After meeting Mr. Hou, Chen Chao finally waited until the summer rain stopped. Then he walked out of the cotton shop and wanted to take a look at the courtyard.
Mr. Hou reminded: "After your boy has become famous, we have discussed it several times in the county government whether to repair your house or not. I heard that we even wrote a brochure and submitted it. Anyway, the final result is that since your boy is already the best in the Liang Dynasty,
Now that you are a military attache, this house cannot be in such a dilapidated condition, and it is unreasonable, so I spent some money to repair it. However, after the repairs, it is hard to say whether your house will still be the way you want it to be."
In fact, the county government asked the opinions of many neighbors on Taohua Lane at that time, but in fact the opinions of those people there were very inconsistent. There were several quarrels over this, but in the end there was no result.
Chen Chao narrowed his eyes and smiled and said, "After the house is repaired, will there be many tourists from other places coming here?"
Mr. Hou was startled, cursed in a low voice, and then said, "Yes, people from several nearby counties came here because of it, but I heard that your house is not allowed to be entered, and many people even cursed.
I'll give you a slap in the face."
Chen Chao laughed it off.
He understands this truth very well. No matter how many people like you in the world, there are bound to be many people who hate you. Sometimes you don't even know what the reasons are, but they are destined to appear.
So if you encounter it, you don’t need to delve into it.
Mr. Hou said proudly, "But at that time, the neighbors in Taohua Lane, including me, all really spoke for you."
In fact, it was not just a conversation, but a big fight. At that time, a neighbor in Peach Blossom Lane almost blocked the guy who scolded Chen Chao in the alley and refused to let him leave. All his saliva fell on the other person's face.
In the end, people from the county government came and rescued the person, but the neighbors on Taohua Lane didn't even say a word of reprimand.
No one knows whether the young man who has already become the most powerful official in the Liang Dynasty may be a nostalgic person. If the incident spreads later and happens to be known by the military attache, it is actually hard to say what the outcome will be.
Chen Chao smiled and said, "It's a lot of trouble to waste words. You can just do it next time."
Mr. Hou muttered, "How can you do that? If you quarrel with others, you are afraid of damaging your reputation. If you do it, I'm afraid it will be true. How can you be an official in the city of God?"
Although the young military attache who came out of Peach Blossom Lane was not a descendant of a certain family, it was precisely because of this that they all regarded the young military attache as a descendant of their own family, for fear that he would be implicated because of something they had done wrong.
Chen Chao left the cotton shop and came to the entrance of Peach Blossom Alley. He took a look inside and saw that the hawkers not far away were still shouting as hard as they could, but their voices were no longer as energetic as they used to be.
Time passes, and the years are like falling flowers and running water. It seems to be slow, but in fact it does not stop.
Chen Chao walked on the bluestone of Peach Blossom Lane and remained silent. He left Weizhou and returned to Weizhou that year. He did not return to his hometown because he felt that the place was not his home. Since he had lost his home, he would not be able to go anywhere.
Same.
Unexpectedly, after staying in Taohua Lane for several years, I truly regarded this place as my home.
Chen Chao actually struggled for a long time as to whether his hometown was the capital of gods or this place, but in the end he felt that he didn't care much about it anymore. Where can he feel at ease and where can he find his hometown?
The reason is simple and needs no further explanation.
Afterwards, Chen Chao came to the door of the house, and it was indeed locked.
Look, you know that even the walls here have been repainted.
Chen Chao felt helpless and took a step forward, pushing the door open and entering. The lock in front of the door fell to the ground.
Entering the courtyard, the repairs inside were simple, just some green tiles were patched up, and the wooden pillars under the eaves, with mottled paint, were still the same as when they left. Chen Chao smiled, feeling somewhat satisfied.
When I was bored before, I often liked to pick at the patent leather on this place. Now I only feel uncomfortable when I see the patent leather on the pillar intact.
After sitting under the eaves for a while, footsteps sounded outside, and then stopped again. Chen Chao looked outside the door, but no one came in.
Half a quarter of an hour later, Chen Chao stood up and came to the door. There was an alley outside, which was full of people. In the front, naturally, were the neighbors of Taohua Lane. Behind him was the local guardian, a young man, not very old.
It doesn't look too high either.
Further behind, there is a group of people, all of whom are government servants from the county government.
Everyone’s eyes are hot.
