After the interview, Yuan Shuzhi and Zeng Juan began to wait endlessly. This time was different from the last time. It was a written test for the first time, so I didn’t feel confident. I was totally unsure. On the contrary, I wasn’t too concerned about whether I could pass the exam. Now I feel good about myself, but I am obsessed with it and worry about gains and losses.
Yuan Shuzhi had lost the mood to read novels in the past few days. Apart from playing with Ming Nu, the rest of the time he either covered his head and fell asleep or stared at the book. Zeng Juan was the same, he just hid in the house and wouldn't come out.
A week later, the sound of blowing and beating could be heard faintly from the entrance of the alley in the distance. The sound gradually became louder. When they arrived near Zeng Juan's house, there was an overwhelming sound of firecrackers. The neighbors had already gathered together. Yuan Shuzhi and Zeng Juan Juan's heart was in his throat when he heard one person announce loudly: "Report!!! Congratulations to Zeng Juan, the civil servant admission notice has arrived!"
The Senate originally did not have the system of announcing good news. Those who did so were mostly petty officials from the School of Government, Government Studies, and Gongyuan who colluded with unemployed vagrants to take this opportunity to ask for rewards. The imperial examination and high school is a happy event, and those who come to announce the good news will naturally not cause any complaints. However, this good news has a first, second, and third report. Every time, rewards are given and wine and food are entertained. Of course, the big family doesn't care, but the small family often suffers from it. ——But this is a happy event after all, even if you have to borrow money from neighbors to buy wine and meat, you still have to deal with it.
Since the people in Guandi Temple were purged, no one dared to announce the good news. This time the good news was announced not by a newspaper, but by the newly established Guangzhou Post and Telecommunications Bureau under the instruction of Liu Xiang. The purpose is nothing more than to create momentum.
At this time, the whole alley naturally erupted. Neighbors all congratulated Zeng Juan's parents. A stone fell from Zeng Juan's heart. He cried with joy. He immediately knelt down and kowtowed three times in the direction of the Lingao Senate, shouting: "Long live the Emperor of the Song Dynasty! Long live the Senate, may the elders live a thousand years!" Then he turned around and kowtowed several times to his parents to thank them for their upbringing.
After Zeng Juan had done all this, he got up and took the bright red civil servant admission notice, and looked at it happily. This is just an ordinary large red envelope made of kraft paper, with a line of words written in regular script in ink in the middle, and a large seal on the seam of the seal. It was extremely ordinary to say, but he held it like a treasure.
Zeng Juan’s parents hurriedly gave the applicant 1 silver dollar to announce the good news, but they were rejected by the applicant:
"We are staff of the Guangzhou Post and Telecommunications Bureau, and this is our job. We cannot accept money." The "good news team" who came to deliver the notice was wearing a dark green short coat and a canvas bag cross-body.
"Then please take a break while I prepare some wine to entertain you."
"We have other notices to send, you can just celebrate on your own." The person in charge was very polite.
At this time, no one paid attention to Yuan Shuzhi in the corner. He was alone there, very disappointed. Sometimes nothing is more sad than a good friend becoming famous, but he couldn't show it and could only stay silently in the corner. He felt that the whole sky was filled with Gray.
Just when Yuan Shuzhi was almost in despair, the employee who announced the good news asked again: "This is Zeng House. Is there anyone named Yuan?"
Zeng Juan's father was stunned and said quickly: "Yes! Yes! Wan Shenglu's accountant Yuan Shuzhi lives in this house..."
Before he finished speaking, several trumpeters started playing again. The postman took out a big red envelope from the canvas bag, raised his voice and said loudly: "Report!!!!!!! Congratulations to Yuan Shuzhi of Zeng Mansion!, Civil Service Admission Notice" arrive!
"Coax!" The whole alley exploded again and even more thoroughly. The feng shui of Zeng Juan's family was so good that two Song officials from Australia were born in the family! Incredible! Some people even started to think about borrowing Feng Shui...
Yuan Shuzhi tremblingly took the notice, which was clearly written in black Song font on the red paper: Admission Notice for Civil Servants of Guangzhou Special City of the Song Dynasty, signed with the official seal of the Cadre Office of the Senate of the Song Dynasty.
He held the notice and read it again and again, feeling a mixture of sadness and joy. Although I already knew that I was a top ten in high school after I got the first place in the written examination, holding this notice at this moment felt like I was in a dream. He was speechless, and even when the postman asked him to "seal", he acted dully, like a marionette.
"Old Yuan! Congratulations!" Zeng Juan patted his shoulder hard, causing Yuan Shuzhi to wake up immediately. He couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh, and said: "I never thought that I, Yuan Shuzhi, would still be here today!" After saying this, tears started to fall from the corners of his eyes.
Zeng Juaniang said hurriedly: "Lao Yuan, today is a good day for you! Don't be sad..."
"Yes, yes, that's right!" Yuan Shuzhi quickly wiped the corners of his eyes, carefully hid the admission notice, and said, "Let's go and greet the guests."
Zeng Juan's family was in great joy, and Zeng Juan's father took out some money to help others book a few banquets, and entertained neighbors, relatives and friends in the evening. While I was holding this simple notice and looking at it from left to right, I burst into tears.
