I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 866 - Chapter 866 Persuasion (3)

Chapter 866: Persuasion (3) Chapter 866: Persuasion (3) Editor: Atlas Studios Little Bear said dejectedly, “I don’t understand why farmers still don’t have enough to eat even after working so hard.

Nor the money to treat their illnesses and buy medicine when they’re sick.

Father said that it’s because farmers rely entirely on the weather to make a living.

When the weather is great, they reap a good harvest, and when the weather is bad, their harvest suffers.

Sometimes the weather is good and sometimes it’s bad.

No matter how much they accumulate during the good times, they will have nothing left during a year when natural disaster strikes.

Besides, very few commoners have significant savings.” “And my mother said that it’s because the yield of grains is low, and the taxes on land rental are too high, making it difficult for the farmers to accumulate savings and grains.

The farmers also typically don’t have other sources of income.

When farming is busy, they work to the point of exhaustion, but in idle times, they all have nothing to do.” Little Bear said, “I don’t quite understand that.

I think it’s because they have no oxen.

Blackie’s family doesn’t have oxen, so his family is very poor.

Meanwhile, Dacai’s family has two oxen, and his family is much better off.

My mother manages a big oxen farm.

I think as long as they give an ox to families without oxen, the farmers will be able to eat their fill.” Stunned, Fang Zhiyuan looked at Mu Yangling and stood up solemnly.

He bowed and said, “The young prince has a benevolent heart.

I’m really sorry for judging others with my petty heart.” “Teacher, why do you say that?

Quickly sit down.

I should seek your understanding instead.

This child hasn’t read many books under our supervision since he was young, so he can’t understand profound words.

I’m afraid he’s caused the teachers a lot of trouble.” Just as Fang Zhiyuan was about to be humble, Little Treasure said with a serious expression, “Brother, you’re wrong.

Even if one owns an ox, they might not be able to eat their fill.

Zhuzi’s family owns oxen, but his family doesn’t have enough to eat either.

Moreover, they can’t even fork out the money to treat illnesses.

Hence, it doesn’t matter if they own an ox or not.” “No, there clearly is a huge difference.” The two children started arguing.

This being the first time Fang Zhiyuan was witnessing something like this, his eyes widened in shock.

After all, Little Bear had only entered the palace to study for less than half a month and was extremely tired every day.

He did not even have much time to talk, so he naturally did not have the time to argue with Little Treasure.

Hence, this was the first time Fang Zhiyuan had seen such a scene.

Just as his eyes widened, Mu Yangling waved her hand to interrupt their argument and said, “Alright, even if you continue arguing like this until tomorrow, you won’t be able to tell who’s right and who’s wrong.

You should just find a time to do an investigation tomorrow.

You’ll understand the difference after comparing the situation of families with and without oxen.” From the corner of her eye, Mu Yangling caught the slight surprise in Fang Zhiyuan’s eyes.

She said, “After you’ve done your investigation, submit a report to your teacher and let him give you some pointers.” Little Treasure and Little Bear quickly agreed.

This was not the first time they had done such a thing.

At this moment, they were already mentally preparing to leave the palace to do an investigation during the break.

“Junior Tutor Fang, look, the children are very busy and don’t waste any time.

Whether it’s brotherly love, filial piety to parents, or solving the doubts in their hearts, these all take time.

Therefore, I don’t want the Crown Prince and the Prince to spend all their time on textbooks.” Fang Zhiyuan could not help but sit up straight, knowing that she was about to state her purpose for coming.

After laying out so much groundwork, wasn’t it just to make a request of him?

He asked, “What’s your opinion, Your Highness?” “I think that because the children of the royal family have access to more educational resources than the children of the poor, they naturally have more choices.

It’s not difficult to teach them according to their aptitude.

Therefore, Junior Tutor Fang, why don’t you slow down the teaching and give the children more freedom to do what they want and allow them to seek answers on their own?

Just like Little Bear asked just now, why are the farmers not rich despite working so hard?

They can’t even afford the most basic food and clothing.

