A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 863 Fan Lou Song Jiang

Jiangzhou,

Fan Lou, since its opening, has become a prosperous restaurant in Jiangzhou with a large number of guests.

"Have you heard that Lord Wu is going to hold an examination to select officials in Jiujiang?"

"It's fake, it must be a rumor."

The layout of Jiangzhou Fanlou is similar to that of the Chang'an main store. It consists of five three-story buildings. There is a tall colorful tower at the entrance, which stands tall and is very eye-catching.

The fifth floors are facing each other, connected by flying bridges, and connected with light and darkness.

After entering the east building, there is a long corridor with many small private rooms on both sides, leading to the central main building in the middle. The main building is of the highest grade and has the lowest consumption.

Eat, drink, play and shop in one place.

In a small private room in the east building, a group of scholars gathered together.

They were on the first floor and their consumption was relatively low. They ordered two pots of green tea and asked a pipa girl to play the piano.

A young man with a slightly darker appearance said, "The news is true. My cousin is doing meritorious service in Jiangzhou. He told me personally when he recruited me at home yesterday that he will eventually pass the exam for thirty candidates."

"You will be awarded an official after passing the exam. Are there so many positions?" Another person was very excited after hearing this. He knew this brother Hei's cousin. Although he was a small official with a low-level merit and career, in fact, there were some in Jiangzhou. of status.

"This time Duke Wu dismissed some people, leaving seven or eight official vacancies, so thirty people were selected, and the first seven or eight people were given priority, and the following ones were given the post of exiled officials, or recommended to be officials in Lingnan Or enter the scene.”

The dark and thin young man's surname is Song, and his name is Jiang. Although he is a bit dark and thin, his family has been an official in Jiangzhou for generations, and he is considered to be a member of the public family. Although he is not very well-read, he has a wide circle of friends, and he is relatively righteous, both black and white. I have friends in the mall.

Today's round was saved by him.

"I didn't expect that our Jiangzhou would really change overnight. Maybe it's a good thing that Duke Wu is hereditary in Jiangzhou."

Song Jiang smoothed his short beard, "But I heard from my cousin that this exam will be more difficult. It will take at least three exams. The county will take the preliminary exam first, and each county will admit 300 people, and then the official county exam. One hundred people from three hundred miles will be selected. Then they will go to Jiangzhou to take the provincial examination, and the last three hundred people from three counties will be selected."

"Brother Song, your family has been an official in Jiangzhou for generations. Isn't this tailor-made for you? Why worry about thirty places? Not to mention taking the exam three times, you can get one even if you take the exam five or seven times." A scholar named Li said.

"This time is different. I heard that it will be very strict. Each person will have a small room, separated from other candidates. After the exam, someone will be sent to make a copy of the exam, and then the teacher will grade the exam. Finally, there will be After being reviewed by the Minister of Military Affairs, the content of the exam is the same as that of a scholar. During the exam, there are five things to do, a scripture to write, and poetry."

Speaking of this, Song Jiang is in a bit of a dilemma. He is a general reader and likes to make friends. He reads a lot of miscellaneous books, but he can barely master one of the Confucian and Taoist classics. As for poetry, that is really not his specialty. I can barely write about current affairs, but I guess I can't write anything good.

If it were the same as the imperial examination, his family background could be used to submit poems and essays to Duke Wu. He couldn't find someone to write them for him, so he could just buy them with money. There were many poor scholars, and they had no choice but to join the rich and powerful, or to pay for them. People make a living by copying bookkeepers' accounts.

Isn't the imperial examination mainly based on name and family background? The most important thing is appearance and characters.

Many of them have already been decided before the exam.

But this time the Jiangzhou local examination was actually more stringent than the imperial examination.

"If it were someone else, I don't believe it would be so strict, but our governor is Mr. Wu, so it's really possible,"

"Yes, if it were anyone else, why would they bother so much with taking the third-level examination to obtain the rank of sergeant or officer?"

Several young people were a little anxious after hearing this.

"This opportunity is so rare. We can't just miss it. Brother Song, is there any way? If we need money, we can all pay for it."

The people Song Jiang invited today are all scholar friends, and their family backgrounds are similar to his. They are either from the families of subordinate officials, or from business opportunities or landlords.

It's not as good as the previous ones, but it's still more than enough.

There is some status and some money, but the overall social status is not high. The family also hopes that they will study hard. If they come up with the seed of studying, they will not say whether they are Jinshi or Mingjing, even if they are Mingshu Mingshu. The law is not bad either.

Song Jiang is usually the leading brother among the crowd. He is short, dark and thin, but has a quick mind. He shook his head, "Ms. Wu is not the kind of person who is greedy for money and accepts gifts. People like us who have a little money don't look down on him."

