Chapter 131: Go to the provincial capital

The prefect and the main force of the township yong were transferred away, which made the atmosphere in the city suddenly tense, and the affairs of the three government offices naturally became more complicated. As the chief clerk of Kuaiji, Chen He's workload increased several times, and he didn't even care about his family. He had to live in the county office like an ordinary sting official, and his wedding date had to be temporarily put on hold.

For ordinary people, a more intuitive feeling is that prices in the city are soaring, and rumors are everywhere. Today, the official army defeated the Japanese/pirates, and tomorrow, the Japanese/pirates defeated the Japanese/pirates, which made them happy and scared for a while. In addition, they could not afford to eat meat and there was no social drama to listen to, and their quality of life was severely reduced and they lived a very torment.

There is another group of people who are also suffering, that is, the Chinese-style children of the provincial examination. Because of the rumor in the public, due to the situation, the examination originally scheduled to be held in the provincial capital on June 15 may have been postponed indefinitely.

This is a blow to the candidates who actively take the exam. They go to the professors all day long to inquire about whether to take the exam or not, and when will they take the exam?

Throughout May, Shaoxing was in this atmosphere of "the whole city was in pain", and even the air seemed to be frozen.

Fortunately, as soon as June entered, good news came. Taizhou defeated the Japanese and pirates several times, and finally resisted it. Two days later, the order to promote education in Zhejiang also arrived in Shaoxing, and the 33rd year of Jiajing examination was held as scheduled.

There are still ten days before the exam, and Shaoxing is only more than a hundred miles away from Hangzhou, and even a walk is here. But now it is not as peaceful as before. The road is not as peaceful as before. In addition to the genuine Japanese/pirates, there are also some thieves who take advantage of the government's time to take care of it and do some unsubstantiated businesses.

So the children of the Tongs planned to raise some money and ask the escort agency to escort the provincial capital. For the escort agency in the city, this is a good thing to show off, and even if you lose money... And to be honest, there is no danger to stay away from the war zone throughout the whole process.

So the two parties agreed to bring back escorts, a total of 200 taels of silver. There were a total of 150 candidates in Shaoxing Prefecture. Those with rich pay more and those with poor pay less. They quickly collected the fees, making it easier to sign an agreement, and agreed to go on the road on June 12th.

The day before departure, Chen Si went to say goodbye to his father. Chen He was busy transporting military rations. When the father and the two met, he hurriedly took the team away. The whole country did not say three words.

When he went to the Shen family to say goodbye to Mr. Shen, Mr. Shen naturally comforted him with warm words and wanted to keep him for dinner. He silently said that his eldest son's family was ready, so he went to Baoyouqiao Street with Chen Jing.

When he arrived at the eldest son's house, he saw that he was already packing his luggage. After asking silently, he actually wanted to go to Hangzhou to get salt. He asked strangely: "We have Qianqing, Sanjiang and Cao'e in Shaoxing, why do we have to go to Xixing to get salt?"

Upon hearing this, the eldest son's tears almost fell down and he said in a muffled voice: "You don't care too much about our business, are you?"

Silently smiled and said, "I am a nerd who turns a blind eye to the outside world. Don't be as good as me." The eldest son doesn't like Chen Jing likes to take Qiao, so he told him that the monthly salt stakes given by Li County are not all from the San Salt Field in Shaoxing, but also from Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places. In the past, peaceful situations were not a problem, because there were Yamen who specially purchased and replaced salt stakes. Although they had to pay a considerable handling fee, they always saved a lot of money than the travel expenses for buying salt in other places.

But now that the war is in chaos, many salt fields have cut off their supply, or are in danger of cutting off their supply. The salt intakes in various places have gone from securities to hot potatoes, and no one is willing to buy them. So the eldest son has no choice but to gather the saved salt intake in Hangzhou, and prepare to go there in person.

"If you don't work, it's all right, safety is important." Chen Si whispered: "Stay for half a month first, and wait until there is a new salt indicia next month."

"Don't worry." The eldest son smiled honestly and said, "I have already negotiated with the Yin family's Baotongyuan business and go with them... When they heard that it was our Sanren business, they don't want ours for a single or a tael of silver."

Chen Si then smiled and said, "Then I'll be relieved."

After lunch, Chen Mo was chatting with Chen Jing. The former shop clerk led a servant to come in and said, "This man said he wanted to see Mr. Chen."

The servant bowed and greeted Chen Mo. Chen agreed that he was the young man from Yiheyuan pawnshop, so he asked him what he was doing. The boy gave Chen Mo a burden and said that the shopkeeper Leng heard that Mr. Chen would set off tomorrow and ordered him to send this.

Chen Si knew in his heart that this must have been sent by the screen, so how could a man give him a bag? He asked calmly: "Is your shopkeeper in good health?"

The servant quickly replied, "It's good and bad, but it's not good a few days ago."

"Tell your shopkeeper that when I come back from Hangzhou, I will definitely visit you." Silent smiled.

"Yes." Seeing that he had no other instructions, the servant bowed and left.

