After the Chinese New Year, the spring gradually became full of vitality.

The grass is getting thicker day by day. Yesterday I looked just a little bit green. I looked at it from a distance but didn’t look close. But after the other day I got up and looked again, the greenness was already very obvious after a night of spring breeze.

Just after the Lantern Festival, the lanterns on the gate of the Li family's courtyard have not been picked off, and the children who are studying in Lizhuang nearby have been taken over by their fathers and brothers. Even if they live poorly or simply, the New Year is undoubtedly the happiest for those half-aged children.

But happy times are always short.

The New Year will always pass, and life must continue.

The farmers have to start preparing for spring plowing, and the children who are going to school have to put away their playful hearts and continue to go to school.

The Li family’s primary school has changed a lot after the New Year. With the sponsorship of Princess Yuse and Cheng Xueliu and a few young men, after rushing to work before the New Year, a new yard has been built on the east side of the Li family’s courtyard.

Although the yard is still relatively simple, with rocks and loess walls, wooden panel walls and thatched roofs, it is much spacious after all.

There is also a relatively grand academy gatehouse in the new school, with four big characters: Lanxi Academy. These four big characters were the words that Yuse asked for for him in front of Li Xiao when she brought Li Zhi and Wu to have dinner last time.

The words were written well, but Li Xiao didn't think they were very special. He originally wanted to write a sub-word and engrave a plaque by himself, but Tamase insisted that he sold her personal favor. After all, this Ministry of Works was very generous at that time and sponsored the Academy's 50-chan Tongbao, which was very real.

If Li Xiao knew that those four words were written by the current emperor, he would definitely find the best craftsmen in Chang'an to make the best plaque.

But at this moment, when Li Xiao was standing downstairs of the academy gate, he didn't care about the four words written by the imperial pen on his head.

He was worried now when he looked at the lively scene in front of the gate.

Although the new academy is much larger than in the Li family compound in the past, with several classrooms, even kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, laundry rooms, playgrounds, utility rooms, etc., it was built at the capacity of about a hundred students when it was first built.

But now, after the New Year, not only did the students last year come without missing a single one, but more are also coming.

Maybe Li Xiao’s reputation has increased recently, maybe Li Xiao has a good relationship with Liu County Magistrate, or maybe it’s because the nobles from Chang'an have come to the Li family several times, or maybe even Princess Yuse has invested money in the new school, which makes the people in the nearby towns rush to send their children to study here.

Not only are there ordinary farmer farmers, but also many landlords with good families.

Ordinary farmers have seen a rare opportunity. They originally could not afford the expenses of their children's studies, but I heard that the Li Family School is free of charge, and even studying here can be free of charge. If you study well, you may even have the reward of money and food. This is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity. If your children are sent to study, they will definitely have a future in the future.

But those little landlords had no way to send their children to study, but they were attracted by the Li family's connections. The Li family now has no contacts and nobility, and the school even has the support of Xue Chengliu and several noble families. In the future, their children come to study and think about getting some connections.

Various reasons have led to the start of school in the Li family’s Lanxi Academy this year. On this day of registration, the entrance of the academy was crowded with people.

This scene is really crowded with gongs and drums.

It was just a simple registration for school opening, but it was like a big market at this time.

"Sanlang, so many people have to send their children to school. I have roughly calculated that there must be at least thousands of children. We can't accept them at all, too many."

Master Yang, who had just been promoted to the head of Lanxi Academy, was both excited and worried, and said to Li Xiao that he was very happy that so many people were willing to send their children to study here. But there were too many children, which made people worry.

"There are too many. We were only planning to teach thirty or forty children in two classes, but now there are so many people that we can't stand it at all." Li Xiao sighed helplessly.

These days, it was actually very famous to be able to run education. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and even to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the right to education was actually in the hands of those gentry. In terms of scale and quality of the official schools in the court government were even far inferior to those in the local gentry.

Who is the most common person has the ability to open a school? Even if you have money, it must be famous and capital.

Fortunately, this situation is a little better now, especially when the advancement of manufacturing technologies such as papermaking and pen and ink, as well as the changes in the unified pattern of the world, has greatly developed official schools, and private schools among the people are not as conservative and closed as those in the past.

But after all, this is still a very expensive thing. At the same time, if a school wants to be recognized, it must have a certain reputation.

The Li family’s Lanxi Academy was only founded last year and officially opened this year, but it has been recognized by so many people. First, the main people who want to study are ordinary farmers, tenants and other villagers nearby, supplemented by some small landlords. Second, the Li family is famous in the local area, and is also close to the nobles of Chang'an, which is why the current scene is now.

