More than ten miles outside Xunzhou Prefecture, there is Huangkeng Village.
This village with only dozens of households is like most villages of this era. It is inhabited by people with the surname Huang, and they even have a common ancestor.
At this time, in an ordinary low house at the end of the village, a young man who was wearing only a single coat in the cold spring and wrapped in a quilt to avoid the cold was reading loudly, shaking his head and shaking his head while holding a book that had been almost torn through.
At this time, a cry came from outside the house: "Brother Yongxiang, Brother Yongxiang!"
After hearing this, the young man in the room opened his rags and stood up. Then he put on a heavily patched cloth robe and pushed out the door. He saw a young man wearing a cloth robe standing in the yard.
He immediately said: "It turns out that Brother Zisong is coming from afar, please come in quickly!"
Although the commoner boy Huan Zisong was dressed simply, his commoner suit was brand new and of very good quality. It formed a clear contrast with the patched commoner robe worn by the young man named Yongxiang.
After the two entered the room, Yongxiang began to make tea. Although the tea leaves were just ordinary tea leaves and the spout of the teapot was missing, he was meticulous when making tea and looked extremely cautious, as if he was holding the best quality tea.
The hair tip is the same as the purple clay teapot.
When Yongxiang was making tea, the boy Zisong opposite didn't say anything. Instead, he sat upright and waited until Yongxiang poured the tea into the cup, spread his hands and said, "This is a rough cup of tea. Brother Zisong, please don't dislike it."
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Zi Song nodded slightly, then picked up the teacup and took a sip, then put down the teacup and said: "Bitter but not astringent, clear but not light, good tea. Brother Yongxiang's tea art is getting more and more exquisite!"
Yongxiang said: "It's too good to say that the tea ceremony is just a small road. The most important thing for us scholars is the classics and articles, the imperial examination road!"
After Zisong heard this, he straightened up again and said, "I came to visit Brother Yongxiang this time just for the imperial examination!"
"Imperial examination? Today's officers and soldiers have been defeated. The huge Guangxi generals have all fallen into the hands of the puppet Tang Dynasty. How can we take the exam? Could it be that we have to go to Guangdong to take the exam and fail!" After Yongxiang finished speaking, he sighed.
One breath.
Zisong said: "Yes, it is the imperial examination, but this time we are going to Zhaoqing to take the exam!"
"Zhaoqing?" After hearing this, Yongxiang was slightly confused: "Isn't Zhaoqing in the hands of the puppet Tang Dynasty? How can we take the exam?"
Zisong said: "Don't you know, brother Yongxiang? The emperor of the Tang Dynasty has announced to the world that he will hold an imperial examination in April. Xu has already applied for it and will leave for Zhaoqing soon. He came here to invite Yong
Brother Xiang and my younger brother went to Zhaoqing to take the exam together!"
Hearing this, Huang Zhiyuan did not answer immediately, but looked at his close friend in front of him, and then said: "I heard a few days ago that the Puppet Tang Dynasty seemed to be launching an imperial examination, but I didn't think of taking the exam.
, this Pseudo-Tang Dynasty is a Pseudo-Dynasty after all, and as scholars, we..."
Before he could finish his words, Xu Hanshi waved his hand and interrupted him directly: "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty has already proclaimed himself emperor and established his own country. Now he has made Zhaoqing the capital, and has more than 100,000 troops, covering three provinces.
, the rise is unstoppable, there are countless heroes in the three provinces working for the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, how can we fall behind others and miss the opportunity to make contributions! "
Speaking of this, he paused for a while and then said: "The day before yesterday, I received a letter from my second grandfather. In the letter, he told me to take the exam and get a good ranking. He also said that there is only one such opportunity. I will wait until this year.
It won’t be so easy during the autumn exam!”
"If I remember correctly, your second master was an official in Guizhou, right? Could it be that he..." Huang Zhiyuan said with a puzzled look on his face.
Xu Hanshi said: "Yes, now my second master is an official of the Tang Dynasty, and he is the sixth-rank general judge of Liping Mansion!"
Hearing what Xu Hanshi said, Huang Zhiyuan finally understood why his close friend suddenly said that he wanted to take part in the imperial examination of the Puppet Tang Dynasty. Why?
His second uncle had all turned over to the thieves, and he had taken his official status to join the thieves. This kind of thing would never be tolerated by the court, and what his second uncle did was tantamount to dragging down the entire Xu family. If the hypocrisy
The Tang Dynasty is over, and the huge Xu family will probably be confiscated and exterminated!
With no way out, the Xu family naturally had no choice but to go to the dark side one by one!
In fact, as Huang Zhiyuan thought, the scholars who plan to take part in the imperial examination this time are basically scholars who are close to the Tang Dynasty. Their family members, elders, teachers, classmates, etc. have all turned to thieves.
If there is no way out, we can only go all the way to the dark side. I hope that the Tang Dynasty can last longer, or even directly unify the land of China. That would be better, then they can become a new powerful family of a new dynasty.
But this is the choice of the Xu family and Xu Hanshi.
But do you want to take part in the imperial examination of the Puppet Tang Dynasty?
