Late Tang

After the new year, it is the first year of Guangming, and the first month of the first year of Guangming is a cold winter.

Just after the new year, groups of refugees emerged from the ground like bamboo shoots after the rain, and poured into the Qin Dynasty's Shandong, Hebei, and Beiping provinces along the Yellow River, Huai River, and North-South Canal in all directions.

Outside the Arc de Triomphe at the South Gate of Yanjing City, the bank of the Linyun River has become a refugee camp. There are tents and nests dug by the refugees who gathered everywhere. From the river bank to the wall, there are houses and nests. The dilapidated shacks and rotten thatched huts all mean that refugees are besieging the city.

If it had been two or three years ago, Li Zhen, Li Rang and others would have been delighted from ear to ear when there were so many refugees pouring into the country.At that time, it was the time when Qin Fan was aggressively developing the Northeast and carrying out infrastructure construction. The workshops and mines in Dengzhou, Dalian and other places were also the busiest time, and people were needed everywhere.Anyone, young or old, male or female, can find a job and live here.Even those merchants, workshop owners and mine owners have to offer huge rewards to find those orangutans and recruit workers from all over the Central Plains.

Only now is the first year of Guangming.

Half of the workshops and mines in Qin Fan's territory failed to get orders and stopped working, and half of them were seriously under-operated.The market in the Tang Empire almost fell overnight, and now it is almost supported by overseas markets.

In recent years, Qin Fan's territory has almost doubled in size, and its population has exceeded [-] million. In addition, it has been using troops continuously for years. The phenomenon that there were no relics on the road and no beggars in the city is gone forever.There are endless wars, natural disasters [***], and a large influx of refugees, making Qin Fan everywhere full of refugees, plus many unemployed workshop and mine workers, it is a mess.

Fortunately, Qin Fan's life is not easy, but life in other parts of the world is even more difficult.

In comparison, although the days are not as prosperous as before, at least they can barely hold on by tightening their belts. At least, the government will still have a minimum guaranteed food supply.Even those refugees from other places can at least drink a little life-saving porridge every day, even if the porridge is getting thinner, at least they can still hang their lives.

At the beginning, Bailing Bailing used work as relief, but now it is not easy to use.To substitute work for relief, there must first be sufficient food, and the more people work, the more they eat.But the biggest trouble now is the lack of food. The Qin army has just sent 15 soldiers and horses to the three-way army. People eat horses and chew. This is a huge number.In addition, in the provinces, the Qin Army still has a full 21 garrisons, and the food for these garrisons must also be guaranteed.There are tens of millions of people, Li Rang and other household officials are almost worried about the food problem.

Qin Jun had just defeated Sha Tuo a few years ago, driving away Li Quanzhong's joy of victory, which had already been diluted without a trace.

Li Jing ordered repeatedly to divert the influx of refugees from the governments of various states and counties, so that the important cities of Yanjing and Dengzhou were not overwhelmed by the refugees.But facing more and more refugees, they still feel like they are in chaos.If the refugees finally make trouble and there is civil unrest in the territory of the Qin army, it will be a disaster.

Most of the refugees who flocked to Hebei and Yanjing were from the Yiding area, and there were also many Zahu with a Daibei accent, and even people from Yanmen, Chengde, Weibo, and even Henan.They were dressed in ragged clothes, with straw ropes around their waists, and they came all the way with their children and broken bowls.

In the two prefectures of Yiding, two major battles broke out in the past year. The armies of Qin, Jin, Zhao, and Yiwu fought in turn. Li Keyong even massacred and looted the people to avenge his father.Most of the young and robust population in Erzhou was taken away by Li Keyong, Wang Jingchong, and Li Quanzhong. In this winter, only the remaining population became refugees.

