After morning school, Shen Yichen did not go to the government canteen to eat immediately. Instead, he sat at his desk and wrote the "Family Letter".

His previous promise to Li Da could be described as solemn, but to be honest, he was not sure if Zhu Yong, Duke of Cheng Guo, would listen to it.

Shen Yichen's biggest reliance at present is Zhu Yong's "high regard" for him shown in the afternoon after the family dinner, and his unhypocritical "one glory, one glory".

Since Zhu Yong believes that becoming stronger will help the prosperity of Cheng Guogong's family, he will definitely understand the benefits of letting Li Da and other generals' children join the army. Especially now that Mongolia has also gained strength and will be under heavy pressure from the border. He will rely more on generals, and having more trusted subordinates will not be a bad thing.

In a sense, Shen Yichen deserves to have the blood of Duke Cheng, and both of them have a hidden ambition to consolidate power.

After the course, Shen Yichen went home alone. Now Zhao Hongjie and others are used to his "study" style, and will not easily drag him to play unless there is something important.

But when he stepped out of the corner gate and came to the alley next to the palace, Shen Yichen saw Chen Qingtong and his maid Xueer, looking around anxiously.

Seeing Shen Yichen coming out, Chen Qingtong showed joy on his face and ran over with his skirt in hand.

"Slow down and be careful about the stones you step on."

For some reason, maybe because he hadn't seen her for a long time, when he suddenly saw Chen Qingtong coming out, Shen Yichen felt a sense of joy in his heart.

"Brother Yichen, I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you lately?"

"fine."

"By the way, you also passed the county criminal examination, and I never had the chance to congratulate you."

"It doesn't matter, besides, isn't it time to come?"

"The meaning is different now. I should have seen you earlier."

Chen Qingtong seemed to have a lot to say to Shen Yichen. As soon as they met, he kept saying all kinds of things. However, when it came to meeting, it was difficult to conceal the disappointment in his tone.

"Brother Yichen, have you heard about the Japanese pirates? I overheard my father's conversation with the Minister of War in Nanjing. It seems that the Japanese pirates are attacking Songjiang Prefecture. The soldiers from the South Zhili Guard Station and the Shenji Battalion have begun to gather and prepare to go to Songjiang Prefecture. Assist in defense.”

The uproar has spread to the outer courtyard of the family school, not to mention the inner courtyard. For Chen Qingtong, they already know the specific military deployment.

"I heard about it, but it shouldn't be anything serious."

Although Shen Yichen was not sure whether history would change, he really didn't believe that a few Japanese pirates during the Zhengtong period could defeat the city of Nanjing.

You must know that even if the Ming Dynasty was in decay during the Wanning period and entered the decline period of the dynasty cycle, it could still defeat Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invading army in Korea. Who are the Japanese pirates now?

Of course, limited by the amount of information received, we cannot require everyone to have Shen Yichen’s perspective. After all, in ancient times, thieves fought like combs and soldiers fought like grates. Whether it was a just or unjust war, whether the battle was won or lost, in the end It must be the common people who suffer.

With so much history of blood and tears before us, it is normal for ordinary people to worry about war.

"I heard that the Japanese pirates are very cruel. If something really happens, brother Yichen, you can come to the Taining Marquis Mansion to take refuge. The Nanjing Fifth Army Commander's Mansion, the Five City Soldiers and Horses Division and other soldiers will focus on defense, and they will definitely not Something happened."

Seeing Chen Qingtong's serious look, Shen Yichen could only nod and smile: "Yes, I understand."

Just when Chen Qingtong was about to say something more, the maid Xue'er beside him reminded her in a low voice: "Miss, the Marquis's carriage is here and we have to prepare to leave."

Facing the maid's urging, Chen Qingtong's face became even more disappointed. She could only look at Shen Yichen and said: "Brother Yichen, I can't stay outside for a long time. Remember what I said. If there is danger, come to Taininghou." Mansion. ”

"Qingtong, are you in a hurry?"

Seeing Chen Qingtong's hurried expression, Shen Yichen finally couldn't help but ask.

In fact, after that trip to Nanshi Street, Shen Yichen also wanted to find opportunities several times to inquire about Chen Qingtong's current situation.

It's just that Naihe didn't join the genealogy, and the inner courtyard of the Duke's Mansion was a forbidden area for him. Moreover, after the family banquet incident, the relationship between the inner courtyard students and Shen Yichen dropped to a freezing point. It would be good if he didn't intentionally cause trouble, but how could he help? He asked questions.

"It's okay, it's just that dad asked me to go back early."

"Is it because of me?"

With all his thoughts written on his face, how could Shen Yichen not see it unless he was blind.

"How could that happen? Brother Yichen, don't think too much about it."

In order to reassure Shen Yichen, Chen Qingtong squeezed out a forced smile.

"Brother Yichen, I will go back first. See you next time."

"Okay, be careful on the road."

After waving goodbye, Chen Qingtong turned around and walked in the direction of the palace carriage, but her maid Xue'er deliberately slowed down a few steps, then quietly retreated to Shen Yichen and said.

"Mr. Shen, Xue'er hopes that you can regain the dragon badge as soon as possible, so that the young lady will not have to be grounded by the Marquis."

Hearing this sentence suddenly, Shen Yichen was still a little confused. When he was about to ask for details, Xue'er had already run away to chase Chen Qingtong.

