As night falls, the large farms on both sides of the canal in Tongzhou City begin to finish work. The laborers who have been busy for a day are exhausted. They start to eat dinner, wash up, and then fall asleep. Almost no one gathers to chat. It’s not that they have nothing to talk about, but they are really busy.
too tired.
Tired but very fulfilling, especially with a full stomach. The food here is much better than the relief porridge shack in the capital. At least the food is full, and I heard that some wages will be given, which makes the refugees very happy. I really hope that this kind of
Live longer and longer, otherwise winter is just around the corner. How can we live our lives? We will either starve to death or freeze to death.
A large number of sweet potatoes and potatoes were sown and planted on the ground. In order to prevent the refugees from stealing, soldiers from the Beijing camp patrolled around the clock. Fortunately, no theft was found. After all, the food here is still enough, let alone
You will lose your job to make a living just for the sake of temporary gratification.
The refugees outside the city are surviving, and the people in the city are living their lives, but right now, the lives of ordinary people are only slightly better than survival.
But fortunately, their spiritual life is relatively rich. For example, they can hear a lot of gossip every day. Especially today, the queen and princess went out to raise money, which became the topic of conversation for the people after dinner tonight.
If you can't chat enough, you still have to carry a bowl to the door and chat with the neighbors.
Ordinary families only talk about such gossips, but the families of officials are different. Before dark, there is a news spread among the officials in the capital: The young eunuch of the East Factory, the first supervisor of the Ming Dynasty, will move to the house tomorrow.
Big banquet.
This is definitely a big event in the officialdom!
Officialdom is also a world, and having a world is indispensable for people and sophistication. Of course, it is much more complicated than ordinary people and sophistication, because it involves the division, adjustment, and trading of rights.
The word "Quan Jian" contains too many things. It is clear without going into details. Not to mention how powerful the big guys like Wei Zhongxian, Liu Jin and others were in the past. Many officials rushed to visit but were unable to get in due to lack of access. They were the two palace officials.
Several powerful officials in the Fourteenth Yamen have many officials following them.
What's more, Chang Yu is now at the height of his power.
How many people want to be his disciples and follow his path, but this guy has a very weird style of acting. He rarely gets close to civil servants and mostly works in the military, so many people have no way to write letters!
Now he is hosting a housewarming banquet for guests, which means anyone can come.
It's just that when someone moves into a new house, you must bring a gift when you go to congratulate them. This will make many people worried. It's not that they don't know what to get, but that they don't have anything to get them.
The reason is very simple. Compared with later generations, the officials in the capital of the Ming Dynasty were really as good as a donkey on the outside, but in fact they were poor. It is well known that the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was very low. It was difficult for many officials to support their families. After entering the capital, they rented houses.
, and the salary is low, so be it. Sometimes, they even use sundries as compensation for their salary, such as tables and benches. This is true and not just nonsense.
If you want to make a future, you have to find a way. Now there are ways, but you have to find a stepping stone. But this stepping stone has stumped many people. After all, some officials in the capital are really poor, and the small people don't look down on them. The big people look down on them.
I can't afford it myself.
At this moment, another piece of news came. The eunuch said that Beijing officials below the fifth rank were not polite, and they would not accept gifts. If you were interested, you could just come and have a glass of thin wine and say "congratulations". You would not accept anything as a gift!
This made many people happy, but made a small number of people frown. Those below the fifth rank were not accepted, so what should I give to those above?
Another news is also very timely. All the housewarming gifts were donated to the Royal Academy. This made many people suddenly realize that what they wanted was cash!
These are some weird ones.
I have never seen anyone blatantly asking for money. Does this count as soliciting a bribe?
As a result, this topic became the most discussed topic that night.
However, Chang Yu didn't care about this at all. Wu Mengming had spread all these rumors one after another. He was holding a banquet at the Yamen to celebrate the acquisition of three more generals.
During the dinner, they were all martial artists. They spoke in vulgar ways but with great pride. They talked about martial arts and experiences. When complimenting others, they did not forget to compliment themselves. For example, how many fierce thieves they encountered somewhere on a certain day and how they broke through in a bloody battle. Everyone
Chang Yu was fascinated by what he heard, and he was also interested in it. Although he heard it was a bit exaggerated, it was not nonsense. After all, this era of cold weapons was a troubled time, and no one who often traveled around the world would not encounter ghosts.
Wang Zhengnan became famous in the Yamen today, and everyone in the banquet was full of compliments. They said that his future achievements would not be inferior to those in Wuzhong, which made them curious. Who is Wuzhong?
Although they didn't praise him, the other two Wang Lang and Li Bingxiao felt a little uncomfortable. Li Bingxiao was better. He was good at lightening the body rather than boxing. Wang Lang, as the founder of the sect, certainly felt uncomfortable when he saw everyone respecting Wang Zhengnan so much.
, so he kept raising his glass to drink.
