I went ashore by weaving straw shoes and became a master craftsman

Chapter 17 Visiting the Exam Room
The three of Huan Zhen didn't come back after leaving the station early in the morning. Wang Ge picked weeds and vines in the field every day, and concentrated on practicing weaving. He was afraid of making people jealous, so he didn't sell things outside the station to make money.

Until the fourth day of May, a total of 58 carpenters from Wuzhi Township - craftsmen with ingenious skills, gathered at the post station. She never met Liu Bo again, and Liu Xiaolang had left long ago.

The village official in charge of these craftsmen happened to be surnamed Mu. He said: "In the past two years, our township only admitted two craftsmen, one every year. I hope at least one will pass the exam this year."

At this moment, almost everyone looked at Zhang Qing.The craftsmen who passed the separate examinations in the past two years are also "first-class craftsmen" like Zhang Qing.

Muxiang official: "This is not only your personal honor, but also the honor of the village. Although the rules allow you to apply for another major category of exams, if you are selected for the carpentry category, but the other one is not, it will be posted later. If you come out of the list, your artisan boy level will be marked as 'inferior'! And 'inferior artisan boy', when you take the next level 'craftsman', you will definitely suffer!"

Wang Ge thought to himself: The method of restriction is really clever, so only craftsmen who are really proficient in two craftsmanship skills will try it.

After waiting for the whispers below to calm down, the Muxiang official continued: "Quiet. If you still insist on reporting another artisan skill, you can apply for a supplementary entry now, and you won't make up later."

Silent.

The Muxiang official said with satisfaction: "Tomorrow, we will receive breakfast in the courtyard. After the breakfast, we will go to the examination room together by car. We will take all our luggage with us when we leave. If accommodation is allowed in the examination room, we will not return to the post station."

Wang Ge always thought that the examination room was in the county seat, but he didn't expect it to be near a private estate in the suburbs.

According to Muxiang officials, the name of the manor is Qinghezhuang, and the owner's surname is Wang. The high wall is more profound and magnificent than the post station.Outside the high wall, there is a clear canal dug by manpower, which stores water during the rainy season and irrigates it during the drought.

On the side of the canal is a lush fruit forest, red and green, extremely brilliant.On the other side, the wind is blowing and the grass is turbulent, and the flock of sheep is stretching.

It's really enviable and yearning!

The convoy walked slowly along the wide dirt road east of Qinghezhuang, and after another two quarters of an hour, they arrived at the examination room.

The examination room is very large, surrounded by high and low firewood. There are many high platforms in the venue. The high platforms are full of supplies, all covered with tarpaulins, and they are too far away to see what they are.

Tents of different sizes are set up outside the venue, covered with dense straw mats, which means that craftsmen from other villages have already lived here.

Wang Ge and the others were very excited and jumped off the carts. The carts were rented by the post station and paid by the township. After delivering the people, they left.She has no relatives to accompany her, so she tries to follow the local officials closely.

On both sides of the road leading to the main entrance of the examination room, the bustle was almost like a market.

Seeing that the small craftsmen were attracted by fruit and food stalls, the Muxiang officials explained as they walked: "These fruits and vegetables are cultivated by Qinghe Village or transported from afar. There is a fixed market by the Qingqu River just passing by. On the fifteenth and end of every month, many merchants and peddlers will come to buy saplings, grain seeds, and cattle and sheep in Qinghezhuang."

Wang Ge saw some out-of-season fruits and vegetables, and was in a daze for a while. How is this different from the vegetable market in his previous life?Can you believe that there are eggplants and pumpkins sold in May?
Food stalls cut cooked pumpkins into small pieces, dipped them in sugar water, and sold them for two dollars!Can you believe it?
The price is so high, it's unconscionable!
There are really a lot of elders who bought it for the young craftsmen to try out!

Jealousy makes a man ugly.Wang Ge clutched his purse tightly, turned his head away: tsk tsk tsk, who hasn't eaten pumpkin!

But wasn't pumpkin introduced to the Central Plains in the Ming Dynasty?Why did the Great Jin Dynasty appear?
After the wooden township official and You Yan, who was in charge of the examination room, presented the certificates, You Yan counted the number of craftsmen.

