Since mid-March, Gongsheng students from all over the Zhou Dynasty have been rushing to the capital in an endless stream. The students who come to the capital sooner are those from better families, because they can choose fast transportation, such as cars and boats.
Come. And if you come to the capital earlier, you can find a suitable place to live earlier, and you have more time to make friends with some officials you can get close to, submit posts, and become disciples.
Although this is not helpful for the Chunwei exam, it is an extremely important link for future career. After all, Chunwei is just a level that is not difficult.
Moreover, Gongsheng students from well-off families do not need to worry about the cost of staying in the capital for an extended period of time.
But for those Gongsheng students from poor families, this spring trip to Beijing is full of hardships amid hope. There is not much around Gyeonggi, and those Gongsheng students who are thousands or even thousands of miles away from the capital, if their families are
If you are poor, the cost of traveling to Beijing will be a heavy burden. Although the imperial court requires that all expenses for traveling to Beijing to raise a child need to be paid by the local government, however, this provision has long been reduced to empty talk in many places.
Except for those state capitals with generous financial resources and where the chief officials attach great importance to the imperial examinations, more places have mutated this system into a regulation where tribute students advance to Beijing to take the examination fees and reimburse them afterwards. In fact, only
Only those who won the lottery will be compensated, while those who did not win will not receive any attention. All the money spent will not be compensated.
Under such circumstances, poor students naturally do not dare to be extravagant and wasteful. If they fail to win, it will increase their burden and make things worse.
Therefore, even if the journey is far away, this type of students only choose one way, and that is to walk from all over the Zhou Dynasty to the capital on two feet. Those who are closer to the capital will start later, and those who are farther away will start later.
Yes, as early as the fifth year of Qingfeng, just after the New Year, while others were still enjoying the New Year atmosphere, they packed up their bags and embarked on the journey to Beijing to take the exam.
Imagine that in the vast land, among the rivers and mountains, students are walking alone on the road carrying their luggage, heading towards the capital, the holy place in their hearts, towards the battlefield that can change their own destiny.
Figures walking alone. If there is not that bright hope waiting for them, many of them will definitely not be able to make it to the capital. After all, they have to walk for such a long distance for ten days, twenty days, a month, or even two or three days.
It takes months to arrive.
Therefore, if you see some people on the streets of the capital carrying bags, with messy beards and hair, ragged clothes and tears in their eyes, don’t think that they are homeless people on the street. Because you don’t know who among them
In a few dozen days, a person will be famous all over the world and become a new star in the spring. From the end of March to April, perhaps the most frequent changes in fate in the world have occurred. This is also an artificial creation formed by the imperial examination system.
Wonder.
Whether they are poor students or wealthy students, they all have one thing in common. This is also the only thing that Gongsheng students from all walks of life have in common, with different faces, personalities, backgrounds and experiences, and that is the confidence in their eyes. Because these people all have
He was the winner who stood out from the thousands of troops in the autumn exam. After experiencing that huge difficulty, everyone was full of confidence. No one among them thought that they would fall before the low threshold of Chunwei.
Objectively speaking, the situation can indeed be optimistic. The admission rate of Chunwei is much higher than that of Qiuwei. If Qiuwei is only one in a hundred, then Chunwei has an admission rate of nearly 40%. Based on the data of the spring examination of Qingfeng in the second year
According to the school evaluation, it reached a record of 50%. In the spring of that year, there were 2,700 Gongsheng students on the 15th Road of Dazhou, and more than 1,300 were named on the gold list, completing the first feat of leaping over the dragon gate.
The number of Gongsheng students in Chunwei this year exceeds 3,500. Even if the same number of admissions is calculated, it is still more than 30%. More than three and a half out of ten students will be successful, which can be said to be quite high.
But after all, most of them will be destined to accept the teasing of fate, and their self-confidence at the moment will also become another weight for their greater disappointment in the future. There is nothing that can be done about it. The reality is so cruel, and the imperial examination has its own consequences.
I don’t know how many people have dreamed of coming here.
On the morning of March 16th, Zaoyuan also welcomed a hopeful old Gongsheng student. That was Lin Hu's father, Lin Youde. In fact, Lin Youde arrived in the capital on the evening of March 15th following the Lin family's ship to Beijing. That night
So he lived in Lin Bonian's house. The next morning, Lin Youde, who learned Lin Jue's address, hurried over to see Lin Jue. Of course, Lin Jue was very happy and invited him to live in Zaoyuan. After all, this was his home.
A rare opportunity to get along with Lin Hu and his son.
Lin Youde readily agreed and immediately asked Lin Hu to accompany him to the Ministry of Etiquette to report. Then when he came back, he took a detour to Lin Bonian's house to take out his luggage and say goodbye to the head of the family. This move made Lin Bonian very dissatisfied, but at this moment,
Lin Bonian was worrying about his official affairs, but he had no time to care about these things.
As all the tribute students arrived one after another, the atmosphere in the capital became strange. The arrogant people in the capital showed another side of themselves. Almost all the people were friendly to the tribute students, because it was uncertain who among these people would be in the future.
You will be able to achieve great success. If you offend a Gongsheng student at this time, you will probably offend a high official in the future. Even if you are as arrogant as the common people at the feet of the emperor, you have to weigh it.
Of course, this is not the whole reason. In fact, for the people of the Zhou Dynasty, the importance the imperial court attaches to scholars and the respect they have for scholars for hundreds of years has made people all over the world have a sense of reverence for scholars from the bottom of their hearts. Therefore, Gongsheng students
After arriving in the capital, once their identity is revealed, they are basically treated well.
