The exam results came out soon. Brother Zhang was awarded the fourth-class Jinshi. Although he was very impressive in the first test, the light still shone on the top three.
After all, the first and second-class Jinshi are in vain. They are not tested, but ordered by the emperor. The third-class is basically Su Shi's level. He is originally from a famous family, so a serious person like Brother Zhang can't even come from a humble family. For a civilian who cannot be called a commoner, fourth class can be said to be the top result. Why is it the most difficult to be an examiner in all dynasties? Do you think it is really an examination? That's due to changes in human relations and personnel. Personnel is politics. This is no joke.
The first three grades of Jinshi in this subject have basically been monopolized by the generals who helped move the capital, the rich who funded the court, and the civil servants who followed the exile, so this fourth grade is the only one who can get through the examination in theory.
Brother Zhang didn't look at the results that day, because Zhao Rong had already told him the results before the list came out. After that, Zhao Zhen would hold a banquet in the palace, called the Hanlin Banquet, to reward the students for their ten years of study. The cold window of the year.
"When the time comes, dress appropriately and don't let other students laugh at you."
Zhao Rong took out a lot of clothes from her bag: "I asked the tailor in the palace to make these for you. Please try them quickly."
Brother Zhang was sitting next to the small stove making sugar at this time, because Zhao Rong loves to eat sugar, but the palace craftsmen who can make sugar have stayed in Bianliang. Now they can only make some brown sugar with the cane juice obtained from Jiaozhou and Lingnan. Moreover, they made the brown sugar impure, with many impurities and a bitter taste, so Brother Zhang had to boil some sugar every few days to prepare it for Zhao Rong.
"Later."
"Both my father and my mother were very boastful. They said that the sugar you made was finer and softer than the merchants from Zhu that day. They also asked me if I could let you trick me out of the formula so that I wouldn't have to spend a lot of money to buy it. People We can also find some business.”
"No need to lie." Brother Zhang was as concise as ever: "I'll teach you."
In fact, even if Brother Zhang doesn't have super powers, he is still almost a living encyclopedia. He is just not confident enough and a little reserved. He always thinks that his brain is not very good, but in fact, he is a living encyclopedia. It can live well no matter where you throw it.
He completely illustrated the yellow mud water pouring method on paper. The first step is to squeeze the juice from mature sugar cane, put it into a vat, boil it over fire to make a yellow-black syrup, and then wait for it to condense into brown sugar. The second step is to use yellow mud water to pour out the brown sugar in the funnel. The black residue flows from the funnel to the bottom, leaving white frost in the funnel. This is the earliest white sugar.
Finally, remove the icing sugar, place it on paper and place it on hydrated lime to dry, or add water to dissolve it and boil it. After the water disappears completely, grind it into powder, which becomes crude white sugar. If you want to further purify, dissolve the sugar into water a second time, filter it several times and then boil it. The resulting sugar is refined white sugar. And if you want to make rock sugar, you only need to hang a yarn above the saturated solution of white sugar, and then wait for it to crystallize. If possible, you can also put some fruit juices of various colors in it, and the crystallized rock sugar will be more beautiful. .
When Zhao Rong handed this to Zhao Zhen, Zhao Zhen looked at the series of process flow diagrams and looked at Zhao Rong suspiciously: "Is it really that simple?"
Seeing that he didn't believe it, Zhao Rong took out the two jars behind her. This jar contained fine white sugar and the other jar contained colorful rock sugar: "I watched it grow with my own eyes."
"You can't tell that this idiot has all these weird things."
"He knows a lot!" Zhao Rong was very happy when talking about Brother Zhang: "He knows everything in heaven and on earth."
Seeing his daughter's appearance, Zhao Zhen felt like he was in a mirror. At this point, even if the idiot was talking nonsense, his daughter would be regarded as a role model, but he couldn't tell that this kid still has something, and he is generous. Zhao Zhen is not the kind of emperor who hides in the palace and never leaves the house more than once in his life. He really likes to run around. When he was young, he followed several masters and traveled across the rivers. He knew that if this thing Control how much money you can earn in a year.
"How did you tell him? He would actually give you such an important thing."
"Me? I just said that my father told me to find a way to trick you into making sugar. He said there was no need to trick you, and then he taught me."
