Chapter 27: You must sharpen your knives before battle
The paper that Jia Daquan got back was really a test paper for Tang A's examination. He got it from the archives through Lao Zhao and from Lao Zheng.
It's not cheap at all, it's eighteen taels a piece.
But it doesn't mean it's expensive. After all, compared with my son's future, buying a paper for eighteen taels is definitely a good deal. If this is an imperial examination paper, not to mention eighteen taels, even ten thousand taels might be snatched up.
In fact, the paper is not a printed one, but an old paper from the 22nd year of Qianlong's reign.
Why is it an old volume?
It's too late.
According to regulations, the Baitang'a examinations of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia are held together, and Mandarin (Manchu) must be tested, so the preparatory students of the Sixteen Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia must take the classics exam together.
The Eight Banners of the Han Army do not need to take the Mandarin test, and the classics examinations are organized by the administrative offices of each banner. The riding and archery examinations are held at the main campus of Deshengmen just like the children of the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Mongolian armies.
It seems that the classic exams of the Eight Banners of the Han Army are particularly relaxed and free, but the actual difference is the degree of emphasis.
After all, 90% of the first-class worshipers are from the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia, and half of them will be in the imperial yamen, so the ranking must be strictly controlled.
How can someone with a figure like Wu Dalang, who walks with his hips twitching, and who can't write a single big character appear in front of the emperor?
There are too many factors involved in preparing to pay homage to Tang'a this time, the most important of which is the Queen Mother's longevity, so things must be implemented before the Queen Mother's longevity.
The day before yesterday, the Military Aircraft Department issued the order to the Twenty-Four Banners Dutong Yamen. At that time, the results were to be recorded and reported to the Military Aircraft Department's treasury within five days at the latest, and then distributed.
In five days, we have to take classic exams, organize riding and archery exams, and assign scores, etc. How can each banner's yamen have time to carefully prepare the papers?
Moreover, the Baitang'a examination is not as strict as the imperial examination. As long as you are qualified, there is no problem of failing, so you can cope with it if you can.
In addition, the classic part only accounts for 30% of the total score of the exam, and most of it is riding and shooting.
In this way, the leakage of test papers will not be a problem at all.
In fact, Jia Daquan was not the first to buy the paper. There were already more than ten papers that passed through Lao Zheng's hands before him.
Preparing for the Baitang'a exam once every few years or even ten years is the most anticipated "event" of the archives office.
Without it, there would be too much oil and water.
Jia Liu certainly didn't know much about the exams, but through what Lao Zhao said and his hints, he also knew that this exam for Bai Tang'a was just a formality.
How much it can be rated as, in fact, money has the final say.
Of course, you have to do enough superficial work.
So, Jia Liu quickly asked Yang Zhi to take his drunken and tongue-tied father back to his room to sleep, and began grading under the oil lamp.
Why read instead of answer?
Because, no.
Is the paper difficult?
Not difficult!
Many of the most basic things in the Four Books and Five Classics are similar to fill-in-the-blank questions. For example, the first half of a sentence said by a sage is listed there, and the examinee is asked to write the second half.
The first question is "A friend comes from afar". The following is left blank for candidates to answer.
There are about forty questions from top to bottom. The difficulty level is similar to that of the Tongsheng Examination in the Imperial Examination. There is no such thing as policy theory or Mo Yi.
For this paper, it is obvious that the person who wrote the question fully considered the virtues of the Eight Banners disciples.
However, Jia Liu still couldn't answer such a simple question, because the knowledge he studied was very different from what was taught in the Four Books and Five Classics. It was simply out of reach, so he had to read it first.
After looking through them one by one, Jia Liu could only answer three questions correctly. He didn't want to find a pile of textbooks to dig through one by one (looking at them vertically from right to left was really confusing), so he had to take the papers to his eldest sister's house overnight.
The eldest sister Jia Juan's family is located in the Xizhimen area where the Han army is stationed at Zhenghong Banner, seven or eight miles away from Chongwenmen where Jia Liu's family lives.
It was already dark at this time, but the streets and alleys were brightly lit.
Along the way, people from the House of Internal Affairs and Shuntian Prefecture, as well as the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Industry were busy everywhere. In order to celebrate the 800,000th birthday of the Queen Mother, the whole court was mobilized. I heard that the official birthday celebration was held in other provinces and vassals.
There are hundreds of floats from each state.
The largest float could not be pulled by dozens of horses.
Jia Liu walked in the newly decorated scene of the prosperous age, but his steps were firm and without hesitation.
When I arrived at my eldest sister's house, my eldest sister and my eldest brother-in-law had already gone to bed.
When she heard the knock on the door and then her brother's voice, Jia Juan quickly got up, lit the lamp and opened the door. When her brother told her that she could make love to Tang A, Jia Juan pulled her husband out of bed without saying a word.
"A test paper for worshiping Tanga?"
Wang Zhian, who was wearing a cotton-padded jacket, took the test paper handed over by his brother-in-law. After scanning it up and down, he asked with some disbelief: "You can't even write a paper written by a child like this?"
"I..."
Jia Liu was quite embarrassed.
"If he can answer questions, what should he do to your brother-in-law? What are you doing standing there? Go and answer the papers for Liu Zi." Jia Juan asked her husband to give the answer papers quickly, but she took a blanket to cover her husband's legs because she was afraid that he would be cold.
The eldest sister's house is not big. It was divided when they got married. There are two and a half rooms including the kitchen, so there is no room for the living room. The couple sleeps in the east room and the two sons sleep in the west room.
"Dabao, are the two babies asleep?"
Jia Liu glanced towards the west room, where his two nephews were sleeping soundly in bed.
These two nephews are eight years old and seven years old. They are at the age that dogs would hate. They are usually the most clingy uncle. If they know that uncle is coming, they will definitely make a noise and refuse to sleep.
