expanding it. The school is only separated from his study by a yard, which is inconvenient for meeting guests and it is difficult to take a nap. It is better to find a place near home to move it out. Then there is no need to say that it is the Tao family's private school, just an ordinary private school."

Xie Wenzai stayed at the Tao family these two days, in the guest room next to Tao's study, and had a deep understanding of the environment there. His old friend finally decided to move the family study out of the private house, and he fully agreed. If for no other reason, sometimes he saw the naughty grandson of the Tao family would lead his classmates outside to sneak into Tao's study to read some books, and the servants couldn't stop them at all, so he felt that this matter could not be allowed to go on. How could the study of the Prime Minister of the Cabinet be broken into so easily? What if there were confidential documents? Even if he was the grandson of the Prime Minister, he couldn't act so casually!
Fortunately, Tao Nanshan had noticed this problem since he became the Prime Minister and had long intended to move the school out of his private residence. However, he was now busy with official duties and could not spare the time to do this. His wife and children at home were both worried about their children and did not want them to go to school outside their home, so they did not cooperate at all, and the matter had not made any progress.

However, Xie Wenzai felt that if he and his two old friends Cao and Lu decided to open a school, they could merge the teachers and students of the Tao family school. After all, most of those teachers and students were related to the old students of Wumen, and there was no barrier between them and the three of them, and it would also save Tao Nanshan some trouble.

Xie Wenzai told Cao and Lu about this and said, "I think there should be no problem with students. There are teachers to help with teaching, but it's hard to find a place. The Tao family may not be willing to let their children go to school too far away from home, but if they want to be close to home, it's hard to find a house near his home. Otherwise, Tao Nanshan would have found a place long ago. Why did it take several months without any progress?"

Cao and Lu were both very surprised: "How could this really happen? We have been exchanging letters with old friends before, but no one has mentioned this before."

Xie Wenzai smiled. How could anyone who was not a member of the Tao family know these things? Those who sent their children and nephews to the Tao family's annex probably wanted them to show up in front of Tao Nanshan from time to time. How could they think that it was not a good thing for their children to be able to easily enter Tao Nanshan's study?
Since they were going to share the worries of Tao, Cao and Lu were more confident about the future school. They began to discuss the location: "The Tao family's house seems to have been awarded by the late emperor not long after he ascended the throne. At that time, Tao Nanshan was still young and had just started his career. He was editing books in the Hanlin Academy. His family was simple and he took the initiative to refuse a large house. Therefore, he only got a small house with three entrances and a unique garden. Now he has many children and grandchildren, and the three entrances are a bit narrow, not to mention that he also cleared the garden for a family school."

"His neighbors on both sides should be royal relatives. Some of them are royal houses granted by the royal family, and some are private houses. It is not easy to buy them. It is not enough to have money. When the late emperor was alive, he was very close to his cousin. At that time, he could not buy his neighbors' houses, let alone now." "If the houses of the neighbors are not available, then consider the houses on the same street. But the housing prices in that area are not cheap, right?"

"How can the houses in Nanxunfang be cheap? They are only one street away from the imperial city. If we want to rent or buy a house there to set up a school, we might as well find a place near Zhengyangmen Street!" At least it is the outer city, and the housing prices are definitely cheaper than those around the imperial city.

When the two of them said this, they all turned to look at Xie Wenzai: "Old Xie, what do you think?"

Xie Wenzai pondered and said, "The Tao family is in Nanxunfang, so it is indeed not easy to buy a house in the district, but if it is in a neighboring district..."

The nearby square? Chengqing Square? Or the Chongwenmen area? None of them are cheap places!

Cao Gengyun hesitated: "It's lively outside Chongwenmen, but it's not cheap, right? Not to mention Chengqingfang, there are several royal palaces there."

Lu Bainian seemed to be thinking, "Chengqingfang is not cheap, so what about Mingshifang next to it? Wensiyuan and Gongyuan are both over there, which is actually pretty good, right? The scenery is great and the price is not expensive."

Xie Wenzai paused and looked at his two old friends.

Ming Shi Fang is certainly good, and they are very familiar with it.

The former mansion of Lord Wu Wen'an was located in Mingshifang, which was a very large area!
After I finished writing it, I realized that I had made a mistake in the name of the block and confused the Imperial College and the Imperial Examination Hall of the Ming Dynasty. I'm sorry for updating so late.