"Son, you are finally making a difference, and our family can finally turn around!"
"Dad, this is not a formal appointment. You have to undergo training before you can take up the position." Zeng Juan said this, but his face was already smiling. These few months of hard study were not in vain. The pass rate this time is about 35%. The admission rate is very high, but many old scholars cannot change their minds and write essays as stereotypes. There were also those who praised the Emperor of the Song Dynasty for being completely irrelevant in their articles. Naturally, these people were among the first batch to be screened out.
He wanted to say something else, but he was surrounded by an endless stream of congratulators and couldn't escape. Most people, including his parents, believed that the Guangzhou Imperial Examination was at least equivalent to a civil service examination, and that it was the proper way to take the imperial examination, which was much better than the previous police officers like Li Ziyu. Everyone agreed that the Zeng family was about to become prosperous!
While the family entertained the guests, they sent people around to announce the good news to relatives and friends. In the evening, they held a banquet to entertain the guests. What an indescribable joy.
It wasn't until after seeing off the guests and collecting the dishes that Zeng Juan and Yuan Shuzhi opened the admission notice. They saw only three pages inside: one page was the admission notice, indicating the date and month to report to Lingao Cadre Management School. , the location is Gongyuan. The other one was a physical examination notice, and the last one was a political review form, which contained several pages. There were quite a few contents that he found baffling, and they were so detailed and complicated that Zeng Juan had a headache just reading them. Some of the title issues in it were even more unclear, and he didn't dare to write on them rashly, for fear of writing something wrong.
"Forget it, let's talk about it then." He looked at it halfway and said.
The next day, an unexpected congratulator came, but it was Wu Yi - it turned out that he also passed the interview. After congratulating each other, Wu Ji expressed his intention.
"Ah Juan, several students from the original school have also passed the exam. In a few days, they have an appointment to meet with their master. I don't know whether I should go or not, so I come to you to discuss it."
"Senior, I don't have any scholars in my family. What's going on with this meeting with the teacher?"
"This has been the practice since the Tang Dynasty. If the examiner takes your test paper, you are both a master and a disciple. If you study politics and love talents, and recognize the master and apprentice status, it will be a great help in the officialdom in the future!" Wu Ji explained .
"But we still need to undergo training before we can be appointed officers..."
"They don't understand this. They think this is the imperial examination and the training is just a formality."
This is not wrong.
Zeng Juan listened silently. He had zero experience in the examination room and couldn't make up his mind whether he should go to see a teacher.
If you want to go back to the past, you have to go to the master of the house. Not only that, you also have to go to the master of the house. He had heard someone say that the relationship between teachers and students, the friendship between students and fellow students, and the continuous support of the same spirit are a huge force and the greatest support for people in the officialdom.
However, the rules of the Senate of the Song Dynasty are now the same as those of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the rules and regulations of this Senate are different from those of the Ming Dynasty.
He thought for a while and said: "My brother thinks it's okay to go and pay homage. First of all, this is the old rule in the imperial court, and the Senate has no express permission to do so. It is a great virtue to come to honor the master, and it is reasonable to go to pay homage to him. "
"I didn't expect that little brother is very knowledgeable." Wu Yi nodded and said, "Brother Yu thinks so too, but..."
"Just what?"
"Hmm..." There was a slight hesitation in Wu Kai's words: "According to convention, the examiner is the academic administration of a province, who is the chairperson. Students who come to the door must hold a thank you gift, hand over a disciple's post, call themselves a disciple, and call the chairperson a teacher. If they come from a similar background, The master has some experience, so he can be called Master!"
Zeng Juan listened blankly, thinking that there was nothing wrong with this. What was the point?
Seeing that he was not enlightened, Wu Ji said helplessly: "The examiner this time is Zhang Yuanlao!"
Zeng Juan understood that Zhang Yuanlao was the defense lawyer in the Wu Zhi case. It was a girl who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. How unbecoming was it to have her as a teacher? I am afraid that since the imperial examination, there has never been a female seat master, and she is still so young.
"Then, those students don't mind?" Zeng Juan asked
"They said that there is no age in learning, and those who are successful come first. All the elders of the Australian and Song dynasties are talented enough to be our teachers. Mr. Zhang is a young man who is a scholar of a province, and his future is limitless." Wu She said and rolled her eyes. "Besides, men and women were equal in the Song Dynasty, so what happened to women? Chief Du said women could hold up half the sky."
Zeng Juan laughed: "They learn very quickly."
However, for the sake of fame and fortune, he went to kneel down to a young girl and call him "teacher". If he didn't have a thick skin, it would be impossible. Zeng Juan unconsciously felt a little secretly contempt for those who were going to pay homage to the teacher.
"So Brother Yu feels embarrassed and goes to pay homage. I can't do such a shameless thing. If I don't go, what if I offend this female veteran and get angry during the training?"
Zeng Juan thought it was indeed true. When he was hesitating, Yuan Shuzhi on the side said: "Brother Wu is pedantic. Even if you give up for five buckets of rice, you still have to worry about what you are doing with these things! I think, even if you are willing to worship, people will still I don’t want to accept your worship!”
This sentence is like a word that wakes up a dreamer.
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Volume 7 will be updated tomorrow - Section 22 of the Strategy for Guangdong and Guangxi.
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