flstandardbreds Chapter 158: A Song That Moved Tens of Thousands to Tears
Chapter 158: A Song That Moved Tens of Thousands to Tears
Men of the Han Dynasty are all ambitious, and no one wants to be outdone by their comrades. A man cannot say that he is not good enough.
Therefore, as soon as the disbandment was announced, the soldiers couldn't wait to find the platoon leader to sign up and apply to study at the Han Army Military Academy.
Whether I can learn it or not is a matter for later; let's get into the classroom first and reserve a spot.
General Guan didn't charge tuition, so why not go for the free option?
The soldiers remained calm, but Guan Xing began to have a headache.
The establishment of the Han Army Military Academy is currently only lip service; in reality, it lacks schools, teachers, and teaching materials—it has nothing, and is even worse than a makeshift operation.
Even a makeshift troupe has a makeshift stage, but what does Guan Xing have? His silver tongue?
Going from zero to one is really difficult; even a piece of chalk requires a lot of effort.
But the word has already been spoken, and school is about to start. Where will the soldiers have classes, what will they be taught first, and how will they be taught? We need to come up with a plan. You can't announce the establishment today and then order its disbandment tomorrow, can you?
Thinking about the work after the start of the semester, Guan Xing realized that he had been hasty. He returned to his tent, sat down in his seat, and frantically pulled out his hair, starting to worry about what to teach tomorrow.
Teaching aids are easy to come by; if you're really desperate, you can even use a clod of dirt to write something. But what about the textbook? You can't just start teaching the Analects right away; that would be too difficult.
You must understand that learning is a gradual process that progresses from easy to difficult. You must start with the simplest things first. You can't start learning calculus before you even understand multiplication tables.
What should be taught? There are no enlightenment classics like the Three Character Classic or the Thousand Character Classic in this era. It seems that the only book that can be used for enlightenment is the Analects. But Guan Xing himself is waiting for others to teach him that. How can he teach students?
What made Guan Xing even more desperate was that the Great Han Dynasty had neither an enlightening classic like the "Three Character Classic" nor any auxiliary tools like Arabic numerals or Pinyin. What he was learning was all traditional Chinese characters. Just thinking about the difficulty made his head spin.
No wonder studying was the privilege of the aristocracy; with such entry requirements, which commoner could possibly get in?
Guan Xing spent an entire afternoon thinking about where to start with the students, and finally decided to go all out.
At daybreak, Guan Xingming ordered his army to regroup, having the newly recruited thousand students sit in the middle of the training ground, while the rest of the army continued to expand outward from the students, forming a large circle.
Then he ordered someone to carry a large wooden box, about ten feet wide, and place it among the students. When the students looked up, they saw that the four sides of the box were covered with densely packed large characters, but unfortunately, none of them could recognize them.
The students didn't recognize the words, but some did. Xie Chong stared at the words on the box and read them aloud in surprise: "'Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty', what is this, a poem?"
Guan Xing shouted loudly, "To be precise, it's the lyrics, which can be sung like a song."
"Students, as the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. Although the Han Army Military Academy has been established and you have all joined, and are mentally prepared to learn, where do you start? No matter what you do, you have to have a beginning."
"I thought about this problem all day yesterday and finally decided to use an entertaining teaching method. First, we'll sing the songs, and then we'll write the lyrics. Combining singing with learning will make learning less boring, right?"
"Reading and learning to read can be difficult or easy. Take the lyrics on the wooden box, for example. A song only has two or three hundred words. If you copy each word thousands of times, you will naturally memorize its pronunciation and stroke order. You will be able to recognize it at a glance when you see it in the future."
"So let's sing first, then copy down the lyrics. After we've copied them down, we'll sing them again, and then we'll continue copying them down. I believe it won't be long before everyone has memorized the words. Don't you agree?"
The students exchanged glances, then simultaneously raised their fists and roared, "General, you are wise!"
They had originally thought that going to class would be like the legendary teacher, where if they didn't learn, they would definitely be beaten. So they were somewhat afraid of going to class. But now that General Guan said that they weren't in a hurry to learn to read, but to sing first, their fear lessened a lot.
Seeing that they all agreed, Guan Xing smiled and said, "Then let's begin. I'll sing first and you can listen. After you've listened, I'll teach you how to sing."
