Since ancient times, there was a saying that it was difficult to live up to a great reputation. It meant that for a person with a great reputation, it was often difficult for their actual talent and virtue to match their reputation. It meant that their reputation was often greater than their actual situation.
Many reputable people, especially those who were difficult for ordinary people to come into contact with, had a big question mark over their true talent and virtue. At the very least, there would be a lot of discrepancies between them and what was advertised. This person might even be a mediocre person with no talent and no virtue. His so-called reputation was just a false reputation that others bragged about. It simply could not withstand the test of reality.
The reason for such a situation was that some famous people with high status were difficult for ordinary people to come into contact with. Since they could not come into contact with them, naturally, they could not really understand the full situation of this person. They could only evaluate this person through the person's occasional appearance in public. In private, this person was likely to be a low-quality scum.
For example, in the later generations, many celebrities usually had a tall and mighty image, giving people the feeling that they were entrepreneurs and philanthropists. But in reality, these people were very likely to have started their business through illegal activities. Or these good men who looked like they cared for their family and loved their wives, but in reality, it was very likely that they ate, drank, gambled, and drank. There were even many drug addicts who took drugs.
Sometimes, when seeing too many great people fall from the altar, people slowly lost trust in the people in high positions. Even if the great people they saw were good, they would have a feeling of distrust.
Of course, even if this person was the same on the surface, whether in public or in private life, he was a good person, it did not mean that this person would not deliberately do some false things for his own reputation, or that the people below would deliberately spread false propaganda to curry favor with this person and be able to get tacit approval.
For example, this time, Wei Jiansu came to the construction site of the school to take a look. He did not do any work, but others said that he personally went to work. Who saw him work? With his body, could he really work? He could not work at all. If he really joined the crowd of people working, he would only be a hindrance. When other craftsmen worked, they had to be very careful. It would not be good if they accidentally splashed broken building materials on Young Master Wei. Old Wei obviously understood this, so he did not go to the construction site to work. He rested alone in the tent. After resting enough, he could go home.
Old Wei was now the Left Prime Minister. Logically speaking, he should not be so idle. Many important matters in the imperial court were waiting for him to make decisions. Why did this old guy come here to hide and relax?
In fact, this was Old Wei venting his dissatisfaction. Although he was now the Left Prime Minister, which was the highest official position in the Tang dynasty and was even more powerful than Ang Lee, he always felt that he could not make any decisions. So he simply did not do anything. He found an excuse to slip away and came to the school to hide and relax. Because the construction of the school was also a big matter, even if someone wanted to impeach him, there were not many problems.
"What's wrong with Young Master Wei recently? You come to the school all day long. The work can be left to the ordinary craftsmen. How can Young Master Wei work by himself? If something bad happens to him, it will be a great loss to the imperial court! "
Ang Lee teased.
Wei Jiansu looked a little embarrassed and said, "It doesn't matter. I just help them occasionally to prevent these craftsmen from being lazy. I won't be tired."
Ang Lee nodded with a smile and asked, "Young Master Wei is now the Left Prime Minister. Many important matters in the imperial court have to go through your official seal. Now that you are supervising the craftsmen here, what about the important matters in the imperial court?"
Wei Jiansu said helplessly, "With the Right Prime Minister, what can't be done? Forget it. I don't care if I quit being the Left Prime Minister. It's not interesting at all."
Obviously, his meaning couldn't be more clear. He wanted to tell Ang Lee that the authority was controlled by the Right Prime Minister, Yang Guozhong. He was about to become an assembly line worker who was responsible for stamping. Many things were directly asked for his seal after they were settled. This made him very angry. In this way, he had no dignity to speak of. Therefore, in a fit of anger, he threw the seal to Yang Guozhong. In this way, he, Old Yang, could directly stamp it in the future. There was no need to go through him.
This could be regarded as a kind of anger. It was a very irrational behavior. The seal was a symbol of authority. How could it be given to others casually? Even if he was angry in his heart, he couldn't do it! Otherwise, if something went wrong, he would have to take responsibility. Others wouldn't care about who stamped the seal, but who the seal belonged to. Whoever stamped the seal would have to take responsibility. This was certain.
