About half an hour later, Kou Zheng settled Zhao Hongrun in the back room of the Shangxian government office, and then retired to prepare meals for Zhao Hongrun and the clan guards that night.
As soon as his front leg left, Mu Qing, the back leg's clan guard, couldn't help but burst out: "This is unreasonable! This bandit just doesn't know how to praise!"
After hearing Mu Qing's words, except for Zongwei Chu Heng who scratched his hair naively, the rest of the Zongwei didn't look very good-looking.
After all, in his opinion, His Royal Highness put aside his status and condescended to recommend Kou Zheng to serve as the county magistrate of Fenyin or Puban. This is a good thing that many people in the country dream of, but Kou Zheng is so good that he dares to refuse.
His Royal Highness’s kindness.
In the final analysis, the magistrate of Shangxian County is just a magistrate for dozens of households in the mountains. How can it be compared with the two cities of Fenyin and Puban?
Even a fool can see that once His Highness vigorously develops "Fenyin" and "Puban", these two cities will immediately become as strategic cities as Anyi and Shanyang, and the small Shangxian County.
Can it be compared with these two cities?
But looking at His Highness who was sitting in the room with his eyes closed and meditating, although the Zongwei were grumbling, they understood in their hearts that His Highness had not given up on recruiting Kou Zheng.
After a while, Zhao Hongrun opened his eyes and said seriously: "Zhou Pu, please come here for the old man I just met... Lu Mu, go ask Lu Zhan and take a look at the accompanying soldiers.
, did you bring any drinks, please bring some for me."
"Yes!" Zongwei Zhou Pu and Lu Mu clasped fists and left.
While waiting, Zhao Hongrun looked around the room.
Mud floor, adobe walls, wooden tile house, and the furnishings in the house are also very simple, a bed, a table, and two benches, so that when Zhao Hongrun sat on one of the benches, the sect guards felt
I was too embarrassed to sit on another stool, so I had to stand inside the room.
"Your Highness, please take a sip of tea first."
Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao picked up the teapot that Kou Zheng had just brought. When he saw that a large piece of teapot spout was missing, he frowned slightly, but when he saw that almost every one of the teacups had gaps.
At this time, his face became more and more ugly.
The tea cups were just stoneware, but all of them were broken. If Wei Jiao hadn't seen the poverty in Shang County with his own eyes, he would have cursed.
But having said that, although the tea utensils are poor, the tea - bah, what kind of tea is it, is clearly boiled water.
"So poor that you don't even have tea cakes?"
Wei Jiao muttered, hesitated for a while, and poured Zhao Hongrun a glass of water.
Zhao Hongrun didn't say anything else. He picked up the tea cup and drank a cup. After all, he had hardly replenished water after walking for a long time on the mountain road, and his throat was very thirsty at the moment.
It has to be said that the water quality in Shang County is very good. Zhao Hongrun suspected that the locals were drinking mountain spring because it tasted slightly sweet in their mouths.
After drinking a few drinks to quench his thirst, Zhao Hongrun stood up and walked towards the door.
Because he heard the sound of Lang Lang reading, the voice sounded very childish, probably a group of young children.
Sure enough, when Zhao Hongrun stood at the door of the wing and looked into the house on the other side of the courtyard, he faintly saw seven or eight children standing or sitting in the opposite room, shaking their heads and reciting.
Because the local accent of those children was very strong, Zhao Hongrun couldn't understand what they were reading even after listening for a long time.
"Open a private school in a government office...?"
Zhao Hongrun shook his head with a half-smile.
In fact, he noticed it when he first entered. He felt that this government office did not look like a serious government building, but more like it was converted from a private residence.
However, this house is quite big, but the whole house looks very dilapidated, like an old house that has been in disrepair. Even the only tree in the courtyard is half dead, with only the trunk of the tree with dry bark left, so that the entire
The house looks more depressed and dilapidated.
After a while, Zongwei Lu Mu got a few water bags of wine from Lu Zhan.
After waiting for a while, Zhou Pu also invited the father-in-law, Kou Zheng's teacher Shang Xun, over.
"My father-in-law."
When Shang Xun came to Zhao Hongrun on crutches, Zhao Hongrun took the lead in cupping his hand, and then asked with a smile: "Are those children my father-in-law's students?"
Shang Xun also returned the gift with his hand, then looked back at the children in the opposite room, and explained with a chuckle: "They are all the sons of the neighbors. I don't dare to mislead the children, I just teach them how to read and write..."
According to Shang Xun's explanation, he is the county elder of this city, and because of his advanced age, his neighbors in the countryside do almost everything they can do. As a result, he is very idle every day, so he consults the people in the county.
Children read, learn to read, and chat to pass the time.
Kou Zheng, including "Shang Yang", a young man who was teaching the children in the room opposite at this time, was one of the first batch of students taught by Shang Xun.
"Shang Yang...could he be my father-in-law's son?"
Zhao Hongrun asked curiously.
But after asking, Zhao Hongrun felt that something was wrong. After all, Shang Xun was already over seventy years old, and the young man teaching the children opposite looked like he was only in his twenties. How could they be father and son?
Just when Zhao Hongrun changed his mind and wanted to ask if they were his ancestors and grandsons, Shang Xun had already shaken his head, sighed and said: "Shang Yang is the son of a hunter in this county. His father went hunting in the mountains and never returned. Most likely
It was an unexpected incident. When his mother passed away, she entrusted the son to the old man..."
