I want to be emperor

Chapter 361 Sun Qinian's Imperial Examination

At the wharf outside Suzhou City, Sun Qinian, dressed as a scholar, boarded a boat that had been waiting here for a long time, followed by a book boy.

On the boat, three people who were also dressed as scholars and of different ages were waiting for him with smiles on their faces.

As soon as Sun Qinian boarded the boat, he said: "I'm really sorry, there was something trivial at home before I left, my little brother came late."

The middle-aged man in the middle of the opposite, dressed in brocade, said loudly, "Brother Chuanyu, you are serious. We have only just arrived. When you arrive at the front, you will come later. How can it be too late?"

"Come on, it's windy by the river, let's go in and talk!"

The other two also greeted each other.

Immediately, the four of them entered the cabin together, and their respective book boys and attendants naturally brought packages and other things to the cabin at the rear.

After everyone took their seats in the cabin, the servants would naturally offer hot tea, pastries and other things. Sun Qinian just drank a cup of hot tea when he heard the man in brocade clothes beside him say with a hint of arrogance: "I've already made an agreement with Master Fang. Now, we will go to Jinling with everyone Fang."

As soon as these words came out, a young man with a slightly short stature beside him heard it, but his breathing was a little short: "Brother Song, Master Fang who placed the order in Hanmei Building a while ago?"

Song Zhangtai chuckled: "Exactly!"

Immediately, the other person also showed joy and said: "I never thought that we will be able to go with everyone Fang when we enter Beijing this time!"

"My little brother has heard before that Master Fang is good at piano and even better at poetry. In the past, when I went to Qinhuai, the capital, I wanted to visit him, but I was too shy to meet him!"

Listening to everyone talking about everyone here, Sun Qinian was not very interested.

It's just a chapter of Taiwanese girls, he doesn't have much interest in these, and he doesn't even have the thought of acting on occasion.

So when the three friends were chatting about what kind of everyone they were, Sun Qinian seemed to be in a daze, but in fact he was already thinking about the Jinling Trial this time.

He was born in a modest family. The Sun family had hundreds of acres of Susukida, a silk and satin shop, and a carriage and horse dealership.

You can't say that you are rich and expensive, but you don't have to worry about food and drink.

Like many scholars, he was enlightened to study since he was a child. He went to a large academy in Suzhou to study when he was young. He was admitted as a scholar at the age of 19.

However, after failing consecutively in the subsequent rural examinations and failing two subjects, he was already in his 20s.

Participating in the two provincial examinations really made him understand that it is extremely difficult to pass the examination in Jiangnan.

This place in the south of the Yangtze River has a strong culture of studying, not to mention middle-class children like him, even ordinary peasant children, many will send their children to enlightenment studies, and if they show talent, they will grit their teeth and support them.

There are more people studying here, so there are naturally more scholars who refer to the imperial examination, but the number of places is only so small... so the competition is very large.

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 hopes to win a better fortune through the imperial examination.

He also wants to be an official and reach the pinnacle of his life.

And last year when the thief Chu killed Jiangnan, he was given such an opportunity.

After the Chu thieves conquered Suzhou, they issued a notice not long after that the imperial examination was to be held, and specifically allowed the children of the Ming Dynasty to directly participate in the college examination, and the talented students to directly participate in the rural examination.

After hesitating for a while, especially after discussing with a group of students, a group of students were very pessimistic: Ming Ting might not be able to fight back in a short time!
In the future, if they want to study for the imperial examination and become officials, they either flee under the rule of the Ming court north of the Yangtze River incognito, and then get a fake household registration to participate in the imperial examination, or they 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 dog. There are two elders, one son and one daughter, and one wife and two concubines.

In addition, Sun Qinian has two brothers and uncles.

There is a big family behind him, how can he escape from his hometown easily, and then run to the Ming court control area to take part in the imperial examination and become an official.

After much deliberation, they finally went to participate in the provincial examination in Jiangnan Province after a few months.

This time, not to mention, he really passed the exam, and it was all four friends who passed the exam.

This is mainly because Jiangnan was just captured by the Great Chu Empire, and many scholars were still waiting to see. Many capable scholars actually did not participate in this round of hurried Jiangnan provincial examinations.

