Liu Jin and Er Hu walked very casually on the streets of the capital. At this time, the capital was very lively.
Because a large number of factories and workshops have been opened around the capital, the population of the entire capital has also expanded rapidly. The population inside and outside the capital has already exceeded two million people.
Although most of the new population live outside the capital, this does not prevent them from entering the city during the day. Because of the gathering of a large number of people, the capital has become more prosperous and noisy.
On the streets of the capital, there are many various shops, restaurants, teahouses, inns, etc., and the business is also extremely hot. As for the various small businesses and people doing business on the streets, there are countless people. More importantly,
The shouts came and went.
Because there are still about a month to go until the triennial examination. Last year in autumn, only talents from Beizhili came to take the exam, but now it has gathered talents from the entire Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, scholars with feather fans and silk turbans can be seen everywhere on the streets. Compared with the scholars in autumn last year, these people who came to the capital to participate in the examination were all candidates.
Since they are Juren, they enjoy many privileges, so their clothes are naturally more luxurious, and of course their talents are higher. They all have their nostrils turned upward and look like they are arrogant.
They walked together in small groups, commenting on every detail of the capital, pointing out the country, and occasionally had a flash of inspiration, and could even recite one or two fairly good poems.
Naturally, everyone around them looked at these arrogant and arrogant scholars with envy and jealousy. Those who were able to take part in the examination were all Juren, who had bought into the privileged class, exempted from corvee and taxation, and could still work
official.
If he is named on the examination list this year and can ascend to the Emperor's Hall in the evening, his future will be bright. Maybe someone will be granted the title of Marquis or Prime Minister in ten or twenty years.
Therefore, ordinary people are naturally envious of these scholars. As for some businesses, they often even take this opportunity to organize some activities.
For example, some inns will put up signs at this time that they only accept students who are taking exams in Beijing, and they will often give certain discounts. If someone wins the gold medal, the inn will prepare firecrackers and so on. When someone announces the good news, they will immediately
I celebrated with a bang, feeling even happier than I was in high school.
Of course, in the end, the high school students will definitely leave some calligraphy or something, so that your inn will be imbued with culture, which will be of great benefit to improving the quality of your inn. From now on, there will be a reason to increase the price.
Of course, this is true not only for inns, but also for restaurants and teahouses. Restaurants in particular need to be famous. They often take the opportunity to organize large-scale poetry gatherings and the like, and pay to invite students to their restaurants to recite poems and write essays. If
If you can produce one or two excellent songs, the entire restaurant will become famous.
Le Zhong is actually engaged in various activities in brothels. Talents have been popular since ancient times. There are countless famous talents in history who have left calligraphy treasures in brothels and Chu palaces that have been passed down through the ages.
The literati have a little bit of curiosity and hold some oiran competitions. They don't care about how much money they have. They only care about poems and songs. If they don't have literary talent, even if they spend a lot of money, they can't even think of having a family.
Wait and walk backwards to welcome each other.
For these things, those brothels and Chu Guan had already figured out clearly, that is to say, it was only in later generations that this fine tradition was lost.
"There are so many people~"
Liu Jin looked at the bustling street, smiled and said to Erhu beside him.
"There are so many scholars. Are they all coming to the capital to take the exam?"
Erhu looked at the scholars on the street, and he felt as if if a brick were thrown down, there would be one scholar out of ten.
"Not necessarily. Some of them may be scholars from nearby places who come to join in the fun."
Liu Jin smiled and shook his head and said, the Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to the ethics ceremony held every three years. There are many scholars in Beizhili who will take this opportunity to study in the capital. In fact, they mainly come here to join in the fun. , feel the elegance of higher-level students.
The two of them walked and came to the downstairs of a teahouse. Before entering the teahouse, they could hear the voices of a group of scholars upstairs, competing for words and ink.
"The thatched cottage will be left to future generations, and the poems will be remembered for thousands of years~"
"The waves are rolling outside the railing, and heroes of all ages can't stop the river from going eastward; the sun and moon are bright in the window, and you can look out at all four seasons, and you have rarely seen the yellow crane coming from the west."
"Okay~ This is absolute for all eternity, absolute for eternity, waiter brings me pen, ink, paper and inkstone~"
Those who can come to participate in the examination naturally have good skills, and the pairing skills are really deep. From time to time, one or two good pairs appear, which immediately attracts a lot of praise.
The entire teahouse was filled with the arrogance of these students giving advice, so that many ordinary people in ordinary clothes were embarrassed to enter, for fear of disturbing the students' enjoyment.
As for the owner of the teahouse, he was happy to see this and asked the waiter to write and ink at any time. The talented person who was absolutely correct also quickly wrote it out and then immediately hung it at the door of the teahouse for more people to appreciate.
