Approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to the habits of Shilin for thousands of years, people in Shilin have held various gatherings, and for a time new poems are emerging in endlessly, although the traditional Shilin is tending to decline, but in the past ten years, a new Shilin appeared in Daming - the old Shilin not only accepted the "bachelor" of the academy and university in order to inherit, and even took the initiative to achieve the so-called civil and military convergence through marriage and other ways.

Of course, they did not abandon "martial arts", and it was in this process that a kind of Shilin spirit that advocated loyalty, faithfulness, honesty, martial arts, and honor replaced the old Shilin spirit.

In this process, it is not so much that the traditional scholars have changed the scholars, but that the times have changed the traditional scholars, so that they have changed from the powerless scribes to the scholars who are armed with swords and sacrificed their lives at any time, and the values of the traditional scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period once again appeared on this land.

In the process, the old "mouth cannon" disappeared, and this disappearance was due to the martial man's habit of directly choosing to solve the problem by duel when faced with his verbal insult to personal honor.

Duel for honor, at the cost of your life!

This is the biggest difference between the new Shilin and the old Shilin, and it is precisely because of this that in the past, the mouth cannon that used to scorn others with a sentence of "the courage of the horseman" and arbitrarily took advantage of the tongue has completely disappeared in just two or three years. In the face of the new concept of honor, the mouth cannons ushered in their end.

Sometimes what seems backward can often play a surprising role.

However, the traditional Shilin still has their own influence, such as the literati and the scholars at the gathering of the scholars, drinking and chatting, exchanging poems, are the habits of the old Shilin, and now the Shilin of the Ming Dynasty still follows all this, and has not undergone any changes because they carry a sword on their waists.

Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, there will be countless poetry meetings in parks and mansions, even the lords and honors who are usually proud of wearing military uniforms will take off their military uniforms and change into regimental collar shirts, just like ordinary scholars who chant the wind and the moon there.

"It's another boring party, why do people like to do this kind of thing?"

When he climbed into the carriage with his drunken friend, looking at the bright moon in the sky, the young man sighed secretly, and said "farewell" to the half-drunk scholars who walked by. Unlike the others, this young man, despite his regimental collar shirt, had the temperament of a soldier in his gestures.

"Practical learning, poetry and books, martial arts...... Wen Tian Wu ......"

Xu was drunk, he sat in the car and thought nonsense, the scholars he had met in the past few days only made him feel confused, and the newspapers and books he read said that the morale of the scholars and doctors was far more prosperous than in any previous era, and even the scribes were very strong.

"Doesn't it say that every scribe is mighty and unyielding, and a horseman cannot win the will? Why do I see a scene of Wen Tian and Wu Xi? ”

Glancing at his friend who was sleeping beside him, he whispered to the coachman.

"Slow down."

Evidently the young man did not seem to be satisfied with what he saw, and in recent times he had befriended scholars and many noblemen, but he was a little disappointed.

Although the literati wore swords and the warriors wore Confucian clothes, the two seemed to blend together, but he still felt that both sides seemed to be too deliberate, and that deliberateness even made him feel that there was an illusion of Wen Tian and martial arts.

Wu and Wen, in the seventeenth year of Xingqian's Ming Dynasty, combined in a special way, dissolved and fused with each other. And in this process, there are naturally abrupt places, so that people feel uncomfortable.

At this moment, the young man heard his friend's drunken whisper.

“…… A scholar and a marquis. ”

Obviously, even in his dreams, he is still yearning for the scenery of the ten thousand households.

Non-military merits are not knighted!

The Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to military merit, practical learning, and light cultural governance, which is a well-known thing in the world.

"Could it be that in the future, the Ming Dynasty's cultural and martial arts will be so nondescript?"

Shaking his head in disappointment, the young man muttered to himself again. Finally, his eyes looked into the distance and he whispered.

"If the honors are like this, what are the nobles like?"

