Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 341: The Six Sons of Sumen! (4k ha)
Su Yun got off the carriage, wearing casual clothes, holding a book under his arm, and walked leisurely into the Imperial College.

Although he looked relaxed, he was of tall stature. All the students passing by looked at him sideways. When they recognized him as Su Yun, they all greeted him loudly.

"Sir! You're here so early?"

"Sir! We'll be there in a minute."

"Mr. Su, are we going to talk about Mencius or the Three Kingdoms today, or the University?"

"Sir, your economics class last time was so wonderful. After I went back, I went to talk to the manager in charge of the business. He respected your theories as if they were gods, and insisted that I bring him to you for advice. Of course, I didn't want him to come. He is just a businessman with a lot of money. How can he be qualified to see you?"

"..."

When someone talked to Su Yun, he would smile and say a few words to them. It took Su Yun several quarters of an hour to walk a short distance of a few hundred meters. Fortunately, he was aware of this situation and he would arrive early every time for class.

Regarding giving lectures at the Imperial Academy, ever since he came here on behalf of a colleague last time, the leaders of the Imperial Academy specially gave Su Yun classes. After that, Su Yun never missed the classes here. Su Yun even asked for extra classes. Originally, the Imperial Academy requested that the Hanlin Bachelor give at least one class every ten days, three classes a month, and one class usually lasted half an hour.

Su Yun proposed two classes in ten days, six classes in a month, and one class lasted for one hour. In this way, one important knowledge point can be basically taught in one class, and one topic can be basically taught in one month.

It took Su Yun about a year and a half to return from the northwest and then to return to officialdom. During this year and a half, he had already finished teaching the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Four Books, basic economic theories, basic theories of war to the students of the Imperial College. Oh, and he also talked about the insensitive parts of his previous article on the gains and losses of politics throughout the dynasties.

Because what he talked about was extremely new in that era, it seemed as if a whole new door was opened for the students of the Imperial Academy. Therefore, each of his lectures was a five-day carnival for the Imperial Academy.

Every afternoon when lectures were scheduled, the Imperial Academy basically would not arrange any classes, because even if it did, no one would go. This included both students and professors of the Imperial Academy.

Yes, the professors at the Imperial College also like to listen to it.

Once you have listened to Su Yun’s lecture once, it will be difficult to refuse him afterwards.

The reason why Su Yun's lectures are so attractive is that the knowledge he teaches is basically unheard of by people of this era. Some of them sounded shocking at the time, but after going back to ponder, they seem reasonable and logical, especially the subtleties that make people unable to extricate themselves;

Secondly, he is talented, eloquent, and especially humorous. Some originally boring knowledge usually becomes interesting after his explanation and interpretation, and then the knowledge is imprinted in people's minds in a wonderful way;

The third reason is Su Yun's erudition. There are many top students among the students of the Imperial Academy who are dedicated to their studies, and they naturally have all kinds of strange ideas while studying.

If you ask other professors those ideas, you might be accused of being idle and fanciful, but with Su Yun, there is never a meaningless question. He is not afraid of you talking nonsense, but he is afraid that your questions lack depth.

Su Yun never refuses to answer the strange questions from the students. He is even able to introduce more knowledge through their questions. While answering the students' questions, he also teaches them the real methods and paths to explore the problems.

After teaching for a year and a half, Su Yun has become the most popular teacher in the Imperial College. Before, there were admirers of Cheng School, fans of New School (Wang Anshi), and other niche schools of thought in the Imperial College. But after more than a year, the only popular school of thought in the Imperial College is Su School.

Among Su's school of thought, six students from the Imperial College were the most famous, and they were called the Six Sons of Su's School.

The reason why these six people are famous is that they are Su Yun's most loyal supporters. They raised funds among the students and founded newspapers to publish the content of Su Yun's lectures.

Over the past year and a half, he has published more than a dozen books, including "Scholar Su's Comments on the Three Kingdoms", "Scholar Su on Economics", "Scholar Su's Comments on Political Gains and Losses of Past Dynasties", "Su Zi's Art of War", "Poetry Collection of Su Lang of Jiangyou" and so on.

Every time these dozen books are released, there will be a rush to buy them. Not only do students love to read them, but also scholars outside and even ordinary people love to read them.

Of course, common people like to read books such as "Young Scholar Su Goes to Bian Jing", "Young General Su's Journey to the Northwest", "Anecdotes about Su Lang of Jiangyou" and other vernacular novels fabricated by booksellers outside. Hehe, these books contain a lot of pornographic content.

