Outside Beiliang Pass, there was the sound of horse hooves. It was like the sound of an old chick, endless and had been ringing for twenty years.
Inside the pass, there was the sound of reading. It was like the sound of an old phoenix.
The sound of reading came from a new academy.
In Liangzhou, there was a new White Horse Academy. Unlike the previous Green Deer Cave Academy, which was located in the mountains and forests, this academy was built in the downtown area of Liangzhou. Yao Baifeng, who had just returned from the capital, was the first head of the academy. Not only did the Qing Liang Mountain Palace gift six thousand scrolls, but the King of Beiliang, Hsu Fengnian, personally bestowed a plaque. Beiliang's Dao Administrator Li Gongde, the new Liangzhou Provincial Governor Lu Dongjiang, and the Youzhou Provincial Governor Huang Yan all personally gave books to the academy. For a time, the officials and nobles of Beiliang followed suit.
This allowed the White Horse Academy to complete an unprecedented feat. On the first day of the academy's establishment, there were ten thousand scrolls in the library. Thus, the library was named after ten thousand scrolls. At the same time, Yao Baifeng created a new Sage Hall in the academy, sculpting the statues of the Sage of the Zhang family and the Ten Sages and Thirty-Six Sages. At the same time, Yao Baifeng set up a monument to start the academy. He emphasized that scholars entering the White Horse Academy should preach and seek benevolence. Therefore, he didn't teach the Imperial Exam's "Art", which was the foundation of the Imperial Exam. This was obviously contrary to the study of the Imperial Exam. Other than Yao Baifeng as the Headmaster, the renowned White Lotus of Mount Longhu, Bai Yu, and the former Provincial Governor of Lingzhou, Xu Beizhi, were both Deputy Headmasters. The Mountain Master of Green Deer Cave Academy, Huang Shang, and other great Confucian scholars of the Central Plains, who had rushed to Northern Liang to take root, also promised to come to White Horse Academy to give lectures on time. It was even rumored that Chancellor Wang, who had led thousands of scholars to Northern Liang, had also promised to contact Shangyin Academy and promised to recommend a Mr. Ji Shang from Shangyin Academy, which was known as the "source of all the scholars in the world", to teach in Northern Liang.
As a result, White Horse Academy, which originally only accepted eighty people, was flooded with people. They had no choice but to make an exception and recruit two hundred young scholars. The number of local and foreign scholars in Beiliang was roughly the same. Lu Dongjiang, the official of Liangzhou's parents, was even more enthusiastic. Supporting the White Horse Academy was the first thing he did after taking office. He opened the door to all the affairs of the Academy and even treated the lecture hall of the Academy as the official residence of the provincial governor. He went to the White Horse Academy every two or three days. He even allocated six hundred acres of fertile land under the name of the Lu Family and gave it to the Academy in the name of Liangzhou. This made the officials of Beiliang, who had a lot of complaints about the Lu Family, look at the Lu Family in a new light. Even the Deputy Administrator Song Dongming, who had been estranged from the Lu Family, once again invited Lu Piao, who had once been famous for his calligraphy, to a private banquet.
At the beginning of autumn, a carriage slowly drove to the downtown area of Liangzhou City. The carriage was very ordinary, and there were no retainers following it. The coachman was a middle-aged man who didn't look like a coachman. The curtain of the carriage was lifted slightly, and the man in the carriage quietly looked at the scene on the street.
Some shops had changed their signs, and some stalls had disappeared. Some restaurants were still selling Green Ant Wine, and some inns had taken over their father's business.
When the carriage passed by a newly opened shop, the carriage slowly stopped. The coachman quietly waited for the owner's orders. He didn't dare to speak without permission, reminding the people of the Academy that they were patiently waiting for his arrival.
The young man holding the corner of the curtain looked at the shop. He remembered that every time he returned, he would go there to buy a big bag of spiced beef wrapped in oiled paper. He had met Miss Hehe there. At that time, he had never thought that the old owner of the shop was Huang Sanjia.
At that time, Hehe's strange big cat was still alive.
He remembered that he had reunited with Miss East and West in this area. It was also the first time he saw the little monk from North and South who wanted to become a Buddha and burn his Sarira. There was also a monk from Mount Lantuo who insisted that he go to the Western Region to dual cultivate with the white-clothed Bodhisattva who would become a goddess at the gate of Xiangfan City in the future. At that time, he thought that she was an old cow eating young grass. She was too shameless, and he was too disadvantaged, so he didn't agree. Later on, he regretted it so much that his intestines almost turned green. However, when he thought about it now, he just smiled and let it go. The female Bodhisattva with a head full of black hair was different from the girl who he mistook as a banished immortal when he first met her when he traveled the Jianghu. These beautiful women, when they had the chance to get close to someone, they would lose their feelings of love. When they saw her, they would still think that she was pretty, but they didn't need to have her. When they didn't see her, they wouldn't miss her.
He put down the curtain and said softly, "Steward Song, let's go to the White Horse Academy."
Steward Song was the chief steward of the Prince's Mansion on Mount Qingliang in Beiliang. In Beiliang, he could be said to be the only one.
The carriage stopped at the gate of the White Horse Academy. When Hsu Fengnian got off the carriage, he suddenly asked, "Are there not many assassins who broke into Mount Qingliang in recent years?"
