"Huh? Li Qiao is the leader of the case!"
"Is this Li Qiao's paper? Over the years, he is the only one whose articles have been posted in public."
"It must be his test paper, and he is the leader of the case this time!"
…
The examinee who was secretly having fun in his heart was stunned.
What?
Is Li Qiao still the murderer? !
They opened their eyes wide and looked at the yellow list. The official who was responsible for posting the yellow list on the left happened to take the upper left corner of the yellow list onto the wall.
As his hand left, the word "Li Qiao" in the first row appeared in everyone's sight.
"It's really Li Qiao!"
"It's indeed him!"
…
Li Qiao: "..."
He took a long breath.
Fortunately, fortunately, his article this time touched the hearts of the prefect and academic officials.
After relaxing, he raised his eyes to read the names of the others.
The head of the case is in a separate column.
Next are the names of the first-class candidates. Candidates in this class are junior students. There are many benefits to studying in the county.
Soon, he found the word Xu Ying, which was at the top of the first class.
Meng Yue is in fifth place in the first class.
Xu Ying and Meng Yue were not only selected as scholars, but they were also junior students.
Li Qiao couldn't help but smile and turned to congratulate the two people beside him.
But at this moment, the examinee standing at the front let out a huge exclamation.
"Look, Li Qiao's article has been posted!"
With this exclamation, many people rushed towards the location of his paper, wanting to see how he wrote the article.
Meng Yue and Xu Ying were also very curious. They just briefly tasted the joy of being a scholar in the examination, and then followed the crowd towards the paper.
Li Qiao: "..."
He touched his nose and pushed out of the crowd.
He was really unsure about this article. The theory he had summarized before was not suitable for this topic.
The topic this time may seem small, but it is actually very large and there are many aspects that can be written about.
If he wants to stand out among a hundred candidates, he must find an angle that no one else would think of.
Therefore, he stated his attitude at the beginning of his article. He believed that building the canal would do more good than harm.
However, the disadvantages cannot be ignored.
The answer he chose was that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, but ninety percent of his entire article was devoted to the disadvantages of building the canal.
The biggest disadvantage of building the canal is that it wastes people and money.
Although the Holy Spirit wants to practice cultivation, he cannot make up his mind. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit was afraid of wasting money and laboring on the people and arousing people's anger.
Therefore, he proposed some measures to deal with this shortcoming.
Building the canal is not something that can be done overnight, and it cannot be rushed. Therefore, you can save money first, save a sum of money to build a section, and save a sum of money to build a section.
As for how the imperial court saved money, the amount of money spent on building the canal was astronomical, and this could not be solved by relying on a food business.
Of course, vermicelli may be possible, but part of the profit from vermicelli falls in the hands of farmers, part in the hands of businessmen, and part in his hands.
It was so scattered that even if he was willing to donate his share, it would not be enough to support the construction of the canal.
But he couldn't think of another business that could be as profitable as vermicelli, so he thought of another way.
After the construction of the canal, water transport will be very developed, and many docks and even towns will emerge along the way.
This is an extremely big opportunity.
Therefore, he thought that these docks or towns could be planned first and then let people bid for them.
Whichever merchant offers more money, after the canal is built, can choose a dock to buy land, build a house or do other things.
Li Qiao wrote this part very roughly. After all, he was just a 21-year-old farmer who had never left Hexi Prefecture.
If money can be raised using this method, then perhaps it will not waste people and money.
If the people and money are not wasted, then the biggest drawback of building the canal will be gone.
However, after the canal is repaired, some disadvantages will also appear.
The canal must connect north and south. After the canal is repaired, it must not only transport food, which will cause a waste of resources.
Moreover, some people will definitely engage in smuggling and carry private goods on grain ships.
This is very dangerous. If the weight of the ship exceeds the standard, it may sink.
Therefore, he felt that the imperial court could issue some laws to allow merchants to transport goods through the canal openly, and the imperial court would collect corresponding business taxes.
Once such a canal running from north to south is allowed for merchants to transport goods, it will inevitably bring huge economic benefits, and countless people will make a living relying on water transportation.
When it comes to money and survival, there are many related disadvantages.
