In late spring in March, the weather has warmed up, making Chang'an even more beautiful.
In the market, Wuling young men rode horses and took beautiful Silla maids out of the city for an outing; the women's clothes became more and more skimpy, showing off their delicate bodies wantonly.
The city is covered with red makeup, and willows and orioles are singing. A hearty laugh suddenly sounded outside the imperial city, frightening away the birds on the branches and shaming away the onlookers.
"In person, Xue Lang, I am Liu Changqing, courtesy name Wenfang. I have been looking forward to discussing our friendship with you in detail. Why don't we go to Pingkangfang to stay together?!"
The man who spoke was in his early twenties, tall and tall, with a free and easy manner. As he spoke, he turned to look at the slim figures with flying skirts. His eyes lit up and he casually recited a few lines of poetry, which was very romantic.
"The pearls and emeralds in the Qufang are harmonious, and the orchestral tune in the deep alleys is beautiful."
"In the late spring breeze, the fragrance of clothes is floating all over the road."
When a woman threw flowers here, the skirts of the six people standing on the street talking were suddenly covered with petals.
"Look, it's Chunwei Wuzi."
"How come there are six? Oh, a fat book boy with small eyes."
At the end of the reexamination that day, Xue Bai and Du Wulang came to pick up Yuan Jie, Du Fu, and Huangfu Ran, and they happened to meet the enthusiastic Liu Changqing.
A beautiful woman dressed luxuriously came forward and invited six people to her home. Although Liu Changqing wanted to go, Yuan Jie held her back and took refuge in Wubenfang, where it was quieter.
"Hahaha, it's okay if you don't go, I'll go and prostitute the most beautiful singer later!"
Du Wulang swept the petals on his body, troubled by these entanglements, and asked: "Brothers, how do you think of your reexamination?"
"Hey, I've passed all the exams. I'm just waiting for the results to be released. Let's sit down in Nanqu first and then we can chat."
"Goro and I are still young, so why don't we go?"
"Mr.
"Study, please don't get entangled. If Langjun Xue can't cope with throwing himself into his arms, how can there be any reason to spend money to go whoring?"
After the retest, Yuan Jie relaxed and made Liu Changqing laugh with a joke.
They had no choice but to agree to sit in a restaurant first, and then Yuan Jie, Liu Changqing, and Huangfu Ran went to Pingkangfang.
Du Fu didn't go either. His family was originally quite well-off, but after his father's death, his family fell into ruin. In addition, it cost a lot to take the imperial examination in Chang'an, and he was completely reduced to a poor family. He didn't want to go to the gold-selling cave.
Everyone was seated. Chunwei and his five sons still had some secret matters to discuss privately, so they worked together to trick Liu Changqing.
After drinking for a while, Xue Bai's face turned red, and Liu Changqing became more enthusiastic, talking about past romantic events.
It was said that when he was Xue Bai's age, he went to Songshan to study and had an affair with a female nun. He told the story of the taboo teenage love in a touching and moving way. After he finished speaking, he was half drunk and got excited. He asked the shopkeeper to borrow a piano and started playing the strings and singing in public. .
"After five years of observing the precepts and eating one meal, I still look as beautiful as a flower. I stand alone under the green lotus, and the branches of Zen grass surround the monastery..."
After the song, Liu Changqing put his arms around Xue Bai's shoulders and said with a smile: "I heard that you once proposed marriage to the Right Prime Minister's Mansion but was rejected. Let me give you an idea. If you let Mrs. Li be a female crown, we can be with you for a long time. Come and go.”
"Brother Wenfang is drunk." Xue Bai was actually a little drunk and said, "I have enmity with Brother Nu, how can I miss her?"
"Hahaha, Xue Lang is too cautious, who cares about this? If you act like this, can the saint accept Concubine Wu Hui first and then Concubine Yang?"
Liu Changqing's words sounded outrageous, and everyone else just laughed.
He also said that he had a friend named Du Wei, the legitimate son of the Du family in Jingzhao, who also loved the daughter of Ge Nu. It was his idea that made Du Wei kidnap the prime minister's daughter and run away.
"Brother Du has a strong character, he is natural and uninhibited, he is a real man! Hahaha..."
After hearing about this, Du Fu also struck chopsticks and praised him for his kindness.
Yuan Jie smiled and said: "In comparison, Xue Bai is indeed too rigid and has more precepts than a female nun."
"Hey, he just respects himself too much." Du Wulang said: "However, a gentleman should respect himself, which is what we should learn from."
"When a man is in this world, he should be romantic and open-minded. Such a mother-in-law and a mother-in-law have simply restrained the majesty of the Tang Dynasty and looked down upon all nations!"