And these few of them are not bad in their own strength. After some country tests, the four friends all passed the exam.

No, after winning the exam, they made an appointment to go to Jinling City to take part in the general examination.

According to Sun Qinian's estimate, the competition in the Jinling City Examination this time should not be too great. After all, just like the previous Jiangnan Township Examination, many talented scholars have new concerns. If they hesitate a little, they will not be able to catch up.

And as long as the scholars on the Jiangnan side don't participate in the Great Chu Empire's test 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
After Sun Qinian and the other four left the pier by boat, they contacted Mr. Fang and his entourage on a nearby pier and invited them to board the boat.

Immediately, the ship headed towards Jinling City along the Jiangnan water network.

On the way, Master Fang naturally played and sang, composed poems and lyrics, drank and had fun with the four Juren.

Although Sun Qinian didn't have much interest in these things, he still wanted to be in a group, so he ate, drank and listened to music with him.

Not to mention, everyone here is very good-looking, good at playing the piano, good at singing, and good at everything, except that they are expensive.

If you want to ecstasy for a night, you get 20 taels of silver.

This is a clearly marked price, no discounts, the old mother next to Fang will collect the money directly, otherwise don't expect to enter the door!

And if you want everyone to agree to stay overnight, in addition to the money you gave to your mother, you have to give everyone some extra money to buy some rouge and gouache clothes, which start at ten taels of silver.

If there is less, you are embarrassed to give it!

After all, she is also a famous prostitute.

And the reason why Mr. Fang was able to take the boat with them was because Mr. Fang was planning to return to the Qinhuai River and reopen for business after hearing that the Qinhuai River was unblocked.

It's just that the road is not smooth, so I heard that the four new imperial examination candidates from the Chu Dynasty were going to Jinling City, so they came here and took a boat to go there together.

If you want to invite Fang and everyone to take a boat trip together at another time and occasion, it will start with a hundred taels of silver.

What, Song Juren, are there four of them?
This price has to be doubled again!
Song Juren held a banquet for two days in a row for the sake of Bomei's smile, and after giving money to the old mother, he was able to stay overnight, which cost hundreds of taels of silver.

The same is true for the other two friends, each of whom spent a lot of time in ecstasy.

Sun Qinian had no interest in this at first, but the four of them are good friends, and the other three have already stayed overnight. If Sun Qinian didn't stay overnight, wouldn't he look very out of group?
In the end, Sun Qinian sighed deeply and stayed overnight in Mr. Fang's cabin.

After getting acquainted with this, the four of them pooled together a large sum of money and invited everyone to play Xiao Qu for the four of them at the same time.
Stopping and stopping like this, eating, drinking and having fun all the way, life passed quickly. By the time their boat arrived at Jinling City along the water network, it was already February [-]th.

After arriving at the wharf of the Qinhuai River in Guochengli outside Jinling City, everyone said goodbye to Song, Sun and others, and left with the old lady, maid and others first, saying that they would go back and reorganize the original painting boats, and reopen the doors for business in a few days , also left the address, let the four of them 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, how could he visit Mr. Fang's painting boat again...

After saying goodbye to everyone, Sun Qinian and the 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 dare not say that the street is spotless, but I can’t see any sundries and garbage. The shops on both sides of the street do not directly occupy more than half of the street for business as in the past, but all of them are well-behaved. Operating in the shop, did not dare to occupy the street.

As for the common beggars and hooligans, I didn't see any of them.

From entering the city to now, he has never seen a single beggar.

And this is very abnormal for the huge Jinling City.

On the street, are there patrolling policemen in black uniforms on patrol? Sun Qinian knows that these patrolling policemen in black uniforms are under the jurisdiction of local police bureaus.

Since Sun Qinian had applied for the imperial examination of the Great Chu Empire, he would naturally inquire in detail about various aspects of the Great Chu Empire.

In the early days, I mainly focused on 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 some knowledge of the Chu army's guns. The number of guns, military expenditures and other messy news.

The purpose of understanding these in the early stage is also very simple, which is to judge whether the Chu army can take the entire Jiangnan, and even the entire south, and resist the counterattack of the Ming army in the follow-up.

In other words, I just want to confirm how long the Great Chu Empire can stay in the south of the Yangtze River.