After Xu Hanshi left, Huang Zhiyuan fell into deep contemplation!
He, Huang Zhiyuan, is a typical farmer's boy. He has three brothers and sisters. The eldest sister is married and he is the second. He has a younger brother. His parents are typical farmers and cannot read.
When he was young, his parents originally wanted him to go to a private school in the next village to learn a few words so that he could become a respectable person like a bookkeeper in the future. However, they never thought that anyone from the Huang family would be able to take part in the imperial examination.
of readers.
It occurred to me that Huang Zhiyuan had a great talent for reading, and was praised by the private school teacher in the next village as the most talented boy in many nearby villages.
Inspired by this, his parents, who couldn't read the Chinese characters, almost risked their lives to support him in his education. People from the same village who also had the surname Huang were also very helpful to him.
The last time he took the exam, he passed the county exam and the government exam. Although he failed in the college exam in the end, many people thought it was because he was unlucky. The articles he wrote were not popular with everyone, but his talent was recognized by many people around him.
The students unanimously appreciated it.
Like every scholar who aspires to take the imperial examination, the meaning of his existence is to take the imperial examination, obtain fame and then become a high official.
But after the puppet Tang Dynasty went south to Guangxi last year and occupied the entire Guangxi, he was depressed because it meant that the imperial court would not hold imperial examinations in Guangxi in a short time.
Now that he heard that the Puppet Tang Dynasty also established the imperial examination, to be honest, when he first heard about it, he thought it was ridiculous. He thought that a group of thieves dared to organize the imperial examination. This was simply the most ridiculous thing in the world.
But after listening to the words of his best friend Xu Hanshi today, he had other thoughts. He had no intention of continuing to read. After explaining to his family, he went to Xunzhou Fucheng early the next morning. Anyway, their home was not far away.
Fucheng is only ten miles away, so it only takes an hour to walk there.
This was the first time he came to Fucheng after Xunzhou Fucheng was captured by the puppet Tang rebels. When he first arrived in Fucheng, he had not yet entered the city, but he felt that Xunzhou Fucheng was different from usual.
First of all, although there are many people waiting to enter the city in the direction of the city gate, there is not much noise. Everyone is queuing up quietly to wait to enter the city, and there is no such domineering rich man who directly passes through everyone and enters the city.
Occasionally, I saw Ma Cheng from a few wealthy families coming to the city gate. Although they were jumping in line to enter the city, I could also see that the slaves of those wealthy families were very polite to the pseudo-Tang government officials wearing black uniforms at the city gate.
He is not a stupid person, and naturally he will not put himself in a special situation at this time, so he queues up at the back of the queue. The people in front of him are obviously scholars like himself, but these two scholars seem to be like him.
Just like that, he is a cash-strapped person.
Because they were saying that those pseudo-Tang government officials were so evil that if they wanted to enter the city early, they would have to pay a tael of silver for jumping in line. Otherwise, they would have to queue up and enter the city for free.
This tael of silver is nothing to a wealthy family, but it is extremely expensive to an ordinary family. Therefore, although you can occasionally see someone jumping in line directly to enter the city, at first glance, they are either rich or wealthy.
As for ordinary people, even many well-dressed people queued up honestly.
Naturally, the Tang Dynasty, like many other dynasties, did not charge entry fees to ordinary people. However, relevant tariffs were levied on caravans, and the queues of these caravans were also different from ordinary pedestrians. Ordinary people
If you do not carry a large amount of obvious goods, generally no tax will be charged.
Huang Zhiyuan was just an ordinary scholar. Naturally, he would not encounter any obstruction when he entered the city. After entering the city, he did not wander around like a headless fly. Instead, he first went to another friend's house. Of course, he
It was in the name of visiting people’s homes and exchanging knowledge, and I also brought along several current articles I had written recently.
Well, another unspeakable reason is that it’s easy to have a meal at noon!
This friend of his was also an ordinary person. After the two sat down and talked, Huang Zhiyuan learned from his friend that this time the imperial examination was launched in the Puppet Tang Dynasty, but there was an uproar in Xunzhou Prefecture, and many senior scholars
They all strongly opposed scholars to participate in the imperial examinations of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty, and even some extreme ones would cut off relations with scholars who planned to participate in the imperial examinations.
But he got an extremely important piece of information from this news, that is, although the overall proportion of scholars who participated in the imperial examination of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty is not high, there must be some, and the number should not be small. Just one person in Xunzhou
Mansion, I am afraid that at least hundreds of people will attend this time's Puppet Tang Dynasty Ascension to Enke.
After knowing this, he left his friend's house in the afternoon and went to the Puppet Tang Yamen to watch the imperial examination notice. This notice had been posted for a few days. There were not many people watching, but there were still several people like him.
The taxis were watching, and one after another, after reading the notice, they ran directly to the Yamen inside to register for the exam.
Why do so many people take the exam?
Huang Zhiyuan didn't understand it at first, but when he saw the details of the notice, he was shocked in his heart, and then he couldn't help but walked in towards the pseudo-Tang government office in front!