I

  Chapter 723 720 [Nanjing Chronicle]

  Milton first visited the "Xi'anmen Street Primary School" in Nanjing.

  The most prosperous places in Nanjing are Nanshi and Beishi.

  Wealthy businessmen, most of them live in the south, and their address is located in the southwest of the imperial city, belonging to Jiangning County.

   Most of the dignitaries live in the north, and their addresses are located in the west and northwest of the imperial city, belonging to Shangyuan County.

  Xi'anmen Street Primary School is near the area where dignitaries live. No matter what the emperor thought, the teachers in this school must be the best.

  Even if they are not good at the beginning, after a few years, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty will make them good!

  Milton and Marvell walked all the way here. Except for Xi'anmen Street, the rest of the streets are relatively narrow, and they can even be called alleys. Both sides are full of deep houses and large courtyards. It doesn't look very good from the outside of the fence, but only when you go in will you find something strange.

  It was the afternoon, and the principal Yan Bangqi personally received them.

   "How many teachers and students are there in this school?" Milton asked.

  Yan Bangqi replied: "There are 32 teachers (including principals and other administrative staff), and more than 600 students."

   While talking, everyone has arrived near the playground, and two classes are having physical education class.

  Milton was startled when he saw girls on the playground, "Coeducation?"

   "Not bad." Yan Bangqi smiled.

  Wealthy families like to send their daughters to girls' schools. But Xi'anmen Street Elementary School is different. The students here are either rich or noble. The teachers here are all celebrities.

   Therefore, the ratio of boys and girls has almost reached a 50-50 split.

  Milton asked again: "Why are they wearing the same clothes?"

  Yan Bangqi introduced: "This is a Confucian shirt, the uniform of scholars. Your Majesty has ordered that primary and secondary school students are not allowed to wear silk clothes, so these students all wear cotton Confucian shirts."

  Milton looked carefully again and asked, "What are they wearing around their waists?"

   "Jade pendant, a gentleman is like jade." Yan Bangqi explained.

  The translator of Honglu Temple said: "Those are ornaments made of jade. In ancient China, only philosophers with high moral character were qualified to wear jade. This is to encourage students to develop excellent moral character."

   "So it is." Milton nodded.

  In fact, students must hang jade pendants on their waists, which is the first requirement of Jinling University.

  The jade pendants of Jinling University are all medicine jade, that is, stained glass. The pattern is also the school badge, and the jade pendant hanging on the waist is equivalent to wearing the school badge.

  Xi'anmen Avenue Primary School quickly imitated, but wore more advanced. This place is not glass, it is all real jade, and it is very valuable, you would be ashamed to wear cheap Xiuyu. If you can't compare in clothes, then change it to a jade pendant for comparison!

   "Are they practicing combat skills?" Marvel said, pointing to the students in gym class.

Yan Bangqi smiled and replied: "Students are practicing sword sticks. It is the "Sword Classic" handed down by Duke Yu Wuxiang. It can be used for physical fitness and combat. When fighting, you can use sticks or use swords instead. At the end of each month, the students will go to Chengdong Racecourse to practice riding for half a day. If there is heavy rain, they will practice indoor archery at the end of the month."

The translator of Honglu Temple said: "More than a hundred years ago, there was a victorious general in China, Yu Dayou. He left behind a set of fencing skills, which can be practiced with wooden sticks and can be replaced with real swords at any time. This is the student's Physical education class, at the end of each month, I also practice riding and archery."

  Swordsmanship, riding, archery?

   Marvell immediately understood that this is a noble school. In Europe, only nobles can learn these things. Firstly, it is a family secret, and secondly, ordinary people do not have the financial resources to learn it.

Yan Bangqi stroked his beard and smiled: "Your Majesty said that a gentleman in ancient times had six arts. Nowadays, scholars should not just study hard, but also practice martial arts to keep fit. Schools in all provinces of the country have arranged physical education courses. But, only My Xi'anmen Street Elementary School only invites experts to teach swordsmanship, riding and archery. The students who go out of this school, regardless of gender, are both civil and military!"

  When the director of Honglu Temple translated, he directly omitted half of it by himself, not to mention that these are unique to this school.

  Milton's educational views also believe that schools should have sports content. He admired and said: "China's education is the best in the world, and all schools should have physical education classes."

  Go around the playground and come to the classroom area.

  The quality of teaching here is also reflected in the number of classes. All are small classrooms, and the number of students in each class should not exceed 28, so as not to overwhelm the teacher.

  Yan Bangqi pointed to the window and said: "Except for the imperial palace, the window glass here is the most translucent, just like the yamen and Jinling University."

  Sunlight shines on the window glass and penetrates into the classroom, where children are studying in bright classrooms.

  Milton looked in a daze for a while. Only the big nobles in Europe could afford such expensive glass, and even the small nobles didn't have the financial resources.

   In fact, China is similar, and the technology of making glass is not yet mature.

  One is relatively brittle. If the glass is made too large, it is easily broken, and the window pane can only be made into many small squares.

  Second, there are many impurities. The window panes of ordinary houses and schools are more or less light green, and the light transmission of the glass is not very good. Glass like the one in front of me is the top product, not only expensive, but also the annual output is not much.

  In the classroom, a math class is being taught, which is single-digit multiplication.

  Milton looked at the calculations on the blackboard and suddenly became a little confused. Because although the equal sign was invented in Europe, it was not popularized. At this moment, even Descartes is still using "=" to represent "±", while the equal sign is represented by double quotation marks.