Jia Juan asked her brother if he had eaten. When she found out that he had not eaten yet, she went to the kitchen and made a bowl of noodles. As soon as the noodles were ready, her elder brother-in-law Wang Zhian had already finished answering the questions.
"I have to answer this kind of paper. It's really overkill." Wang Zhian looked helpless.
Jia Juan choked her husband: "You are the only one who can do it. How can you fail to pass the exam for so many years?"
"What do you know? I am not appreciating my talent, my pearls are covered in dust, and the examiner is ignorant..." Wang Zhian muttered unconvinced.
Jia Liu hurriedly said: "The most knowledgeable person in our family is the eldest brother-in-law. If I don't look for you, who can I look for?"
"Hey, that's true."
Wang Zhian laughed and asked his brother-in-law to eat the noodles quickly.
Jia Liu didn't want to eat noodles. He first read the paper written by his eldest brother-in-law carefully from top to bottom. After the ink dried, he carefully put it in his arms. He had to memorize the answers. He couldn't write this paper.
Just hand in the papers directly.
After finishing the noodles, Jia Liu stood up and patted his belly: "Sister, brother-in-law, I'm going back first... Dad drank too much, I have to go back and take care of him."
As he said that, he turned around and went out.
"wait a moment."
Jia Juan called her brother, took out two banknotes from a purse under the pillow and gave them to her brother.
These two silver notes, one worth 20 taels and the other worth 30 taels, were obtained by selling the dowry jewelry the day before yesterday.
"Sister, no need. It won't cost much to pay homage to Tang A. Dad said he can do it." Although he was short of money, Jia Liu definitely couldn't ask for it now.
Jia Juan couldn't help but force it into her brother's arms. She looked at him with some distress and said, "It doesn't cost much to pay homage to Tang, but how much money does dad have in his hand? You can take the banknote first and make up for it."
Empress Tang A has plenty of places to spend money... When you become successful and have money, you can return it to your sister."
"this..."
Jia Liu subconsciously looked at his eldest brother-in-law Wang Zhian. He knew that although his eldest sister was in charge of the family, the eldest brother-in-law had to approve of using money to supplement her parents' family.
"What do you think I'm doing? This money is your sister's dowry, and I didn't give it to you. You can just take it."
Wang Zhian glanced at his brother-in-law who suddenly knew how to learn and make progress, nodded slightly and said: "When you are replaced by Baitang, no matter where you are assigned, you must work hard and do your job well. Don't aim too high, and don't fish for two days.
People who share the Internet, let alone fool around with your bad friends like before... You need to know how to save money in the future, and wait until next year to ask your sister to marry you, and you will be considered successful in the future..."
On the way back to Jia Liu, the nagging voice of his eldest brother-in-law seemed to be in his ears.
This eldest brother-in-law was a bit pedantic, but he had a good heart. Jia Liuxun thought that if he could prosper in the future, he would definitely support this unsuccessful eldest brother-in-law.
But the paper is solved, what about riding and shooting?
Jia Liu can ride a horse. Although he is not very skilled, he can definitely run around the school grounds twice without any problem.
This is how you get the riding points for cavalry and archery.
Jia Liu doesn't know how to shoot. He has never even touched a bow since he was born.
So, the real shortcoming is here.
Ajialiu didn't want to pay homage to Tang Dynasty in the first class, it was not his part at all, but he was not interested in going to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to do odd jobs for the Aisin Gioro family.
As for going to the border area to get a sixth- and seventh-level military position, I am not very happy. First, it is too far away from the center of power. Second, the prospects for promotion are limited. Unless you are lucky, the room for advancement is basically zero.
Otherwise, why would Banner decide to go to the border area as a fourth class?
Therefore, he must get a second class for himself.
It doesn't matter whether he is running errands under the Dutong Yamen of Zhenglan Banner of the Han Army or traveling all over the city, because what Jia Liu needs is not an errand, but the status of Tang'a, who can buy an official at a discount.
In this way, he must actively strive for riding and shooting, which accounts for the majority of points.
I just don’t know why Qianlong was so obsessed with riding and shooting. The Qing army’s military equipment at this time was mainly guns and artillery. Whether it was the expedition to the Central Division, the return army, or the battles with Burma, the Qing army’s guns and artillery were fully utilized.
played a huge role.
Moreover, the enemies of the Qing army in Junggar, Burma, Annan, including the current Jinchuan soldiers, are also equipped with a large number of foreign guns and cannons. It can be said that today's wars are fought with guns. The Manchurian army's riding and shooting skills that they were proud of in the past have fallen behind.
It cannot meet the battlefield needs under the new situation.
Qianlong knew that guns and artillery were powerful, and many years ago he reported to the generals at the stick office and on the front line that there were a large number of Western gunners serving as mercenaries for countries hostile to the Qing Dynasty, such as the Swedish mercenaries in the Junggar army, and the Burmese mercenaries.
British and French mercenaries in the army.
Therefore, Qianlong should follow the trend of the times and actively promote the reform of guns and artillery so as to continuously improve the combat effectiveness of the Qing army, instead of doing the opposite and engaging in cavalry archery Mandarin, forcing the Eight Banners to carry forward cavalry archery again, and even prepare to pay homage to Tang A
We all have to take the riding and archery test. Isn’t this turning back the clock on history?
Jia Liu thought about it but couldn't figure out what Qianlong was thinking.
The strength of the Qing army can also play a role in preventing the Han, so why must it restrict the development of guns and artillery?
But he was the emperor, so Jia Liu had no choice but to recognize him.
Just take the test. It doesn't matter whether you can ejaculate or not. What matters is that you can ejaculate.
Early the next morning, Jia Liu found his sober father and asked for a bow to practice archery.