Chapter 147, Jiawu

Zhangjiazhai at the foot of Wudang Mountain, Zhang Xingjia is here. Li Shucheng came here to build a school.

"Mr. wants to open a private school in our village?" said the patriarch of the Zhang family, "Mr. will open a private school here, and our village will definitely agree, but there are not many people who can send their children to study, and this private school may not be able to continue." "They also ran a private school in the village before, but there are not many children who can afford to read, and they can't support the husband who teaches, so the private school can't go on.

"Don't worry, patriarch, I didn't run this school to make a living. Li Shucheng said with a smile, "After the school is built, the children of several nearby villages do not have to pay for school, and only those who come from afar will pay a little bondage, and these bundles are the cost of their meals." ”

"This ...... If it's not for the sake of making money, then for what?" the patriarch asked, he couldn't figure out why Li Shucheng was doing this.

"I just wanted to do something. Li Shucheng said, "Hundreds of years ago, in the Song Dynasty, three or four out of ten people were literate, but now, only one out of dozens of people is literate. Now the Western countries are coming in, and we are lagging behind. If we are backward, we must make progress, and if we want to make progress, we must learn. But everyone is poor, and few can afford to pay the bondage, and I don't lack this bondage. ”

"That's great!" said the patriarch happily, "I'll tell the village to help you learn...... The school was built. ”

"The school should be built bigger, not only the people from your village will help, but also a few nearby villages. Li Shucheng said, "It is built on the side of the road leading to Wudang Mountain outside the village, and the children of several nearby villages go to school nearby." ”

Site selection, buying wood, tiles, stones, these old Taoist priests asked the Taoist priests to help, and several people from the nearby village heard that this school did not need money for their children to study, and came to work Li Shucheng also paid the wages, and they were full of enthusiasm.

The school was built almost the same, and it was also a Xuan of Wudang Mountain, and they invited a few older Xiucai to be gentlemen through good letters. Wudang Taoist priest has made so much effort, and it is under Wudang Mountain, Li Shucheng thought about it, and called Wudang Mountain Taihe Mountain, and it was called Taihe School.

At the beginning of the school, there were only two courses, Chinese and mathematics. The language is like that, literacy, learning Confucian classics, and learning to write articles. Of course, writing articles does not use the eight-strand format, and it is not for the purpose of taking the imperial examination. As for mathematics, Li Shucheng taught it hundreds of years ago.

Numbers are naturally used in Arabic numerals and addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which were not possible in previous years. Prince Gong, Zeng Guofan and others saw the strong ships and artillery and sophisticated technology of the foreigners, and advocated learning advanced Western technology, and to learn advanced technology, we must first learn mathematics. However, the stubborn forces such as the university scholar Wu Ren blindly exclude foreigners and hate all foreign things.

During the debate, Prince Gong said: "Mathematics is not a foreign thing. The symbols used in foreign mathematics have been used in China as early as the Song Dynasty, and were also widely used in the former Ming Dynasty, and even more so in Anshun Prefecture in Guizhou. ”

Of course, such a debate is actually meaningless, and in the end it depends on the meaning of the queen mother who controls the government.

The Empress Dowager Cixi listened to the opinions of the two factions and believed that in the current situation of domestic and foreign difficulties, in order to maintain the rule of the imperial court, it was necessary to rely on Zeng Guofan and others, who were stronger and appreciated by foreigners, so she supported the Westerners.

At that time, Jiang Mingyue sighed that there were also people in the imperial court who understood, if the imperial family was not Manchu, but Han, with Cixi's means and knowledge, maybe the Qing Kingdom would rise. Although Cixi had such and such shortcomings, after she took control of the government and started the Westernization Movement, the Qing Dynasty's military strength increased rapidly, and there was relative peace in the following decades. Otherwise, with the previous situation, the Qing Dynasty may have been dismembered.

The news that there is a free school at the foot of Wudang Mountain has spread to nearby towns through the mouths of benevolent pilgrims, and then many parents who want their children to read and write but can't afford to pay for tuition bring their children here.

"This ...... Is there really no need to tie up the school here?" stammered an honest man. Behind him, hiding a skinny child of five or six years old.

"Well, we don't have to deal with each other here. Li Shucheng said, "But the child still has to pay for food." ”

"This ...... Can you hand over corn and sweet potatoes?" said the man, "We really can't get the money." ”

"Yes!" Li Shucheng said, "I really can't think of any child who can take classes here, but he has to help with the work." We are going to build a chicken farm and they help with the chickens every day. ”

"Yes, yes!" said the man hurriedly, "don't look at my boy, who is only six years old, and has already gone back to help the family." "No matter what era it is, the children of the poor naturally help the family work early.

More than 160 children, the eldest is eleven or twelve years old, and the youngest is five or six years old. It is a big expense for so many children to eat, wear and live, although Li Shucheng has a lot of gold and silver in the space, but it is not a matter if he only can't get in and out, it is best to get some industries for the school, so that the school can rely on these industries to feed.

On a whim to set up a school, countless troubles followed, and several invited gentlemen saw that Li Shucheng was so busy, and they also picked up the mathematics book in private to study, and then took the mathematics class to reduce Li Shucheng's one thing.

