At the pier outside Suzhou City, Sun Qinian, dressed as a scholar, boarded a ship that had been waiting here for a long time, followed by a book boy.
On the boat, three people of different ages, dressed similarly as scholars, were waiting for him with smiles on their faces.
As soon as Sun Qinian got on the boat, he said, "I'm really sorry. I have some trivial matters at home before I leave. My little brother is late."
On the opposite side, a middle-aged man in brocade clothes, about thirty years old, said loudly: "Brother Chuanyu said something serious, we have only just arrived. Now that the front foot is here, you are here with the back foot. How can it be too late?"
"Come on, it's windy here by the river, let's go in and talk!"
The other two people also greeted each other.
Immediately, the four people entered the cabin together, and their respective book boys and followers naturally took their packages and other belongings to the cabin at the rear.
After everyone sat down in the cabin, the servants would naturally serve hot tea, cakes and other items. Sun Qinian had just drank a cup of hot tea when he heard the man in brocade clothes next to him say with a hint of pride: "I have already made an agreement with everyone Fang." Now, we will go to Jinling with everyone."
As soon as these words came out, a slightly short young man next to him heard it, but his breathing was a little quick: "Brother Song, is it Mr. Fang who posted orders at Hanmei Tower not long ago?"
Song Zhangtai chuckled: "Exactly!"
Immediately, another person also looked happy and said: "I didn't expect that when we go to Beijing this time, we can actually go with everyone Fang!"
"My little brother has heard before that Mr. Fang is good at playing the piano and also good at poetry. In the past, when I went to Qinhuai, the capital, I also wanted to pay a visit, but I was short of money and couldn't get a chance to see him!"
Listening to everyone talking about this group of people, Sun Qinian didn't show much interest.
It's just a Taiwanese girl. He doesn't have much interest in these, and he doesn't even have the inclination to make fun of her.
So when the three friends were talking about what they were talking about with everyone, Sun Qinian seemed to be in a daze, but in fact he was already thinking about this Jinling Conference.
He was born into a family of neither high nor low status. The Sun family owned hundreds of acres of thin farmland, a silk and satin shop, and a horse and carriage shop.
I can't say I'm rich or famous, but I don't have to worry about food and drink.
Like many scholars, he started reading at an early age. When he was young, he went to a large academy in Suzhou to study, and he was admitted as a scholar at the age of nineteen.
However, he was already in his twenties after successively failing in the subsequent provincial examinations and failing two subjects.
Taking part in the two provincial examinations really made him understand that it was extremely difficult to pass the examination in Jiangnan.
Jiangnan is a place where the culture of studying is very strong. Not to mention the children of middle-class families like him, even the children of ordinary farm families will send their children to study for enlightenment. If they show talent, they will support them with gritted teeth.
There are more people studying here, so there will naturally be more people taking the imperial examination, but there are only so many places... so the competition is extremely high.
Sun Qinian boasted that if he went to other provinces to take the provincial examination, he would be able to pass the examination, but in Jiangnan... the hope of success is very slim.
However, as a traditional scholar, Sun Qinian still hoped to gain a better fortune through the imperial examination.
He also wants to be an official and reach the peak of his life.
When the Chu thieves came to Jiangnan last year, they gave him such an opportunity.
After the Chu thieves captured Suzhou, they issued a notice not long after that they were preparing to hold the imperial examination, and specifically allowed children in the Ming Dynasty to directly participate in the college examination, and scholars in the Ming Dynasty to directly participate in the provincial examination.
After some hesitation, especially after discussing with a group of classmates, a group of classmates all expressed very pessimistically: Ming Ting might not be able to fight back in a short time!
After this, if they wanted to study for the imperial examination and become officials, they would either hide their names and flee to the Ming Dynasty north of the Yangtze River, and then get a fake household registration to participate in the imperial examination, or directly participate in the imperial examination of the Chu Dynasty.
However, they all have families and businesses in Suzhou. Not to mention others, even Sun Qinian is not a single person. He has two elders, a son and a daughter, and a wife and two concubines.
In addition, Sun Qinian has two brothers and uncles.
With a big family behind him, how could he easily escape from his hometown and run to the area controlled by the Ming court to take part in the imperial examination and become an official?
After repeated consideration, they finally went to take the Jiangnan Province provincial examination in a few months.
This time, not to mention, he actually passed the exam, and four of his friends also passed the exam.
This was mainly because Jiangnan had just been captured by the Chu Empire, and many scholars were still waiting and watching. Many capable scholars did not actually participate in this round of hasty Jiangnan rural examinations.
And their own strength is not bad. After a provincial examination, four friends all passed the exam.
