Chapter 174: At the market before the imperial examination,
he took out the red envelope and sent away the clerk who delivered the results. Su Ze accepted the congratulations from everyone, and then sent someone to deliver the good news to Changning Guard. It took a busy day to stop.
Hai Rui was also in a very good mood. Two of his students passed the county examination, which was considered his achievement. But thinking of Xiong Yue made Hai Rui feel a little uncomfortable.
After the results were released, naturally there were old students who had failed the exam several times and cried bitterly, and there were also the lucky ones who had passed the exam once and sang loudly.
Although it is only the first level of the boy's test, there are already businessmen preparing to catch their son-in-law.
There was a scholar in his thirties who had no background at first glance and was not even a book boy. He squeezed over to look at the list. After shouting "win, win", he was killed by a businessman in Nanping County. They were kidnapped and taken back to get married.
As for whether this marriage can be successful, it depends on whether the scholar has a bad wife and whether the merchant's dowry is generous.
Chen Chaoyuan was about to cry. After many years of wasting time, he finally passed the county examination. At least he could continue on the road to the imperial examination.
Lin Qingcai looked a little lonely, but he adjusted quickly. This was his first time taking the county exam this year, so it was normal for him to fail. People like Su Ze who passed the exam for the first time were exceptions, and those who failed the exam for the first time were exceptions. The one who passes the exam is a monster.
Chen Chaoyuan said: "After many years of imperial examination, I finally have an explanation to my family." Those who
have passed the boy examination are called scholars. In fact, anyone before the scholar can be called a tongsheng.
In the era of further involution of the imperial examination, only those who passed the county examination could call themselves Tongsheng.
In other words, Su Ze and Chen Chaoyuan can call themselves Tongsheng.
Tong Sheng had no political privileges, but he was already considered prominent among scholars.
The imperial examination system was prevalent in Fujian. Big clans had social studies, health schools had health studies, some villages had township schools and village schools, and big families had private schools.
With the qualification of Tongsheng, one can serve as a private tutor, and the annual betrothal fee is one or twenty taels of silver, and there are gifts during the New Year, which can be regarded as a well-off life.
And if you pass the county examination, you can directly take the government examination in the future. Nowadays, more and more scholars are passing the test, so it is always good to get the admission ticket early.
Yu Zongyuan didn't know where he got the news, so he rushed back from Fuzhou Mansion and took Su Ze to the Yaoyue Tower for a drink.
In addition to congratulating Su Ze for winning the county examination, he also expressed his bitterness to Su Ze.
The price of brothels in Fuzhou is high, and the cost of eating, drinking and eating is expensive. In short, it is "difficult to live in Fuzhou".
Su Ze was speechless. As the commander-in-chief of the Fuzhou Left Guard, shouldn't you live in the military camp? Why do you eat, drink and have fun in Fuzhou City every day?
No wonder Yu Zongyuan paid money to the store several times. It turned out that the gold sales cave in Fuzhou was too expensive.
Su Ze thought of something and asked Yu Zongyuan about the Fujian Army's Yamen's attitude towards the "Deer King".
After Zong Yuan finished speaking, Su Ze was speechless. It seemed that he still underestimated the ability of Fujian officials to accept reality.
Nowadays, the merchant ships in Fujian waters are all ships bearing the Yuegang mark.
Lin Mojun will also "spot check" ships with Yuegang marks at sea. If they are fake Yuegang ships, they will also be robbed.
But Fujian's maritime merchants soon discovered that Fujian's waters were suddenly getting better.
The reason is also very simple. With the "Deer King" in charge, all the small Japanese pirates in Fujian waters have disappeared. You must know that the "Deer King" does not matter whether you are a Japanese pirate or not, as long as you don't have the Yuegang flag, he will fight directly.
With the "Deer King" in charge, some merchant ships who often pretended to be pirates no longer dared to "go to sea" to rob at will, and everyone became honest merchants.
As a result, the entire Fujian sea area was greatly regulated and the sea was in order.
Fujian officials also noticed the order at sea. As long as the "Deer King" does not land, the result seems to be not bad?
There are no Japanese pirates on land, and as long as there are no battleship losses at sea, there are no Japanese pirates.
Merchants continued to do business at sea, and those maritime merchant families in Fujian continued to make a lot of money.
Some businessmen even think that it would be great if such an order could be maintained forever!
Yuegang quickly regained its prosperity.
Yu Zongyuan put down the chicken legs and said: "The news from the Ministry of War is that the Japanese invaders broke through Deqing, Zhejiang and surrounded the city of Hangzhou. Now eastern Zhejiang is rotten. Compared with Fujian, it is really a pure land!" Su Ze also got it from Changning Wei
. According to the news, on the first day of the first lunar month, Japanese pirate Xu Feng appeared on the sea in eastern Zhejiang and led his troops to besiege Ningbo and Hangzhou. The Japanese rebellion in Zhejiang intensified.
