Noon.

When a large calloused hand grabbed the rope and shook it up and down, the bronze bell of "Jingle Jingle" rang throughout the campus.

After the bell rang for half a minute, the lame porter stepped down from the square platform in the middle of the playground and walked alone to the gate.

And in the school building behind him, it didn't take long for a large wave of students to pour out. The students, both male and female, wore blue uniforms and canvas sneakers, and were half-old. As soon as the students left the building, they shouted and rushed to the cafeteria.

The construction of Chihkan Middle School was not built for a long time, and it was only after the completion of the fourth elementary school that construction began.

With the continuous arrival of immigrants, the early Chihkan Primary School has been renamed as Chihkan No. 1 Elementary School, and several subsequent primary schools have also risen in the corresponding residential areas.

Now, unlike in the past, a regime has a population of more than 400,000. With such a large base, there will always be a small number of people selected. Although the knowledge structure of these people is a bit broken, they can already study middle and high school courses.

At this time, the establishment of the first middle school was inevitably on the agenda.

As a result, after the completion of Chihkan Middle School, more than 200 students were admitted to the school as soon as possible.

There are two parts to the student population. The first part is the top students who graduated from each elementary school step by step.

Although it has been less than 2 years since I traveled here, since there are only two subjects in primary school, mathematics and Chinese, there will always be some children in each class who can endure loneliness and boredom, from morning to night, plus self-study in the evening - the primary attribute of a top student is to be able to endure hardships.

It took more than a year for these children to graduate and enter the junior high school of Chihkan Middle School.

The other part of the students are older Mingren.

Most of these Ming people came from Hangzhou, Fuzhou and other places from the small citizen class. As for their identities...... Down-and-out children, unemployed guys, monks who ask for food, and a few talents, their careers are very complicated.

The literacy rate in the Ming Dynasty was very uneven, and there were few scholars in a county town in a remote area. But in a big city like Hangzhou, even the literacy rate is quite high even for the small citizen class. Those ordinary weaver families usually let their children learn to calculate accounts and read and write...... In the future, if you are a buddy for others, if you are lucky enough to survive until you are thirty or forty years old, you may be able to become a shopkeeper.

As the world has become more and more difficult over the years, there are always local "city people" who can't get along and run to Dayuan to beg for a living.

Yes, in recent times, the proportion of immigrants from the direction of Hangzhou has shown a slow upward trend.

The arrival of these people has added a lot of vitality to the large society. Not to mention those who can read, even ordinary weavers, they are ready-made workers who can endure boring assembly line work, which is much more useful than those farmers who are scattered.

......

When the first wave of children rushed out of the school building, it was a while before a group of older junior high school students who were walking steadily followed out of the building.

These are the boys I just talked about...... They also graduated from primary school and are among the best of their generation, but their primary school career is very short.

A guy who can read and settle accounts can easily memorize simplified words against the traditional and simple tables. Like elementary school math, these people learn just as quickly once they understand how to convert Suzhou yards into Arabic numerals...... After all, it's elementary school math, so it's not difficult.

As a result, there is often such a scene in the primary school classroom: the little beans sitting in the front row are studying step by step, and the "classmates" in the back row with stubble beards skip grades in a row within a few months, or go to middle school.

And the group of people who came out of the school building today are the "junior high school students" selected from the vast number of literate immigrants. These people can quickly adapt to the educational model of later generations, and integrate what they have learned into the framework of new knowledge in a short period of time, and they can be regarded as "talents needed by society".

......

The young junior high school students couldn't bear the hunger, and rushed out as soon as the class bell rang.

And these older people are still a little reserved, so the first small tacit understanding since the establishment of Chihkan Middle School was born: let the children go first.

In a group of old junior high school students who talk and laugh, Zhong Simao is relatively old. He is already the age of Bensan, and he used to work as a tent for people in a town near Jiaxing, and by the way, he ran errands for people to collect rent.

Who would have thought that the tide in August this year went crazy, and the dilapidated embankment of Qiantang was broken. With the heavy rain that came at the same time, Haiyan, Jiaxing, Shanyin, Huiji, Xiaoshan, Shangyu, Yuyao line "people and animals drowned in countless houses, coastal and suburban residents were drowned, the sea water went straight into the county, and the market was feasible. The drowned were in the tens of thousands. ”

...... It is not an exaggeration to say that Chongzhen was the most unlucky emperor in history: from 1628, when he ascended the throne, the seven weapons of drought, flooding, locusts, tides, hail, wind, and frost during the Xiaoice period began to wreak havoc in China's richest Jiangnan region in turn, just like hearing the starting gun, and smashed the money bags of the Ming Empire.

The most coincidental thing is: in the last years of Chongzhen, these disasters slowly stopped...... By the time Xuan Ye ascended to the throne, the Xiaoice River period was just over...... Shun Tian accepted his fate, the wind and rain were smooth, and the evaluation of Guotai and Min'an fell on the head of Kang Mazi, who ate dead chicken, and the big hat of the first emperor of the ages was also lifted out.

