The courtyard of the North Academy used to be the dormitory of the students was the place where Prince Zhao's favorite girls lived. In the center of the courtyard is a small garden planted with all kinds of exotic flowers and grasses, three sides of the courtyard are green brick and green tile houses, one side is the door to enter and exit the courtyard, a dozen exquisite houses in the courtyard are spaced out into one by one, each arranged for two students to live in a courtyard can basically accommodate more than twenty students.
"Brother Fu, we are really destined to meet!" Yang He's heart was happy when he entered the door and saw that his housemate was Fu Chou.
"Yang..." Fu Chou was one step ahead of Yang He, was organizing his bed, the person in front of him, he only remembered the surname Yang, what is called did not remember.
"My name is Yang He, a native of the State of Lu, I am ten and seven years old." Yang He placed his large cloth bag on the empty bed in the room and reintroduced himself by arching his hand at Fu Chou.
"Fu Chou, a native of the Northeast County, is also seventeen this year." The Northeast County was the land that Wu had acquired from the Tang Kingdom in compensation, and it was a county that had just been established by the Kingdom of Wu, and most of the people under the county were from the Tang Kingdom.
After the two teenagers talked about their ages, they realized that they were the same age and felt closer to each other. Each of them reported their birth month, and Yang He was two months older than Fu Chou, so Yang He quickly changed his name to Fu Chou as Fu Di, while Fu Chou honored Yang He as Yang Brother.
"The Academy's premises for the scholars are really good, much more exquisite than my home premises." Yang He originally thought that the accommodation provided by the academy for the scholars free of charge wouldn't be as good, but he didn't want it to be a good house with a small garden.
"Although the rooms are exquisite, there are too many people living there though." Fu Chou felt that two dozen people living in one compound was a bit too many.
"It's only lively when there's a lot of people, Fu Di, it's only good if we go next door to visit our fellow students once we've gotten our things in order."
Yang He opened his large bag, which contained two sets of white-washed clothes and a pair of patched cloth shoes.
In addition to this poor clothing in the package, the other is the bamboo briefs. Yang He took out the bamboo briefs and put them on a bookcase at the head of his bed. In each dormitory, each student is equipped with a bed, a bookcase and a chair.
"Brother Yang, that's exactly what Chou wants to do," he said. "Fu Chou is also thinking of going to contact his fellow students.
Just as the two of them were discussing, a few young men walked in through the door, these young men were the scholars who had participated in the promotion exam in February and were admitted into the North Academy, they had already been furthering their studies in the North Academy for a few months, they were the earliest batch of scholars from the North Academy, and the earliest scholars to live in this compound.
"Haha, just our courtyard has the most special scholars from all the vassal states." Wei Zhong, the oldest among the young people, immediately yelled when he heard that Yang He came from the Lu Kingdom.
"Brother Wei is not from Wu either?" Yang He was curious.
"Alas, I was originally a Wei man, but now I can only be considered a Wu man." Wei Zhong's tone seemed to have a generalization, but his demeanor did not have much loss, he was a son of the prestigious family of the State of Wei, after the State of Wei was swallowed up by Zhao, Wei Zhong fled to the State of Chen with his family.
With the Wei Clan out of harm's way, the people of the clan are divided on where to go from here. The patriarch of the Wei clan dreamed of restoring the former glory of the Wei clan, and wanted to seek restoration of the state by installing a duke in Chu, but a considerable part of the clan thought that the hope of restoration of the state was too remote, and they didn't want to waste the wealth that the Wei clan had brought out from the country on the duke, who had caused the destruction of the Wei state, and these people of Wei just wanted to live their own lives in peace and quiet. He was a merchant who had a good feeling about Wu, and urged his family to move to Wu to lead a peaceful life.
Wei after the whole family discussion, split into two factions, a faction to go to Chu to follow the exiled Wei Gongzi fit, in order to later Wei can be restored to the country, a faction with Wei Zhong's uncle came to settle in Kangcheng, Wei Zhong and his family to Kangcheng, just happened to be February 2 of the promotional examination, Wei's family in the young children of the family to participate in the examination, Wei Zhong test into the top fifty, to be able to enter the North College directly into the further study.
"How come Brother Wei also lives in the schoolhouse?" Yang He saw that Wei Zhong was well-dressed, and the ornaments he wore around his waist were all precious jades, so he couldn't help but wonder why Wei Zhong, who was in good financial condition, chose to live in the North Academy Schoolhouse.
