Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 421: Only rules, not human feelings
During the three days of vacation, Zhang Shou was in high spirits and ran around everywhere. None of the people who were watching him dared to be careless. They had to follow him from the city to the outside of the city, and from the outside of the city to the city. They were almost exhausted. After all, following him on horseback was too conspicuous. Everyone was afraid of being discovered by Ah Liu, the most vigilant person around him, so they strictly ordered the spies to hide themselves in the crowd.
Therefore, when Zhang Shou finally returned to his teaching position at the Imperial College, those teachers who had almost worn out several pairs of shoes due to his transfers were all moved to tears.
You know, except for the first day when Zhang Shou went to the public school to meet Xie Wanquan, and met the head of Suzhou Guild Hall, Hua Huishou, while eating at the Yangzhou Guild Hall, and was invited to the Suzhou Guild Hall opposite, where he met the head of the Hua family, Mr. Hua Si. These were two relatively important pieces of news. But after that, they didn't get any news in the next two days. They just watched Zhang Shou take the beauty to travel around the lake and the garden!
However, before these spies could even breathe a sigh of relief, after the court session ended that day, they were severely scolded by the people sent by their respective masters to contact them!
For example, the close followers of Grand Secretary Kong passed on Grand Secretary Kong's words and scolded the guy who was ordered to follow Zhang Shou: "What are your eyes and ears for? You didn't even get any useful information!"
"The second round of enrollment for Jiuzhang Hall is not only for Shuntian Prefecture, but also for the entire Northern Zhili. Wu Ge Lao and Zhang Daxueshi have come out to give their full support, but you didn't know. The emperor publicly attacked Guanglu Temple today, claiming that he would seal up all the accounts of Guanglu Temple and hand them over to the students of Jiuzhang Hall for review, but you didn't know either. The emperor suddenly proposed to build a port in Cangzhou, but you didn't get any news either!"
The spy was scolded so much that he dared not raise his head, but he was extremely dissatisfied in his heart. He was just following Zhang Shou and his group from a distance. With such a powerful person like Ah Liu around, how could he get close to them and know what they were discussing?
After venting his anger on behalf of Grand Secretary Kong, the attendant patted him on the shoulder with sympathy and said earnestly, "That was what the master said just now. I have no choice but to read it again. You have to understand our master. He finally got rid of the great god Jiang Gelao, but he didn't expect that the choice of the Prime Minister would be delayed, so it's inevitable that he's a little angry."
"Actually, I also know that asking you to follow Dr. Zhang is really unreasonable."
The eyeliner sighed with a bitter face, "Brother, it's good that you know my difficulties. I really can't see that Dr. Zhang has any ambitions. He seems to be a lucky boy who is obsessed with the land of beauties. During the two days in Haidian Zhaoyuan, he rowed a boat on the lake to appreciate the withered lotus, listened to music, drank wine and had a party. He even called all the girls in Tingyu Xiaozhu out of the city. Who would have thought that he would suddenly do such a big thing without saying anything?"
If Zhang Shou knew that in the eyes of many high-ranking officials, he had become a troublemaker and an ambitious person who was best at disguise, he would definitely feel that he was really wronged.
Investigating the Guanglu Temple was something the emperor wanted to do; building the port of Cangzhou was also something the emperor wanted to do. What did it have to do with him? The only thing he was planning to do was recruit students for the second term of Jiuzhang Hall, but he had never kept that a secret from anyone. It was impossible for Jiuzhang Hall to just recruit the current batch of students and that would be enough, right?
Moreover, Wang Datou, the former governor of Shuntian Prefecture who was most likely to take the blame, is no longer here. Without his greatest helper, it will be a troublesome task to mark the papers. Fortunately, he still has the group of students in Jiuzhang Hall to do the work, but what the hell is it that Lord Wu and Grand Secretary Zhang jumped out to support him?
It can be said that he has no friendship with these two ministers. They are either trying to guess the emperor's intentions or showing off their personal relationships!
However, no matter what Zhang Shou thought, when the news reached Jiuzhang Hall in the afternoon, all the students were shocked. Jiuzhang Hall was going to recruit new students, which was expected by everyone, and Zhang Shou had said that when the time came, they, the seniors, would have to take on more responsibilities in teaching the juniors. The construction of Cangzhou Port had nothing to do with students like them.
But the Guanglu Temple scandal broke out suddenly, and the emperor launched an attack and gave them the burden of checking the accounts, which they had no ! Of course, no one knew that Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang had already communicated...
