Sending Shen Mingwen back to the room, Shen Xi turned around and returned to his room and said to Ma Jiu:

"Song Xi'er has been missing these days, the most important thing for the Che Ma Gang is to recruit people and expand the scale, at this time, Fuzhou City is in chaos, and it is best to take over some of Song Xi'er's territory."

Ma Jiu said with a smile: "I don't need to remind you of the little shopkeeper, this matter is small and clear." I'm outside the city these days, but the brothers in the city have done a lot of work, so I'll ask the little shopkeeper to come and have a look tomorrow...... Now inside and outside the city, our brothers have expanded to 200 people, and even if we fight head-on with the woman surnamed Zi, we will not be left behind. ”

Shen Xi reminded: "It's better to stop in moderation...... The government will definitely cultivate new forces, so don't make a big splash and become a thorn in the side of the government...... You must be low-key in doing things, and it is best to grab the turf, others don't know yet! ”

Subsequently, Shen Xi asked Ma Jiu to go back and tidy up, and then plan well after finding out the family background tomorrow.

The Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce has been developing in Fuzhou for almost two years, but except for the support of An Rusheng, the prefect of Tingzhou, at the beginning, life is better than rapid development, and there is basically no progress at other times. Now that Song Xi'er's power is gone, the people under her first start infighting, and soon a behemoth that dominates Fuzhou is split into several small organizations, which is a good time for the Chamber of Commerce to expand its power.

Shen Xi didn't ask the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce and its subordinate chariot and horse gang to become the biggest force in Fuzhou City, but at least he had to get some soup and water from the fall of Huaiyang Tower, so that he could compete with other gangs in the city.

The next day, Shen Xi and Shen Mingtang, followed behind Ma Jiu, inspected the results of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce in the past few days.

The two passenger and cargo wharves by the Jinyang River in Fuzhou City, after Song Xi'er disappeared, Huaiyang Building was flawlessly taken into account, and the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce relied on the thugs of the Che Ma Gang, coupled with the water transport advantages that the Chamber of Commerce itself has, in just a few days, the two major wharves in Fuzhou City were occupied by the Che Ma Gang.

At this time, the Carriage and Horse Gang was integrating the forces on the dock and striving to firmly control the water transportation in Fuzhou City.

This is what Shen Xi specially explained to Ma Jiu. The chariot and horse gang had to rely on the chariot and horse shops and the boat shops to feed the brothers, and occupy the wharf, so that the water transportation of the chamber of commerce would not be controlled by others in the future.

At this time, Zi Qian and other forces were busy taking over the green buildings, restaurants, inns, gambling houses, pawnshops and other industries under Song Xi'er's name. In the eyes of those people, these places are more important than anything else, but they ignore the docks, markets, etc., which have a large number of laborers and boatmen, and if they are well integrated, they will become the backbone of the gang.

Ma Jiu introduced some of the leaders of the small forces who had newly joined the Chamber of Commerce to Shen Mingtang. It was as if Shen Mingtang was the big guy who came to inspect, which made Shen Mingtang feel sincerely afraid, but he didn't know that in fact, his nephew Shen Xi was the protagonist today.

When the meeting was over, Shen Xi called Ma Jiu aside, and gave another instruct, mainly to let Ma Jiu continue to increase his efforts to recruit people.

Song Xi'er's power is now in disintegration. With Song Xi'er's "disappearance", Shang Weiqi, the number one person under her, was imprisoned, and Fuzhou City was in chaos.

If the government wants to maintain stability in Fuzhou and release Shang Weiqi, this person is likely to be in cahoots with Zi Qian. In Shen Xi's eyes. At present, the most dangerous person in Fuzhou City is Zi Qian, because Yu Niang has introduced her abilities to her, she may think that Song Xi'er was robbed by the "Japanese Invaders" and related to herself.

Ma Jiu agreed, but was obviously a little unimpressed.

Shen Xi was a little worried that he would be careless, and when he turned around, he snatched back the results for Zi Qian, so he wanted to cry without tears.

