Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 105: Choosing the Class Leader of the Main Hall, asking questions before the lecture [Please subscribe]

The main hall is located in the eastern part of the imperial city and is part of the Wenhua Hall complex, because it was originally built by Zhu Yuanzhang for Zhu Biao.

When he arrived outside the main hall, Liu Kuan was surprised to find that Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao were also there.

'This is the rhythm of parents listening to lessons.'

Muttering something in his heart, Liu Kuan saluted the two of them.

The ceremony is over.

Old Zhu smiled and said, "There are quite a few children with bad tempers. We were worried that you couldn't control the situation, so we came to take a look."

Zhu Biao was very direct and said, "I was curious about my brother-in-law's lecture, so I came to listen."

Liu Kuan would never reveal Lao Zhu's thoughts.

However, after a moment's thought, he instructed, "My lectures involve interaction with students, which requires a lively classroom atmosphere. Your Majesty and Your Highness, if you wish to attend, please sit at the back, be careful with your voice, and refrain from interrupting the class."

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly surprised at first, then he smiled and said, "You are the children's teacher now, and Biao'er and I are their parents. We should listen to your instructions."

After saying that, he walked into the main hall of the main hall first.

Zhu Biao and Liu Kuan followed behind.

The main hall is quite large and the windows are also quite large, which makes it quite bright when opened.

More than a dozen tables and chairs are placed in an orderly manner inside, and there are several bookshelves against the wall, filled with various books.

In addition, there is a large desk and a chair on the east side.

There is a large blackboard with a stand placed next to it. There is almost no dust on the wooden frame of the blackboard. I don’t know if it is wiped frequently or not used frequently.

The students in the hall were as old as twelve or thirteen years old, and as young as four or five years old. They were all dressed in gorgeous clothes.

Originally, everyone was holding a book and reciting with their heads shaking. When they saw Zhu Yuanzhang come in, they immediately stood up and bowed with nervous expressions.

"Greetings to the Emperor (His Majesty/Grandfather)!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded seriously, "Stand up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Old Zhu was standing, so the children naturally continued to stand after they stood up.

Some of the little faces were as serious as Lao Zhu's, with their eyes fixed straight ahead; but some of them couldn't help themselves and secretly glanced at Liu Kuan.

Zhu Huilan, who had received permission from Empress Ma and Old Zhu to attend the class, took a seat in the corner. After stealing a glance at Liu Kuan, a serious look appeared on her pretty face.

Old Zhu walked over to the teaching desk, glanced at the princes, and said loudly: "Most of you watched those three movies during the Double Ninth Festival. You should know that they are the creations of science and technology. You have also heard me say that the Ming Dynasty must develop science and technology."

"Liu Kuan told us that mathematics is the foundation of science, so we arranged a mathematics teacher for you the day before yesterday."

"Liu Kuan also said that nature is the gateway to science, so we have invited him to be your nature teacher."

"Although Liu Kuan is young, he is your brother-in-law and uncle, and a trusted minister. Now he is even your teacher."

"You should listen carefully to his teachings, diligently learn the knowledge he imparts, respect and love him, and not be disrespectful in the slightest!"

Having said that, Zhu Yuanzhang turned around and waved to Liu Kuan, "Mr. Liu, come and accept the children's apprenticeship gift."

Liu Kuan was a little uncomfortable seeing how serious and solemn Mr. Zhu was being, but he knew that teachers were already highly respected at that time, and Mr. Zhu's set of etiquette had greatly simplified the original etiquette.

He stood behind the desk, and before he could say anything, the children bowed to him and said, "Students greet the teacher!"

Liu Kuan chose to return the greeting with a bow.

Then he said to Old Zhu and Little Zhu, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, please go to the back and take a seat."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, said nothing more, and took Zhu Biao to sit in the back.

This made the older kids sitting in the back tense up and their faces looked even more tense.

Liu Kuan walked back and said to Old Zhu: "Your Majesty, I need some things to set up the classroom for my lecture."

Old Zhu said, "If you need anything, just tell Li Gui and he will send someone to do it."

Li Gui was just outside, and Liu Kuan immediately went over and said a few words to him.

After Li Gui nodded, he asked someone to do it.

Liu Kuan returned to the desk and said aloud, "My teaching style is different from your previous teachers. I have established my own set of rules."

"One is to select a few class leaders to assist me, namely the class monitor, study committee member, discipline committee member, and labor committee member."

As he spoke, Liu Kuan looked at Zhu Xiongying, who was sitting in the front row. "Zhu Xiongying, since you are the crown prince, are you qualified to be the squad leader?"

Zhu Xiongying raised her little face and asked, "Teacher, what does the monitor need to do?"

Seeing that Zhu Xiongying did not agree without hesitation, but asked for clarification first, both Old Zhu and Zhu Biao smiled and nodded.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "You all study together in this hall, so you can be called a group. As the name suggests, the class monitor is the leader of this group."

"The class monitor is responsible for leading the class in greetings before and after my class, and for managing class affairs when the teacher is not around."

Hearing this, Zhu Xiongying nodded and said, "Then the student will be the class monitor."

Liu Kuan said: "Then you all sit down now. Later, when I shout 'class starts', you shout 'stand up' and lead everyone to stand up and salute me again, saying 'hello, teacher'.

Old Zhu's children and grandchildren were not stupid, and several of the nobles' sons were equally smart. They sat down immediately after hearing this.

Zhu Xiongying stood up first and shouted crisply, "Stand up!"

