Ji Qingwen and his entourage left the Fucheng Post Station in a hurry, but they were afraid of catching up with the Jinyi guard team transporting Wei Zhongxian's body, so they didn't dare to hurry up, but turned around the long road, went around the capital for half a circle, and entered the outer city of Beijing through the Yongding Gate, and then came to the inner city under the Chongwen Gate.

This matter is at the time of the card, Chongwen Gate has been lined up with merchants who are ready to enter the city, and a human dragon is three hundred steps long, which is slowly squirming under the city wall, and I don't know when I can enter the pass.

Seeing this, Ji Qingwen was a little impatient, so he asked Duo Jiugong: "Jiugong, there is a huge Beijing city, can you enter the city through this door?" With so many people, I don't know when to line up? ”

Duo Jiugong said: "There are eleven city gates in the capital division, and only four or five are often opened. There is a tax gate on this Chongwen Gate, and the merchants who come to collect taxes from them, so the officials who want to enter Beijing must enter the city through the Chongwen Gate, and if they go to other city gates, they will commit the crime of tax evasion, and they will be arrested by Dongchang. ”

Ji Qingwen was puzzled: "But we are not merchants now, but a person who rushes to take the exam, is it possible to collect taxes if someone comes to take the exam?" ”

Duojiu Gongjiang and Lakes have rich experience, and replied without question: "The court has reduced or exempted the land tax and labor service, so naturally it will not collect the entry tax of these few dollars of silver." But the name of this Chongwen Gate is good, and the word 'Chongwen' is a good sign, so everyone who rushes to take the exam has to enter Beijing from here. ”

Ji Qingwen waved his hand and said, "Wei Zhongxian is dead, and the way my father arranged for me is naturally invalid." With my knowledge, no matter what a good omen is, I can't get into the Jinshi, so let's not go through this Chongwen Gate, and it's the same to enter the city through another door. ”

After speaking, he was afraid that Li Yan, who was traveling with him, would not approve, so he asked again: "Brother Li, do you say it?" ”

Li Yan also said nonchalantly: "As long as you have real talent and real learning, you won't be on this little bit of color." I think it's better to go into the city early to rest and recuperate than to spend time chasing these ethereal things. ”

Seeing that they were of the same opinion, Duo Jiugong naturally had nothing to say, so he drove his horse to turn left and headed west towards Zhengyang Gate.

The group walked for half an hour before coming to Zhengyang Gate.

Ji Qingwen saw that the Zhengyang Gate was very tall and majestic, so he leaned out of the canopy, pointed to the door, and asked, "Jiugong, let's enter the city from there." ”

Duo Jiugong covered his mouth and smiled: "The young master said that he was laughing." That's Zhengyang Gate, only the emperor's palace is in the doorway, how can we be qualified to enter the city from here? Let's take a few more steps and enter the city at Xuanwu Gate. ”

Saying that, Duo Jiugong urged the horses, walked for another half an hour, and finally came to the Xuanwu Gate. Unexpectedly, the gate of Xuanwu Gate was locked, and it didn't look like it could pass through at all.

Duo Jiugong felt strange, quickly jumped out of the carriage, walked to a soldier guarding the city, and saluted: "This soldier, why is this Xuanwu Gate closed?" I don't know how many times I have been in Beijing before, but I have never encountered such a situation. ”

The soldier was still patient, and said: "The Emperor of the Apocalypse died, and Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, and it is said that Wei Zhongxian died at the age of 9,000. The upper authorities issued an order to impose martial law in the whole city, and only the Chongwen Gate was opened to enter and exit, and all other gates, including the Xuanwu Gate, were closed. If you want to enter the city, you should take a few more steps and enter through the Chongwen Gate. ”

Ji Qingwen's group of people and horses are neither martial arts masters who fly eaves and walls, nor generals who attack the city - not to mention that with the height and thickness of the Beijing city wall in the Ming Dynasty, martial arts masters may not be able to fly over, and it is difficult for thousands of troops and horses to break through the city - so they had to turn around and go to Chongwen Gate again.

When I came to Chongwen again, the team was significantly shortened.

It turned out that many people who had entered Beijing felt that it was too slow to line up with the merchants to enter the city, so they quarreled with the generals guarding the gate and demanded that another road be opened to speed up the entry into the city.

The general guarding the gate was a thousand households, and when he saw that the people were making a lot of trouble, and he was afraid that one of them would be admitted to the Jinshi, and he would become his top boss after a few years, so he did not dare to offend this group of people, so he ordered his soldiers to open another team for the people to enter the city.