"Why do you say that, Young Master Wei? Old Yang is a little overbearing, but as long as you discuss it with him, you can still find common ground in many problems. We are all officials in the imperial court. It's not good to have a childish temper. "
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said.
Wei Jiansu looked at Ang Lee unconvinced and said, "Assistant Minister Li doesn't have to care about the matters of the Ministry of Works. Is it really comfortable?"
Ang Lee nodded and said, "That's true. However, the R&D Center is also very busy. Moreover, the R&D Center can't do without me. Without me, many of the R&D Center's work can't be carried out. Young Master Wei's role here is quite limited. The craftsmen here won't stop working just because Young Master Wei isn't here."
"Ai, I know I can't win against you, but I'm in a bad mood. How about I come here to rest for a few days?"
Wei Jiansu had a childish temper again and said stubbornly.
Ang Lee hurriedly nodded and said, "Okay, okay, okay. It's good to rest for a few days. However, after resting enough, you still have to share the administrative duties with Old Yang. If you don't do anything because you feel wronged, then wouldn't you become a corpse without doing anything? Also, Old Yang is quite selfish. If no one checks and balances him, who knows what he might do. If he does something he shouldn't do and Old Wei doesn't stand by his side to advise him, then it's Old Wei's fault. Wouldn't that be betraying His Majesty's trust? His Majesty promoted you because he believes in your character, but promoted Old Yang to take care of Imperial Concubine's feelings. The two are very different. Old Wei, you should understand."
Wei Jiansu thought for a moment and said, "I'm that Li Ling!"
After saying this, he sank into deep thought.
The Li Ling that Old Wei spoke of was naturally the grandson of the Darkhan Dynasty's famous general, Li Guang. This person was very powerful and had the prestige of his grandfather, Li Guang. However, because he wasn't favored by the Emperor, he had always been in a lower position.
The Emperor also knew that Li Ling was a very capable general. However, in order to gain the favor of his favorite concubine, Madam Li, he let the general of the Second Division, Li Guangli, who didn't have much ability, lead the army to the north. He wanted this young master to make more contributions and obtain a higher position. However, the Emperor also knew Li Guangli's ability and didn't have much confidence in this brother of his favorite concubine. Therefore, he let the capable Li Ling follow as a deputy general. This way, he could ensure that Li Guangli would win. However, because Li Guangli's command was too weak, it caused Li Ling's small number of troops to be surrounded and captured by the Xiongnu in the end.
At this moment, Old Wei felt that he was Li Ling. The Emperor greatly favored his concubine. Therefore, even though he knew that Yang Guozhong didn't have much ability, he still promoted this fellow to the highest official position. Moreover, due to his suspicion of Yang Guozhong's ability, he let him assist in order to prevent Old Yang from making too serious of a mistake.
This feeling of being the underling of someone who was weaker than him was undoubtedly something that made him feel very uncomfortable. It would make him feel very sullen. However, this couldn't be helped. Who asked him, Old Wei, to not have a younger sister who was as beautiful as a flower? If he also had a younger sister who was favored by the Emperor, he wouldn't need to be the underling of anyone. It would be very easy for him to sit in the highest official position.
Comparisons were odious. There were many things that couldn't be solved. There were too many illogical phenomena in this world. No matter how angry and hateful one was, these things wouldn't disappear because of one's hatred and dissatisfaction. These things would always exist.
"Li Ling is also quite good. This at least shows that His Majesty values Old Wei a lot. Haha!"
Ang Lee said with a smile.
After chatting for a while, Ang Lee left the school.
After some understanding, Ang Lee knew that Wei Jiansu had used much less money to build such a large school than Ang Lee. It was only about one-third of the money that Ang Lee had spent.
However, in order to hasten the progress, Ang Lee had spent three to five times more money. If he had been as unhurried as Old Wei, he would have probably spent about the same amount of money.
