Beautiful step by step

Chapter 136

In the winter, the Weiwei Technical School was in full swing, but when the Chinese New Year turned, there were no people there.

First of all, weaving patterns, baskets, paper boxes and other things are very simple, no matter how dull the personality is, learn it several times, practice makes perfect.The second and most important point is that when the spring ice melts, the military households will have to prepare for this year's farming.At this moment, they are busy selecting seeds and polishing farm tools.With big business to do, they naturally wouldn't travel all the way to the technical school to waste time.

Fortunately, Wei Wei had already expected this point, she had been urging Gu Yu and other servant girls to read and write throughout the winter, and she never missed a moment.Learning is a matter of water dripping through stone. Even if you only recognize five characters a day, you will only have five hundred characters in one hundred days, and the commonly used Chinese characters are not only a thousand.After one winter, Gu Yu's Three Character Classic has been fully recognized by now.

Knowing this, Wei Wei was relieved, and then asked Yan Heng to send an official document to the whole prefecture, calling children from all families to come to read and learn.

Before that, she had already done enough foreshadowing.Although Emperor Qinglong dispatched officials from Youzhou urgently, after the great purge, there was still a certain shortage of officials in Liangzhou, especially the lowest-level scribes.This kind of low-level official will never have the turn of the Jinshi master who was selected for the imperial examination by the imperial court to win his talents.

She doesn't care about other people's staff, and Yan Heng orders all the scribes needed by his subordinates to be recruited publicly.

The recruitment is divided into two parts: written test and interview. Thanks to a good great-grandfather Wei Xiang, he once organized this test and published a whole book of alternative questions.The test is not about military and state affairs, nor who can write beautiful articles, but about topics that are closely related to ordinary people.Geography, agriculture, and arithmetic are all listed here.Although many things have changed over the years, it still works with minor changes.

Moreover, Wei Wei also found the advantage of this type of test paper - not afraid of leaking the test questions.With the prepared question stems, slightly changing individual numbers and content is a brand new test paper.Even if someone knew in advance and memorized the answer, they might not be able to do it right on the spot.

When the announcement was posted, some people didn't believe it at first.Who doesn't know that if you want to be an official, you have to rely on connections first. There is an uncle in the yamen, even if your nephew is uneducated and incompetent, he can still be a yamen servant.Public exam now?Isn't it just a fig leaf for the related households?

Judging by Yan Heng's signature under the announcement, a scholar finally signed up with the idea of ​​"I don't pay for the exam anyway, let's try it slowly".When the results of the list came out, everyone was surprised to find that on the re-examination list ranked by ranking, the top ones were all scholars with real talents from Liangzhou.However, it is rumored that the banknotes were stuffed into the officials to ensure that the unlearned and incompetent people who will be elected will undoubtedly lose their names.

Now the scholars who did not sign up due to prejudice are ruined until their intestines are green.

And what happened later made everyone have to give a thumbs up.Commander Yan personally sits in the re-examination, and the few people he finally delineated are all recognized by everyone as talented and competent.

Now everyone was convinced, Commander Yan really organized this recruitment in order to select a few useful people.

This incident a few years ago provided great convenience for Wei Wei's actions today.No parent wants their child to be an official, but the prerequisite for being an official is that you must be literate, otherwise you will not be able to understand the documents written by Shangfeng.The problem is that ordinary people don’t have that condition at all. Those who are poor can’t afford pens, ink, paper and inkstones, and those who are not so poor can’t afford to hire a wife. Those who can afford a wife have no worries about their children.

Should the children be taught to read and write, or should they be kept at home to help with farming?

For a while, this question became the number one question on the minds of most people in Liangzhou City, and in the end most people's hearts for children prevailed.Go learn two characters, there is no shortage of labor in the left and right families, at worst let the girl do more.

So when the first month came out and the school started to register, there was a scene that made Wei Wei frown.

The first ones came were the people from the vicinity of Liangzhou City, wearing their new clothes specially for the New Year. The villagers led their sons to gather at the gate of the official yamen.

Looking down from a high position, none of these children in the crowd was a girl.

Wei Wei sent Gu Yu down to inquire, and asked casually, "Where's your girl?"

The first reaction of the vast majority of the people was to be dazed, and then shook their heads with a silly smile: "It's useless for a girl to learn this."

There are also real people who directly said: "My brother came here to study and read, but the family is too busy to make ends meet, so his sister should help more."

Wrapped in fox fur and standing on the steps, Wei Wei frowned upon hearing these reasons.How many times?In the last disaster relief in Youzhou, she racked her brains to grasp the price of goods and sent people to check the quality of the materials in time. She was sure that nothing would go wrong, but a Chu governor came out halfway to grab the relief money and planted blame, which caught her by surprise.She found that many things were clearly planned by her, but in the end they always developed in a strange direction that she did not expect.

If a son wants to study, it means that there is less labor in the family, so sooner or later a girl who has to marry off to study well is useless, so of course she should help the family with more work.

What they said made sense, but with Da Yue's current customs, she was completely speechless.

