At dusk, the city walls of Anyi County were shrouded in the setting sun and dyed a golden color.
The middle-aged man stood outside the city, looking up at the color of the city wall soaked by the setting sun, and the inside of the boy's hole seemed to be glowing with brilliance.
He was carrying a bag, his body was dusty, his face was tired, but his eyes were bright.
The luggage is made of bamboo. Due to long-term use, the outside is not only patinated, but also slightly damaged in some places due to wear or being gnawed by mice or the like.
In order to prevent the small items in the bamboo basket from falling off when walking, there is a coarse cloth bag inside the bamboo basket. It may have been dark green in color originally, but because it has been washed too much, it is now a bit gray, like a very
It has replaced the deliberately old colors of later generations.
He arrived at Anyi County two days early.
The body was stained with dust and grass clippings, but there was a slight smile on his face.
As an important town in the east of Hedong, Anyi is close to Pingyang. It serves as a transshipment hub, with people coming and going, cars and horses flowing in an endless stream.
The middle-aged people followed the flow of people and slowly entered Anyi County.
Nowadays, it can be said that there is peace in all directions under the Hussar, but the number of intellectuals, or those who are similar to the standards of intellectuals in later generations, has not increased much.
Perhaps according to most people's ideas, the current level of productivity and technology and the total amount of production materials in Qiaoqi are greater than those in Shandong, so the number of intellectuals should be higher than in Shandong.
But the actual situation is not like this.
Some people may also say that the Hussar has only been in charge of Guanzhong for a long time and has not yet formed an effective accumulation. Unfortunately, this may be a factor, but it is not the biggest reason.
What exactly is knowledge?
What is the difference between ordinary people and talented people?
With the improvement of productivity and the progress of civilization, why do ancient knowledge monopolies still appear in modern times?
These are very interesting questions.
The progress of human knowledge will not increase with the development of productivity.
This was a major issue that almost ran through the entire feudal society, and even affected later generations.
Normally, the progress of society and the development of productivity require more talents with higher knowledge reserves, but the fact is that even in future generations, there are still many people who do not have some very basic "knowledge".
A later social survey showed that nearly a quarter of the more than 20,000 Americans who participated in the survey believed that the sun revolves around the earth. Among the nine basic common sense questions, all answers were correct.
Only 6.5% of the total number of people who participated in the survey. Regardless of whether the participants of this survey project were carefully selected, but similar questions should have been popularized when illiteracy was eradicated. At the same time, logically speaking,
The biggest obstacle to acquiring knowledge in ancient times was that there were few and difficult ways to acquire knowledge. However, acquiring knowledge in modern times is obviously more convenient than in ancient times, but why do some modern people still not know some common sense knowledge?
There is no need to pay any fees to enter the city. Not long after the Husbands took control of Hedong, this city entry tax was cancelled.
Although the tax for entering the city is not much each time, most of the previous tax standards for entering the city were five baht per person, and vehicles were charged separately. No matter how long you stay in the city, everyone who enters the city has to pay it, and there is no limit.
No matter how long you stay in the city, you don't have to pay for leaving the city. However, as long as you leave the city gate, whether you go out for a mile or a step, you have to pay the fee again if you want to enter the city again.
It seems cheap, and it is indeed not expensive, but it depends on who it is for.
For the children of the gentry, a five-baht coin would simply fall to the ground without even looking at it. One glance would mean a drop in price. It’s like the person in later generations who had to bend down to pick up a dollar, and then it became ten dollars.
Here comes the story of one hundred dollars.
But for ordinary people, maybe a five-baht coin is one-tenth of his income after a hard day of cutting firewood.
A middle-aged person cannot be regarded as absolutely poor, because he can still afford to study and borrow money. But he cannot be regarded as a rich person. He can only be regarded as a poor family. A lower-middle-class family has a piece of land and a family.
A house with a wife, children and parents.
At dusk, Anyi City is still lively and bustling, with streets and alleys paved with bluestone roads and bustling shops on both sides. Pedestrians coming and going are shopping for various sundries while the sky is still dark.
