Of course, no matter what, Fang Xiaoyue is not the kind of person who has never seen the market.
But the reason why he was surprised was that there were actually ten banknotes in the paper envelope, each of which cost 100 taels of silver.
If Qian Laipeng doubled the reward, Fang Xiaoyue would have guessed it.
But he still looked down on the pursuit of fame among the literati here.
One thousand taels of silver is not an income that can be ignored even for a wealthy businessman like Qian Laipeng.
After all, money is still very valuable in Daze Country.
For example, a restaurant with a very good business in the provincial capital can only earn a thousand taels of silver at most in a year.
Because the restaurant not only has to pay for various ingredients, but also has to pay the wages of the shopkeeper, chef, helper, and waiter.
In addition, you have to pay the rent of the restaurant.
But no matter what, if these thousand taels of silver were placed in Kuangluo County, they could buy several restaurants.
But for Qian Laipeng, no matter how much money he makes, it is nothing compared to being famous throughout the ages!
This involves knowledge that Fang Xiaoyue doesn't know much about yet.
Let’s not mention it here for now.
Fang Xiaoyue naturally had to show off her literary character at this time and repeatedly refused to accept this extra reward.
Qian Laipeng tried his best to persuade the other party to accept the thousand taels of silver notes.
Fang Xiaoyue finally had no choice but to accept it, and sighed: "My family is poor, my poor mother works hard at home, and the young students dare not refuse the gift from their elders."
As soon as they saw Fang Xiaoyue accepting Qian Laipeng's banknote, the other two candidates came forward and took Fang Xiaoyue to the back to drink and talk, exchange life experiences, etc.
After all, these two candidates are not as rich as Qian Laipeng, and they have thousands of taels of silver at their fingertips.
But if they give less, they feel it is a bit insulting to the other party, so they simply refuse to give. However, when they meet someone who helps them become famous, they also try their best to win over and become friends.
Fang Xiaoyue didn't mean to refuse. After all, he naturally had his own intention in changing the names of these three people.
By the time Qian Laipeng handed out rewards to the second and third place scholars, said goodbye and returned to the back, Fang Xiaoyue had already become close friends with Yue Yunfei and Ma Simu.
Well, at least if outsiders ask, they will definitely say that the other person is a close friend.
When Fang Xiaoyue said goodbye and left, Qian Laipeng tried his best to persuade him to stay. After all, for such a talented person, it was foreseeable that the other party would definitely pass the exams consecutively and have a bright future.
If you don’t contact and communicate more at this time, you may not have the opportunity in the future.
However, Fang Xiaoyue considered that the friendship between the two parties had not reached that level yet, so she insisted on leaving.
But when Fang Xiaoyue left, Qian Laipeng sent a carriage to see him off.
What he meant was that as long as Fang Xiaoyue is still in the provincial capital, the carriage will stay with Fang Xiaoyue and can be used at any time.
It has to be said that Qian Laipeng also tried every means to enhance some friendship with Fang Xiaoyue.
After all, transportation tools like horse-drawn carriages are not cheap.
Generally speaking, in Daze Country, the official distribution of carriages requires at least an official of fifth rank or above.
If a private person wanted to buy and use a carriage for himself, the court would allow it.
But the imperial court issued an order to breed horses.
If you use a horse-drawn carriage, you must keep at least two horses at home. One of the horses is raised for the court and must be surrendered when the court requisitions it.
If it is a carriage drawn by two horses, then four horses must be raised, two of which are for the court.
In short, no matter how many horses you use in your carriage, you must raise twice as many horses.
You must know that there is no large grassland in Daze Country, and the horses in it need to be purchased and imported from the Red Bone Country in the north.
Therefore, the number of cavalry in Daze Kingdom was very small in the past. When horses were most scarce, it was difficult to maintain a cavalry army of a thousand people.
However, after the horse storage order was promulgated, in just thirty years, Daze Kingdom established a relatively powerful cavalry army, with a number of about 10,000 cavalry.
Although such a cavalry army is not enough to be seen by the northern countries, it at least ensures that the Daze Kingdom has a fast and mobile force that can make the final decision.
Of course, this cavalry army, named Xiaoqi Battalion, is directly in the hands of His Majesty the current emperor.
Even the Ministry of War has no power to mobilize, which can be said to be an important guarantee for the royal family to control the situation.
As for the provinces under the imperial court, there are more or less cavalry, but their number is very pitiful.
