Chapter Forty-Four: Teaching

  The rooster crows, announcing the dawn to the world. In the early hours of the morning, in the village of Zengjia, which was still shrouded in darkness, a series of cockcrows pierced through the silence of the night sky.

  The sound of the rooster's crowing was like a unified bugle call, and every household in the village took action. All children over five years old and under fifteen years old left their homes and gathered in the empty space at the center of the village.

  This time he had decided on himself for the early class would naturally not be forgotten, and before the rooster crowed, he was already waiting in that empty space in the village.

  After a cock crowed for a moment, the students came to the empty ground in twos and threes, and under Zhao Ji's arrangement and organization, they formed a neat team.

  Fifty-nine students, eight or nine years old and above were relatively better, able to understand Zhao Ji's intentions and follow his instructions.

  And those six or seven year old little rascals, due to their young age and limited understanding, often need Zhao to repeat his instructions several times, even guiding them hand in hand, before they finally line up properly.

  This difficult process made Zhao Ji's nerves, which were as tough as steel, somewhat unbearable. Just thinking about the difficulties of teaching in the future made him feel very headache.

  Shaking his head, Zhao Ji stood in front of the students and said loudly: "Fellow students, you must remember the arrangement of this team. Who is in front of and behind you, don't forget it. From now on, every day when we have early morning class, we will line up in this order first. Does everyone remember?"

  "Got it!"

  Maybe it's because they feel particularly novel and fun, maybe it's because of their parents' instructions, or maybe it's really a rare learning opportunity, in short, everyone is very cooperative, shouting in unison.

  "Alright, next, we begin our first lesson in martial arts - Stance Training."

  Zhao Ji's face was stern, and he explained loudly: "The practice of martial arts is vast and profound, complex and diverse. It can be summed up in just two words, but it encompasses internal strength, agility, techniques, and comprehension. We will need to study these aspects one by one later on, but before that, we must lay a solid foundation, which is stances."

  With his legs slightly bent and feet shoulder-width apart, Zhao Ji stood in a standard stance with his fists clenched at his sides. "This is the correct stance for standing meditation," he instructed. "Try it out, make sure you're doing it right, and hold it for a minute."

  A six-column and ten-row square formation, as soon as Zhao Ji's voice fell, they all shortened by a foot, whether it was the half-grown children or the five- or six-year-old radish heads, all of them did it with precision, taking on the stance of standing at attention.

  He walked around the square array, Zhao Ji explained the key points of standing postures in detail while checking the situation of each student. When he encountered a non-standard posture, he stopped to correct it.

  At the same time, Zhao Ji also checked on the tasks assigned yesterday and asked if they had come up with a name for their learning group. If not, he urged them to do so.

  For Zhao Ji, it was nothing, but for these students who had never been in contact with martial arts before, it was not easy.

  If it's said that those teenagers, gritting their teeth, can persist for a minute or two, then those girls and kids under ten years old almost have no way to persist.

  It was the old 22 dog, no, now it should be called Zeng Bao, who is only ten years old this year. The performance was not bad, although he was exhausted, his face flushed red, and sweat dripped from his forehead, but he persisted with strong willpower.

  While these students were standing in formation, some villagers came one after another behind the square formation and also stood in a square formation to learn.

  Martial arts, for these ordinary villagers' strength, is still relatively great. Coupled with Zhao Ji's early declaration that he didn't mind them listening in, almost everyone in the village turned out.

  Not only all the young, middle-aged and elderly people in the village came, but also some old men like Zeng Yu and some women came. Even if they didn't want to learn anything, they were willing to come and see the excitement.

  The morning class ended in about half an hour. During this period, Zhao Ji only let them stand still, doing nothing else.

  In Heaven's realm, what should be learned in the first lesson of studying martial arts? Zhao Ji didn't know. In the past, when he practiced Bajiquan, the first thing he learned was standing stake.

  Half an hour of standing still, those older students managed to hold on intermittently, while the younger ones almost collapsed to the ground.

  "Alright, morning class is over, everyone go back and have breakfast, then head to the classroom for lessons after half a time unit."

  As soon as it got light, Zhao Ji waved his hand and announced the end of the morning class.

  After becoming a teacher and running the school, there were some benefits. At least, breakfast was settled, no need to cook by himself, parents of students asked Zhao Ji to go over for meals.

  For the enthusiasm of the villagers, Zhao Ji did not decline and went to a villager's home for breakfast. Then, he ordered Zeng Yu two sentences, asking him to find someone to burn stones as soon as possible.

  The production of chalk requires quicklime, and the production of quicklime is not difficult, it's just high-temperature calcination of stones. The general technical key points will be mentioned later, and Zeng You can completely handle it himself.

  When chalk was not yet manufactured, Zhao Ji taught a group of students without lecturing on any substantial content, but only elaborated on his knowledge related to martial arts and told a few stories.

  On the third day, the quicklime was calcined and Zhao Ji mixed it with water to form slaked lime, then kneaded it into long strips, which became chalk after drying.

  With the chalk in hand, Zhao Ji immediately found a carpenter to make a blackboard. However, there was no specialized carpenter in Zengjia Village, but all the villagers could play a role, and their craftsmanship was passable.

  A large blackboard made up of fifty-nine small ones was set up, and the conditions for teaching were fully ripe. Thus, Zhao Ji formally began to lecture.

  In ancient China, the primer for young children was none other than "Three Character Classic", "Thousand Character Essay" and " Hundred Family Surnames". When used in heaven, "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Essay" are not quite suitable, but "Hundred Family Surnames" is still applicable.

  These past few days, Zhao Ji had not stopped his preparations for teaching. He sought guidance from Song Yuanqiao, Tian Hong and Yuan Chengzhi, and thoroughly understood the basic applications of all the characters in the "Eighteen Types of Martial Arts" book.

  By copying characters from that book, Zhao Ji created a Hundred Family Surnames with a mix of traditional Chinese characters, ancient seal script and pictograms for teaching purposes.

  It was said that a book was not suitable, because there was no paper and pen, Zhao Ji found a roll of cloth, wrote with charcoal on it, and came up with another version of the Hundred Family Surnames.

  "Everyone, today we start learning characters and studying the Hundred Family Surnames."

  Standing on the stage, he opened up a roll of cloth with the Hundred Family Surnames written on it and Zhao Ji loudly declared.