Teacher, there is still half a month to take the exam, should we concentrate on studying? ”

In Liu Jin's mansion in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan found Liu Jin together, seeing that they were about to try, but the two of them were busy and had nothing to prepare.

As a scholar, there is still some ambition, the court is Tian Shelang, the twilight of the Tianzi Hall, there will be no seed, the man should be self-reliant, learning is the treasure of the body, Confucianism is the treasure of the seat, Jun is the prime minister, and the reader must be used.

It is said that they are scholars, and the successful middle of the autumn exam makes the two of them have a little more expectation for this year's spring festival, as long as they can pass the exam, they will have the opportunity to participate in the palace exam.

Being able to participate in the palace examination and play before the king is the highest ideal in the hearts of countless scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

"I'm going to try it in half a month?"

When Liu Jin heard this, he was slightly stunned, time flies really fast, and in a blink of an eye, it will be February of the twelfth year of Hongzhi (the Ming Dynasty will test in February, the early Qing Dynasty is also in February, and later the Qianlong Dynasty changed to March).

"Yes, Master."

"Haven't you been out lately?"

Huang Jinquan nodded and said, thought about it and asked again.

"Well, it's true that I rarely go out lately, staying at home with my mother."

Liu Jin touched his nose, opened his eyes and said nonsense, he has indeed been busy recently, of course he is not busy with anything serious, busy with his two beauties.

Who will do what is the right thing in the first month, Liu Jin from later generations habitually regards the first month as a big holiday, and it is not good to rest, rest, and accompany his family.

"If there is still half a month, we really have to hurry up and review well."

"That's it, it's still the old rule, don't go anywhere for half a month, come to me every day, and we will continue to ask each other questions and conduct mock exams."

After thinking about it, Liu Jin also said that his two students have dull qualifications, and if they don't open a small stove, they won't even be able to pass the township exam, let alone take the test.

The township examination is only the provincial imperial examination, this examination is the imperial examination of the entire Ming Dynasty, and the people who come to participate in the examination are all people in the provincial and township examinations, there is no doubt that all of them are masters, and all of them are talented people full of poetry and articles.

If you want to go to the test, you can't do it without real materials...... Of course, except for Liu Jin's parallel import, if there is no golden finger, Liu Jin will not want to be admitted to the examination even if he has read the Four Books and Five Classics for a lifetime.

This is not to deliberately belittle the traverser, nor is it to deliberately exalt the ancients, but because there are thousands of scholars in the entire Ming Dynasty, and there are very few people who can get a reputation for being able to pass the examination.

In the township examination once every three years, the number of people in each province is strictly limited, even in places such as Beizhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, the number of each township examination is only more than 100, and this is still slowly won by the courtiers.

You must know that in the early Ming Dynasty, the number of people in a province may only be in double digits, especially in the case of Zhu Yuanzhang, many provinces only have more than 30 or 40 places.

That is, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor relaxed the restrictions, and the number of places gradually increased, but generally there are only more than 100 provinces in one province.

You can imagine that once every three years, there are only more than 100 places in a province each time, how difficult it is to raise people in the exam.

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan immediately laughed happily, and hurriedly said, "Thank you, Master!" ”

The last time the two of them were able to take the exam, they were all thanks to Liu Jin, they conducted mock exams in advance, conducted a lot of training, and analyzed each other, discussed and discussed how to do better, of course, more importantly, Liu Jin was blind and met the dead mouse and actually hit the exam questions, so the two of them were admitted to the exam.

For the exam, to be honest, although the two of them really want to be able to pass the exam, so that they can ascend to the Tianzi Hall and become the protégé of the Son of Heaven, they are still very clear about how many catties and taels they have.

Taking the exam with the talents of the entire Ming Dynasty, if you want to be admitted to the Jinshi, it is estimated that you can only hope for the Dafa of your mentor Liu Jin.

"Go, go, go and explain everything in hand first, and the day after tomorrow will be done behind closed doors."

Liu Jin nodded with satisfaction, it feels very good to be a teacher, if you can be a three-jinshi this time, it is estimated that the entire Ming Dynasty will be passed on.

Waiting for Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan to leave, Liu Jin thought about it and decided to go out for a walk and take a look at the great talents of this era.

"I don't know if I can meet Tang Bohu~"

I don't know why, Liu Jin thought of Tang Bohu all of a sudden, and after thinking about it, this Tang Bohu is too famous, and he always feels that he can't see him, and if he doesn't ask for a pair of calligraphy and paintings, it will be considered for nothing.

"I'll go~ Cheng Minzheng seems to have been implicated in the theft of the official warehouse last year."

