Transmigrated into the role of the matriarch, I ensured my family had enough to eat and wear during

Lu Hao frowned, his tone full of disdain and skepticism: "Only scholars who have passed the county-level imperial examinations are qualified to run schools and teach! You're just a student who hasn't even passed the county-level examinations, yet you dare to presume to teach? Aren't you afraid of misleading students?"

He grew up in the county government office and was always told that "only scholars can teach," never imagining there could be an exception.

It should be noted that Dongtai Town has more than 30 villages under its jurisdiction. These villages are remote and impoverished, and only six or seven villages have produced scholars or been able to run private schools. Yangqu Village has never been among them, and most of the villagers do not even know their own names.

"Young Master Lu is wrong!" Yang Xiaobao immediately retorted, his little face tilted up, his tone firm. "We don't need to take the imperial examinations, nor do we need to run formal schools. We just want to learn a few characters and some arithmetic so we won't be cheated. Uncle Yu knows how to read and do arithmetic, so he can teach us. It has nothing to do with his status as a scholar!"

Lu Hao was speechless when Yang Xiaobao asked him a question. He opened his mouth but couldn't find a reply.

Unable to swallow his pride and utterly bored, he stubbornly declared, "Hmph, I'd like to see what kind of talent a mere student like you can produce. I'll go with you!"

With that, he shamelessly followed Tang Chengyu and the children toward the Yang Family Ancestral Hall.

The classroom was located in the courtyard of the Yang Family Ancestral Hall. It was a simple open-air classroom with no roof and only a flat open space.

The tables and stools in the courtyard varied in height and style. Some were old wooden tables that were no longer in use, some were made of a few pieces of wood pieced together, and some stools were missing legs and could only be sat on with stones. They were as rudimentary as could be.

The students who came to class ranged in age and appearance. The oldest was Tang Lifu, who was in his early twenties. He was busy with farm work on weekdays, but he still squeezed out time in the evenings to come and learn to read.

The youngest was a little boy who was a little over four years old. He had two little pigtails and snot on his face. His family brought him here, hoping he could recognize a few simple words.

The other dozen or so children were all from farming families in the village. During the day, they helped their families harvest and thresh grain, and although they were exhausted and their bodies ached, their eyes were still full of anticipation for knowledge.

Tang Chengyu walked to the stone slab in the center of the courtyard, picked up a piece of charcoal, and wrote "One to ten, ten to a hundred" on the stone slab.

"From a hundred to a thousand, from a thousand to ten thousand," he said, then turned around and addressed the crowd in a gentle tone, "We learned these lines yesterday, let's review them today. Can anyone tell me what this sentence means?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the courtyard fell into a deathly silence. All the students lowered their heads, not daring to breathe, each one shrinking their necks, afraid of being called on by Tang Chengyu—their foundation was weak, and although they had read it several times, they still only vaguely understood it, and they were afraid of being laughed at for saying something wrong.

Yang Gousheng and Yang Xiaofu stood in the crowd. They actually understood a little bit, but the two were introverted and did not want to stand out, so they also lowered their heads and remained silent.

Seeing this, Lu Hao couldn't help but sneer, his tone full of mockery: "Hahaha, how stupid! You don't even understand such a simple sentence? When I was three years old, I had already memorized the Three Character Classic. This is about the decimal counting principle: one to ten, ten to one hundred, one hundred to one thousand, one thousand to ten thousand, increasing tenfold in each order. You don't even understand this basic principle, and you're still here to go to school?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Xiaobao immediately stood up and said in a clear voice, "Young Master Lu is right. This is the basic principle of the decimal system in arithmetic. One times ten is ten, ten times ten is one hundred, and so on, you can calculate larger numbers."

Lu Hao's smug expression froze instantly. He stared at Yang Xiaobao in disbelief, frowning as he demanded sharply, "If you understood, why didn't you say anything just now? Were you pretending not to understand to laugh at me?"

"That's not the case." Tang Chengyu stepped forward and explained calmly, "I told Xiaobao and the others not to rush to speak, to give their classmates more time to think. The key to learning is understanding, not competing to see who can give the answer first."

After saying that, he turned to look at Lu Hao, his tone tinged with impatience: "Young Master Lu, if you are only here to mock everyone and disrupt the class, please leave and don't delay the children's learning."

Tang Lifu also stood up and cupped his hands in greeting to Lu Hao, speaking sincerely: "Young Master Lu, I have a chair here. If you wish to listen to the lecture quietly, please sit down; if not, please move aside and do not disturb us."

