Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 23 Warm Hospitality
Xiaozhai, Yixing County.

As the largest gentry leader in the county, Xiao Zhai is located in the east district of the county.

Mr. Peng Qi and Chen Qingsi came outside Xiao's house. From the outside, the whole house looked more impressive than the government office.

Elder Peng asked Chen Qingxi to take the invitation and knock on the door.

Chen Qingsi picked up the door knocker and knocked first. After a few breaths, when she was about to knock a second time, a servant walked out of the small door.

The servant was very polite and took the invitation sent by the butler from Chen Qingsi before disappearing through the small door.

In just a moment, the front door opened wide.

Five people walked towards the Xiao family's mansion. The first one was actually a young man with a high profile, and to his left was a man over fifty years old. There was half a height difference between them.Behind them is a young man in his thirties, who looks somewhat similar to a middle-aged man. Behind them are two elderly men.

Seeing the two old men, two titles immediately came to Chen Qingsi's mind: "Mr. Zhou, Mr. Xu." These two people can be said to be Chen Qingsi's first teachers.

The fundamental reason why everyone in the family is so powerful is that they have mastered the spread of culture.

In the face of the general trend of the era before printing and papermaking became popular, it was impossible for the imperial court to build calligraphy schools all over the world.

We simply don’t have the economic conditions and there aren’t that many talents to teach and educate people.

For their own development, the family members will build book schools for free in areas they can control for people to study and spread culture.

They will select people with excellent academic performance and focus on training them.

The most outstanding among them are adopted as sons-in-law, become part of the family, and contribute to the family. The outstanding ones are also recruited as teachers, providing them with jobs so that they can continue to serve the family.

This is also the origin of Chen Qingsi's childhood dream, to marry Xiao's daughter and become emperor.

It is only because of Xiao that he was able to study in school and become a talented person. It is only natural that he should be respectful and grateful to Xiao.

Therefore, the best and simplest way to eliminate the gentry is to popularize education, but conditions do not allow it and it cannot be done.

Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xu were Chen Qingsi’s tutors in the Xiao School when she was a child and a teenager.

As they got older, the two of them had already left the school and disappeared without a trace, but they didn't expect that the Xiao family would invite them to stay with them.

A trace of excitement emerged in Chen Qingsi's heart.

The young man who was about 30 years old strode forward and said: "We are here as a distinguished guest. Today, the Xiao residence is in full bloom. I am Xiao Guan, courtesy name Xuan Mao. I have met Mr. Peng Qi, Brother Chen... Brother Chen seems to have never been abandoned. You can do it." Call me uncle in advance!"

This Xiao Guan spoke politely and calmly, and introduced the people behind him as the host.

Behind him was Xiao Yan, the owner of Xiao House, who was about fifty years old. The person who was about the same age as Xiao Guan was Xiao Yan's son Xiao Jie. The next two people were naturally Mr. Zhou Zhou Hongxi and Mr. Xu Xu Liang.

The Xiao family in Lanling regards two rooms as the royal family, one is the imperial uncle's room and the other is the Qiliang room.

Xiao Guan is the younger brother of Qiliang Fang, the great-grandson of Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming of Liang Dynasty, and the grandson of Xiao Xun, King of Nanhai. His father, Xiao Jun, was the official of Zhongshushe during the Zhenguan period. He was one of the most capable generals arranged by Li Shimin for Li Chengqian. , now serves as an admonishing doctor and a bachelor of Hongwen Hall.

Xiao Guan himself was also extremely impressive. He was eighteen years old and ranked first in the Ming Jing examination. He had been assisting the head of the Xiao family in handling clan affairs. Although he was young, his status was much higher than that of the deputy stationed in Yixing County, who was responsible for the education and selection of talents in the county. His descendant is Xiao Yan.

Peng Qilao and Chen Qingsi also bowed to each other one by one following Xiao Guan's introduction.

When introducing Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xu, Chen Qingsi performed the disciple ceremony.In fact, Zhou Hongxi could not remember that he had such a student. After all, he was only Chen Qingsi's teacher when he was a child for the past thirteen or four years.

Xu Liang had some impressions. He remembered that there was such an obedient and sensible student, and he exchanged a few words with him.

At Xiao Guan's invitation, a group of people entered the main hall of Xiao's house.

The marriage agreement went smoothly, which did not allow the Xiao family to be reserved.

There had been an incident in the capital where Empress Wang and her mother, Mrs. Liu, sought witchcraft and cursed Wu Zhaoyi with the "spell of hating victory".This unlucky empress was first unjustly accused by Wu Zhaoyi of killing his daughter, and then her own mother beguiled her into practicing the art of winning. She was placed under house arrest by Emperor Li Zhi, and her position as empress was already on the verge of collapse.

Concubine Xiao Shu had nothing to do with her. The real targets that Li Zhi dealt with were the auxiliary ministers faction of Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang behind the Queen. They had nothing to do with the Lanling Xiao family behind Concubine Xiao Shu.But in order to compete for favor, she foolishly joined forces with Queen Wang to deal with Wu Zhaoyi. She was also implicated and was effectively under house arrest.

Now it is necessary to depose Wang Liwu, and then issue an edict to investigate the crime.

The time was therefore set one month later, on September 26th.

After the business was settled, the real climax came next.

Talk about the affairs of the world.

Different eras have different customs, such as the Wei and Jin Dynasties. At that time, it was fashionable to be quiet and inactive without following the rules of etiquette. However, in the eyes of later generations, they were actually a group of drunkards, catching lice and taking medicine at the same time, running around naked and dissolute.

Another example is the later Tang Dynasty, where the meandering water and drinking wine competed with poetry and literary talent, which was extremely exciting.

These are the epitome of the times...

However, Tang poetry has not yet flourished, and there are not so many fancy things, but rather the political atmosphere left over from the Zhenguan period.

When Emperor Taizong accepted the advice, no matter whether men, women, old or young, discussed current affairs, they were not guilty.

The Tang Dynasty also gained the confidence of people all over the world through a series of victories.

Therefore, in this era, it is a habit to get together and talk about the affairs of the world.

The literary talent is good, but it is just embellishment.

The influence of "Jian Jin Jiu" in this era was far less than that of Wei Zheng's "Ten Thoughts on Admonishing Taizong" or Ma Zhou's "Chen Shi Zheng Shu".

Chen Qingsi was afraid of discussing the Four Books and Five Classics. The original author's cultural foundation was not bad, but due to lack of enough time to study carefully, his understanding of Confucianism could only be said to be introductory.When it came to discussing politics, he didn't panic.

As a second-year-old and gold medal secretary, the most important thing is experience in doing practical things.Although the humanistic situation in later generations is different from the present, after these days of Peng Qi’s guidance, the inferences can be drawn by analogy, which does not discredit anyone.

Especially for the current situation in Jiangnan, he was able to combine Elder Peng's targeted suggestions with the development context of Jiangnan in later generations to put forward ideas and development prospects.

In this regard, he has an innate advantage that no one can match.

"Compared with how to develop, I believe that unification of ideas is the top priority. There are too many confusing beliefs and obscene offerings in various places. Many people are not even willing to eat them themselves. They have to dedicate their few savings to various evil gods and build buildings for them. Temple. If this ideological concept is not changed, it will give people with ulterior motives an opportunity to take advantage of it."

Chen Qingsi expressed his opinion. If he became an official, he would immediately wipe out all the crooked sacrifices, leaving only a few orthodox Chinese gods to unify his thoughts.

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(End of this chapter)