The purpose of standing on high ground was to see far. From here, looking at others, they would all appear a bit shorter than on flat ground. Huang Shu had probably already sent Xiao Ya and Xinyue back and was now returning alone from the foot of the mountain. Two fish hung from the top of the bamboo pole on his shoulder, swaying with his steps. He had no worries, only a heart full of hope. Though insignificant, his days were lived with flavor and substance.
“Young man, are you really going to face the behemoth that is the Dou family alone?” Li Gang had been watching him from behind for a long time before speaking.
“Teacher Li, you are the person I respect most. When I was fighting alone, fortunately I received your help, allowing me to have a moment of leisure and maintain a calm heart under endless power struggles. You’ve already reached the age of seventy this year. I really cannot let you charge into battle again while I hide behind enjoying peace. This time it’s very obvious that His Majesty wants to do something again, using me as a lightning rod. If I retreat again, I’ll be looked down upon by the entire world. Taking a step back, even if I fail, with His Majesty present, at most I’ll be stripped of office and title. It’s nothing serious. With all of you here, the academy will still survive strongly and will ultimately bloom the most brilliant flowers. I have great confidence.”
Li Gang said with a chuckle: “This old man also has great confidence. The academy now has five hundred students. In just four years, you’ll be able to see initial results. Buqi, you have brilliance in your heart—don’t let these dirty matters ruin your state of mind. If you lose your position, this old man would actually think it’s the academy’s fortune. Since you’ve made up your mind, then go do it. This old man can’t get involved in this matter. Away from the court, this old man has long been nothing. Only you still treat me, an old fool, as a treasure. Hehe, only in old age did I find a kindred spirit. Although you’re a bit young, it doesn’t matter. You should also experience some storms and rain. Go do it well.”
A group of horsemen came along the winding path. They didn’t have the leisure and composure of academy disciples, galloping wildly through the mountains, startling large flocks of crows and magpies.
Yun Ye and Li Gang exchanged glances. They’re here—so fast. Pei Ying had only been at the academy for two hours, and they’d already found this place accurately. Worthy of being a great clan—their information network was too well-informed. Yun Ye had thought he would have at least two days of buffer time. Never expected he would have to face the Dou family directly right now.
Aristocratic sons were indeed different from others. Without rashly barging into the academy, they all reined in their horses together at the academy entrance. A young master in brocade dismounted and said to the guard at the gate: “Go inform Marquis Yun that Dou Yanshan has come to visit.”
“Replying to the young master, His Lordship says he is not here! If you have business, please come another day.” The academy guard answered coldly.
Dou Yanshan’s pupils suddenly contracted. This guard didn’t seem to be a fool. What did it mean that “His Lordship says he is not here”? Dou Yanshan moved among Chang’an’s elite families, and no one had ever answered his visit requests this way.
“Young master, Yun Ye is clearly evading. How can someone say they themselves are not here? This is clearly mocking the young master. Since he doesn’t want face, we don’t need to give him face. What harm in fighting our way in? Capture Pei Ying, and we’ll return to dismember him and vent anger for the young master.” The Dou family guard captain seemed somewhat impatient, wanting to show off his martial prowess well in front of the master family.
Dou Yanshan didn’t acknowledge the guard, only straightening his clothing and headwear. The recent wild galloping had made his attire somewhat disheveled.
Instructing the guards to wait at the entrance, he stepped onto the academy gate’s stairs and said to the academy guard with a beaming smile: “Yushan Academy doesn’t have a rule forbidding a scholar from entering, does it?”
“Replying to the young master, from the day Yushan Academy appeared, it has never refused anyone’s visit, whether imperial relatives or common people—all are the same. The young master can certainly tour the academy. Yushan Academy’s library has a collection of over six thousand eight hundred volumes, plus bamboo slips and silk books left by previous generations of sages. The content is rich—the young master can certainly have a look. Next to the library, there’s also a giant dragon’s skull. Just the bone alone weighs over three thousand jin—extremely huge. If the young master wants to see it, it’s in that white building. As long as you don’t take it away, the young master is welcome to visit.”
The academy guard habitually introduced the academy’s situation to Dou Yanshan. This was originally part of their daily work.
The smile on Dou Yanshan’s face became even more brilliant. He asked again: “I wonder if this humble one has the honor of attending a lecture by the academy’s Master Li or Master Xin?”
The academy guard flipped through the curriculum schedule beside him and said to Dou Yanshan: “Master Li has no classes today. Master Xin is about to lecture third-year students on the ‘Book of Jin.'”
“Your Yushan Academy guards are all literate?” Hearing the academy guard speak about the curriculum with such clarity and even being literate—this discovery somewhat surprised Dou Yanshan. Not one of the guards behind him was literate. The glory of old aristocratic families didn’t shine on these crude people who only knew how to fight and kill.
Not just him—the guards behind him, discovering that someone of the same status as them was literate, showed admiration in their eyes. You see, if they were also literate, no one would be willing to be lackeys in wealthy households. They would have long since run off to join the military to make something of themselves.