Therefore, when they saw Zhang Shou standing on the podium and began to assign tasks in an orderly manner, everyone looked forward to it, hoping to become famous in front of the emperor. Especially the large number of people who were originally interning in the Ministry of Revenue, Guanglu Temple, and Daming Public School, and who came back to listen to Zhang Shou's lecture today, everyone pricked up their ears.
When they heard that Zhang Shou had named their names among those to be checked at the Guanglu Temple, some older students even cried with joy. As for those who were not named in the end, their frustration and disappointment were beyond words, especially the two students who had been interning at the Guanglu Temple for two months, who were surprised and disappointed.
Even more of those who failed the election did not even think about the fact that even if they had a good talent for mathematics, they did not know how to check the accounts... because many of them were just doing odd jobs in the Ministry of Revenue and the Guanglu Temple, and were not qualified to have access to confidential things like account books.
Seeing these people happy while others worried, Zhang Shou had to comfort them: "There are plenty of opportunities. You must remember that as the first batch of students of Jiuzhang Hall, the opportunities you can get are always the best. In the future, you will shoulder more and more responsibilities, so there is no need to rush. Compared with your future juniors, you are already lucky enough."
After hearing this, the disappointed students gradually came to their senses.
Thinking about it, the classmates who followed Wang Jie to Xuanfu Datong for internship had already rotated twice, and the internship in the Ministry of Revenue and Guanglu Temple had only happened not long ago. Although they only taught poor children in the public school, it was also a good experience. Everyone soon became excited.
Lu Sanlang held back and didn't blurt out that in the future all the accounts of the inner treasury would be handed over to Jiuzhangtang for review - he believed that as long as they knew this, these seemingly quiet classmates would surely become as excited as if a basin of water was poured into a calm frying pan, and explode in an instant!
After pacifying everyone, Zhang Shou said in a deep voice: "Although some of you have worked as accountants in your early years, there are also many who have never touched accounts. Even if they have worked as accountants, they only use the four-pillar settlement method that has been used since the previous dynasty. The teacher has always had some complaints about the shortcomings of the four-pillar settlement method. After studying mathematics in recent years, he has naturally gained some experience."
At this point, he glanced around at the students in Jiuzhang Hall, and then said with a smile: "So, just like your previous textbooks, in the future, you can learn better bookkeeping methods for the subject of accounts."
Well, he finally remembered the principle of Longmen Accounting, thanks to his careful preparation for the exam. As for the teacher having to take the blame again... Teacher Ge must have gotten used to it, right? But this time, Ge Yong would really have to take care of the textbook. The only thing he could be sure of was that Longmen Accounting was sufficient as a type of double-entry bookkeeping method.
As for some people saying that Longmen Account is more advanced than the current accounting method, we can just listen to it. Of course, no accounting method can eliminate false accounts. After all, accounts are people-oriented!
On the first day back at the Imperial College, Zhang Shou certainly would not compete with others since there were corresponding teachers in Banshan Hall from the first to the third classes. He only spent most of the hour in Jiuzhang Hall reviewing the assignments that he had glanced over before. After learning about the result of the court's decision during the break, he encouraged a group of students and then gave another half-hour lecture.
After assigning a bunch of homework to the students, he irresponsibly returned to the Doctoral Hall. However, the envy, jealousy and hatred that were even more obvious than usual were too intense, so he felt like a thorn in his back after sitting for a while. Thinking that it was almost noon, he simply stood up and walked out. But as soon as he left the Doctoral Hall, he bumped into Xu Heida who was coming out of the Rope Hall.
Zhang Shou and Xu Heida had a good understanding, but they only had a righteous relationship and no personal relationship. At this moment, he nodded slightly and was about to leave, but Xu Heida suddenly asked solemnly, "Where are you going, Dr. Zhang?"
"I'll go back to my dormitory for lunch and think about the questions for the second round of enrollment for Jiuzhangtang." Zhang Shou answered concisely. However, when he heard Xu Heida's next question, he was slightly stunned.
"Doctor Zhang, are you talking about your dormitory, or the dormitory of Lu Zhu, the head of Jiuzhang Hall?" Seeing Zhang Shou's strange expression, Xu Heida simply said, "If you are talking about Lu Zhu, the head of Jiuzhang Hall, the dormitory is in the original place, but your dormitory has been allocated to two students. It would be a waste if your dormitory was empty since you have been away in Cangzhou for several months."
In the doctoral hall, several doctors seemed to be concentrating on reading their books, while several teaching assistants were not so reserved. This incident caused an uproar a few months ago, and now some people were whispering, some were laughing, and some were shaking their heads and sighing, all watching the joke.