When middle-aged people turn to the side streets, the flow of people drops a lot.
The prices of the big inns on the main street are very high, and you can't bargain on the price. After all, there are a lot of people staying there, but the small inns on the side streets are much better. Not only can you negotiate on the price, but they even provide free hot soup. Of course.
, if you pay an extra two bucks, you can also get a piece of breakfast breast. Although it is not that good, it is a little more cost-effective than going to the market to eat alone.
As for the decoration equipment in the room, of course, a small inn cannot compare with a large inn, but for a middle-aged man, this is not important at all. What is important is that he can stay in the city at a relatively low cost and have a good rest for a day
, and then you can go and refer to it early the day after tomorrow, instead of being in a hurry tomorrow to find a place and sign up...
I am older, more or less calm, and have some life experience.
The middle-aged man carried his luggage and walked into a small inn. However, he did not expect that there were many people with similar thoughts to him. There were not many free rooms left in the inn, so naturally there was no choice.
room.
The middle-aged man found a room with relatively better lighting and settled in there.
The room is very simple, with a bed, a mat, a table, and a simple screen in the corner of one side of the room. Inside the screen is naturally the toilet. The toilet is old, and although it has been washed, there is still a faint smell.
But it seems much better than the one I use at home.
Because he was too exhausted after walking all day, the middle-aged man ordered a plate of pickled vegetables and two steamed buns, along with the physalis water given by the shopkeeper, and finished them hastily after paying the room fee.
I just washed myself and went to bed to sleep.
In the early morning of the next day, when the faint morning light appeared in the sky, the middle-aged man woke up, sat on the bed and blurred for a while, then realized that he was in an inn, not at home.
After years of habit of working at sunrise and resting at sundown, he has not known the taste of sleeping in for many years.
The middle-aged man got up, went out, ordered breakfast in the inn, and then stayed away all day to sharpen his skills before the battle. After so many years of handling hoes and wooden shovels, his hands have become thick, and he needs to brush up on his strokes.
, otherwise if you forget to write something while picking up your pen, it will be all over.
However, the simple peace in this small inn was completely disturbed when the middle-aged people came back after signing up near noon.
First, there were people shouting one after another, asking if there were any remaining guest rooms. Even if the shopkeeper asked someone to hang up the full sign early, it still didn't work. These people may have seen it, or they may not have seen it, but it was still loud.
Shouting, it seems that this will give you more hope of getting a guest room.
However, the capacity of the small inn was only so small. At first, the middle-aged man couldn't help but feel lucky that he had come a day early. However, as the noise became louder and louder, the middle-aged man couldn't bear to be disturbed, so he simply took some broken rooms.
After covering his ears with cloth, he felt a little clean and continued to write and compose.
When it was dinner time, the middle-aged man opened the door again and went out to eat. If he went to the lobby to eat, he didn't have to pay extra for the delivery fee. Anyway, it was just a few steps and he could save a little bit. But when he just reached the corner, he didn't
Entering the lobby, I looked up and was stunned for a moment.
I saw that the lobby was almost full of people, and the shopkeeper and waiters stood aside with sad faces, looking at a loss.
"This is..." The middle-aged man walked to the shopkeeper and gestured.
The shopkeeper gave a bitter smile and whispered: "They are all here to take the exam, and they all want to stay in the hotel...but there are only so many guest rooms...and these people just sit there and can't leave...Hey, why are there so many?"
?It’s impossible to say that I won’t be able to leave at night... I can’t fight again and again, and I can’t catch up anymore..."
This is really possible.
Are you in business? How can you say that you punch and kick customers?
Oh, hit Renshuo, then it’s okay.
Other serious businessmen are all about being friendly and making money. Even if these students who come for reference disturb them, the shopkeeper cannot say that he has gathered the clerks and beat them out with poles and sticks. After all, these people are here to take the exam.