   After some questioning, Milton finally understood the formula.

   Immediately walked to the next class, where the Chinese class was being held, and there was a burst of reciting in the classroom: "The day of hoeing is at noon, and the sweat drips into the soil..."

  Hearing that the students were reciting poems, Marvell hurriedly asked the clerk to translate.

Tong Tong said with some embarrassment: "I don't know how to write poems in Latin, I can only translate the general meaning. The farmers weeded the seedlings under the scorching sun at noon, and the sweat dripped down and wet the soil under the seedlings. Does anyone know the meal on the plate? , every grain is full of the hard work of farmers?"

  Unfortunately, the two famous British scholars were not very touched by this poem.

  It is true that they are all "democracy fighters", but the classes they represent are nobles, landlords, businessmen and small citizens, and there are also some self-cultivating farmers. The real poor peasants, who cares about their lives in Europe?

  Milton commented politely: "The author of this poem should be a man of high moral character. He even cares about the hard work of farmers."

   Tong Shi said: "The author is a prime minister in ancient China."

  The two Brits have nothing to say. In their minds, it is kind of a country’s prime minister not to exploit the peasants too hard, and he cares about the condition of the peasants after he’s exhausted?

  At this time in the UK, agricultural planting technology is developing rapidly, almost catching up with China's Tang and Song Dynasties. In order to increase agricultural production, while introducing Asian farming techniques, while enclosing land for large-scale production, farmers are necessary but occasionally redundant consumables.

   After shopping around again, Milton said to Tong: "Sir, can you take us to the school in the poorest neighborhood in the city?"

   "Of course." Tong Shi smiled.

  The poorest neighborhood in Nanjing is in the northwest corner of the city. There are many mountains in that area, Qingliang Mountain, Stone Mountain, Lion Mountain... There are so many forests, and the Qinhuai River is separated by the city wall. There are even farmlands in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

   Low-level civilians who do not have a house to live in, if they want to build a few dilapidated houses to accommodate them, they must either live outside the city with a fence, or build a house in the northwest corner of the city against a mountain.

   Gradually, a low-level block was formed in the northwest of the city.

  People walked along Xi'anmen Street, along the way there were dense shops and various advertising signs.

  Store often does not have a unique name, but relies on product content to attract customers. For example, the signs of those stores often read: Northwest Liangkou Leather Goods, Chuanguang Grocery, Fuguang Seafood Fake, Beijing-style Boots and Shoes Store, North and South Fruits and so on.

   There are also big-mouthed ones, who make long moves and write a letter: they have both western and eastern goods.

  In the Ming Dynasty, there were already names of Dongyang and Xiyang, and various advertising signs also looked very modern. For example, the recruiter who sells clothes and belts is "the best official belt". Another example is the silver shop, the recruiter is "Wanyuanhao Tongshang Bank·Fair Access".

  Milton likes this lively atmosphere. There are people everywhere on the street, and I don’t know why the citizens of Nanjing have so much leisure time to go shopping.

   After walking West Chang'an Avenue, continue west along Shichengmen Street, and you will arrive at Shichengmen in Nanjing City. It is next to the Qinhuai River, and it is also considered a bustling wharf. Many goods are shipped out of the city and transported along the Qinhuai River to the Yangtze River. On the other side of the river are Mochou Lake and Nanhu Lake, which are picturesque, so Shichengmen Street is relatively prosperous.

   On the north side of Shichengmen Street, there are many large and small hills, which are also slum areas in Nanjing.

  During the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing's military warehouses and barracks were also in this area. Zhao Han didn't dismantle it, it was used as the barn and school grounds of the imperial city guards. As for the rest of the army in Nanking, the military warehouses and school yards were located outside the city.

  Due to the increase of goods shipped to the sea, the area along Jinchuanmen Street near the military camp in the city has become more and more prosperous. From Jinchuanmen Street, goods can be shipped directly to the Yangtze River Wharf for loading. I used to walk on Shitoumen Street, and I had to transfer boats from the Qinhuai River, and large ships couldn't pass through at all.

  The advantage of opening the sea is that in the northwest urban area of ​​Nanjing, along the line of Jinchuanmen Street, the nearby civilians are getting richer and richer. Their houses are worth more, they can find more jobs, and the commercial atmosphere along the street has become stronger.

  The real slums are between Jinchuanmen Street, Dinghuaimen Street, Qingliangmen Street and Gulouwai Street.

  The houses here are very densely built, but whenever there is a gap, the poor will go to build shacks. There are dense houses, but no two-story buildings can be found. The houses are also built with rammed earth and bamboo strips. The window is just a hole left in the earth wall, and a few wooden strips are embedded.

  Compared with the city center, it seems to be two worlds.

The director of Honglu Temple said: "The men in this area mostly work as coolies on the wharf, and most of the women work in textile factories outside the city. Although their income is not high, as long as they are willing to work, they don't have to worry about food and drink. That is Nanjing Housing prices are too expensive, and they can’t afford a good house.”

  Milton nodded again and again, this is right, if it is all like the city center, China would be too scary.

The director of Honglu Temple smiled and said: "In the past few years, the imperial court has not collected exorbitant taxes, and even the people here have a better life. Let's see, the houses in front are obviously newly built. The homeowner must have saved money."

  Those residential buildings really stand out from the crowd in the slums, because the outer walls of the houses are actually plastered.

  The people at the bottom have just that little dream. They work hard, live frugally, save money to live in a better house, and it is easier for their sons to find wives.

  (end of this chapter)