When Zhao Zhen heard this, he almost had a cerebral infarction. He pointed at Zhao Rong with both laughter and tears: "Did you really say that?"
"Yeah, isn't this brought to you?"
Zhao Zhen sat in front of the case, holding his head with one hand, and hissed for a long time: "Rong'er, Rong'er... you have become like a fool."
"I think it's pretty good. Just like Brother Zhang, it would be better if you don't mince words."
Zhao Zhen waved his hand: "Go, go, you are going to make your father angry to death."
"It's okay. Brother Zhang is not angry. He is very generous."
Zhao Zhen let out a long sigh, sighing in his heart that after all, the girl couldn't be kept by the university. The elder brother had already passed away before they even got married. If they really got married in the future, I don't know if I can keep this girl...
However, in the afternoon, Zhao Zhen actually asked the palace eunuch to do a test according to the method on the drawing, and it was successful in one try. Looking at a large bowl of slightly yellowed sugar, Zhao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief, and then He summoned the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Industry and showed them a handful of white sugar purified by the palace himself.
Seeing the dumbfounded expressions of the guys from the Ministry of Industry, Zhao Zhen laughed heartily and his vanity was greatly satisfied. If it weren't for the tension in his mind, he might have blurted out "my virtuous son-in-law".
Finally, before dinner in the evening, he called the people from the official department over and asked if there were any vacancies in the surrounding counties that did not require a large number of vacancies. Thousands of households would be enough. The people in the official department were all stupid, you know, he alone The emperor asked if there were any vacancies for county magistrates. This was equivalent to a generalissimo calling the front line and ordering the machine gun squad to advance ten meters.
This is why Zhao Zhen is happy today. Normally, he would have been unable to speak for such a face-conscious person. But now that the emperor has spoken in person, the officials certainly did not dare to neglect them. They made adjustments overnight and finally managed to An older county magistrate was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel to provide for the elderly, and then he dispatched more than a dozen people in succession, and finally a similar position was vacated.
This county is Brother Zhang’s nominal hometown of Yuhang County. Although Yuhang has been promoted to Ji, due to the continuous famine and war in recent years, the total number of households in the county is only more than 6,000, and the population is only 23,000. It is not a country. Big place. Moreover, it is very close to Lin'an, the capital city. In addition, the place is not a remote area, so it is relatively easy to manage, has convenient transportation, and is convenient to move around.
Just looking at the addition of these various conditions, you can imagine how many brain cells the people in the official department have lost.
Then the officials reported the situation to Zhao Zhen. Zhao Zhen did a very bad thing, that is, he bypassed the officials and directly issued the imperial edict. The officials didn't mind this matter. They were just particularly curious about this person. Who was he? What kind of relationship can make His Majesty the Emperor, who has always followed the rules, personally open a back door for him?
You must know that ordinary candidates, even the number one scholar, rarely take up actual positions directly. The average candidates will start as academic officials or judges. They will first work hard in the officialdom for four or five years before they can take on the job. There is almost no saying that you will become a county magistrate the next day after passing the exam...
What's even more outrageous is that, first of all, Zhao Zhen exempted all Ji counties from taxes for one year. This is Hangzhou, Hangzhou. There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. The taxes for one year in Ji counties in Hangzhou can be compared to He was exempted from all the ten counties in Guoshangou...
In other words, as long as the 18-year-old magistrate does not do anything careless about human life in the first year he takes office, he will basically pass the assessment. What kind of person can make an emperor care to this extent?
They suspected that this young brother was Zhao Zhen's illegitimate son. After all, the current prince was an adopted son, and he had only heard of his fate not long ago. The other princes all died young...
Hey, I really can’t say for sure.
The people in the Ministry of Civil Affairs are very serious about preparing for Brother Zhang to take office, and Brother Zhang is attending the Hanlin Banquet at the moment. This place is a gathering place for passionate teenagers. Everyone is a scholar. Since ancient times, literati have looked down upon each other, and they are more or less interested in each other. Young Master is somewhat disdainful of him, even though he appears to be harmonious on the surface, there are all kinds of conflicts and conflicts secretly.
But Brother Zhang just wanted to watch the excitement. He sat alone at the farthest table. This place would hardly be seen by the emperor, so most of the people sitting at this table went around holding wine glasses and toasting for show. Brother Zhang was playing with his head lowered and carving a big rooster with a small turtle.
