"Not necessarily." But I heard Li Yan say quietly, "The emperor dares to draw two cents of silver for the imperial grain, and the officials below dare to apportionment one penny of silver, plus fire consumption and loss, it is not unusual to add a total of two coins of silver." ”

Ji Qingwen immediately echoed: "That's right. Don't believe it, you see that Jinyi Wei can be bought with money, let alone those local officials. Also, you just said that the Ming Dynasty cultivated 11 million hectares of arable land, where did this figure come from? I don't think that's necessarily true. ”

The fifth master hurriedly said: "This land area was measured in the eleventh year of Wanli, when Zhang Juzheng was in power. Although this person's character is a little flawed, he is still serious, and the number he presides over should be true......" The tone was already a little empty.

Ji Qingwen said: "Since it is a number measured by Zhang Juzheng, this number is probably true." But how many years has it been since the eleventh year of Wanli? ”

Li Yan folded his fingers and calculated: "Forty-four years, almost forty-five years......"

"Yes!" Ji Qingwen continued, "It's been more than 40 years, has there been any change in the total amount of land? In whose hands is the land in their hands? How much grain does the land produce per acre? How much money can this grain be exchanged for locally? These are unknowns. If you don't figure this out, you will have to raise taxes rashly, and I'm afraid there will be chaos. ”

"So what do you mean, it's time to recount and measure the land?" The young man muttered, "But now these officials are unreliable, in case the numbers reported at all levels are false, then ......"

"Then we will first rectify the rule of officials." The middle-aged man who hadn't spoken for a long time said, "Anyway, the emperor is going to open a department to take scholars, select a few middle-aged talents, and replace all those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, isn't it?" ”

The old man really grew a lot older, stroked his thick beard, and said, "The emperor has just taken Wei Zhongxian, and the court situation is still unstable. We can only use the purging of the eunuchs as an excuse to slightly rectify the rule of officials, and I am afraid that we will not be able to drastically reform the maladministration. ”

Wu Sangui on the side became impatient and said, "You have said back and forth, but I can't even understand a word." The Jurchens outside the gate are powerful, but when we Guanning Tieqi meet them, we have never been intimidated. Anyway, if we have money, food, people, horses, and weapons, we can do it; If you lack a few things, you can only keep them; If there is nothing, you can only retreat to the gate. ”

His words carried an obvious Northeast emphasis, and he said the truth and vernacular, which amused everyone.

Everyone laughed for a while, and the old man saw that the hour was not early, so he bowed his hand and said, "Everyone, it's late now, and our fifth master has to go back to the house to rest." But we get along very speculatively, and there will be a day when we will meet again. We already know the names of this Wu Sangui and Wu Gongzi, but we don't know the names of these two sons? ”

Ji Qingwen was about to answer, but Li Yan rushed in front of him and said: "Our brother went to the exam this time to prepare for the title of the gold list. Several of them are people with eyes and hands, and they will naturally know our names when the time comes. If the name falls to Sun Mountain, naturally there will be no face to visit again, and the name will not need to be reported. ”

Li Yan said this arrogantly, but the old man didn't care, waved his hand and said, "Okay, if you don't want to report it, don't report it." I'm leaving. ”

Saying that, he and the middle-aged man made a gesture to Ji Qingwen, Li Yan and Wu Sangui, and accompanied the "fifth master" in their mouths to leave the Liansheng Inn.

After such a turmoil, Ji Qingwen finally knew that there was a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger in the Jingshi, and after he crossed over, the experience of how to be a rich second-generation rich man accumulated in Xi'an City was useless here.

So Ji Qingwen could only be a man with his tail, and he originally had a curious heart that wanted to see the world in Beijing, but he suddenly cooled down, and in addition to going out to eat, he stayed in the room with Li Yan, but occasionally went to the Shaanxi Guild Hall to meet Duo Jiugong, Xing'er and Huang Degong.

In this imperial examination, Li Yan is determined to win.

Although he rarely stepped out of the door of the "Liansheng Inn", there were a lot of people rushing to take the exam in the inn, and they were also busy with each other's questions, speculating on the examiner's intentions, and polishing the words and sentences.