Chang Yu knew his state of mind after seeing his actions. At this time, Wang Lang had just created Mantis Fist and there was still a lot of room for improvement. Moreover, his martial arts skills were not inferior to Wang Zhengnan's, but his actual combat experience was far inferior, so he spoke out
Appeasement: "The reason why martial arts is called kung fu is that it cannot be accomplished in a day. It needs to be slowly honed over time. In addition to diligent study and hard training, you must also have a wealth of actual combat to improve your realm. There is a saying that practice is the test.
The only criterion is truth, otherwise you won’t be able to produce any good skills by practicing behind closed doors, and you will be a frog in the well.”
Wang Lang had long heard of Chang Yu's name as the God of War. He only knew that he was good at fighting but didn't know about his martial arts skills. Even when he kicked him over during the day and saw Chang Yu locking Wang Zhengnan, he thought it was just a sneak attack. At this time, he heard that he had such a good knowledge of martial arts.
When he saw this, he was very surprised. He quickly stood up and raised his hands and said: "I have received a lesson from you. The governor said that the army is the best place to practice martial arts. In the future, please join the army."
Chang Yu nodded: "If you want to join the army and practice martial arts, you will have many opportunities in the future. However, the battlefield is extremely dangerous and you must not show off. No matter how high your martial arts skills are, if you are not careful, you will be doomed!" Then he turned to look at Wang Zhengnan: "This is what the governor said.
right."
Wang Zhengnan nodded: "Charging into battle and fighting in rivers and lakes or competing with each other are completely different things..." He started talking endlessly. Although what he said was all the truth, it made Wang Lang feel a little disgusted in his heart. After all, you are the best, after all.
At that time, Wang Lang was still very young and had drunk. His dissatisfied expression was reflected in his heart, but how could he escape from Chang Yu's eyes, so he waved his hand to stop Wang Zhengnan from continuing, and asked Wang Lang: "Have you ever heard of Wang Laipin?"
this person?"
Wang Lang was startled: "This sounds familiar. Who is this person?"
"This man is the first martial arts champion in the Ming Dynasty," Wang Zhengnan interrupted.
Due to the emphasis on civility over martial arts, the Ming Dynasty did not have palace examinations for martial arts and did not establish distinctions and titles among the first, second, and third class. It was not until the early days of Chongzhen that the military examinations were held in the capital, perhaps because they felt that there were no generals available in the court and wanted to suppress civility and promote martial arts.
Examination, and Wang Laipin was the number one scholar in martial arts who was hand-picked by him at that time, and became the first number one scholar in martial arts in the Ming Dynasty (it is also said that there are number one martial arts champions in China, and it started with Wang Laipin. Let the experts verify this)
As for why the Ming Dynasty did not choose the number one scholar in martial arts in the early Ming Dynasty, it actually felt unnecessary besides emphasizing civility over martial arts. This was because the Ming Dynasty had a hereditary system of soldiers and generals, and military generals had positions without taking part in the imperial examination. For example, Qi Jiguang was hereditary Dengzhou Wei when he was a teenager.
The commander is a general (equivalent to the deputy commander of a military region), so there is no need to select soldiers and generals from the civilian population.
Besides, the items in the imperial examination are all about strong bows, crossbows, horseback riding, archery, and art of war. These items are all prohibited by the private sector. They can only be selected from the military, which seems superfluous.
Another reason is that generals are hereditary, so if the second generation of the army does not want to make progress, they are mostly blind. To participate in the imperial examination, they only need to recite the "Martial Classics" and it is over. Compared with the liberal arts examination, it is simply laughable. Refer to others
Not very motivated either.
Closer to home, Wang Laipin was selected as the number one scholar, and was awarded the title of deputy commander-in-chief at that time. Not long after Dengzhou rebelled, he went to the battlefield, and then disappeared.
The dignified martial arts champion died just after entering the battlefield. This caused quite a sensation at the time and made people in the martial arts world realize that the battlefield is different from the martial arts world.
No one doubts that Wang Laipin, the martial arts champion, is a parallel import. In fact, those who can be selected as the martial arts champion are all versatile. In addition to good martial arts skills, they must be able to pass the test of archery, horseback riding, and archery. They must also be powerful!
At that time, Wang Laipin and Xu Yanqi were the only two people who could carry a hundred-jin sword. Their strength was quite astonishing. It was quite difficult to lift a thousand-jin stone!
Even Chang Yu can't get lucky, so only people like Wuzhong and Tu Yuan who are born with supernatural powers can!
An almighty martial arts champion went to the battlefield and died in the battle without even bubbling up! When Wang Lang heard that his mood was no longer promising, he handed over his hands to Wang Zhengnan and said: "I have learned a lesson."
Humility makes people progress. Chang Yu was very satisfied and pointed at the Chen brothers and said: "These are all first-class players who have been on the battlefield. We will have more exchanges and learn from each other in the future."