Liu Changqing wished he could stand on the table and taunt Xue Bai. He raised his head and drank the wine. He began to talk about the affair between Princess Gaoyang and Bianji, and how it was normal for the daughter of a nobleman to become a monk and associate with young talents.
His eloquent words made Xue Bai feel in a daze that his thoughts, bound by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Ming and Qing ethics, were so backward and narrow-minded.
Nowadays, being romantic does not affect your progress, but not being romantic will make you look down upon.
The openness and tolerance of the Tang Dynasty in its heyday were indeed unprecedented in the more than a thousand years that followed.
~~
That night, when Xue Bai returned home, Qing Lan was so busy that she insisted on making sobering soup and sat by the couch to feed him spoonfuls.
"Mr. Lang, is it hot?"
Under the candlelight, the girl blew on the soup in the spoon, her pouty lips glowing with a beautiful moist luster.
Her little finger was raised, small and tender, making people want to pinch it.
Even in the Du family, she is not a rough slave, she seems to be much more delicate recently.
"Lang Jun? What do you want me to do?" Qinglan asked in a low voice.
"Do you want to be my concubine?"
Although Xue Bai has experienced people for a long time, he has never asked such depraved words, especially to such a young girl. He paused several times in the middle of his words. He didn't have the cool and bold demeanor of a man from the Tang Dynasty. At this time, he really looked like a teenager with tied hair.
Qinglan was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head and responded: "Mr. Lang misunderstood... I am a treacherous and lowly slave, so I cannot be a concubine."
After saying that, she quickly glanced at Xue Bai and ran back to the penthouse.
Holding her collar and hiding on the couch, Qing Lan poked her head out and took a look. She didn't see Xue Bai chasing after her. She was very annoyed with herself for a moment, so she simply pulled the quilt over her head.
It's not that she's bound by etiquette, but she's naturally shy.
~~
In a blink of an eye, it’s the day for the re-examination results.
The Imperial City Province was still empty, and the prepared list of Jinshi was sent to the Right Prime Minister's Mansion.
When he saw the last two names, Li Linfu frowned and asked, "What's going on?"
"Back to the Right Prime Minister, Pei Kuan forced Wang Zhongcheng to release the results directly. Cui Qiao, the examiner of the Ministry of Rites, did not dare to object."
"Old dog Pei thinks his life is too long."
The dignified imperial censor, one of the three princes of the Han Dynasty, only gained two more places in the imperial examination, and his ranking did not even change, but Li Linfu was aroused to murderous intent.
He knew that his guess was correct. Pei Kuan and others were united to make an enemy of the Youxiang Mansion. It was Xue Bai who was jumping up and down in this matter and making connections.
"What is Xue Bai doing these days?"
"I still study every day. In addition, I went to Yuzhen Temple several times... and met the Seventeenth Mother."
Faced with such an answer, Li Linfu did not get angry. He cursed "What a brave dog thief" and began to arrange a response.
It is nothing more than urging Pei Dun to report Pei Kuan, then searching Pei's house, finding evidence of Pei Kuan's conflict with the East Palace, and then involving Xue Bai and others... It is a very simple plan. The Right Prime Minister's Office only uses this trick to eliminate political opponents, and it has always worked. .
Only little ants like Xue Bai have escaped twice, but they can only do three things.
"Alang, Eleventh Mother is here."
Li Linfu didn't have the patience to deal with family matters, but after frowning, he still asked his daughter to come over.
After a while, Li Shiniang brought her husband Yang Qixuan to the lobby. Before she could speak, she was scolded.
"You taught me a good lesson, let the sisters do whatever they want. It's good now. Fourteen was abducted, and Seventeen is flirting with little beasts in the Taoist temple every day."
"Grandpa, what's the big deal?" Li Shiyiniang was not afraid, but smiled and said: "Isn't it just for my daughter to arrange for Seventeenth Niang to go to Yuzhen Temple to enlighten her? She said it loud and clear, she wanted to practice Taoism, and she wanted to cultivate Taoism. Qingjing, being a female crown is not just for the freedom of interacting with men. When she comes back, she hooks Xue Bai and plays with her a few times. When she gets tired of it, that's it. From now on, there is nothing wrong with being as free as Princess Yuzhen. "
Li Linfu heard these remarks and nodded.
He really wanted to kill Xue Bai, but at this moment he felt that if he didn't let his daughter play with the stick before killing him, it might make her regretful.
"It's a trivial matter." Li Linfu said, "What happened to Fourteenth? But you indulged her?"