Although Ji Qingwen is not here, he also wants to participate in it. Unexpectedly, the Bagu article was extremely difficult, and I audited it for two days, but I felt that the more I listened, the more confused and ignorant I became.

In desperation, Ji Qingwen could only go to the street by himself, and bought two popular novels such as "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on the way, and read them alone in the room.

In this way, a month later, it was the Spring Festival of the first year of Chongzhen.

This year is the year of the new emperor's ascension, and the year before the great resentment of Wei Zhongxian, so this year's Spring Festival in the capital The atmosphere of the New Year is more warm and rich, every household is lit up with lights, firecrackers are ringing in unison, and a huge Beijing division is shrouded in an atmosphere of celebration and joy.

Only in the Liansheng Inn, the candidates who remembered the fame and fortune and the title of the gold list were incompatible with the atmosphere of celebration and joy, as if they had forgotten the time, and were still immersed in the boring eight-strand articles.

After another month, it was finally time for the exam.

On that day, Ji Qingwen and Li Yan got up early in the morning, used the "expedition meal" specially cooked by the store, and hurried to the Gongyuan for the exam.

After passing a few checkpoints, Ji Qingwen finally entered the No. 27 examination room of Tianzi in accordance with the order arranged in advance. This examination room is only the size of a palm, and it can be seen from the outside, so that the candidates in it have no chance to cheat and cover up.

After counting the number of people, the first question is handed out.

Ji Qingwen opened the tightly sealed exam questions and looked at them, but saw that there were nine words written on it: "Gou Rixin, Ririxin, and Rixin".

Ji Qingwen knows each of these words, but he only understands one and a half of them when they are connected, and if he wants to write an eight-strand article based on this exam question, it will really kill Ji Qingwen.

I saw him lift the brush in his hand, as if he had lifted Sun Wukong's golden hoop stick, licked the ink in the inkstone very seriously, and was just about to write the first word, but the ink on the pen tip dripped down inappropriately, leaving a black spot the size of a broad bean on the white rice paper.

Ji Qingwen was startled, and hurriedly reached out to wipe it, but it didn't matter if he wiped it, this ink spot was immediately wiped away, and half of the rice paper was wiped with gray and black ink stains.

Ji Qingwen secretly screamed, "Not good", and quickly uncovered the layer of rice paper on his face, wanting to choose another one. But the ink spots were so thick that they penetrated and soaked all the six layers of rice paper below, so that none of the paper was clean.

At this embarrassing time, the second and third exam questions were sent again.

Ji Qingwen took the exam question, and saw that he was somewhat familiar with the second question, which was the opening sentence of "University": "The way of university is in Mingmingde, in being close to the people, and in stopping at perfection."

The third question Ji Qingwen has also seen, and it is written: "Yuanji, Yizhongzhengye." ”

It's just the word "Yuanji", he remembers that it is the name of Li Yuanji, the younger brother of Tang Taizong Li Shimin; "Zhongzheng" is the name of the big man who needs to be in front of the name to show respect.

As for the connection between these two people, Ji Qingwen didn't know anything.

In this way, the three exam questions were sent, and Ji Qingwen didn't write a word.

Ji Qingwen felt that the college entrance examination questions that tortured the senior high school students to death in later generations were so kind in front of these inexplicable imperial examination questions - whether the college entrance examination questions can be made or not, at least they can be understood......

In this way, Ji Qingwen stayed in the examination room for a whole day in ignorance, and saw that there were candidates in the examination rooms on both sides one after another getting up to hand in the papers, so he also beckoned the examiner to hand in the papers and prepare to leave.

The examiner was a good person, and when he saw that Ji Qingwen didn't write half a word on his scroll except for a puddle of ink, he asked, "What?" Dirty exam papers? If you want me to bring you some new pieces of paper, it's not too late for you to answer again. ”

Ji Qingwen said cheekily: "Forget it, I have no inspiration, and I can't write a good article, let's come back in three years." ”

The examiner didn't see through Ji Qingwen's pretense, but was still comforting him: "It's okay." Seeing that you are still young, it is not too late to take the exam, and this official is also a jinshi who is only forty years old. ”