Changning Wei and Yu Dayou also stopped exchanging letters, and it is not known where he led his troops to garrison.
I heard that the imperial court dismissed Nie Bao, Minister of War, because of the intensification of the Japanese rebellion in the southeast. All ministers were writing policies to pacify the Japanese. Both Yandang and Qingliu began to compete for the leadership of the Japanese.
After Emperor Jiajing dismissed Nie Bao, the Minister of the Ministry of War, his attitude towards the letters submitted by the officials was also very strange, that is, "not to retaliate."
When the emperor responded to the memorials of his ministers, he wrote the word "wen", which was called "reporting the news". It means that what is being played is already known.
Failure to report means that the emperor has read the title book of the memorial, but does not give instructions or return it, which means that it has been read and cannot be answered.
Now the speculators in the court saw greater hope.
Having read it and not replying to it means that the emperor attaches great importance to this matter, but is not satisfied with the previous memorial title.
So as long as you can impress the emperor, won't you be able to take the lead in the policy of pacifying Japan?
So these top Ming Dynasty essayists were all holding back on writing memorials at home, hoping to be like Zhuge Liang in "Longzhong Dui", who could become known to the world with one memorial and make a policy into a national policy.
Faced with such petitions, large and small, Emperor Jiajing still refused to report them all. However, the imperial court issued an order to ask the Zhengyin officials in the Japanese troubled areas such as Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong to also submit letters to quell the Japanese affairs.
You must know that submitting a memorial to the emperor is the right of an official in the imperial court. Ordinary local governors who submit memorials to the court can only talk about matters during their term of office, and cannot make casual remarks.
Even a big boss like Liubu Shangshu cannot discuss matters in the title book casually unless it is within his own responsibilities.
This is also the reason why although the Kedao spokespersons are low-level, they have high energy. They are actually members of the decision-making department.
Government officials outside the Yanguan system only have the right to implement the above policies and have no right to discuss policies.
Even if you are dissatisfied, you must strictly implement it first, otherwise you will be asked whether you are afraid of passing the exam.
However, the situation is different for Yanguan. All major and small matters can be reported on the table, and everything from the emperor's family affairs to national affairs can be discussed.
But whether he will be involved in court battles depends on the emperor's mood.
This time, Emperor Jiajing rarely asked the administrative officials of the provinces affected by the Japanese rebellion to write a letter to express their opinions on the Japanese rebellion. This also made the entire coastal officials excited!
This is an opportunity to get ahead!
If the written policy for pacifying Japan is used by the court, he may be awarded an important position and reach the sky in one step!
In Nanping City, there were only two official seal officials, Fang Zhifu and Baizhi County, who were qualified to write the memorial. At this time, they were all sitting in the study room, thinking about how to write a letter to pacify the Japanese and impress the emperor.
But all this has nothing to do with Su Ze. He is not even a scholar and has no qualifications to worry about such important matters. The date for the government examination has also been set, which is March 10th. After the county examination, it will be February 20th, and now there are only twenty days before the government examination.
The seven counties under Yanping Prefecture are Nanping County, Youxi County, Jiangle County, Sha County, Shunchang County, Yongan County, and Datian County.
The government examination is an exam that all candidates who have passed the county examination qualifications in Yanping Prefecture take the exam together. Some candidates who live in remote areas have come to Nanping County in advance to adapt to the environment. The entire Nanping County inn is packed with people.
There was no room left in the inn, so there were some monasteries outside the city that had single rooms open. These were temporary rooms for traveling monks from the monasteries. At this time, they became places where scholars rushing to take the imperial examinations stayed.
Compared with the bustling city, the temple is cleaner, and you can also have a vegetarian meal with the monks in the temple. The main reason is that it is economical.
There are already many Buddhist temples in Nanping County, but so many people suddenly crowded in, making the streets of Nanping County obviously lively.
Chen Chaoyuan learned from his clan brother that there were 1,500 children participating in the government examination this time. He quickly returned to the editorial office and informed Su Ze of the news.
"Why are there so many people?"
Chen Chaoyuan also frowned and said, "There are fifty people who pass the county examination every year in no county. These are accumulated over the years."
Su Ze understood now. The boy took three exams. As long as you pass, you don't need to take the exam again next time, you can take the next exam directly.
For example, if Su Ze passed the county examination this year, he will only need to take the prefectural examination directly after taking three examinations next year.
Sure enough, the imperial examination is the most cruel exam. With so many people taking the exam together, if you fail the exam in the previous year, you will have to take the exam together with the people in the next year.
Chen Chaoyuan said with envy: "Rulin is the top case in Nanping County this year. You will definitely pass the imperial examination." Lin Qingcai was
even more envious. It was also his first time to take part in the imperial examination, and Su Ze had already passed two tests. , we all take classes together at Hai Rui's place, why are there such big gaps between people?