Although Old Wei wasn't a corrupt official, he was still a member of the capital's Wei Clan. His clan was rather well-off, so he was truly willing to fork out the money. This money might not necessarily be Old Wei's own, but rather the Wei Clan's.
Ang Lee very shamelessly asked who was sponsoring the school, and Old Wei didn't hide anything. He directly told Ang Lee that the school he was in charge of represented the entire Wei Clan. Thus, the various branches of the Wei Clan had contributed money, and their names would be written on the school's Merit Stele. As for the name of the school, it was naturally decided upon by several clan patriarchs. The name was very simple: the Wei Clan School. The plaque was very large, and one could tell at a glance that it was very imposing. It could completely represent the status of the Wei Clan.
As for when the large-scale Wei Clan School would be completed, Wei Jiansu couldn't say for sure, but it definitely wouldn't be less than three months. After all, they were building normally, unlike Ang Lee's accelerated construction, so the speed would naturally be much slower.
After exchanging some pleasantries, Ang Lee left the Wei Clan School, preparing to head to the school the Yang Clan was in charge of building. As long as one was an influential official, they would basically be interested in building a popularized school. As the favored Yang Clan, they naturally couldn't fall behind. Their sudden meteoric rise had already made many people envious. Doing something good at their own expense could increase their reputation to a certain extent, so the common people wouldn't view the Yang Clan with too much hostility. In short, the benefits were great. The only downside was that they had to spend a bit of money. They had already made a lot of money, so they didn't need to worry about the cost of building a school. This bit of money was nothing to them.
Just like Wei Jiansu, the school Yang Guozhong was in charge of building was also located at a crossroads, where the Third Ring Road and the main road into the capital intersected.
However, when they arrived, Ang Lee was surprised to find that there were six schools here. Moreover, all six schools were built by the Yang Clan. They had really put in a lot of capital.
With the crossroads as the starting point, the school under construction at the northwest corner was the one Yang Guozhong was in charge of. From a distance, the words on the already built gate could be seen.
Yang Guozhong was more casual in naming the school. He directly used his own name. This name was given to him by the Emperor. Therefore, using such a name also had the intention of pleasing the Emperor. The four eye-catching Guozhong School could be seen clearly even from a distance. Similar to Wei Jiansu's Wei Family School, the Guozhong School also had two doors facing the road. In fact, the other two directions also had doors. However, the construction was very small and inconspicuous. They were all prepared for the kitchen staff who did odd jobs. Therefore, there were no signboards or signboards.
"The Guozhong School looks much more imposing than the Wei Clan School. The scale must be larger. Not bad, not bad. Well done."
Ang Lee said with satisfaction. After a pause, he continued, "Don't stop. Walk around here a few times and see the overall effect."
After looking around a few times, Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction. Yang Guozhong's school was well done. Although the final effect was not very clear, at least there was no problem in terms of hardware. As long as the hardware was in place, the software would not be much worse.
However, there was a problem in this. That was, the popularized schools should be built near the slums. In other words, these schools should be scattered so that the nearby poor children could be recruited.
However, at this crossroads, there were actually six schools gathered. Moreover, the scale of these six schools was not small. There were only so many slums in the surrounding five miles. The source of students was a big problem. The only way to solve it was to recruit poor children from further away. In this way, young children would have to walk a long way to go to school. This was contrary to Ang Lee's original intention of popularizing the schools.
The purpose of the scattered schools was to solve the problem of children having to walk a long way to go to school. It was the most reasonable way. However, these six schools obviously violated this requirement.
Ang Lee believed that this was definitely not the land arranged by the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites prepared the land strictly according to Ang Lee's requirements. It was absolutely impossible for them to divide the land of the six schools in the same place.
It was estimated that the Yang Clan was powerful and insisted on doing so. The officials of the Ministry of Rites, level 5 and 6, did not dare to offend these ancestors. Therefore, they had no choice but to agree. Anyway, it was not a big deal. Running the popularized schools was purely an expense. Since these ancestors insisted on building the schools in the same place, there was nothing they could do.
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