"Student brother doesn't know that not only does the tutor teach during the day, he also often comes to the academy at night to hold classes." Wei Zhong suddenly raised his eyebrows as he said this. "And when Duke Ming and Great General Chu are free, they also come to give us lectures on our coursework."
"Oh, Duke Ming and Great General Chu are also personally teaching us?" Fu Chou's eyes twinkled.
"Duke Ming and Great General Chu are busy with political affairs during the day, and only have time at night to be able to come and teach the students." Wei Zhong lived inside the academy just because he didn't want to miss the opportunity to kind of listen to the lessons.
"It is said that Mr. Zhang's style is the best in the world, so Yang really wants to see the real face first." After Yang He arrived in Kang City, the thing he heard the most in his ears was the various deeds of Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui.
"Duke Ming is not only number one in style, he is also number one in learning, and the depths of his chest are not something you and I can imagine." The faces of the scholars who came to visit along with Wei Zhong were adoring, and these few people were not from Wu either, two of them were the sons of nobles from Chu, and one of them was a scholar from Chen.
"Haha, the elegance of Duke Ming and Great General Chu, the two schoolmates will be able to witness it sooner or later, as we are meeting each other for the first time today, Mister Wei invites you all to the market for a cup of sake, please don't excuse yourself, two schoolmates." Wei Zhong was very bright and hospitable.
Seeing Wei Zhong's sincere face, Yang He hastily thanked him, "Then Yang Mou won't be shy about it, and Fu Di will be bothering Senior Wei for a meal."
Fu Chou frowned, he didn't have much good feelings towards Wei Zhong, who seemed a bit heartless about the destruction of his home country. However, although Fu Chou had his opinion of Wei Zhong, he did not show it on his face, nor did he refuse to accept Wei Zhong's invitation, after all, he was unfamiliar with Kang City, and he needed an acquaintance to bring him to know the situation here.
A group of people talked and laughed their way out of the courtyard, and met two plainly dressed scholars, Wei Zhong warmly greeted the two while extending an invitation to them.
"Thank you for your kindness, Scholar Wei, my brothers and I will have to go to the workshop to work and study."
"Oh, then we'll get together again next time when we're free." Wei Zhong didn't force himself, and after saying goodbye to the two hardworking students, he led Yang He and his party out of the back door of the academy.
"Senior Wei, what is work-study?" Yang He walked over to Wei Zhong and asked for advice.
"Those are students who are in financial distress and use their spare time from schoolwork to work at the Academy's workshop to earn pay to make ends meet." Wei Zhong explained.
"Oh, where can I do labor?" Yang He's eyes lit up, the subsidy given by the academy was only enough to maintain his daily life, if Yang He wanted to buy more clothes and school supplies, he would have to think of another way.
"The academy has a special work-study recommendation office, if Yang Di needs it, he can apply for it." Wei Zhong saw Yang He's clothes, and knew that Yang He's family's financial situation was not good, so he immediately explained in detail for Yang He.
"He is in the right place." Yang He breathed a long sigh of relief, knowing that there could be ways to earn money for daily expenses, his apprehensive heart fell to the ground, and he turned back to ask Fu Chou, who was walking sullenly. "Fu Di, are you going to work and study?"
"Me?" Fu Chou opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer, Fu Chou's education from childhood told him that the scholar's status is noble, he can't be with artisan craftsmen, and even more so, he can't go to the workshop to labor like the craftsmen do, the scholar should be dedicated to the king's service.
"Hehe, if Fu Di's family is in good condition, is no need to waste that time for living expenses." Wei Zhong swept a glance at Fu Chou's whole body, from the point of view of Fu Chou's appearance and dress, the condition was quite good.
"Let's talk about this matter later." Fu Chou's face darkened, unwilling to continue this topic.
The place where Wei Zhong invited guests was a hotel that had just opened for half a year. This hotel was different from the original wine shop in Kangcheng, which not only sold wine, but also meals, snacks and various kinds of dim sum.
The hotel is a new three-story building, the original location of the old house was burned down last year during the Ripple Rebellion, and the owner of the house also died in the war. At the end of last year, the most severely burned street was rebuilt, and the ruins on both sides of the street were knocked down and rebuilt with neatly constructed three-story buildings. These buildings in addition to compensation for the original owner of the property, all other rental, rental income to the Wu Wangsheng internal treasury, because the reconstruction of the street funds, is the Western Marquis pocket, these newly built buildings property of course, also belong to the Western Marquis of the inheritance of the heirs.
When Wei Zhong and his party arrived, it was the middle of the day, and the hotel was crowded and bustling with people as a young man in green with a cloth scarf on his shoulder limped over.
