"You're from that domain?"

"It's a feudal lord of the Hizen Saga Domain."

"What's your name?"

"Yamamoto Kamiemon Shigesumi!"

Yamamoto ...... How old are you? Ouch, you look seventy, don't you? I don't give the test at such an old age. ”

"No, not that old, I'm only fifty-six years old!"

"Fifty-six? Who are you fooling? ”

"I'm really only fifty-six ......"

Claiming that he is only fifty-six years old is Shigesumi Yamamoto, who has just been kicked out of the house by his wife to take the "college entrance examination" - he is now desperate, and if he fails the exam, he will have to cut his stomach - no, no! I can't open the pot at home...... No, there is no pot at home, and he and his wife didn't think to bring a pot when they ran out of the house.

However, he never expected that the "college entrance examination" being held in Nagasaki Castle set an age limit for samurai to take the exam. If you are over 60 years old, you don't want it...... Moreover, if you are over forty years old, you are not qualified to serve as a soldier, so you can only take the official examination of the shogunate or Nagasaki domain - the number of places is quite limited!

Shigesumi Yamamoto was embarrassed to say that he was thirty-six, and the invigilator was not blind, so he could only say that he was fifty-six.

However, the Nagasaki feudal priest in charge of the registration still didn't believe it, so the two sides argued.

The place where the dispute took place was the original Chinese guild hall, which was built like a yamen, so it is now called the Nagasaki "feudal office" - the "castle" of Nagasaki is different from the "castle" in Japan that is built like a watchtower, and it is a Chinese-style castle. Outside is a city wall, and inside is a bustling market alley. The "lord of the city" or "the lord of the city" did not live in a high fortress, but in the yamen in the middle of the market.

However, at this time, the person sitting in the yamen was not the "city lord" of Nagasaki, but Chen Yongxi and Chen Da, who were transferred by the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty to help Japan organize the college entrance examination.

This time, Japan's "college entrance examination" is different from the serious imperial examination. It's not about gathering candidates in one exam room first, and then handing out papers for them to do the questions. Instead, they will take the test in batches, and if there are few people, they will take the test as they come, and if there are many people, they will line up for the test.

Moreover, the content of the exam is also divided into literature and martial arts, and the literary examination is to write the "Analects" silently and do arithmetic questions.

Among them, the dictation of the Analects is to memorize as much as you can, and then the examiner will score the Analects according to the number of the Analects that have been written correctly.

The arithmetic problem is a calculation problem plus an application problem, which is very simple, that is, "how much blood is shed per minute when someone cuts his abdomen, cuts off his blood vessels, and how much blood is shed per minute (Zhu Cihong introduced the Western standard of minute and second timing), and someone comes to treat him and transfuses blood, how much blood is replenished per minute, how much blood does someone have in total, and when does someone die......

The martial arts examination relied on spears to shoot grass targets and muskets.

Chen Yongxi, the chief examiner, was revising the papers in the hall, and when he heard the commotion outside, he put down the brush, took the two samurai who had already been "lifted", and went out to have a look.

I saw an old samurai arguing with a Nagasaki feudal priest, so I went up and interrogated him.

"Why the noise?"

"Back to the examiner, this old samurai looks like he is seventy years old, and insists that he is only fifty-six years old and wants to take the exam."

Chen Yongxi glanced at Yamamoto, he was seventy years old, thin and small (in fact, Yamamoto was a big man, 158 tall, quite burly), he didn't eat enough when he looked at it, and he was still in tears, he must be a poor Japanese talent. In the past, Japan did not hold imperial examinations, and people did not have the opportunity to take the examination, but now they finally have the opportunity, and they are too old......

"Let him take the test!" Chen Yongxi's words can be regarded as temporarily saving Yamamoto's life.

It's only temporary...... If you don't do well in the exam, you still have to cut your stomach!

"Old man, yours, do you know the Analects?" Chen Yongxi personally led the old man Yamamoto to the examination room.

"Know, know...... I know the Analects and can recite it. "Old man Yamamoto can still speak Chinese, and the high-ranking samurai of 1000 stone is still a bit educated.

