Jia Yujing of Red Mansion

Chapter 85 Xu Shan Engagement
It was mid-November when Jia Qiong and others returned to Hangzhou, and the Chinese New Year would be here soon.

The martial arts competition will start in February next year, and Xu Shan will go home to celebrate the New Year this year.

He doesn't plan to go back to Ningbo anymore. He plans to prepare for the exam directly at home and catch up on cultural classes.

Xu Shan practiced with Yu Wannian for nearly two years, and also fought two or three battles with Japanese pirates, and accumulated a lot of experience in leading troops.

Moreover, his studies have not stopped in the past few years. Shen Yan has been writing to him to urge him. It is not difficult for Xu Shan to become a literary scholar with his articles.

It can be said that Xu Shan is bound to win this martial arts competition.

The martial arts examination in Dachu was only held once every six years, and it was not as cumbersome as the civil examination. There were only three examinations: the government examination, the provincial examination and the palace examination.

The content of the examination is divided into literary examination and martial arts examination. The literary examination tests policy theory, art of war, and battle formations.

The martial arts test tests weightlifting, endurance, infantry archery, mounted archery, and weapons.

During the palace examination, the top [-] with the best scores in the literary test will compete in martial arts to determine the top scholar in martial arts.

Because the martial arts examination only takes place once every six years, and the number of applicants is much lower than that of the civil examination, those who pass the examination are awarded higher official positions than those who pass the civil examination.

Those who pass the imperial examination are Wu Xiucai. If they join the army, they can be awarded the post of Zhengqipin general banner (general commander), which is roughly equivalent to a platoon leader.

(Outside the brackets are the official positions of the guards, most of which are hereditary military households; inside the brackets are the official positions of the battalion, most of which are recruiting corps. Except for the forbidden army such as Jin Yiwei)
Of course, Wu Xiucai's promotion space is limited. Unless he makes great achievements, he can only be promoted to the top of [-] households (General Manager).

Baihu still belongs to Dachu's low-level military attachés, who are of the sixth rank, equivalent to company-level cadres.

If you pass the rural examination, you will be a martial arts examiner. This starting point is higher and you can be directly awarded the position of [-] households.

The normal upper limit can be raised to the fourth rank of Zhenfu Envoy (Deputy Guard), and Fuqiang is regarded as an intermediate military attache, equivalent to a regiment-level cadre.

After the imperial examination, you will be called Wu Jinshi. The number of people admitted to Wu Jinshi is very small, only about 60 people each time.

This was mainly due to pressure from nobles and nobles, fearing that too many Wu Jinshi would take their place.

There are only 60 people in six years, and its gold content is evident, and the starting point is naturally higher.

When ordinary Wu Jinshi are first awarded official positions, the lowest level is the fifth-grade deputy Qianhu (deputy Qianzong), and the better ones are directly promoted to the full fifth-grade Qianhu.

If you win the first prize in martial arts and win the favor of the emperor, you may start from the fourth rank as an envoy.

Wu Jinshi has a high starting point and a large room for promotion. There is no problem with the rank of official to the second-grade commander-in-chief Qianshi, commander-in-chief, and admiral.

If you are lucky, you may even get rid of the distinction between civil and military personnel and work in the Ministry of War.

In the end, many were promoted to Minister of War and Governor.

Needless to say, the Minister of War has the power to mobilize all troops except the imperial army. He is an important minister of the country who has the opportunity to join the cabinet.

The governor can control the military and political power of a province or several provinces, and has absolute authority over frontier officials.

The commander-in-chief, the admiral, and the governor-general are basically the ceiling for generals.

Above them, there is only a first-class governor.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies is in charge of the world's troops and horses. In a war, he can serve as the commander-in-chief of one side and control the troops and horses of all directions. However, he cannot be held by high-ranking nobles such as Dukes.

The pro-military governor is in charge of all the imperial troops and is usually held by the emperor's confidants or royal family members.

Of course, Da Chu also has the highest military position, the governor of military affairs, the mighty general, who is equivalent to the marshal of the world's soldiers and horses.

Since the founding of the Chu Kingdom, except for the Supreme Emperor, no one else has been awarded this title, which is almost as good as none.