Everyone knew that Zhang Shou had only casual acquaintances with most people in the Imperial College. Even Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye only had official dealings with him. Only Xu Heizi from the Shengqian Hall had a strangely good relationship with Zhang Shou.
Even the previous branch examination of Banshan Hall was supervised by Xu Heizi himself, which shows that this relationship is not someone else's speculation.
However, who would have thought that in the few months when Zhang Shou left the Imperial College to go to Cangzhou on official business, Xu Heizi would actually take over all of Zhang Shou's rooms? Was this guy really so strict that he completely forgot about his own interests, or did he think that such strengths could improve his reputation? Or did he think that Zhang Shou would not turn against him in order to protect his reputation?
Not to mention others, even Zhang Shou himself was a little surprised by Xu Heizi's disrespectful behavior. However, although he didn't have a close relationship with the person, he could still tell whether the person was really a bad guy or pretending to be strong to seek fame - at least the real person who sought fame would never hang around the door of Jiuzhang Hall for nothing and listen patiently.
So, somewhat annoyed that this fellow was killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, he asked sullenly, "Xu Jiancheng took over my room while I was away, but although there are no valuables in it, there are some books. Where are they now?"
"Dr. Zhang, all the things you left behind were taken to the Jiuzhang Hall Master Lu Zhu's house."
Xu Heida was still speaking in a serious tone. Seeing Zhang Shou's frown, he asked sincerely, "Dr. Zhang, can you please spare me a moment to talk?"
Seeing that Zhang Shou looked unhappy, he followed him and left the Doctor Hall. When they reached a secluded place, Xu Heida explained frankly: "The two students of Jiuzhang Hall are short of money. The house they rented at a low price was suddenly resold by the owner, so they came to me hoping to borrow a room to live in. But because there are too many people and too few rooms, I decided to borrow your room. But..."
As soon as Zhang Shou heard this, he knew that the follow-up would definitely be unexpected. Sure enough, the next moment, he only heard Xu Heida say: "Even if I insist that you give in, your two students respect their teachers very much and will never give in. I know you will definitely say that Lu Zhu's family is rich, he is good at business, and he has found many opportunities for his classmates to do odd jobs to make money. Why don't they ask him?"
"But because they were classmates, they respected Lu Sanlang's talent and ability, but didn't want to ask him for help in everything. So, I gave your room to two students who had been in Ruxing Hall for a long time. One of them was a dormitory leader after Ruxing Hall was divided into two dormitories. Their old room was given to your two students. They were reluctant at first, but I reprimanded them according to the dorm rules, and they agreed."
"Of course. Afterwards, Lu Sanlang had a quarrel with me. If I hadn't been in charge of the prison, I would have warned him that I would not be polite if he continued to make trouble. He might not have given up. Didn't he tell you about this?"
That little fat guy who tries to cover up his mistakes... When has anyone ever mentioned this before!
Zhang Shou cursed Lu Sanlang in his heart. Although he was still a little unhappy, he was no longer in the predicament when he first came to Beijing and had to live in Ge's mansion, and later in Qi Jingshan's house. The emperor had already given him a chance to buy a house like Zhang Garden with such a small amount of money. He still had to occupy a room in the Imperial College's dormitory, which would be better off giving it to those poor students.
Having said that, he glanced at Xu Heida and said angrily, "Why didn't you tell me about this when I left Beijing?"
"Because if there hadn't been such an emergency, I would have thought that it would have been reasonable to keep that dormitory for you." Xu Heida's expression remained calm. "During the time when you were staying in the dormitory at the Imperial College, you were busy with students and teaching all day long. If all the officials who borrowed the dormitory to live were like you, then the revival of the Imperial College would be just around the corner."
Zhang Shou could only express helplessness about Xu Heida's character of praising you on the one hand and being impartial with you on the other.
How can a guy who only cares about fairness and justice and basically doesn't care about the ways of the world survive in the dark officialdom?
Too lazy to talk to Xu Heida any more, Zhang Shou could only go straight back to Jiuzhang Hall and called Lu Sanlang out. This time, before he asked, the little fat man saw Xu Heida who had just left not far away and immediately confessed: "I was holding back before because I thought Xu Heida was bullying the teacher and was easy to talk to, so I hoped that the teacher would recognize the true face of a guy like him in anger and stop paying attention to him!"
As he spoke, he took out a key from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Shou, then muttered, "This is the key to my cell. If you are taking a nap, go there. I wanted to vacate my cell and give it to you directly, but I was afraid that Xu Heizi would do something naughty again, so I kept it for now."