The young man naturally thought of those nobles who were known as the "pillars of the empire"; unlike any previous era, the Xingqian Dynasty attached great importance to and respected the nobles, and many nobles held important positions in the army, although most of the nobles were mainly in military positions, but there were also many nobles who had retired for more than ten years and served in local positions, and their reputations were quite good. However, for young people, because there is no channel to contact the nobles, they naturally do not understand those people. He is even more worried that those nobles who have become "military meritorious" by virtue of their military exploits will be like the nobles in the history books, whose first generation is still useful, but the descendants are addicted to the military exploits of their ancestors, and most of them are gentlemen. If this is the case, then what will happen to the future of Daming?

Thinking of this, the young man naturally thought of the Ming Dynasty before the Emperor, and the current Ming Dynasty was the same as in the past, and the ministers held senior military positions in order to achieve the role of defending the royal family, but under the protection of the hereditary system, the cultivation of the ministers had little effect, and in the end they were often just children. The appointment of the honorable ministers not only failed to perform their proper functions, but also exacerbated the laxity and corruption of the military and government.

Is this the blessing of the Ming Dynasty?

It is precisely because of his youth that he has his own concerns, perhaps, in his memory, he has not experienced the painful lesson of shaving his hair and changing clothes, and even the memory of everything is very vague, but the bloody past seen from the book makes him never let go.

"You should go to Zhongdu, go there and see, maybe, you can also get in touch with some nobles there......"

In the Ming Dynasty, the place with the most ministers, one is Nanzhili, one is Jiangxi, and there is Fujian, the reason is that most of the generals led by the Northern Expedition of King Min are Fujianese, and His Majesty raised troops in Jiangyin and laid the foundation in Jiangbei, and the generals under his command are naturally mostly from Nanzhili, and Zhang Huangyan is based on Jiangxi, and his subordinates naturally take Jiangxi people as the public.

In the first year of Xingqian, the emperor who had just ascended the throne was rewarded for meritorious deeds, and most of the generals of the Ming army in various places dominated by Zhang Huangyan were awarded the title of Duke Bohou, and many officers were awarded the title of honorable man, and then the reduction of the Ming army made thousands of military officers retire and return to their hometowns, and they became local celebrities, as a social class between the official and the non-governmental, linking the government with society. Cooperate with the government to jointly manage society.

As the Marquis of Pingxiang, Zhang Yi, like many ministers who did not hold public office, returned to his hometown after being disarmed more than ten years ago, and rebuilt the Zhang family mansion in his hometown. When Zhang Huangyan entered Jiangxi, he led more than 1,000 of his fellow villagers to defect, and in the end, most of them were also successful - even if they were dismissed, they got their due Xuntian, although they had to move to Sichuan and other places. But even so, it also makes him have a very special status in his hometown and Pingxiang. This status is not because his wealth can rank first in Jiangxi. It's because he has earned a lot of benefits for the children of his hometown.

As a Pingxiang Marquis, Zhang Yi can earn a huge income without doing anything. He has tens of thousands of acres of land in Jiangxi and Hubei - that is his Xuntian, but the field does not make much money, even if his Xuntian is exempt, it is only a few thousand taels of income every year. What really made him rich was the coal hidden in the ground of Pingxiang, and by investing in coal mines, he became very rich.

With hundreds of thousands of taels of income from coal mines every year, Zhang Yi became the richest man in Jiangxi, but he felt that he was still missing something.

His father, the Emperor of Lie's time, was a different kind of person entirely. When the Qing army entered the customs and invaded Jiangxi, he and his friends raised troops and committed suicide after the defeat. It was the old servant who carried his body home, and then later, Zhang Cangshui led the troops into Jiangxi, and the twenty-six-year-old Zhang Yi led the villagers to defect, 1,200 fellow villagers, and only 600 returned.

Half of them are famous, but the other half are dead.

It is precisely because of this that in the past few years, Zhang Yi has spent tens of thousands of taels of silver every year to fund the children of the Jiangxi remnants to study, although they don't actually need it - they all inherit the Gongtian that their parents exchanged their lives for.

But Zhang Yi still wants to do something about himself.

"Maybe, I can do more......"

Looking at the whiteness of his sideburns in the mirror, Zhang Yi said to himself.

"Maybe something should be done for the common people, shouldn't it be mentioned in the council?"

