1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 84 Studying? Study my ass!

Peng Yi, Huang Bingxian, Li Qi, and Lu Qin all had a decent educational foundation.

But they are not professional teachers after all; being able to learn doesn't necessarily mean they can teach.

If you ask them to give a lecture, even if it's just about the most basic knowledge, they'll be at a loss.

If we could write a simple textbook for them, and have them explain the content step by step and assign exercises from the textbook, it might be worth a try.

To be honest, Peng Gang's teaching achievements are not particularly remarkable.

To date, out of the 120 students in the ten groups, fewer than 50 have a relatively high level of proficiency in pinyin.

Most of these fifty students were from the second-best group, as well as students who already had a strong academic background.

Among illiterate students, those who are hardworking, intelligent, and whose humanities scores rank in the top twenty are ultimately only a minority, like Zhang Ze and Chen Xuyuan.

Many illiterate students, like Huang Dabiao, perform well in martial arts subjects but have dismal grades in humanities subjects.

They lack enthusiasm for studying humanities subjects, and even reject learning after experiencing frustration. They are inattentive in class and would rather practice marching exercises.

There are still twenty days until the Chinese New Year.

For the next twenty days, Peng Gang announced that classes would be temporarily suspended, and that veteran group members would lead new group members in practicing marching exercises.

Upon learning that there would be no classes for the next twenty days, Huang Dabiao and his group of old group members who disliked academic classes were overjoyed, calling out to each other and dancing with glee.

"Let's go! Let's train these greenhorns!" Grabbing his short sword, Huang Dabiao took off running excitedly towards the training ground.

Seeing this, Peng Gang shook his head with a hint of regret.

"Huang Dabiao, you guys never study seriously and are making the teacher angry!" Seeing Peng Gang's disappointment with Huang Dabiao and the others, Li Qi couldn't help but step forward and nag Huang Dabiao a few times.

"Study? Study my ass! I'd rather be locked up and scattered lime than study." Huang Dabiao flaunted the short sword in his hand. "I'm bad at humanities, but I still received this precious sword from my teacher, didn't I?"

Huang Dabiao played with the short sword in his hand, liking it more and more as he handled it.

His late father was a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) who ran a镖师 (bodyguard/escort service). He had learned martial arts and swordsmanship from his father since he was a child and had been exposed to many weapons. He knew that the short sword in his hand was a treasure that money could hardly buy.

“I even got Mr. Huang’s silver watch!” As a rare Tujia person in the group, Li Qi decided to help Huang Dabiao out.

"Aren't you envious of the master's sword? Commander Xie said it's a fine sword. Your martial arts grades are so good. If you're willing to study hard, I'll talk to the master and maybe he'll reward you with his sword once your humanities grades improve."

"Nonsense, baseless rumors." Mr. Huang Dabiao's eyes lit up when he heard Peng Gang's sword, but his gaze quickly dimmed again.

“I have seen your sword, sir. It is a very valuable item. How can you just give it away like that? Besides, it is just a sword. If I perform meritorious service in the future, I can ask you for a reward. If you are in a good mood, you will reward me!”

"Hopeless!" Li Qi spat.

"I'm not going to say anything more. I'm going to tease those greenhorns first!" Huang Dabiao said, seeing his companion urging him on, and didn't want to continue arguing with Li Qi.

Li Qi was stomping his feet, angry with Huang Dabiao, when Lu Qin came over: "Li Qi, ignore that idiot Huang Dabiao, the master is looking for us."

When Li Qi and Lu Qin arrived at Peng Gang's residence, Peng Yi and Huang Bingxian had already moved a wooden stool and sat in front of Peng Gang's plank table.

Once everyone had arrived, Peng Gang said to them, "For the next twenty days, the four of you will not need to participate in training. Help me compile the dictionary."

As he spoke, Peng Gang placed the books passed down from his ancestors in the book box onto the table. Among them were Zhu Xi's annotated "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books," "The True Text of the Five Classics," "The Correct Questions for Short Answers," a half-reprinted copy of the "Kangxi Dictionary," and "The Complete Collection of Policy Studies" with its cover missing. There were also "The Three Character Classic," "The Thousand Character Classic," and "The Jade Forest of Elementary Learning," which had been worn out by generations of his family.

Finally, there's two-thirds of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which Wild Boar Skin considers a legendary military treatise.

"A dictionary?" Huang Bingxian pointed to the half-finished Kangxi Dictionary on the table. "Don't you have a dictionary, sir?"

Huang Bingxian had participated in the county examination, and although he did not pass it, he knew that compiling a dictionary was an extremely large undertaking.

