"I don't know!"
Di Xiaoxu was sweating profusely as he bowed.
Li Er squinted his eyes and snorted, "Of course you don't know! Every year when the imperial court collects taxes from the local governments, there are always some crafty people who hire people to falsify the accounts to deceive the officials. If we can really implement the new mathematics on a large scale, our Tang Empire will have a surplus of 100,000 strings of cash every year. Do you know how many people can be saved with this amount of cash? "
Li Zexuan's heart thumped. He truly hadn't expected Li Erhui to suddenly decide to promote his new mathematics on a large scale. Although the new mathematics truly was beneficial to the daily work of the central and local finance departments, it was still very difficult to promote it throughout the country, as very few people were willing to learn it.
Li Er continued, "Previously, I have already ordered the implementation of Li Zexuan's pinyin. Judging from the reaction of the people in the past few months, the implementation has been very effective. At least now, many children can read the Tang Dynasty Dictionary to others. Now, I am going to implement his new mathematics. Dear Minister Di, do you still dare to say that engineering is a miscellaneous study and a useless study?"
Seeing that Li Er was so supportive of Li Zexuan, Di Xiaoxu didn't dare to be as arrogant as before. It must be known that Li Er's personality was very domineering at this time. The Prime Minister of the Empire could do whatever he wanted (Xiao Yu was a living example) and didn't need to discuss with the other officials. From the looks of it, Di Xiaoxu was just a small Left Deputy Minister and a Scattered Cavalry Attendant.
Therefore, he could only say, "I know my mistake. I won't dare to do it again!"
He knew he was in the wrong, but Li Er seemed to be unforgiving today. He paced two steps on the spot and continued, "Others can study in the Yanhuang Academy, but you, Di Xiaoxu's son, have a noble status. Do you think it will be an insult to his status in the Yanhuang Academy?
Let me tell you another piece of news. Do you know that among the examinees today, there are Zhangsun Chong, Xuanling's son, Fang Yizhi, and Dengshan's (Chu Suiliang's) son, Chu Yanfu? If their sons can come to Yanhuang College, why can't your son? "
This time, Di Xiaoxu was really shocked. He never thought that Zhangsun Wuji, the head of the civil officials, would actually let his own son participate in Yanhuang College's exam! This … Di Xiaoxu really wanted to say, "There's a traitor among us!"
Not to mention Di Xiaoxu, even Li Zexuan was shocked when he heard the news. Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Chu Suiliang, these sons of civil officials actually came? He looked at Li Gang next to him and found that the old man's face was calm at the moment. Obviously, he already knew about this. This made Li Zexuan feel frustrated. It was because he was not careful in his work! Otherwise, he wouldn't have only found out about it now.
Seeing the shock on Di Xiaoxu's face, Li Er chuckled and said, "Today's matter is your family's business, and I have no right to interfere. However, since it involves Yanhuang College, I have no choice but to interfere! It's fine if Di Zhixun doesn't pass the exam this time, but if he does and you still dare to obstruct me, I won't let you off easily! Otherwise, where will Yanhuang College's prestige be? Where will my face be? Also, your behavior today is too excessive. Go home and reflect on it for a month, do you understand? "
Reasonably speaking, Li Er's request wasn't excessive. His starting point was just to help Li Zexuan protect Yanhuang College's reputation. Otherwise, if Di Zhixun really got into Yanhuang College and was forced to drop out due to Di Xiaoxu's pressure, wouldn't the news spread that Yanhuang College was just a place for the Di family that they didn't want?
In this way, not only would Yanhuang College's reputation be damaged, but Li Er's plan of using engineering to weaken the aristocratic families and balance Confucianism would also fail. This was something Li Er couldn't tolerate.
However, Di Xiaoxu didn't think so. It was fine if he had to reflect at home for a month, but he had high hopes for Di Zhixun! Thus, he couldn't help but say, "Your Majesty, this …"
"Hmm? What? "
Li Er's eyes flashed with a trace of fierceness, and his voice became a little dangerous.
Di Xiaoxu trembled and finally bowed his head and said, "This old official obeys!"
Li Er nodded with satisfaction and said, "Well, in this case, Minister Di, you can go back! We just finished the morning court and Minister Di came here. You must be physically and mentally tired. You'd better go back and have a good rest! "
Di Xiaoxu was speechless. He wanted to wait here until the morning's exam was over and hint Di Zhixun not to do his best for the exam. However, Li Er asked him to go home directly, which really blocked his last escape route. He had no choice but to salute and say, "Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty. This old official will take his leave!"
At this point, he could only pray in his heart that Di Zhixun's arithmetic level was terrible.
After Di Xiaoxu left, Li Er looked at Li Zexuan and said, "Where do these candidates have lunch at noon? Boy, do you have any arrangements?"
Cheng Chumo was a special case. He handed in his paper early and lived close to the college, so he could go home for lunch and take a nap. However, for most of the students, they could only eat lunch at Yanhuang College or near Yanhuang College. Otherwise, it was very likely that they would be late for the afternoon exam. The afternoon exam time was half past one in the afternoon.
Li Zexuan replied with a smile, "Your Majesty, thank you for your concern. I have already arranged it. The college's canteen will be open to the candidates at noon. It can accommodate more than a thousand people at the same time. If anyone thinks the food in the canteen is too expensive, they can also eat in the Plum Village and the Han Village at the foot of the mountain. The villagers there have prepared all kinds of food today!"
Li Er stared at him and said, "Oh, what? Boy, do you need money to feed the students? "
It was no wonder that Li Zexuan had such thoughts. It was because Li Zexuan's usual style of doing things was very rich. Especially when he built Yanhuang College, he threw away hundreds of thousands of coins without batting an eye.
After Li Zexuan heard this, he almost vomited blood. What did he mean he needed money to feed the students? Was this something a f * cking human would say? When he was in school in his previous life, he had to swipe his campus card to eat!
"Your Majesty, the ingredients used in the college's cooking were all bought by me at a high price! This is all cost! You can't let me run the college for two years and throw away all my family's wealth, right? "
Li Zexuan said with a sullen face.
Li Er was happy when he saw this and said, "Go, go, go! Do you think I don't know your background? You're actually complaining to me about being poor! Let's not talk about other things. Because Chengqian and Qingque are doing business with you, they are now richer than me! Many of the empress' clothes and jewelry this summer were bought by them! "
Li Zexuan was speechless. Li Gang said with a chuckle, "Haha, Your Majesty, Little Xuan is right. The food in the college is very good, so the ingredients are also very expensive. I want to spend the rest of my life here!"
…
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