One year of drought, even with locusts as a supplement, people were still displaced by hunger.

Ji Ling's army of 50,000 defected to the imperial court, but the imperial court finally couldn't afford to raise it, and seeing that his treatment was getting worse and worse, he rioted angrily and went north to Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao was also short of food, but fortunately, when Ji Ling came to Hebei, there were less than 20,000 of the 50,000 army left, so he reluctantly accepted it.

The life of the imperial court was not easy, especially Yingchuan and Yanzhou, which were made a fuss by Ji Ling, and the order that was finally restored became chaotic again. The people did not have confidence in the imperial court, so they moved south, and many of them heard that the south could have enough to eat.

In this way, in 196 A.D., the three forces almost all spent their time licking their wounds, and this breath did not ease until 197 A.D. In 195 A.D., there was almost no harvest in the imperial court and Hebei, and the harvest in 196 was halved.

In the second half of 196, Li Ming provided Yuan Shao with the first batch of grain by sea and traded 5,000 uncastrated war horses. At the same time, through the sea route, he reached an alliance with Yuan Shao. The only remaining princes of the two roads understood that only by uniting could they deal with the imperial court.

There are also side effects, that is, Yuan Shao has set up a lot of sentry posts on the coast of the Bohai Sea and Youzhou. Many of the sentry posts were rebuilt on the basis of the original Gongsun Zhan, and Yuan Shao was also very curious at first why Gongsun Chan built these things.

In 196, 70% of the financial budget under Li Ming's rule was used for infrastructure construction, cash-for-work, etc., to accommodate more than 2 million people, and at the same time widened the roads between various states and counties, and built more than 10 new first-class roads. However, through river transportation and sea transportation, exchanges between Jiangdong and Xuzhou have also become frequent.

The caravans even went to Qingzhou and Bohai to do business, selling much-needed goods such as grain, fish floss, medicinal herbs, and furs. Even the weapons that had been eliminated were sold to Yuan Shao a lot, among which the strong crossbow and crossbow were the best-sellers.

"It's not easy to do business these days!" In May 197, Li Ming looked at the financial report of the Chamber of Commerce for this month, and couldn't help but feel a little excited, the sales of raw materials and rough processed goods were good, but the profits were meager. On the contrary, the industrial products he valued, such as weapons, glass, silk and spices, as a result, sales began to shrink two years ago, and only improved slightly this year.

"The landlord's family has no surplus grain, and it has become a problem to eat in the first two years, and those families in the north have money to spend on grain, so how can they have spare money to buy these luxury goods that are actually useless?" Zhang Mo complained on the side.

He knew very well that Li Ming was actually hypocritical. In the past two years, the commercial activities under the rule of Yuan Shao and the imperial court have almost stopped, and Yuan Shao and the imperial court have not received a penny of commercial taxes at all. Even the reuse of troops in the Western Regions, as well as commercial trade, had to be temporarily stopped, and it was already very difficult for his side to draw blood from them.

Li Ming is not stupid, how can he not understand that complaining at the moment is completely a rich man's hypocrisy.

After having a son, why did Shen Yan become more and more chatty? The words on the table are obviously cautious, but people are chattering......" Li Ming looked at Zhang Mo angrily.

"The lord was complaining before, doesn't he need his subordinates to make a noise?" Zhang Mo tilted his head towards Li Ming.

"Cough ......" Li Ming was suddenly choked, Zhang Mo was not so much chattering, but a little black-bellied, sure enough, after getting along with a black-bellied woman for a long time, people have also become black-bellied? But it's clear that Cai Yan has become more virtuous after giving birth!

"I just want to ask how the scientific expedition is doing...... You know, I've been in the mansion for a while! Li Ming looked at Zhang Mo, during this time, he was either practicing martial arts, accompanying his family, or dealing with government affairs, and he didn't go out much.

I feel that all emperors must be senior otaku, otherwise how can this emperor be able to behave? You must know that you are stuffed in the palace all day long, day after day, year after year, and you are afraid that it will only take no more than three months to change to a current charge, and you can go crazy directly.

"My lord, the person in charge of the scientific examination is Lord Cai Yong...... Well, the venue for the scientific examination has been prepared, and the examination in various places has been resting at the temporary post station. This time we have gained a lot, since last year we began to publicize in various parts of China, this year we have more than 5,000 candidates who came to the exam.

Many of them come from poor families, it is estimated that they don't know where to get books, they are coarse and literate, and they plan to come over to try their luck, and those who are really talented are estimated to be less than a thousand people, of which the children of the family account for more than seventy percent, and the lord must be psychologically prepared! Zhang Mo originally planned to blame Cai Yong for the troublesome things explained, but looking at Li Ming's unhappy eyes, he could only answer obediently.

The specific situation, as long as people who have an understanding of today's Wanling, can be clear. Similar data can be found with a little inquiry. This imperial examination is related to the proportion of the family in the government, so not only Li Ming is paying attention, but all the families are paying attention, and Zhang Mo is of course also one of the followers.

Not only that, Wanling has also recently come to the north of the country a lot of businessmen or tourists, Li You suspects that these people, and even the candidates who came to take the exam, may not have spies from Yuan Shao and the imperial court, in order to understand the so-called imperial examination system.

This is a fresh move, and Li Ming's propaganda to the outside world is that in the future, the imperial examination will replace the filial piety and honesty system and become the only way for the government to select and employ people. This propaganda naturally attracted the attention of the imperial court and Yuan Shao. The difference is that Liu Ting really plans to learn and then promote, but Yuan Shao just wants to understand.

After all, the latter's dependence on the family is too great, and rashly canceling the filial piety system is equivalent to being the enemy of the family under his command. In fact, even the imperial court was having a headache, but Liu Ting's iron-blooded methods, coupled with the money from the Western Regions, allowed him to force the family to compromise appropriately.

"Let them see! Haha, as long as they don't know the specific operation process, then there is no point in them learning to go! Li Ming laughed, not to mention that neither the imperial court nor Yuan Shao could get rid of their dependence on the family, but only that this scientific expedition had passed hundreds of years from its appearance to its perfection, and if he was given a few hundred years, even if it took a few decades, he would be able to recover Huaxia!

"The exam will officially start three days later, and Lord Cai Yong hopes that the lord can meet the candidates and give a few words of encouragement. We will probably only admit about eighty percent of the candidates in this exam, and the candidates who fail the list may not come to the exam again next time, so it is beneficial for us to gain their favor in advance! Not to mention, there are also many students from Huiji Academy, and I hope that the lord can give them some encouragement! Zhang Mo persuaded.

"Okay, make arrangements, I'll meet with the candidates tomorrow!" Li Ming nodded.

Today's Wanling, because of the arrival of a large number of candidates, is very prosperous. Li Ming lifted the curfew, but there will be more soldiers patrolling at night, and even the security forces under Yu Tuan's command will send more people to assist in patrolling. Although it is lively, petty theft and even other vicious incidents have almost not happened, and even if they do, they can be dealt with in time.

Merchants naturally will not miss this business opportunity, the whole Wanling is suddenly lit up at night, all kinds of night market small *** American specialties, and even Qinglou also took the opportunity to make a profit.

"Compared with Wuling, it is simply a ...... of heaven and an earth," a candidate looked at the prosperity of Wanling and sighed.

"Wuling has just been ruled by the Duke of Chu, and it will be much better in a few years!" The candidate next to him smiled.

"Gongyan, Chengming, there are still three days to take the exam, are you still interested in shopping?" Another candidate stepped forward and smiled.