Li Tu is twenty years old this year and is a scholar in Bianliang City.
He is ordinary all over, with ordinary appearance, ordinary origin, and ordinary literary talent.
He is not good at studying, and his persistence to this day is entirely due to his habits since he was a child. With his knowledge, he cannot become an official, and he does not want to do it.
He has no hope of taking the imperial examination, nor does he want to do anything else. He just hopes to guard the courtyard given to him by his fathers and live in a muddle-headed life.
Maybe people will be curious, how did such a person who could do nothing but study live to the age of twenty without any care from relatives or friends?
In fact, it is very simple. Before Li Tu was seven years old, he was raised by his parents. After he was seven years old, his parents died, and he was brought up by a kind-hearted private school teacher who was also a bachelor.
When he was twelve years old, his private school teacher died, and Li Tu had no guardian at all. The private school was dissolved, so he returned to the courtyard with the books left by his teacher.
His parents worked hard all their lives to save enough money to build this yard.
After that, he began to think about how to make money to support his continued study. He tried setting up a street stall and writing letters for others. He could earn seven or eight copper coins a day. If it was the New Year or someone's birthday, he would write letters for others.
A pair of couplets can also earn double the price.
Then, about four or five years ago, Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo began to prepare for the whole country to surrender to the Twelve Gods Palace. In order to ensure the prosperity of the Song Dynasty on the day of the God-Proclaiming Ceremony, he gathered the poor in Bianliang City to the North City.
Because the courtyard left by Li Tu's parents now belongs to him, and because Li Tu is literate and can write couplets, and is a cultural person, the government officials responsible for driving away the poor did not attack him.
After a few months of this, Li Tu felt that the people on the streets had indeed become much more glamorous, and they lacked the simple attire of poor people.
Of course, not long after the policy was promulgated, it also caused some troubles. For example, no one was doing the work of pouring night fragrance, doing night shift, and transporting certain stores, because the people doing these jobs were poor and did not dress well on weekdays.
Meets current city requirements.
In response, the imperial court decided to retain a small group of people to continue to complete these tasks, but the time required for them to work must be just two hours before dawn, and the maximum amount of work must be completed with the minimum number of people.
Moreover, these people's household registrations have to be linked to the place where they work, turning themselves into the private property of a certain shop or a certain brothel, giving up their identity as human beings, and continuing to stay in the prosperous area of Bianliang City as an object.
To put it simply, he was forced to sign a deed of betrayal.
One day, Li Tu decided to go to Beicheng to have a look.
It was raining that day and it was impossible to set up a stall, so Li Tu picked up the oil-paper umbrella at home and went to Beicheng alone.
There, he saw slums one after another. Many familiar people in the past were living in small houses made of wood chips. They were short of money, livelihood, doctors, and hope of living.
It seems that for some inexplicable reason, they were driven here and lost their original low-paying jobs.
Someone once tried to escape secretly, but within a few days he was beaten until he was dying and sent back because he had committed the crime of "affecting the appearance of the city."
Whether they go out to see a doctor or do some small business, as long as they appear outside the north of the city, they will be charged with a crime in exchange for a severe beating and then paraded through the streets.
Later, Bianliang City became more and more prosperous, with busy traffic during the day, singing and dancing at night, and intensive preparations to welcome the Twelve Divine Palaces to move in.
But Beicheng is becoming more and more lifeless.
Li Tu looked at this scene and felt very aggrieved, as if he was being pressed down by a big stone. When he was about to turn around and leave, he found a little boy standing behind him.
The boy was very small, with big eyes, and his face and hands were dirty. He only wore a short jacket and no pants.
He looked up at Li Tu, his big eyes full of longing. He slowly raised his hands and spread his palms in front of Li Tu.
There was nothing in these little hands, and they were obviously asking for money from him.
Li Tu thought for a moment, secretly touched his money bag, and found that there were more than a dozen copper coins in it, which he thought he might need when he went out.
However, the situation in Beicheng was unexpectedly worse, much more serious than he imagined.
If you give money to this child, will it arouse the covetousness of the people around you, and then swarm him and strip him naked?
Li Tu thought to himself, and looked at the pairs of eyes staring at him on the muddy street. There was no inner fluctuation on the numb faces, and he felt more and more that his guess was possible.
In the end, instead of giving the begging boy a copper, he pressed his hands and touched his head.