Wu Jinshi starts directly at the fourth and fifth grades, which is much higher than the sixth and seventh grades of the Liberal Arts Jinshi.

Compared with the civil examination, it seems that the martial arts examination has higher gold content, but this is not the case.

Although military examinations confer high-level officials, the status of military generals is lower than that of civilian officials. This is one of the reasons.

Secondly, although the official title awarded by the martial arts examination is of high rank, it is only a rank, not an actual position.

The specific mission that will be assigned depends on the wishes of the Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Commander's Office.As the saying goes, if there is no one in the court, don't be an official.

If you pass the Wen Jinshi exam, no matter how bad you are, you can still become a seventh-grade county magistrate.

As for the martial arts examination, except for the Wu Zhuangyuan who will be personally appointed by the emperor, other martial arts scholars will not necessarily be assigned any tasks.

For example, if you are assigned to the troops guarding the imperial mausoleum, you may not be able to move in ten or twenty years. No matter how high your rank is, it will be useless.

There is no place to use it, no chance to make meritorious service, not to mention, if something happens, you may be implicated.

Of course Xu Shan would not have this concern.As long as he can pass the Wu Jinshi examination, Jia Qiong has the ability to directly bring him to the Beijing camp and make him a deputy guard.

Even if it works well, it is not impossible to directly serve as a defender.

First of all, he had two big trees, the Jia family and the Wang family, and he had a lot of connections in the army, and he also had people in the Ministry of War.

Moreover, Xu Shan made great contributions in the Battle of Hetao, so the Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Governor's Office must also consider it as appropriate.

Xu Shan is five years older than Jia Qiong. He is already twenty years old, but he has not yet been engaged. This matter has now become a worry for Shen Biyun.

In the past two years, she often visited relatives' homes in Hangzhou, asking people to find out who had girls to marry, but after searching for a long time, she never found one she liked.

When Xu Shan came back, he mentioned that Yu Wannian had a granddaughter who was twenty-eight years old.

Her parents died young, so she followed Yu Wannian to Zhejiang.

Yu Wannian fell in love with Xu Shan's character and intended to betroth his granddaughter Yu Mengyao to him.

Xu Shan has been with Yu Wannian as a soldier for so long and has met Yu Mengyao twice.

He also liked it, so he asked his grandfather and mother to make the decision.

This was really pie-in-the-sky, and Shen Biyun was overjoyed when she found out.

Yu Wannian was a naval admiral with a Jinshi background, an important official in the imperial court, and a noble family. If he was willing to marry his granddaughter to Xu Shan, it could be regarded as a marriage.

Shen Yan immediately wrote a letter and agreed to marry her after the provincial martial arts examination next year.

Now Xu Shan is about to get married and marry a wife, so it seems inappropriate to get married in a rented house.

The ancestral home of the Xu family is in Hangzhou, so Jia Qiong thought of finding a good house by the West Lake, buying it, and giving it to her cousin as a wedding gift.

So he asked a few classmates in Hangzhou to help inquire, and also searched around in Yahang.

Hangzhou is a famous place in the world, and the land beside the West Lake is really valuable.

The mansions were either occupied by wealthy businessmen or high-ranking officials, and they were rarely for sale.

After asking around, I only found a house with two entrances.

The area is a bit small, but the location is good, only a hundred meters away from Baidi.

When Jia Qiong was on vacation, he took his whole family to see the house.

Although this house has only two entrances, it has two courtyards, a large garden area, and the house is relatively new.

I probably won’t live in Xushan, Hangzhou for a long time, so the smaller area is acceptable, and everyone is quite satisfied.

So Jia Qiong spent 7000 taels of silver to buy it. At this price, you can buy two three-in-one mansions in Chang'an. This shows how terrifying the housing prices in West Lake are.

After completing the transfer and name change with the government, the house belongs to Xu Shan.

The house needs to be tidied up and some furniture and servants added, so that it can be moved in next spring.

Sensing the shortage of good houses, Jia Qiong wrote to Wang Hun, asking his father-in-law to help him find a good house in Jinling in case he could live in Jinling when he returned.

　Keep reading, keep reading, old guys

　　
　
(End of this chapter)