coobybook Chapter 247: Reward from the Court 2
Chapter 247: Reward from the Court 2
Not to mention that the prince was once the legitimate son of a general and is now the crown prince of the empire, his teacher must be the best. Just the special meaning represented by the old things he used is enough to make the person who receives the reward stand up straight and hold his head high.
In addition to the complete set of Four Books and Five Classics used by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the bookbox also contained the freshly-published Laws of Dayan, "The Book of Songs", "The Book of Rites", "The Book of Filial Piety", "Records of the Grand Historian", "Book of Han", "Book of the Later Han", "Records of the Three Kingdoms", "Zizhi Tongjian", "Strategies of the Warring States", "Zuo Zhuan", "Gongyang Zhuan", "Guliang Zhuan", "Book of Jin", "Book of Song", "Book of Southern Qi", "Book of Liang", "Book of Chen", "Book of Wei", "Book of Northern Qi", "Book of Zhou", "Book of Sui", "History of the Southern Dynasties", "History of the Northern Dynasties", "Book of Tang", "Book of Liang, Tang, Jin, Han and Zhou (also known as "History of the Five Dynasties")", "Essential Techniques for the People of Qi", "Classic of Mountains and Seas", as well as the ten famous mathematical books.
The so-called ten mathematical books refer to the Zhoubi Mathematical Classic, the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, the Haidao Mathematical Classic, the Zhangqiujian Mathematical Classic, the Xiahouyang Mathematical Classic, the Five Classics Mathematical Art, the Jigu Mathematical Classic, the Zhuishu Mathematical Art, the Wucao Mathematical Classic and the Sunzi Mathematical Classic.
Father Lin, who was standing on the other side of Bai Jingzhou, also scanned the long list of book titles on the book list. Even though he came from a farming and reading family and his own clan had a large collection of books, he was still so shocked by this generous gift from the capital that he almost couldn't maintain his original solemn expression.
While secretly marveling at the ability of Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan to receive such generous gifts from the royal father and son, Father Lin couldn't help but feel itchy in his heart, thinking that he must borrow these books from his students in the future to copy and study them.
Gu Wenxuan had no idea what Lin's father was thinking. She was currently listening to Mu Hanzhi introducing other things.
It turned out that in addition to the above-mentioned items, the emperor also rewarded them with a large box of the real Four Treasures of the Study - half a box of rice paper, two boxes of Hu brushes, two Duan inkstones, six pieces of Hui ink, as well as a complete set of silver-inlaid pearl head ornaments and a complete set of red gold filigree head ornaments.
I have to say here that a set of head ornaments generally includes: a top hairpin, a pair of sideburns, a pair of long hairpins, a center-picked hairpin, a center-split hairpin, a pair of sideburns, a pair of sideburns, a pair of earrings, a pair of bracelets, a pair of rings, and several pairs of flower ornaments, small hairpins, and piercing needles. The more the number, the more exquisite and luxurious the hairpin is.
The relatively unfamiliar "pecking needle" refers to a hairpin with a right angle between the head and the foot, and the foot is particularly thin. The feet of the pecking needle hairpin are mostly made of silver, and the most common patterns on the head of the hairpin are insects, such as bees, dragonflies, cicadas, fish, shrimps, crabs, etc.
The two sets of headgear bestowed by the emperor had everything and were extremely exquisite and gorgeous.
"Your Majesty originally wanted to make an exception and directly recruit you to the Sinong Temple to appoint you as the Director of the Forestry Bureau. I know that you have great ambitions, so I reported your intention to take the imperial examination and enter the government."
The Shanglin Office Director of the Sinong Temple of Dayan was a minor official of the seventh rank. He was in charge of gardens and ponds and grew fruits and vegetables to provide for court meetings, sacrifices and the daily food of the Shangshi Department. He was also responsible for storing ice in winter and defrosting it in mid-spring, and he was in charge of about thirty minor officials and clerks.
Bai Jingzhou had made great contributions by presenting cotton planting methods. If the emperor wanted to make an exception and give him an official position, the Sinong Temple would indeed be the best choice.
If Bai Jingzhou had not intended to enter the official career through the imperial examination, this position of Shanglin Office Director would have been the most suitable place for him to display his talents.
Although he had no official title and had entered the officialdom through unconventional means, it was almost impossible for him to reach the fourth or even third rank in his lifetime. But when it came to the imperial examination, who could guarantee with confidence that he would be able to pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi in the second place?
Especially since Bai Jingzhou was a farmer, he had no access to good educational resources. But Bai Jingzhou's previous actions did not make people feel that he was unaware of how difficult the road to the imperial examination was.
The emperor did not think that Mu Hanzhi was the kind of person who was ignorant and blindly arrogant, as he would give him the planting method without asking for a penny, and also sold all the existing cotton to him at a low price just because Mu Hanzhi promised to give the thing to a big shot who could promote the method as soon as possible.
In the emperor's view, with his temperament and broad mind, he was unwilling to take the unconventional path to enter the officialdom. It seemed that he was really confident in his ability to enter the officialdom through the imperial examination.
Bai Jingzhou is both capable and ambitious, which makes the emperor look forward to how far he can go.
"His Majesty is very happy. Not only does he praise you for your great talent and ambition, but he also asked the Crown Prince to personally select this box of books for you, so that you can study hard and pass the imperial examination to become an official as soon as possible."
After hearing Mu Hanzhi's explanation, everyone realized that the box of books was actually selected by the prince himself.
The villagers, including Bai Lizheng, thought that Bai Jingzhou's ancestors might have been filled with resentment. However, the officials from the county government immediately looked at Bai Jingzhou as if he were fat meat and assessed his weight.
What everyone didn't know was that before replacing this batch of books, the emperor originally planned to reward Bai Jingzhou with a large box of fine silks and satins.
The gold leaves and silver ingots that he had originally intended to reward Bai Jingzhou were also replaced by more valuable mansions and shops.
People who know the business know that any good property in the state capital cannot be bought or kept just by having money, but the rewards from the emperor are another matter.
With this imperial edict, the mansion and shop that Mu Hanzhi helped Bai Jingzhou and others to carefully select will definitely be theirs.
Unless Bai Jingzhou offends the Emperor one day, no one else would dare to covet that house and shop.
The same goes for the complete set of silver-inlaid pearl head ornaments and the complete set of red gold filigree head ornaments bestowed by the emperor. As long as the women in his family wore any one of these two sets of jewelry on their heads, the women from wealthy families who knew what was good would not dare to disrespect or even humiliate them.
As for those ignorant upstarts, Mu Hanzhi believed that with Gu Wenxuan's ability, she would definitely not let herself and the people around her suffer at the hands of such people.
It can be said that the reward adjusted by the emperor truly took into account all aspects of the person receiving the reward.
Bai Jingzhou was a smart man, and he felt the emperor's kindness. He bowed to the emperor and said, "I'm sorry to have troubled your majesty. I'm ashamed."
Seeing this, the magistrate, the county magistrate and others praised Bai Jingzhou for his promising young age. Peng Xuan'an, who followed him, and Mu Jingzhi, who had just received the imperial edict with the people from Baijia Village, all looked proud - Bai Jingzhou was the first person they made friends with, and their fathers and brothers had to come after him.
The overly excited and overly happy Bai family members formed a sharp contrast with the somewhat worried and solemn Gu family members. The Bai family members were almost silly with joy and did not notice at all that the Gu family members were worried about Bai Jingzhou's identity change.