Speaking of this cavalry, we have to talk about another law of Daze Kingdom.
That is the ban on armor and crossbows.
The general meaning is that private individuals are not allowed to collect iron armor, leather armor, or crossbows, nor are they allowed to raise horses privately.
Among them, a pair of iron armor and a crossbow hidden in the house were regarded as rebellion, and the whole family was executed.
No more than three pairs of leather armor are allowed, and anyone who exceeds that number will be exiled thousands of miles away.
Those who raise horses privately will have their horses confiscated and the horse owners will have to work hard for three years.
This is not surprising, as armor, crossbows, and horses can extend human defense, attack power, and mobility.
If someone hides these three things secretly, it may not be a good idea.
After all, if a warrior can equip horses, armor, and crossbows, he can sweep a squad of county soldiers head-on.
After all, with iron armor, you don't have to worry about the attacks of county soldiers, and with strong crossbows, you can easily shoot county soldiers at long distances. As for iron armor, you can use the maximum impact of horses to kill any broken sword.
Can produce great killing effects.
As a result, grassroots officials like county magistrates may be in danger.
After all, no matter how well a county magistrate does these days, there are still people who will hold grudges. What's more, many county magistrates may not satisfy both parties when they manage county areas and handle lawsuits.
Many things will even be blamed on the county magistrate.
For example, if the court wants to collect taxes and the farmers cannot pay the taxes, and their grain is forcibly collected, who will those farmers hate?
It must be the county magistrate!
Their simple way of thinking determines this idea.
In short, the carriage that sent Fang Xiaoyue back to the inn was pulled by two horses, which shows Qian Laipeng's financial resources.
Fang Xiaoyue took a look at it when she got into the car. The horse pulling the carriage had a shiny coat, long and powerful limbs, and a neck like a dragon. It was a rare good horse.
Even if such a horse is used in the army, it will still be a good war horse.
And if you want to raise such a horse, the monthly cost is no less than raising ten servants.
Back at the inn, Fang Xiaoyue originally planned to ask the servant who drove the horse back.
Who would have thought that this servant actually booked a guest room in the inn, and then ordered the boss to feed the horse with good ingredients, while he followed Fang Xiaoyue to mix tea and water. The look on his face made Fang Xiaoyue think that he was like this
The servant is the master.
Fang Xiaoyue was a little embarrassed to enjoy this kind of service. Unexpectedly, the servant said: "It is Xiaozizi's own blessing that he can serve such a noble man as Mr. Fang. If you, the old man, send Xiaozizi back, what money will he receive?"
I’m afraid the master won’t want me anymore.”
After saying this, Fang Xiaoyue couldn't insist on driving the other party away.
The reason is very simple. If you do this, wouldn’t it directly destroy other people’s jobs?
Fortunately, when Fang Xiaoyue said that he wanted to start studying, the servant named Coyotito went back to the guest room on his own and stopped following him.
In the next few days, even if Lei Wangcai and others invited him, he did not go out to attend any cultural gatherings.
It's not necessary. First of all, he has enough money for the time being.
A full thousand taels of silver is enough for him to use for a long time. Even if he goes to the capital to take the exam, he doesn't have to worry about the price of paper in the capital.
As for fame, Fang Xiaoyue didn't know about it after staying in the inn for a few days. It wasn't until he felt a little bit tired and went out to relax that he learned from Lei Wangcai and others that his song "Jian Jin Jiu Jiu" had been spread.
All over the provincial capital.
In Lei Wangcai's words, now in the entire provincial capital, apart from the beggars, even the vendors in the market know the poem "Jiu Jin Jiu".
Of course, the reason why this poem spread so quickly was mainly due to the praise of Qian Laipeng and the two influential people.
Qian Laipeng asked his family's singing girl to turn this poem into a song and dance, and performed it frequently when entertaining business colleagues, making friends with officials, and raising people.
Yue Yunfei and Ma Simu both have a hobby of visiting brothels. When they went to Cuiliu Courtyard, the best place in the provincial capital, they got drunk and happily sang the song "Jiangjinjiu", which made the people who heard it happy.
The red card girl begged hard and copied the wine list onto the paper.
As a result, the girls of Cuiliuyuan compiled the poem into pipa music and performed it in front of the guests, which won the praise of the guests.
What Cuiliuyuan did also caused other brothels to follow suit, which caused the song to spread quickly.
Even as far as the farthest reaches, they have followed the merchant caravans to several nearby provinces.