"Child, it's wrong to beg. Although you are still young, your parents should be capable people and should earn money through their own labor."
He pretended to have high moral standards, assumed the posture of a Confucian saint, and encouraged the child with sincere words.
However, when he saw two lifeless adults lying in the wooden shed behind the child, he left Beicheng in embarrassment.
After returning home, Li Tu almost fell seriously ill. He was in a daze, and everything he saw in Beicheng that day kept appearing in his mind.
The cold, dark rain that day hit the wooden shacks, making a sound like ocean waves. The rainwater flowed into the shacks along the cracks, and fell drop by drop on the dirty white cloth covering the bodies of the couple who died of illness.
The child's empty eyes, yet revealing the fundamental longing of human nature, filled his dreams like two whirlpools. Today, he woke up in the middle of the night several times, breaking out in a cold sweat.
It didn't take long for him to recover from his illness, and he continued to set up a stall and write. However, he greatly underestimated the Song Dynasty court's execution.
After the poor people in the city were expelled, new regulations were promulgated. It was prohibited to set up stalls on the streets in the city. At the same time, there was also a ban on meat, which complemented the previous one and completely cut off the livelihood of the middle and lower class people in the city.
Li Tu was also implicated and could not go out to write letters for others. In order to make a living, he could only wear a long gown, carry his own book box and go to the streets, knocking on doors one by one to find business.
However, it is obvious that the income is not as good as before.
Just when he was in embarrassment and couldn't eat, someone came to his door.
Late that night, while he was still reading with the lights on, there was a knock on the door.
He walked out and opened the door and saw two lean men wearing coarse linen clothes.
Li Tu recognized these two people. One of them, named Yan Yong, was a street vendor selling pig's trotters.
Li Tu was deeply impressed by this man because he had never seen a man pushing a cart running so fast that even the government officials could not catch him.
These two people suddenly appeared in front of the door, and they looked around cautiously. They obviously came here secretly. Li Tu was curious, why would they risk being arrested and come to his house to look for him?
Yan Yong smiled and said, "Is this Mrs. Li Tu?"
Folks in the Song Dynasty usually called people who could read and write as masters. This was a sign of respect for scholars and a humility to others.
Li Tu thought they were here to ask for help, and sympathized with their plight, so he let them into the courtyard.
When Li Tu went in to get pen and paper, Yan Yong revealed the reason for his visit.
"We want to invite Master to go to Beicheng to teach children."
Li Tu was puzzled.
"You don't have enough to eat over there, so why do you need to teach your children how to read?"
Li Tu really doesn't understand. It stands to reason that people usually consider spiritual needs after satisfying their physical needs. Beicheng is now in a smog, and almost everyone lives a life of hunger and hunger. What's the point of studying?
?
Yan Yong explained, "There is a Sister Guan over there in Beicheng. She secretly raises many chickens, pigs, ducks and geese and sells them to us at low prices for business. We gentlemen usually go out to set up stalls to make money, and the women make cheap female celebrities. The elderly and children see each other."
The rich people who pass by will also go to beg for some money, and they can help each other and have enough to eat."
Yan Yong had a bitter smile on his face. He was very thin, so his smile was not pretty. He looked a bit like a ghost in the night.
Li Tu suddenly realized it and continued.
"So you want to hire a husband for the children to teach them how to read and write?"
Yan Yong nodded repeatedly.
"Exactly! We are all vulgar men without fear of Master's ridicule, but we all know the importance of literacy. Reading and literacy will lead to a future. We can't let the children sit on the roadside begging for food."
Speaking of this, Yan Yong and his companions all laughed sheepishly.
When they came to ask for help this time, they also had the attitude of giving it a try. After all, in their eyes, Li Tu was a cultural person who could bring hope to their descendants.
For poor people, they are often willing to believe that educated people are smarter and will be more promising in the future, so they can escape the fate of poverty.
Understanding the purpose of their coming, Li Tu did not give them an accurate answer. After sending them out, he thought about it all night.
The next day, he went to Beicheng carrying his book box.
From that day on, there was a scholar on the street who went to Beicheng every day, and there was a young teacher in a private school built in a wooden shed in Beicheng.
Li Tu has been teaching in Beicheng for a few years. He feels sincerely satisfied listening to a group of children reading aloud every day, so he often teaches carefully and cautiously, solving puzzles for the children in the slums and teaching them how to read.
.
