Chapter Seventy: The Great Flood Swept Away the Dragon King Temple

  The noisy day shift suddenly fell silent, with everyone staring at Jiang Xia in shock. Jiang Xia was still kicking the young man who had called him "stray cat and dog" with one foot after another, each kick aimed at his head.

  The grandson of the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Liang Chuxu, was beaten by someone?

  The whole Tianban people have already started thinking about how this newcomer will die. The Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice, Liang Chuxi, and the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Cao Yuan, were from the same school, both were disciples of the current Taifu Li Dongyang. Not long ago, Li Dongyang was framed by Liu Jin, the head of the Eastern Depot, with a case of literary inquisition, originally thought that Li Dongyang would be finished like this.

  However, it did not occur to him that in the end, the emperor not only pardoned all of Li Dongyang's crimes but also severely punished Liu Jin, ordering him to go to the Wu Gate to receive twenty heavy blows. It is said that for those twenty heavy blows, the emperor specially dispatched someone to supervise, and not a single blow dared to be lightened, beating Liu Jin so badly that he was unable to get out of bed for nearly a month.

  In the capital, Li Dongyang's reputation was unmatched for a time. Since the founding of the Ming dynasty, it is likely that he was the only one who could completely escape from the literary inquisition. Although Li Dongyang has already retired, the emperor still reserved the title of Taifu for him, and this honor has been rare since ancient times. Moreover, Li Dongyang himself was a veteran of four dynasties, with his disciples and former officials all over the world. Even if he no longer held office in the court, who in the imperial court would dare not to give him three points of respect?

  This guy beat up the grandson of an important figure in Li Taifu's faction, let's see how he dies.

  "Pa pa." Jiang Xia clapped his hands, panting heavily as he said: "Let's stop here for today. I advise you to think carefully about how to make me happy, otherwise, every time I see you in the future, I'll beat you up once."

  "I won't let you off, my grandfather is Liang Chu." The person who was beaten struggled to get up, his face swollen like a pig's head, so his words were unclear.

  However, Jiang Xia was clever and basically guessed what the man was saying. He said with a swagger: "I've been waiting for you to come and not let me off, go back and tell your grandfather that it's Jiang Xia, the personal disciple of the current Taifu, who beat you."

  "Hmm..."

  "I knew it, this guy can enter our Tianban and even dare to beat Liang Wenhuan recklessly, he must have a strong backing, turns out that behind him is Li Taifu's support."

  "It's said that Li Taifu doesn't allow his family members to enter officialdom, he has retired now but didn't return to his hometown, the purpose is to teach a disciple, it turns out this person is indeed Li Taifu's disciple."

  "It's precisely because I saw Dr. Wang bringing him here in person earlier that I knew he wasn't a simple person. Although Dr. Wang is a bit timid, he's at least a fifth-rank official - what ordinary person would he personally bring to the classroom?"

  Hearing the discussions of the people around him, Liang Wenhuan, who had been beaten, was also stunned. He asked vaguely: "You... are you Jiang Xia, Master Li's disciple?"

  Liang Wenhuan suddenly remembered that his grandfather, Liang Chu, had specifically told him a few days ago during dinner that in the next few days, a disciple of Grandfather Li would be coming to Guozijian to study, and he should take good care of him. He didn't expect it to be this person in front of him.

  "What's with 'your grandfather's disciple'? Are you cursing at me?" Jiang Xia said, rolling up his sleeves and making a gesture to hit someone again.

  "Liang Wenhuan hastily waved his hand and said, 'No, no, no... Your master is my grandfather's teacher. I've always called your master "Li YeYe" (Old Man Li). It's not a curse, it's not a curse! Ah, the flood has destroyed the Dragon King Temple, and one family member is fighting another. My grandfather even specifically told me to take care of you.'"

  "What? My master is your grandfather's teacher?" Jiang Xia suddenly also blushed, originally still wanting to kill the chicken to scare the monkey and establish his authority, but unexpectedly hit his own people as soon as he made a move.

  "Uh, I didn't mean to, I..."

  "It's nothing, nothing... we don't know each other anyway." Liang Wenhuan said with a smile, but as soon as he smiled, he pulled the wound on his mouth and sucked in cold air in pain.

  "Since we're all family, I'll take the blame for this. Let me treat you to a drink tomorrow to make up for it."

  "No need, no need, it's only right for me to treat Brother Jiang." said Liang Wenhuan with a clasped fist.

  Jiang Xia looked at him with a genuine desire to laugh, but had to hold it in. When he heard Liang Wenneng call himself "Jiang brother", Jiang Xia immediately shook his head and said: "Wenneng, this title is not right. My master is your grandfather's teacher, so your grandfather and I are both my master's disciples, which makes us of the same generation. According to our generational ranking, you should be calling me... Jiang uncle."

  Liang Wenhuan was stunned on the spot. Since everyone is of similar age, if Jiang Xia were to be called "Old Master Jiang", then Liang Wenhuan would not have to pretend anymore in the Imperial Academy.

  Liang Wenhuan had just shown a difficult expression, but Jiang Xia patted him and laughed: "Just kidding, haha... let's exchange our own, regardless of generation. I was born in the second year of Hongzhi in May, who is older between us?"