"Bachelor, do you want the hall or a private room?" The young man obviously recognized Wei Zhong and knew that Wei Zhong was a student of the North Academy.
"Shopkeeper, is there a more spacious private room?"
"There happens to be a large box upstairs."
Wei Zhong smiled and pointed to Yang He and Fu Chou and said, "These two are my new classmates, today for the first time on your store to drink, your store's cooks can make means to help me entertain well."
"Bachelor feel free to rest assured, this store has just introduced a few new dishes this month, the flavor is excellent, and I guarantee that all of you will be satisfied." The young man in green invited Wei Zhong and his party upstairs.
The box is really as the young man in green clothes said, very large, the window of the box is just facing the street, open the wooden window, the street scene as far as the eye can see.
The young man in green poured tea for the guests in the box before taking the menu Wei Zhong ordered and limping out of the room to go downstairs to the kitchen to place the order.
"What's wrong with this man's leg?" Yang He thought one of the young man's feet was odd.
"That's a prosthetic leg he has." One of the students who came with him told Yang He that the young man in green had one of his legs amputated at the calf and was now fitted with a prosthetic leg made of wood.
"Academic Brother Yang, this young man was originally from the Huben of Ulsan, his leg was crippled during the attack on the rebels last year." Wei Zhong was a regular customer of the hotel and was familiar with the service staff in the hotel.
"Pity." Yang He lamented for the young man, if he was not disabled, as a Huben with the merit of embracing, his future would be bright in the future, and he would not be reduced to a hotel's junior like now.
"Actually, it's not bad for him to be like this." Wei Zhong took a sip of tea, he loved the clear tea of this hotel.
"This is not bad?" Yang He was stunned, having been reduced to a subordinate.
"Do you know how much money comes into this hotel in a day?" Wei Zhong shook his head and held out a palm to turn it over. "At the very least, there is a daily income of twenty gold."
"What does the hotel's income have to do with this disabled Huben?" Yang He didn't understand.
"Hey, he owns this hotel, no, he co-financed it with Robe!"
At the end of the attack on Kham, many wounded soldiers were healed and left disabled for life and had to be discharged with a generous pension. It was difficult for disabled soldiers to return to their hometowns to farm, but if they didn't farm, they would sooner or later sit on their pensions. After thinking about it, Zheng Yuming arranged manpower to train these disabled soldiers in various techniques, and the disabled soldiers learned the techniques and could do small business with their pensions in hand, so that they would not be in a difficult situation when their pensions ran out.
The crippled Huben who opened the hotel learned cooking, from Su women, and after three months of learning, he and a few of his comrades, also discharged due to disability, used their pensions to co-own five three-story new buildings and opened a restaurant. On this new street, there are three or four small stores owned by disabled veterans, and more disabled soldiers from Ulsan chose to go back to Ulsan and Nambu to set up stores and workshops after they learned the skills, where there are more business opportunities than in Kangcheng.
"So that's how it is, if each vassal state can arrange for the generals who are disabled for the royal court, why worry that the generals won't be valiant?" Yang He sighed long, he thought of those disabled Huben in his own country, those Huben if disabled in combat, not only no pension, but also abandoned by the royal court, many Huben after disabled, are silently return home, rely on the family relief life. If they are not Huben, but are civilian auxiliary soldiers, their situation is even worse, because their status is lower than the Huben, and they are not properly treated after being injured, and often they can't even enjoy the opportunity to be disabled, and they leave the world because of the wound infection.
"Hehe, Wu is a very peculiar place, you all will have a profound experience if you stay here for a long time." Wei Zhong raised his teacup and drank it all in one go, he had only lived in Kang City for half a year and had already fallen deeply in love with it.
"I think that the most mesmerizing thing about Kang City is that as long as you have real talent here, you don't need a worldly family to recommend you to the king, you can just as easily make your way to the top." A Chu scholar spoke out his heart, this scholar had no connections to rely on in Chu, without the recognition of the lineage, he was simply unable to enter the royal court administrative system, and Wu's once every three years promotional exams allowed this Chu scholar to see the hope that he could embark on his career path.
"That's right, even if you are born lowly, as long as you have real talent, like an awl in a bag, you will stand out! Mister Wei is here to assert that Wu will become the top of the Six Powers in just five years!" Wei Zhong clapped his hands and shouted.
The scholars were infected by Wei Zhong's remarks and expressed their feelings, only Fu Chou, his face became more and more pale, and his lips were pursed more and more tightly.