At noon, several stewards of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as Ma Jiu, the new head of the rudder of the Che Ma Gang, and the heads of some small forces that had just been recruited gathered together for a banquet, and Shen Xi went back to the inn first.

In the afternoon, Shen Mingtang got drunk and arrived at the inn. Shen Mingwen was very unhappy when he saw it: "Third brother, where did you go to drink, why don't you call him brother?" ”

Shen Mingtang is an honest man, and no one has ever taken him seriously since he was a child. When he entered a prosperous place like the provincial capital, his eyes were black, but who knew that there was not only a good job here, but he made a lot of money, and he didn't have to do rough work, and others respected him when they saw him. It feels better than ever.

"Big brother, I'm just...... Drank two glasses and ...... today The Chamber of Commerce invited me, and there were a lot of attendees. Shen Mingtang was so drunk that he couldn't even speak clearly.

Shen Mingwen frowned: "What kind of chamber of commerce, it's just a group of peddlers and pawns, and the third brother still doesn't get too close to them." ”

Shen Mingtang entered the room, fell asleep, and slept until dark. He saw that Shen Xi was reading under the tung oil lamp, so he hurriedly got up and asked, "What time is it?" ”

Shen Xi said: "Third uncle, don't worry, you drank a few more cups today, I asked Brother Jiu to go over and tell the people in the Chamber of Commerce, you don't need to go over if you are unwell." ”

Shen Mingtang said: "No, no, no, I can't delay the business." ”

Shen Mingtang is an honest person, and he doesn't dare to delay the errands he should undertake, and when others treat him with courtesy, he will work twice as hard to repay him.

Not long after Shen Mingtang left, Ma Jiu brought a few people over to explain to Shen Xi that he was going to take people out to grab the land.

Shen Xi looked at Ma Jiu's blood-red eyes, and secretly sighed, once this Ma Jiu was hemorrhagic, he was like a hungry wolf, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad. Shen Xi instructed: "Brother Jiu, be careful when you go out to fight and kill, if you are not able to fight the enemy, you must make a decision immediately, and you must not put the brothers in danger with the courage of the horseman." ”

Ma Jiuyi gritted his teeth: "Little shopkeeper, don't worry, if there is really danger, these little rabbits around me will have run away a long time ago, and I will be sent to death if I stay." Hey, I wouldn't be that stupid. ”

……

……

When Ma Jiu was busy grabbing land for the Carriage and Horse Gang and the Chamber of Commerce, Shen Xi had already entered the intense preparation before the exam.

With the arrival of August and the approaching examination date, some rumors about the township examination in the city have come out, some say that the internal determination of the person and Xie Yuan, and some say that the exam questions have been leaked.

But in fact, what candidates are most concerned about is who the two chief examiners and the four same examiners are among the inner curtain officers.

In the third year of Jingtai, the provincial political secretary, the chief official of the judicial department and the inspector of the imperial history jointly promoted the current Confucian instructors between the ages of 30 and 50 to serve as examiners, forming a rule, and those who were good at balancing and writing were often hired.

As for who the examiner in charge of the question is, few people know, which basically prevents the candidate from figuring out the preferences of the questioner.

As for the outer curtain officer, it is relatively fixed, but the outer curtain official will not participate in the marking of the papers, but because of the low position of the official of the Confucian Department who acts as the examiner, he is suppressed and bullied by the external curtain official in the process of marking and selecting the papers. It often affects the fairness of the township test takers.

In the fourth year of Hongzhi, the imperial court clearly ordered that the outer curtain officials should not interfere in the affairs of the inner curtain, and the political envoys, the inspection envoys and the inspectors should be treated favorably by the examiners. No bullying and reprimanding, the admission of candidates is determined by the internal curtain officer, and the outer curtain official is not allowed to set up five economic officials to interfere in the marking of the papers.

However, because the internal curtain official himself is self-protecting, the political envoy department, the inspection envoy department and the inspector imperial history will all find someone they trust to serve as the examiner, and it is not difficult to cheat in the township examination.

The sixth day of August. There are still three days left before the first most important exam of the township exam, and on this day, Su Tong came and gave Shen Xi three exam questions.

