Tibet

"How many direct grandchildren are there in total?" Li Ye asked again.

At this time, two bowls of noodles were delivered. Li Xun poured some soy sauce for Li Ye and answered his question, "There are twelve direct grandchildren, and the rest are concubines!"

"Are the grandchildren also ranked according to their direct concubines?"

Li Xun shook his head, "It would be too confusing to rank the grandchildren by direct concubines, but it is not that accurate. For example, there are a total of sixty-six grandchildren, and you jump in line to be the forty-eighth son. What about the previous forty-eighth son?"

"Yeah! I'm a little confused too."

"The original Forty-Eighth Prince died young. He died of illness when he was seven years old, and this ranking became vacant."

"So there aren't actually sixty-six grandchildren?"

"No, there are only about fifty of them still alive. I don't know how many there are specifically."

After the two of them finished eating, Li Ye asked with a smile: "Brother didn't go to school today?"

"I'm studying at the county school. There's no class today, so I'm too lazy to go."

"Is studying in the county school so free?"

"Studying in the county school is very free. You can go if you want to go or don't go if you don't want to. The school will not care about you. The professor only attends class and leaves after class. Hundreds of people attend class together. He doesn't care who comes and who doesn't. It's your own loss if you don't listen to the class, anyway, you will see the truth in the imperial examination in the end."

Li Ye was right when he thought about it, wasn't that just like Qiao Bin? He spent three days fishing and two days drying nets, and he was still able to take the polo qualification exam, and he was not under any supervision from the county school.

Li Ye also wants to study and is very interested in this aspect.

"What about finishing county school?"

"I will start studying at a government school next year, and I will have to wake up and stay up until midnight to prepare for the imperial examination."

"Brother, don't you want to try another path?"

Li Xun sighed: "If we, the concubines, want to make a comeback, we can only take the path of studying, either to study at the Imperial College or to take the imperial examination. If we don't work hard, there will be no difference between the concubines and the common people of the Prime Minister. I suggest that I also go to the county school to study!" "

"I want to study, but it doesn't seem to be the county school, but the Mingde School!"

Li Xun's eyes suddenly widened, "No way! A good brother is also a concubine! How can he go to Mingde Academy? That is a place where only legitimate sons can go."

"My father is the legitimate son, am I also the legitimate grandson?"

"Impossible. The ancestral hall puts your sign in the column for concubines and grandchildren. I saw it with my own eyes yesterday. This is unmistakable. Either it's a special situation and my grandfather wants to compensate you."

"Actually, I would like to go to a county school to have more freedom!"

"Don't be stupid. The county school is a place where you can't learn real knowledge. Think about it. In the future, if we want to take the imperial examination to gain a career, of course we have to learn from famous teachers. I dreamed of going to Mingde Academy to study in the upper school, but it's a pity that I didn't. This opportunity.”

Li Ye nodded and asked again: "I just joined the family, is there anything I need to remind you?"

Li Xun smiled and said, "There is no competition between concubines and grandchildren. We all get along well with each other. At most there are some trivial conflicts, so you don't have anything to worry about?"

Li Ye understood the implication of his words, "Brother, what you mean is that there is a struggle between the legitimate sons and grandsons?"

Li Xun nodded, "Competing for the position of the family, competing for grandfather's favor, competing for family resources, each one is deceiving each other, and it is more fierce than the imperial struggle!"

At this point, Li Xun remembered something and whispered: "I'm not trying to sow discord between your brothers, but your half-brother Li Huai is really not a thing, so be careful with him!"

Two days later, Li Ye came to Mingde Academy.

There is no conflict between playing basketball and studying. The league only lasts for a few days a year. Most of the rest of the time is free. After all, he is only fourteen years old, so it is normal for him to choose to study.

Practicing martial arts is just preparation for troubled times, not his future. In the Tang Dynasty, martial arts was monopolized by Guanlong nobles and meritorious families, and was prepared for their children.

Although the martial arts examination was the first of its kind in the Tang Dynasty, it has not been tested for many years and there is no hope of success.

Most of the children from poor families practice martial arts in order to participate in the martial arts examinations in prefectures and counties, so that they can be incorporated into the local rural soldiers to guard against thieves and guard the gates, or they can be recommended to the capital to serve as the imperial guards.

Pei Min is known as the best swordsman in Chang'an and is known as the Sword Saint. He relied on Liefeng's relationship to become the lieutenant general of the Longwu Army, otherwise he could only be a big-headed soldier.

Li Ye's grandfather was the Prime Minister. If Li Ye could pass the imperial examination, he would have much more opportunities than others.