But she deeply disapproved from the bottom of her heart, and this move went against her original intention.

what can we do about it?

During the hesitation, the crowd made way like Moses divided the sea, and Yan Heng, who had been out of the city early in the morning on errands, returned on horseback.Getting off the steps and walking up to her, he asked with concern:

"What's wrong, Auntie?"

On his cloak was still the chill of the morning, the chill hit, and Wei Wei's mind was clear for a while.

"Aheng, look below, all these people brought boys from their families."

Condescending, Yan Heng rolled his eyes and shook his head noncommittally: "Ah Mao doesn't like it?"

"It's not that I don't like it, it's just that it's too..."

"Then Auntie wants girls to go to school together?"

Seeing her nodding, Yan Heng said clearly: "This matter is very simple."

It was indeed very simple, she had always kept the issue of equality between men and women in her heart, and she was indeed a little disgusted when she first saw this scene and heard the reasons from the people.But it will calm down, and she has figured out how to deal with it.

Before she could speak, Yan Heng stood at the front of the steps, clapping his hands to signal everyone to be quiet.

"Fathers and elders, it is clearly written in the yamen notice that children under the age of ten are allowed to come to school, regardless of gender."

The people below looked at each other in blank dismay, and after a moment of silence, a bold person in front spoke up: "Your Commander, what do you mean, the girls at home are coming too?"

Yan Heng nodded: "Girls are children too."

The crowd suddenly exploded.

"What's the use of reading at a girl's house?"

"Yes, sooner or later you will get married. Besides, the children are all studying, and there are only two adults in the family. How can they be busy with all the work in the field?"

"No, I don't think we are all material for reading. Could it be that the child can still be a Wenquxing star? It may not be useful to read this book, so let's forget it."

For a while there were endless voices of opposition. Although there were a few parents who loved their daughters, they felt that it would be good for their daughters to come to study together and gain some knowledge.But in the face of the reality that it can be seen at a glance that without children to be parents, most people will still think about themselves.Besides, the notion that a daughter has to work and earn a bride price is deeply ingrained in some people's minds.Therefore, the voice of the minority's approval, like a drop of water flowing into the ocean, will not be noticed at all.

Ignorance is the most terrible thing in the world. It is true that the girls of each family will marry in the future, but your family will also marry a daughter-in-law from another family.A virtuous wife has few misfortunes, everyone wants a virtuous wife.It is a complete paradox to want a good wife but not to spend time raising a daughter.Frowning into a pimple, Wei Wei just wanted to suppress it with force when loud drumming sounded in his ears.

thump, thump, thump
Seeing them arguing endlessly, Yan Heng simply rang the grievance drum beside the official office.The crowd became quiet again, standing at the top, with their backs straight, Yan Heng's face was majestic, and he said in a deep voice:

"Children who enter school have new clothes every season, and the state school is responsible for three meals a day, and provides accommodation at the same time. In this way, your family has lost a mouth, don't just see the extra work. Let me put it here, the state The school is the same as the government's open recruitment, it is all voluntary, but you have to abide by the rules I set if you want to come. The state school recruits men and women on a one-to-one basis. Every family that wants to send boys to school must send their sisters here at the same time. Sign up The student registration is first established, and the student registration is bound to the household registration, and the scribes will check it carefully."

Standing in the shadow of his cloak, Wei Wei couldn't hide his astonishment.

Just now when her mind was clear, the way she thought of was force suppression.Not only did she persuade Yan Heng not to be too kind to ordinary soldiers, but she also held this attitude when she treated ordinary people.

This state school was established by her. Although it was funded by the Liangzhou government, and the silver left over from the purge made the current Liangzhou government extremely rich, the money does not have to be paid.To put it more bluntly, without her persuading Yan Heng, the government would never have done this.

Free study, free food and clothing, this kind of treatment is even better than those "from birth to grave" benefits of later generations.These people are still not satisfied, they really think she is a soft persimmon.

"Aheng, let's stop here temporarily for today."

Drooping her shoulders, she said weakly.

Yan Heng turned his head and gave her a soothing look, and after returning home, his aura was still fierce.

"Today's applicants do not meet the requirements. The registration is temporarily closed and restarted in ten days."

After he finished speaking, he looked around, focusing on several yamen servants: "Remember, state school enrollment is completely free, and no coercion is allowed. I don't believe it. Such good things as providing food, clothing, housing, transportation, and books are sent home. No one accepted at the door."

The yamen servant stood up straight, with his spear sticking to the ground, and his uniform voice was very powerful.

After the sound, there was the sound of horseshoes in the distance, and a mighty Mongolian convoy approached, led by one of the first batch of Mongolian officials conferred by the imperial court, a Mongolian tribal woman who drove a Lele cart outside Youzhou City to deliver milk tea Leader: Uzhina.

Dressed up, she saw Wei Wei waving hurriedly, and asked suspiciously: "No more recruits today? I brought all the children from the tribe with me."

Behind her, there are Mongolian children of different heights, both male and female, getting on and off the carriage and dressed in colorful national costumes.

(End of this chapter)