In fact, what even Fang Xiaoyue didn't know was that the examiner who came to Shannan Province to preside over the provincial examination by the imperial court was currently receiving friends.
Of course, this friend's identity is not ordinary, and he is not here to inquire about exam questions at all.
He is the academic administrator of Shannan Province, and he is a Jinshi of the same class as the examiner of the provincial examination.
When the academic master proudly said that he had got a good poem and wrote it, the examiner was naturally shocked.
After reciting this poem about drinking wine several times, I couldn't help but sigh: "This poem describes the heroic spirit of drinking wine."
After asking about the author of this poem, the examiner sighed again: "This man is a great talent!"
Of course, in order to avoid suspicion of fraud, the academic administrator did not tell the examiner that this person had applied for the provincial examination.
On the day of the provincial examination, Fang Xiaoyue got up early.
After arriving in the provincial capital, he spent almost half of his time studying and practicing.
But even so, he also upgraded the Four Books and Five Classics to level 16, poetry to level 18, Four Books to level 17, and calligraphy to level 13.
The Wuqu Zhuang has been upgraded to level 6, and the Wuqu Sword Technique has been upgraded to level 7.
It has to be said that after attending Qian Laipeng's last literary gathering and writing about "Jinjinjiu", which was widely disseminated, his literary spirit has reached an astonishing level.
This also allowed him to gain a lot of bonuses in learning and practicing.
It can be said that if he hadn't gathered a lot of literary energy, he might not be able to upgrade all these skills by 1-2 levels in the past few days.
After all, after the skill level reaches a certain level, the acquisition of experience will naturally slow down, which also slows down the improvement of skill level.
Knowing that Fang Xiucai was going to take a provincial exam today, the servant sent by Qian Laipeng washed the two horses early and cleaned the inside and outside of the carriage.
After seeing this, Fang Xiaoyue admired the servant named Coyotito quite a lot.
You must know that although Daze Kingdom is a feudal dynasty, slave-keeping is common no matter whether it is official or private, but most of the well-trained servants are still in the major royal palaces or the families of officials of past dynasties.
The so-called nobles need three generations to cultivate, which means that one or two generations of people who are rich and powerful cannot raise qualified servants.
After many businessmen made a fortune, they also bought slaves from Ren Yazi, thinking that they had become masters.
But they don't know that these slaves are also thoughtful. If the master treats them badly, they will inadvertently empty out the master's wealth, and even cause frequent conflicts in the family.
The reason is very simple. If you want to be someone's boss, they will also be lazy, cut corners, deceive others, and take advantage of others.
In short, this is an extremely complex issue of human nature.
In fact, even within the palace, such problems still exist.
Coyotito hung two red lanterns in front of the carriage. After asking Fang Xiaoyue to get on the carriage, he whipped his whip and drove the carriage forward.
The carriage traveled extremely smoothly without any bumps.
Fang Xiaoyue even suspected that with just one move, Coyotito could drive a carriage for His Majesty the Emperor.
When we arrived outside the examination center, there was already a long queue outside the gate as usual.
You must know that more than 3,000 talents will take the provincial examination, and the maximum number of candidates admitted will not exceed 60.
A cruel ratio of 1 out of 50!
This is why some people say that it is much more difficult to pass the imperial examination than to pass the imperial examination.
Fang Xiaoyue checked what she was carrying on the carriage.
The pen and ink he brought this time was a gift from Qian Laipeng, and the silver pen made by Taoist Master Qingyu with yellow leather tail and silvery white hair was placed in the guest room.
After all, that thing was made from a part of the monster's body, and the standards of this provincial examination were very high. Fang Xiaoyue was worried that there would be problems if he brought the silver pen with him.
In fact, the issues he considered were not groundless worries.
At this time, in the examination hall, the chief examiner sat chatting with the academic administrator and other important officials who served as deputy examiners.
This provincial examination tests candidates, so it is naturally much more advanced than the academy examination that tests scholars.
In addition to the chief examiner and deputy examiner who preside over the entire examination process, there are also supervisors, supervisors, promotion officers, co-examiners, paper printers, paper collectors, paper receivers, finalists, and transcribers.
, more than ten kinds of officials, such as reading officers, patrol officers, prosecutors, supply officers, etc., work together to ensure the smooth progress of the exam.
Of course, those who are qualified to sit and chat with the chief examiner and deputy examiner are naturally only the examiner, supervising officer, supervisory officer, promotion officer and other higher-ranking officials.