The county faces each other across the river from the imperial capital Nanjing, about 100 miles away from Nanjing, and can be reached in half a day by fast horse.

In addition to the alluvial plains along the lower reaches of the Chuhe River and the Yangtze River, the county is mostly basalt hills and loess hills. If you take 6 roads from Nanjing to Huai'an, Qingjiangpu, Haizhou, Sizhou and other places, you have to pass through, so the business is also quite reaching, and the cars and horses are bustling every day.

As the rainy season approaches, the sky is often drizzling. Zhang Zhinian is over fifty years old, his beard has been slightly gray, wearing a hat, wearing a robe, a fishing basket tied around his waist, holding a fishing rod in his hand, braving the drizzle to come to the dragon pond in the southern suburbs of the county.

The crucian carp produced in Longchi in the southern suburbs is delicate and delicious, and is famous far and wide, but the price is also 30% higher than that of crucian carp in other places.

Zhang Zhi pulled up his sleeves and trousers, because of the mud by the pool, even the shabby "mille-feuille bottom" on his feet was taken off and pinned to his waist, no matter how he looked at it, he looked like a country man.

However, most of the farmers in the neighborhood knew him, and when they saw him, they would always stop, let him go to the side of the road, respectfully salute, and shout: "Zhang Xundao." ”

In the Ming Dynasty, each county was divided into "county Confucianism", which was the highest educational institution in a county, and the county school usually set up one person to teach and several people to teach.

Most of the prefectural-level teachings were from Jinshi and were directly appointed by the imperial court.

The prefectural school instructors and county school teachings, instructions, and entrustments are mostly raised or tributed students who have no relationship with the gold list, and are appointed by the magistrate.

Among them, the entrustment is to hire a contract teacher, similar to the substitute teacher in later generations.

And whether it is an edict. Or the discipline and entrustment have nothing to do with local administration and litigation, and there is no oil and water to touch. "Official, incorruptible, and self-respecting" is their truest portrayal.

Their Fenglu is extremely meager, and as a literati who have no power to restrain chickens, they deal with the Four Books and Five Classics every day, and they can't let go of the shelves of scholars, and they are not good at business;

Relying on their meager income, they can barely support themselves, so they often have to leave their wives and children to take office alone. has lived a life of "wife separation" for a long time. Even the parents in the hall are unable to support them.

Zhang Zhi took the fishing rod and came to the dragon pond. took out the earthworm as bait, hooked it, and looked at a pool of misty rain and spring scenery in the green onion cage. tightened the clothes on his body and slowly said: "The egret flies in front of Xisai Mountain, and the peach blossoms flow and the mandarin fish are fat." Green hats, green clothes, slanting wind and drizzle do not need to return. ”

In fact, he is far from being as comfortable as described in the poem, his wife stayed in his hometown to support his seventy-year-old mother, who was barely able to maintain the family's livelihood by weaving, but half a year ago, his wife fell ill due to overwork and has not recovered.

Zhang Zhi went to ask his colleagues to borrow money one by one. But his colleagues received the same meager salary as him, and every family had a scripture that was difficult to read, so how could they have the money to lend him money.

Zhang Zhi had no way to ask for help. Desperate and helpless, he was about to resign from his post as a mentor and go home to find a solution. In the end, it was a student from a relatively well-to-do family who went back and begged his parents to help Zhang Zhi, and he barely supported himself.

Nowadays, Longchi fishing is not for recreation, but to supplement the family.

Zhang Zhi pretended to finish the poem easily. I noticed that there were a lot more people fishing by the Dragon Pond today. It was drizzling, and everyone was wearing hats. Dressed in a robe, I couldn't tell who it was for a while.

Zhang Zhi couldn't help but sigh in his heart, because the fish in the pond are always limited, and there are more people who come to fish, so it is inevitable that there will be more monks and less porridge

Next, Zhang Zhixian's position today is probably not good feng shui, and there are no fish on the hook for a long time, through the confused smoke and rain, but now others catch fish from time to time, so anxious that he pulls up his hook from time to time, the earthworm is still there, but why is there no fish to eat the bait?

He looked around, lifted his fishing rod, and changed the empty basket to another place, but still didn't catch a fish.

He was tempted to be cheeky and rub under the ancient willow to the south, because he noticed that the man under the ancient willow caught the most fish, and this place should be the best.