No, after winning the examination, we made an appointment to go to Jinling City to participate in the examination.
According to Sun Qinian's estimation, the competition in Jinling City's examination this time should not be too big. After all, just like the previous Jiangnan Township Examination, many capable scholars have new concerns. If they hesitate even a little, they will not be able to catch up.
And as long as the scholars from Jiangnan do not participate in the Great Chu Empire's examinations on a large scale, then the competition will not be so high.
As for the scholars from other provinces who came to take the exam, to be honest, Sun Qinian didn't take it seriously yet.
After Sun Qinian and four other people left the dock by boat, they contacted Fang and his entourage at a nearby dock and invited them to board the boat.
Then the ship headed towards Jinling City along the Jiangnan water network.
On the way, everyone naturally played and sang, composed poems, lyrics, drank and had fun with the four officials.
Although Sun Qinian has no interest in these things, he still wants to be gregarious, so he also eats, drinks and listens to music with him.
Not to mention, everyone here has excellent looks and figure, they are not bad at playing the piano, and they are also good at singing. Everything is good, but they are expensive.
If you want to have a night of ecstasy, you need twenty taels of silver.
This is a clearly marked price, and there will be no discounts. The old mothers around you will collect the money directly, otherwise don't expect to get in the door!
And if you want everyone to agree to stay overnight, in addition to the money you give to your mother, you also have to give everyone some extra money to buy some rouge and gouache clothes, which starts with ten taels of silver.
If it’s less, you’d be too embarrassed to give it!
She is also a famous prostitute after all.
Moreover, the reason why Mr. Fang was able to take the boat with them was because Mr. Fang heard that after the Qinhuai River was unblocked, he planned to return to the Qinhuai River to reopen for business.
It's just that the road is not smooth, so I heard that four new imperial examination candidates from the Chu Dynasty were going to Jinling City, so I came over and took a boat to go there together.
If at another time and on another occasion you had invited everyone to take a boat ride, it would have started with a hundred taels of silver.
What, Song Juren and the others are four of them?
This price will have to be doubled again!
In order to make the beauty smile, Song Juren held a banquet for two days in a row. After giving the old mother money, he was able to stay for one night, and the expenses before and after were hundreds of taels of silver.
The same goes for the other two friends, who each spent a lot of time in ecstasy.
Sun Qinian had no interest in this at first, but the four of them were good friends, and the other three had all stayed over. If he, Sun Qinian, didn't stay over overnight, wouldn't he look very unsociable?
Finally, Sun Qinian sighed deeply and stayed in Fang's cabin.
After getting familiar with each other, the four of them pooled together a large sum of money and invited everyone to play Xiao music for the four of them at the same time. The Xiao music sounded euphemistically high and low, which was quite pleasant to the ears!
Stopping and going like this, eating, drinking and having fun all the way, the days passed quickly. By the time their boat arrived at Jinling City along the water network, it was already February 8th.
After arriving at the Qinhuai River pier in Guocheng outside Jinling City, everyone said goodbye to Song, Sun and others, and left with the old lady, maid and others first, saying that they were going back to tidy up the original boat and reopen the business at the end of the day. , and also left her address, asking the four of them to visit her again when they have time.
The other three people didn't know, but Sun Qinian forgot the address when he turned around...
What a joke, he has never been good at this, why would he visit Fang’s boat again...
After saying goodbye to everyone, Sun Qinian and his three friends first found an inn to stay in. When they went to the inn, Sun Qinian could clearly see that Jinling City was different from before.
It's not that the buildings have changed. Most of the buildings in Waiguo City are still the same. Even the areas near the Qinhuai River have not changed much.
But it still feels like a big change.
First of all, it is clean and tidy. I can’t say that the street is spotless, but there is no debris or rubbish in sight. The shops on both sides of the street do not directly occupy most of the street for business as in the past. Instead, they are all in order. We operate within the store and do not dare to occupy the street.
As for the common beggars and hooligans, not a single one was seen.
From the time he entered the city until now, he had never seen a single beggar.
And this is very abnormal for the huge Jinling City.
Are there patrol policemen in black uniforms patrolling the streets? Sun Qinian knows that these patrol policemen in black uniforms are under the jurisdiction of local patrol bureaus. These patrolmen are similar to the police officers of the Ming Dynasty.
Since Sun Qinian applied for the imperial examination of the Great Chu Empire, he would naturally inquire in detail about many aspects of the Great Chu Empire.
In the early days, I mainly paid attention to some general things, such as the strength of the Chu army, the situation in several large-scale battles with the Ming army, the comparison with the new standard army of the Ming army, etc., and even learned about some of the guns of the Chu army. The number of guns, military expenditures and other messy information.