When someone is reciting poems and blessings, he doesn't even raise his head, and when someone is singing a song, he doesn't respond. The main theme is a peerless and independent person.
Zhao Zhen was naturally happy when he saw those young people below who looked like peacocks spreading their wings, but while he was happy, he kept searching for Brother Zhang with his eyes. After searching around, he found that this fool was huddled in the corner alone. Li lowered his head and didn't know what he was doing. He didn't socialize or cling to anyone. He just sat like that the whole time, with a bunch of strange things in front of him, and he didn't know what they were.
As for why Brother Zhang carved a big rooster, it was because his sister Rong liked it. She went out shopping secretly that day, and when she came back, she secretly brought back a big, shining rooster. The rooster was very beautiful, but she couldn't bring it back to the palace. Because Zhao Zhen is a dog and conflicts with the chicken, there will be no chicken-related objects in the palace.
So she could only keep that beautiful big rooster with Brother Zhang. Every time she went to play, if Brother Zhang was busy, she would sit there for a long time and watch this big rooster strolling around. When Brother Zhang saw her She liked it, so naturally she carved some images of this big rooster in different postures. She planned to fill up a box with twenty-four roosters, but she was still a little short of it, so she decided to bring it here to get it started.
Although Wenfeng in the Song Dynasty was at its peak, and almost every generation of imperial examinations produced talents, this generation seemed to have encountered the change of moving the capital. There were not many surprises in the hastily added subjects. Most of them were mediocre. Zhao Zhen watched the peacock bloom for a while. After all, he has known Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Che, Wang Anshi, Zeng Gong, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, and Lu Dajun all his life. Six of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties became famous under his hands. , these idiots have made his literary aesthetic vision too sophisticated. Looking at these things, they are not young, they are really ordinary.
"Go and see what that fool is doing."
Zhao Zhen turned his head and ordered the old eunuch beside him: "I didn't see him raise his head."
The old eunuch walked around in front of Brother Zhang pretending to be watching the scenery, and then saw him carving a big rooster there. The old eunuch said that he didn't quite understand, so he returned to Zhao Zhen and reported the truth truthfully.
Zhao Zhen couldn't help laughing when he heard that the guy was carving a rooster. After laughing, he whispered: "The rooster was probably carved for Ronger. A few days ago, I saw Ronger carving a few. The wooden cock is so precious, it seems like it was made by him."
"Guan Jia, that fool's craftsmanship is quite good. The things he carves are lifelike."
"Well, no matter how stupid you are, it's better than this show-off. It seems that this stupid guy is a practical person. Now I want to see what he can do to a county."
In fact, as an emperor, he really likes people who have no background, no party affiliation, no family status, and no school. Such people usually become the emperor's most solid right-hand man. On the contrary, those who are good at dancing are their core The interests are not for the emperor at all, not even for the country. Sometimes the interests of the family are far higher than the interests of the country. Although it is not all, we have seen too many in the past dynasties. It can be seen under the sun. Nothing new.
The next day, the candidates of these new subjects will go to the palace to receive rewards, except for Brother Zhang, who was driven out by a carriage to become an official. Lin'an is more than 300 miles away from Yuyao, and it takes about four days to travel by carriage. This is only around Gyeonggi. You can imagine how inconvenient transportation was in this era.
Brother Zhang has been bumpy on the road for four days, but Zhao Rong failed to follow him this time. She wanted to come, and Xinruan had already been packed up, but of course Zhao Zhen and her mother refused to let her travel with them, saying that her body had not healed well, and if she hurriedly trekked now, she might not even be able to save her life in the end.
Therefore, there was only Brother Zhang alone on this trip, as well as two masters personally appointed by the official department, a county magistrate, one person in charge of official, household, etiquette, military, punishment, and work, and thirty-eight people were arrested.
This specification is unprecedented. After all, everyone is personally appointed by the officials, and they are not newbies. They have three servants, one person, one horse, and they will be squeezed for a while after they are hired. But when Brother Zhang took office, he brought his entire team with him...
If not for anything else, just because this man is either the son of the official family or half the son of the official family. No matter which one they are, they cannot afford it, so the cooperation must be in place to ensure that this master is lucky and happy. That means everything is fine.
(End of chapter)
