Chapter 26 Apprenticeship
After comforting Li Chengqian, Li Xiang, feeling exhausted, dragged his tired body to greet Su Yi first, and then returned to the bedroom.

Princess Su Yi felt sorry for his tiredness, so she persuaded him that he didn't need to come to greet the emperor every day, but only on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month.

Li Xiang didn't take it seriously. No matter what others said, he couldn't be impolite.

Go to bed early. Tomorrow is the 15th and I still have to go to Lao Wei’s house for classes.

Of course he would not go empty-handed. Since he had a good relationship with Wei Zheng, Li Chengqian prepared all the gifts the day before.

In addition to the dried meat strips, Li Xiang also begged Li Chengqian to prepare five other gifts, making a total of six gifts.

Li Chengqian was full of questions, wondering what his son and brother were going to do. But considering that Li Xiang had always been reliable, he did not ask too much.

After all, muscles never ask the brain why they are given orders.

After finally getting out of the palace, Li Xiang also wanted to stroll around Chang'an after school, so he took with him the heavy baggage of ten thousand gold pieces and the gold beans given by Li Tai.

There were twelve in total, and he gave one to Hegan Chengji and the other two, leaving ten. Li Xiang was thinking whether he should shamelessly go to Li Tai to ask for more gold beans. After all, he had promised Hegan Chengji and Zhang Sizheng that he would reward them handsomely when they brought Old Sun back.

As a superior, you must do what you promised. This is the most basic principle.

After all, Li Xiang was the prince's eldest son, and Wei Zheng also wanted to express his support for the prince, so the door of Duke Zheng's mansion was wide open to welcome his arrival.

However, Wei Zheng was not in good health and did not come to greet him in person.

Li Xiang didn't think it was a big deal, and he even hoped that Wei Zheng would stop causing trouble, as he only had a few months left to live.

I hope Lao Sun has a solution, alas...

When they arrived at the main hall, Wei Zheng was already sitting at the top seat, with Chu Suiliang and Xiao Yu sitting on his left and right.

The relationship between these two people and Wei Zheng is pretty good, especially Xiao Yu, who has a bit of a... bird-like-guy feel to Wei Zheng.

After Li Xiang entered the main hall, he bowed without saying a word.

"Boy Li Xiang, nice to meet Master Wei!"

Wei Zheng stroked his beard and smiled, very satisfied with Li Xiang's respectful attitude.

Then came a few clichés, the gist of which was to encourage Li Xiang to study hard and assist the crown prince.

After that, Li Xiang asked someone to bring up the gift of money he had prepared.

"What is this?" Wei Zheng looked curiously at the eunuchs who came in one after another holding the boxes, and curiosity arose in his heart.

"It is a gift from the students to Teacher Wei."

As Li Xiang spoke, he walked to the front of the eunuchs and introduced them to Wei Zheng one by one.

"Teacher Wei, please look: this is celery, which means hard work and love of learning. As the saying goes, diligence makes perfect, laziness makes waste, and celery has such a meaning."

"This is a lotus seed. Because the heart of a lotus seed is bitter, students believe it represents the painstaking efforts of teachers in educating them."

"This is red bean, which means good fortune."

"This is a red date, which means you will pass the high school entrance exam soon."

"The longans in this box represent the fulfillment of one's virtues."

"The remaining ones are dried meat strips, which are a token of my disciple's gratitude."

During the Zhenguan period, there was no such complicated ritual of giving gifts and repairing clothes.

According to the Tang Huiyao, in September of the second year of the Shenlong reign, the emperor ordered that students should be arranged in order of age. When they first entered school, they all had to perform the ritual of paying their tuition. To pay their respects to their teachers, the Imperial College and the Imperial University each received three pieces of silk. The four schools received two pieces of silk. The talented scholars and the law and mathematics schools received one piece of silk each from the prefectures and counties. All of them had wine feasts, and three-tenths of the tuition went to the doctoral students, and two-tenths went to the assistant teachers.

The six rituals of gift and repair did not appear until at least the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

"The prince is thoughtful."