The Council was established by the Emperor in the twelfth year of the Emperor's reign, although for thousands of years the gentry had been a social class between the official and the private, linking the government with society. Cooperate with the government to jointly manage society. But in reality, there is no legitimacy in their participation.

In the tenth year of the Xingqian Dynasty, when His Majesty was reading history books at night, he saw that the three elders of the township and the three elders of the county in the Han Dynasty could report to the imperial court the achievements of the local officials and supervise the local officials for the imperial court. Later, he discussed with the cabinet ministers how to establish a similar system in the Ming Dynasty. After two years of research, the Ming Dynasty set up advisory houses and advisory bureaus in various places, and the councilors all chose fair and wise gentry.

It was also from that time that Zhang Yi was a member of the Provincial Council, and as a nobleman, he did not need to be elected by the Provincial Council, and he could directly enter the Provincial Council as a member. It was also in the Council that Zhang Yi found the value of existence. He can discuss the affairs of the province in the House of Representatives—budgets, final accounts, public debts, projects, etc.—and he can also supervise the achievements of local officials, and even if passed, he can directly submit a letter to the Cabinet in the name of the Council to recommend the disposal of officials.

The scenery of the current councillor is by no means inferior to the three elders in the history books. Unfortunately, unless the Provincial Governor specifically summons members, the Provincial Council meets only three times a year.

Most of the time, Zhang Yi's life was uneventful.

However, he also has something to be proud of, and he is proud of the train when it steam through the valley - the railway he created on his behalf, and although it was originally intended for coal, the railway has linked Pingxiang to the whole of Daming, and over the years, the railway has changed the lives of the people here and become a part of people's lives.

"Let's wear a military uniform!"

Looking at himself in the mirror, after thinking for a long time, Zhang Yi chose to put on a military uniform. Two weeks ago, he received a telegram from His Majesty. His Majesty will summon him and hope that he will bring his second son with him to Beijing, and express his desire to know the young man's thoughts. Now, he is preparing to go to Zhongdu, and he must make all preparations in advance for this edict.

However, he didn't need to take his second son with him, because his second son was studying in the academy in Zhongdu, and as for the eldest son, he was far away at the Cape of Good Hope, the eldest son of a naval officer, and the farthest in the Zhang family.

Looking out the car window, in the increasingly prosperous hometown, Zhang Yi can see that people's lifestyles are undergoing earth-shaking changes.

Just as Zhang Yi stepped on the train, two young men also boarded the train to Wuchang from the crowded station platform in Changsha, Hunan.

"Oops, it's finally a little more comfortable!"

After entering the second-class carriage, in the previous crowding, Chu Ming, who was full of sweat, looked at the carriage with some curiosity, compared to the crowded third-class carriage, there were not many people in the second-class carriage, and the passengers in the carriage could also be seen by the clothes on their bodies, most of them were gentry. After all, the ticket price of a second-class car is twice that of a third-class car, and most people will not choose such an expensive second-class car.

"Oh, Ming Chang, you said that when we get to Wuchang, will we take a ship or a train? Actually, if it weren't for the curiosity of what this train looks like, we could have taken a ship to Zhongdu......"

Chu Ming turned his head to look at his friend, but saw that his friend's eyes were staring out of the car window, just doing it there without saying a word.

"Mingchang, Mingchang?"

Zuo Ziming, who was a little distracted, listened to his friend's shouting and looked back at his friend.

"Yansheng, what's the matter?"

"You......"

Seeing Zuo Ziming's confused look, Chu Ming smiled.

"Why have you been so easily distracted lately, if it weren't for the fact that I knew that you were known as my first genius in Xiangyin, and that you would have been lost all day long."

"Hugh mentions the first talent in Xiangyin, the last thing in the world is talented."

Seeing that his friend mentioned the joke of the teacher in the county school again, Zuo Ziming said a little unhappily.

"Oh?"

Looking at his friend in surprise, Chu Ming asked rhetorically.

"Why did Ming Chang say that?"

"Jiashen is changing, there are so many talented people in the world, but what can they do?"

Zuo Ziming stared into the distance, and his tone seemed a little heavy.

"This is the most useless thing with the country, I'm afraid it's the so-called poetry and books of the genius, at most, it can only cultivate sentiments......"