After the end of the year, spring will gradually be full of joy.

The grass color is getting thicker and thicker day by day, yesterday it looked at only a shallow little green, and when I looked at it from a distance, I saw it closely, but I looked at it again every other day, and after a night of spring breeze, the greenery was already very obvious.

Just after the Lantern Festival, the lanterns on the door of the Li family's compound had not been taken off, and the children of the nearby families studying in Li Zhuang had already been escorted by their fathers and brothers. No matter how poor and simple life is, for those half-grown children, the New Year is undoubtedly the happiest.

But happy times are always short-lived.

The New Year will always pass, and life must go on.

The farmers had to start preparing for the spring ploughing, and the children who went to school had to put away their playfulness and go back to school.

The Li family's primary school has changed greatly after the New Year. With the sponsorship of Princess Tamase and Cheng Xueliu's sons, a new courtyard has been set up in the east of the Li family's compound after rushing to work a few years ago.

Although the courtyard is still relatively simple, surrounded by rocks and loess ramparts, wooden slab walls and thatched roofs, it is much more spacious after all.

The new school also has a relatively grand academy gatehouse, with the four big characters of Lanxi Academy on it. These four big characters are still the words that Tamase asked for for him in front of Li Xiao in front of him last time when he brought Li Zhi and Wu Shi over for dinner.

The writing is not bad, but Li Xiao didn't think there was anything special, originally he still wanted to write his own sub-character engraved plaque, but Tamase insisted, he also sold her personal favor, after all, this member of the Ministry of Labor was very bold at that time and also sponsored the academy fifty treasures, this is very real.

If Li Xiao knew that those four words were the emperor's own inscription, he would definitely find the best craftsmen in Chang'an to make the best plaque.

But at this moment, when Li Xiao was standing at the bottom of the gate of the academy, he didn't care about the four characters of the imperial pen on his head.

He was now worried about the bustling scene in front of the gate.

Although the new academy is much larger than it was in the past in the Li family's compound, with several classrooms, and even kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, laundry rooms, playgrounds, utility rooms, etc., it was also built according to the capacity of about 100 students.

But now, as soon as the year is over, not only have all last year's students arrived, but more have come.

Maybe it's because Li Xiao's reputation has risen recently, or maybe it's because Li Xiao has a good relationship with Liuxian Ling, or because the nobles of Chang'an have come to the Li family a few times, and maybe even Princess Tamase has invested money in the new school, which makes the people in the nearby towns and villages all want to send their children to study here.

There are not only ordinary farmers and farmers, but also many landlords whose families are okay.

Ordinary farmers saw a rare opportunity, originally they could not afford the cost of their children's education, but I heard that the Li family school is tuition-free, and even there are free meals to eat here, and there are even rewards for good reading, this is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity.

And those small landlords, it's not that they have no way to send their children to study, but they have taken a fancy to the connections of the Li family, the Li family is now in and out of vain, in and out of the nobles, the school even has the support of Xue Chengliu and several aristocratic families, in the future, their children come to study, and they want to be able to get in touch.

For various reasons, as soon as the Li family's Lanxi Academy opened this year, on this day of registration, the front of the academy was crowded with people.

This scene is really crowded, and the gongs and drums are noisy.

Originally, it was just a simple registration for the start of school, but at this time, it was like a big set.

"San Lang, so many people have to send their children to school, I roughly calculated, there must be at least thousands of children, we can't accept them at all, there are too many."

Master Yang, who had just been promoted to the head of Lanxi Academy, was both excited and worried and said to Li Xiao that he was very happy that so many people were willing to send their children to study with him. But there are too many children, and it's worrying.

"It's too much, we were originally only prepared to teach thirty or forty children in two classes, but now there are so many people, we can't accommodate them at all." Li Xiao also sighed helplessly.

In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and even to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the right to education was actually in the hands of those scholars, and the official education of the imperial court was far inferior to these local scholars in terms of scale and quality.

Who has the ability to open a school in the ordinary world? Even if you have money, you can't do it, you have to have fame and capital.

Fortunately, the situation is slightly better today, especially when the progress of manufacturing technologies such as papermaking and pen and ink, as well as the change of the unified pattern of the world, have greatly developed the government and private schools, and the private schools are not as conservative and closed as in the past.

But in the final analysis, this is still a very money-burning thing, and at the same time, for a school to be recognized, it must also have a certain reputation.

The Li family's Lanxi Academy, last year was considered a grass-roots creation, this year is officially opened, but it can be recognized by so many people, first, the main people who want to come to study are mainly ordinary farmers and tenants in the vicinity, supplemented by some small landlords, and secondly, the Li family is a local reputation, and then there is now a closeness to the nobles of Chang'an, which is what we have today.