Chu Suiliang stroked his beard and praised. In the year when the emperor's grandson was born, Li Shimin waved his hand and named the newly born emperor's eldest grandson the Prince of Tianshui, which is why others called him the Prince of Tianshui.

"The prince of the county has such great respect for teachers and the Way, he is even better than the king of Wei."

Xiao Yu made the final decision, his hand still touching his beard, and there was a hint in his eyes as he looked at Li Xiang.

What it clearly means is... prepare a set for me in a few days!
"From now on, I'm afraid that when I become your disciple, I will have to use the six gifts of the prince."

Chu Suiliang sighed again.

Among the six gifts, only longan and dried meat strips were worth a bit of money, but ordinary people could afford them if they gritted their teeth. They were much cheaper than the silk gifts that were required for apprenticeship. Moreover, the meaning behind them was what really touched the hearts of the scholars.

It is not difficult to foresee that from now on, as long as people take the six gifts of tuition and six rituals to become apprentices, they will certainly not forget the name of Li Xiang.

"good."

Wei Zheng nodded slightly, signaling his old servant to take the six gifts.

He was even more satisfied with Li Xiang, this good boy.

"Li Xiang greets the teacher!"

Li Xiang bowed respectfully again.

Wei Zheng stroked his beard and smiled, while Chu Suiliang on the side began to diss the King of Wei again: "I think the sincerity of the prince in serving the teacher is even greater than that of the King of Wei!"

In the 16th year of Zhenguan, Chu Suiliang was a die-hard member of the prince's party. He even wrote a memorial to advise Li Shimin not to reward the King of Wei so much.

But the result... The King of Wei did not stop rewarding Li Chengqian. Instead, he gave Li Chengqian the privilege of withdrawing money from the national treasury at will.

As for the claim that Chu Suiliang supported Li Chengqian because he had the support of the Guanlong noble group, it is a bit nonsense. Chen proposed a hypothesis, and later scholars continued to make far-fetched claims. In fact, after the death of Yuwen Tai, the leader of the "Guanlong Group", this political group was on the verge of disintegration and fell into a long-term internal struggle.

By the time of Emperor Wen of Sui, the Guanlong Group had been dismantled by Yang Jian. In the current political landscape, it is generally divided into the meritorious aristocratic group headed by Li Shimin, the Shandong aristocratic families, and the commoner landlords whose voices are not very loud.

There is indeed a group behind Zhang Sun Wuji, but it is not the "Guanlong Group" comparable to the Junker aristocracy group that is strengthened by one online article after another. Instead, it is the military meritorious officials who followed Li Shimin to conquer the world, and they are considered the basic base of the current Tang Dynasty.

Xiao Yu, Chu Suiliang, and Wei Zheng were all staunch supporters of the prince's party. It was not that they supported the prince himself, but they did not care who the prince was. They supported whoever was the prince.

In other words, they don't want to shake the foundation of the country.

As the eldest son of the crown prince, Li Xiang's joining the circle of these three brothers was like joining a group of compliments.

Of course, this is also inseparable from Li Xiang’s own excellence.

"Congratulations, Xuancheng, for getting such a great disciple!"

Xiao Yu bowed to Wei Zheng sincerely. After all, Li Xiang was also his disciple, so there was nothing wrong in praising him.

Wei Zheng smiled with great satisfaction, stroking his beard with his hand, looking like he was content with having disciples.

After witnessing the apprenticeship ceremony, Xiao Yu and Chu Suiliang said goodbye.

Before leaving, Lao Xiao gave Li Xiang a meaningful look.

After the two men left, Wei Zheng immediately put on an approving expression.

"Good boy, you're good. I heard that the King of Wei made his son kneel for two hours because of you..."

Li Xiang looked up at Wei Zheng and said, "Teacher, please stop making fun of me. It's better to say that the King of Wei is putting on such a show to please my grandfather."

Wei Zheng was not surprised by Li Xiang's insight.

He looked down at Li Xiang and began to teach him his first lesson.

"What about you? What should you do?"

(End of this chapter)