Chapter 496: Humiliating the Literati
Cheng Xu retreated as soon as his question was out. He knew his masked presence drew too much attention; if he spoke too much idle chatter with Shi Kefa, he might inadvertently expose himself, and the Heavenly Lord might be displeased.
Just that single remark, a release for years of pent-up bitterness, had been sufficient.
One shouldn't get too reckless, lest they squander the peaceful life they now enjoyed.
Shi Kefa, however, didn't bother speculating on the masked man's identity. Cheng Xu had been swallowed by a landslide, a sight witnessed by a large contingent of Imperial Guards. It was beyond his imagination that Cheng Xu could still be alive, let alone conversing with him.
He was simply mortified by that single question!
Among perceptive individuals, who could truly be blind to the chaos at court? Yet, insight offered no solutions; he was powerless to change anything.
Still, he needed to compose himself and take a proper tour of this peculiar place.
Soon, he found himself utterly lost amidst vast swathes of buildings, bustling commercial districts, and pristine, orderly schools...
Everything about Gao Family Village made him feel as though he had stepped into a dream.
No, that wasn't quite right. The Peach Blossom Spring was a refuge from the world, but this place was very much engaged with it.
Everything here hummed with the vibrancy of everyday life; it hadn't transcended the mundane but embraced it, intertwining intimately with the lives of common folk. Nor was it sequestered in the mountains, maintaining active connections with the surrounding county towns.
As Shi Kefa walked, he suddenly found himself before a cluster of brand-new cement houses. Although he didn't understand what cement was, he could clearly see these buildings were newly constructed, perfectly square and gleaming.
The entire cluster of houses was encircled by a low wall, with a large gate on the south-facing side. Above the gate hung a plaque: "Gao Family Village Vocational Technical School."
While other novel structures piqued his interest, he could generally comprehend their function. Only this "Vocational Technical School" utterly stumped Shi Kefa.
If he couldn't understand, then he'd simply step inside and observe!
Shi Kefa immediately stepped into the vocational technical school.
As he reached the first building, he heard the resounding "ding-ding-clang" of hammers striking metal from within. Curious, he peered through a window, discovering a layout somewhat akin to a classroom. A podium stood at the front, occupied by a figure resembling a teacher.
Below, a group of men sat in neat rows, seemingly engrossed in the teacher's lecture.
However, both the teacher and the students in this room were hulking, burly men, clearly unlettered and as rough-hewn as any common laborer could be.
Shi Kefa uttered a soft "Hm?" his interest piqued further. He had never heard of an unlettered man lecturing, with a room full of equally unlettered men listening attentively; this completely upended his perceptions.
On the podium, before the teacher, lay a complete set of blacksmithing tools, and a furnace nearby glowed with a roaring fire, heating a piece of iron to a cherry red.
The rough-hewn teacher picked up a large iron hammer: "Watch closely, everyone. The hammering motion should be like this..."
He lifted the hammer and brought it down with a resounding "clang!" onto the glowing red iron block.
This was the very sound Shi Kefa had heard moments ago.
The rough-hewn teacher wielded his hammer with practiced speed, a flurry of "ding-ding-clangs." In moments, the glowing red iron transformed into the rough outline of a cleaver.
The rough-hewn teacher chuckled, "See that? Just a few more strikes, and the cleaver's blank is formed. Next, we'll refine it, sharpen it, and it'll be ready for chopping vegetables."
"You lot, pay attention when I'm lecturing! Dammit, every single one of you, looking half-asleep and strange. How can you possibly learn blacksmithing like that? Without skills, you'll only be digging roads and hauling sand, earning just three catties of flour a day. A catty of flour only sells for seven coins now, so that's a meager twenty-one coins a day. You lazy good-for-nothings will starve to death!"
Hearing this, the burly students actually looked bashful. With their Herculean builds, physiques that screamed "eight-pack abs," these tower-like men blushing like schoolboys was a sight too absurd for Shi Kefa to bear. He hastily retreated, covering his face.
Once he'd put some distance between himself and that disquieting scene, Shi Kefa finally caught his breath, marveling: *That classroom just now was actually teaching students how to blacksmith? That's utterly outlandish! In our imperial court, no one would willingly become a craftsman, yet here, people are eagerly flocking to a school to learn such a trade. Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!*
However, he had read "Gaojia News," and a memory flashed through his mind of Shi Jian's comrade in "Gaojia News" becoming a skilled blacksmith and earning three taels of silver a month. Suddenly, the absurdity made sense.
In this Gao Family Village, possessing a craftsman's skill meant a monthly wage of three taels of silver. Who *wouldn't* want to be a craftsman with that kind of pay?
As he pondered, he walked to the second room.
Here, too, a group of burly men listened to another burly man lecture, but this time, the subject was carpentry. The rough-hewn teacher held a plane, shaving wood, filling the entire classroom with a fine dust of sawdust.
The teacher planed the wood, a grin on his face: "The village population has grown rapidly recently, and the demand for furniture is huge. Tables, chairs, benches, bookshelves, wardrobes—everything sells for a good price. Pay close attention and learn from me, and I'll make you all rich."
Shi Kefa shook his head, thinking: *This man, a teacher, constantly referring to himself as "your old man" is truly a disgrace to the educated, a sheer disgrace!*
He continued further down the hall...
There were also classes for tailoring, woodblock carving, printing, papermaking, glassmaking, sugar refining, salt production, and even cooking... Some subjects drew large crowds, filling rooms to capacity, while others had scant attendance, with teachers and students numbering only a handful.
He walked, he observed, and with every step, his perception of the world fractured further.
Reaching the last classroom, he found the scene had suddenly taken an unexpected turn.
Standing at the podium was, surprisingly, a graceful young gentleman in white, clearly not one of the rough-hewn laborers, but a refined young master from an aristocratic family.
He was no longer demonstrating practical craftsmanship but drawing and writing on a blackboard: "Everyone, observe closely the application of the steam engine within our existing equipment here in Gao Family Village..."
He took out a huge sheet of paper and affixed it to the blackboard with magnets. The paper displayed diagrams of a steam engine, a gear train, and a connecting shaft—a complex array of mechanisms that Shi Kefa found utterly incomprehensible, as if he were staring at a "Heavenly Book."
However, the students in that classroom all appeared to understand. One even raised his hand and asked, "Young Master Bai, is what you've drawn here the gears and transmission shaft from the miniature steam train?"
Young Master Bai nodded: "Precisely! This set of equipment is exceedingly complex right now. Only Gao Yiyi and a handful of other blacksmiths possess the skill to craft it. They have since been promoted to senior technical engineers and are now earning an engineer's salary."
A student curiously asked: "And how much is an engineer's salary?"
Young Master Bai: "Fifty taels of silver a month."
Shi Kefa: "Holy hell! Ah! Humiliating the literati, simply humiliating!"
Comments