The Empress’s Gigolo

“Gather in front of the palace at six o’clock tomorrow morning and set off with the troops! Dismissed!” Ren Baqian waved his hand at the people below, and the students immediately leaped away like alpacas released from their reins.

Yes, they leaped.

A bunch of students would be tagging along for the fireworks show.

Ren Baqian had always been reiterating to the students why they were learning and what this knowledge could be used for!

He didn’t want them to immediately become officials after they graduated!

Although the court of Dayao also lacked new blood that had undergone basic education, he needed them more.

Ren Baqian turned his head and saw the two sword masters standing in the distance.

“You have been waiting for a long time,” he greeted them with a smile.

“You exaggerate, Your Highness!” Du Mengyang and Ling Du replied politely.

“Have you read the books? Did you learn anything?” He looked at the two and asked what he was most concerned about.

“Apart from chemistry, the rest are okay!” one of them replied.

“Everything except for biology! I get angry when I read that humans evolved from monkeys. How could our ancestors be monkeys? Who is this Charles Darwin? I must make him pay the price for spouting nonsense!” The other man was quite annoyed.

The two weren’t really dispirited. In fact, Ren Baqian had already told Du Mengyang and Ling Du to pick what they liked and what they were good at.

“Oh, Charles Darwin… I’m not sure if his coffin still exists…” Ren Baqian pondered over this and thought that it would be pretty difficult for him to pay the price for spouting nonsense!

He had actually revised the current teaching materials twice and had erased a lot of information about Earth. Most people wouldn’t be thinking about the outside world after reading them.

However, these were just small issues. Du Mengyang and Ling Du were happy for the most part.

They actually took back quite a number of books. In addition to a simplified dictionary, which was revised according to the characters of this world, they also took math books that were at an elementary school level and algebraic geometry books that were at the high school freshman level. There was also a physical chemistry book for high school sophomores and a biology book for their first semester.

The two actually memorized so much information within just one month that it was extremely remarkable.

“It’s good that you two have learned something. I’m about to leave the city tomorrow and would like to ask you some questions to gauge your situation.” Ren Baqian suddenly burst out laughing.

“Please ask, Your Highness!”

“Come to my office!” He led Du Mengyang and Ling Du into his office, briefly flipped through the previous exams, and circled out a few questions for them. For each subject, there were ten fill-in-the-blank questions worth 40 points and six short-answer questions worth 60 points.

Two hours later, Ren Baqian looked at the papers they handed in and was overjoyed.

Both of them scored an average of above 80 points.

It was unexpectedly good for Du Mengyang and Ling Du to score above 80 marks in several subjects after just one month of learning.

Ren Baqian was already certain that these sword masters were unbelievably talented in learning!

“Congratulations, you two!” He smiled.

“Looks like we are qualified!” Du Mengyang and Ling Du smiled as well.

“Now we can talk about things in detail!” Ren Baqian sat back and said to them. “What you guys have read are the materials that I plan for the 13 and 14 year old youths to learn. It’s just a small part of the sea of knowledge; a small river where the water doesn’t even reach your knees.”

The two raised their eyebrows and felt a little surprised.

Du Mengyang and Ling Du learned these subjects very quickly, but they knew in their hearts that most of these had already exceeded the scope of geniuses.

For instance, elementary school math was pretty easy, but most of the high school level algebraic geometry was beyond what scholars had learned.

It was needless to mention physical chemistry.

“There’s still a lot of knowledge to be learned later. I hope you can obtain a deeper knowledge and use it as the basis for doing things. Regardless of whether it’s research or teaching, the duration of the contract is 20 years. After all, this knowledge isn’t easily spread to others. If you want to leave before the contract term ends, the cost will be huge. I hope you can understand this.

Of course, I’ll give you adequate rewards.

You will have an abundance of supplies, a stable life, and all the materials that you need.

In addition, you’ll also have money, women, and power. As long as you can give me what I want, I can provide what you need… After all, the knowledge and skills that you possess will all be used to serve the nation! This is true no matter if you are in Great Xia or Dayao.”

“Your Highness, in my honest opinion, Lan City isn’t our planned objective! Even if we agree, the others might not,” Du Mengyang replied.

They didn’t care about other aspects. All they wanted was to live the life they yearned for in a flourishing area, not spend the rest of their lives in a place of hardship and poverty like Lan City.

“Have you seen the streetlights?” Ren Baqian pointed outside.

“These streetlights are truly incredible!” Du Mengyang and Ling Du highly appreciated them. Even the capital of Great Xia was unable to have bright lights shine through the entire city at night.

In fact, except for a few streets, Great Xia’s capital was dark at night.

However, even though these streetlights could bring brightness, Lan City lacked too much.

“You two don’t have to worry about this. In five years’ time, Lan City’s prosperity will reach a level where people will want to spend the rest of their lives here. After all, this is the capital of Dayao. These streetlights are only the beginning. Countless merchants will be coming in and out, and the supplies will be abundant enough to entrance people. All of this can be achieved.

We can make a five year contract! If Lan City can’t reach a satisfactory level within five years, you can then move to the former Yun Nation to live. Everything you want will be over there. However, before all this, there must be a price to pay for living the life you want. Five years isn’t that long,” Ren Baqian replied indifferently. He was very confident about this.

Du Mengyang and Ling Du looked at each other and thought that this condition was indeed acceptable.

Besides, according to what they understood about Lan City these days, there had indeed been a lot of changes over the last two years.

This included the streetlights, the clock tower, and the items sold in the royal shops that couldn’t be found anywhere else.

It wasn’t impossible to say that Lan City would reach a fairly prosperous level in a few years.

As for the issue of the aboriginals not being friendly enough, Du Mengyang and Ling Du didn’t really care.

Judging from the information the pair had obtained, Ren Baqian had spent a lot of time on these changes.

People from the Yun Nation and Jing Tribe could now at least walk freely on the streets.

Du Mengyang and Ling Du believed that these changes would happen.

“We are only signing the agreement with you! Not with the imperial court!” The two noted another point.

“Sure.” Ren Baqian nodded.

He understood their concerns.

After all, he wasn’t an aboriginal either, so Du Mengyang and Ling Du could naturally trust him with some matters. Neither of them had much confidence in dealing with the aboriginal barbarians in the imperial court.

“How many people do you want, Your Highness?”

“The more the merrier! It would be better if all the sword masters could make this place their home!”

“We can only say that we’ll try our best. Also, we need to go back to contact the others.”

“In that case, I hope that you will not reject the company of my staff. As far as I know, the opinions in your organization aren’t unified. Your decision may affect some people, and not everyone will be pleased with it. My men will mainly be responsible for your safe return!” Ren Baqian explained.

“Thank you for your trouble, You Highness!” Du Mengyang and Ling Du looked at each other. Although this move might not be without the intention of surveillance, what he said also wasn’t without reason.

…

Ren Baqian was quite happy when he returned to the palace. Their performance had confirmed his theory. With the addition of this group of people, many things could be done much more easily in the future.

This would involve more than 100 talented academics!

In this era, people like this could play a huge role.

He wondered how much impact there would be on this world if he brought another 100 academics from Earth!

Even if they were limited by vision and insight, their talent was their greatest strength.

In a year or two, they could learn what others needed decades to achieve. After that, they could make tremendous contributions.

Besides, making a deal with these two Spirit Wheel sword masters was like breaking through a wall. It would be much easier to deal with the rest of the people.

Ren Baqian had put in place another piece of the future’s puzzle.

Li Yuanzhu was a representative of strength, while Du Mengyang and Ling Du would be representatives of productivity and technology.