Hu Zongxian is a native of Jixi, and his home is only more than 20 miles away from Xin'an Station, and it really takes an hour or two to walk, but it is only a quarter or two hours if he rides a horse.

That night, Yang Cong borrowed him a horse and asked him to go home to prepare, and the next morning, before midnight, Hu Zongxian ran over with his broken bookcase and a bag of salutes.

The group sat in a carriage, rode a horse, went out of Huizhou Mansion, and passed through Ningguo Mansion, and within ten days, they came to Jinling City, Yingtianfu.

Jinling City, that is, Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty and the 13 provinces of Beijing, its scale is quite large, it is rumored that the city wall of Jinling City is almost 100 miles long, and the population is not less than one million, it is one of the largest cities in the world.

The legendary Jinling City, Yang Cong really yearned for it in his heart, and the group was still more than ten miles away from Jinling City, so he frequently raised his head out of the carriage and kept looking forward.

Finally, a row of square-toothed arrow stacks slowly rose on the distant horizon, and in front of it was Jinling City, the southern capital.

The city wall of Jinling City is really long, you can't see the edge of the two ends at such a distance, and the city wall in the south is at least more than 20 miles long!

Yang Cong was originally worried that it would be a bit troublesome for him to bring so many heavily armed guards into the city, but he never thought that as soon as the official document was handed over, the soldiers guarding the city would let them into the city without checking anything.

In fact, it is not surprising at all, because Jinling City has not suffered a military disaster for more than a hundred years, and the precautions will naturally not be strict, and he also has the official document signed by Wang Dong.

A group of people just entered Jinling City from the outer city of Da Andemen, the outer city is not very strict, it is still possible to ride a horse and a car, as long as you don't beat the horse and gallop wildly, everyone walked along Andemen Street for a few miles, and then came to Yang Cong's pre-determined residence Da Bao'en Temple.

This great Bao'en Temple was built for the grace of Emperor Bao Xian and Queen Ma when the ancestor moved the capital, and the eunuch who supervised the creation was the famous Three Treasures Eunuch Zheng He.

The construction of Da Bao En Temple, a total of 19 years, the requisition of all kinds of craftsmen more than 100,000, the total cost of money and grain is about 2.5 million taels, covering an area of about 9,000 acres, it is a well-deserved first temple in the world, the number of its monks is also terrifying, and thousands of people living in it are not a problem.

Yang Cong rented a large three-entry courtyard, and after arranging for a group of people to stay, he began to visit the bigwigs in Jinling City who could be related.

However, his visit was not directly in the hall and had a drink with the host, because he was not qualified to do so, at least not yet.

The way he visited was to personally deliver the letters, gifts, and letters of the recommenders to the concierge of the mansion, and leave his address, and it was up to them whether they could see him, or when they would see him.

The object of his visit this time is not only the three bigwigs of the Yangming lineage, but also one whose identity is no worse than the three bigwigs of the Yangming lineage, this is Xu Pengju, the Duke of Wei of the Ming Dynasty.

This Wei Guogong Xu Pengju was asked by his grandfather Yang Rong to come to visit, and at the beginning, the reason why his grandfather Yang Rong was able to get the salt introduction was to ask Wei Guogong Xu Pengju to send it to him.

Of course, a top noble like Wei Guogong is not something that can only be seen by a small show like him, and even his grandfather Yang Rong has never seen Xu Pengju, and his grandfather just asked for a word from others.

This time, he said bluntly that he was giving gifts to others, and if he had the opportunity, he would give them a generous gift to ensure his own share of salt, nothing more, as for seeing Xu Pengju, the Duke of Wei, he didn't even think about it.

After this worship post was thrown, within a few days, Zou Shouyi, the priest of the country, Zhan Ruoshui, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, Zhang Bangqi, the secretary of the ministry, and even Xu Pengju, the Duke of Wei, all made people come to pass the word, and the replies of these people are roughly the same, that is, the worship post was received, however, the official business is really busy, there is no time to meet, I hope he will study well, and strive for the township test.

Their meaning is about the same, in short, okay, I know you're coming to Jinling, if you have something, you can come to me, if it's okay, you can read your book.

This result was also expected by him, after all, these people are all dignitaries, and it is impossible to take time to meet him, a showman, and it would be very face-saving to be able to give a reply.

After submitting the post, he had nothing to do, and the time for the township test was approaching, so he simply bought a bunch of selected articles for the township test and the meeting test, and studied them with Yu Dayou, Hu Zongxian and others every day.

Originally, he still wanted to experience Qin Huai Fengyue, but because of Yan Song's relationship, he still gave up, visiting these places is the most prone to accidents, especially when people want to trouble you, you can find a bunch of reasons to clean you up at will, but he offended the son of He Qian, the head of the Ministry of Etiquette, in order to avoid trouble, it is better not to go.

However, he was not so frightened that he didn't even dare to go out, and every night he still took Yu Dayou and others to the restaurants and tea shops in the city to taste Jinling's special food and relax.

The reason why he went out to eat was not because he was not used to eating vegetarian food, he mainly wanted to know about the current affairs, this restaurant and tea shop were originally a place for ordinary people to chat casually, and there were many talents in the exam at this time, these people also like to talk about the major affairs of the court, many things, he doesn't need to inquire, just sit there and listen to it to understand a general idea.

Within a few days, he had a general understanding of the situation in the court at this time.

At this time, it is said that the so-called "imperial party" was in power above the court, that is, the "loyal people" who helped Jiajing fight against Yang Tinghe, Mao Cheng and Yang Yiqing and other righteous and old ministers in the early days of Jiajing.

The most famous of these "imperial parties" is Zhang Xuan and Zhang Fujing, the first assistant of the dynasty, and there are also university scholars Gui Cao and Fang Xianfu, Xia Yan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Huo Tao, and Peng Ze, the secretary of Taichang Temple, who are all the backbone of the "imperial party".

However, this Zhang Fujing is no longer good, he even began to submit his resignation, the emperor roughly wants to refuse three times and then agree according to the custom, it is said that after Zhang Fujing's first resignation, the emperor is not allowed, he has submitted his resignation for the second time, that is to say, Zhang Fujing's resignation is a matter of the past few months.

And the most likely to succeed Zhang Fujing as the first assistant of the cabinet is said to be Xia Yan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, which is not simple, because its township party is all over the court, and it is very powerful, like Yan Song, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, is his township party.

At this time, there are many candidates who are talking about using the opportunity of this township examination to worship Yan Song's sect in order to borrow his power.

As for the Yangming lineage, it is actually not good to mix it at this time, because Wang Shouren once criticized Zhang Fujing in the dispute over the Great Rites, thus offending the imperial party boss, so the relationship between Zhang Fujing and the Yangming lineage is quite bad, which is also the reason why Zou Shouyi, Zhan Ruoshui, Zhang Bangqi and other Yangming lineage bigwigs were squeezed to Nanjing, and Zhang Fujing just wanted to remove them from the center of power.

Yang Cong heard these rumors, and his heart was mixed.

It turns out that this Xia Yan and Yan Song are the imperial party, no wonder Jiajing has repeatedly tolerated Yan Song, it seems that this Yan Song really can't be offended, at least, now, Yan Song wants to pinch him to death as if it's playing.