"My daughter didn't tell the Fourteenth Mother that she could remarry Du Wei, she just said..."
"I don't care what you said, just go find it and get it back."
Li Shiniang is a cheerful person, and she actually retorted: "In my daughter's opinion, it would be good for Shi Shi to marry the Jingzhao Du family. I think it will do more good than harm to me, right?"
Li Linfu was silent for a long time, realizing that this matter seemed to be beneficial.
It was just his narrow-mindedness that made him unwilling to endure this insult.
suddenly.
"Right Prime Minister, this is bad!"
This time it was Wang Fei who came to see him in person.
Li Linfu had no intention of taking care of the little things at home anymore, so he took Wang Zhi to Yanyue Hall for a secret discussion.
"Right Prime Minister, old man Pei Kuan has made a big move!"
Li Linfu thought it was a matter of re-examination, so he said displeasedly: "I told you to get rid of him."
"Pei Dunfu has reported the case, and my censor is going to impeach him today, but Pei Kuan got the first step and handed over the memorial..."
"No, Taiwan Province has not received Pei Kuan's memorial!"
"The bad thing is here. The memorial will be delivered directly to the opera house."
Li Linfu turned his head suddenly, with disbelief in his eyes.
"How could it be so?"
"It must have been brought into the palace by Yang Sanyi and handed over to the imperial concubine." Wang Xian said: "Pei Dunfu also donated five hundred gold to Guo Guo's wife's house, saying that Pei Kuan had wronged his subordinates. Yang Sanyi accepted the money and turned around to help. Pei Kuan lends a helping hand."
"What is the content of the memorial?"
Wang Fei did not answer, but both of them knew very well that Pei Kuan and Yang Sanyi had never been on good terms with each other. If Yang Sanyi suddenly showed such great favor, the memorial must be in support of the salt law.
"Right Prime Minister, we must not let them promote the salt debate together. Yang Zhi has Pei Kuan, just like Princess Taiping has Pei Tan."
Li Linfu immediately recruited people and said: "I want to see the saint!"
Once Yang Hao gains real power, it will mean another betting option for many officials in the court.
This impact may not be immediately apparent, but it will cause the power of the right prime minister to begin to peel off until the foundation is shaken.
…
"Right Prime Minister, I just got the news that Zhangchou Jianqiong, Yang Zhao and others were recruited to the mansion by Yang Hao."
Before Miyagi's reply came, Li Linfu got such news first.
He and Wang Fei looked at each other without saying anything, but they both realized that Zhangchou Jianqiong and Yang Zhao did not send anyone to inform them.
These dogs have the sharpest noses.
"Right Prime Minister, there is news from the palace. Yang Zhao is making an audience. Pei Kuan, Zhangchou Jianqiong, Yang Zhao and others are all here."
Li Linfu once again sent people to the palace to ask for an audience.
He frowned and pondered for a long time, suddenly raised his head, and asked someone to shout: "Where is Xue Bai? Is he at Yuzhen Temple?!"
"Alang, there is no news from Yuzhen Temple... The test results will be released today. I must be reading the results."
~~
Outside the wall of the Ministry of Rites, a cry of tenderness suddenly sounded from the crowd.
"This reexamination is unfair. Why did Xue Bai fail?"
Many old men and young girls who came to catch their son-in-law heard this and searched the list carefully, but they did not see Xue Bai's name.
"Hey, it's true, Xue Lang didn't make the list. Didn't the slave family come here in vain?"
"Three of Chunwei's five sons are all married."
After hearing this, some good people immediately started making noises and shouted loudly: "The re-examination is unfair. Genu deliberately deposed the fifth son of Chunwei."
Liu Changqing squeezed to the front and looked at the list for a long time, but finally didn't see his name.
He was disappointed in his heart. When he saw that Du Fu was the last one, he couldn't help laughing to himself. He thought that even Du Zimei could only barely get the first place. No wonder he didn't win. He should go back to Songshan to study hard.
…
In a restaurant not far away, Xue Bai hired someone to copy a list.
"Congratulations to the three brothers."
Yuan Jie, Du Fu and Huangfu Ran looked at the rankings again and again. They were surprised and happy, and bowed deeply at the same time.
"Brothers, you don't have to be like this..."
"Yes, if you hadn't planned for us, we would have failed."
"In this way, Brother Zimei did say that he got drunk after winning the lottery."
Du Fu smiled, but the wildness in his eyes was gone.
He knew very well that his name appeared at the bottom not because of his talent. After experiencing this experience in Chang'an, he was no longer happy about winning the ranking. The grief and anger in his heart had not gone away, but he became much more depressed.