"You guys, look at this Fan Tower. It's so majestic and magnificent. Didn't a poet leave a poem at Fan Tower in Chang'an, saying that the restaurants in the city are as high as the sky, cooking dragons and phoenixes tastes fat and delicious, and Gongsun got off his horse to smell the fragrance and get drunk after one drink. No expense spared.'

"Even the low-cost discounts for the private rooms in the Jiangzhou Center Building are astonishing. The low-cost discounts for the attic rooms on the first floor are 3,000 yuan, the second floor is 4,000 yuan, and the third floor is 5,000 yuan."

The minimum cost for a small attic room is 3,000, and a cup of tea is the same amount.

But those who can treat guests in the central building actually don’t have thousands of dollars for a meal, so they are really embarrassed to order. The private rooms here are elegant, the dishes are exquisite, and there are all kinds of drinks, as well as prostitutes who accompany the drinks, and people who play the piano and sing. The song is dancing,

Even good tea can cost more than 10,000 yuan per pot.

Song Jiang and the others are considered local gangsters. It would be a bit exaggerated to say that they are villains in the public opinion, but they are also dudes from Jiangzhou. They have long secretly calculated how profitable Fan Lou is.

They sell wine, music, vegetables and tea here, and they also sell information and act as an intermediary for tooth dealers.

It’s simply a cornucopia of cash cows. What's more, Fan Lou, who is so profitable, is just a business for Mrs. Wu Xianggong to make private money.

The biggest advantage of Jiangzhou is its geographical location. It guards the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the mouth of Poyang Lake, and the thoroughfares of the three provinces. It can travel by water and land. Especially after the Meiguan Ancient Road is opened and the golden waterway of Jiangxi and Guangdong is opened, Jiujiang's location advantage will become more obvious.

In the past few years, Jiangzhou has become one of the most famous tea markets and rice markets in the Tang Dynasty, ranking among the top three.

In fact, the market for many bulk goods such as porcelain and cloth is huge here.

It is said that the Song family and other powerful locals in Jiangzhou have benefited greatly in recent years.

A group of local powerful young men chatted back and forth. The more they chatted, the more excited they became, but they couldn't find a good countermeasure.

"Forget about that for now, do you know when to sign up and how to sign up? Let's sign up first and then think about various ways. I don't believe that in Jiangzhou, people like us can't find a way out."

"Yes."

"Let's order food,"

"What kind of wine should I drink today, Lingxichun, wine or Sanlejiang?'

"You can drink whatever you want, but the key is to have a beautiful girl. Call the team leader and ask each person to order a beautiful girl to accompany the drink."

"It's best to ask someone who knows how to drink wine to host it,"

Someone else shouted, "Why don't you call two prostitutes and ask for the younger one?"

"I heard that there are new batches here. There are Persian orchids, Silla maids, even Japanese Japanese maidens, and there are also tough steppe Turkic ladies. Let's try them all?"

As soon as wine and women were mentioned, these guys immediately showed their true colors and became extremely excited.

After a while, the class leader came in and brought a large group of girls of various colors, lining up in a row for them to choose from. These guys were immediately dazzled by the choices.

The girl who originally played the pipa was rewarded with a bunch of money as a tip by Song Jiang, and was sent out. Then the pipa girl was no longer needed for drinking and ordering.

The pipa girl carried the pipa out of the pavilion, went directly to the west building, and went straight to the third floor.

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

In a large room on the third floor, Pipa Girl told a female steward of Fan Tower what she had just heard in Song Jiang's pavilion and truthfully reported to the steward.

The steward recorded some key information in a notebook, then gave her a small bunch of money and ten Kaiyuan Tongbao, "Go ahead."

The lute girl took the chess piece and went out. She met a girl waiting to report at the door, but she was a barmaid. The two passed by each other without communicating.

The waiter knocked on the door and went in, and reported in detail to the female steward. The steward recorded it and after the report, he rewarded her with ten dollars as usual.

Ten cents doesn't seem like much, but a small purchase in the central pavilion here costs three to five thousand.

But for the girls and guys in these mansions, ten cents is actually a lot, and can buy two buckets of rice.

They only need to report some useful information they heard about the guests to the female steward in charge, and they can get a fortune of ten cents, which is a cheap good thing without any effort.

If their information is valuable, they can get additional rewards. The more valuable the information, the higher the reward. Yesterday, there was news about a bartender who was offering a reward of one thousand coins. Everyone was very excited about it.

The female steward stood up with the record book and opened another door, which was connected to another large suite, where about ten people were sitting and writing.

She handed the notebook to someone, "Summarize the above, then check and filter, record and back up,"

"Okay, Sister Hong."

(End of this chapter)