It's just that the place of the ancient willow is narrow, except for one water surface that is relatively clean, and the other aquatic plants are not suitable for fishing, so Zhang Zhi had to give up. Remembering the bleak situation at home, Zhang Zhi picked up the fish basket and stroked his beard wet by the rain, and couldn't help but sigh: "Jiang Hansi returned to the guest, and the universe was rotten." The clouds and the sky are far away, and the eternal night and the moon are lonely"

"The heart of the sunset is still strong, and the autumn wind is sick. In ancient times, old horses were stored, and there was no need to take long distances. ”

"Li Yu, why are you?"

"Teacher, it's not just me, other classmates are there, the teacher is above, please accept my wait."

Who is Li Yu, who is not his own student who stood up from the ancient willow side? Zhang Zhi saw that he ignored the dampness on the ground, and bowed down on his knees. Those who were fishing by the dragon pond in hats and robes also stood up and bowed to him, and then took their fishing baskets and poured them into his baskets

"What are you guys doing here?"

Li Yu said: "One day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father." The teacher's family is in difficulty, the students are unable to help, and the heart is full of guilt, these fish are the only ones that the students can repay the teacher, please ask the teacher. ”

"Please come down, teacher!"

"Please come down, teacher!"

“”

Looking at the familiar faces, Zhang Zhi's gray beard trembled slightly, and he couldn't say a word, and the drizzle at dusk was misty, wetting his eyes.

Surrounded by Li Yu and other students, Zhang Zhi returned to the county school in the drizzle, stepping on the mud, one foot high and one foot low. From a distance, I saw some people surrounding the county school, and Wang Baizhen, the teacher of the county school, was very excited about what he was holding in his hand, and the other two instructors, Kang Zhuang and Wei Cheng, knelt on the muddy ground, crying and laughing, as if they were crazy.

Zhang Zhi and a group of students were startled and hurriedly ran over.

"Teach Wang, what's wrong? You are"

"Zhang Xundao, it's good for you to come back, it's good to come back, come and see, our emperor Shengming! Emperor Shengming! ”

Zhang Zhi took the official document in Wang Baizhen's hand and looked carefully, strictly speaking, this is a holy oracle that came down through the imperial court, and the holy oracle began with "Heaven and Earth Monarch Teacher" to point out the teacher's lofty status, listing the teacher's contributions and hardships, and finally Zhang Zhi's eyes were fixed on the words "plus two stones", the fish basket in his hand fell to the ground with a bang, and a basket of crucian carp fell to the mud and jumped wildly.

"Is this true? Is this true? ”

Zhang Zhi asked as if in a dream. Wang Baizhen replied excitedly: "It's true, of course it's true, it's the will of the saints, it's the will of the saints."

Although the instructor is also an official, but not into the stream, before the monthly Yulu only two stone rice, sometimes the rice can not be obtained in full, life is bitter haha, all year round, even a new clothes can not be bought, meat can not be eaten a few times.

Now Yulu has suddenly doubled and become four stones of the month, which is about to catch up with the magistrate of the Ming Dynasty, and throughout the past dynasties, this has never been the case.

Four stones of the moon, four stones of the moon Zhang Zhi repeatedly chattered, like the other two teachings, he felt the emperor's grace, and couldn't help the old tears, knelt down three times in front of Beijing, and shouted long live!

After the people of Zhouguan figured out the truth of the matter, there was a lot of discussion, and most of them also praised the emperor's act of sainthood and benevolence in giving the scholars and officials.

For a long time, the scholars and officials of the teachings and disciplines have been very respected by the ordinary people, they spread knowledge and hope, but they are very meagre and live a very hard life, which is in stark contrast to their status, and these ordinary people are looking at it;

Therefore, now that the emperor has given the scholars a salary, most people think that it is due.

This time, it is all the scholars and officials of Daqin who will be added, and the entire Daqin will set off a round of respect for teachers and education. It is not difficult to imagine that hundreds of states and counties will have such a touching scene as the county, and tens of thousands of teachers will benefit from it, and then be grateful to the emperor.

Next, when the imperial court wants to train and evaluate all teachers, the resistance will be minimized, and Qin Mu wants to promote the parallel teaching of mathematics and physics, which also has universal support.

And the imperial court does not invest more than three hundred thousand dragon coins in education every year.

ps: Thank you for the monthly tickets or rewards of book friends such as Babajie Ring, Zhuwan Pole Slope, Desert Bookworm, Little Tiger in the Demon World, Wu Hook Frost Moon Cold, Foreverking, Phantom Dragon Boy, Niu Huitou, Mo Tianzhai, Brother Yangzi Xun, etc., and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to every friend who has given me support. (To be continued)