Xue Bai had no time to think about this, he was thinking about letting his power grow rapidly in the cracks of the boulders.
"Winning the ranking is only the first step. Once you are qualified to be awarded an official, the next step for the three brothers is to seek an official position."
"Yes, after the test, there is the selection process, which is even more difficult than passing the exam."
The so-called guarding the election means waiting for a vacancy in a court official position. Sometimes a suitable official can be found in three to five years, and sometimes it takes more than ten years. Even if the barrier is eliminated, there are still people waiting in line every year due to door-to-door screening, recommendations, and mixed crowds.
There are many people who have waited all their lives to become officials after becoming Jinshi. Some people only waited for officials such as Lingnan County Captain and died of starvation on the way.
When Yuan Jie said this, Du Fu's eyes became more and more gloomy as he listened.
"Brother Zimei?" Xue Bai asked, "What's wrong?"
Huangfu Ran said: "Brother Zimei has been walking to the outskirts of the city recently. The imperial court is recruiting soldiers in Longyou. I see many white-haired old men and newlywed men among them. I think I am a little touched."
Xue Bai nodded and said: "Back to the election, I have agreed with Pei Gong that today I will express my support for the salt... If the saint can appoint the uncle as the salt envoy, there will be a large number of people, and we will be the officials. To seek a career, Xu is trying to eliminate the opportunity of accumulated disadvantages."
Yuan Jie's face became solemn, grateful and excited. He solemnly saluted Xue Bai and said: "Yuan Jie must live up to Xue Lang's hard work, seek his life and the country, and never forget the righteousness of today."
Du Fu was very touched.
For this imperial examination, he had already spent all his wealth, relying on Xue Bai's efforts to get the last place. If he were to seek another official position, how much more would he have to spend? Xue Baijinke didn't take the exam but worked hard for them, giving them this golden opportunity, and it was the tax collector who wanted to do it. Even if he didn't ask them to repay... but he could tell the whole story at a glance, which shows how broken the officialdom had been.
This was no longer the "to King Yao and Shun" he longed for, but now that he was penniless, he was not even qualified to refuse this favor.
He was a sensitive person, and all kinds of emotions filled his heart for a while, including gratitude, worry, shame, bitterness, and expectation... Du Fu finally stepped forward and hugged Xue Bai, patted the young man on the back, and sighed.
Huangfu Ran didn't say anything, he just looked at Xue Bai and nodded knowingly.
~~
After all, the men of the Tang Dynasty had a free and easy temperament, and they soon put aside these childish attitudes and laughed heartily.
"Let's go to the Wild Goose Pagoda to sign your name!"
"Brother Zimei can't drink wine today. I want to drink wine."
"Credit, credit." Du Fu laughed, regaining his former wildness, "Xue Lang only drinks one glass, good wine and bad wine, what's the difference?"
"..."
When he arrived at Daci'en Temple, Xue Bai looked up and saw the ancient and modern pagoda in sight, and the feeling of the vicissitudes of time shone into his heart.
"Xue Bai, what are you thinking about?"
"I was wondering if Master Xuanzang was escorted by a monkey when he returned from studying for Buddhist scriptures in the West."
This Daci'en Temple is where Xuanzang translated Buddhist scriptures, and he personally supervised the construction of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
"The new Jinshi is here!"
Du Fu shouted and led everyone to climb the tower.
The five people stood on the top of the tower looking at Chang'an, enjoying the picturesque scenery, and drank from their wine bags.
"Brother Zimei, write a poem!"
"good!"
Du Fu raised his head and drank all the wine in his bag, then opened his mouth and spit out a long poem.
"The high standard spans the sky, and the fierce wind never stops."
"Since I am not too ambitious, I am here to worry about everything..."
He thought about what he saw and heard in Chang'an, and grief and anger surged into his heart again.
Yuan Cishan dared to scold the saint and Li Linfu, why wouldn't he, Du Zimei, dare not?
"Qinshan suddenly shattered, leaving Jingwei unavailable."
"How can you tell the imperial state if you look down at it with just one breath?"
"Looking back, I call you Yu Shun, Cangwu Yun is sad."
"Drinking from the Yao Pond, enjoying the sunshine at Kunlun Hill."
"The yellow swans go away without stopping, why do they cast their cries?"
"Look at Yang Yan, everyone has his own plans!"
Xue Bai only took a sip of wine, but he seemed drunk. He suddenly laughed when he heard the sentence "Looking back and calling Yu Shun".
Du Fu, who won the imperial examination, did not write the first poem, but he still wrote this poem that spoke loudly, lamented the current ills, and spoke freely.