Song Yu stood respectfully beside the young Lord. He bowed slightly and said calmly, "Your Highness, it's probably because those stupid Jianghu people have finally become enlightened. There hasn't been a single assassination in Mount Qingliang this year. It's very peaceful. Many people in the mansion are not used to it."
Hsu Fengnian smiled and said, "It's indeed less fun to fish. By the way, it seems that there are also fewer Wanderers who show up in public?"
Song Yu laughed softly and said, "It's too difficult for the Jianghu masters to show off their skills in front of Your Highness."
The White Horse Academy didn't mobilize a large force to welcome them. Hsu Fengnian stood on the street, looked up at the plaque of the White Horse Academy, and said with emotion, "I never thought that there would be a day when an academy would open in Liangzhou."
Song Yu said, "It's all thanks to Your Highness. Not everyone in the world is blind or has their hearts stuffed with lard. Justice is in everyone's heart."
Hsu Fengnian nodded solemnly, "Song Yu, your flattery skills haven't dropped at all these years. Compared to other people's flattery, it's always better to be honest."
Song Yu, who had followed His Highness for as many years as Xu Fengnian had been His Highness, smiled brightly. He seemed to remember the absurd times when he was at His Highness's beck and call.
Song Yu's flattery skills hadn't decreased, and in recent years, his temperament had improved even more. In addition, he was familiar with the temperament of this young lord, so he wasn't dissatisfied with the White Horse Academy's lack of activity. Naturally, he wouldn't do such a boring thing. Besides, he knew better than anyone that the leader of the Beiliang cavalry next to him had been very kind to the scholars in recent years. Otherwise, this White Horse Academy wouldn't be able to be established. There were not many rich and powerful vassals in the Liyang Dynasty, but there were quite a few of them, like the audacious Zhao Bing, the Prince of Yan Chi, or Zhao Yi, the Prince of Guangling, who used to be at the height of his power. Who could make those learned scholars gather together and teach in their territory? Jingan Circuit had the Green Party in the imperial court, and it was in the hinterland of the Central Plains, which was close to the Shangyin Academy. But they still couldn't establish a decent academy.
Song Yu glanced at the scene around the carriage. In fact, in addition to their carriage, there were four or five other carriages, which also didn't show the style of the rich and powerful. Song Yu knew that in addition to the lord, there were actually six or seven generals who came to the academy at the same time. It was not a coincidence. Under the proposal of the deputy headmaster of the White Horse Academy, Xu Beizhi, every once in a while, they would invite the generals to teach the scholars about the battlefield. Not to mention that this had never happened in other academies, perhaps even in the ancestor of the World Academy, the Shangyin Academy, there had never been such a strange thing. In the eyes of the scholars, they were just boorish men. How could they reason with the scholars? Although these carriages didn't look amazing, the horses were all plump and expensive horses. To be precise, if they were placed in the Beiliang Frontier Army, they were either the best or the second best. Because they were originally from the two pastures in Beiliang, Xianli and Tianjing, but they were not supplied to the border army through special channels. For this kind of thing, whether it was the old King Liang, Xu Xiao, or the new King Liang, who was next to Song Yu, they all turned a blind eye and never looked into it.
Those old generals, who had spent most of their lives on the battlefield, had more than ten good horses at home after they retired. What was wrong with that?
It was said that among the old generals of Beiliang who came to visit the White Horse Academy today, there were two senior deputy commanders, Wei Tieshan and Liu Yuanji, who had returned to the border army not long ago but didn't have any actual power for the time being.
The seven or eight generals, who had all been exposed to the smoke of war, were the first batch of old soldiers that Xu Beizhi invited to the White Horse Academy with great hospitality.
It was true that in the current Beiliang officialdom, especially the civil officials, perhaps only the two young officials, Xu Beizhi and Chen Xiliang, could invite these old guys. Even the Administrator, Li Gongde, couldn't do it. Even the nominal deputy administrator, Song Dongming, who was in fact the leader of the civil officials in Beiliang, couldn't do it.
As for the "relative of the emperor", Lu Dongjiang, the provincial governor of Liangzhou, couldn't do it either.
Because if one were to say something harsh, in fact, among the civil and military officials in Beiliang, only these two young people were the true ministers of the emperor.
Iron Buddha General Ning Emei, Youzhou General Huangfu Qiu, and the infantry deputy commander, Great Ancestor Gu, were still inferior to these two.
The backbone of the White Horse Academy was actually not the literary grandmaster of Liyang, Yao Baifeng, but Xu Beizhi, who had successfully retired from the position of the provincial governor of Lingzhou.
Song Yu, as the former steward of Wutongin and now the chief steward of the entire Mount Qingliang, was of course the young lord's trusted aide. The most important thing was that Song Yu was still young, in his early forties. If there were no accidents, he wouldn't have the opportunity to be a senior official of the Xu family for three dynasties in the Beiliang. It was easy to imagine how important his position was. This had nothing to do with whether this man was an official or not. Even the gatekeeper of the prime minister was a third-grade official, let alone the chief steward of a king's mansion. Therefore, Song Yu was very satisfied and grateful to the Xu family.
Song Yu slowed down slightly and followed Hsu Fengnian to the White Horse Academy.
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