In the land of Daibei, Yanmen Town and Datong Town, there were also constant wars last year, especially Shatuo fought four or five times on a large scale last year, and they were defeated several times. At least, in order to survive this winter, Li Siyuan extremely cruelly ordered the Shatuo army to forcibly requisition food, taking away the little food left in the people's homes for military use.Especially for those Daibei miscellaneous Hus, they are even more merciless.

Although the situation of Wang Jingchong in Chengde Town is slightly better, he has also stepped up the expropriation, increased the collection of grain, grass, money and taxes, and prepared for the war with all his strength.And in the face of the refugees in the territory, they refused to give relief, and the villain army drove them into the Qin territory.

But the heavens are still against it. Just after the fifth day of the lunar new year, heavy snow fell again, and the whole of Hebei fell heavily for three days and three nights. The snow in Yanjing City was three feet, and the dripping water turned into ice. Every house was closed and the streets were on the road. Very few people.

The vast sea is frozen, and the mountains are covered with snow!

Not even hunting and fishing!

For countless refugees, this winter they not only have to fight against hunger, but also against severe cold.

Every morning, the city management team and security team of Yanjing city, together with the teachers and students of the military academy and various academies, used carts to pull dozens or hundreds of hungry and frozen refugee corpses dumped in the snow. Go to a crematorium outside the city to be cremated and sent to the cemetery.

On Daxing Street in the west of Yanjing City, there is a Zhuangyuanlou Hotel.This hotel has hundreds of guest rooms and a restaurant, which is a new restaurant that has just been built.The owner named it the Zhuangyuan Building, and it was intended to be used exclusively for the students who came to take the "National Examination" in Yanjing City when they were taking the exam.

The imperial court has an imperial examination, which is held once a year, but now that everyone has gone to Chengdu, there is no way to talk about this imperial examination.However, Qin Fan will hold a "National Examination" in the first month of this year.This national examination is not an imperial examination by the imperial court, but an examination for civil servants in the state of Qin.In the territory of Qin Fan, the examinations were held early, and there were two types of examinations: clerk examinations and civil servant examinations.Clerks are recruited from grassroots clerks in various places.The civil service examination recruits officials from various places.

And this year, Li Jing ordered that the national examination be held. The civil service examination is subdivided into county examination, provincial examination, and national examination.Those who pass the county examination can be officials, and they can also continue to take the provincial examination. , will directly serve as an official in the stream.

In general, the National Examination is actually a disguised imperial examination implemented by Qin Fan. Its function is the same as that of the imperial court. It recruits talents, wins scholars from the gentry, and gathers people's hearts.However, on the surface, the names are somewhat different, and some changes have been made in the content, but the essence is the imperial examination.

Right now, it is very close to the department. Although there are many refugees outside, the business here is booming.

Qin Fan's national examination is graded with vague names, and does not ask about background, only about talent.The Tang Dynasty's system of requiring official recommendation and direct reading of papers was abolished.This new regulation, as well as the continuous prosperity of Qin Fan today, coupled with the loss of the prestige of the court, the emperor's hunting west, and the interruption of imperial examinations, countless scholars came to Qin Fan from thousands of miles away.They first registered in the provinces of Qin Fan, then took the county examination, provincial examination, and finally the outstanding ones came to take the national examination.

In the civil service examination, those who pass the county examination are called scholars, those who pass the provincial examination are called juren, and those who pass the national examination are called Jinshi.Most of those who passed the provincial examination and came to Yanjing to take the exam were from the families of officials, powerful gentry, or small landlords and merchants.After all, it is not easy to cultivate a successful scholar, and it takes a lot of money.These candidates came to the capital, and those who could live in the Zhuangyuan Building were all from good families.In the early morning of the eighth day of the first lunar month, the store had just taken off the door panels, only to hear the sound of a gong, and a team of blue-clothed security teams passed by, shouting loudly: "The King of Qin has ordered that all shops gather outside the Arc de Triomphe."

The store owner heard the shout and hurried to the street, "Captain Zhang, what's going on?"