No one knows whether there will be one or two officials here. If he is beaten by the shopkeeper at this time, and he will take revenge when the time comes, even if there is someone behind the shopkeeper, he may not protect the shopkeeper because of this matter.
It's not that I respect scholars or anything like that, but even if there is a master behind the shopkeeper, he is definitely just protecting the inn. As long as the inn doesn't collapse, he can recruit other shopkeepers and other people.
So the shopkeeper and the waiter could only persuade each other nicely.
But the problem is that Anyi has not held any large-scale scientific research activities before, and there are not many inns in the county, so it cannot accommodate so many people at one time. In addition, there are many helpers in the big inn, and there are many helpers in the small inn.
Even the shopkeeper and waiters are only about ten people, not as many as the people sitting in the lobby at the moment, it's really going to make a scene...
The middle-aged man shook his head. It seemed that he couldn't save the meal delivery fee, so he had to talk to the waiter next to him and ordered the meal to be sent back to the room.
The waiter groaned a few times and turned to go to the kitchen. The middle-aged man also turned around and was about to go back. But before he took two steps, he was grabbed by someone, "Brother, brother! Are you staying in an inn?"
The middle-aged man stopped and turned to look at the person coming, "Where are you?"
The middle-aged man initially thought that the person coming had something to do with him, and then he forgot about it, but after taking a closer look, he really didn't recognize him.
The visitor raised his hands and said, "My surname is Mao, and I am from Pi County. I heard that the Hussar was holding a county test in Hedong, so I came here for reference."
When the middle-aged man heard this, he was sure that he really didn't know him. Because the middle-aged man didn't have any relatives in Pi County. After being stunned for a moment, the middle-aged man returned the favor and said, "Oh, nice to meet you, nice to meet you."
I don’t know what to do next?”
The middle-aged man was careful not to say his name.
Mr. Mao from Pi County didn't care about this either. He grabbed the middle-aged man's hand and said, "Brother, are you staying here? Can you share a room with me? It only takes one night! Or you can buy a bunkhouse on the ground."
!Thank you very much!』
The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted and said: "I just came here to eat..."
Mao from Pi County said oh, and the eagerness in his eyes soon dimmed.
The middle-aged man quickly took out his sleeves, turned around and left.
Are you kidding me? We are neither relatives nor friends, and then we want to live together without even saying a word?
Even if there is some kind of relationship, such as classmates and fellow villagers, it is best to discuss it in advance. There is absolutely no reason to go to other people's rooms temporarily, or to suddenly pull someone in and ask others to give up the room...
But people who can say such things obviously don't understand the truth, or they just want to understand the truth that is beneficial to them.
The middle-aged man is older. Although it was the first time for him to encounter such a thing, he quickly realized that there was a problem, and then chose a way to solve it in a way that was not too hurtful to each other.
The shopkeepers and waiters on the side knew the truth, but they would not go out of their way to say anything, let alone take the risk of offending the guests by evicting those who had checked in early to make room for those behind.
Not even if you add money.
Well, at least it's not possible to add money within a certain range.
Besides, would a truly wealthy person stay in a small inn like this?
So, how many people who can stay in this inn will choose to pay extra money to the extent that both the shopkeeper and the waiters will waver in their stance?
Obviously, if you can't add money, then you can only draw the pie.
For example, Mao from Pi County said something like "I am deeply grateful", or...
The middle-aged man saw that the situation was not good, so he left quickly before the man could react, because the middle-aged man also knew that what he said was flawed, and he could only make fun of it for a while, but as long as he got rid of it, it would be no big deal.
It's not that the shopkeeper and the waiters will expose the middle-aged man's lies, but the direction in which the middle-aged man appears and leaves is not outward, but inward. The person walking in does not live in the inn, but is probably a relative of the innkeeper.
?And with business so good, it’s hard to say that even the woodshed and other things have been cleared out, so why would there be space for relatives to live there?
The middle-aged people escaped early, but those who came later were not so lucky.