As soon as the servant left, Chen Jing came over to grab the bag, but was kicked away by Chen Si and said angrily: "What should I do if I see it?" He then left with the bag.

After I went back, I opened it and saw that there were two new Confucian shirts inside, one pure white and the other royal blue. I gently stroked the beautiful clothes. I was silent, who had been quite desolate recently, and finally felt a little warmth. He couldn't help but sigh, "I don't know if it's still suitable?"

The result is very fit, as if it has been measured with a ruler.

The next day, the whole city saw him off, wearing a brand-new moon white Confucian shirt, represented the 170 candidates who took the exam, drank the Tongzhi wine, bowed three times to the hometown elders, and set off on the passenger ship heading to the provincial capital.

We were in peace all the way, but when we arrived at the provincial capital, we encountered some trouble. It turned out that a few days ago, Japanese pirates appeared in Hangzhou Bay, and the city was in full swing. Spies were being investigated and outsiders were not allowed to enter the city.

The candidate was uproared and silent, and went to negotiate with Tao Yuchen, indicating that the boat was all Shaoxing Tongsheng who came to take the college entrance examination. The exam was the next day. How could we not let us enter the city?

After much persuasion, the soldiers guarding the city agreed to ask for instructions. After a while, they turned back and said, "Yes, but they need to search."

Chen Si knew that it was just a matter of wanting some silver, so he took out ten taels of silver and stuffed it into the hands of the hundred households, and smiled and said, "Give tea to brothers."

Seeing that he was so well-informed, the Baihu naturally no longer felt difficult. He just took his people on the boat and let them go.

After entering the city, Tao Yuchen whispered: "They Shangguan has agreed to let go, why are you still stuffing money?"

Silently smiled and said, "The King of Hell is easy, it's hard for the little devil to deal with it. If you don't give it money, you will have to rub you until midnight."

Tao Yuchen smiled and said, "That may not be the case." But he didn't say much.

When the students arrived at the pier, they wanted to get off the boat and take a rest, and by the way, they saw what the beauty of the paradise on earth was, but they were stopped by the soldiers at the pier and were not allowed to leave the pier. A temperate shouted: "We all have road test cards, why should we limit our freedom?"

The soldiers did not take that trick. A sergeant smiled rudely and said, "This is the turtle's pp, the rule! Whoever doesn't accept it comes up and try it? Let's see if my grandfather doesn't make you look like you." These Qiu Ba people were usually ridiculed by scholars, but now they finally got the chance. The other party has no fame and fortune, so they naturally have to take revenge.

The exam will be early tomorrow morning, so of course no one wants to cause trouble. The candidates had to turn back angrily, sitting or lying on the dock, and naturally there was nothing nice to them.

Tao Yuchen said angrily: "How can we regard our scholars as prisoners?"

Silently patted his arm, and comforted him with a smile: "We will turn back after the exam tomorrow, and we will not be able to get some idleness here."

"That's all." Tao Yuchen sighed. His book boy brought a hand over, asked the young master to sit down, and then took off the water bag and asked the young master to drink water... It was the book boy's greatest responsibility to accompany the young master to take care of his daily life.

Chen An was stunned when he saw that he was carrying a horse stool when he went out. It was his first time to come out, and no one taught him. He didn't bring anything except helping the young master get the exam equipment and carry his bags.

He thought to himself that I was determined to be the best book boy in the world, how could I fall behind? He began to scratch my head and think of a way. He saw a pile of bricks in the distance. His eyes lit up and he ran over.

After a while, he ran back and said with a smile: "Young Master, you can sit down too."

After a moment of silence, this guy wrapped his cotton cloth with six bricks and put them in front of him. He couldn't help but laugh and scolded: "It's so bad, I'll put two more books."

In the afternoon, passenger ships were docked one after another, and those who came down were all the students who took the exam, from Jiaxing, Huzhou, Chuzhou and other prefectures in Huzhou, and from Taizhou in Ningbo, but the number of people was very small.

After silent, they found a few people from Ningtai and the two places, invited them back to their side, and warmly treated them, and then began to inquire about the situation of the war between the two places.

When they heard this, the candidates who were quite happy looked immediately dim. A leader said in a stern voice: "It's so miserable. They are going to be bullied to death by the Japanese pirates. Tens of thousands of officials and soldiers can't beat thousands of them. Instead, they have been attacked repeatedly and harmed our people... Several fishing villages have been snatched and killed by them, which scared the people so much that they hid in the mountains. No one dared to live by the beach."

"Ten thousand people can't beat thousands of them?" Shaoxing candidates said disbelief: "If you beat one ten, can't you win?" "That's right, Tan Lun and Yu Dayou are all famous generals!"

The candidates from Ningtai sneered: "Even if you dig out King Kaiping from the ground, you can't win a battle!" King Kaiping was Chang Yuchun, the most brave general of the Ming Dynasty.

"Why? Is the Japanese/Guoshi so powerful?" Shaoxing people asked strangely.
Chapter completed!