After Shang Xun's explanation, Zhao Hongrun finally understood that 90% of the county residents in Shang City had Shang as their surname, but there was no blood relationship between them and Shang Xun. Going back a few years, the local county residents were attached to the Shang family.
A commoner born from the door.
What surprised Zhao Hongrun was that the literacy rate in Shang County, a mountain town with only a few dozen households, was as high as 90%. It is no exaggeration to say that any county citizen under the age of thirty can recognize at least hundreds of people.
Commonly used characters, even women and children can write their own names.
The reason for this situation is that Shang Xun, an old man who had nothing to do for thirty years, taught the county people in the city how to read.
When this matter was mentioned, Shang Xun looked a little nervous and refused to admit those people from the mountain people as his students, which made Zhao Hongrun feel funny and sad at the same time.
The reason is very simple, because more than a hundred years ago, reading and writing was still the privilege of the clans and nobles. The national conditions at that time did not allow civilians to study. But now, this old rule has long been discarded.
However, it can be seen from this that Shangxian County lacks contact with the outside world, so that people like Shangxun who are from the old clan still adhere to the old almanac, so that Shangxun is also uneasy about the good thing of popularizing culture among the county people.
.
After Zhao Hongrun's explanation, Shang Xun felt relieved, with a sigh of relief on his face.
At that time, Zhao Hongrun was thinking that if he asked the old man at this moment, "Who is the emperor of Wei today?", the old man would most likely not be able to tell.
"Could this house be my father-in-law's residence?"
After inviting Shangxun to sit down in the room, Zhao Hongrun asked curiously.
After all, in his opinion, this private residence converted into a Shang County government office looks like the mansion of a large family.
Shang Xun was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said with a smile: "Lao Chen is alone anyway. Since Lao Chen's student has been appointed as the magistrate of our county, it is natural that we must not let the government lose its face."
Zhao Hongrun blinked, unable to express his true feelings, so he changed the subject and said: "Alone? I don't know how to make you..."
Shang Xun suddenly fell silent, and after a moment he reluctantly said: "Quanzi decided to go to Liangcheng to serve as an official, but unfortunately fell off a cliff on the way to the mountain road..." The Liangcheng in his mouth refers to Daliang.
Zhao Hongrun opened his mouth and quickly expressed his apology solemnly: "Please forgive me and accept the change."
"It's okay." Shang Xun waved his hand and said with a forced smile: "It was all twenty or thirty years ago, and I have already looked away." After saying that, he glanced at Zhou Pu and asked: "
I just heard this gentleman say that you are the son of His Majesty the Great Wei Dynasty. I wonder why I summoned you here?"
"I am Zhao Run, a direct descendant of the Zhao family of the Great Wei Ji. I invite my father-in-law here this time because I hope he can do a favor for Xiao Wang." After saying that, Zhao Hongrun explained exactly what he had just said to Kou Zheng.
He told Shang Xun and made no secret of his desire to recruit Kou Zheng.
After hearing this, Shang Xun thought for a moment and asked doubtfully: "Why does His Highness Prince Su value his old disciple Kou Zheng so highly?"
Zhao Hongrun laughed when he heard this and said: "What I said is right. My disciple Kou Zheng, Kou County Magistrate, was the first on the gold medal list in the 16th year of Hongde. He is the best among tens of thousands of students in our great Wei Dynasty. He doesn't..."
At this point, Zhao Hongrun's voice stopped because he found that Shang Xun's expression became very strange.
"Number one?" Looking at Zhao Hongrun, Shang Xun asked seriously: "Is Kou Zhengzheng really the number one?"
Looking at Shang Xun's expression, Zhao Hongrun had vaguely guessed it, nodded and affirmed: "Yes! Mr. Kou is the number one on the gold list of Hongde's 16th year examination. He could have stayed in Daliang, and he will definitely be able to take the position in the future.
With all the temples and temples, the future is bright."
Shang Xun opened his mouth, and then his expression became uncertain.
After a while, he suddenly paused the crutch in his hand and cursed with an expression that was both painful and gratifying: "What a fool!"
Seeing Shang Xun's expression, Zhao Hongrun was even more certain: Kou Zheng must have not told his teacher the real results of the general examination.
After cursing a few words, Shang Xun turned to look at Zhao Hongrun and asked dryly: "If this son changes his mind now, can he still return to Liangcheng as an official?"
"This..." Zhao Hongrun had an embarrassed expression on his face.
He thought to himself that Kou Zheng was quite cool at the time. He rejected high-ranking officials such as Hou Jue and the solicitations of the former Dong Palace, King Yong, and King Xiang. He decided to return to his hometown to serve as a county magistrate despite the dissuasion of officials from the Ministry of Rites. He might have been betrayed by someone else.
It was labeled as "pretending to be noble" and offended many people.
It would not be appropriate to push Kou Zheng back to Daliang under such circumstances.
But having said that, through Shang Xun's words, Zhao Hongrun also understood the old man's thoughts, so he tried his best to tell him the importance of the two cities of "Fenyin" and "Puban", directly referring to the county magistrates of these two cities.
The importance is even greater than that of the county governor.
After a while, Shang Xun stood up and left with a serious face.
Looking at the old man's back as he hurried away, Zhao Hongrun and the other sect guards looked at each other maliciously.
They have realized that the magistrate Kou Zhengkou will most likely be in trouble.