"The holy land is located in Huainan. You can see the shadows of clouds in the sky, which are the same color as the horizon. When a boat passes under the bridge, you can hear the sound of the flute. Someone is playing it until the third watch of the month!"
"Holding the plum blossoms back to the snow, looking at the mountains and dancing in the streams~"
At this time, Liu Jin was listening to the sounds upstairs and looking at the pairs hanging outside the teahouse. It had to be said that the pairs that could be hung were all really good and of very high standard.
"Brother Jin, should we go up and join in the fun?"
Erhu looked at Liu Jin and said softly.
"join in the fun?"
"Can you know how to play pairs? Or can you write poetry."
"Go, go~"
When Liu Jin heard this, he asked Er Hu in return, which made Er Hu confused. What did he say wrong?
Liu Jin is Jieyuan of Beizhili. Isn't it natural to hang out with these students who come to Beijing to take the exam?
Of course he didn't know that Liu Jin was a parallel importer. Liu Jin had always avoided poetry gatherings and the like whenever he could. He just had no interest in participating. After all, points were hard to come by and he would spend them just to show off. Wow, it's such a pity.
"Dong dong~dong dong~"
After leaving the teahouse with Erhu, they had not walked a few steps to the entrance of an inn. They saw a kid from the restaurant beating gongs and drums, which immediately attracted a large circle of people to watch.
"Everyone, everyone, in order to celebrate the imperial court's triennial Luncai Ceremony, our store has a special couplet. Anyone who matches the second couplet will have free room and board during the imperial examination!"
The owner of the inn shouted to everyone with a smile on his face, and a waiter next to him posted a couplet he had just written.
“Free room and board?”
"There is such a good thing."
When the people around him heard this, they all immediately became energetic and quickly stood on tiptoes to look over. Those who knew how to read also read out the first couplet.
"The scholar, farmer, industrialist and merchant are in awe~"
When everyone heard this, they were slightly dumbfounded. This pair didn't sound difficult. There were only seven words. You should know that generally speaking, in order to show one's strength, one would often make it very long. The longer it is, the more awesome it is.
If you can come up with a couplet with dozens of words and still be able to say something meaningful, it will definitely be full of character.
This seven-character couplet does not seem to be difficult, but a scholar took a closer look at it and immediately couldn't help but give a thumbs up and said: "This is a strange couplet. This couplet is divided into two parts. Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce are
One part is the four syllables, and the last five tones of "Gongshangjiao Weiyu" are repeated. One word is repeated and the other word is homophonic. Anyone who can make this couplet is a great talent."
As soon as everyone heard the scholar's analysis, they suddenly realized that they all couldn't help but want to scold the innkeeper for being such a thief for making such a difficult choice. This clearly meant that he didn't want people to stay for free just casually.
Well.
But for scholars, the more difficult it is, the more interesting it is to study and ponder, because only in this way can you show that you are talented.
"This young master has a good explanation. I wonder if this young master has a second line?"
When the boss heard this, he smiled and nodded to show that he understood it well.
"Ashamed, ashamed, I really couldn't think of the second line for a while."
The scholar was quite frank and said frankly that he couldn't do it.
"Everyone, everyone, who can guess this, during the imperial examination period, until the number one scholar is paraded through the streets, our hotel will provide free board and lodging, provide a first-class house, three meals, four dishes and two soups a day, and we will never make a mistake."
The innkeeper smiled, and then loudly promised again that in order to improve the reputation of his inn, he also took great pains and spent a lot of money to obtain this couplet, in order to attract attention and increase his popularity.
"Interesting, does this count as advertising and marketing in this era?"
After witnessing everything in front of him, Liu Jin couldn't help but laugh. The innkeeper's advertisement will probably spread throughout the capital soon. Once the science and technology exam is over, the inn's Ming Dynasty will also spread throughout the Ming Dynasty.
, from now on, when someone comes to the capital or something, they will probably think of this inn, and the business will naturally be better.
"Brother Jin, can you beat this pair?"
Erhu naturally didn't understand this, so he touched his head and asked softly.
"How do I know? I didn't think about it."
As Liu Jin continued to walk forward, he also replied that he would not waste his brain cells on such a useless thing, free food and accommodation, and it is not like he did not have a house here in the capital, and the cook at home would do it.
It's not that the food isn't delicious, it doesn't appeal to me at all.
Walking, walking, Liu Jin and Er Hu walked to Wangyue Tower again, and looked at the Wangyue Tower built with cement and steel bars in front of them. The all-glass window design made Liu Jin feel as if he had traveled back in time.
Average.
"Let's go to Wangyue Tower and try the seafood here~"