Among the five of them, not even one could be a scholar, so Peng Gang's idea of ​​having them compile a dictionary together was really a joke.

"The dictionary I'm going to compile is something only a handful of us in the whole world can do," Peng Gang said encouragingly when he saw their lack of confidence. "Don't underestimate yourselves. Have confidence in yourselves. The dictionary I'm going to compile has pinyin. Don't you think only a handful of us in the whole world can compile it?"

A bright light shone in Huang Bingxian's eyes. A dictionary with pinyin could indeed only be compiled by him and his students.

At first, Huang Bingxian was quite resistant to learning the simplistic pinyin, but after mastering it, he realized its benefits.

"If there were a dictionary with pinyin, children who are just starting out in school could learn pinyin in just two or three months. When they encounter a word they don't know, they wouldn't have to guess or ask someone for help. This would be a great achievement that will be remembered for generations to come!" Thinking of this, Huang Bingxian trembled with excitement, but soon he felt disappointed and filled with endless regret.

"Although the pinyin system created by the gentleman is very useful, it is too unconventional and difficult to promote. Even if a dictionary is compiled, only the gentleman's students will use it."

“From now on, I will make everyone in the world my students,” Peng Gang said with great enthusiasm. “Take up your paper and pen and do as I say.”

Peng Gang gave the four of them paper and pens, and asked them to select one thousand commonly used characters from the books on the table, write the pinyin on the top of each character, and then make words with each character.

While the four of them were compiling commonly used characters and forming words based on existing books, Peng Gang was not idle either. He racked his brains to recall his childhood memories from his previous life and compiled Chinese and math textbooks equivalent to first grade level.

After finishing the first draft of the textbook, considering that although some of his students could read, they lacked books to read, Peng Gang used his imagination to write several simple reading materials with punctuation marks, suitable for his students, in plain and easy-to-understand language:
"The Dog That Turns Back on Its Master", "Seven Reasons for Wild Boar Skin's Anger", "The Story of San Gui Opening the Gate", "The Story of the Shaved Head Village", "The Emperor Fell in Love with the Nunnery", "The Emperor with Pockmarks and His Nine Princes", "The Emperor Who Liked Writing Poems and Stamping Them", "The Scholar Who Was Executed Along with His Entire Family Because of a Book", "The Frugal Emperor's Patchwork Piece for Ten Taels of Silver".
After Peng Gang finished writing these, Peng Yi, Huang Bingxian, Li Qi, and Lu Qin successively completed their tasks.

Peng Gang compiled a simplified dictionary of commonly used characters by adding or subtracting words from the characters they had compiled. He then taught them on the spot how to look up characters based on their pinyin, stroke order, and radicals.

After teaching them how to use the dictionary, Peng Gang handed the dictionary along with several blank notebooks to Huang Bingxian, Li Qi, and Lu Qin, and said to them, "From now on, you don't need to do morning exercises. Just come here to copy the dictionary. For each dictionary you copy well, I will reward you with twenty work points."

After giving his instructions, Peng Gang stretched and strolled towards the classroom, carrying the short popular story he had written.

Upon entering the classroom, Peng Gang found a few wooden planks and nailed them to the corner of the classroom to serve as a makeshift bookshelf. He placed a few thin books on them and took a brush from the podium to write the three characters "Reading Corner" on the cedar pillar in the corner.

"Sir." Li Qi had arrived in the classroom at some point.

"What is it?" Peng Gang asked.

"I have a favor to ask," Li Qi said hesitantly and timidly.

"Why are you being so indecisive, Li Qi? You're not usually like this. Just say what you have to say." Peng Gang turned his head to look at Li Qi.

“Huang Dabiao likes your sword. I’m thinking of using this to motivate him to do well in his studies,” Li Qi said. “Huang Dabiao is excellent at marching and leading his team. It would be such a pity if he were blind.”

Peng Gang also felt it was a pity about Huang Dabiao, as the kid was quite skilled in martial arts and had even given Peng Gang some pointers on martial arts.

In addition, Huang Dabiao was not only a natural leader among the younger generation, but also had a certain talent for leading troops. Even Xie Bin and Hou Jiyong liked him very much and tried to poach Huang Dabiao from Peng Gang several times by paying a high price.

“It’s just a knife, approved.” Peng Gang paused and said, “Go back and tell Huang Dabiao that I’m going to establish a company after the Dragon Boat Festival next year. If he passes the liberal arts exam during the Dragon Boat Festival, I’ll make him a company commander or deputy company commander, leading ten groups!”

(End of this chapter)