In Dongchen Village, more than ten miles outside Jinling City, the largest house in the village is the famous Chen Mansion in the nearby area!
The Chen Mansion is famous not only because Chen Lifu was an official of the dynasty, but also because the Chen family was a well-known scholarly family in the nearby area and even in the entire Jinling City.
There have been people who have been officials in the court for several generations, and in recent decades, they have been ranked fourth in the imperial examination. Such imperial examination results are quite rare even in Jiangnan, where the literary style is very popular!
The first two of the Chen family's four Jinshi were Chen Lifu's father and uncle, and later he was Sergeant Chen Lifu. As for the fourth, he was a collateral disciple of the Chen family. He passed the examination two years ago.
Ranked among the top two Jinshi subjects in the eighth year of Xuanping's reign.
This is the story of how the Chen family has become a fourth-ranked scholar!
However, this side clan member who later passed the Jinshi examination actually had nothing to do with Chen Lifu. At most, he was a distant cousin. However, the clan concept is still relatively strong these days. Although he did not know his distant clan relatives,
But in the eyes of outsiders, he is still considered a member of the Chen family.
In addition to the fact that the relationship is not close in the first place, another more important reason is that his distant cousin is a serious scholar, and he also feels that he is particularly righteous. He has not yet passed the Jinshi examination.
At that time, he announced that he had severed ties with Chen Lifu in some public places. After he passed the Jinshi examination, in order to show to the outside world that he and Chen Lifu, the traitorous official of the tax department, were not the same, Chen Rentu directly said it in public on many occasions.
He said he was at odds with Chen Lifu, and he also followed suit and wrote two letters of impeachment against Chen Lifu.
Therefore, they are said to be distant cousins, but in fact they are enemies. No, they are not enemies at all. At most, they are strangers who exclude each other.
However, this relationship did not affect the Chen family's prestigious reputation as a fourth-ranked scholar!
Due to its great reputation, the private school run by the Chen family is also very famous. In the past, the Chen family private school only accepted children of the Chen family. Later, Chen Lifu not only wanted to repay his hometown for his fame, but also responded to the imperial court's encouragement to the world.
In response to the call of the gentry to actively run schools, the Chen Family Private School was slightly expanded in size and began to recruit students from surrounding villages. At the same time, it was renamed: "Chencun Primary School"
Today, Chencun Primary School has more than 150 students. This scale is relatively large among the many private primary schools that have been restructured from private schools.
Except for a few private schools that have been specialized in running large-scale schools from the beginning, most of the private schools these days are renovated from private schools. The scale of private schools is usually not large, with more than ten or twenty students.
It is very common to have more than 30 or 50 students. It is very rare to have more than 30 or 50 students.
As for the teacher, there is usually only one, and rarely more than two!
Chencun Primary School is also a primary school that was restructured from a private school. However, its original scale was not small, and it was backed by the Chen family. More importantly, the Chen family's reputation as a fourth-ranked scholar was quite resounding.
Many families are willing to send their children to study here.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the fees of Chencun Primary School are not expensive. The overall fees are similar to those of previous private schools, and ordinary families can afford it.
This Chencun Primary School can be regarded as a contribution made by Chen Lifu to his hometown.
But today, the children in Chencun Primary School found that the person who came to teach them was not their former private school teacher, but a middle-aged man with a white face and no beard. The direct lineage of the Chen family with a good memory immediately recognized this middle-aged man.
The man was none other than the eldest man who even the respected elderly people in the family had to respectfully accompany and talk to!
Master, in contemporary times, this term can be used by officials, gentry, and heads of small landowners, but in Dongchen Village, people can call it master in public, and there is a big character added in front of it.
It must be Chen Lifu.
There is no other reason for this, because Chen Lifu is the eldest son of the Chen family and the head of the Chen family. He is also the pillar of the Chen family and an official of the imperial court.
When Chen Lifu served in the Inspection Division two years ago, he was very powerful, and even the Chen family became prestigious. When they mentioned that they were a descendant of the Chen family in Jinling East, most people were very proud.
As for another member of the Chen family who passed the Jinshi examination, he is still only a seventh-rank official. He became a county magistrate in Hunan, and he is still far away from Chen Lifu's political status.
But why did Chen Lifu appear here? Wasn't he transferred to Xingquan Prefecture as the prefect? Why hasn't he taken up the post yet?
That's right, Chen Lifu has not yet taken office, or to be more precise, he doesn't even know if he can still take office!
After previous inspections by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Chen Lifu was assigned to serve as the prefect of Xingquan Prefecture in the land of Longxing. This position can be said to be one of the best prefecture positions for local officials, because this place is the land of Longxing.
The political meaning is different.
Even if you do nothing while in office, as long as you survive the term, your promotion is certain.