There is a legend that cannot be avoided, which says that when Scholar Su had nothing, he could only rely on his face to be supported by brothel girls in order to make a living.

The courtesans who kept him included Liu Xianglan from Fanlou, Li Lihua from Jiujianglou, and Zhang Qinghe. These were the famous courtesans, and there were countless unknown ones.

Oh, I’ve gone off topic, let’s get back to the topic.

Let’s talk about the Six Disciples of Su’s School. These six people were not only extremely supportive of Su Yun, but also had extremely high attainments in Su’s school of thought. Not only did they thoroughly understand Su’s school of thought, but they also had their own interpretations of Su Yun.

When Su Yun expounded Su's philosophy, his ideas were usually very high-level and contained a very high density of information, so it was difficult for ordinary people to fully comprehend them. The Six Masters of Su's School were responsible for spreading it. They thoroughly understood and broke down Su's philosophy, and then re-explained it in a way that the people of the Song Dynasty could accept. In this way, more people could understand Su's philosophy!
Because Su Yun was very dedicated, the Imperial Academy prepared a special teaching room for him for him to prepare lessons, rest, etc.

As soon as Su Yun arrived at the church, he saw Wang Baopu waiting at the door.

This Wang Baopu was one of the Six Disciples of Su Shi. He was not tall, but his eyes were very bright and he was obviously an extremely intelligent person.

When Wang Baopu saw Su Yun, he couldn't help but smile and said happily, "Sir, you are here."

Su Yun smiled and said, "How long have you been waiting? The door is not locked. Just go in and wait. There are books to read inside. You don't have to wait here."

Wang Baopu smiled and said, "It's not a futile wait. Students have many questions in their minds that need to be thought about. I am thinking the same way while standing."

Su Yun smiled and pushed open the door, saying, "If you have any questions, please tell me."

Wang Baopu quickly said: "The land annexation you mentioned in your previous lecture was the Great Song..."

Su Yun suddenly turned around and said, "When did I say this?"

Wang Baopu quickly said, "You just mentioned it briefly, most people probably didn't notice it, I was the one responsible for recording all your words, so I wrote it down.

But I don’t quite understand this sentence, so I want to ask you for your clarification so that I can compile it into a book.”

Su Yun clicked his tongue in his heart, thinking that sometimes when he gets excited, he dares to say anything!

Su Yun pointed at the door and asked, "How long until class starts?"

Wang Baopu quickly turned around and closed the door, then said, "There are still two quarters of an hour left."

Su Yun nodded and said, "Follow me."

After entering, Su Yun asked, "What have you come up with regarding this?" Wang Baopu quickly said, "After I heard what you said, I went to look up a lot of information and found that the land annexation situation in our Song Dynasty is indeed very serious.

The root of this lies in the national policy of our Song Dynasty of "not establishing a land system and not suppressing mergers and acquisitions". At the beginning of the country, the court adopted a laissez-faire attitude.

Taizu encouraged officials to occupy fertile land by "releasing military power with a cup of wine" and legalized land annexation.

This policy is in line with the trend of land privatization after the collapse of the equal-field system in the Tang Dynasty. It allows land to be bought and sold freely, making land a commodity.

Bureaucratic privileges and institutional loopholes make this situation worse!
Bureaucratic landlords annexed land through legal transactions, usury coercion, tax exemption deception and other means.

Although the government divided farmers into "main households" and "clients", the actual taxes and labor service were still borne by small farmers, while large landowners enjoyed tax exemption privileges.

Therefore, based on the above joy, the root cause of people’s hardship lies in land annexation! "

Wang Baopu spoke these words very fluently without even stuttering, which showed that he had indeed thought deeply about them.

Su Yun nodded and said, "Do you think the problem of the Song Dynasty is only about land annexation?"

Wang Baopu's expression suddenly became serious, and he nodded and said, "I am not from a big family, I come from a humble background, and have been at the bottom since I was a child, so I can see this very clearly.

The farmers in our Song Dynasty are not only tied to the land and unable to escape, but also bear heavy taxes and are exploited by the government, landlords, and local tyrants. Many farmers have already gone bankrupt and are just barely holding on. Once there is a natural disaster, it will cause a large number of refugees!
And although the lower class in our Song Dynasty could move up to the upper class through imperial examinations, it was actually very difficult. To pass the examination, one had to study full-time. How many farmers could support a student?