Lu Hao blushed crimson at the retort, his pride getting the better of him, and retorted defiantly, "Hmph, who wants to listen to your childish lectures? I wouldn't waste my time here!"

As he spoke, he shook his hand, turned around with feigned arrogance, and strode out of the ancestral hall courtyard. However, his steps unconsciously slowed down, and he felt a strange mix of resentment and curiosity.

In the courtyard, Tang Chengyu ignored him and turned back to continue teaching. Picking up some charcoal, he explained as he led everyone in reciting: "One becomes ten, ten becomes a hundred. A hundred becomes a thousand, a thousand becomes ten thousand..."

The sound of reading aloud drifted out of the courtyard on the wind and reached Lu Hao, who had just walked a short distance away.

He stopped in his tracks, hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist stopping quietly and peeking into the yard.

That one glance left him completely stunned.

The dozens of students in the courtyard were exhausted from working all day; their clothes were still covered in grain dust and mud, and their faces were full of weariness.

But at this moment, the way they looked at Tang Chengyu was pure and ardent, full of the light of thirst for knowledge. That heartfelt desire was something he had never seen before.

Lu Hao was inexplicably touched. From childhood to adulthood, he had lived a life of luxury, with people forcing him to study and practice calligraphy, but he had always been perfunctory and had never had such a thirst for knowledge.

Looking at these children, who, despite living in a barren land and toiling all day, still refused to give up their studies, he suddenly realized that his previous mockery was too ridiculous and too superficial.

After a moment of silence, Lu Hao humbled himself, turned around and walked back into the ancestral hall courtyard, his steps extremely light, as if afraid of disturbing everyone.

Tang Chengyu noticed his arrival and immediately frowned, his tone full of displeasure, as he whispered a reminder: "Young Master Lu, I have already said not to disturb the children's studies. If you do not wish to leave, then stand quietly to the side and do not interrupt."

"I won't interrupt." Lu Hao gently pushed him away and walked straight to the stone slab. His tone was no longer sarcastic, but serious. "I just want to ask, you're all working so hard, why do you still stay up all night to study?"

Tang Chengyu paused for a moment, then stopped teaching, gestured for the children to be quiet, and said softly, "Ask whatever you want."

Lu Hao raised his eyes, swept them over the crowd in the courtyard, and slowly asked, "You spend your days harvesting and threshing grain, so tired you can barely straighten your backs. Instead of resting at home at night, you come here to learn to read and do arithmetic. Do you all want to become officials and escape your current lives through studying?"

The first to speak was Tang Lifu. He scratched his head and said in a simple and sincere tone, "I never thought about becoming an official. I just want to learn more characters so that when I go out to the market or interact with people, I won't be cheated or laughed at because I can't read. Being able to read my own name and understand the family's harvest ledger is enough."

Immediately afterward, Yang Gousheng also stood up, his eyes resolute: "I want to learn arithmetic. When I grow up, I want to open a shop and do big business, so that I won't be cheated because I can't do the accounting. I want to earn some money with my own abilities so that my family can live a good life."

"I just don't want to be too stupid." Tang Liqiang scratched his face, his tone straightforward. "Before, people laughed at me for being illiterate and unable to do arithmetic, calling me an idiot. I came here to study because I want to work harder, become more capable, and never be laughed at again."

When it was Yang Xiaobao's turn, he straightened his small body, spoke earnestly, and said word by word: "My mother told me that knowledge is more precious than gold and silver. Gold and silver can be spent, but the knowledge you learn will stay with you for a lifetime. Ignorance is more terrible than poverty. No matter how poor your family is, as long as you have knowledge, you will not be bullied."

He paused, then continued, "I study not to take the imperial examinations or become an official, but to enrich myself, learn more, and help my mother and family in the future. Uncle Yu also told me that literacy helps one understand things, poetry cultivates one's character, and arithmetic helps one distinguish between profit and loss. These are all beneficial to each of us."

Tang Chengyu stood aside, listening to Yang Xiaobao's words, and was instantly stunned, his eyes filled with emotion.

He had always thought that he had studied hard for many years just to become famous through the imperial examinations, but he never expected that his elder sister, an ordinary peasant woman, would have such profound insights and life wisdom gained through hardship. This wisdom was far more moving than the knowledge in books.

The other children also stood up and shared their thoughts—some wanted to learn to write letters so they could write to relatives far away in the future.