Even if the teachers can give him an answer to this question, will your answer satisfy them?” “Instead of giving them perfunctory or fixed answers, it’s better to let them find out for themselves.” “Your Highness, do you want the palace to be like the Prince’s estate and take two days off every five days?” Fang Zhiyuan was not stupid.

After saying so much, Mu Yangling’s emphasis was on the time.

Mu Yangling nodded and said frankly, “That’s right, Junior Tutor Fang.

They’re not in a hurry to grow up.

Even if they enter the Imperial Court at the age of 20, that’d still be much earlier than others, right?” How many people in this world could become jinshis and officials before the age of 20?

Fang Zhiyuan said, “His Majesty should be the one to decide what age is appropriate for the princes to enter the Imperial Court.” “But it’s naturally impossible for the princes to enter the court before they complete their studies.

As long as Junior Tutor Fang agrees to the new learning schedule, His Majesty will naturally adjust the age for the prince to enter the court.” At this point, Mu Yangling said with a smile, “Since His Majesty asked me to look for Junior Tutor Fang, he clearly thinks that you can make the decision on this matter.” Fang Zhiyuan’s mind raced.

If the Emperor didn’t agree, he could have rejected Prince Rong and Princess Consort Rong directly.

There was no need to send them to him.

Now that Princess Consort Rong was here, it meant that the Emperor could not make up his mind.

It was Princess Consort Rong, not Prince Rong, who came, humbly explaining things before raising her request.

If it was Prince Rong, with his personality, he would probably ask him to adjust the learning schedule as soon as he opened his mouth.

And with his personality, the two sides would probably quarrel before they could say more than two sentences.

Instead, it was Princess Consort Rong, a woman, who came.

Based on this fact alone, he would not be too calculative with her, and it did not matter even if she said something wrong.

Therefore, although the Emperor was uncertain, he was actually biased towards Princess Consort Rong.

Fang Zhiyuan sighed and began to think seriously.

If the Crown Prince could maintain such a learning attitude like before, there was nothing wrong with easing the learning schedule.

Just as Princess Consort Rong had said, they were descendants of the royal family and did not need to take the Imperial Examination, so they had many choices.

And a person’s development was never just from studying.

There were plenty of things in everyday life that could allow a child to grow and learn; they could learn from the good and avoid the bad.

However, this learning method was not suitable for every member of the royal family, because not all princes were guided by someone like Princess Consort Rong.

At the very least, he wouldn’t.

He might tell his child that the land rent tax was too high, or he might lament that the land was barren, that the weather wasn’t good, and that the people were suffering.

However, he wouldn’t think of letting his child find the answer himself.

Still, it was undeniable that such an arrangement could allow the descendants of the royal family to have a broader path.

At the very least, it could allow them to nurture their interests and hobbies more, preventing them from swarming into the vortex of power when they grew up.

But most importantly, this was a beneficial teaching method for the Crown Prince.

As the Crown Prince’s Junior Tutor, Fang Zhiyuan naturally had to teach with the Crown Prince’s interest in mind.

Letting the Crown Prince come into contact with the commoners’ lives at such a young age would have a huge impact and effect on his future political career.

With such learning experience, as long as the Crown Prince’s temperament was not too bad, he would not grow crooked.

That would certainly help him become a wise ruler in the future.

To be able to nurture a wise ruler was indeed tempting for Fang Zhiyuan.

What the civil officials pursued was to leave their names in history.

As a teacher of the future Emperor, his greatest wish was to nurture a wise ruler.

In the end, Fang Zhiyuan decided to adopt Mu Yangling’s suggestion.

He said, “Let me convince the other teachers.” Mu Yangling bowed gratefully to Fang Zhiyuan and asked Little Treasure and Little Bear to bow to their teacher before leaving with them.

As Mu Yangling turned around, Fang Zhiyuan asked, “Your Highness seems to dislike Zhu Xi very much.” Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “I can’t say that I like him or not.

If his ‘Annotations to the Four Books’ didn’t have such a huge impact, I might praise him for being smart and knowledgeable.

However, this book is now being blindly regarded as a bible by the masses, so I can’t say that I have a good impression of him.

This isn’t directed at him personally, but at the entire Cheng-Zhu school of thought.

After all, all he did was write a book.”