If you want your child to pass the exam, the whole family or even the whole clan must mobilize to let him study full-time, and this is only the foundation.

But this is not a problem for many official families. They have a lot of resources and all their children are studying, so they naturally occupy a large number of places.

Not only that, they can also become officials through connections. As long as their families are powerful, they can get a real job. On the contrary, there are poor children who pass the exam but have no family support and will never get a real job in their entire lives. "

Su Yun nodded and said, "How should we solve this problem?"

Wang Baopu smiled bitterly upon hearing this and said, "I also have the same doubts and was just about to ask you, sir.

Logically speaking, under such circumstances, changes must be made, because this is a huge hidden danger for the court!

Without liquidity, a dynasty will lose its vitality. Eventually, these problems will cause the dynasty's foundation to decay, and the dynasty will collapse at the slightest external invasion.

However, in the past few decades, our Song Dynasty has already had two large-scale reforms, the Qingli New Deal and the Xining Reform, but the results were very bad, and even the people considered them to be harsh policies. Under such circumstances, how can things get better? "

Su Yun smiled and said, "Why do you think the reform will fail? Is it bound to fail? What is the reason for its failure?"

Wang Baopu was immediately lost in thought when Su Yun asked him this. After a while, he said with despair in his eyes, "Teacher said that although the focus of the Qingli New Deal and the Xining Reform was different, they had basically identified the problems and solved them. But in the end, they still failed inexplicably. Even if there is another similar reform, I am afraid it will be of no use!"

Su Yun nodded and said, "Don't you understand why?"

Wang Baopu quickly said, "Yes, I don't understand. I would like to ask you to give me some advice."

Su Yun took a deep breath and said, "Have you discussed this with Zheng Chaozong, Han Youan and the others?"

Wang Baopu nodded and said, "We have discussed it, but we haven't found a solution to the problem."

Su Yun nodded and said, "Okay, it's time to go to class. Let's talk about this later."

Having said that, Su Yun picked up the lesson plan and walked out, and Wang Baopu quickly followed behind Su Yun.

Su Yun’s lecture today was also very good, but Wang Baopu was a little uneasy. Suddenly he felt some pain in his ribs. He turned his head and saw that it was Ruan Chuanqiao.

Ruan Chuanqiao said dissatisfiedly: "The teacher has said so much, how come you only remember so little?"

Wang Baopu looked at his notes and found that only the front part was written down, while the back part was blank. He was immediately anxious and said, "I was distracted for a moment. What should I do?"

Ruan Chuanqiao shook his head and said, "Fortunately, I am also taking notes, but there are still some omissions. I will ask Ping Zicheng and Bi Taihua to help me with it later, and I should be able to get it all together. What happened to you today?"

Wang Baopu sighed and said, "Let's talk about it after class. Let's find Han Youan and Bi Taihua and the six of us can discuss it together."

Ruan Chuanqiao's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said, "Sir, do you have any answer to the question of land annexation?"

Wang Baopu nodded and said, "Yes, but the master didn't say much. However, from his attitude, I can guess that he also thinks that reform is useless."

Ruan Chuanqiao's face suddenly darkened and he had no intention of listening to the class anymore.

I don’t know how long it took, but after Su Yun finished his speech and left the stage, Ruan Chuanqiao hurriedly ran to find Han Youan and others.

After a while, the six people gathered in the small courtyard where they usually sorted out materials.

This was sponsored by Bi Taihua. Bi Taihua's family was a wealthy silk merchant in Suzhou and Hangzhou. This courtyard was just a drop in the bucket for him.

When Wang Baopu explained the matter, everyone except Ruan Chuanqiao looked at each other in confusion.

Han Youan's name has the word "You" in it, but he is actually tall and quite handsome. Some people call him "Little Su Yun", and he is very proud of this nickname.

Han Youan said quickly: "Sir, your opinion is that relying on the court to carry out reforms is absolutely no way to change this situation, but apart from this method, is there no other way?"

Bi Taihua said: "Sir, you have tried it. You used the Ministry of Industry to build the Qingming Riverside Park. You wanted to first control the Yellow River and establish Hebei agriculture, and then develop commerce and handicrafts, so as to enrich the north and let farmers get rid of agriculture. But unfortunately, you just got started and someone took away the pot!"

Liuzi's face turned dark.

(End of this chapter)