Start with the humble bridegroom

Chapter 318
Zhang Wuliu, who was mentioned by Zhang Zhe and his wife, is now in Jiangnan.

Since Zhaoyang County was newly returned to Dazheng last year, the emperor awarded all the land and houses that had been confiscated in the five counties under Zhaoyang County to the heroes of the Southern Expedition, nobles in Beijing, aristocratic families and close officials.

These stewards sent by families from the north to Zhaoyang also brought the best crop in the north, wheat.

There are very few people in the Jiangnan area who have been rewarded, and Zhang Zhe is one of them.There are [-] mu of paddy fields and [-] mu of mountain forest, a total of two villas, hundreds of slaves, and a big house in Xiushan County.

Zhang Wuliu arrived at Xiushan in early September, and this was his second visit to Xiushan.

The last time I came here was July, which happened to be the time for summer harvest and autumn plowing.Today's Zhang family has developed much compared to Zhang Zhe's grandfather's generation. The land in Taowan alone has expanded to [-] mu. Including Meng Xiaowan's Zhuangzi in Jiangling, the two farms have an area of ​​[-] mu. , are all good paddy fields.

But compared with the [-] mu of paddy fields in Xiushan, these paddy fields can only be regarded as upper-middle.According to Zhang Wuliu, the ground here can overflow with oil if you pinch it.

In the first half of the year, half of the fields in the Zhang family were planted with rice, while the other half were planted with sweet potatoes and potatoes.When Zhang Wuliu arrived in Xiushan in the first half of the year, sweet potatoes were planted even on the [-] mu of mountain land without any trees.

In this world, if the owner wants to grow what he wants and is willing to guarantee the bottom line, the tenant can only follow the landlord's wishes.In Xiushan, Lao Lei's farmers are all slaves of the Zhang family, and he will not object to the choice of the master's family.

This year, Jiangnan has had a lot of rain. After autumn, it was only sunny for seven or eight days, and white mist of water vapor was splashed on the blue tiles outside the house.In the room, Zhang Wuliu was peeling a steaming roasted sweet potato in his hands. He breathed out with his trembling tongue, and while eating the sweet potato, he was doing the accounting.

The sweet potatoes and potatoes that Lang Jun got are really good things!Lang Jun said that the highest yield per mu of this thing is [-] catties, and even he thought Lang Jun was joking.However, after Zhang Wuliu carefully cultivated two seasons a year, he found that the highest yield of these two things was more than [-] catties per mu. The average yield of sweet potatoes was as high as [-] catties, and the average yield of potatoes was directly Eight thousand four hundred catties were broken!

As for what Lang Jun said about this kind of production, he has never understood it. It is always very mysterious to talk about new species, new time and space, and other changes.Sweet potatoes are sweet, and they don’t take up paddy fields. They can be planted on any hillside. Potatoes don’t pick a place except for their poor taste.

For these two things, the eldest lady also specially sent a lot of money from Jiangling back to Wuling, and bought half of the back mountain of Taowan.

The corners of Zhang Wuliu's eyes are full of smiles. This year Xiushan has planted a crop of sweet potatoes and potatoes in the spring, with 500 acres of mountain land, and harvested a full [-] million catties of grain in July. Now the sweet potatoes and potatoes in autumn will not be available until late October. receive.

The continuous autumn rains have caused unspeakable misery to the wheat fields and paddy fields everywhere, but at this time it is the seedling stage of sweet potatoes and potatoes, but the more water the better!All the stewards of various families in Zhaoyang County were complaining, but he was the only one who sat firmly on Mount Tai.Even Lao Lei, the local steward, grumbled and secretly laughed.The Zhang family really has no shortage of food.

As for the issue of the spread of grain seeds, Zhang Wuliu was not worried either.

Now in Taowan, only Zhang and Huang's family have accepted the new food.The old patriarch of the Zhang family also drank blood with the members of the Huang clan. Who dared to spread the grain seeds out of Taowan without permission. The men lit sky lanterns and the women soaked the pig cages.

Zhang Wuliu flipped through the account book several times, and finally put the book in his clothes pocket with satisfaction, and then began to think about a question.

Lang Jun sent a letter asking them to move to the capital as well, saying that they were going to buy a yard in the capital.

Ordinarily, Zhang Wuliu would definitely do his part in the position of the head of the family, but at this time Zhang Wuliu was a little hesitant.In his view, these lands in the south of the Yangtze River are the foundation of the Zhang family, especially sweet potatoes and potatoes. He is afraid that the grain seeds will be "stolen" if he leaves.

