After the inspection and removal of siege, the academy got a few days of breathing space. Xia Yuanlong roughly clarified the situation of the academy in this short period of time, and stipulated that the amount of expenses for each room must be set. If additional money is needed, he will notify the accountant and leave it to the dean to make a decision. He checked the account books, paid the clerk's monthly salary in time, and assigned two or three Confucian scholars to take care of the library.
Those three Confucian scholars were the kind of people who had lost their ambition by playing with things. They had not even touched the lock of the library and were eating, drinking and having fun in a very leisurely manner. The wind was warm on this day, and they were wearing a few tattered green headscarves. They were drinking hot wine on the water pavilion. Sometimes they sang songs and danced with their sleeves raised, creating a noisy scene.
Xia Yuanlong and Song Zhang strolled by, glanced at the pavilion, their expressions immediately sank, and they walked over.
"Dean Xia wants to talk to you." Governor Song said coldly.
The group of people understood what was going on, poured the wine in their bowls, turned around and bowed to Xia Yuanlong.
"You don't care about the library?"
The leader responded with a smile: "Why don't you take advantage of your free time and drink some wine..."
"Free time? You have time to go out and drink," Xia Yuanlong said dissatisfiedly, "See clearly, ours is not an ordinary academy. It is the Sihe Academy established by Mr. Wei. Can we do this?"
"If you break the rules, you will be punished!" Song Zhang was furious.
Xia Yuanlong waved his hand: "Governor Song, we do not practice private law here." He sternly rebuked these Confucian scholars: "We must not do this next time! Let's all go..."
The scholars nodded in fear and walked toward the library.
"Have someone replace the three of them the next day." Xia Yuanlong lowered his head and said.
Song Zhang hesitated for a while and then said: "I don't dare to disobey the dean's order...but it's really hard to change."
"What?" Xia Yuanlong frowned.
"The errands of the academy are all entrusted to them. Even if they do badly, I would be embarrassed to drive them away." Song Zhang said.
"Okay, if you don't want to take action out of love, I will personally give the order."
Xia Yuanlong turned around and left. Song Zhang quickly stepped forward and held him down. He had to stop first and sighed: "Governor Song, except for me as the dean, everyone in this academy is busy with their own affairs. No one can control anyone else. Then where does the authority of this dean lie? If the top and bottom cannot be tied together, why are they even talking about reforming state affairs?"
Song Zhang heard his complaint and felt ashamed but refused to answer.
"Fortunately, I am still from Nanjing, so they are a little afraid; if Li Zhizhong was around in the past, I am afraid the situation would be worse..."
"Currently, the academy is not out of trouble. We should focus on uniting the overall situation..." Governor Song's face turned red and he did not dare to look at him.
"I understand very well. But if this matter is not resolved, I will never return to Nanjing." Xia Yuanlong put aside these words, leaving Song Zhang standing here alone.
This is still the first step in reform, and internal problems have become so serious. They are a group of scholars, a small team of thousands of people. Although they have won the support of some people, their strength is still too weak. It couldn't even shake the foundation of Nanjing, let alone the academy system. Xia Yuanlong restrained himself from thinking about these things, but sometimes he had to think about them. The main thing they lack is real power, and they can only hope for a little mercy from the big men in purple robes and gold belts - there is no way out, but the means of resistance are minimal.
He stopped and was stunned for a long time. He hates that such a hateful pessimism has emerged in his mind, and he has always been incompatible with it; he can be called the helmsman of reform, and needs to instill in himself the motivation that will never be lacking, and should resolutely abandon too much thinking .
He continued walking towards the lecture hall. But reflection should be sought in this abhorrent pessimism.
Xia Yuanlong summarized the shortcomings he had heard and seen in the academy in the past few days. There were roughly three types of disadvantages:
One is that some scholars are loose-minded and take advantage of the reputation of the academy to only drink and write poems all day long, breaking the rules;
The second is that the academy here has no long-term policy, and everyone has nothing to do and only wants to be at ease;
The third is the most urgent task. The more than 40 people in the academy are regarded as colleagues. They entrust everything with affection and do not obey orders. Naturally, they lose their dignity and become a mess.
Unfortunately, Deputy Leader Xia had not yet come up with a solution, so he stepped onto the stairs of the lecture hall with his hands behind his back.
"Brother Zhu, what are you doing?" He asked curiously when he saw Zhu Che picking up an official document.
"Dean Xia, sit down." Zhu Che smacked his lips and said, "Futai really knows how to find a way."
Xia Yuanlong went over, scanned the entire document, shook his head and sneered.
"Reinstate Officer Li Zhizhong... The next step is to let that guy frame us." Zhu Che looked at Yuan Long with a frown.
"Pre-emptive strike." Xia Yuanlong replied silently.
"I'm afraid that it will be difficult to win over the people for a while." Zhu Che counted on his fingers and found that only two or three days had passed since the day when the notice was posted.
Xia Yuanlong seemed to feel that the current predicament was nothing to worry about, and said with a relaxed smile: "Why don't you go to the street and take a look, then you will know what advantages we have."
Zhu Che still didn't believe it: "It's up to you, I'll take a look." After that, he threw down the official document, picked up his robe and left.
"Please give me an explanation!" Yao Xiaogu pulled many people together, formed a long queue, and shouted loudly outside the Yamen, shaking the heaven and the earth.
"What's the noise outside?" Li Zhizhong, who was sitting opposite the prefect, felt uneasy.
"Report to the magistrate, the people in the academy are inciting the unruly people to raise troops to investigate."
"Huh?" The prefect suddenly turned his head and looked at Li Zhizhong's face.
Li Zhizhong understood the look in his eyes. After all, he had also used such methods, so of course the prefect had to ask for help from him.
"This..." Li Zhizhong was nervous, "Although I have been the dean and know the method of incitement, the matter has reached this point... I don't know how to alleviate it, so I still ask the government to make a decision."
"What pretense are they using to confuse many people into following them!" the patrol inspector yelled, snapping at the case.
"They said, they said Li Zhizhong was a criminal, why did he use it again... and they said that he 'used the name of the academy to defraud people of their property and return...'"
"Needless to say!" The inspector was furious and knelt down in front of the magistrate: "At the prefecture, please let me arrest the people outside the door so that we can search the academy!"
Li Zhizhong was sweating profusely beside him, his eyes widened, and he was almost frozen there. The prefect hurriedly asked someone to help him go to the second hall to rest, and Li Zhizhong nodded in agreement.
Just as Ma Shu's office closed, the magistrate spoke: "Although Mr. Li is a member of the Confucian sect in Suzhou, he has failed in his virtue and offended too many people. There is really no reason for us to revolt against Mr. Li. We can't tell. Ruo Qiang It would be bad to use force and make the entire province aware of it."
The inspection was dull and speechless.
"Secretary Ma, please go out and comfort me and say that we are willing to 'make peace' with their dean, Xia Yuanlong."
The inspector suddenly raised his head.
"It would be humiliating to take the initiative to make peace." Ma Shuban muttered.
While the prefect was undecided, the inspector suddenly stood up and slapped his sword on the table: "Rather than make peace with those rotten scholars, it would be better to cause an uproar in Suzhou!"