Although Chen Lifu did not understand his appointment, he was still quite satisfied, because according to convention, he should be promoted within the tax department, but he did not expect that he would be sent to the local government to serve as the prefect. This appointment is absolutely
Unconventional.
Officials in the tax department are usually promoted internally, but Chen Lifu has chosen this framework, which means that he can follow the path of prefect, chief envoy, governor, and minister like ordinary officials in the future. At the same time, in the future
It is estimated that he can also return to work in the tax department.
Having experience as both a tax and local administrator means that Chen Lifu will have a greater advantage than other officials.
But just when he was about to go to Xingquan Mansion to take up his post, the Ministry of Civil Affairs sent him an urgent order, saying that his appointment in Xingquan Mansion was cancelled, and he would be appointed elsewhere.
Chen Lifu didn't know why such a change happened. He guessed that someone might have caused a stumbling block for him.
He offended many people during his tenure in the Inspection Office, and there were many people who wished him bad luck, and many of them were capable of creating obstacles for themselves, especially when they were not working in the tax system.
But this was just his conjecture. The appointment was suddenly canceled. In a few days, he learned that the Ministry of Civil Affairs had arranged for someone else to serve as the prefect of Xingquan Prefecture. This also meant that the prefect of Xingquan Prefecture was appointed as the prefect.
This position is ruined.
It doesn't matter that this position has been eliminated. The key thing is that he has been dismissed from the post of director of the inspection department.
The old position is gone, and the new position is gone. What does this mean? It means that he is now a candidate official with empty rank but no actual dispatch.
Chen Lifu also used his connections to inquire about something, but he only found out that his appointment was suppressed by the senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and it was rumored that he was a big shot at the rank of minister.
The Ministry of Personnel holds the personnel encyclopedia. The Minister of the Ministry of Personnel has no control over the left and right. They are officials with real power in the dynasty. They are the kind who can maintain a tough attitude towards the ministers of other departments!
When he knew that his appointment might have been suppressed by one of the two ministers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he could guess that something must have happened to him, and it was a big deal.
After more than ten years in the officialdom, he immediately felt that something was wrong, so on the one hand, he mobilized his connections to continue to inquire, and at the same time, he also met with several immediate superiors of the Grain Recruitment Department to see if he could find out anything.
What did he do? He was exempted from his new position, but he was not given a new position. He just didn't take off his official hat directly. He just made himself wait like this.
I have been waiting for more than half a month, what else do I have to wait for?
He was so upset that he was staying in the city, so he simply returned to his old house. It was useless to be anxious anyway. There must be a reason for hanging up and down like this, but at his own level, he was not exposed to this reason.
So now, whether someone is deliberately suppressing him or really has other plans for him, he can only continue to wait.
While waiting, he also came to Chencun Primary School to give lectures, mainly to relax and teach children about enlightenment. To be honest, he was not good at it.
Although he had a few disciples in his early years, they all had the background of being a student. Those disciples worshiped him as their teacher and studied imperial examination literature, but they did not come to him for enlightenment.
But now, he is too lazy to worry about this. Anyway, it is just to relax, and teaching these children to enlightenment is a different kind of experience.
He is still very concerned about Chencun Primary School. In order to build this primary school, the Chen family has invested a lot of money, and for the sake of reputation, the tuition fees charged are not expensive, but the tuition fees are not expensive, which does not mean that the teacher's salary is also cheap.
In the entire Chencun Primary School, there are a total of six teachers, plus several miscellaneous staff, a total of nearly a dozen people are hired. The lowest salary for those teachers starts at ten taels of silver per month, and the principal even more
He is a senior teacher who was born in the Young Army Camp and previously taught at Jinling Nancheng Primary School. Moreover, he was hired with a high salary, otherwise he would not come at all.
The principal gets an annual salary. The starting salary is 500 taels of silver a year. Then there are various gifts, bonuses and the like. If you don’t get 800 taels of silver a year, you can’t live without it!
And just like this, they can give you classes for at most half a year, and two months of the year are paid holidays!
The entire primary school's salary expenses for teachers and employees, teaching supplies and other expenses will cost at least three to four thousand taels of silver a year.
According to this cost, the student tuition alone is definitely not enough. The Chen family has to make up a lot every year. However, the Chen family has a big business, so this small amount of money is nothing to them.
When they first expanded enrollment, they made it clear that they were spending money to buy prestige. Otherwise, like other private schools, they would either only have one or two teachers, or they would have to raise tuition fees.
Chen Lifu came to be a teacher, just to make a temporary adjustment. Naturally, he was more concerned about his own future.
After waiting for more than a month, Chen Lifu finally got his new appointment, but when he saw the appointment letter, he was a little confused.
Ministry of Finance? What kind of organization is this? I’ve never heard of it!