One of the passers-by

Looking at the several Taixue students in the lobby who were full of righteous indignation and arrogant attitude and thought they were geniuses, Xue Yan had a feeling that he saw the later generation who was only in the second year of junior high school and always felt that he could save the world and always felt that the whole world was sorry for him. The illusion of the second nephew.

So Xue Yan was not angry, and even stopped Xu Liulang and the others who were frowning and wanted to argue, and asked with a smile: "Because I don't know poetry and books, I never understand the words of sages. Therefore, there are always I have many doubts that cannot be answered. I am honored to meet a few students from the Imperial Academy today, and I feel very happy. Now I have a few questions that I would like to ask for advice. I wonder if you can explain them to me?"

The students of the Taixue looked at each other in blank dismay.The first student who had provoked Jiang Qilang smiled contemptuously, and said proudly: "I, Wang Shize, has been studying since childhood, and now I have studied hard for more than ten years. Although I dare not pretend to read a complete collection of classics and history, I am also unconventional. Sir, what do you want to ask, but please say it directly.”

The deeper the curve of Xue Yan's lips curled up, seeing this young student with a proud and confident expression in front of him, bad water gushed out of his heart.He had a serious face, as if luck was in his dantian during the debate, his voice was steady, he looked at the person opposite him with burning eyes, and asked seriously: "Dare to ask Mr. Xiaolang, do you know how many stars there are in the sky?"

"Yeah?" A crack appeared on the face of the Taixue student Wang Shize?Immediately he came back to his senses, and just about to answer, Xue Yan said first: "I don't read much, so don't lie to me. If Mr. Lang tells me the number now, you must tell me how you found it out. If you only say that you read it from that book, you must also tell me how the owner who wrote that book knew about it, and how did he count them one by one?"

Wang Shize was speechless for a moment.After pondering for a long time with a face as heavy as iron, he said stiffly: "I don't know."

Behind Xue Yan, Jiang Qilang and others looked at each other, and couldn't help showing gloating smiles.Everyone in the hall also looked over with great interest.

Seeing that Wang Shize failed to answer the first question, Xue Yan didn't take advantage of it. He still asked seriously, "Okay, next question. May I ask how many hairs are there on an old scalper plowing the field?"

Wang Shize claimed to have read the scriptures well, and on weekdays he looked down on the mediocre intellectuals who could easily enter the Imperial Academy just because they were born in a family, assuming there was an elder in the family who was in a high position. After Xue Yan and his party, they were extremely disdainful.Moreover, he was studying at Taixue on weekdays, and he was outstanding in both plain talk and debate, design and policy theory, and he was not afraid that Xue Yan would make things difficult for him in poetry and books.

But I didn't expect that Xue Yan would not play the cards according to the rules, and asked such weird questions that were not related to poetry and books, which made people feel dumbfounded.

Seeing that Wang Shize certainly couldn't figure out how many hairs there are on a cow, Xue Yan smiled and asked such unreasonable questions as "how many grasses are there in one mu of land", "how many stones are there in Chang'an City" and so on. question.

In the end, Wang Shize had no choice but to say angrily: "Who would be able to answer this kind of question! You are clearly trying to embarrass me on purpose!"

Xue Yan looked at the distraught Wang Shize, curled the corners of his mouth in a leisurely manner, waved his hand and said: "But the questions I can't think of on weekdays are all of this kind. Since you can't answer it, it proves that although you have read poetry and books , In fact, the problems I don’t understand are really similar to mine. I really don’t understand where you have such a sense of superiority in front of us!”

Although Wang Shize didn't quite understand what "sense of superiority" meant, he roughly understood what Xue Yan meant when he laughed at him.I didn't feel like it was adding fuel to the fire.Just about to speak out for myself.I only heard Xue Yan continue to ask: "That's all. Since you can't answer the above questions. I don't make things difficult for you. I'll ask some simple questions."

After Xue Yan said this, he pondered for a while, and asked Su Rong: "Your Majesty, do you know how many miles I am in this big country? How many people are there in total? What percentage of the people are the old? How much? How much is the percentage of infants? How many babies are born in my family every year, and how many of them can grow up healthy? How much fertile land does my family have? How much grain can be harvested per mu of land? How much grain did Chu harvest? How much tax was collected by the imperial court? After deducting the tax, the remaining grain, except for the grain seeds that the people left for the next year to sow, can the rest support the people to live without hunger or famine? Year?"

Wang Shize and several other Taixue students were so overwhelmed by Xue Yan's series of livelihood issues that they had no time to react.Xue Yan had already asked again: "If you dare to ask my lord, do you know that my Da Chu has established a dynasty for more than ten years, and the world has been uncertain about drought, flood and frost in these ten years. How much money does my Da Chu allocate every year to help the victims? Do you know the court?" If the money allocated to the Imperial College and schools in various prefectures and counties is collected every year, how many ordinary people can be fed?"

That Wang Shize is just a student of Taixue, besides, he came from a poor family and has no background, and he only knows how to bury his head in his books on weekdays, or he talks boastfully in the music hall of the teachers and students in the teaching dormitory, and he only talks about how the nobles of the family bully others, how stupid their children are Unbearable, so that the time is wasted, and the years are empty.Not only was his studies wasted at this time, even if he entered the court as an official in the future, he would be just a stupid official with a corpse and a vegetarian meal.Therefore, Wang Shize had a lot of dissatisfaction with the world, but due to his limited vision, it was just empty talk. Although he had empty ambitions, he couldn't even answer the most simple questions Xue Yan asked.