It can only be said that Chongzhen is too declining.

......

Zhong Simao was finished in this tidal disaster.

Several villages and mulberry orchards that he had been renting for many years were devastated, and the crops were flooded, and the entire family of the farmer was floated in the sea. Not only did the loans he had given out go down the drain, but the mulberry plantations and cotton fields he had invested in were all gone, and where the tides washed away, the land became salinized and prices plummeted. In the words of later generations, it was these mulberry garden cotton fields that stopped.

So Zhong Simao saw the owner of the business house hanging himself...... The little money he saved from frugality, including the borrowed money, was also invested in the accounts of the merchant houses.

Next, the account office that wants to be billed is called on by the person who wants to collect the debt......

After losing all his property, the bankrupt Zhong Simao could only run away with his wife and doll. Fortunately, it is now more convenient to run away - it is no secret that Tangzhuang outside Hangzhou is "recruiting" all year round.

From the moment a certain person went to Fuzhou to receive the guerrilla general's seal letter, the "secret underground population transmission line of Hangzhou Station," which had gradually become unmaintainable, simply hung up the signboard of the "Cao's Grain Station Agency" and began semi-public "labor intermediary" activities.

Outside the gate of Tangzhuang, the vegetable market in Hangzhou, and even outside Suzhou, Hangzhou Station have set up "labor stalls", ready to transport away the "recruited" bitter ha.

So Zhong Simao, who was desperate with his family, registered on the boat in Tangzhuang. As a result, after arriving at the adult, the family found that they did not encounter the imaginary suffering, but lived a much better life.

Zhong Simao and his 8-year-old son first entered primary school. Then it didn't take much to do it, Zhong Simao skipped to middle school.

At this time, the Zhong family suddenly discovered that they were rich again!

Zhong Xiaodi eats and drinks in elementary school, not to mention that the tuition fee is free, Zhong Simao himself from the day he entered the middle school, not only free of charge for board and lodging, school uniforms, classes, stationery, etc., but also has a scholarship of 2 taels of silver per month......

"Isn't this the student in the county school?" Poor Zhong Simao, who was born as a man, actually became a student who he had been envious of since he was a child after going bankrupt......

The woman of the Zhong family also has something to do: she can settle accounts, and she soon became a treasury manager in the street office, responsible for bookkeeping and distributing pots and pans to new immigrants, with a monthly salary of 3 taels of silver.

The Zhong family's vitality was restored in this way: they carefully calculated, according to the current income, it probably won't take three or four years to pay off the mortgage.

Therefore, Zhong Simao's gratitude to the Cao family's warlord regime is increasing day by day. Yes, in the eyes of the Ming people, the Cao family, like the Zheng family in history, is just a traditional warlord, no different from Wu Sangui, Mao Wenlong and others.

......

After a group of short-haired "food students" came to the school cafeteria, the young junior high school students were already eating with iron lunch boxes.

Today's lunch was uneventful: a large piece of deep-fried yellow-lipped fish in tomato sauce was the main course, a side dish was sautéed seasonal vegetables, and each person received a small bowl of yogurt. The main dish is mashed potatoes, grilled seaweed and seaweed egg drop soup with unlimited amounts.

Gulping down the sweet and sour fried fish pieces topped with red tomato sauce, Zhong Simao was sincerely satisfied.

It's not that there are no high-quality meals and famous dishes in the Ming Kingdom, but they can only be eaten by large families or merchants when they hold banquets. Like the ordinary meal in the county school here, Zhong Simao has only seen it in his life.

The cafeteria was filled with the sound of chewing and joy. When everyone was halfway through eating, the teachers also walked in one after another.

When four or five teachers walked in, the students were still munching...... There is no need to salute in the cafeteria.

And when the teachers passed behind Zhong Simao, he suddenly felt a gentle tap on the shoulder, and then a small voice sounded in his ears: "Go to the principal's office after eating, someone wants to see you." ”

Zhong Simao turned his head in astonishment, but found that it was Teacher Jiang Shang who spoke, the youngest teacher in Chihkan Middle School and extremely knowledgeable.

After saying this, Jiang Shang, who had already put on a pair of imported myopia glasses, gently patted Zhong Simao's shoulder, smiled, and turned his head away.

Zhong Simao, this will not be calm. Although he had never communicated with the principal, he knew that the principal was a big official here, just like the prince of the Ming Kingdom, the priest of the wine and the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, he was a great man.

So after Zhong Simao ate all the food in the box in a few bites, he hurriedly left the canteen and hurriedly ran to the 3-story administrative building.

When he arrived at the hall, after showing his student ID and explaining the reason, Zhong Simao was pointed out by the doorman to the innermost office on the third floor.

When he knocked on the door with trepidation, the first thing he saw was the bookshelves and books that occupied two walls. In the office, Principal Bai Jiabao, who was wearing a pale yellow plaid suit, was gently extending his hand to signal him to walk over.

Next to the principal, sat a chubby middle-aged man. Take a hundred plating on the latest chapter of "Luming Claw Book House" to read it for free for the first time.