The prefect and the main force of Xiangyong were transferred, which made the atmosphere in the city suddenly tense, and the affairs of the Sanfu Yamen naturally became heavy. Shen He, as the chief bookkeeper of the meeting, had a workload several times larger, and he couldn't even take care of his family, so he had to live in the county government duty room like an ordinary official, and the wedding date had to be put on hold temporarily.

For the common people, the more intuitive feeling is that the prices in the city are soaring, and the rumors are full of sky, today it is said that the officials and the army have broken the Japanese invaders, and tomorrow they say that the Japanese have defeated the officials and the army, so that they are happy and afraid for a while, plus they can't afford to eat meat, and there is no social drama to listen to, the quality of life has seriously declined, and they have a very miserable life.

There is another group of people who are also suffering, that is, those Chinese-style children who have been rumored to be held in the provincial capital on June 15 due to the situation, and may have to be postponed indefinitely.

This is a slap in the face for candidates who are actively taking the exam. They went to the professors and professors all day long to inquire whether they would take the test or not, and when they would take the test.

Throughout May, Shaoxing was in this atmosphere of 'the whole city suffering', and even the air seemed to be stagnant.

Fortunately, as soon as we entered June, good news came, and the Taizhou side repelled several attacks by the Japanese invaders one after another, and finally withstood it. Two days later, Zhejiang's edict to study also arrived in Shaoxing, and the 33-year college examination in Jiajing was held as scheduled.

There are still ten days before the exam, and Shaoxing is only more than 100 miles away from Hangzhou, even on foot. But now it is not the same as in the past, the road is not very peaceful, in addition to the genuine Japanese robbers, there are also some thieves who take advantage of the government's lack of time to take care of it, do some business.

So the children summed up, and everyone pooled a sum of money and asked the dart bureau to escort them to the provincial capital. For the dart game in the city, this is a good thing to show his face, even if he loses money, he is willing to take it...... And to be honest, there is no danger in staying away from the war zone all the way.

So the two sides agreed to bring back the escort, a total of two hundred taels of silver. A total of 150 candidates in Shaoxing Prefecture, those who have more money, and those who have no money are less, quickly scraped together the fees, and the two sides signed an agreement to go on the road on June 12.

The day before departure, Shen Mo went to say goodbye to his father, Shen He was busy transporting military rations, and when the two of them saw each other, he hurriedly took the team away, and the total did not say three words.

Then I went to say goodbye to Master Shen at the Taimen of the Shen family, Master Shen naturally said warm words of encouragement, and wanted to keep him for dinner, Shen Mo said that the eldest son's family had been prepared, so he went to Baoyou Bridge Street with Shen Jing.

When he arrived at the eldest son's house, he saw that he was already packing up, and asked silently, he was going to Hangzhou to buy salt, so he asked strangely: "We have three salt farms in Shaoxing, Qianqing, Sanjiang, and Cao'e, why do we have to go to Xixing to get salt?" ”

As soon as he heard this, the eldest son's tears almost fell, and he said in a muffled voice: "You don't care too much about our business, do you?" ”

Shen Mo smiled embarrassedly: "I'm a nerd who doesn't hear anything outside the window, don't be like me." The eldest son didn't love Naqiao as much as Shen Jing, so he told him that the salt introduced by Li Zhixian every month was not all from the Shaoxing Three Salt Farms, but also from Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places. In the past, this was not a problem, because there were people who specialized in purchasing and replacing salt, although they had to pay a lot of handling fees, but compared to the travel expenses of buying salt in other places, they always saved a lot.

It's just that now with the war, many salt farms have cut off their supply, or are in danger of cutting off supply, and those salt from all over the country have become hot potatoes from negotiable securities, and no one is willing to buy them. So the eldest son had no choice but to scrape together the Hangzhou Xixing Salt Yin that he had saved and prepared to go in person.

"If it doesn't work, forget it, safety matters." Shen Mo persuaded softly: "Rest for half a month first, and then talk about it when there is new salt in the next month." ”

"Don't worry." The eldest son smiled honestly and said, "I have already negotiated with the Yin family's Baotongyuan firm, and I will go with them...... As soon as people heard that it was our Sanren firm, they didn't want us for a tael of silver. ”

Shen Mo smiled and said, "Then I'll be relieved." ”

After lunch, Shen Mo was chatting with Shen Jing and the two, and the guy from the front store led in a small room and said, "This person said he wanted to see Shen Gongzi." ”

The little guy saluted Shen Mo and greeted him, Shen Meng revealed that he was a young man from the Yiheyuan pawnshop, so he asked him what he was doing, and the kid gave Shen Mo a burden, saying that his cold shopkeeper heard that Shen Gongzi was going to leave tomorrow and ordered him to send this.

Shen Mo knew in his heart that this must have been sent by the painting screen, how could there be a reason for a man to send a burden? He asked quietly, "Is your shopkeeper in good health?" ”

The little guy hurriedly replied: "Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, and it was bad a few days ago." ”

"Tell your shopkeeper that when I come back from Hangzhou, I will definitely visit." He smiled silently.

"Yes." When the little servant saw that he had no other orders, he bowed and withdrew.