After two years, the school has gradually been on the right track, and Li Shucheng does not need to do it himself. Of course, Wudang Mountain is remote here, and the children who can come nearby are here, and the children in farther places can't accept them, and they can't support them if they accept the school again.

After Zhang Zhidong was transferred to Hubei, he opened factories and schools, and some technicians and teachers came out of Taihe School. But at this time, Li Shucheng had already left the school. If he stays and his appearance remains unchanged for twenty years, how much trouble will he cause in this age when the average life expectancy is forty or fifty years old? I am afraid that the old lady who holds the power will let him enter the palace.

In the twentieth year of Guangxu, in the first year of the first day, the Korean Donghak Party revolted, the Korean government invited the Qing army to suppress it, and the Oriental State took the opportunity to send troops, after the uprising subsided, the Qing court suggested that the troops be withdrawn at the same time, and the Oriental State not only refused, but also increased its troops wantonly, deliberately provoked a war, and the war between the Qing State and the Oriental State broke out.

When the Qing court began the Westernization Movement, the Oriental Kingdom also began the Meiji Restoration, and the military strength gradually caught up with the Qing court, especially in the later period of the Westernization Movement, because after the development of military strength, especially the navy, the Qing court began to slack off, and even no longer replenished new ships, so it began to lag behind the Oriental Kingdom.

When the Qing court declared war on the Oriental Kingdom, Li Shucheng and Jiang Mingyue had just left Wang Lanzhuang and entered Tianjin. They went to Wang Lanzhuang because they heard that there was a kind of rouge rice in the palace tribute, and they went to get some seeds. If you have something good, how can you not get it and taste it? It's just a tribute, and there is a special person to guard it, so you can't just take one plant and make a seed.

"Even Toyo dares to challenge now. Jiang Mingyue shook her head and said.

"This is already very good, if there was no Westernization movement, a few fleets, shipbuilding, guns and cannons, people would have come over a long time ago. Li Shucheng said, "But Xiao Dongyang's military development has been good in recent years, and the Qing army may not be good this time, should we help?"

"If you can, you can help. Jiang Mingyue said, "Otherwise, it will be the people who will suffer when the Oriental people come in." ”

"Then let's go directly to North Korea?" Li Shucheng asked.

"No, it's been a month now, and it may not be useful to go to North Korea, so I think it's better to go to Liaodong first. Jiang Mingyue said, "Shandong has a fleet, and it is unlikely that the Oriental Army will land from Shandong, and the most likely one is to cross the Yalu River along North Korea, or to land in Lushun by boat." However, there is a fort guarding Lushun there, so it should be fine for the time being. If we haven't called yet, we'll go into North Korea again. ”

Li Shucheng thought about it, and it seemed to be like this in his memory, and the Lushun Massacre also occurred. So he said: "Then let's go to the Yalu River first, and then go to Lushun." On the Yalu River, we had to fight hard, but on the Lushun side, the Oriental Army had to come by boat, just to send them into the Yellow Sea to feed the fish. ”

The speed of the two was naturally not as slow as ordinary people, and when they came to the Yalu River, where there was still peace, they came all the way to Pyongyang, and the two found that Pyongyang was still in the hands of the Qing army.

At this time, the Qing army built more than 20 fortresses in the inner and outer cities of Pyongyang. There were more than 15,000 Qing troops in the city, and although the Korean capital of Seoul fell into the hands of the East and the government was controlled by the East Kingdom, North Korean officials in Pyongyang still actively assisted the Qing in the war war.

The Oriental Army besieged Pyongyang in four ways, and Li Shucheng looked at the Oriental Army approaching Pyongyang and said: "Why don't you send troops to fight? The Oriental Army is divided into four routes, and at this time, we should seize the opportunity to attack one of its routes, and only after inflicting heavy losses on one road can we defend the city!"

Jiang Mingyue said: "I have been attacked twice before, and the leading generals are afraid that they will be frightened, so how dare they go out of the city to meet the attack? ”

"Well, there's something wrong with this Commander. Li Shucheng said, "It seems that you have to use the Soul Transfer Dafa to control him." "Soul transfer Dafa, a kind of hypnotic technique on the "Nine Yin True Scripture", this thing is difficult to have an effect on people with firm wills, and the two of them have never used it after they have learned it. However, with the current strength of the souls of the two of them, even the most determined people can be hypnotized, let alone the commander of the Qing army who is not strong-minded.

"What's your name?" asked Li Shucheng.

"In the lower leaf Zhichao. Ye Zhichao replied.

"Very good!" Li Shucheng said, "Next, you will command the battle well and fight the Orientals in Pyongyang." ”

Because Ye Zhichao was not restrained, the Qing army and the Oriental Army fought back and forth, and after a day of fighting, the Qing army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and the Oriental Army also lost more than 1,700 people. Of course, there were more than 500 people in this who were killed by Li Shucheng and Jiang Mingyue on the periphery.

At night, Ye Zhichao came to his senses, counted the men and horses, and found that more than 3,000 people were killed and wounded, but the Oriental Army also suffered more than 1,000 casualties. The Toyo Army, which had entered the city and was beaten out by a counterattack, dropped a lot of weapons and was used.

Ye Zhichao, who came to his senses, did not notice that something was wrong, but after taking some inventory, he felt that he was not sure about defending Pyongyang, so he ordered a quiet retreat overnight.