Upon hearing this, all the students sat up straight and listened intently. Even the soldiers on the perimeter looked ahead and pricked up their ears. Opportunities to hear General Guan sing were rare, and they couldn't afford to miss it.
Seeing that the soldiers were giving him face, Guan Xing stopped being coy, cleared his throat, and sang loudly: "The smoke of war rises... I look northward to the land..."
The students and soldiers listened with amusement in mind, but after a few sentences, the smiles on their faces began to freeze, and some even had tears in their eyes, because the patriotic sentiment of this song "Serving the Country with Utmost Loyalty" was too strong.
Besides its strong sense of patriotism, this song also resonates with the mindset of Liu Bei, the King of Hanzhong. As soldiers of the King of Hanzhong, the moment they heard the song, they naturally put themselves in the King of Hanzhong's shoes.
Listening to this song from the perspective of Liu Bei, the King of Hanzhong, evokes a completely different feeling.
"Smoke rises as I gaze northward across the land, dragon banners unfurl, horses neigh, swords flash like frost, my heart is as vast as the Yellow River, for twenty years I have traversed the land, who can stand against me..."
The King of Hanzhong harbored a deep ambition to serve his country and fought in the south and north for decades. Besides Cao Cao, how many others could rival him?
"With a maddening slash, how many loyal souls of our brothers have been buried far from home? They were willing to die a hundred times to repay their country, but people sighed in silence, their eyes filled with tears of blood..."
The King of Hanzhong fought for many years, burying countless brothers and comrades along the way. Although he was not afraid of death, he had no way to serve his country. He gave his all but could only sigh helplessly, which made people unable to help but shed tears.
"The horses' hooves head south, while people look north; as people look north, the grass turns green and yellow, and dust flies..."
The King of Hanzhong was slaughtered by Cao Cao all the way from the Central Plains to Jiangnan. Although he was in Jiangnan, he kept looking north to the Central Plains, always thinking about recovering the lost territories. His indomitable and unwavering attitude was captivating and made people want to follow him.
"I am willing to defend our land and expand our territory; the mighty Han Dynasty shall have people from all directions come to pay their respects..."
Since Emperor Gaozu established the Han Dynasty, more than four hundred years have passed. Since its founding, there have been the humiliation of the Siege of Baideng, as well as the great feats of sealing the wolf's lair and inscribing the Yanran Mountain. Although the past is no longer the same, as citizens of the Han Dynasty, who does not miss the young man who galloped across the Qilian Mountains and who does not want to lead his troops north again to inscribe the Yanran Mountain?
The Han Dynasty was in chaos, not destroyed. As citizens and soldiers of the Han Dynasty, they felt the glory of the Han Dynasty and were heartbroken by its shame. But no matter how heartbroken they were, they still had the pride unique to the people of the Han Dynasty, a pride that did not allow them to bow down to any enemy.
The soldiers of the Han Dynasty should be invincible, the banners of the Han Dynasty should fly forever, the people of the Han Dynasty should always hold their heads high, and the decrees of the Han emperor should awe the world.
Under heaven, all land belongs to the king; on the shores of the earth, all people are subjects of the king. Those who offend the mighty Han, no matter how far away, shall be punished. This has always been the way it has always been…
Now that the Emperor is in distress, and the King of Hanzhong has raised the banner of righteousness to punish the rebels, we, as citizens of the Great Han, should follow suit, lead the horses and stirrups, and do our part for the Great Han.
The king is raising an army; let us prepare our armor and weapons, and march with you.
Guan Xing finally finished singing, and when he looked closely, he was stunned to see that everyone, including Xie Chong and Ji Jie, had tears streaming down their faces. He couldn't help but think to himself, "I made tens of thousands of people cry with one song. I never thought I had this kind of talent. If I had known, I would have been in the entertainment industry in my past life."
He was stunned, but Xie Chong was not. Wiping away his tears, he said in a choked voice, "General, can you sing it again? I want to hear it again."
The soldiers shouted, "General, sing it again! It's so beautiful, sob sob..."
Their shouts were trembling, some even sounding like sobs, like pleading children whose voices were impossible to refuse.
(I'm still recovering from the New Year holiday, so please allow me some time. I'll just post one chapter today.)