“Since you’re literate, why not join the military? As long as there’s an opportunity, earning a title and honors for your wife and children isn’t impossible. Why be a gatekeeper?” Dou Yanshan seemed to have forgotten his purpose for coming to the academy, chatting with the gate guard with great interest.
Speaking of this matter, the academy guard unconsciously straightened his chest and said to Dou Yanshan: “I still have one year of class attendance time—I don’t want to miss it. After finishing the coursework, I’ll go to the Left Martial Guard to be a probationary squad leader.”
“Besides you, are there others among the guards who are literate?” Dou Yanshan suddenly felt that getting to the bottom of the academy’s foundation seemed more important than the business he came to handle.
The academy guard answered every question with a smile: “Those who couldn’t learn characters were all sent by my lord to the back mountain to quarry stones, telling them to learn characters while quarrying. If they still can’t learn, then just quarry stones—quarry until death. Such idiots might as well die. Now there are still seven brothers working at the quarry. I think they won’t be working much longer—I heard even the slowest now knows several hundred characters.”
Dou Yanshan drew in a sharp breath. He was very clear about how literate martial men would be promoted in the military. People who were both literate and martial would find it hard not to rise in the ranks. If this continued, in less than ten years, at least twenty percent of the military’s lower-level officers would be taught by the academy. The enormity of this force made even Dou Yanshan, who had seen many great scenes, secretly alarmed.
He had originally planned to reward the guard with some copper coins, but now discovering he was actually a scholar, he couldn’t rashly do so, lest it cause misunderstanding. Rewarding a scholar was an insult in Great Tang. There were really too few literate people nowadays.
Dou Yanshan cupped his hands in thanks to the guard. The guard also bowed in return, gesturing with his hand toward the academy gate, indicating that Dou Yanshan could enter.
Before reaching the gate, he heard the guard say again: “Be careful, young master. The academy gate was supervised in construction by Old Master Gongshu Mu. There are some mechanisms inside, but they won’t harm people. Please be careful, young master.”
Dou Yanshan was also an elite figure of the Dou family, proficient in miscellaneous studies since childhood. He also had some research into mechanisms and civil engineering. The reason the family sent him this time was because Yushan Academy was different from other academies that specialized in teaching Confucianism—he was specifically selected talent.
Hearing the guard’s words, he just smiled and passed it off. In his view, so-called civil engineering mechanisms were nothing more than using terrain, employing some ingenious tricks to achieve the illusory effect of using four taels to move a thousand jin—things like trapdoors, quicksand, spiked walls, and such. He didn’t believe the academy would dare use these vicious mechanisms on him. Excluding deadly contraptions, what effect could mechanisms have? The broader one’s horizons, the less reverence one had for unknown things. Confucius said: Respect ghosts and spirits but keep them at a distance.
Yun Ye lay on top of the water tower. From here, he could clearly see Dou Yanshan’s every move. Gongshu Mu had found a reclining chair and was resting with his eyes closed. Li Tai, rubbing his bottom, was diligently attending to Gongshu Mu on the side, without a trace of a prince’s bearing. Gongshu Mu seemed to extremely enjoy this honor, lying there humming constantly. Very disgusting—who knew if he was singing a ditty or making unconscious humming sounds from being too comfortable in the sun?
The pain in Li Tai’s bottom was caused by Yun Ye’s foot. He’d thought Li Tai’s malicious mechanism would at most be a basin of water. Who would have thought it would actually be a sandbag filled with sand? Pei Ying was still lying in the academy’s dungeon dizzy and disoriented, catching his breath.
Regarding Yun Ye’s violence, Li Tai had no solution. He told his mother empress to stand up for him. Who knew the empress would actually say: “A real man who gets beaten should either endure it or go fight back. What does it mean to run to your mother to complain? Next time you dare complain, I’ll beat you again myself.” From then on, whenever there was an opportunity, Li Tai would try to trap Yun Ye. But up to now, his battle record was negative. Every time he failed to trap someone, he himself would get beaten. Yun Ye had never reasoned with him—fists and feet were his only reliance. Li Tai deeply resented this.
“Old Gongshu, does this broken contraption of yours work or not? Can it stop Dou Yanshan? It seems I only used the time of one incense stick to thoroughly figure out your broken contraption. It’s full of holes everywhere, like a sieve. If that guy breaks through it, where will your old face go? If you can’t stop him, say so early—I’ll think of another way.”
Yun Ye really didn’t have much confidence in Gongshu Mu’s mechanism techniques. Those trivial odds and ends—could they stop the Dou family?
One sentence made the old man jump up from his chair, his eyes turning red: “This old man has lived for over seventy years and has only seen one monster like you. I don’t believe this world is full of people like you everywhere. If any random thing can treat this old man’s mechanism techniques as nothing, this old man will jump down from this water tower today. What face would I have left to swagger around in the academy?”
Yun Ye picked at his ear. A man over seventy years old still shouting so loudly—looked like he still had a few good years to live. With such a guarantee, Yun Ye felt reassured. Watching Dou Yanshan going in circles in the corridor, Yun Ye smiled like a fox.
He thought to himself: “A monkey and a donkey don’t compare brains but run off to compare dick length. Do you all think I’m stupid?”