The first is "the way of a gentleman, Fei is hidden".

From "The Mean", it is a key sentence in the twelfth chapter of "The Mean", which follows the beginning of "The Tao is not necessary to deviate, but it is not the Tao", which discusses the universal adaptability of the way of the gentleman. Meaning, the way of a gentleman. Vast and subtle.

The second is "absent-mindedness, blindness, hearing but not smelling, eating without knowing the taste". Speaking of "University", it is about the way of self-cultivation lies in the righteous heart, and there is nothing wrong with this question itself, it is simpler than the first one.

The third way is "excellent is learning, learning is excellent".

The original sentence of the "Analects" is "If you are excellent, you will learn, and if you are excellent, you will learn". This is a truncation question, which originally meant that if you are an official, you can do learning, and if you have the energy and time to do learning. can be an official. But as soon as the sentence is cut off like this, the meaning becomes very strange, and if you have time to study, you will have time to study, and this topic suddenly becomes difficult.

Su Tong had a secretive smile on his face: "Brother Shen, don't ask me why I sent these three questions." You just have to do it first, if you can do it best, if you can't do it, it's nothing, don't know about it with a third party. Tomorrow, I'll come back to talk to Brother Shen about it. ”

Although Su Tong didn't make it clear, Shen Xi could probably estimate some "doorways", which clearly meant that these three exam questions were likely to be the exam questions of this year's township exam, which means that the questions were likely to have been leaked.

Shen Xi didn't dare to be careless, and after he entered the room, he immediately burned the paper with the title written on it.

If this is really an exam question, it will be found out that the culpability is not small.

Shen Xi was thinking about these three questions all night, with his knowledge, it is not difficult to discuss these three questions, but it is also a little difficult to write the article perfectly, first of all, it is impossible to figure out the intention of the questioner, which is different from the county, government, and college examinations and annual examinations, and Shen Xi at least knows who the questioners are, what their background is, and where is the direction of their assessment.

When Su Tong visited again the next day, Shen Xi didn't write a word.

Su Tong seemed to have expected this to be the case, and sighed lightly: "Brother Shen can't help but think too much, in fact, these three exam questions are nothing, whether the questions of this year's township examination are not accurate at all, and can only be regarded as questions......

Whenever the township examination comes, the inner curtain officer must enter the venue two days before the exam, that is to say, for the ninth exam, the candidate will enter the eighth day of the junior high school, and the inner curtain officer must enter the venue two days in advance, that is, on the sixth day of the junior high school.

After entering the venue, the door will be locked, and when the questions and exams are taken, the inner curtain officials are not allowed to come out of the examination room to prevent the leakage of the existing exam questions.

Although this rule seems to be strict, because the inner curtain officer is appointed in advance, they can get some instructions from the outer curtain official to get the questions out in advance, so that the exam questions will flow out in advance.

Shen Xi said: "Calculate the time, the inner curtain official should enter the curtain at this time?" ”

Su Tong was stunned, nodded and said, "It should be so...... Brother Shen, you and I are incompatible, here I tell you honestly, these three questions, there are always one or two close to this exam questions, now you and I have learned in advance, you might as well refer to the questions in detail, this is not a great help for you and me to finally be on the list? ”

Shen Xi was very helpless about this.

The most taboo thing in the imperial examination is to leak the exam questions, Shen Xi could have relied on his real skills to take the exam, even if he learned the exam questions two days in advance, in fact, he could at most look through some Cheng Wen, and then find someone to summarize them and make the exam questions in advance, and then write them out silently in the examination room after memorizing them.

But this is not necessary for Shen Xi, who is well-informed and strong-remembered.

If the matter is revealed, it will definitely not be as simple as being deprived of his qualifications for the examination, but his future road to the imperial examination will also be completely blocked.

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PS: The third update is sent!

Don't say anything, the Son of Heaven continues to code words, and strive to get out of a chapter before 11 o'clock, everyone hurry up and vote, don't let the Son of Heaven sweat and tears! (To be continued.) )