"Do you know how to do arithmetic?" Chen Yongxi asked with a smile.

Yamamoto affirmed, "Yes! I served as Kancho of Saga clan under it. ”

Kancho is the head of the accounting department of Saga Domain, can he not do arithmetic?

While speaking, the two had already arrived at the examination room.

There are no tables in the examination room, but there are tatami mats on the floor, and the papers are spread on the tatami mats, and all the candidates are bent over the answer sheets, and there is a candle lit on the right side of the candidates, which is not illuminated, but timed, and the candles are burned out and the papers are handed in.

In the examination room, there are also fierce Nagasaki feudal priests who patrol with knives, and if anyone is found cheating, they will be expelled immediately!

"Take the test well," Chen Yongxi encouraged Yamamoto Dao, "After the exam, I will go to the canteen to eat, and when I am full, I will take the martial arts test in the afternoon, and the martial arts test will test the spear and musket...... Will the elderly use it? ”

"Yes! Absolutely! "Yamamoto's heart is full of hope again!

Because he knows everything he wants to test in the exam! He can memorize the Analects backwards, he can do arithmetic, he can play with spears, and he can play with muskets—he is a great samurai of 1,000 stones, and he is still a second-generation, and he has not yet reached the time of decay.

It seems that this time I will definitely be able to get admitted to the Japanese lifter!

If you are admitted, you will have food to eat, and you don't have to cut your stomach!

......

Holding a tattered katana (which she used to defend herself), Maeda Kiku guarded her son and waited in a dilapidated hut for her old husband to return.

She and Yamamoto agreed on a three-day period, and if his husband didn't come back, it would mean that he hadn't been admitted and had already found a place where no one was seppuku by himself. She doesn't have to wait for Yamamoto anymore and takes her son to the New World...... Because most of the "non-eldest men" in Japan do not have the opportunity to get married, there is a surplus of women in this country.

Maeda Ju is a woman with a son, and there is no dowry, basically no one will ask for it, but Nagasaki now has a special way to live, that is, to go to the New World to marry - there is a special shortage of women in the New World.

So when she went into the city two days ago to sell knives, she had already inquired about it, and now there happened to be a Pacific sailing ship (a hard sailing ship specially developed for the Pacific route) that trafficked women to the New World, anchored in Nagasaki. As long as she is willing to get on the ship, she doesn't need any fees, she can eat and drink, and she has no problem taking the children with her, and when she arrives in the New World, she promises not to sell her, and allows her to "choose her own mate" - the captain charges a referral fee, which is not much, only ten mink skins......

Today is the third day, and Maeda has been staying in this leaky and leaky hut until dusk, and he has not seen her husband come back. Not only did her husband not return, but also the husbands of many of the women who lived in the huts...... It seems that none of them have been admitted to the lifting of people, and they are all seppuku!

The sound of crying rang out, first a woman crying, then more people crying, and finally there was a cry.

Maeda Ju didn't cry, she just picked up her son and the katana, and whispered to her son: "Chang Chao (this name Yamamoto Shigesumi gave his son before he went to take the college entrance examination), your father has become a god, and now there are only the two of us...... Let's go to the New World together and live a good life there! ”

With that, she smiled and walked out of the hut with her son in her arms and towards the port of Nagasaki...... Soon she will leave Japan forever with her son Tsuneki, and will never return!

However, Maeda Ju never thought that her husband Shigesumi Yamamoto did not cut his stomach because he was in high school...... And the reason why he didn't go back to his "home" immediately was because the Shimazu family's army was already approaching the Nagasaki Peninsula.

As a "highly respected" veteran of the Nagasaki Domain, Yamamoto Shigesumi immediately assigned an important task after seeing the Tokugawa Takagawa and Hoshina Masashi - as the captain of the iron artillery soldiers, and about 100 iron artillery men under his command went to receive devil training from the Ming army.

With military affairs in his hands, Yamamoto Shigesumi certainly got the momentum, so he forgot about his wife and children...... Of course, he didn't know that his wife Aju was ready to marry the United States!