But what Su Ze didn't expect was that the busiest part of the exam was the products brought by those who were rushing to take the exam.
Scholars from various counties who were rushing to take the exams brought special products from their hometowns and sold them in the streets and alleys of Nanping Prefecture.
They were scholars, and they had passed the government examinations. No one collected taxes when they entered the city.
For many scholars, selling goods is more important than taking the exam this time in Nanping.
With scholars from various counties gathering in Nanping, Su Ze decisively ordered two hundred more copies of "The Surprise" to be printed, and sure enough, all of them were sold.
On March 1st, all the children from various counties who rushed to Nanping arrived. The commercial atmosphere in Nanping City reached its peak. Almost every street was full of scholars setting up stalls. Even Su Ze, who was studying behind closed doors, couldn't help it. , went out with Chen Chaoyuan and Lin Qingcai to see what local specialties scholars from various counties had brought.
"Jianle Baibu! Jiangle Baibu!"
Most of the scholars were still embarrassed to openly shout for sale, but there were some exceptions. I saw a young man shouting out the goods he was selling, attracting many passers-by to watch.
Chen Chaoyuan is from Nanping County, so he is naturally familiar with such scenes. It is like this every time in the government examination, and there are many scholars selling books on the streets.
"Jianle County's cotton cloth is famous throughout the province and can even be sold as far as Southeast Asia."
Su Ze walked over and found that the white cloth sold by this boy was smooth and whiter than ordinary Gebu. It was already on par with the cloth woven by Changningwei's loom. .
"Are there cotton fields in Jiangle County?"
The boy heard Su Ze's question and said with a smile: "Jianle County is full of cotton fields. My family alone has 20 acres of cotton fields." Twenty acres of cotton fields,
look. Come and be a landowner.
Su Ze looked at the scholar and saw that he was wearing an indigo-dyed robe, but there were patterns on the robe, so he was from a wealthy family.
Modern printing and dyeing patterns are not complicated, but in ancient times, if you want to print patterns on clothes, you need to use beeswax to draw patterns on white cloth by hand with a wax knife.
Beeswax first seals the gaps between the cloths before printing and dyeing. After the cloths are all dyed, the beeswax is boiled in hot water to obtain a patterned cloth.
Therefore, poor people simply cannot afford to wear patterned fabrics.
"I'm Qiu Lun, Jiangle County. Brother, do you want to buy cotton?"
Qiu Lun also noticed Su Ze's extraordinary bearing, and when he asked about the cotton fields, he also wanted to make friends.
The circulation of goods is not frequent these days, and it is not easy to find big customers. Scholars make connections, sometimes just to sell goods.
Su Ze cupped his hands and said, "Su Ze, Nanping County, my family has opened a weaving and dyeing workshop, and I want to buy some cotton."
Changningwei's weaving industry is getting bigger and bigger. Under Lu's organization, all the women in Changningwei have joined. Arrive at the weaving workshop.
The cotton purchased from Zhang Haihu has been used up, and all the cotton from Beishan Chen has been sold to Changning Wei, but there is still a gap.
Su Ze suddenly became interested when he heard that cotton was produced in Jiangle County.
"Is it Su Rulin who wrote The Peony Pavilion?"
Qiu Lun asked quickly.
This is the benefit of being famous. Su Ze nodded, and
Qiu Lun said with some familiarity: "Brother Su, if you go to Jiangle County, you must stay in a humble house! Buying cotton is easy, my family has been dealing with cotton for generations, Su Brother, just tell me a number!"
Su Ze was also overjoyed. He was worried about the source of cotton. He didn't expect there to be so many cotton fields in Jiangle County. He told a number. Qiu Lun looked up at him and said, "I didn't expect
Su It's disrespectful that my brother's weaving workshop is so big."
The Qiu family also produces cotton and weaves fabrics, but their weaving workshop only has a dozen workers. They can't even finish weaving and sell the remaining cotton. .
Qiu Lun also heard that there were large weaving workshops with hundreds of people in Songjiang, consuming a large amount of cotton every month.
But I didn't expect that Su Ze would ask for so much cotton at once. Knowing that Su Ze's industry was huge, he even wanted to make friends with him.
Qiu Lun immediately exchanged greetings with Su Ze, and they met to have a drink after the examination. Su Ze also said that he would go to Jiangle County after the examination to discuss the long-term purchase of cotton.
Su Ze also saw various sellers of local specialties, medicines, fruits, and honey. The most outrageous thing was that there were people who brought chickens, ducks and geese to Nanping for sale.
Su Ze bought some seasonal bamboo shoots, and his "Appraisal" and "Trading" skills reached Level 2, and then he reluctantly went back.
On March 3, the government office announced the results, and the registration process for the government examination began.
(End of chapter)