No matter what age people are, no matter what class of people, in fact, they are all hungry for knowledge.

It's just that in the past, knowledge was actually monopolized by a small number of classes, since the Wei and Jin dynasties, the north and south have been turbulent, wars have been frequent, and knowledge and scholarship have been even more so, creating the five surnames and seven families of the Kwantung clan, and also creating Wang Xie Xiao Chen and other Jiangnan Chinese.

The founding of the Tang Dynasty has reached the third generation of emperors, decades of resumption of production, the world is stable, and the society is no longer in turmoil, especially in the case of the imperial examination system established in the Sui Dynasty is more and more valued, reading has become the consensus of people of insight in the world, even if it is a peddler and a pawn, they are also eager to read.

Lantian is Qi County, although Lanxi is in the mountains, but it is in the main road out of the customs, the economy here has always been good, the people are strong, and the people's knowledge is also strong.

Who doesn't seize the opportunity to study, especially the dozens of children accepted by the Li Family School last year, who have already learned very well in half a year, which makes many people believe in the prospects of this new Lanxi Academy.

"There aren't so many classrooms, not so many desks, and not so many gentlemen." As the head of the mountain, Master Yang wants to accept more scholars, but he also knows that running a school is very expensive, not to mention that he is actually a serious gentleman in the academy now, and he can't teach if he wants to.

"There are not enough classrooms, there are not enough desks, but you can squeeze it, two children have a desk, fifty or sixty children or even seventy or eighty children can be in a class. But the gentleman is insufficient, and that's the key. We can't take in other people's children and mislead them. Li Xiao said.

At this time, the way of teaching was relatively free, and even most of the children in a class did not have a few children, and many private schools did not even have any grade division at all, no matter how old the children were reading in one classroom, and the gentleman taught the children's age and reading progress separately, which was completely different from the general large class teaching method in later generations.

Li Xiao thinks that it is okay to use a large class system, but the key is to have a gentleman.

"Even if we teach a hundred classes, we can only teach two classes." Old Master Yang said. Although he felt that it was not reliable at all for a class of 100 students.

Everyone with children wants to send their children to school.

"Otherwise, let's get an admissions test first, and my master and I will interview and select the children. For those under the age of seven, we will let them come again next year, and this year they will not be accepted. Those who are over 10 years old and do not have any foundation will no longer be accepted. ”

"Children under the age of 10 and over the age of seven, we select some of them with better qualifications. Originally, we had 40 students, so we picked 40 children from outside and asked them to study with our 40 students, which was considered the same grade, and then we would mix two classes. Then I picked another 80 children, even if they were first-grade students, they were also divided into two classes, and they had no foundation, so they would teach them from scratch, what did the master think? ”

"One hundred and twenty more students?"

The master was a little hesitant, now Mr. Zheng is just him, Li Xiao and Dr. Zhao occasionally come to make a cameo, the original forty children can barely teach, and now they recruit another one hundred and two at once, and they will be divided into two grades and four classes, which will be even more difficult to teach.

"I will ask Cheng Xue's family to help, and invite two or three more gentlemen to come and teach."

Hearing this, Yang Dayan gritted his teeth, "That's okay, four classes in two grades, one hundred and sixty students, and forty children in one class are afraid that it is not easy to teach, at least there must be four gentlemen, one gentleman is in charge of one class, and he can't care about it." ”

"I asked Cheng Gongzi to help find four more gentlemen, one of them is in charge of a class, and you are in charge of the whole academy, Master. If I have time, I can also give lectures. ”

"That's good, that's good. If there are really four more gentlemen, those 160 children can teach, even if they recruit so many students at once, if it is still free, I am afraid that the cost will be too great. ”

"You don't have to worry about the expenses, now Xue Cheng's family and the princess have donated a lot of money, and I will think about it again in the future."

After some urgent discussions, Li Xiao summoned Da Biao and asked him to announce the decision to everyone at the gate of the academy.

Da Biao's pig-killing voice roared, and the bottom immediately became noisy.

When I heard that only 120 students were recruited this year, and that there was a requirement for people over 7 years old and under 10 years old, many people were a little anxious.

And those parents who meet the conditions are in a hurry to squeeze over with their children.

"Everyone be quiet, don't crowd or be in a hurry, line up one by one, and come here to register for the interview. Whoever does not line up according to the rules will be disqualified. ”

Da Biao went down, and the crowd was a lot quieter.

"I think I have to add a condition, because there are too many students who have signed up, this year's enrollment is only limited to children and children in the local township of Lanxi." Da Biao turned his head and suggested to Li Xiao.

Li Xiao thought about it, there were indeed too many people who signed up, and it could only be like this.