The princes immediately stood up and, along with Zhu Xiongying, bowed to Liu Kuan, saying in unison, "Hello, teacher!" Liu Kuan immediately felt the urge to do so and said with a smile, "Hello, students. Please sit down."

After guiding the students to their seats, Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty has just introduced me, but I still don't know your names. Next, the class monitors should stand up and state their names and ages, then take their seats."

Zhu Xiongying was very smart and immediately stood up and said, "Zhu Xiongying, eight years old."

The small Zhu Yunwen next to him was slightly stunned, and then he stood up at Zhu Xiongying's signal and said, "My name is Zhu Yunwen, and I am five years old."

Liu Kuan smiled and motioned to the next one.

"Joo Shik, five years old."

"My name is Zhu Liang, and I'm six years old!"

"···"

In fact, Liu Kuan had already known about these children through Zhu Biao. Now asking them to introduce themselves was just a matter of matching people and identities.

Excluding Zhu Huilan, the Grand Master now has seven princes, two grandsons, and four sons of noble families.

The oldest were the eighth prince, Prince of Tan Zhu Zi, and Li Jinglong. According to the age calculation at that time, they were both thirteen years old.

The youngest were Zhu Yunwen and the fifteenth prince, Prince Wei Zhu Zhi, who were both only five years old and entered the main hall after the Double Ninth Festival.

After the students had introduced themselves, Liu Kuan recalled the lives of these princes and nobles in his memory and said, "Zhu Zi, you will be the discipline committee member and be responsible for maintaining discipline in the class."

"what?"

Zhu Zi was surprised at first, then the boy's handsome face dropped.

Maintaining discipline sounds like an offensive job. Although he is older, he is a bit timid compared to other brothers. He is probably the student who least wants to be the discipline committee member.

He wanted to refuse, but considering that Liu Kuan was his teacher and his father was sitting behind him, he could only accept it silently.

Liu Kuan glanced at him and continued, "Li Jinglong, you will be the study committee member."

Li Jinglong was secretly exchanging glances with Prince of Lu, Zhu Tan. Upon hearing this, he couldn't help but ask, "Me? Study committee member?"

Liu Kuan asked, "Why, you don't want to?"

Li Jinglong was very courageous and did not get too nervous because of Old Zhu behind him. He sat awkwardly and said, "Teacher, I am not a good student. I am afraid I am not qualified for this position."

"Then study hard and make yourself competent."

At this time, Old Zhu coughed in the back, and Li Jinglong was finally frightened and said, "Okay."

Liu Kuan continued, "Zhu Tan will be the labor committee member."

The tenth prince Zhu Tan was bewildered.

He was very smart since childhood and made rapid progress in school. He learned a lot and naturally understood the meaning of the word "labor". But he still asked, "Teacher, what are the responsibilities of the labor committee member?"

Liu Kuan showed a slightly strange smile and said, "Of course I am responsible for the labor, such as wiping the blackboard after the teacher finishes the class, tidying the desks, cleaning the main hall, etc."

"Ah?" Ten-year-old Zhu Tan made a bitter face. His brothers all knew that he hated working, so he bravely said, "Teacher, these things are all done by the palace servants. Why do you need me?"

Liu Kuan said, "Now that I've established the rules, it's up to you to follow them. However, if anyone violates class discipline in the future and is caught by me, the monitor, or the discipline committee, they can be punished by having to do your labor for a day."

Zhu Tan felt that most of his uncles had some grudge against him, which was why they assigned him such a position.

He wanted to refuse, but after turning his head and taking a peek at Lao Zhu's serious face, he nodded in agreement.

Only after appointing the class leaders did Liu Kuan officially start teaching.

He turned around and pulled the blackboard towards the students, picked up the chalk, and wrote two large simplified Chinese characters on it - nature!
He turned around and asked, "Does anyone know what nature is?"

No one, whether it was Old Zhu, Little Zhu, or the students, had expected that Liu Kuan had asked a complicated question without teaching them any knowledge.

This is completely different from the several old scholars who taught in the main hall before.

Those people all used the teaching methods of private schools and academies handed down from the Southern Song Dynasty. They first taught students to read and recite the contents of the books, and then asked them to copy and write the text.

After students can recite and write down the basic classics, we will explain and test them sentence by sentence.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao thought that if Liu Kuan did not prepare the "Nature" book, he could also write the knowledge on the backboard and let the children read and memorize it first.

What the hell is asking questions right away?

Although they were confused, the two did not interrupt and continued watching.

Liu Kuan said, "If any of you know the answer, please raise your hand and answer. If your answer is good, you can earn credits. Once you have accumulated a certain number of credits, you can exchange them for the opportunity to watch a movie on a tablet from Princess Chongning."

In fact, there are some stand-alone games on the tablet computer, but Liu Kuan did not dare to use them as rewards - if Zhu Yuanzhang was suspected of deliberately leading the prince astray, it would be unfair.

Liu Kuan asked a question suddenly, and no one wanted to answer it at first. But after hearing the following words, everyone's eyes lit up.

Prince Lu Zhu Tan was the first to raise his hand.

Li Jinglong, Zhu Chun and Zhu Bo, who hesitated because they had not thought of how to answer, regretted seeing this.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Okay, Zhu Tan, please stand up and answer."

Zhu Tan stood up and bowed to Liu Kuan, then began to shake his head. "Laozi's Tao Te Ching says: There is a thing that is mixed and formed before the heaven and the earth. It is silent and lonely, independent and unchanging, and it circulates without end. It can be said to be the mother of heaven and earth..."

　First update.

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(End of this chapter)