"After harvesting these grains in autumn, let's go to Chang'an first to see how your husband is doing." Finally, Zhang Wuliu made up his mind, "After all, the eldest lady is about to give birth."

"Hey, why does the eldest lady like to eat spicy food!" Zhang Wuliu's worries were endless, and even the women's words that Mrs. Qin accidentally said were in his heart.Sour and hot girl, it seems that the first generation of the Zhang family is a sister.

There is too much rain in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River, and reports that the autumn harvest will be greatly reduced have arrived in Chang'an.During the past few days of reading papers in the Gong Yuan, the atmosphere in the East Palace seemed extremely dignified.

As soon as the crown prince was established this year, the south of the Yangtze River was hit by heavy rain, and many places declared that there might be no harvest in autumn.

This caused a subtle change in the prince's attitude towards the two ongoing wars in the north and the south. During the internal discussions in the East Palace, the prince euphemistically expressed his intention to end the southern war for the first time.

"Absolutely not!" The person who spoke was King Xianma of the Eastern Palace, "There are two wars in the north and the south, and the strategy of the south is in the chest of His Majesty. The expenses of the past few years and the war in the north must be recovered from the Southern Wu, so The crown prince can’t back down a bit. But the Dai Kingdom in the north can play tricks, as long as the supply continues and Hengshan is not lost, the damage to the Dai people is also limited.”

Hou Chaoqing, the secretary of the Eastern Palace, immediately agreed with Wang Jie's opinion.

"Your Majesty chooses the heir. Apart from his eldest son status, His Majesty has always advocated the attitude of striving to conquer the whole world for ten years. His Majesty has just supervised the country, so you must not show fear at this time. The disaster in the south of the Yangtze River, but in the end They are all places where grain is produced, and there are warehouses everywhere, just send the censor to open grain warehouses in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, so that the price of grain will be stable."

The prince was noncommittal, and turned his head to look at his most respected former king Fu of the Song Dynasty, the number one mastermind under his command, and now the chief official of the East Palace, Liu Jiansheng.Liu Jiansheng, who was over [-] years old, nodded when he saw the prince.

"The crown prince supervises the country, and you must not change the order from day to day, and panic when things happen. You just stay calm, and the hearts of the civil and military people in the court will naturally be stable. There are three envoys in every way in the south of the Yangtze River. The crown prince only needs to remind them to be careful, and at most six will also Send people down to check the storage and ask people's sentiments. If there is public anger, choose a few to deal with. Firstly, to establish power at the court, secondly, to win the hearts of the people, and thirdly, if there are some vacant positions, we can replace our Donggong himself people."

"What the master said," the prince felt at ease after hearing Liu Jiansheng's words, "I will discuss this matter with the officials tomorrow morning."

Liu Jiansheng stopped him with a smile: "Your Highness, don't discuss this matter, just send it to the Ministry of Household Affairs. What you will discuss with the ministers in the court tomorrow is another important matter, that is the preparation for the palace examination and Arrange! That letter is said to dominate the imperial examination, and it must be the source of the imperial examination, so now the eyes of the capital are all on the imperial examination."

"Oh?" The prince asked in surprise, "Sir, what's the key to what you said?"

"In the past, the palace examinations were held in the Wenhua Palace, but His Majesty has not sent anyone to talk to the prince about returning to Beijing to preside over the palace examination. Therefore, His Highness has to clean up the Jinxiu Palace in advance. If the prince is appointed to preside over the palace examination at that time, then Wen Huadian is useless."

The prince nodded, seemingly thoughtful.

"Father, if he knows that I packed up the Jinxiu Palace ahead of time, I'm afraid..."

"It's not just that I'm afraid," Liu Jiansheng smiled slightly, "The lords will definitely follow up and use this matter to boycott His Highness."

Wang Jie's eyes flashed: "Mr. Liu means that he intentionally lured them to criticize this matter?"

"It's only a thousand days to be a thief, but there's no reason to be a thousand days to guard against a thief." Liu Jiansheng stroked his gray beard, "Your Highness, just replace the people who handle this matter with people from Sanfu. It is used in the Wenhua Palace, and three points are used in the Jinxiu Palace, but it is claimed that both are equally important."

Hou Chaoqing couldn't help clapping and applauding: "In this way, the lords will definitely be in the game. I predict that they will definitely use the people in Yushitai to attack the prince. If Your Majesty is very angry, we can take the opportunity to take down the entire Yushitai!"

The flashes of swords and swords in the court could not affect the many actions that were still looking forward to outside the officialdom.