Watching the two of them leave, Shen Yichen stood there thinking about Xue'er's words, and realized that Chen Qingtong did not appear during this period because he was grounded by Taining Marquis Chen Ying.

And we can also learn that the reason why Chen Qingtong was banned was because of himself.

But the question is why he grounded her. Could it be that Marquis Taining was not open-minded on the surface when he was walking in Nanshi Street on that day, and punished Chen Qingtong for not strictly guarding the relationship between men and women after returning?

Even so, what does this have to do with winning the imperial examination title?

It has to be said that Shen Yichen is not as sensitive to the relationship between men and women as Chen Ying, the Marquis of Taining. This may also be related to the fact that he put all his energy into the imperial examination. After all, it is difficult to do both.

Returning to his small courtyard and sitting in front of his desk, Shen Yichen did not delve into knowledge, but "revised" the unfinished books at home school and planned to continue to finish them.

In fact, seriously speaking, the content of this letter is not complicated. It is nothing more than asking Chengguo's public relations officer to take a photo of Li Da and help him arrange a good position in the army. And since Li Da's father is Zhu Yong's confidant, this kind of request is not even possible. There is no big problem if there is no letter from Shen Yichen.

Therefore, the difficulty does not lie in the content of the letter, but in the complicated father-son relationship between Shen Yichen and Zhu Yong. I don’t know how to describe it.

After thinking for a long time, Shen Yichen finally gave up the writing method of "knowing with reason" and adopted "moving with emotion".

Zhu Yong, the Duke of Chengguo, could talk to himself very straightforwardly about "prosperity for all", but in ancient times filial piety emphasized the ethics of a monarch, his minister, and his son, so Shen Yichen couldn't be so straightforward with his "father" no matter what, and had to talk about feelings.

Therefore, the content of the book should not be too unfamiliar, and if it was too close, there would be no emotional basis. After working until midnight, Shen Yichen finally finished writing the letter. He breathed a long sigh of relief. This was probably better than writing a scientific examination paper by himself. It’s still difficult!

After school on the second day, Shen Yichen handed this "letter from home" to Li Da. He had finished what he should do. As for when he could convince his father to go to the capital, he could only leave it to fate.

In addition, the news of the Japanese rebellion did not spread for long. The Japanese pirates retreated on their own before the Nanjing Fifth Army Governor's Office sent troops to help defend Yingtianfu.

Because compared to the defense posts along the Zhejiang coast of Fujian, Songjiang Prefecture can be called a fortified city. Unless you open the city gate to meet the enemy, it is simply a fantasy to cut it down with a few broken samurai swords.

The temporary cessation of the Japanese rebellion also allowed the Yingtian Mansion Examination to be held smoothly. Compared with the group of students from the outer courtyard school two months ago, Shen Yichen was the only one who participated in the Mansion Examination this time, and almost "the whole army" destroyed".

To be honest, even Shen Yichen himself did not expect that the knowledge of the students in the outer courtyard would be so poor. With so many people participating, he only got one, which was not as good as the average admission rate of the county examination.

The examination venue for the government examination is still the Xiajiang Examination Shed, but the candidates taking the examination have been expanded from the previous Jiangning County to the entire eight counties under the jurisdiction of Yingtian Prefecture, including Shangyuan, Jiangning, Jiangpu, and Liuhe.

Although the scope has been expanded, the number of candidates taking the exam has shrunk a lot. The number of candidates who can take the county exam in each county is between fifty and one hundred, which means that the number of candidates for the entire prefectural exam will not exceed eight. Hundreds of people.

Standing in the open space in front of the dimly lit examination room, looking at the sparse crowd of candidates, Shen Yichen suddenly felt a sigh of relief.

This is the cruelty of the imperial examination. Some people will be "lost" even if they take the exam.

But soon Shen Yichen saw a few "outliers". Zhu Qingyu and several people from the inner courtyard school actually appeared in the examination room, which meant that they passed the county examination.

Shen Yichen didn't know much about Zhu Qingyu and others, but through observing Li Da and the second-generation officials during this period, he also had a general understanding of the virtues of this group of children from aristocratic families.

For a guy like Li Da, who can be called a "noble character" among the rich men of aristocratic families, Zhu Qingyu will only be worse than him.

Even if some of them are talented and intelligent enough to pass the county examination, how could it be possible that several of them have passed? This is so obviously false!

Imperial examination fraud!

Four big words popped up in Shen Yichen's mind, and this was the only one that could explain why they passed.

To be honest, Shen Yichen has always known that there was corruption in the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty, and primary examinations such as county examinations were the hardest hit. Especially during the Chenghua period of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jianshen, the secret operations were already obvious.

But after all, the Orthodox period was still twenty or thirty years away from Chenghua. Is it already so blatant?

On the other side, under the entrance sign of Zhaowen Academy, Xu Donghai and others were also waiting, and unexpectedly saw Shen Yichen, Zhu Yuqing and other students from the Chengguogongfu.

"Donghai, is the Chengguo Palace so powerful? It turns out that so many of them have passed the county examination, which is on par with our Zhaowen Academy."

After all, Xu Donghai is also a son of an official, and his class is theoretically familiar with the Chengguo Palace, so a student from Zhaowen College asked him.
Chapter completed!