In front of the Guozijian, a dozen new steles were erected not long ago, with seal engravings on the Confucian classics copied by the recent Huang Menlang of the Imperial Academy, for the scholars and scholars all over the world to observe and proofread. Wenmo's old-fashioned patriarchal nobles also came one after another to show "respect for literature".
Two middle-aged Confucian scholars took a carriage to the vicinity of the Guozijian Archway. Probably because of the scorching sun, there were not many students who came here to copy scriptures, but when the two squeezed in front of a stone tablet, they still waited for half a day. For an hour, the two looked at each other and smiled. Squatting under the stele was a young man with a small case in front of him. His clothes were shabby. It was unknown whether he was a scholar from other places who came here admiringly, or a down-and-out scholar who stayed in Beijing after failing the imperial examination and waited for the next ceremony. He thought that the set of Four Treasures of the Study on the case table cost him a lot of money. One of the middle-aged Confucian scholars bent down to look at it with great interest, admiring the young scholar's hard work at his desk. The young man dipped in ink very little each time and wrote very fast. It is probably to save money, but the outline is still meticulous. , very beautiful block letters.
The stooped Confucian scholar nodded slightly, while the fellow Confucian scholar didn't look at the stele or the person, and stretched out his hand to cover his forehead, looking at the distant sky.
The young scholar had no distractions. He occasionally put down his pen and rubbed his wrists. He never raised his head, so he didn't notice the two senior scholars beside him. However, even if the young man looked carefully, he couldn't recognize their identities.
After staring down for a long time, the Confucian scholar with a mutton fat jade pendant on his waist finally straightened up, moved lightly, and walked behind the young man, intentionally or unintentionally washing the clothes of the poor scholar who turned white to block the scorching sun, and then He asked softly, "Mr. Xie, are you all here?"
The man called Mr. Xie talked endlessly, nodded and said: "Come here, everyone is here, but there are not many who are really on Xu Fengnian's side. Apart from Xu Yanbing, there are only Luoyang in white and the woman in the red robe. Mrs. Deng just wanted to take advantage of Cao Changqing's self-importance before his death. The two sides must come to an end. As for Cao Changqing's trip to Beijing, he probably wanted to say a few last words to Xu Fengnian. Otherwise, with Cao Changqing's previous temper, How could he enter the capital quietly, so it is unnecessary for His Majesty to invite Yan Shenggong to come here this time. With Wu Jian and Chai Qingshan to stop him, plus Yao Jinhan and Zhao Gou, even if Xu Fengnian is determined to do rebellious actions, it is very difficult. Difficult. Besides, Xu Fengnian came to Beijing without authorization this time to lift the ban on water transportation. In fact, there is no need to be surprised in Tai'an City, and a table and two stools can finish the chat."
The Confucian scholar standing behind the young scholar said calmly: "It seems that Mr. Xie missed His Highness the King of Shu."
Mr. Xie smiled and said: "Yan Shenggong, Xie is too lazy to be careless."
Contemporary Yan Shenggong's brows were full of gloom, he seemed a little angry, calmed his mind, and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Xie just hopes that Beiliang and the imperial court will die together, so that the King of Shu who is assisted by the master can take advantage of the fire?"
Xie Guanying, who was at the top of the list in the picture of the land facing immortals, laughed it off, put away his palms, and turned his head to look at Yan Shenggong, who was concerned about the country and the people, "There is loyal and loyal Gu Jiantang who holds hundreds of thousands of elites from the Liao Dynasty, With Zhao Bing's southern border army eyeing him, how can it be the King of Shu's turn to take advantage of the fire?"
As if knowing that it is not a good thing to completely annoy a Yan Shenggong, Xie Guanying stopped provoking words and sighed: "To be honest, I will not allow the king of Shu to enter the capital from the north of Guangling Road. It is wrong to enter the capital." Well, assuming Xu Fengnian is crazy and wants to kill, then are you Chen Zhibao escorting or not? Standing on the sidelines and spreading the news afterwards is chilling to the world, and it doesn't do any good to block it. Even the Minister of the Ministry of War has long been the Minister of the Ministry of War, and now he is the King of Shu again , Even if you get the title of Dazhu Kingdom, which will not increase the number of soldiers, it will not be beneficial. At this time, Lu Sheng, like Tang Tieshuang, can stand out, and the three of Chen Zhibao, Gu Jiantang, and King Yanchi, are the cicadas, mantises, or yellow kings? Birds, just a thin line apart, it is obvious who is more patient and who makes more money."
Yan Shenggong frowned.
Xie Guanying laughed softly: "Since the Great Qin Dynasty fell, there are only two kinds of people in the world who don't care about their surnames. The first type is ordinary people who can only resign themselves to their fate, and the second type is the surname Zhang in Yanshenggong's mansion. The world has been turned upside down." , Yan Shenggong is still Yan Shenggong. What happened to Longhu Mountain, did Yan Shenggong not see it? There are not a few purple golden lotus left in the exiled fairy lotus bestowed by the heaven and man."