If it was just a flash in the pan, and they would be counterattacked by the Ming army in a few years, they would come to the imperial examinations of the Chu Dynasty only when they were brain teased.

And their final conclusion is: the Ming army will not be able to fight back... Let alone counterattacking Jiangnan, the Ming army in Jiangbei is now in danger. I am afraid that when the Chu army marches northward in the future, the Ming court will completely perish.

After reaching this conclusion, they will apply for the imperial examination of the Great Chu Empire.

After applying for the exam, they began to focus on other things of the Great Chu Empire, such as the imperial examination system and political system.

After all, after taking part in the imperial examination, he will be an official in the Great Chu Empire in the future. It is good to know a thing or two about the official system.

The official system of the Great Chu Empire is too deep for outsiders to understand, but some open things are still widely circulated.

How should I put it, the yamen of the Great Chu Empire is right there, and I don’t want to hide it. If someone who wants to ask a little 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 Great Chu Empire, and he knew quite a lot.

After settling down in the inn for a while, Sun Qinian did not bury his head in the inn to study hard, but called a two-wheeled carriage and went out. He wanted to visit a distant uncle.

Sun Qinian has a distant cousin who is currently in Jinling City, and is also a middle-level official in the Chu Dynasty.

Speaking of which, in the end Sun Qinian made up his mind to apply for the Imperial Examination of Great Chu, in addition to being optimistic about the Great Chu Empire itself, it was also because his distant uncle was an official in the Great Chu Empire.

Sun Qinian's uncle from afar, named Sun Yousheng, has a relatively distant relationship with Sun Qinian's family, but they still had a relationship in the past.

Sun Yousheng was also born as a traditional scholar and a scholar, but he failed the provincial examination for many years, and finally worked as an aide for the then prefect of Huangzhou Prefecture in the Ming court to make a living.

When the Chu army arrived, the magistrate of Huangzhou Prefecture fled without knowing where he ended up. At that time, many middle and low-level officials, especially some clerical and government servants in all levels of yamen and other unqualified personnel simply turned around and voted for the Great Chu Empire.

Sun Yousheng also voted for a thief as soon as he gritted his teeth!

Because of his reputation as a scholar, and because he had been an aide to the former prefect of Huangzhou Prefecture for a long time, and was familiar with the affairs of Huangzhou Prefecture, he was quite valued by the Chu thieves.

At the beginning, he just continued to serve in the magistrate's yamen, and became a section chief of the seventh rank.

However, the Great Chu Empire believed that the continuous expansion would require a very large number of civil servants. As long as the ability is not stretched, and no mistakes are made, it is relatively easy to get promoted.

About half a year later, at the beginning of last year, the Great Chu Empire occupied southern Chu and transferred a large number of officials from northern Chu.

Ever since, Sun Yousheng was also promoted to Cong Liupin, and transferred to a county under Huangzhou Prefecture as the county magistrate.

A few months later, the Chu army launched the Eastward Campaign. With the continuous eastward advance, they successively captured northern Jiangxi, central Jiangxi, Jiangnan, and northern Zhejiang.

During these processes, the Ministry of Civil Affairs transferred officials from the whole of Huguang, especially the northern Chu area, to serve in various places in the east.

The more people are transferred, the more positions will be vacated.

So, within a few months, Sun Yousheng became the county magistrate of the sixth grade.

A few months after becoming the county magistrate, the Great 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 enrich them, so they once again moved from Huguang on a large scale, mainly from the Hubei area. transfer people.

At this time, Sun Yousheng also became the group of people who were transferred.

He was transferred to the Department of Machinery of the Ministry of Industry, and served as the chief of a certain department, and his grade became the fifth grade.

After Sun Yousheng arrived in Jinling City, he also sent someone back to his hometown to make contact, and that's how Sun Qinian made up his mind to take part in the Great Chu Imperial Examination.

Now that Sun Qinian was going to Jinling City to take part in the examination, he naturally had to visit his uncle immediately.

It's not for a place to stay, for Sun Qinian to better prepare for the exam, he has already decided to stay in an inn with three fellow countrymen, and study for the exam on weekdays.

This time I came to see my distant cousin, just to connect with him, and I was going to hug this thigh!
(End of this chapter)