The young military attache who quietly returned to his hometown said softly, "The yard is too small, so many guests may not be able to come in."
…
…
Wearing a black robe, he left Tianqing County and then Weizhou. However, he did not return to the divine capital, but detoured to somewhere else.
This is not the first time that Chen Chao has traveled around the world. Ever since he left Weizhou and went to the Shendu, he has hardly stayed in the Shendu for a long time. Over the years, he has come and gone, stopped and walked, and almost every beam has him.
figure.
Chen Chao, who deliberately bypassed the capital of the gods, headed towards Yingzhou. When he passed by a town called Changban County, he heard a very interesting local story.
It is said that when Changban County was in the previous dynasty, one or two Jinshi were produced in the imperial examination almost every year. In this way, after a long time, the courtiers from Changban County were not present in the temple of the previous dynasty.
Very few.
At that time, the so-called Nagasaka Party was almost everywhere in the government and the public, and it was very powerful. However, because of this incident, the previous dynasty was destroyed, and the Nagasaka Party was also considered to be the culprit. After all, they had great power in the government and the opposition, but they failed to govern the country well.
The duty of admonishing the king.
Perhaps because of this, when the Liang Dynasty was established, the scholars in Changban County took the imperial examination every year and never graduated from high school. This was not deliberately targeted by Daliang, but it seemed that there was a certain aura that prevented these scholars from returning to school again.
high school.
In fact, if a high-level Qi practitioner comes here, he will probably understand that between heaven and earth, the wisp of cultural destiny belonging to Changban County is so thin that it is almost invisible.
In fact, this phenomenon can be easily explained by any experienced farmer. It is like a fertile field that has had bumper harvests for many years. After a certain year, there is no harvest. This is reasonable.
According to them, it's time to let the fields rest.
Nagasaka County is like a field where so many seeds of reading have been sown and they have blossomed and bear fruit, but it cannot always be like this.
However, no one can say how long the stagnant situation in Nagasaka County will last. Whether it will be a period of recuperation or one day it will be full of vitality again.
But in any case, over the past two hundred years, it has long been
The spirit of scholars in Changban County was wiped out. Starting more than a hundred years ago, there were successively scholarly families that lasted for hundreds of years. Their families moved away and left this place.
With the passage of time, there are not many scholarly families left in Nagasaka County, and most of them are dilapidated. This is because they cannot move and do not want to move, not because they do not want to move.
But in fact, even if the scholarly family moved out of this place, the younger members of the family in other places could not go to high school. It seems that although people have left this place, their roots are here, and it is difficult to say that they are truly disconnected from this place.
Later, I don’t know where it came from, saying that the scholars in Changban County could not go to high school because they were in conflict with the Liang Dynasty. If they wanted to change the status quo, they could only wait for the destruction of the Liang Dynasty and the establishment of the new dynasty.
possible. .??.??
But this kind of rumor is really too sinister. Even though many scholars think so, they would never think so.
Even for this reason, the state capital paid a lot more attention to Changban County.
The number of county soldiers stationed here is twice that of other counties and cities.
Have to guard against it.
Scholars may seem powerless, but in fact they play a very important role at certain important points. When the academy was built, Confucian scholars were recruited and it became a Confucian holy place. Although it had a good relationship with the previous dynasties, it was far from that.
Such a harmonious situation now.
The person who promoted this matter happened to be a scholar in Changban County. The man's surname was Dong, and he came from the Dong family in Changban County. He wrote a policy to the then emperor, called "Countermeasures for Promoting Virtues and Virtues", which was also the first policy.
The scholar surnamed Dong was invited to the imperial capital and talked with the emperor for three days, day and night, even eating and sleeping together. After that, the emperor appointed the scholar surnamed Dong as the prime minister of the country.
It is up to him to negotiate with the academy.
The then Dean of the Academy and Dong Guoxiang held talks for several rounds, each with his own victory or defeat. While they were talking, the two debated fiercely. In the end, the Dean of the Academy became more and more frightened and sighed, "Among the scholars in the world, I am not at the forefront.
Only the back of Prime Minister Dong can be seen in the distance."
You must know that the deans of the academies of all generations are recognized by scholars in the world as the most knowledgeable people. However, the dean of the academy of that generation would express such emotion, which is enough to show how knowledgeable the scholar surnamed Dong was.
Later, the dean of the academy even wanted to abdicate and let the scholar surnamed Dong, who had never studied in the academy, serve as the dean of the academy, but the scholar surnamed Dong refused.