In the early morning of September [-]th, a large number of candidates got up early again, and walked in twos and threes to the direction of the Gongyuan from various places.

This day is the day when the list is announced, and it is also the moment when fate is determined.

Countless people study all their lives in order to jump over this barrier. How many poor families and declining clans in the world are looking forward to a lucky result.

There are 210 seven reference candidates, and the number of legally admitted students ranges from 72 to [-].

Anyone who passed the general examination and became a Gongsheng student would be granted Jinshi status after the palace examination.The academic system of Dazheng is similar to that of Ming and Qing Dynasties, but there is no such thing as Jinshi, all of them are Jinshi.

The palace examination is only for the emperor to personally rank these tribute students.

If there is any content similar to another time and space imperial examination, it is the three yuan.For each subject, there are three winners of one yuan, twelve winners of two yuan, and the rest are among the three yuan.

The palace examination is also divided into three tops, with three tops, 12 tops, and a few tops.

Meng Xiaowan regretted that she was inconvenient and could not accompany Zhang Zhe to watch the list.She is not worried about whether her husband can become a Jinshi, but only worried about whether she will not give her husband the honor of Huiyuan because of the "prejudice" of Master Zhou towards him.

No matter how famous Zhou Zhiyi's reputation is, Meng Xiaowan never negates the lower limit of a qualified bureaucrat with public opinion.

Although the news that Zhang Xinzhi's test paper was posted on the tribute wall yesterday had reached Zhuchi Xiaoyuan, both Zhang Zhe and Meng Xiaowan thought that they could not make a conclusion until the test paper was posted on the tribute wall.

Zhang Zhe, Jiang Shangyang, and Huo Bingcheng each took a servant and went up the street together, walking all the way towards the Gongyuan.

In view of the attack on Huo Bingcheng and Jiang Shangyang last time, and the group of supervisors will go outside the Gongyuan today, so this time Zhang Zhe took Geng Liang, Huo Bingcheng still took Guan Hai, and Xu Qian beside Jiang Shangyang was recovering from his injuries. Another big servant, Tang Zao, followed.

Both Zhang Zhe and Geng Liang brought high-pressure swing sticks.

In a crowded place, this kind of dark, foldable weapon would have a wonderful effect.

The people I met on the road were all in a hurry, some were full of hope, some were full of hesitation, and they walked the most relaxed and unhurried.

Zhang Zhe knew that he was sure to win, and the specific result depends on whether that Zhou Daru will get in the way.And Huo Bingben originally came to Chang'an to rush to take the exam temporarily to avoid his marriage. According to his own estimation, he might not have a chance, so he didn't care too much.Only Jiang Shangyang was a little apprehensive. It was impossible for the brother of the three Zhongxin not to be selected. Brother Jiyuan didn't care. Only he himself was an unknown. If he failed the list, he didn't know how to face his father and the third sister of the Gu family after returning home.

When the three of them came to the gate of the Gongyuan, they were shocked for a few breaths when they saw the scene in front of them.

At this moment, it is not as dark as when entering the examination room, and thousands of people can't see what kind of scale it is.At this moment, under the bright sun, thousands of students were crowded under the tribute wall, and the crowd was crowded, and a wave of enthusiasm rushed to the face.

"A lot of people!" The three of them stopped immediately, not intending to squeeze in at all.

Zhang Zhe looked around, just in time to see some gorgeously dressed men staying outside, calling some men with velvet flowers on their sideburns to come up and answer.

A man took a note from a student, turned around and squeezed into the crowd. Obviously, this is a local literate idler looking at the list for others to earn a lottery.

Zhang Zhe just stared at the man's back for a few times, then came up to meet him cleverly, but with a sweep of his eyes, his eyes fell on Zhang Zhe.

"Do you want to hire someone to look at the list?" This man is about thirties, and there is a half-old velvet flower on his temple, which is the characteristic of a person who announces good news, and it also means to take a good omen.

Zhang Zhe didn't want Geng Liang and the others to leave his side, and he didn't care about the money, so he asked the man with a smile, "Now the list is out?"

"Mo Qi said that Ju Shigong said," the man said with a smile, "the top 40 people who have already paid the third yuan, can you go and see the younger ones?"

"Success!" When Huo Bingcheng heard that it was the third yuan, he guessed that there was nothing to do with Zhang Zhe, so he offered to ask him to see it.

The man immediately took out a stack of papers and a charcoal pencil from his sleeve.

"Please ask the gentleman to give me a name!"