After thinking for a few days, Li Ye finally decided to accept the arrangement of his grandfather Li Linfu and enroll in school.

Mingde Academy, also known as Mingde College, is one of the three major private schools in Chang'an.

There has always been a saying in Chang'an: "Poor people go to primary schools, middle-level people go to official schools, and officials go to private schools."

This means that children from poor families finish their studies after primary school, like Zhang Xiaopang’s younger brother and Xiao Huangmao. After they have been in primary school for a few years and can read and write, they no longer know how to read.

And children from wealthy families such as Qiao Bin, Du Wang, and Ma Jinsong all belong to the middle class. They will go to official schools to study and try their best to get closer to the powerful class. If they can't become officials, they will become civil servants.

There are also officials and concubines like Li Xun who went to official schools and could not enter private schools.

A few months ago, Li Ye couldn't even go to elementary school, but in the blink of an eye, he was able to go to a famous private school, which makes people lament the fate.

Mingde College is located in Jingshanfang next to Zhuque and close to Xingshan Temple. It covers an area of ​​about 30 acres and has more than 500 students, most of whom are children of officials or famous families.

Mingde College is divided into upper and lower colleges. According to Li Ye's understanding, they are high school and junior high school. It takes five years to complete them all. After that, you can directly enter Taixue without taking the Taixue entrance exam.

His father, Li Dai, had already filled in the stage for him to study, which was junior high school, equivalent to the first grade of junior high school. Li Ye also had to take a basic test.

Li Dai actually thought highly of his son. He thought that there should be no problem in the basic test, which was to memorize "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" once. As long as they have attended primary school, who can't memorize them?

But he didn't know that Li Ye had just been ignorant and read for a year when he was seven years old. He knew up to fifty characters in total, and he had already returned forty-eight before receiving that stick.

Of course, Li Ye can't recite "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" now.

However, Li Ye really didn't want to come to Mingde College to study. He wanted to go to the county school, but he had to come because of his grandfather Li Linfu's face.

He needs freedom and a lot of his own time. There are still three years left before Li Linfu's downfall, and six years before the Anshi Rebellion. If you let him squat here for five years, the day lily will be cold.

The best way is to ask the college not to accept him, and then he can transfer to a county school.

Li Ye was sitting in his husband's study, squinting and thinking of countermeasures.

A tall, slender man with a serious expression sat across from him. His name was Liang Side, and he was a junior professor in the House of Commons.

"Have you read "The Thousand-Character Essay", "Jijiupian" and "Enlightenment Essentials"?"

Li Ye shook his head.

"Can you memorize The Analects of Confucius and Mencius?"

Li Ye still shook his head.

Liang Side frowned, "Then what do you know?"

"I can write poetry!"

Liang Side glanced at Li Ye in surprise and reluctantly said: "Write a song for me to see!"

"Sir, please give me a question!"

"Our tower is called Mingtai, then you should write a poem with the title "Mingtai"."

Liang Side went to pour tea. Li Ye sat at the table, thought for a while, and then wrote:

‘Bodhi is not a tree, nor is a mirror a stand. ’

He writes traditional Chinese characters. After practicing the calligraphy for several months, he can write commonly used traditional Chinese characters.

But after writing these two sentences, Li Ye shook his head. This poem appeared when Wu Zetian was there. Although he planned to pretend to be ignorant, he didn't want to bear the reputation of stealing other people's poems. He crumpled the paper into a ball and spread it out again. piece of paper.

After squinting and thinking for a moment, Li Ye suddenly had an idea.

He immediately wrote:

A pagoda rises from the ground,

Small at the top and thick at the bottom.

One day it will turn upside down,

Smaller at the bottom and thicker at the top.

After finishing writing, Li Ye put down his pen and said, "Sir, please take a look!"

Liang Side just took a sip of tea and stepped forward to look at it again, ‘Pfft! ’ Tea spurted out of his mouth.

He widened his eyes and asked, "Did you write this?"

Li Ye smiled modestly and said: "The student's bad calligraphy makes the teacher laugh!"

"Me, me." Liang Side was speechless, put down the tea cup, took the poem and ran away.

After a while, an old man followed Liang Side in. The old man was wearing a gauze hat and dark green official uniform. Li Ye felt a little strange. This was obviously a private school, so why was he still wearing official uniform?

When the old man came in, he smiled and clasped his fists and said, "This is Zhao Shu, the teacher of our school. I thought Mr. Li would not come until tomorrow!"

When Li Ye saw the other party's smile, he had a fawning look on his face, and felt a little bad in his heart, as if the poem he wrote didn't work.