In this way, the speed of Ji Qingwen and his entourage into the city was much faster, and they had already arrived at the gate of the city all the way forward, but they saw a soldier stretching out his palm and asking, "Did you enter Beijing to take the exam?" What about the guides? ”

Duo Jiugong hurriedly handed over the two copies of Ji Qingwen and Li Yan's roads, turned his head and said to Ji Qingwen: "Young master, thanks to the villain for keeping an eye before going out, he specially went to the yamen to open the road and lead it out, otherwise it would be difficult to enter this Beijing city." ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the frustrated scholars on both sides and said, "Well, these are the ones who came to Beijing without opening the road, so now I can only go back and line up with the merchants." ”

Duo Jiugong said this very proudly, but he was proud of his kung fu in the blink of an eye, and the voice of the soldier sounded in his ears: "There are five of you, how come there are only two road guides?" ”

Duo Jiugong hurriedly said: "Master Bing, Lu Yin belongs to the two sons in my car, I, this girl, and this man are all from people, and they all want to go into the city together." ”

But the soldier didn't buy it, and said, "Then aren't you lifting people?" ”

Duo Jiugong said with a smile: "The soldier said that he was joking, I don't know a single big word, how can I get the exam?" ”

"In that case, then you go back to the queue. Only one person can be put in one guide, and only two people can be put in two. The soldier said.

Ji Qingwen listened to it in the car and sighed: "Exactly." Jiugong, don't save money, give him three taels of silver, one tael per person, even if it is money to buy the road. ”

Duo Jiugong hurriedly agreed, took out a three-tael silver ingot from his sleeve, stuffed it into the soldier's hand, and said, "Master Jun, you can make it convenient, let's go into the city together." ”

When the soldier got the money, he immediately smiled and said, "According to reason, you cannot be allowed to go in." But you are not bad people, and the young master needs someone to take care of you, so I just opened the net. All right, you go in! As he spoke, he returned the two copies of the road to Duo Jiugong, and opened a passage for Ji Qingwen and his party to pass.

It only took three taels of silver to successfully enter the Beijing Division, which in Ji Qingwen's eyes, the cost performance is still quite high, but Li Yan was not happy, and said: "A little gatekeeper, a little bit of power the size of a sesame mung bean, he dares to ask for bribes in public, and he is too bold, right?" ”

Ji Qingwen persuaded: "The best thing to use in these years is silver, and the best thing to use is power." As long as the silver is enough, Brother Li has great ambitions and enough power to turn this world around. Isn't this exam the best opportunity? ”

While he was talking, he heard the soldier who asked for a bribe say, "Hey, why did you lead the way, and seven people came?" No, only one person can be put in. "Presumably, he stopped a team escorting people into Beijing to take the exam.

Unexpectedly, the person who was stopped did not show weakness and scolded: "What are you? Dare to stop the master's drive, and call your chief to come over! ”

Ji Qingwen heard this person speak in a loud voice, and couldn't help but go out to watch, only to see that the person who spoke was at most twenty years old, riding on a tall horse looking heroic and majestic, and his entourage was also riding on horses, all dressed as warriors.

The gatekeeper saw that this group of people was not easy to mess with, so he hurriedly summoned Qianhu over.

Before the thousand households arrived, the voice arrived first, and scolded: "I have already given you another way with extrajudicial grace, why are you still not satisfied, and it is noisy again?" ”

The young man said, "I went to Beijing to take the exam, why did you stop me?" ”

Qianhu asked his subordinates about the situation, grinned, and said: "According to the rules, only one person can be allowed to clear the customs with a road guide, we did the right thing, you don't make trouble unreasonably." ”

The young man sneered, "I didn't say you were wrong, I just called you here to inquire about something. ”

"Huh? What do you want to inquire about? Qianhu asked.

"I want to ask you, how many generals are you a thousand households guarding the door?" The young man asked, sitting upright on his horse and squinting downward.

"Five products, five products...... What's wrong? Chiho replied.

Before he finished speaking, the group of people laughed unscrupulously: "Wupin official, such a big official, it really scares us to death!" ”

The young man laughed as he rode into the city.

Of course, Qianhu refused to let them enter the capital, and was about to give an order to stop them, but unexpectedly, the young man's entourage showed the tooth tags on their waists and said, "Look carefully, how many officials are we?" ”

The man blinked his eyes vigorously, hurriedly pushed them aside, changed his expression to twelve points of respect, bowed down and said, "General......" and watched the group of people ride into the city.