Chapter 71: Family Tree, Future Concubines, Jiajing and His Students (Seeking Follow-up Reading)
"Let's set the location for the discussion at the White Horse Building." Liu Quan said as he left the gate of the Heritage Pavilion, "It belongs to the academy, and many independent cultivators or forces are used to discussing things here."
"No one dares to cause trouble here, so both sides will feel more at ease and don't have to worry about being ambushed."
"It's all right," Jiajing stood on the steps, looked at Liu Quan who was standing on the next few steps, and nodded, "You go in person."
It didn't matter to Jiajing where they talked. He went there to discuss things, not to plot against anyone.
"Okay, then let's do it without further delay. I'll go now." Liu Quan nodded, turned around, took out the flying carpet, and turned into a rainbow of light and flew away.
After watching Liu Quan leave, Jiajing turned and walked into the inheritance pavilion.
At this time, on the first floor of the Inheritance Pavilion, the twelve little guys were sitting upright, holding the "General Notes on Cultivation" in their hands.
Jiajing raised his hand and took out a "List of Disciples", then went to the left corner of the first floor and sat down.
Silently observing the twelve little ones reading.
Among these twelve little guys, six are children from the Dugu Family.
That is, the family members of the three heroic Han brothers.
Well, it is said to be the family of three brothers, but to be precise, it is actually the family of Dugu Ying alone.
Because Dugu Xiong and Dugu Han were both orphans, they both took their eldest brother Dugu Ying's surname.
The Dugu family is divided into the first and second branches.
The first wife is Dugu Ying's grandfather, Dugu Jiang, and the second wife is Dugu Ying's second uncle, Dugu Zi.
Dugu Jiang has two children, Dugu Ying's father, Dugu Bao, and Dugu Ying's second uncle, Dugu Bei.
Both brothers have died. Dugu Bao gave birth to an only son, Dugu Ying. Dugu Bei gave birth to a son, Dugu Ba, and a daughter, Dugu Qingqing.
Dugu Ba gave birth to Dugu Donglai.
The five-year-old fat boy in the first row is Dugu Donglai.
Today, the patriarch of the Dugu family, that is, the eldest son, is Dugu Ying’s cousin Dugu Ba.
Next to the little fat boy sat a well-behaved little girl named Li Yu, the only daughter of Dugu Qingqing. Dugu Qingqing and his wife died in a battle.
Duguzi, the second branch of the Dugu family, gave birth to Dugutian and Dugudi.
Dugu Tian had two sons, Dugu Shi and Dugu Ji, who were respectively the eldest and second elders of the Dugu family.
Dugu Shi had two sons, Dugu Ao and a daughter, Dugu Hongye.
The brother and sister sat in the second row.
Dugu Ao is six years old, with fair skin, and his name is just like his personality. Although he is young, he has a bit of pride between his eyebrows. Dugu Hongye is much quieter, with double eyelids, lively eyes, and cuteness.
Dugu's stepsons, Dugu Qiu, Dugu Dong and daughter Dugu Xia, sat in the third row.
As for Dugu Di, he gave birth to two sons, Dugu Pan and Dugu Gu, both of whom died. In the family, he just lived a good life as a patriarch.
Jiajing looked at the seating arrangement of the twelve children and understood that this was probably something Liu Quan did deliberately.
There are four rows in total, with three children in each row.
In the first row, there are Dugu Donglai, Li Yu, and a dark-skinned, simple-looking kid about eight years old named Xu Shan. He seems to be the master of the sect's criminal hall, the son of Xu Tian.
Xu Tian, who has reached the third level of Qi training, has a serious and meticulous character, but he is Dugu Ying's confidant.
In the second row, Dugu Ao and Dugu Hongye are siblings, and sitting next to them is a ten-year-old boy.
The third row was composed of Dugu Qiu, Dong, and Xia. The last row was composed of the children of ordinary disciples today.
There are twelve people in total, but there is a subtle sense of balancing the factions.
"Liu Quan is indeed loyal to the headmaster," Jiajing looked at the fat boy in the first row, Dugu Donglai, whose eyes were rolling around and who had no interest in studying, and thought to himself:
"Dugu Ying's father Dugu Bao and second uncle Dugu Bei."
"Dugu Donglai's father, Dugu Ba, is the head of the Dugu family. They are related to each other... Dugu Donglai and Li Yu, who has no parents, are the direct descendants of Dugu Ying."
"So, the son of the head of the Punishment Hall was placed beside the two of them. The Punishment Hall is in charge of the sect's punishments and has considerable power..."
“The second and third rows are the children of the eldest and second elders of the second house. They check and balance each other. This Liu Quan…” Looking at the background information of these children, Jiajing chuckled in his heart.
"As expected of a military advisor, he really understood the balance I taught him before and put it into practice in advance."
The mortal family is the key to the initial development of the sect!
Family interests and sectarian interests can be said to be directly linked.
Nowadays, both sects and families are in the initial stage of development, and the conflicts of interests and factions are not that deep yet.
But when Jiajing was setting up the internal "structure" for the sect, he had already told the three heroic Han brothers and Liu Quan that they had to make preparations in advance to balance and control their subordinates.
The three Dugu brothers have a lot of brains but lack the strength. However, they don't pay attention to it, but Liu Quan always keeps it in mind.
Therefore, Liu Quan arranged and divided these children into camps and factions within the sect in advance.