Zhang Dui of the security team was about thirty years old, black and strong, but unfortunately he only had half a palm in one hand. He was originally a veteran, but after being injured, he was discharged from the army and transferred to the security team.When he saw that it was the Wang Daguan of the Zhuangyuan Building, he breathed white air and said: "No, there are more and more refugees, but the weather is getting colder and colder. Dozens of hundreds of them freeze to death every day. The King of Qin is kind and ordered , let the shops and workshops in the city temporarily hire some refugees."

"This?" Daguan Wang was a little surprised. He was originally a businessman in Guanzhong, but he came to Hebei because Huang Chao entered the pass.After arriving in Hebei, I felt that the King of Qin loved the people and treated the merchants very well. Not only did he not exploit them, but also the children of merchants could take the exam and be officials.It's just that I didn't expect that King Qin would force the shop to hire refugees.Right now, life is hard.

"Don't worry, King Qin doesn't want to cause trouble for you, but the disaster relief is a special matter right now. King Qin said, hire these refugees according to the size of the shop. You hire them, but you are just temporarily giving these refugees a warm temporary residence. Let them escape this cold winter. The merchants hired them to take care of their clothing, food and housing, and they also worked for you. But, don’t worry, every time you hire a refugee, the government will reduce or exempt part of your taxes, basically In fact, the tax reduction and exemption is equivalent to the expenses you provide for the refugees, and you will not suffer. King Qin does not want your money, does not burden you, what he needs is to temporarily borrow your place to resettle the victims."

Boss Wang felt relieved now, he didn't expect that King Qin really loved the people like his son, and other feudal towns either drove the refugees away or turned a blind eye to them.But not only has the King of Qin been releasing food for disaster relief, but he is also taking such pains to help with resettlement, which is really kind.

Suddenly someone shouted loudly from behind: "Okay!"

When everyone looked back, they saw a group of young scholars coming out of the store, but they were the candidates for the examination in the Zhuangyuan building.

Boss Wang has always respected scholars, not to mention that these people are all candidates, and if they win, they will be officials.Even if you don't win, you can still be a foreign official.Although the status of Qin Fan's merchants has improved a lot, merchants still feel inferior to scholars by three points.He smiled and said: "Morning, gentlemen, I am very sorry for disturbing your peace."

"Don't bother, don't bother." The leader of the juren who came out smiled, "I just heard the shopkeeper and this official talk about the ensignment of King Qin, and I admire it very much. I am a scholar, but I am also willing to do my part for the disaster victims outside Yanjing City."

"My son's intention?" Captain Zhang looked at the group of candidates with a smile, a little surprised.In his impression, scholars have always been proud, and they don't care about common things. To put it bluntly, most scholars are from powerful families, so they don't care about the life and death of ordinary people.

"There are three people from 110 in our Zhuangyuan building. I want to discuss it. I plan to ask Boss Wang to hire some refugees on our behalf."

Now even Boss Wang was a little surprised.

"If possible, it would be best if we could hire a refugee family for each of us. When we were in Yanjing, they would stay with us, and we would pay for food and lodging. In addition, we would also pay their wages. After the exam is over after a year, If they are willing to go back to their hometown with us, they can also be together."

Boss Wang and Captain Zhang looked at each other with surprise and admiration in their eyes.Boss Zhang knows best that these candidates are accompanied by book boy servants, and there is no need to hire others.But now they propose to hire, or hire refugees, and specifically propose that they are willing to hire a whole family.This is not employment, it is simply to help refugees.

If it's just a case, it's somewhat normal.But right now, more than 110 candidates in the entire Zhuangyuan building are willing to help with all their strength, which is really unexpected.

"Well said, a certain person likes happy people the most. You brothers are indeed worthy of reading sage books. No wonder you can become a juzi. With such a character, a certain person admires the five-body body. God bless King Qin, God bless Qin, let's go to the Arc de Triomphe together !"

"Together!" All the students responded in unison.