As soon as the little guy left, Shen Jing came over to grab the burden, but was kicked away by Shen Mo, and said angrily: "What should I do if I don't see it?" Then he took the burden and Shi Shiran left.

After going back, I opened it and saw that there were two new Confucian shirts inside and out, one pure white and one royal blue, gently stroking this beautiful shirt, Shen Mo's recently quite desolate little liver, finally felt a little warm, he couldn't help but sigh lightly and said: "I don't know if it fits?" ”

The result fits perfectly, as if measured with a ruler.

On behalf of the 170 candidates who went to the examination, Shen Zhuoyan, who was wearing a white Confucian shirt in the new moon, drank the Zhuangxing wine of Lord Tongzhi, bowed deeply to the fathers and elders of his hometown, and stepped on the passenger ship to the provincial capital.

All the way to the provincial capital, but encountered a little trouble, it turned out a few days ago that there were Japanese robbers in Hangzhou Bay, the city was rumored, is strictly investigating and annihilating, not allowing outsiders to enter the city.

The candidates were in an uproar, and Shen Mo and Tao Yuchen went to negotiate, indicating that a boatload of people were all Shaoxing children who came to take the college exam, and the exam was going to be taken the next day, how could they not let us enter the city?

To put it mildly, the soldiers defending the city agreed to ask for instructions, and after a little while, they turned back and said, "Yes, but we have to search." ”

Shen Mo knew that this was nothing more than wanting some silver, so he took out ten taels of silver, stuffed it into the hands of the hundred households, and said with a smile: "Give tea to the brothers." ”

When the hundred households saw him on the road like this, they naturally no longer felt embarrassed, but just took people on the boat for a walk and let them go.

After entering the city, Tao Yuchen complained in a low voice: "Their officials have promised to let them go, what are you still stuffing money for?" ”

Shen Mo smiled and said: "Hades is better, the little ghost is difficult, if you don't give money, you have to grind you until midnight." ”

Tao Yuchen smiled: "That's not necessarily. But no more.

When they arrived at the dock, the children wanted to get off the boat and take a rest, and by the way to see where the beauty of paradise on earth was, but they were stopped by the soldiers at the pier and did not allow them to leave the dock. A grumpy shouted: "We all have a road guide to take the test, why restrict our freedom?" ”

The soldiers didn't eat that, and a captain laughed rudely: "This is Wang Ba's ass, regulations!" Whoever is not convinced will try it, and see if grandpa doesn't put you in a position of eighteen. "These Qiu Ba people have usually suffered the ridicule of scholars, but now they have finally seized the opportunity, and the other party has no fame, so they naturally want to take revenge and come back.

The exam is going to be taken early tomorrow morning, of course, no one wants to cause trouble, and the candidates have to turn back angrily, sitting or lying on the dock, and naturally there is nothing good in their mouths.

Tao Yuchen said indignantly: "How can you treat my generation of scholars as prisoners." ”

Shen Mo patted his arm, smiled and comforted: "We will turn back as soon as we finish the exam tomorrow, and we won't be idle here." ”

"That's all there is to it." Tao Yuchen sighed. His scholar moved over, invited his son to sit down, and untied his water bladder to ask him to drink water...... Accompanying the son to take care of the exam is the greatest responsibility of the scholar.

Shen An couldn't help but be dumbfounded when he saw that people were still taking Mazha when they went out, he came out for the first time, and no one taught him, except for helping his son get test kits and carrying bags, he didn't bring anything else.

He said in his heart that I was determined to be the first scholar in the world, how could I be left behind? He began to scratch his head and think of a way, and when he saw a pile of bricks in the distance, his eyes lit up, and he ran over.

After a while, he ran back and said with a smile: "Childe, you can sit too." ”

Looking at it silently, this guy wrapped six bricks in cotton cloth, resting in front of him, and couldn't help but laugh and scold: "Ass, two more books." ”

In the afternoon, passenger boats docked one after another, and all the children who came down were from Huzhou Jiaxing, Jinhua and other prefectures, as well as Ningbo and Taizhou, but the number was very small.

Silent they found a few people from Ningtai and Taiwan, invited them back to their side, and gave them a warm reception, and then began to inquire, how is the war situation in the two places?

As soon as they heard this, those candidates who were quite happy suddenly darkened their expressions, and a leading voice said astringently: "It's too miserable, they are all going to be bullied to death by the Japanese bandits, and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers can't beat thousands of them, but they have been attacked by them repeatedly, harming our people...... Several fishing villages have been robbed and killed by them, and the people are so frightened that they have taken refuge in the mountains, and no one dares to live by the sea. ”

"Tens of thousands of people can't beat them, thousands?" The examinees in Shaoxing didn't believe it: "Ten fights against one, can't you win?" "That's right, Tan Lun and Yu Dayou are all famous generals!"

Those candidates from Ningtai sneered: "Even if you dig King Kaiping out of the ground, you won't be able to win the battle!" "King Kaiping is the first brave general of the Ming Dynasty, and he often meets spring.

"Why is that? Could it be that the Wako is so powerful? The Shaoxing man asked strangely.

"It's true that the Japanese are powerful, but the key is that our Zhejiang soldiers are too bad." A grumpy snort: "When I saw that the situation was not good, I ran away without a shadow and had a fart fight!" ”

(To be continued)