Perhaps it was because Pi County Mao took the lead, or perhaps it was because these people figured out the tricks played by middle-aged people, the guests who came to the lobby to eat were suddenly surrounded by several people, or begged.
There are some, some are trying to get close to each other, or some are forcing themselves to make friends when they see that the person they are visiting is honest...
Those sitting in the lobby would surround one if they caught them, and several would surround one, all fighting for their own futures. For them, every extra point they can fight for is just one point.
Faced with this situation, the shopkeeper was a little confused.
The guy was also a little confused.
To be honest, because it was the first time I encountered such a thing, everyone above and below was confused.
When the imperial examination flourished in later generations, it was not uncommon for people from all over the country to leave for prefectures and counties more than half a year in advance to take the exam.
Later, I don’t know how many related businesses were born in various guild halls and B&Bs.
But that was when the imperial examination became a common practice and I got used to it.
It's just the beginning now, it's the first time Hedong has held it.
Sima Yi had served as an examiner in Chang'an before, but he mainly focused on preparing for the examination. Sima Yi really did not consider the problem of insufficient accommodation in the city. Or he did, but he did not expect that there would be so many people.
for reference.
If he had known earlier, the shopkeeper would not have even removed the tables in the lobby and directly replaced them with Datong Shop...
If we had known earlier, the inspections and soldiers in Anyi County would have stepped up patrols and stationed themselves at various key points to guard them all night long...
If they had known earlier, these students would have come three days, five days, ten days in advance, and eventually evolved into the kind of imperial examinations that would come months in advance to get a chance...
However, it is the first time for Dahan to organize such an examination here in Anyi, Hedong. From the candidates to the examination room, from the innkeepers to the students who refer to it, it is the first time. So what experience can there be?
So they were all confused.
Some candidates who settled in first had never experienced anything like this, and were then caught by those who arrived late.
Seeing that it is getting dark, although it is more or less manageable to sit in the lobby and stay up all night, it is not as comfortable as lying down in the room all night. Even lying on an ordinary mat is better than sitting. More importantly, the first
I have to go to the examination room the next day. If I suffer from depression or physical fatigue due to sitting all night, and I fail to perform well in the examination room, wouldn't it be a waste of suffering and no results?
Some people succeeded, but many more were rejected.
Worry, anxiety, fear, all kinds of emotions come together, coupled with the obvious contradiction between what you can and cannot live with, and then moral kidnapping appears very easily and openly.
This tradition is still common even in later generations.
Torture goodness.
For example, there is a widely circulated story about the girlfriend and mother falling into the water, a classic double moral kidnapping.
There are also things like if I am weak, I am justified, but if I have no money, I can only watch pirated copies, etc.
And now in Anyi, in this small inn, almost the same drama is taking place.
Do you want to make room for an older person? Otherwise, you are disrespecting your elders.
Do you want to make room for the younger ones? Otherwise, you don’t love the younger ones.
Do you want to make room for fellow villagers? Otherwise, there will be discord in the village.
Do you want……
Are you moral? Are you kind? Are you a good person? If you are a good person, let him out...
Disputes inevitably arose, which soon led to even greater conflicts.
But those who suffer the loss are naturally those who move in first.
A riot broke out, and the patrol officers and soldiers arrived to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
In the dark night, the middle-aged man blocked the door early with a table or something, and then went to bed to rest. Even if he couldn't fall asleep, he forced himself to close his eyes.
Outside the inn, the soldiers who came to maintain order due to the riot were shouting, but the damage that had been caused would not disappear automatically as order was restored...
At night, there was some faint crying.
Or they are crying like they are being kicked out of the lobby and have nowhere to stay, or they are crying like they are bullied and beaten in the inn, they are crying that their dreams are shattered, and their future is bleak.
It was pitch black outside the window. It was the darkest, darkest and coldest moment before dawn. In a few moments, it would be dawn.
When the glory rises again, it will be clear whether it is a moth flying into the flame, or a phoenix rising from the ashes, whether it is evil or good.