On weekdays, his three meals are provided, and every day a child's parents bring him different food. Although it is rough and not delicious at all, Li Tu does not dislike it and eats every meal dry.
Clean.
And this is his only reward for teaching, as long as he can take care of the food.
Originally, Li Tu thought that his life would be like this, until the God-Proclaiming Ceremony was held on this day, and he suddenly heard loud shouts of killing, the clanging of armor, and the loud bang of exploding artillery in the streets.
Li Tu climbed up the only tree in the courtyard and saw that the streets were filled with Imperial Guards, and there were also different Xiaogu people interspersed among them, fighting hard against the Imperial Guards' force several times his own.
Among them, he saw a tall figure showing great power, charging hard among the dense enemy troops. The momentum was as mammoth as a humanoid chariot, which was frightening.
Li Tu recognized this person. He remembered that a few months ago, when he was teaching in Beicheng, he accidentally glanced out the window and saw Xie Changyuan walking on the street generously, taking out his own pocket to help the old, weak, women and children on the roadside.
This scene reminded Li Tu of the first time he came to Beicheng.
Compared with his cautiousness, this big man seemed too generous and upright. I don't know whether he was really generous or fake compassion. At least at that moment, he really admired Xie Changyuan.
And today, Li Tu understood the reason for the melee outside. It was all because of the external force of the Twelve Divine Palaces.
Because of it, the Song Dynasty, which lasted for thousands of years, was devastated, and the vulnerable people suffered a lot. Because of it, people in the Beicheng slums would starve to death every day in the early years, and those who were still alive had no dignity at all.
Even though it's still shiny on the outside, it's already rotten on the inside.
Li Tu wanted to rush out several times to contribute to this fight that represented the dignity of the country, but he was so weak that even if he were one more person, he would be nothing more than a drop of water in the ocean, unable to make waves at all.
Li Tu just lay on the tree trunk like this, clenching and unclenching his fists several times, with heaven and man at war in his heart, and his face was uncertain.
Watching the fighting on the street, watching Xie Changyuan's figure crisscrossing the sky and the earth, and occasionally fighting with a strong man dressed as a warrior, Li Tu felt dizzy and almost fell into a daze.
Suddenly, it was like a thunder exploded from the sky, and the next moment half of the sky was filled with purple light, adding a magical color to the scene of snow falling all over the sky.
"Scholars of the Song Dynasty, follow me and draw your sword!"
A powerful voice seemed to come from the sky, and at this moment, Li Tu's turbulent heart suddenly calmed down.
This voice was like a spring breeze that soothed his restlessness, causing him to wake up on the edge of a dazed state. Gradually, his hands no longer clenched into fists, his body no longer trembled, and the look in his eyes gradually calmed down.
Under the coolness of the spring breeze, there was a ray of pride hidden like an iron horse, which inspired the chivalry and passion for family and country deep in Li Tu's heart. This voice was simply the words of a Confucian saint. Hearing this
After saying this, Li Tu felt very calm, so calm that he could go to the street and kill people calmly and calmly!
Li Tu slid down from the tree, patted the snow on his body, slowly walked into the bedroom where he lived, and took down a sword from the wall.
This was left by the private school teacher who adopted him back then. Now Li Tu put it on his waist, adjusted his clothes a little, and walked out of the yard with a proud look. At this moment, there seemed to be light in his eyes!
"Squeak!"
Pushing open the wooden door, Li Tu locked it calmly. When he turned around, he saw someone from the Wang family next door walking out.
The Wang family compound is relatively wealthy. The master of the family is a businessman, and he has an only son who is also a scholar.
The person who walked out at this time was Wang Yan, the only heir of the Wang family, who was about the same age as Li Tu.
Wang Yan was also wearing a long gown, but the fabric was much better than Li Tu's. He was neatly dressed and had a sword hanging from his waist. He saw Li Tu immediately after going out.
The two young scholars looked at each other and smiled, as if they understood each other tacitly, and then walked together towards the street where people shouted to kill Zhentian.
While walking, doors of houses on the left and right would open from time to time, and those who came out were scholars armed with swords, high-spirited and impassioned.
Gradually, there are more and more people, and the streets are like water droplets converging into a river, and then the river converges into the sea.
At this moment, these young people are the future of the Song Dynasty, they are the scholars of the Song Dynasty!
Today, scholars no longer study hard with books, but draw swords and go to the streets to kill people!