Nanjing, in March of the 14th year of Yongli, although it has been restored for more than half a year, but it is also a time when a hundred ruins are waiting to be rebuilt, after all, its outer city was originally in Lang Tingzuo to guard the city, a fire burned clean, when Zheng Chenggong led the army into the city, faced with more than 100,000 people who had no place to live.

Since then, throughout the autumn, the outer city of Nanjing has been filled with construction. Zheng Chenggong, as the actual ruler of Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty, directly suppressed the construction of the official hall and yamen, but spent money on two constructions, one is the restoration of the imperial city, and the other is the Jiangnan Tribute Courtyard. The purpose of repairing the imperial city was to show the people of the world that when the time was right, he Zheng Chenggong would naturally welcome back the holy driver. As for the restoration of the Jiangnan Tribute Academy, it is to win the hearts of Jiangnan scholars, after all, for Jiangnan scholars, Zheng Chenggong and the Fujian officials in his scenes are outsiders.

It doesn't matter if the imperial city is rebuilt slowly, after all, now the emperor is far away in the southwest, even if Zheng Chenggong, that is, through the eyes of the Qing court, he learned that the Yongli Emperor had withdrawn into Burma, but the specific location is unknown. In contrast, the construction of the Gongyuan could not be slowed down for a moment.

Although last year, Qingyu's so-called "Jihai Enke" had already passed the exam, although it was Qingyu's. But now, with the abolition of the fame of the Qing Juzi, but this year is the year of the township examination, which cannot be ignored. If this year's township examination is stopped, then the scholars of Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces will not only lose the fame they have achieved under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, but will also lose the opportunity to gain fame again, so that they will soar to the top.

Therefore, almost as soon as they returned to the hands of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, the cries of the remnants of the Ming Dynasty who demanded the immediate opening of the department were poured into Zheng Chenggong's ears like thunder.

And Zheng Chenggong's own urgency is no less than that of these scholars. After all, he has always called on all literate people to rise up and prosper the Ming Dynasty with "Huayi Great Defense". Over the years, the reason why he has been able to gain the support and support of scholars is also because of this "Huayi debate", and even this is the reason why he was able to easily seize Jiangnan.

Moreover, privately speaking, Zheng Chenggong also needs to pass the township examination to select talents from Jiangnan and other places to obtain their support, and even this is the reason why he abolished the fame of Manchu Sheng, Jian Sheng, Yin Sheng, Guansheng, Gongsheng and other meritorious students, and allowed the scholars who had achieved meritorious fame to participate in the township examination in white. What's more, as the presiding officer of the Daming Township trial that has been interrupted for fifteen years, what kind of words will be recorded in the history books in the future!

Because of this, every time he thinks of this, Zheng Chenggong is very excited. Although he did not have today's status by virtue of the government examination, the township examination, and the general examination, he can also understand the painstaking efforts of those poor scholars who want to come out, and knows that whether he can win the hearts of Jiangnan Shilin is very important.

It is precisely for this reason that he has to visit the construction site of the Jiangnan Gongyuan every few days, urging them to complete the construction by the end of October, and not to delay the township examination scheduled for November. Seeing the prototype of this Jiangnan Gongyuan day by day, Zheng Chenggong and the officials of all the three provinces felt a lot lighter on their shoulders.

What is Orthodoxy!

Only when the imperial examination is restored can it be orthodox!

Because the imperial examination can allow the people to recognize the dominance of the Ming Dynasty and consolidate the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, it can win people's hearts!

Although it is only March, scholars from all over the world have gathered here, and in the past few days, more than 10,000 scholars from the land of Jianghuai have still poured into Nanjing City in an endless stream, bringing a fresh interest to the thousand-year-old capital that is in the process of being rebuilt in ruins.

Among these scholars, there are many gray-haired old men, as well as many young people who are not as weak as the crown, both the children of rich families who are fat and light-furned, and those who call slaves and servants, and there are also children from poor families who carry bookcases and cloth clothes alone. But when they walked on the street, went in and out of the anti-travel wine shop, wore a "unified mountains and rivers scarf" on their heads, and said "I am a Ming Dynasty" in their mouths, they only made the people of Nanjing have the feeling of seeing the prestige of Han officials again!

Although they have insulted the "Ming Dynasty" more than once - because of the abolition of its fame, they are pleased that when the door is closed in Nanjing, there is always a crack in the door. This allowed the scholars who had achieved fame to participate in the township examination in white, which was the crack in the door.

Since the opening of the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty, the Jiangnan Township Examination has always attracted the attention of the whole country. Such an important place, and the first subject after the restoration, who was released by the examiner, these scholars from all over the country were asking each other. The vast majority of people don't know it, and only a very small number of people who have relatives who are big officials in Nanjing know it, but they don't talk about it. There are dozens of chief and deputy examiners who have been guessed by everyone, after all, Nanjing can be said to be a gathering of old people, and they can pull out one at random, all of them are famous people who have been hidden in their homes after entering the customs, and everyone is naturally not sure for a while, the only thing that is accurate is: the chief examiner of the Jiangnan Township Examination must be a respected and talented Shilin old-timer.

