Six large-scale universal schools were built in the same location. Although it was not convenient for children to go to school, it still looked quite imposing and gave people a sense of scale.
The Guozhong School, which Yang Guozhong was in charge of, looked the largest. The other schools were only slightly smaller.
The six schools only had four corners. Among them, Yang Guozhong occupied the northwest corner alone. The southwest corner was Madame Guo's school, which also occupied a corner alone. There were two schools in the northeast corner, which were Madame Han's and Madame Qin's. There were also two schools in the southeast corner, which were arranged by the Imperial Concubine's two older brothers.
A school that occupied a corner by itself would naturally occupy a larger area, while two schools that were side by side would be relatively smaller. This was also related to their strength. Two schools that occupied a corner by themselves were naturally the strongest two. They didn't even need to fight for students. As long as it was an area surrounded by the corner and the road, it would be their enrollment area.
After circling around a few times, Li An saw a lot of people working. These people walked in a relatively upright manner, and it was obvious that they weren't ordinary commoners. They should be soldiers stationed outside the city and had been transferred here by Yang Guozhong to work. These soldiers were supported by the imperial court's salary, so they naturally didn't need to be paid. Or perhaps, they could be paid less. It was very cost-effective to use these people to work. It was just that it seemed a little inappropriate to casually transfer soldiers to work. However, the capital was currently undergoing large-scale construction, and the demand for craftsmen was too great. Recruiting craftsmen was indeed a little difficult.
Universal education was a self-funded project. Therefore, it was difficult for others to say anything if he used his authority to transfer the army to work. Even if someone impeached him, he could easily explain that he could not find any craftsmen in a short time and that the construction of the school was imminent. Therefore, he could only use the army to make up for the lack of manpower. The army working on the construction site was also a kind of good training. In this way, not only would it not be wrong, but it might even be recognized by the Emperor. After all, the capital was not facing any threats at the moment. It was difficult for the army to play its role. Moreover, education was a long-term project. It did not seem a big deal to use some temporarily idle army to do well in education.
From the expression of these soldiers working, it could be seen that they were not very satisfied. Although there were delicious food and drinks, they were soldiers guarding the capital. They were not craftsmen working on the construction site. Naturally, they would have some resentment in their hearts. Of course, if the benefits given by the higher-ups were enough, their resentment would be swept away. They would even be very excited and feel that they had earned a lot. This mainly depended on how much benefits they could get. If the benefits were enough, soldiers would not mind doing other chores.
From the dissatisfied expressions of these soldiers, it could be inferred that Yang Guozhong did not prepare enough benefits for them to move them. If he had prepared enough benefits for them, they would not be so listless.
These soldiers in the army might have seen Ang Lee before. Therefore, Ang Lee did not go in. He only asked his subordinates to go over and ask about the basic situation. After that, they would come back and report to him.
From the understanding of his subordinates, Yang Guozhong had transferred over five hundred soldiers from the garrison outside the capital. These soldiers were not only responsible for building the school for him, they were also responsible for taking care of the other families. Every day, they worked for at least ten hours and were given three meals. There was meat for one meal at noon, and there was no meat for the other two meals. Naturally, there was no salary.
With such hard work, they were only given three meals a day, and only one meal was meat. These conditions were naturally not attractive to the soldiers whose salaries were not low. They were not beggars. When they were in the barracks, they could also eat free food. The food provided was not much worse than the food provided by Yang Guozhong. Training and patrolling in the barracks was also more tiring, but at least it was more dignified than working on the construction site. Therefore, these soldiers were quite resentful. The worst thing was that they were scolded by the servants of the Yang Residence from time to time.
After all, these people were soldiers, not professional craftsmen. Although they were quite strong, when they worked, they always seemed to be not so handy. From time to time, they would even make mistakes, causing the project to be redone. Not only was this a waste of money, but it was also very time-consuming.
Once such a situation occurred, the servants of the Yang Residence who were in charge of management naturally scolded these soldiers. They scolded these soldiers for being too stupid. They couldn't even do such a small thing well. They even scolded the ancestors of these soldiers.
A bit of hard work was nothing, but the feeling of being wronged was very unpleasant. They were already very tired, but they still had to be scolded. Moreover, they were scolded by the servants of the Yang Residence who had no talent and no virtue. This made the soldiers very painful. Naturally, they were extremely dissatisfied, but they had to look at the master before beating a dog. Even if they had a lot of resentment in their hearts, how could these soldiers dare to offend the servants of a big official? Otherwise, if they were falsely accused, these soldiers would not be able to bear the consequences. Therefore, even if they were scolded eight or even eighteen generations of ancestors, they still had to endure.
Working with anger in their hearts naturally made things worse. The number of rework increased, and the chances of these soldiers being scolded naturally increased. However, the more they were scolded, the more they didn't work properly. They even taught this dog servant a lesson from time to time. For example, when they were standing on the second floor and saw the dog servant below, they gently threw a small stone down. The dog servant's head would swell up, and the dog servant could do nothing about it. It was very normal for some construction materials to be scattered at high places in construction sites. It couldn't be determined that it was man-made. Otherwise, all the workers involved in construction would not be required to wear safety helmets.
The purpose of wearing a safety helmet was mainly to prevent small stones falling from a height. With the protection of the safety helmet, some small stones falling from a height of more than ten meters would not cause any harm to the head. Without the protection of the safety helmet, small stones falling from more than ten meters would definitely cause great damage to the head. It could even directly smash people to death. Therefore, safety helmets must be worn at construction sites. This was a very important piece of protective equipment and was indispensable.
