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The next day. Read 520 official website
Everything was almost the same as usual, except that the children in the school were more intimate with him.
The villagers in Bailu Village would greet him warmly when they saw him.
"I just saw Guiwazi, who is a good student. He used to herd sheep with our Erdan. Guiwazi was the best at herding, and the sheep were the strongest..."
"Although this kid is young, his future is limitless."
"Maybe our Bailu Village can produce another scholar. Even if there is no scholar, he can go to the town to be a decent accountant, which is also a glory for our village!"
"Oh, my boy went to school two years earlier than Guiwazi, but why didn't he learn anything from Guiwazi? He gets dizzy and headaches after reading for a while at home, and says he wants to go out to play and can't calm down..."
Bai Gui also returned the compliments to the villagers one after another, not daring to be arrogant at all.
If there were rumors that he was disrespectful to his parents, his reputation would be ruined. Not to mention that Mr. Xu would teach him seriously, he would probably be kicked out.
A person's reputation in the village is very important.
During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the previous dynasty, it was said that there was a man who could have won the Five Classics in the provincial examination, but when the results were about to be announced, the chief examiner knew that his provincial reputation was not good. Even if he admired his talent, he could only reject the test paper and he would not be admitted from then on.
…
Before the noon school, the children who went back to eat from their homes came to the school one after another.
The Lu brothers looked a little livid.
Hearing the stringed instrument, one can know the elegant meaning.
Bai Gui knew that it should be Bai Youde who went to Lu Zilin to resign this morning.
Lu Zilin was so generous that he wanted to sponsor him to go to school, and it should be because of the Lu brothers' intercession, otherwise ordinary people would not have the perseverance to make such a decision.
Supporting a full-time scholar is not a trivial matter these days.
Just to calculate the salary, Xu Xiucai collected five liters of grain every three months, which was the same price as the private schools nearby. So he needed two dou of grain a year.
In the late Qing Dynasty, without good seeds and fertilizers, the yield per mu was about four dou.
But this was just the harvest.
More than 50% of the land tax had to be paid!
In order to consolidate his rule, Kangxi announced the implementation of a new tax system in the 51st year of Kangxi. The tax amount was fixed based on the number of people in the country in the 50th year of Kangxi. In the future, no more taxes would be levied for additional people. This was called "no increase in taxes for the prosperous times."
In the first year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng implemented the "taxation system". All the 3.35 million taels of the ding silver in the Kangxi Dynasty were levied on the land tax. The land and ding were combined, and the ding were assigned according to the land.
Later emperors had more and more daily expenses, but they did not dare to violate the laws of their ancestors, so they tampered with taxes. The land tax was not increased, but various corvée and miscellaneous taxes could be increased.
Since the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 200 million taels of silver had to be paid as compensation. There was also the Boxer Protocol, which required 500 million taels of silver to be paid to the powers. The Qing government's annual treasury revenue was about 100 million taels of silver.
The 450 million taels of indemnity in the Boxer Protocol even stated in the treaty that every Qing citizen would be punished by paying one tael. This money was collected by the head of each locality from every household, and because it was in the Gengzi year, it was also called the Geng money. In addition, since Zhang Juzheng's One Whip Law, the people have paid taxes in silver.
As a result, even if there were a few acres of thin land, it could only barely be enough to eat and drink, and supporting a full-time scholar was not something that ordinary people could afford.
And Bai Youde's resignation was an invisible rejection of the Lu brothers' feelings, so they were angry.
What surprised Bai Gui was that the Lu brothers had maintained their composure until now, and did not speak ill of him or get angry. Just talking about this mentality, it is far beyond his peers. At least Bai Gui asked himself that he could not do this at this age.
He sighed in his heart.
Although he did not intend to accept Lu Zilin's financial support, he also accepted the Lu family's kindness invisibly.
This is a favor, and he must admit it!
"Zhao Peng, Zhao Hai..."
Bai Gui took a breath and mustered up his courage. He did not want to cause a stalemate with the Lu brothers.
Even if others saw that he and the Lu brothers were not warm and cold, they would probably criticize his character and whether he was worth associating with.
It often takes a few gossips to destroy a person.
He took out two volumes of books he had borrowed from his schoolbag, stepped forward, and held the books in his hands. He had copied these two books on new paper and could review them from time to time.
He said with a slightly apologetic tone: "I have almost finished reading these two primers a few days ago, but I still want to read more, so I returned them late. Please don't blame me."
The Lu brothers were stunned for a moment.
The primers they borrowed were all the ones they had studied a few years ago and had not read them for a long time. Therefore, when they lent them to Bai Gui, they did not specify the return time.
So Bai Gui...
Lu Zhaopeng was in a trance for a moment. Hearing Bai Gui no longer calling him "young master" but his academic name, he was distracted for a moment, and soon the anger in his heart dissipated.
Soon, he smiled again and understood something in his heart.
Although he followed the words of Zigong's answer to Confucius in "Gongye Chang" in the Analects of Confucius, "I wish to have a light fur coat and a carriage with my friends, and I will not be ashamed of it if it is worn out", he made friends and valued righteousness over money.
Therefore, he and his younger brother Lu Zhaohai could persuade their father Lu Zilin to sponsor Bai Gui's studies.
But Bai Gui was just like what Confucius said about the three friends who benefit him. He did not fawn on him, nor did he stop associating with him just because he glared at him...
"It's right to stay a little longer. We have both passed the enlightenment stage."
Lu Zhaopeng's expression was much calmer, and his heart knot was untied. He put away the book casually, but when he saw the two neatly arranged books in his hand, he was a little dazed.
The two books for enlightenment that were borrowed are already quite old.
The Lu family is quite wealthy. Although they are not as rich as the rich families in the city, they are also considered to be a good family in Zishui County. Therefore, although they follow the principle of cherishing books for scholars, they have preserved the two books well, but there are some folds and curled pages.
But the two books returned by Bai Gui are neat and new. If it weren't for the yellowed books showing that they are not new books, he would have suspected that these are the books that Bai Gui bought recently, and then returned them to him.
"Brother, what's wrong with you?"
Lu Zhaohai was younger, and immediately felt that Lu Zhaopeng had betrayed him. How could he reconcile with this ungrateful villain? But he would not expose Lu Zhaopeng in person, but just whispered a reminder.
"I'll explain it to you later."
Lu Zhaopeng interrupted Lu Zhaohai and smiled apologetically at Bai Gui.
If he had only remembered the friendship between Bai Gui and him in childhood, now he really regarded Bai Gui as a friend worth making friends with.