  Liang Wennan smiled and said: "You're older, Brother Jiang."

  "Brother Liang." Jiang Xia laughed and said.

  After finishing, Jiang Xia walked back onto the stage and swept his gaze across the people below. The students in the lecture hall suddenly sat up straight in their seats, and only then did Jiang Xia introduce himself: "My name is Jiang Xia, today is my first day reporting to the Imperial Academy, I hope you will all take care of me from now on. This is our first meeting, so please give me some face, today at Tianxiang Building there's a banquet set up for everyone to get to know each other over lunch."

  "Good!"

  As soon as Jiang Xia finished speaking, a burst of applause erupted from below. Everyone in this school is a connoisseur, what kind of place is Tianxiang Building? In the capital, one of the top two brothels, setting up a banquet to invite so many people, at least 1,000 taels of silver are needed, who would have thought that the newly arrived Jiang Xia not only has a deep background but also has a generous hand. Those who felt he was arrogant just now all changed their minds and thought he was quite decent.

  After Jiang Xia finished speaking, he suggested that everyone introduce themselves so they could get to know each other. This time, the people in the sky class were all very cooperative and stood up one after another to introduce themselves. The entire sky class was indeed a gathering place for super second-generation officials, with grandsons of national dukes, grandsons of left and right servants of the six ministries, grandsons of the censor of the Censorate, and grandsons of the left and right vice censors of the Court of Censors. Although these young people had not yet grown up, their future prospects were absolutely unlimited. If Jiang Xia could get along with this group of people, they would surely become an unimaginable network of connections for him in the future.

  After everyone finished introducing themselves, they started discussing with each other, and for a while the whole classroom became noisy again.

  Suddenly, a man with two swollen faces led a group of people into the sky class. As soon as he entered, he shouted at Jiang Xia in his sharp voice: "You dog, if you have the guts, come out with me."

  Jiang Xia turned his head and took a look, wasn't this person Liu Qingyun who he had beaten up at Jixian Gate before?

  Just as Jiang Xia was about to speak, Liang Wenhuan preempted him and stood up, saying to Liu Qingyun: "What kind of thing are you? Are you also allowed to shout loudly in the heavenly class?"

  "I am Liu Qingyun, the third young master of the Moyang Marquis's household. And who are you, you pig head? I warn you not to interfere in other people's business, or you'll provoke me and I'll beat you up along with him." Behind Liu Qingyun followed over a dozen guards, each one an expert from the Moyang Marquis's household, so he had plenty of confidence.

  Liu Qingyun had not been in the Imperial Academy for long, and he was always reading books in the Xuan class. During this time, he was basically in a state of "three days fishing and two days drying nets", so he didn't know much about the Tian class. Little did he know that his one sentence "Pig Head" instantly enraged Liang Wenhuan.

  Liang Wenhuan hadn't said two words before he picked up the bench under him and threw it at Liu Qingyun, shouting loudly: "My grandfather is the Right Servant of the Ministry of Rites, what kind of thing is your Muyang Prefecture?"

  Liang Chu spoke, and the rest of the people on duty that day also started throwing their stools. All you could hear was them shouting in unison: "My grandfather is the Left Servant of the Ministry of Revenue, what kind of thing is the Shu Yang Fu?"

  "Your grandfather was the Right Vice Minister of Rites, what exactly is this Marquis of Muyang's Manor?"

  "Grandfather was a Tongzheng official in the Imperial Censorate, so I'm asking you, what exactly is this Marquis of Muyang's estate?"

  "My grandfather is..."

  That string of official titles, any one of which would be enough to stun Liu Qingyun into silence, and all of which together left him speechless. The few wooden stools that had been carelessly thrown at him earlier hit him right on the head, causing a big bump to swell up, and then Liu Qingyun slunk away with his tail between his legs. Liang Wenhuan spat in disgust and said, "What kind of thing is this? Is the Jiang family's estate also a place where that small Hou family can run wild? Brother Jiang, do you want me to take some men and chase after him to teach him another lesson?"

  "Let him off this time?" Jiang Xia quietly shifted his position to one side and said weakly: "So... you have such a hobby, never mind, he doesn't deserve death, let him off this time."

  After Liu Qingyun left, the people on duty picked up the stool that had been thrown away and brought it back. Soon, Wang Ruhai came with a book to start class. At first, Jiang Xia listened attentively, but after half a day, he realized that Wang was just perfunctorily reciting "The Doctrine of the Mean" and even repeated the same passage at least three times, shaking his head and swaying back and forth.

  Jiang Xia found that the others in the classroom were either already fast asleep or playing on their own, with no one paying attention to the lesson. Jiang Xia himself discovered that Wang Ruhai's teaching level was vastly different from Li Dongyang's, and so he also started to do his own thing.

  At this moment, a group of people suddenly appeared at the Guozijian Gate of Virtuous Scholars. They were dressed in scholar's robes and held folding fans, looking like young scholars. The five leaders were surrounded by the crowd, with a white banner behind them that read: "The Imperial Academy has falsely claimed to be the best academy in the land, the Xunwen Literary Society's Five Great Talents have come to challenge you - dare you fight?"