This is naturally an inevitable thing, in fact, not only everyone is guessing, but those who are guessed are also wondering whether to go to the king of Yanping to do something, after all, everyone knows that this township test will definitely make his name go down in history.

Because of this, almost every day, someone visits Zheng Chenggong, and instead of talking about the strategy of governing the country in poems, books and articles, there is a great feeling of giving up on me. At the beginning, Zheng Chenggong was still a little patient, but every day was like this, people always got bored, but when he was anxious to use Zhu Mingzhong to "pit" Jiangnan Shizi, he naturally didn't want to drive people away when he recruited Shilin people's hearts for his use.

Zhu Chengren is here!

The news of this spread throughout the city of Nanjing, like a spring thunder, which made the scholars gathered in Nanjing all stunned, and then their faces suddenly became complicated. So much so that when the news came, the originally seemingly lively restaurant and teahouse suddenly fell silent. These scholars, who were still there talking about the current situation of state affairs, all looked at each other with bitter expressions, and they looked like they wanted to speak but did not dare to speak.

After all, they had all experienced the tyranny of the Manchus.

"I heard that it was the national surname who went to the riverside wharf to meet him in person!"

Someone opened their mouths, and naturally some people followed.

"Hmph, what a big shelf!"

"But no, this has only been greeted by the following since ancient times, and there are only those who meet below?"

It was a scholar in his forties who spoke, perhaps because when he looked at the "unified mountains and rivers scarves" on the heads of those friends around him, he remembered that this was under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, not the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he would never scold people because of his words.

"But that's not the truth, I think this person is a wolf ambition at all, I want him to be a general under the command of the country's surname, but he is alone in Jiangbei, almost self-reliant, in the eyes of the younger brother, if it is a long time ago, in case there is a disaster in the four towns of Jiangbei! When the time comes, won't I be in danger! ”

This person's words immediately caused a burst of echo around him, since someone has said it so bluntly, others have no scruples, and immediately someone followed one by one to count Jiangbei's "unsubordinate actions".

"Brother Qimao, your family is in Fengyang Mansion, but that person abolished fire and silver consumption in Jiangbei?"

"Yes, exactly! However, you need to pay the tax in silver dollars to avoid paying the fire. ”

The voice of the person who was questioned had just fallen, and someone on the other side immediately said.

"Look, this is fame and reputation, hum, what loyalty, sincerity, in the eyes of the younger brother, it is just a fame and reputation fisher!"

Although they were not nominated, everyone knew who they were talking about, who else could they be besides Zhu Mingzhong in Jiangbei? It is no wonder that these scholars are so annoyed with him, it is he who wrote to demand the abolition of the merits of the students and prisoners, shadow students, official students, tribute students, etc., under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and even to recover the money and grain that have been exempted from payment for many years. Although under the advice of Qian Qianyi and Zhang Huangyan, the national surname agreed that those who were removed from their fame could participate in the township examination "in white". But the hostility towards Zhu Mingzhong has not diminished in the slightest, especially after they were removed from their fame, they could only knock out their teeth and swallow them in their stomachs, especially in Jiangbei - the newspapers clearly told the people that the reason why their fame was removed was because they participated in the Manchu Township Examination, that is, Yu Daming was disloyal!

"If you are a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty and read the grace of the Ming Dynasty, how can you go to the "pseudo-test" of the Qing barbarians, and want to serve the Qing barbarians! ”

If it weren't for the newspapers, they might have argued in the countryside to win the support of the villagers, but the newspapers for a few pennies clearly told everyone that they were just a bunch of disloyal and unfilial "traitors", and they were almost unable to defend themselves in the face of such a reputational blow.

Even, the reason why they are coming to Nanjing to participate in the township test is to seek the opportunity to soar, and the other is to show in front of the villagers that I am not a traitor.

However, this did not prevent them from changing their ways to say that Zhu Mingzhong was as shrewd as they were, and they didn't even mention anything to remove their fame, but they also talked about his character, and attacked his character by Zheng Chenggong personally going to the dock to greet him and many government affairs in Jiangbei.

"Hmph, could it be that the hero of the country surnamed Guo who went out of the city to greet my Ming Dynasty is guilty of the following?"

Suddenly, just when everyone was talking about the "clear discussion", there was a somewhat excited rebuttal in the teahouse.

"General Zhu has repeatedly made miraculous achievements for my Ming Dynasty, and the prince personally went out of the city to greet General Zhu, it is the surname of the country who cares for his subordinates, and it has become like this in the mouths of your group of people, and the books of you people are really read in the stomach of a dog......"