But once they have to pay a big price to achieve something, people will ignore them. After all, money is nothing compared to one's career. Sooner or later, if you still have the official position, you will have the money, but if you lose the official position, you can't keep it even if you have the money.

Therefore, if the Fan family wants to become a truly wealthy family, it can only enter the officialdom, cultivate its own power in the officialdom, and protect the family. That is the real wealthy family. The Fan family is just a merchant family now.

"The imperial examination will be held in August next year. Among our Fan family members, there are currently three people with the title of scholar."

Fan Yongcheng said solemnly: "The clan elders are ready to pay a lot of money for them to study at Songyang Academy, in the hope that they can win the imperial examination next year."

Although the Fan family has been rooted in Datong Mansion for more than a hundred years, their real fortune only started after his grandfather gained first-class strength. It has only been fifty or sixty years now, and most of the family's energy has been invested in martial arts and martial arts.

When it comes to business, they don’t pay much attention to the imperial examination.

"Is there any other way?"

Hearing this, Fan Yongdou frowned and said, although he was not a member of the officialdom, he was well aware of the difficulty of the imperial examination. Scholars are easy to examine. There is no county that does not have dozens of scholars, but the examination is different. There are many scholars in a county.

A county with three or five people is considered a big county.

As the saying goes, "Poor Scholars" and "Ji Ren Master", these two titles vividly display the status of Xiucai and Juren. How many people have passed the examination from young children to gray-haired people, but they are still just poor Xiucai. Of the three scholars, the one who can win the examination is the ancestral tomb.

There was smoke.

"Except for next year's imperial examination, only those who have trust relationships will be sent to the Imperial College."

Fan Yongcheng shook his head and said: "Here in Shanxi, we can still make some plans. If we go to the capital, then we can only look at their own abilities."

"Let them go to Songyang Academy."

Fan Yongdou shook his head. Although the Fan family also had backers in the capital, they were actually just paying protection fees. The imperial examination was a ceremony for the imperial court to select scholars, and the other party would not take risks for them. On the contrary, the Fan family in Shanxi

Maybe those connections I made over the years can be of some use.

Fan Yongcheng nodded: "Well, I will inform the clan elders."

"By the way, that little bastard has the reputation of being a scholar. Maybe he will sneak back to take part in the imperial examination. Then someone will check it carefully. Once the little bastard registers, he will come and apply immediately!"

Fan Yongdou continued.

"Okay, brother, I will give the order."

At this time, Fan Yongcheng seemed to suddenly remember something. He took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Fan Yongdou: "Brother, there is a letter from the Jurchens in Liaodong. They said they want more food and soldiers."

"How many do they want?"

Fan Yongdou said solemnly that he was not surprised by this situation. In the battle of Guangning last year, the entire western Liaoning fell into the hands of the Jurchens. With such a large territory, those Jurchens would definitely want to expand their army.

Fan Yongcheng said: "Four hundred thousand stones of food and five thousand soldiers and armor!"

"so much!"

Hearing this, Fan Yongdou frowned. The Fan family has been operating in Datong Mansion and Zhangjiakou Fort for decades, but it is still impossible to gather so much food and soldiers, not to mention that it is difficult to cover up such a big movement.

Although there are many people from Datong Mansion to Liaodong who have taken advantage of the Fan family, it does not mean that they can be unscrupulous. If it attracts the attention of the court, those people will definitely not mind letting others replace the Fan family.

After thinking for a moment, Fan Yongdou said in a deep voice: "Send someone to invite Wang Denku and Jin Liangyu to come over. This is a deal that our Fan family cannot afford."

Four hundred thousand stones of food, five thousand soldiers and armor, and at least two million taels of silver were definitely not something that the Fan family could afford by themselves.

"good!"

Fan Yongcheng nodded and turned to leave.

………

Yellow River.

Su Hao leaned on the side of the boat, facing the wind blowing from the river. A dozen boats of various sizes were sailing on the river, including fishing boats and merchant ships.

This time, because they were investigating the disappearance of merchants from the Yellow River, the five people came to the ferry after leaving Kaifeng Mansion, disguised themselves as merchants, and chartered a fishing boat to go to Mengjin.

At this time, Jiang Shizhong, who was familiar with him, had already struck up a conversation with the boat owner: "Brother, I heard that merchants have often disappeared on the Yellow River in the past two years, and no one has been seen alive or dead. If you are driving a boat on this river alone, you will

Aren’t you afraid of meeting those murderous people who kidnap merchants?”

The owner of the boat was a man in his forties. His skin was extremely rough and dark due to long exposure to wind and sun. He had been rowing and rowing for many years, and the muscles in his hands were extremely strong.

Hearing Jiang Shizhong's words, the captain looked at Jiang Shizhong thoughtfully, and then said with a smile: "This guy must be from the Yamen."

"how do you know?"

When the captain said this, Jiang Shizhong was stunned. Because the official uniforms of Jin Yiwei were too conspicuous, they had already taken off their official uniforms and put on regular clothes before leaving. Even Taoist Master Zhenxuan took off his Taoist robes. Unexpectedly,

People recognized him as soon as he got on the boat.

The boat owner smiled and said: "I have been working on the Yellow River for most of my life. Although you are dressed as businessmen, I knew as soon as you boarded the boat that you are not businessmen."

"Why?"

Jiang Shizhong wondered, in order to disguise themselves, they also spent more than ten taels of silver to buy some goods, but they didn't expect that people would see through it at a glance.

The ship owner shook his head and said with a smile: "You have exposed too many flaws. The first flaw is that you chartered a boat to Mengjin, but you didn't negotiate the price very much. Instead, you have those businessmen who are full of money-smelling money. They want to break a copper into two halves. How can you be like this?

You are so straightforward."

"The second flaw is that you don't care too much about the goods. Those merchants value the goods more than their lives. How could they be like you, who don't care about the goods at all, and don't even look at the goods."

"The third flaw is you, little brother. Although merchants have been missing in the past two years, not many people actually know about it. On this rolling Yellow River, 1,800 people must die every year. The hundreds of people who have disappeared

Man, actually the impact is not that big, but my brother, you said that the merchants disappeared as soon as you opened your mouth. Who else would know so well except the people from the yamen?"

Hearing the words of the captain, the five of them were stunned. Jiang Shizhong reacted the fastest. He smiled and cupped his hands and said: "Brother, I have good eyesight! We are from the government office. In the past two years, the government office has received more than a hundred petitions and hundreds of lives."

There are no dead people or corpses, and the family members of those people often come to the yamen to make trouble, which makes the governor's head really big."

Speaking of this, Jiang Shizhong sighed and said: "Now that spring has arrived, the merchants on the Yellow River will come and go more frequently. The governor is worried that the murderer will commit crimes again, so let us pretend to be merchants and see if we can kill the murderer."

Fish it out.”

"Brother, you have been on the Yellow River for most of your life. Have you ever heard anything?"


Chapter completed!