Yan Shenggong sincerely said: "The rise and fall is the general trend, but between rise and fall, I hope to reduce the death of people, especially the death of some reading seeds."
Xie Guanying said sarcastically: "That's why I went to see Cao Changqing on the Guangling River? So what? Did Guanzi Cao listen to Yan Shenggong? Humans have seven emotions and six desires. The immortals in Taoist classics can’t achieve real longevity, and scholars can’t always do reading. Xun Ping and Zhang Julu put down their books and walked into the temple. One died young, and the other died at night. Huishan There is a scholar named Xuanyuan Jingcheng in Daxueping, who was trapped by love and never walked out of Huishan Mountain until his death. Cao Changqing was not much better. He never really walked out of the Western Chu Palace in his whole life. What kind of Confucian saint or Cao official son is just a chess game Just wait for the edict!"
Yan Shenggong shook his head and said: "Mr. Cao is definitely not as miserable as you Xie Guanying said."
Xie Guanying, who was called by her first name for the first time, was indifferent, and said with a sneer, "A woman who has been dead for so many years can't let go, so how can you talk about being invincible?" What a joke in the world!"
The contemporary saint of the Zhang family looked at this "bowl-carrying man" who looked down on the world's scholars, and shook his head at him.
Xie Guanying laughed and left.
Yan Shenggong stood where he was and murmured: "Mr. Sir, you can predict the situation of the world, save the people from fire and water, and when the country is in crisis, you might as well die first. You Xie Guanying is just a scholar who wants to write history with his own hand. ah."
The prominent Zhang family sage turned around and was speechless for a long time when he saw the steles. The scribe let out a turbid breathing sound, probably because his wrist finally couldn't bear the soreness, and then he realized the shadow, and turned to look at the strange Confucian scholar standing behind him.
Yan Shenggong smiled at him and asked, "If you don't mind, let me copy a paragraph for you?"
The humble man hesitated for a moment, as if he had made an extremely difficult choice, and finally nodded.
Yan Shenggong rolled up his sleeves, took the pen from the shaking young man's hand, sat cross-legged, and began to write.
The poor man squatted down again, tilted his head to look at it, and felt relieved. At first glance, this senior's handwriting was not elegant and well-behaved. However, as time goes by, the young people have a sense of neutrality and peace.
But seeing the senior sitting upright writing more than a hundred characters without any haste, the young man became a little anxious, and reminded him in a low voice, "Sir, can you write a little faster."
Yan Shenggong nodded and smiled, "Okay."
Seeing that he really speeded up writing, the young man who was worried that the ink ingot would not be enough to support the inscription after copying the inscription was quietly relieved, but after the man wrote another two hundred words, the young man had no choice but to say cheekily: "Sir..."
Yan Shenggong apologized: "Understood, hurry up."
As time went by, the young man became anxious again. But there are only three things, he really doesn't have the face to talk about this kind-hearted senior scholar again, but today he managed to get the nearest place to copy the inscription, and he may not be so lucky tomorrow, the capital has a night ban, only the Imperial College close to the water Only students can let the government turn a blind eye and let them copy books at night. And even if he was lucky enough to study in the Imperial College because of his limited pockets, he really felt sorry for the money to buy lamp oil, so he could only have a chance to grab a place under the scorching sun.
Although he didn't look up, he seemed to have sensed the anxiety of the young man, and the Confucian scholar said while writing: "It really can't be any faster."
The young man probably broke the jar, gritted his teeth, and said with a smile, "Sir, don't worry."
And the middle-aged Confucian scholar seemed to be climbing up the pole, and said solemnly: "Writing and writing, reading and learning are all things of a lifetime. Slow down and be steady, and you can see the merits gradually."
The young man with numb legs simply sat down on the ground. Hearing the sour words, he couldn't help laughing and said, "Sir, what you said is true."
While keeping his eyes on the pen and writing, Yan Shenggong asked with a smile, "From your accent, are you from Beiliang?"
The young man hummed, and said softly: "The late student is from Yanzhi County, Youzhou, and he failed the general examination."
Yan Shenggong continued to ask: "Why, didn't you go to Mr. Chen, the regular servant of Zuo Sanqi, or Mr. Yan, the scholar of Dongyuan Pavilion? Otherwise, it would be better to find Mr. Yao, Zuo Jijiu of the Imperial College. These are all from the north. It is said that the important people from Liang are very considerate of the scholars of Beiliang."
The young man said frankly: "It's not that I haven't thought about it, it's just that I can't get in the gate of the Imperial College. It's probably even more difficult to enter the residence of the University Scholars and Chen Shaobao's house. People in the capital say that the prime minister's concierge is a seventh-rank official, and I'm a thin-skinned person." , I was afraid that after walking more than ten miles, I would not even dare to knock on the door. Besides, I have to go back and forth for more than twenty miles, I might as well copy more scriptures."