Some people want to learn arithmetic so they can help with household accounting;

Some people even wanted to learn a few words so they could read the village notices.

No one was aiming to become an official through the imperial examinations. Everyone's desires were simple and pure: personal growth and becoming more capable.

Lu Hao stood there, completely silent. His previous arrogance and mockery were gone, replaced by a complex expression in his eyes.

He stood quietly to the side, no longer interrupting, and simply watched Tang Chengyu teach. Seeing the children studying so diligently, a subtle change began to occur in his heart.

After Tang Chengyu finished teaching Chinese characters, he continued teaching, this time focusing on abacus calculation.

Lu Hao looked up and saw twenty or thirty children, all taking out their abacuses from their pockets.

These abacuses are simple in design, mostly made of ordinary wood, and the beads are not smooth enough with rough edges. However, the children have kept them carefully without any damage, which shows that they cherish them very much.

He couldn't help but ask Yang Xiaobao beside him in a low voice, "Why do you all have abacuses? Where did you get these abacuses?"

As Yang Xiaobao fiddled with his abacus, he answered softly, "These abacuses were all made by Grandpa Yang. Before, we wanted to learn abacus calculation, but we didn't have any abacuses, so my parents went to Grandpa Yang together. Each family contributed wood, and Grandpa Yang helped make the frame and beads for the abacus. We did the polishing ourselves, and the labor fee was just one pound of white rice for Grandpa Yang."

He paused, then added, "After the autumn harvest, the villagers began to value learning more and more, and felt that being able to do arithmetic was very important. They all took their grains to Grandpa Yang to make abacuses. Before long, we all had our own abacuses."

Lu Hao nodded, his heart filled with emotion. He had never imagined that these children could be so dedicated to their studies and cherish this hard-won opportunity so much.

Before they knew it, night had completely fallen, the sky grew darker and darker, and darkness enveloped the entire village.

In the courtyard of the ancestral hall, several oil lamps gradually lit up. The dim light illuminated the children's earnest faces and Tang Chengyu's figure as he taught, making the scene appear exceptionally warm.

Meanwhile, at Tang Susu's home, the farm work was gradually coming to an end.

Thanks to Song Zhifeng and his group's help during the day, the workload of threshing grain at night was greatly reduced. The family worked together in an orderly manner without any slackening.

No one brought it up, but everyone knew that this year's harvest was not ideal.

Having just experienced a locust plague and drought, the grains in the fields are sparse, dry, and not plump.

In previous years, one mu of land could yield nearly 400 jin of grain, but this year, each mu can only yield about 200 jin, less than half of what it used to be.

The Tang family has a total of six mu of land, and the total output is only about 1,200 jin.

The imperial court's tax was six percent of the harvest, which amounted to about one hundred catties of grain.

The government would collect grain from village to village and inspect it on the spot. There were strict requirements for the dryness and plumpness of the grain, and there was no way to fake it. The only thing the villagers could do was to try not to let the grain dry out completely, to get a little more weight, and to pay a little less.

In the courtyard, the family members had a clear division of labor and each performed their duties: Miao Yulan squatted on the ground, carefully filling the bag with grains, moving gently, afraid of spilling a single grain. After filling a bag, she called Tang Liqiang and asked him to carry it into the house and place it in a dry place. They would take it out to dry in the sun the next day when the weather cleared up to prevent it from getting moldy and spoiled.

Tang Chengyu used a pitchfork to carefully move the threshed rice straw aside, arranging it neatly for later processing.

Tang Lifu then took the rope and bundled the straw into neat stacks. These straws were extremely useful; they could be used to start fires, make beds, and keep warm in winter. After stacking them, he also covered the top of the stacks with a layer of thatch to prevent them from getting wet and moldy in the rain.

Ah Gui went to the kitchen and started boiling water, so that everyone could take a hot shower after finishing their work and relieve the fatigue of the day.

Everyone else was busy, but Lu Hao was the only one who was truly at ease.

He wandered around the yard, watching the busy figures of everyone. He looked at Miao Yulan packing grains and Tang Lifu bundling straw. He felt a little lost and for the first time felt that he was so useless that he couldn't even do some simple farm work.

After wandering around for a while, he finally walked up to Tang Chengyu. Watching Tang Chengyu skillfully manipulating the straw, his tone softened, losing its previous sarcasm and gaining more seriousness and a hint of confusion: "Before my father passed away, he specifically told me to learn from you, saying you were intelligent and sensible. But you spend all your time either doing farm work or teaching; you have no time to study or prepare for exams. How can you possibly learn well? How can you possibly pass the imperial examinations and become a scholar or a provincial graduate?"