Huo Bingcheng wrote his and Jiang Shangyang's names and birthplaces, but not Zhang Zhe.The man took a look at it, nodded and squeezed into the crowd.

Jiang Shangyang was stunned: "Why doesn't this person even say a word about the price?"

Huo Bingcheng chuckled: "That depends on how many places we won. If we don't win, it's hard money. If we win, we have to pay more. The higher the ranking, the more rewards."

At this moment, a person watching the list happily squeezed out, and shouted loudly: "Congratulations to Mr. Fan Xinshi, Wutu County, Jidong Road, the third place in the No. 20 of the Sanyuan Examination!"

A group of people in the surrounding crowd immediately cheered, and one of them looked happy, and immediately took out a piece of snowflake silver and threw it to the person who announced the good news.

"Reward you!"

"Congratulations to Mr. Ren Quanshan, Laiyang County, Jiangzuo Road, No. 40 in the senior high school examination~~!"

"Congratulations to Mr. Yu Lin, Liaozhou County, Hebei Province, No. 5 in the Sanyuan High School Examination!"

Several loud announcements caused commotion in several places.But Zhang Zhe saw that more people reading the list quietly squeezed out from the crowd, came to the employer's side and bowed their heads to talk, and then turned away after accepting a dozen or twenty.

Among the crowd at the bottom of the list, there were occasional sounds of surprise, but most of them looked anxious and worried.

Soon, Na Mo Qi squeezed out from the crowd again, and quietly came to their side.

The person didn't say anything about the result, he just asked, "The three of you, do you want the villain to go to the next list?"

The implicit meaning is that there are no two names on the top three list.

Brother Jiang's face turned pale immediately, and Huo Bingcheng threw Mo Qiwuwuwen indifferently, and patted Brother Jiang's shoulder with a smile: "Of course I have to look at the next list!"

There was a sudden commotion in front of the tribute courtyard, several clerks and yamen servants came out from the main entrance of the tribute courtyard with a large piece of paper, drove many scholars to the tribute wall, and pasted the large paper on the wall.

Someone shouted excitedly: "The second three-yuan list is out!"

The business of the surrounding viewers immediately picked up again, and Mo Qi hurriedly squeezed in again.

"Congratulations to the No. 60 No. [-] yuan in the senior high school examination of Longhuijiang Master, Qianshan County, Bashan West Road~!"

Several congratulatory sounds sounded in succession, and the crowd became even more commotion.

Mo Qi also squeezed out again with a calm face: "Three gentlemen, this time the second list is also 40 people. According to the usual practice in previous years, there may be a three-yuan list for the last few. continue to read?"

Jiang Shangyang's feet softened, but fortunately Zhang Zhe and Huo Bingcheng rushed to support him.

"Two brothers, I'm the younger brother," Jiang Shangyang's tone was choked with sobs, and his whole body was very soft.

Although Huo Bingcheng was also disappointed, he was more open-minded than Jiang Shangyang.

"How old are you? Why are you in a hurry, besides, there are still the last few who haven't come out yet!"

Zhang Zhe also advised him: "Don't worry! Keep reading!" Then he took out a silver bean and threw it to Mo Qi, who hurriedly thanked him with a smile.

This time the third list came out very quickly, obviously because there were not many names.As soon as the third list was posted, someone cried out: "How is that possible!?"

Some people's voices trembled: "There are only 88 people in Sanyuan this year! There are only eight people in the third list!"

Watching Mo Qi skillfully squeeze in again.

In the anticipation of the three, Mo Qi quickly squeezed out.

Mo Qi, who was smiling, suddenly raised his hands high, and shouted loudly: "Congratulations to Huo Bingcheng, Master Huo Bingcheng, Wuling County, Yunmeng South Road, High School Examination No. 80~!"

Huo Bingcheng won the last place!
"Believe it," Lao Huo's voice trembled, "Slap me! This guy is trying to cheat my money?!"

Zhang Zhe was not polite, and immediately slapped him, hitting Huo Bingcheng's buttocks.

"Haha," Huo Bingcheng's eyes turned red, and he jumped up happily, grabbing the thin Jiang Shangyang and shaking him, "Hahahaha, old Huo, I am the last one, the last one, good luck, really good luck !"

Mo Qi came to Huo Bingcheng with a smile all over his face. Before he could speak, Huo Bingcheng gave him an official ticket of [-] guan without even looking at it.

Mo Qi was overjoyed and bowed four or five times in a row, his mouth full of beautiful auspicious words.

Jiang Shangyang also congratulated Huo Bingcheng, but he calmed down when he saw Huo Bingcheng high school.

(End of this chapter)