Yan Shenggong smiled and said: "From what you said, you don't seem to be impatient, why?"
The young man said embarrassingly: "I don't always want to write faster so that I can use less ink ingots. We are not like you scholars in the capital. We pay attention to thick ink, light ink, dry pen and thirsty pens. Like me, many of you in Beiliang A fellow countryman who studies hard in the cold window dips his fingers in water by the stream and writes on the bluestone board. It is writing. He writes on the ground with a reed pole. In winter, in the snow, he can write with a broom. Hey, in the capital, even if When it snows, where I live, there is finally some snow at the door, and every household is cleaned early in the morning."
Yan Shenggong smiled knowingly, and joked half-truthfully: "You said that the people in the capital are very particular, so I really want to tell you that there is a lot of knowledge about what characters to write, whether it is the imperial examination or the imperial examination later. Like in the early years when the father and son of the Song family presided over the imperial examinations, articles with the same talents, whether they wrote Song style characters or not, ranked higher or lower. The next spring, no accident, will be in charge of Sima Puhua, the Minister of Rites, and Jin Lanting, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites. Among them, Sima Shangshu's characters were not cared about before, but after he became the chief official of the Ministry of Rites, "naturally" spread widely. Although it is not easy for you to copy, it is not too difficult. After all, there is nothing wrong with using regular script. As for that Jin Sanlang, he is arrogant and arrogant, and he does what he likes in terms of writing, without the slightest meaning."
The candied haws peddler in the capital dared to say that he had seen seven or eight Huang Zi Gongqings, and a Confucian scholar talked about it in good faith. The young man was not surprised. He said gratefully: "Students remember."
Yan Shenggong nodded and said: "It's good not to be pedantic. You can't do sour Confucianism."
The young man couldn't help laughing again.
Yan Shenggong asked suddenly: "Last time in the palace examination, it seems that there were no Beiliang scholars?"
The young man hummed without saying anything. Tai'an City is well aware of the inside story. On the one hand, the Liyang court restricted the number of candidates for the Beiliang test. On the other hand, the last time Chunwei was catching up with the Xinliang king's successful hereditary succession, especially the refusal to accept the imperial decree was very quarrelsome with the court. Beiliang scholars wanted to stand out , the right time, the right place, and the right people, nothing.
The young man thought for a while, and said with a wry smile: "The five people who went to Beijing together at that time, all four of them went back in the early spring of this year. The Xiamawei post house will give us money for the return journey of the fallen scholars in Beiliang, so the four of us They all gave me the rest of the money, but in fact their moral articles are no worse than mine."
Yan Shenggong wondered: "Why did you go back? The next time you will try, you will be much smoother. Even if you don't know this... the five of you came to the capital all the way, why didn't you give it a try? Besides, Beiliang was not Are you going to fight?"
The young man grinned and said, "That's why I went back."
Yan Shenggong stopped writing, thoughtfully, then turned his head and asked: "May I ask, how is your Northern Liang king?"
The young man laughed at himself: "I'm a poor scholar. I have never seen any high-ranking officials in Beiliang except for two county magistrates in my hometown. How dare I judge whether the prince is good or bad."
Yan Shenggong returned the brush to the poor scholar in Beiliang.
The two switched places.
The young man was not in a hurry to write this time. He glanced at the stone tablet that was close at hand, then turned his head and said to the Confucian scholar who couldn't guess his identity: "Sir, do you know how many stone tablets we erected in Beiliang? Maybe there are One day, there will be more words than all the stone tablets in the Imperial College. I stay here not because I am greedy for life and afraid of death, because I am afraid that there are only Beiliang people like Jin Lanting in the temples in the capital, because I am afraid that the whole Liyang will mistake us for Beiliang scholars. They are all as unbearable as Jin Lanting! I have been weak and sick since I was a child, and if I go to battle to kill the enemy, I am afraid that I can only become the exploits of the barbarians of the North Mang, but if I stay here, I may only be able to talk to you today, sir, but also maybe one day , even if Beiliang is gone, I can still talk to a hundred and a thousand gentlemen."
Yan Shenggong didn't say anything more, stood up, walked a few steps, and turned his head to look at the thin back of the young Beiliang scholar.
The young man who urged the Confucian scholar to write faster must have never imagined that there can be several or even dozens of emperors under the world at the same time, but for eight hundred years, even a thousand years later, the Zhang family sage Shenggong, passed down from generation to generation, there is only one person in this world.
At this time, the young man who was concentrating on copying books did not notice that thousands of students gathered in the gate of the Imperial College, densely packed, all staring dumbfounded at his chatting with the "unknown" Confucian scholar.
Under the restraint of a large group of officials from the Guozijian, no one dared to cross the thunder pool and step out of the gate to disturb Yan Shenggong.
On this day, the contemporary Yan Shenggong left the capital.