This year, the winter in the capital is quite cold, the sky is snowflakes at the beginning of November, and in December the whole capital is covered with snow, and the snow on the ground is frozen hard, and people will fall if they step on it carelessly.

This weather was really a bit cold for Yang Cong, who had basically spent two lives in the south, so cold that he didn't even dare to go out, because as soon as he went out, he was so cold that he shivered.

However, at this moment, his heart was hot, because under the persuasion of Lu Bing and Lu Ling'er, Lu Song and his wife actually agreed to let their group move into the Lu Mansion!

The Lu Mansion is very large, even larger than the Hui'an Yang Mansion, although there are not many yards in it, it is not a problem to live in a few hundred people, and at this time, the Lu family of four with the maid, the old mother, and the nursing home all add up to more than 20 people, and it is naturally not a problem to live in more than 20 people.

Originally, Lu Song and his wife were still a little hesitant, whether to take Yang Cong and his party into the mansion to live according to what Lu Bing and Lu Ling'er brothers and sisters said, but Jiajing's words made them change their minds.

Because Jiajing said that Yang Cong is really talented.

The emperor said that Yang Cong was talented, and the title of his gold list was definitely a certainty, and Lu Linger and Yang Cong would definitely be able to get married next year, and he would not be afraid of people laughing at his son-in-law living in the house.

Yang Cong moved in, and they were blessed.

For example, eating and drinking, the Lu family didn't eat very well before, but no matter because they were simple and thrifty, they couldn't afford it, Lu Song and Lu Bing's father and son's sum was more than 100 taels a month, and it was impossible for them to ask Jiajing for money, if it weren't for Lu Song and Lu Bing being able to get some oil and water, they couldn't afford to raise such a large family.

As soon as Yang Cong came, they had a good mouth, chicken, duck, fish, meat, wine and so on, in Yang Cong's words, anyway, it costs so much money to live outside, and the money from this guest house is just right to save to buy wine and food.

Yang Cong also designed a simple heating system according to the experience of later generations, that is, let people build several half-person-high large copper kettles, completely sealed, and then a whole batch of copper pipes, fixed in the house with wooden boards, and finally the copper kettle and copper pipes docked, and then boiled the water in the copper kettle, and the whole house was soon warm like spring.

This set of things takes a little effort to build, but it is very simple to use, as long as the fire under the copper kettle is not extinguished, and water is added to the copper kettle on time.

Originally, this was nothing, because this heating could be seen almost everywhere in the north in later generations, it was a very simple thing, Yang Cong just replaced the boiler with a large copper kettle, and changed the central heating to decentralized heating.

Unexpectedly, such a simple thing even attracted Jiajing's attention.

Because there is no heating at this time, Jiajing can only bake charcoal pots, this year to bake charcoal pots should pay attention, because most of the houses here are civil structures, and the palace is piled up with all kinds of precious wood, which is easy to catch fire, and the charcoal basin is not comfortable after a long time.

Yang Cong "thought" out of this thing is different, the room is just rows of steam copper pipes, there is no fire at all, there is no smoke, not to mention safety, and it is very comfortable.

As soon as Jiajing heard Lu Ling'er's show, he immediately asked Lu Ling'er to pass the word to Yang Cong, and also gave him the whole set to try, this try, it was really comfortable, Jiajing was happy, and called Yang Cong a genius.

Jiajing's praise, Lu Song and his wife were naturally even happier, the emperor praised Yang Cong as a genius, what else did this son-in-law say.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, the New Year has passed.

This New Year's Festival can be said to be the happiest New Year's Festival since Yang Cong came to the Ming Dynasty, because Lu Linger accompanied him, as well as Yu Dayou, Xue Nantang and other friends, everyone ate and drank and chatted together, and it was very lively.

In the past, it was not so lively when he celebrated the New Year in Hui'an, because his parents have been taking care of the salt business in border towns, salt farms and Huguang, etc., and they have no time to come back, and he has no brothers and sisters, and his grandfather Yang Rong can't always accompany him, he doesn't know how lonely he is, which is like this time, accompanied by beautiful women and a pile of friends.

It's a pity that the happy days are always short-lived, as soon as the New Year is over, it is almost the end of January, and the test will be at the beginning of February, Yang Cong has to pack up his mood and prepare for the meeting.

At this time, it is naturally too late to study the "Annotations to the Four Books and Chapters and Sentences", so I will take a look at the annotations of the selected articles of the township examination and the general examination, and then do some practice writing to maintain the level, and at the same time prepare warm clothes.

Regardless of the article, the saddest hurdle should be the severe cold, because the temperature in the capital is still very low in February, especially at night, and it is surprisingly cold.

Yang Cong has already asked, at the beginning of February, in the capital, put a bucket of water outside at night, and the next morning it was a bucket of ice!

The freezing is so serious, in the words of later generations, it is at least minus five or six degrees!

There is no door, and there is no quilt or anything, minus five or six degrees, the cold wind is blowing, even if there is a charcoal fire below, it can't be carried, so the clothes to keep out the cold are the most important.

Yang Cong has already understood that in these years, the most cold-resistant is the fur coat, that is, the clothes made after the whole animal skin is tanned together with the hair.

This kind of clothing is generally sewn with animal hair inside, with a layer of high-quality flannel cloth on the outside, and animal hair exposed at the collar, which is both cold-resistant and beautiful.

However, the price of this kind of fur coat is not cheap, generally it costs a few taels of silver, and there are dozens of taels of expensive, and it is good that ordinary people can afford a bad one.

Yang Cong didn't care about the money, not only did he buy it himself, Yu Dayou, Hu Zongxian and others, even including Lu Song and his wife and Lu Bing's brothers and sisters, he gave one each, all of them were top-notch sheep furs, and they also wore boots and hats.

The warm clothes are ready, and the examination is almost started, and the people who will take the test are not as many as the township test, because the basic people who participate in the examination are lifting people, plus some tribute students of the Guozijian, it would be good to have tens of thousands of people in the whole territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the tribute students of the Guozijian are only a few hundred at most, and most of these people will not participate in the examination, so there are generally only five or six thousand people participating in each examination, and about three hundred people are finally admitted, which is exactly about twenty to one admission rate.

As for the questions of the examination, there is no need to say more, it is basically the same as the township examination, that is, discussion, discussion, and policy, and the examination process is also similar.

During this test, Yang Cong's only feeling was cold, that guy, writing against the cold wind, his fingers were frozen hard, it was really a little uncomfortable, fortunately, with Li Twelve's care, the charcoal fire at night was relatively sufficient, plus the clothes he wore were thick enough, and the night was not as difficult as imagined.

Overall, the test was relatively smooth, Yang Cong's performance was relatively normal, if nothing else, there would be no problem for him to pass the test.

However, he encountered a problem similar to that of the township exam, that is, the problem of the examiner.

Because the chief examiner of the exam is Xia Yan, who is with Yan Song, and there is no big guy in the deputy examiner this time, he can't find an acquaintance if he wants to ask someone for help.

Will Xia Yan brush him down with favoritism?