However, in the Tang dynasty era, there was no concept of safety helmets at all. All the workers would not take the initiative to wear safety helmets. Only soldiers who went to the battlefield to kill the enemy would prepare helmets for themselves.
Now, only Ang Lee would prepare some safety helmets for the workers. Not only that, but Ang Lee also stocked up a lot of protective gloves at home. If the workers didn't wear gloves, their palms would be easily scratched. With gloves, their palms would not be so easily scratched. Therefore, it was still very important to wear gloves when working, just as important as helmets.
Of course, the productivity of this era was too backward. Therefore, no labor protection equipment would be provided for ordinary workers. It was good enough to pay some wages in time.
When he heard that Yang Guozhong actually treated the soldiers outside the city like this, Ang Lee was very angry. Giving more benefits would not cost much. Such a stingy attitude was not like the attitude of a prime minister. This was too stingy.
The construction site was in a mess. Therefore, Yang Guozhong did not appear again except for the laying of the foundation. The construction site of the school was in charge of a trusted servant, who was naturally more stingy than his master. At least, his master was willing to take out some money to let these soldiers eat something good. However, the servant also took out some money for the meals. He only gave the soldiers one meal with meat, and the other two meals were steamed buns and porridge. If they did not do a good job, he would be scolded to death.
After leaving the Guozhong School in the northwest corner, Ang Lee went to the Madame Guo School in the west corner. This school was as tall and majestic as the Guozhong School, but its style was more graceful, giving people the feeling of a little girl. In particular, there were many beautiful women carved on the gate. In front of the screen at the entrance, there were more than a dozen dancing stone statues. The screen was carved with graceful and luxurious peonies, which had been painted and looked very pleasing to the eyes. In addition, there were many bamboos outside the outer wall of the school. In front of the bamboos were flowers. Although they were far away, Ang Lee knew they were Chinese roses at first sight. It was a kind of flower that was lower in grade than the peonies. However, it bloomed almost every month. Except for the winter season, it bloomed every month in the other three seasons. That was to say, it bloomed for a very long time. It bloomed almost nine months in a year. Therefore, Chinese roses were definitely a kind of excellent flower, and many people in the future were very willing to plant them at home.
This woman chose to plant bamboo and Chinese roses outside the school in order to decorate the school beautifully, and because Chinese roses were not expensive in the capital, ordinary people could also afford them, so the cost would not be too high. In addition, no one would come here to steal, because there was no need to steal. This kind of cheap flower could not be sold for much money even if it was stolen. Ordinary people lived a difficult life, how could they have the leisure to appreciate flowers and plants, and they would not take the risk of being beaten to steal Chinese roses outside the school, so planting a circle of Chinese roses outside the school was very appropriate.
After walking around for a while, Ang Lee saw a familiar figure. A charming woman was pointing inside. Although he could not hear what they were talking about, Ang Lee could basically guess what they were talking about. Most of them were scolding the craftsmen and urging them to finish as soon as possible.
"Hurry up and leave. Go to the next place."
Ang Lee was a little scared. This charming woman was too crazy. Ang Lee was worried that if he was discovered, he might lose his virginity on the construction site of the school. Although it felt good, Ang Lee thought it was better to not feel comfortable. This kind of pure physical comfort was not very meaningful. After experiencing it, it was nothing.
The school built by Mrs. Qin and Mrs. Han was close to each other and looked a little small. The combined area of the two schools was about the same as that of the Guozhong School, which also showed their wealth. Although they had acquired a lot of property, there was still a big gap between them and Yang Guozhong and Mrs. Guo. Even if they shared a common property, Mrs. Guo took half of it and only gave the other half to them. Although they were close to each other and were both sisters of the Imperial Concubines, Mrs. Guo had been intimate with the Emperor and was a woman favored by the Emperor. How could these two old women be mentioned in the same breath as their younger sister? Besides, Mrs. Guo was very shrewish. The two old women could not compete with her and could only be suppressed by her. Naturally, they had to build a school that was half the size of hers. Otherwise, they would steal her limelight.
The two schools were close to each other. There was only one gate at the intersection. One of them faced the main road into the capital city, and the other faced the Third Ring Road. Due to the lack of craftsmen, the construction progress was relatively slow. Except for the gate and the courtyard walls that had been completed, the rest of the buildings had not been built yet. Only the foundation was laid.
Li An looked around and left. Finally, he went to take a look at the school that the imperial concubine's two brothers were in charge of building. The scale was the same as Mrs. Qin Han's, almost a replica. The construction progress was also very slow. A conservative estimate was that it would not be completed in three to five months. After all, they could not be like Li An, who did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to build the school. They were all building at a leisurely pace. They did not expect the construction to be fast, as long as the construction could be completed.
In addition, the soldiers and horses that Yang Guozhong transferred from the barracks worked for his own school and also took care of the other schools. But in fact, they only took care of Mrs. Guo's school. Because of the limited resources, he had to use at least 300 soldiers. The remaining 200 were occupied by Mrs. Guo, and the other four schools didn't dare to do anything. Moreover, they were so familiar with each other that they couldn't fall out with each other because of this. As a result, the construction of the two larger schools was very fast, while the construction of the four smaller schools was very slow.
These schools were at least built by the rich and powerful, and many resources were given to them. It was not hard to imagine what a school built by an ordinary businessman would be like.
Out of curiosity, Li An continued to move forward to take a look at the other popular schools that were being built.
"Assistant Minister Li, the school in front of us is built by Wang Dabao, a wealthy businessman in the capital city. It's the best school built."
His subordinate said.
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