At this moment, Wang Shize and other Taixue students were all ashen-faced and sweaty when Xue Yan questioned them.

Xue Yan ignored the embarrassing situation of Wang Shize and others, and continued to ask: "As the saying goes, learning written and martial arts is sold to the emperor's family. You must have studied hard for more than ten years, and you must also want to learn this Confucian classic and a subset of knowledge. In the future, I will be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. Let me ask you, sir, if you are the magistrate of a county located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and often suffers from floods, how should you manage the river after you take office? Safeguard the environment and the people?"

Just as Wang Shize was about to speak, Xue Yan continued to ask: "If after the flood, the local disease spreads and there are countless casualties, as a county lord, governor, and official, besides sending a report to the imperial court to ask for relief money, what else should you do?" How to organize epidemic prevention and treatment?"

"If you are the magistrate of this county, after the flood, before the government allocates relief money and food, what should you do to restore the people's livelihood and economy of this county as quickly as possible?"

"If the local geology is poor and there is no harvest due to famine, how can you improve the soil quality, how can you teach farming and mulberry, so as to ensure that the people will not change their children to eat and live in peace and health?"

These are all Jiaxuan's affairs, so naturally there is no special mention of these in the sage's books.Therefore, not only Wang Shize, but even the students of the Taixue beside Wang Shize were all at a loss, not knowing how to deal with it?

Seeing that everyone couldn't answer, Xue Yan said with a smile: "It seems that you have read poetry and books, but you don't know everything. Even in some mundane affairs, it's not as good as me, who doesn't understand poetry and books. It can be seen that the old saying that one is a scholar who is useless is not completely unreasonable. It should be known that insight into world affairs is knowledge, and understanding of human feelings is writing. The so-called learning through reading is for understanding reason. I understand what learning is boundless and learning is endless. Therefore, the more well-educated people I have met, the more Confucianism, the more modest and prudent they are. Just like water in a bottle, if the water in the bottle is full, the body Self-steady and self-steady. Only half a bottle of water will be shaken after being dialed. Nowadays, some people think that they know everything after reading the basic books, and then look down on others, and even go crazy, thinking that there is nothing in the world. It is wrong to have no one else besides yourself. For example, the sage Confucius once worshiped Lao Tzu as his teacher, and if there are three people walking together, he must have the words of my teacher. Even the sage is so humble, how dare you boast and only say me Will you be able to answer this question?”

After Xue Yan's words, several Taixue students headed by Wang Shize were already blushing, and had no words to respond.

A student behind Wang Shize stepped forward slowly, and said with a bow: "Student Zhang Ziyou, now studying at the imperial school, and my classmate made a lie today, which made my brother laugh at me. I am ashamed of my inability to learn well, and I dare not stay here in vain. It's just a laughing stock, but before leaving, there is still one thing I don't know. Dare I ask Mr. Lang's name?"

Xue Yan waved his hand, smiled back and said: "Don't dare, I'm Xue Yan."

Since Princess Pingyang and Duke Wei brought back their son who had been abducted for many years from Youzhou in the first year of Yong'an, the name Xue Yan spread throughout Chang'an.Afterwards, Xue Yan's various behaviors continued to refresh the influence of everyone on him.Therefore, even though Wang Shize, Zhang Ziyou and other Taixue students had never entered official positions, they were still familiar with the name Xue Yan.Zhang Ziyou was even more taken aback, and then smiled wryly: "So it was Mr. Xue in person. Mr. Xue is amazingly talented. If we knew you were here, why should we humiliate ourselves!"

When Wang Shize heard Xue Yan's name, he kept thinking about Xue Yan's actions in the past two years, and became more and more ashamed.

Seeing this, Xue Yan smiled back and said: "Brother Zhang Shi is being polite. Xue Yan has little talent and learning, and he really doesn't understand the words of the sage. That's why Your Majesty asked me to study in the Imperial College so that I can learn a lot. That speech just now is quite different from The sub-collection of classics and history has nothing to do with it, and there are many things in it, and I don't know why. The reason why I say that is just because I am angry in my heart, and I deliberately make things difficult for you. "

The implication is that I don't necessarily know the answers to all these things.It's just that you are arrogant and want to step on me to stand up, so you deliberately brought it up to beat and beat.Zhang Ziyou and the others originally thought so in their hearts, but because of Xue Yan's status and reputation, it was difficult to say it in person.There are even two thinking in their hearts that they want to do some research when they go back, and plan to file a complaint with a professional teacher, hoping to get back the situation in the future.But I don't want Xue Yan to explain so clearly, his attitude is Wei Ran, on the contrary, it complements their villainous hearts, small and narrow.

Hearing this, Zhang Ziyou smiled wryly.The crowd didn't have the face to stay any longer, so they had to leave with fists in their hands.Seeing everyone so ashamed, Xue Yan didn't want to add insult to injury, because he opened his mouth to invite: "There is no limit to the sea of ​​learning. When entering school, there are doubts and doubts. It is normal to discuss them. If you don't give up, you will stay." Let's go. You and I will get drunk together, how about a smile to wipe away all grievances?"