The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

Jiang Lin was still wearing that black cloak, his steps were unhurried, as if he were just visiting a neighbor.

"Headmaster!"

"Jiang Lin!"

The crowd quickly gathered around.

"It's alright." Jiang Lin waved his hand and glanced at Han Zhen, Zhou Yuan, and the other privileged young men following behind him.

These pampered young men, who were used to a life of luxury, were now covered in dirt and grime, their clothes stained with mud and bits of grass, their eyes still filled with lingering fear. But compared to the chaos they had experienced in the disaster camp, there was something more about them that was hard to describe.

"Let's go back to the city," Jiang Lin said calmly.

"Inside..." Su Shi couldn't help but glance into the cave dwelling.

"His Highness Prince Jing is handling things inside; it's not our place to worry about it," Jiang Lin interrupted him.

The group walked back in silence.

Zhou Yuan finally couldn't hold back any longer and leaned close to Jiang Lin, asking in a low voice, "Headmaster, what... what exactly happened just now? That Lord Chen, he..."

"He wants you dead, then frame the disaster victims, incite a popular uprising, so that his people behind him can take advantage of the chaos," Jiang Lin said casually.

Zhou Yuan and the others turned pale instantly. Though they were scoundrels, they never imagined they would become victims of such a conspiracy. The feeling of brushing past death still left them weak in the knees.

"Then... then His Highness Prince Jing came to rescue us?" Han Zhen asked.

Jiang Lin glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Save you? He's here to silence you.

When we returned to the small courtyard in the city that served as a makeshift academy, it was already dawn.

Qian Duoduo and her men were already waiting at the door. When she saw everyone return safely, she was so excited that she almost cried.

"Headmaster, you're finally back! You scared me to death!"

Jiang Lin ignored him and walked straight to the center of the courtyard, looking at the group of exhausted sons of the powerful and wealthy, some standing and some sitting.

"Are you all tired?" he asked.

No one dared to speak.

Feeling wronged? Feeling like today was the worst day ever?

Still no one spoke, but many people, such as Zhou Yuan, had already shown expressions of resentment on their faces.

"Very good." Jiang Lin nodded. "Looks like you're not completely stupid after all. You realize you almost became someone else's stepping stone."

He paused, looked around, and his voice suddenly turned cold.

"Starting today, the first class at the Bianjing branch of Jingshi Academy officially begins."

Everyone perked up their ears.

"Your first assignment," Jiang Lin pointed to the bucket of stinking silt that hadn't been cleaned up yet in the corner of the yard, "is not to find grass seeds."

He walked up to the group of teenagers, his gaze sweeping over their young but bewildered faces one by one.

"I need you to spend half a month writing a detailed report on the 'dung industry' in Bianjing City."

"Dung...dung industry?" Zhou Yuan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, wondering if he had misheard.

"That's right." Jiang Lin's lips curled into a wicked smile. "It's about collecting excrement. I need to know how much excrement Bianjing City produces every day, who transports it, where it's transported, who it's sold to, how much it costs per load, what gangs are involved in this business, who's the boss, how they make money, and how many people they support."

"I want you to investigate this dirtiest business from top to bottom."

"Whoever writes the best and most detailed report will be the winner this time."

"As for now," Jiang Lin clapped his hands, "all of you go to sleep. Tomorrow morning, go to the latrines and find work yourselves. If you can't find any, you'll have to carry buckets and clean my outhouses!"

The entire courtyard was deathly silent.

Those dozens of sons of powerful and wealthy families were all dumbfounded.

Scooping...scooping out manure?

Write a report on the manure industry?

Is this the kind of homework a human could come up with?

Zhou Yuan was the first to lose his temper. He felt that all the humiliations he had suffered in his entire life did not amount to more than what he had experienced in a single day.

"Headmaster! I won't do it!" he shouted, his neck stiff. "I came to the academy to study, not to shovel manure! My father is an official of the imperial court, not a latrine cleaner! If word gets out, where will the Zhou family put their face?"

His shout immediately resonated with many people.

"Yeah! That's so unfair!"

"What kind of homework is this? It's utterly humiliating!"

"We're here to learn profound knowledge about governing the world and benefiting the people, not to do this!"

A group of teenagers started chattering and grumbling, as if Jiang Lin making them shovel manure was worse than death. In their eyes, scholars should be about romance and discussing current affairs; how could they be associated with such filthy things?

Jiang Lin wasn't angry; he just quietly watched them make a scene.

Once the noise in the courtyard had subsided, he slowly walked up to Zhou Yuan.

"You said you came here to learn profound knowledge about governing the world and benefiting the people?"

"That's right!" Zhou Yuan puffed out his chest, looking like he would rather die than submit to his dignity and civility.

"Alright." Jiang Lin nodded. "Then let me ask you, what is 'managing the world'?"

"Those who govern the world are those who manage the state and save the people, who rule the world!" Zhou Yuan blurted out without thinking. These were things they had memorized by heart in their clan school.

"Well said." Jiang Lin then asked, "Then what is 'all under heaven'?"

"The world encompasses the nine provinces and four seas, and the common people..." Zhou Yuan's voice trailed off, and he vaguely sensed that something was amiss.

"How do ordinary people live?" Jiang Lin pressed on relentlessly.

"Rely on...rely on farming..."

What do we use to farm?

"Damn... the land..."

"What makes land fertile?"

Jiang Lin's voice wasn't loud, but every word struck Zhou Yuan's heart like a hammer blow.

Zhou Yuan opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

Of course he knew the answer. The agricultural books clearly stated, "Abundant manure in the fields yields full granaries." But it was incredibly difficult for him, a self-proclaimed refined scholar, to utter the word "manure."

Jiang Lin sneered and looked around at the group of speechless young masters.

"You all read the classics, spouting benevolence and morality, claiming to establish a future for the people and bring peace to all generations. Yet you don't even know what the earth is like, finding the basic necessities of life—eating, drinking, and excretion—filthy. What makes you think you can govern the world?"

"The latrine industry you look down on supports thousands of people in Bianjing. It connects the digestive systems of hundreds of thousands in the city with the harvest of tens of thousands of acres of fertile land outside the city. It's a massive industrial chain vital to the national economy and people's livelihood. You think it's dirty, you think it stinks, but the Song Dynasty's empire was built up bit by bit by these things you despise!"

"You can't even stand the most basic human needs, so what are you talking about in governing the world and helping the people? That's not governing the world and helping the people, that's a castle in the air, it'll collapse with the slightest breeze!"

Jiang Lin pointed at the bucket of stinking sludge, his voice filled with undisguised contempt.

"If you can't even stand this much filth, how can you face the skeletons of miners exploited to death in the mines of Daming Prefecture? How can you face the plight of those in the disaster camps who have to sell their children for a bite to eat? How can you face this country, riddled with holes and rotten to the core?"

"Feeling wronged? Feeling ashamed?"

"roll!"

Jiang Lin suddenly roared, startling all the boys.

"Get out of here now! Take your pathetic, worthless dignity and go back to your comfortable nests! Jing Shi Academy doesn't accept trash!"