No matter which era or class, people actually desire knowledge.

However, in the past, knowledge was actually monopolized by a few classes. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, north and south have been turbulent, wars have been frequent, and knowledge and academics have been even more so, which has created the wealthy families of the Kanto gentry such as the five surnames and seven families, and also created the Jiangnan Chinese people such as Wang Xie Xiao Chen.

The founding of the Tang Dynasty had reached the third generation of emperors. After decades of restoration of production, the world was stable and society was no longer turbulent. Especially when the imperial examination system established during the Sui Dynasty was increasingly valued, reading had become a consensus among knowledgeable people in the world. Even if it was a peddler, he was still eager to read.

Lantian is a county in the capital. Although Lanxi is in the mountains, it is located on the important road to get out of seclusion. It has always been economical, strong people's customs, and strong knowledge of the people.

If you have the opportunity to study, no one will catch it, especially the dozens of children admitted to Lijia School last year, who have already learned very well in half a year, which makes many people believe in the prospects of the newly established Lanxi Academy.

"The academy does not have so many classrooms, not so many desks, and not so many teachers." As the mountain chief, Master Yang wanted to collect more scholars, but he also knew that running schools was very expensive, not to mention that he is the only serious teacher in the academy now, and he couldn't teach even if he wanted to.

"There is not enough classrooms and desks, so you can squeeze in. Two children a desk, fifty or sixty or even seventy or eighty children a class. But there is not enough teacher, this is the key. We can't accept other people's children in, but it's a misleading one." Li Xiao said.

At this time, the teaching method was relatively free. In most of the classes, most of them had few children, and in many private schools, there was no saying that they were divided into grades and classes. No matter how old the children were, they were all taught in the same classroom. The teacher taught the children's age and study progress respectively, which was completely different from the general large-class teaching method in later generations.

Li Xiao thought that using a large-class system is OK, but the key is that he has to have a gentleman.

"Even if one class is taught 100, we can only teach two classes." Mr. Yang said. Although he felt that 100 students in a class were not reliable at all.

Everyone who takes care of children wants to send their children to school.

"Otherwise, we will get an admissions exam first, and my master and I will interview and select the children. For those under seven years old, we will ask them to come back next year and not be charged this year. For those over ten years old and without any foundation, we will not be charged."

"We will select some children under ten years old and over seven years old from them. We originally had forty students, so we will pick forty children with some basic foundation from outside and let them study with our forty students. It is considered to be the same first grade, and then we will mix two classes. Then we will pick another eighty children, which are considered first grade students, and they will also be divided into two classes. If they have no foundation, then we will teach them again. What does the Master think?"

"Add another 120 students?"

The Master was a little hesitant. Now he was the only official teacher. Li Xiao and Doctor Zhao occasionally came to play guest appearances. It turned out that the forty children could only barely teach them. Now they were 12 more recruits at once, and they had to be divided into two grades and four classes, which would be even more difficult to teach.

"I will ask Cheng Xue and his family to help me and invite two or three gentlemen to teach."

Hearing this, Yang Dayan gritted his teeth, "That's fine. There are four classes in two grades, one hundred and sixty students, and the forty children in one class are probably difficult to teach. At least four gentlemen, one of them is in charge of one class, so they can't take care of it."

"I asked Mr. Cheng to help me find four more gentlemen, each of whom will manage one class, and Master, you will manage the entire academy. If I have time, I can also give lectures."

"It's good, it's good. If there are four more gentlemen, those 160 children can teach them, they will recruit so many students at once. If it's still free, I'm afraid the expenses will be too high."

"You don't have to worry about expenses. Now Xue Cheng and the princess donated a lot of money. I will find another way in the future."

After some urgent discussion, Li Xiao recruited Da Biao and asked him to announce his decision to everyone at the gate of the academy.

Dabiao's loud voice roared at the pig, and the noise immediately became louder.

When I heard that I only recruited 120 students this year and asked them to be over seven or under ten years old, many people were a little anxious.

And those parents who meet the conditions are hurriedly trying to bring their children over.

"Everyone is quiet, don't squeeze and don't hurry, line up one by one and come here to register for the interview. Anyone who doesn't line up according to the rules will be disqualified."

Da Biao's voice went down, and the crowd became much quieter again.

"I think there are also conditions. Since there are too many students enrolled, this year's enrollment is limited to local children from Lanxi." Da Biao turned his head and suggested to Li Xiao.
Chapter completed!