What we are trying to prevent is the sect's development and growing power in the future, which may lead to internal chaos between the family and the sect due to conflicts of interest.
Dugu Xiong and Dugu Han have no relatives, so they undoubtedly support Dugu Ying. The next step is to consolidate Dugu Ying's position at the family level, making his position as the head of the clan or his interests more secure.
There is obviously no problem with this arrangement.
At this moment, Jiajing had a deeper understanding of the friendship between the three Dugu brothers and Liu Quan. "Xu Shixing, Fengsheng, Liu Wei..." Jiajing's eyes fixed on the names of the children in the second row besides Xu Shan, and then looked at the three children in the fourth row.
"These three people should be my confidants!"
Xu Shixing, twelve years old, is the oldest of the twelve children. He has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and looks very honest.
The dark green linen clothes made him look more stable.
Feng Sheng, ten years old, was thin and weak, looking somewhat malnourished, wearing a white linen shirt, and looked like a little scholar.
Liu Wei, a little girl, three years old, has two pigtails on her head and wears a beige linen shirt. She looks very ordinary.
She is not as distinctive as Xu Shixing and Feng Sheng, but her single eyelids make her less cute and more recognizable.
During the day, these little guys were still very afraid of Jiajing at first. After all, his innate majesty was not comparable to that of the uncles and aunts in the mountain village before.
Afterwards, Jiajing took out the Thousand Character Classic and some simple principles from the Four Books and Five Classics to enlighten these children.
Raising children? Jiajing couldn't, but at least he had more than 20 years of experience in later generations, and he had some knowledge and life experience of young people. He could still tell fairy tales and stories full of philosophical meaning.
While being serious, we guide them slowly, and let them understand some truths through the methods of 'ask themselves and answer them' and 'you ask me and I answer you'. Well, the key point is to inspire the thoughts of future generations.
For example, adapted short stories such as The Farmer and the Snake and The Wolf and the Little Wolf allow the little ones to have fun while also making them think.
With Jiajing's enlightenment through entertaining and educational means, the little ones became less afraid of Mr. Zhu despite their awe.
Jiajing did not favor one over another when teaching these little ones, but treated them all equally.
A ray of blood-red setting sun shone into the inheritance pavilion, falling on Jiajing and the twelve little guys surrounding his feet.
"Sir, sir," Li Yu, the only daughter of Dugu Ying's cousin, raised her hand and said, "If the elders and the others saw the headmaster's new clothes, and we didn't, should we tell them?"
The little guy spoke too fast and his articulation was a little unclear, but his speaking speed was not slow.
"But if I tell you, wouldn't that be a betrayal to the Sect Master?"
"Are you going to lie?" Li Yu had just finished speaking when Dugu Dong from the second house immediately retorted, "We should uphold justice!"
"I think we should speak out," Dugu Ao, who was as proud as his name. Although he was only six years old, he behaved very maturely. "It's not good to have such a vain leader!"
"I shouldn't say that," the five-year-old Dugu Qiu said with a stern face, "Dad said that we should share honor and disgrace!"
"So you're just lying?"
"Well, just cover your eyes and pretend you don't know..."
"Not good, not good. We should stop the headmaster's stupid behavior, right, sir?"
Looking at the group of little guys in front of him arguing fiercely over an article about "The Master's New Clothes" and arguing with their faces red, Jiajing suddenly found it interesting, but he just smiled and said nothing.
"Ding, dong..." When the clock rang, the little ones stopped.
"Okay," Jiajing stood up, waved his sleeves, and said, "It's getting late. As for this question..."
As Jiajing spoke, the little ones all stopped, sat straight, looked serious, and listened carefully.
"You will understand it later, but I hope you will remember it forever," Jiajing said with a smile, "I have another question next. Please listen carefully and I will answer it tomorrow."
When the little ones heard that the teacher was going to assign "homework", they couldn't help but look expectant in their eyes.
The gentleman is completely different from the great elder.
The Great Elder would ask them to copy books, recite the Nine Musical Instruments of the Ming Dynasty, or just ask them to read and write, which was so boring.
Unlike Mr. Zhu, although he is very serious and sometimes just a look can make them feel scared, the stories he tells are very interesting.
Most importantly, these little guys have their own opinions on every story and want to convince others through arguments.
Well, this kind of argument is very interesting to them.
What they didn’t know was that Jiajing wanted to use these little enlightenment stories to let them color themselves in their own young, pure white world and understand what kind of person they want to be.
These principles will be learned as you think about them slowly, and then as you continue to see the world and understand them from life.
Little by little, it silently influences their principles in doing things.
"Suppose, without any cultivation, you were driving a speeding carriage that lost control and drove into a "Y"-shaped road," Jiajing raised his hand, pointed at each of the little guys, and said:
"At this time, there are five people tied up in the middle of the road on the left. Please note that this is a test, no one can help you!"
"Now, the only thing you can do is pull the reins to turn the carriage to the right road. But this will kill the other person who is tied up on that road."
"Would you choose to kill one person to save five, or kill five people to save one? Why?"
At this moment, the little guys' faces suddenly wrinkled.
"Okay, go back and think about it. After practicing every day, come to the Heritage Pavilion at twilight hour. This will be the case from now on."
After saying that, Jiajing raised his hand and waved it. A gentle aura swept through, sending the little ones out of the inheritance pavilion, and at the same time closed the door.
"..."
(End of this chapter)