After counting, a tour guide led the craftsmen to enter, and the accompanying relatives waited outside the venue.

"The high platforms in front of you all belong to the material area. There are two kinds of bamboos: Cizhu and osmanthus bamboo; woods include beech and camphor; grasses include scorpion grass, cattail grass, and reeds; the rest are rattan, Vitex, bark, etc. You can choose up to two types of materials during the exam. Remind you, rattan, vitex, and bark belong to one category." While explaining carefully, You Yan lifted the oilcloth separately to let the craftsmen see that these materials are sufficient reserve.

In the tool area, the outline covered under the tarpaulin is obviously different, and the tools are all stored in the basket.

You Ge said: "Tools include hammers, knives, pliers, rulers, saws, etc. I won't explain them one by one, but they are all in one. There are also auxiliary materials such as twine, reed wadding, etc. Adding tools and auxiliary materials, each person can at most Pick six categories."

After walking around the field, more than an hour passed, which shows how big the field is.The ground has been marked with four squares, which are the positions where the craftsmen took the exam.

After leaving the venue, Mu Xiangli led the people to find a remote place, spread out mats, and sit around.He said: "You have a total of three competitions. The specific dates are the seventh, twelfth, and seventeenth days of the lunar new year. Each test lasts five days. In the first two games, half of the people will be eliminated in each game! In the last game, the candidates on the list will be selected. Hundreds of people."

Even more than three games? !

Not only Wang Ge was surprised, but so were the others.

An accompanying elder asked anxiously, "My lord, is this different from previous years?"

The rules in previous years are: according to the number of participants, they are divided into [-] groups, and there are three rounds of competition, each of which is five days.Nine examiners supervise a group and evaluate three grades: upper, middle and lower.The highest scorer in each group is Jiang Tong!

In other words, according to the rules of previous years, the craftsmen only played once.

The Muxiang official was very helpless: "The township office only received this message the day before yesterday, and we are not allowed to inform you in advance. You have probably heard about the murder of County Magistrate Jiang. Well, when the new county magistrate takes office, he will definitely issue some new regulations. Create new rules. Don’t worry! As long as you have solid craftsman skills, you are not afraid of changing the rules.”

A dissatisfied "tsk tsk" sounded.

Is this a matter of solid craftsmanship?The little craftsmen are holding back their big moves, ready to snatch the craftsman boy in one fell swoop, but now they have to hold back three big moves!Can it be the same?This is not just a question of temporary additions, who dares to put the big move that was originally prepared in the last game?What if you are eliminated at the beginning?
Next, the Muxiang officials warned everyone: The team will rest here for the past two days, and they can wander around, but not close to Qinghezhuang. If they return to the post station or go to the county, they must report to the police; they must not light a fire here, or they will be expelled!After finishing speaking, the Muxiang official went to find his colleagues in Wu Zhixiang.

Wang Ge memorized the location here and started to wander.The food stalls offer a few staples: steamed pancakes, mizuhime (noodles) or hoto (noodle soup).

There are many sauces: meat sauce, jam, soybean paste, chive sauce, fish and shrimp sauce, and crab sauce.Salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and even bitter.

Wang Ge stopped at a vertical sign reading "Qinghezhuang Acquisition".There is a long row of cow carts parked here, and most of the men watching the carts are in their thirties, some are feeding the cows, and some are lying on the carts and dozing off.

One of them came over and asked, "Is the lady a craftsman?"

"Uncle, I am." Wang Ge replied with a smile.

"The finished objects made in the competition can be sold here. It is cheaper to keep them than to sell them in the county. If they can be listed on the list, the purchase price will be better."

"With Uncle's good words, I will definitely come over later."

Wang Ge was very happy, and found a way to make money again.

At this time, in Qinghe Village in the distance, Wang Tian was lying on the bed, making a painful "hiss" sound from time to time, looking at the wall in disbelief, wishing that his eyes could see through and break out of this oppressive cage for himself.Chu's head was tired, so he tilted his head and muttered: "Brother Huan, you are really a tiger, even more tiger than me. Fortunately, I was worried at the beginning, fearing that you would cause trouble and be beaten with me. Unexpectedly, it was You've brought me down! This time I've learned a lot!"

(End of this chapter)