But starting from that time, all scholars in the world knew that the most knowledgeable person in the world was not the president of the academy, but Dong Guoxiang.
Then Dong Guo governed the country for a period of time, bringing peace to the world and peace to the world. Then he retired to seclusion and died.
However, during this period, Dong Guoxiang also left many classics. Among them, famous ones, such as "Spring and Autumn Flood" and "Three Strategies of Heaven and Man" are still regarded as classics by scholars all over the world.
The scholar named Dong was even revered as Dong Zi.
From then on, the scholars in Changban County erected incense tablets of Dong Guoxiang every family, worshiping him from generation to generation, and regarded him as the most outstanding person among the scholars in Changban County.
The Dong family received all kinds of favor during that period.
Chen Chao read a lot, but not too much. This is the first time I heard about this story that almost everyone knows about scholars. But after hearing it, I felt a little curious, so I decided to go to Dong Zi in Changban County.
Visit the temple.
Dong
The temple was built by order of the emperor after the death of Dong Guoxiang. It was a huge stone transported from Xinliuzhou in the north. It is said that after the huge stone was transported to Changban County, the Emperor still hesitated to decide where to use it as Dong Zi Temple.
Undecided, but soon someone reported that after the huge stone was transported to the east gate of Changban County for more than ten miles, it was no longer possible to move forward. The emperor immediately believed that this was Dong Zi's providence, so he built it on the spot.
Dongzi Temple, funds are allocated every year for repair and maintenance.
Afterwards, the dynasties changed, the years passed, and the emperor on the dragon throne changed many surnames, but there was still no emperor who destroyed this place.
Even the Liang Dynasty, which did not believe in ghosts and gods, showed great respect for Dongzi Temple.
After all, if it hadn't been for Dong Zi's feats back then, the scholars in today's dynasty would probably not have chosen to become officials, but would have only cultivated their knowledge behind closed doors.
Chen Chao quietly came to the Dongzi Temple and looked up. The Dongzi Temple was actually not big in scale. It had only one gate, but it could only accommodate two people entering side by side. The plaque on the door, with the words "Dongzi Temple", came from a
The calligraphers of that time had great writing skills.
In the days when there were many scholars in Changban County in the previous dynasty, this place was naturally very popular, especially before entering Beijing to take the exam every year, when the incense here was at its best, and there was an endless stream of scholars.
Today is the time when the Autumn Examinations of the Liang Dynasty are about to start, but the Dongzi Temple is deserted right now.
A Dongzi Temple, when Chen Chao walked in, he found that there were only scattered incense burnt out in the incense burner in front of him.
In terms of quantity, it's not much.
There is an old camphor tree on each side. There are some fallen leaves on the ground and no one has cleaned them.
Chen Chao stood on one side for half a day and saw only three groups of people coming. Each group only had two or three people. Two of them were elderly Confucian scholars with gray hair, and the other group was younger.
But they all hurriedly lit a stick of incense here and then left in a hurry.
It seems that I came here just for my own peace of mind, but not necessarily sincerely.
As for why they are not sincere, the reason is simple, simply because they don't believe that Dong Zi can still protect them.
And why do you come here if you don't believe it? It's a blind cat that kills a rat, and it's just a so-called emergency.
After all these groups of people left, Chen Chao entered the main hall of Dongzi Temple.
The main hall is still small and a little dim, because all the candles around it are burned out. In the past, when the incense here was at its peak, some people would voluntarily maintain it here, but times have changed, and the government does not care about these things, so naturally this is the case.
There is a statue of Dong Zi in the center. It is not very tall. The statue is carved from a huge stone. There are no traces of time now. You can clearly see the style of Dong Zi hundreds of years ago.
On both sides of the statue of Dong Zi, there is a row of bookshelves. The traces of time are very obvious. There are some books scattered here and there. I think that at that time, both sides should be full of books, but now most of them are missing.
There was a scholar in a green robe whose clothes were a little white from washing. He was standing in front of a bookshelf on one side, flipping through an old book.
Chen Chao glanced at the scholar over there. The latter seemed to realize that someone was looking at him, raised his head and smiled at Chen Chao.
Chen Chao smiled in return.
Taking a clear look at the scholar's appearance, he could only be considered delicate and thin, but his hands were quite long, almost hanging down to his knees.