Tang Chengyu stopped what he was doing, turned to look at him, and said in a calm but meaningful tone: "In my opinion, working is also a kind of learning. Everything in the world can be learned. The principles of farm work may not be in books. If you have nothing to do, come and work with us. Maybe you can learn something that you can't learn from books."

"Working counts as learning?" Lu Hao scoffed, his face full of disdain and his tone utterly contemptuous. "I'm not going to do these chores, they're dirty and exhausting. Spending all day doing farm work and teaching children in this remote village is a complete waste of time. I'd rather study hard and memorize poems and essays. If my father comes back to test me and I can't answer, he'll scold me for being stubborn and hopeless."

From childhood to adulthood, he had never done farm work and disdained such rough work. In his eyes, only studying and passing the imperial examinations were proper things. Farm work was something only lower-class people did and was not worthy of being considered elegant.

Just then, Tang Susu returned to the courtyard carrying the last load of straw.

She put down the carrying pole, rubbed her aching back, and looked tired. She slowly walked to the two men, rested for a moment, and after recovering, looked at Lu Hao and suddenly asked in a calm tone, "Young Master Lu, I'd like to ask you a question. If you answer it correctly, then you'll be considered learned and will have lived up to your father's expectations. What do you say?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Hao's eyes lit up, and he instantly became interested. His face lit up with arrogance, and he said confidently, "Ask away! I'm well-versed in history, knowledgeable in everything from astronomy to geography. How could I be stumped by an ordinary peasant woman like you? Ask me anything, and I'll answer fluently!"

He was full of arrogance and simply did not believe that Tang Susu, a peasant woman who had lived in a remote village for many years, could ask any questions that would stump him. He assumed that she was just asking casually to test his knowledge.

Tang Susu gently shook her head, ignoring his arrogance. Her tone gradually became more serious as she slowly explained the background of the problem: "Currently, the world is in turmoil. The north is suffering from a severe drought, the land is cracked, and there is no harvest, leaving the people hungry. The south is suffering from floods, which have inundated fertile fields and destroyed houses, displacing people. At the border between the north and south, there is a locust plague. The locusts have swept through, leaving nothing but barren land. Countless people have no food to eat and have no choice but to leave their homes, becoming refugees. These refugees wander around, starving and poorly clothed, and have become a major hidden danger for the court."

After speaking, she raised her eyes, looking calmly at Lu Hao, and slowly posed a question: "I ask you, if you were a court official at this moment, wielding real power, how would you handle these displaced and desperate refugees?"

Lu Hao's arrogant expression froze instantly, replaced by a look of shock, his pupils contracting slightly.

He never expected that a peasant woman who had lived in a remote village for years and had never traveled far from home could say such things, could pay attention to such an important matter as the refugees, and could raise such profound and insightful questions.

He had always thought that Tang Susu was just an ordinary peasant woman, with long hair and short-sightedness, who only knew how to do farm work and housework, and whose eyes were only on firewood, rice, oil and salt. He never expected that she would have such vision and perspective, and be able to see through the hidden dangers behind the refugees.

At this moment, he couldn't help but reflect on whether he had been too prejudiced, too dismissive of her, and too shallow in his view of her.

Moreover, the problem of displaced people was indeed a major challenge for the imperial court, concerning the stability of the country and its people.

He was well-versed in history and clearly remembered that the previous dynasty perished because of the widespread displaced people and the court's improper handling of the situation, failing to appease them. This ultimately led to a peasant uprising and a gradual decline in the dynasty. Clearly, the threat posed by displaced people should not be ignored.

After a moment of silence, Lu Hao suppressed his arrogance and spoke in a serious tone, no longer displaying his previous flippancy, as he slowly replied: "Historical records show that when dealing with refugees, the imperial court usually adopted a strategy of both military suppression and appeasement. On the one hand, it dispatched soldiers to suppress those refugees who gathered to cause trouble, looted grain, and disrupted public order, severely punishing the ringleaders to prevent the situation from escalating and to deter other refugees;

"On the other hand, soup kitchens were set up to distribute food and clothing to appease the law-abiding but desperate refugees. Some of the refugees were then relocated to fertile and sparsely populated areas to cultivate wasteland and become self-sufficient. In this way, the threat of refugees was resolved and the country was stabilized."