Then, Liu Jin suddenly slapped his head, and then remembered that not long ago, Cheng Minzheng seemed to have been arrested and put in prison, on the grounds that he was implicated in the case of theft of the official warehouse last year.

Last year, the three northern provinces suffered a famine because of heavy snowfall, and the case of the theft of the official warehouse was widely implicated, and it has not been completely settled until now.

Cheng Minzheng obviously conforms to this, he is now the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, a member of the second rank, and a proper important minister of the court, and such an important minister is now implicated in the case of the theft of the official warehouse last year, and was ordered by Emperor Hongzhi to be put in prison.

Liu Jin has always paid attention to the case of the theft of the official warehouse, but although Cheng Minzheng is a big man like a second-class member and a waiter of the sixth department, Liu Jin didn't think of him at all for a while.

Now I think of Tang Bohu, and I think of the case of the imperial examination in the twelfth year of Hongzhi, and then I think of this Cheng Minzheng, who is also one of the core figures in this case.

Cheng Minzheng and Tang Bohu are both from Nanzhili, one is Huizhou Mansion and the other is Suzhou Mansion, which is definitely a proper hometown in ancient times.

Generally speaking, in this ancient world, people entering Beijing for the examination would find a way to see if there were any of their fellow countrymen who were officials in the court, and if so, they would naturally have to visit one or two.

Xu Jing and Tang Bohu were naturally no exception, and after arriving in the capital, they went to visit their fellow countryman Cheng Minzheng.

Naturally, you can't go empty-handed to visit your fellow countrymen, but these ancient scholars were very high-minded, and they would not accept ordinary things, and the popular souvenirs of later generations did not work in this era.

So in order to solve this embarrassing problem, the ancient scholars thought of an excellent trick, that is, to ask their fellow villagers for ink treasures or something in the way of younger generations.

The point of Mobao is nothing more than what to study, encourage yourself or something, which is very in line with the urine nature of the literati, but this Mobao naturally can't be asked for nothing, so there is such a thing as a pen fee.

Therefore, in ancient times, the villagers who raised people to visit themselves in Beijing for the examination would generally ask each other for ink treasures or something, and then take this opportunity to give some pen money, which not only has face but also has a lining, and it is also a vivid embodiment of the things that the scholars bend and bend.

This thing has become an unwritten rule now, and everyone is like this.

There is no way, the salary set by Comrade Lao Zhu for everyone is too low, if you expect the little money given by the imperial court to starve to death.

Of course, this is also a rule that can't be put on the table, and it's like this when it's okay usually, and no one will break it, because even a cabinet elder like Liu Jian, the first assistant to the cabinet, also collects a pen fee.

Otherwise, his fellow countryman Liu Yu would not have been appreciated by him, and it is estimated that he would have asked Liu Jian for Mobao.

But Tang Bohu and Cheng Minzheng in history were unlucky in this matter, Xu Jing and Tang Bohu came to the capital to take the exam, and naturally they would visit their fellow countrymen like everyone else, get familiar with each other, and pull a relationship with their fellow countrymen.

This is all human nature, it has been like this since ancient times, Liu Jian still takes care of his fellow countryman Liu Yu, it is estimated that he may also be involved in the relationship with the same clan, after all, they are all surnamed Liu.

The two went to visit Cheng Minzheng, and Xu Jiang's father had just passed away, so he took advantage of this matter to ask Cheng Minzheng for a sacrificial text and gave him a few hundred taels of gold for the pen.

Originally, this was a very routine operation, as for the possibility of saying that the question is too small, the ancient imperial examination was very strict, and he Cheng Min was the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, so there was no need to go to the question to covet that bit of silver, and Tang Bohu was arrogant and conceited, and he was probably not cut to the question.

But Tang Bohu, an arrogant and arrogant person, bragged everywhere that he would definitely take the first place in the exam as soon as he finished the exam, so he was heard, Cheng Minzheng's opponents and the like made a fuss about it, and a piece of impeachment easily brought down a right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, as for Tang Bohu and Xu Jing, they were just victims of the fire at the city gate and the fish in the pond.

Although the investigation afterwards was not a problem, Cheng Minzheng's collection of Xu Jing and Tang Bohu's pen fees also broke out, which also became a stain on Cheng Minzheng, and he died of a carbuncle because of this frustration, and Tang Bohu was also demoted to a petty official because of this incident.

In fact, in the final analysis, this is not a case at all, but a very common officialdom struggle, officialdom struggle, although there is no sword and sword, but it is more dangerous.

Now because of Liu Jin's crossing, history has changed dramatically, and Cheng Minzheng, who should have been implicated in the case of the problem, was implicated in the theft of the official warehouse last year.

"Do I count this as helping Tang Bohu once?"

Thinking about these clearly, Liu Jin also smiled and shook his head slightly.