The high-ranking officials at the upper level are corrupt and pervert the law, the middle-level officials set up checkpoints to exploit others, and the boatmen at the lower level will definitely organize to fight against the officials for their own benefit. Once they form gangs, it will be a big problem.
Moreover, some people who have been exploited too harshly may rise up.
In short, if it is not managed well, it will be the people at the bottom who will suffer.
The people at the bottom have no choice but to die in silence or fight their way out.
In addition, there are a series of troubles involved in building the canal. For example, the river is blocked due to various reasons, which requires manual cleaning, which is a huge expense...
In short, his article mainly talks about the shortcomings of the construction of the Grand Canal. All the shortcomings before and after the construction are mentioned, and the summary is very comprehensive.
At the end of the article, he wrote about the benefits of building the Grand Canal. Although there are many disadvantages, there are also many benefits. Therefore, he feels that the benefits of building the Grand Canal outweigh the disadvantages.
Li Qiao had previously refused to disclose the content of the article to others because he felt that his article might be off-center.
He advocated that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but as a result, he wrote about the disadvantages throughout the article. He was worried that this article would not scratch the itch of the prefect and academic officials, and therefore he would not be able to win the case.
Since we can't get the case, it's better not to let others know about this article.
But unexpectedly, the prefect and the academic leaders still named him as the head of the case.
I don’t know if these two adults really like his article, or they just do it for the sake of the Holy One...
Tao Zhu had already heard everyone's exclamations, and he was relieved when he confirmed that Li Qiao was indeed the leader of the case.
Seeing Li Qiao squeeze out of the crowd, he hurriedly walked towards Li Qiao.
When he came to Li Qiao, he saw that Li Qiao looked calm and there was no joy on his face. He said: "I think your writing is very good. You deserve the title of the head of the case."
Li Qiao smiled when he heard this: "You are the first to commit the crime in my husband's eyes."
"No, even if I am not your husband, I still think your writing is good. You are doing it for Dasheng and the good of the people." Tao Zhu shook his head gently.
This person's article focused on the shortcomings, just in case the canal was really built, then this article would be a reminder to the Holy One.
Although he spoke softly, this person still wrote this.
This person hopes that the benefits of the canal far outweigh the disadvantages, and that the people will not suffer.
With this heart alone, he felt that this article deserved to be number one.
Li Qiao: "..."
He was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help but grab Tao Zhu's hand: "Brother Zhu understands me."
Tao Zhu smiled: "So don't feel guilty, you deserve to be the head of the case."
"Yeah." Li Qiao nodded.
He himself has a clear conscience.
While sitting in the examination room, countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but he finally chose to write this.
That's what he wanted to write.
As for what other candidates think of him, he has no control over whether his brain is in someone else's head or his mouth is on someone else's head.
As long as he didn't curse him and Tao Zhu in the street like the two outsiders, he wouldn't pay attention.
At this time, Li Ershan, Li Xia, Huang Youming and his son, Baiyou, Li Dazhong, and Shen Hua all came to Li Qiao, and they all congratulated Li Qiao.
It’s the head of the case again!
Winning three yuan in a row, this honor really fell to Li Qiao.
The Xu family rushed to the crowd and were overjoyed. Xu Ying also passed the exam!
But Xu Ying couldn't care about his family at this time. He and Meng Yue stood in front of Li Qiao's paper, read it three times in a row, and studied it carefully for a while before they squeezed out from the crowd.
Xu Ying was stopped by her family, so Meng Yue walked towards Li Qiao alone.
Meng Yue's face was full of admiration: "Brother Li, whether it's the way you save money or your dedication to the court and the people, I admire you so much. This article of yours can be used as a model essay again."
"Don't take it seriously, don't take it seriously." Li Qiao said very modestly, "It's just a trick."
"What's so clever about this? As far as what you wrote, before I read your article, I didn't know that the canal could have so many ills."
The disadvantages that Meng Yue thought of were that it wasted money and wasted money, and that it was difficult to maintain. He emphasized these two items.
All his knowledge of canals came from books, but his family often dug rivers while doing corvee work.
So he analyzed the shortcomings of the canal from his own perspective. What he was most worried about was that the court had no money and would squeeze the people. He was afraid that the court would raise taxes, and he was afraid that his family would be affected.