…
Just as the arriving candidates were reporting to the Ministry of Etiquette, and were busily shuttled to the homes of wealthy officials to meet with the officials, and were actively preparing for the big exam, another event was also unfolding in full swing in the capital.
In the past few days, groups of beautifully dressed women have appeared at every major intersection in the outer city and inner city. They set up a small stage on the street corner and started singing and dancing for no reason, attracting countless people to stop and hang around.
After singing and dancing, they began to distribute flyers everywhere to publicize the news that the Beijing branch of Hangzhou Jiangnan Grand Theater was about to open a play.
Many people are not very interested in going to the theater. They think it is just another newly opened tile theater. The most indispensable thing in Beijing is tile theaters. The famous three tile theaters, upper, middle and lower, have long been the center of Beijing Entertainment.
It is not surprising that celebrities from all over the country are invited to come to Beijing to perform songs, dances and small plays. However, the several big gimmicks on the flyer are very eye-catching.
The first big gimmick is that the author of the play performed this time is Liangzhe Road Xinke Xie Yuan Lin Jue. This Lin Jieyuan is also one of the tribute students who will participate in this year's Spring Examination. That's okay, after all, there are only fifteen Duke Xie Yuan in the Zhou Dynasty
, Jieyuan is not a unique figure. Lin Jue's reputation is not famous enough, and many people don't know him at all. But when people see Lin Jieyuan's representative works such as "Ding Feng Bo" and "Magpie Bridge Immortal" listed on the leaflet,
”, “Shui Tiao Ge Tou” and other songs, people who know the goods suddenly went crazy like a pot exploded.
"Oh my god, he actually wrote these poems. How... how is this possible?"
"Yes, several of the most popular lyrics in our brothels in the capital are all composed by this Lin Jue? We have to meet this person no matter what."
"Isn't that right? The person who has been making trouble for a long time is this Lin Jue. Then I have to go and take a look. If the lyrics are like this, the words are not bad at all."
The second gimmick on the flyer is: free theater viewing within three days, free transportation, and gifts on site. This one is the most direct, who doesn’t like to take advantage of it? Not only can you watch the theater for free, but you can also enjoy the feeling of being taken care of.
, and there are still things to take, wouldn’t you be a fool if you didn’t go?
The third gimmick is: the opening of the theater coincides with the Spring Examination. For every audience present, the Jiangnan Grand Theater will donate 2 taels of silver to the Ministry of Rites, which will be used for the repair of the book building of the Gongyuan Imperial College and the selection for the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Future pillars of talent will do their part. It is specially noted later that the Grand Theater can accommodate more than 500 spectators per show, so if the three-day free show is full, the Grand Theater will donate a huge sum of 3,000 taels of silver to use this meager amount.
We would like to support the Chunwei Examination and wish the Chunwei Examination a complete success.
This third gimmick can be said to be extremely high-end, but upon closer inspection, it is an extremely despicable act of trying to gain popularity. Three thousand taels of silver are exchanged for a high-level one who has the reputation of helping Chunwei and sharing the worries of the court. This is simply a great deal.
. And subconsciously people think that the Jiangnan Grand Theater has a backstage and a background, otherwise how could the Ministry of Rites accept donations from private businesses? In fact, Lin Jue did not even say hello to an official of the Ministry of Rites. In the end, if the Ministry of Rites does not want this
Lin Jue can just push away the money. It's not that I don't donate it, but they don't want it.
Originally, there were no these three gimmicks. Just one free gimmick was enough to fill the theater. What's more, there were two gimmicks, the upper and lower gimmicks, which made the people overcrowded. Lin Jue was not superfluous, but he had already decided.
Well, in Beijing, the Grand Theater should take a high-end route and not be biased towards the general public like Hangzhou. In a place like Beijing, there are many wealthy families and countless high-ranking officials. To open up the situation, the Grand Theater must be a place that these people think it is.
It is a place worth having fun and can earn a higher income.
Therefore, Lin Jue asked for a selection of people who are willing to come to the theater. In fact, it is very simple. Just register their names, occupations and official positions, and you can initially know the personal information of these people. Of course, not all of them are selected from officials and wealthy families. Ordinary people
The common people are also the source of customers, so they need to be equally exposed to rain and dew, and each has its own proportion. In the end, of the 500 people in the theater, 200 were ordinary people, and the remaining 300 people were equally divided among big-name officials, merchants, etc.
Of course, for the first performance, Lin Jue naturally wanted to reserve part of the box for acquaintances in Beijing. So Lin Jue sent invitations to Fang Dunru's family, Yan Zhengsu, Lin Bonian, Guo Kun, Ma Bin and others.
Invite them to come and watch the first performance for free. However, except for Ma Bin, all other invitations were politely declined. Lin Jue actually understood that it was impossible for serious Fang Dunru to come because they were all high officials of the imperial court.
, if they come to the Jiangnan Grand Theater to watch a show, they are suspected of using their status to flatter themselves, which is something they will never do.
It’s understandable why Lin Bonian didn’t come. Although this is Lin Jue’s business, it does not belong to the Lin family. As the head of the Lin family, his own children are working alone outside. Could it be that he is here to encourage the Lin family’s children to do so. Moreover,
He is also a high-ranking member of the imperial court, and cannot easily attend certain events. Not to mention, the Third Division has been experiencing a turmoil recently, and is being seriously audited by the deputy prime minister. Lin Bonian is already very worried, and he still has the time to watch.
play.
However, the young prince and Ma Bin accepted the invitation. After all, they are actually middle and low-level officials, and they hold military positions, so they are not subject to too many restrictions. Besides, it was Lin Jue who invited them, so they naturally wanted to come.