The purpose of understanding these in the early stage is also very simple, which is to judge whether the Chu army can capture the entire Jiangnan, or even the entire south, and resist the Ming army's counterattack in the follow-up.
In other words, they wanted to confirm how long the Chu Empire could stay in Jiangnan.
If it was just a flash in the pan, they would be counterattacked by the Ming army within a few years. They would only come to participate in the imperial examination of the Chu Dynasty because they were smart.
And their final conclusion is: the Ming army cannot fight back... let alone counterattack south of the Yangtze River. The Ming army in the north of the Yangtze River is now unable to protect itself. I am afraid that when the Chu army marches north in the future, the Ming court will be completely destroyed.
After reaching this conclusion, they would apply for the imperial examination of the Great Chu Empire.
After applying for the exam, they began to focus on learning about other things in the Chu Empire, such as the imperial examination system and the political system.
After all, he took part in the imperial examination and will be an official in the Chu Empire in the future. At least he knows a thing or two about the official system.
The official system of the Great Chu Empire was too in-depth and naturally unclear to outsiders, but some public things were still widely circulated.
How should I put it? The yamen of the Great Chu Empire are just there, and there is no attempt to hide them. If someone is interested and asks more, they can basically understand the basic official system of the Great Chu Empire.
Sun Qinian was no exception. When he was still in Suzhou, he already had an in-depth understanding of the official system of the Chu Empire, and he knew quite a lot about it.
After settling down for a while in the inn, Sun Qinian did not study hard in the inn. Instead, he called a two-wheeled carriage and went out. He wanted to visit a distant cousin.
Sun Qinian has a distant cousin who is currently in Jinling City and is a mid-level official in the Chu Dynasty.
Speaking of which, what really made Sun Qinian decide to apply for the imperial examination in Da Chu was not only his optimism about the Da Chu Empire itself, but also because his distant cousin was an official in the Da Chu Empire.
Sun Qinian's distant cousin, named Sun Yousheng, is actually quite distant from Sun Qinian's family, but they still had friendly relations in the past.
Sun Yousheng was also a traditional scholar and a scholar. However, he failed in the provincial examination for many years and ended up working as an aide to the then magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty to make a living.
When the Chu army arrived, the magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture fled without knowing where to end. At that time, many middle and low-level officials, especially some clerks and other unworthy personnel in the yamen at all levels, simply turned around and defected to the Chu Empire.
Sun Yousheng also surrendered to the thieves as soon as he gritted his teeth!
Because he has the reputation of being a scholar and has been working as an aide to the former magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture for a long time, he is familiar with the affairs of Huangzhou Prefecture. For this reason, he is quite valued by the Chu thieves.
At first, he just continued to serve in the prefect's Yamen and became a section chief of the seventh grade.
However, the Chu Empire believed that its continued expansion would require a very large number of civil servants. As long as their abilities were not stretched and they did not make mistakes, it would be relatively easy to get promoted.
About half a year later, probably at the beginning of last year, the Chu Empire occupied southern Chu and transferred a large number of officials from northern Chu.
As a result, Sun Yousheng was promoted to the sixth rank and transferred to a county under Huangzhou Prefecture as county magistrate.
A few months later, the Chu army launched an eastward campaign. As they continued to advance eastward, they successively captured northern Jiangxi, central Jiangxi, southern Jiangxi, and northern Zhejiang.
During these processes, the Ministry of Personnel Affairs dispatched officials from the entire Huguang area, especially the northern Chu area, to serve in various places in the east.
The more people are transferred, the more positions will be freed up.
As a result, within a few months, Sun Yousheng became the county magistrate of the sixth grade.
A few months after he became the county magistrate, the Chu Empire moved its capital to Jinling City. The various departments in Jinling City were further improved, and more officials at all levels were needed to fill them in. So once again, large-scale transfers were made from Huguang, mainly from Hubei. Tune people.
At this time, Sun Yousheng also became one of the people who were transferred.
He was transferred to the Machinery Department of the Ministry of Industry and served as the chief of a certain section, and his grade also became the fifth grade.
After Sun Yousheng arrived in Jinling City, he also sent people back to his hometown to make contact. This was how Sun Qinian decided to participate in the Great Chu Imperial Examination.
Now that Sun Qinian went to Jinling City to take part in the examination, he naturally wanted to visit his cousin as soon as possible.
It's not just for a place to stay. In order to better prepare for the exam, Sun Qinian has decided to stay in an inn with three fellow villagers and study for the exam on weekdays.
I came here to see my distant cousin, just to connect with her, so I was ready to give this thigh a hug!
