For more than half a month after that, Ding Ziren basically stayed at home. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info chatted with his mother in the morning, and took care of the family's accounts together. The Ding family has thousands of acres of fertile land in the local area, as well as several mulberry gardens and bamboo gardens, so there are thousands of taels of income a year, all of which are taken care of by him and his mother. In the afternoon, I will learn martial arts with my father, and the Ding family is a martial artist, and the knife and marksmanship are quite proficient. Ziren has practiced diligently since he was a child, firstly to strengthen his body, and secondly, to prepare for the future battle to kill the enemy. When I have free time, I play with a few younger brothers, or go to the blacksmith Ding to learn how to make a three-eyed gun, and from time to time I help him build a bird gun, and my life is also fulfilling.

In the blink of an eye, in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Ziren and senior Zhu Guozhen packed up their bags and went to Hangzhou to wait for the township test list. At the same time, the two brothers Wenlong and Zhonglong also had enough fun in Wucheng County, and sent them back to the Shen family by the way. A few days after arriving in Hangzhou, the day of the release of the list was ushered in, as Ziren expected, Zhu Guozhen High School "Xie Yuan" ("Xie Yuan" is the first place in the new imperial examination, Tang Bohu Township tried the first place, so people call it "Tang Xie Yuan"). He is also on the list of 14th.

The next day, the two of them and Zhong Xiaolian (the person who was called in the township examination, commonly known as Xiaolian) participated in the "Luming Banquet" (a banquet stipulated in the imperial examination system, which began in the Tang Dynasty) presided over by the governor of Zhejiang. The Ming Dynasty followed, the next day after the trial release of the list in the township, the local governor invited the new imperial examination and the internal and external curtain officials, etc., and sang the "Book of Songs" in the "Deer Song" chapter, so it was called the "Deer Ming Banquet". After a night's rest, we set off for home.

As soon as the two arrived at the gate of the county seat, they found that the local magistrate had already sent someone to wait here, and directly invited Zhu Guozhen to the restaurant to say that they had important matters to discuss. Since ancient times, the township test Xie Yuan has been a popular Zhongjinshi, and the magistrates will take special care of him, and he himself has decided to go to Liaodong to abandon literature and martial arts, so he does not feel that he has been left out.

Ziren went straight home, and as soon as he entered the door, he found that his relatives and friends had already gathered together, and he was waiting for him to come back after setting up the banquet, so it was inconvenient to refrain and go directly to the table. Before the banquet, it is inevitable to have a wine conversation with relatives and friends, one will be dragged by their own uncles to drink, and the other will be pulled over by the seven aunts and eight aunts to say that they want to marry Zhang Luomen. After a banquet, I thought I was exhausted, and I was too strong to drink, so I went back to my room early to rest after the banquet.

The next day, Ziren slept until he got up to say hello to his parents, and found that his parents had not gotten up after a tiring day yesterday. Seeing that the housekeeper Ding Youfu was counting the congratulatory gifts sent by his relatives and friends yesterday, he went over to help count them together. Judging from the gift list, most of the gifts are silver taels and wine and meat, although the amount is not large, but it is also a piece of everyone's heart. Only his uncle gave him a pair of white fine iron armor, which was quite fine, and he must have spent a lot of money to hire a famous artist to build it. There is also the third uncle Dinkcheng, who is engaged in maritime trade, knowing that he likes firearms, and bringing a Japanese-made iron cannon (the Japanese name for a bird) from overseas. These two gifts are connected to the two three-eyed guns sent by Blacksmith Ding, which is the most worthy of Ziren's heart.

After sorting out the list of gifts, he found that his parents had also gotten up, so Ziren went to his parents' room to greet him. At the same time, yesterday I heard the uncle say that there will be a distinguished guest visiting in the past two days, and I want to inquire from the second elder who this distinguished guest is. However, this time, the second elder's tone was surprisingly tight, and it was inconvenient for Ziren to ask when he saw this scene. Then he called Youcai, brought an iron cannon, a three-eyed gun, and a Qijia knife, and rode out of the city to the southwest, ready to find a secluded barren mountain to try the newly received firearms.

The two went out of the city for more than 20 miles, found a sparsely populated hill, and saw that there was no one around, so they led their horses and went up the hill along the path to the south of the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, I found a slightly flat place and stopped. Youcai helped the young master tie up the horse, then took off the red rope he carried with him from the horse, and selected a few trees to mark them at a distance of thirty, fifty, and eighty steps, and prepared to use the trees as a target for the young master to test.

Ziren's side is not on the table for the time being. At this time, a carriage came along the north side of the mountain. Around the carriage, five riders with this sword in their hands surrounded the carriage and guarded it, and it was supposed to be a martial artist. In the carriage sat a middle-aged man in his forties, and beside him a woman in her thirties, who seemed to be complaining about something:

"I said to be in charge, where is this Ding family sacred? This time, we made a special trip to Huzhou Mansion to burn incense for your father in the Iron Buddha Temple, and pray for his early recovery. Why do you have to go around dozens of miles to Wucheng County, and you have to hide your whereabouts along the way, and even the magistrate doesn't know a word. ”

The middle-aged man heard the woman's complaint, and replied with a serious face: "Madam, it has been almost twenty years since you entered our Wei State Mansion, and this matter should be known to you." This Ding family is my Ming Tiger General Ding Dexing, after Ding Dexing's death, he followed my ancestor Xu Danan to fight in the north, before and after the saddle. After the death of Taizu, his descendants continued to follow the ancestor Xu Huizu.

In that year, Chengzu's "Jingnan" Yan division soldiers came to the city of Nanjing, and the king of the valley, Zhu Lu and Li Jinglong, opened the Jinchuan Gate and surrendered. Only Liezu led his troops to fight with Yan Shi, and the Ding clan people around him followed Liezu to kill the enemy desperately, until Liezu was captured before putting down his blade, and more than 100 men died in this battle alone. After Liezu was imprisoned, the Ding clan and my Xu family general had conspired to rescue him, but Liezu had no choice but to give up. After the death of Liezu, the Ding clan was also disheartened and applied for a transfer to leave Beijing to settle in Zhejiang.

Although the two families are hundreds of miles apart, they have never forgotten the love of the bloody battlefield together over the years. Since Jing Nan is a major taboo in our dynasty, most of them have exchanged letters over the years, and they dare not meet each other easily. Not a few years ago, when the pilgrimage was rehabilitated for Jianwen's loyal ministers, so I wanted to visit Huzhou this time. ”

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, he heard a sound on the side of the road, and then dozens of strong men with swords rushed out on the mountain roads on both sides, and one of the leaders was still holding a fire gun that had just been fired. Looks like this is a bandit.

The picture turned back to Ding Ziren's side, and as soon as the master and servant finished filling the bird gun, they heard a sound from the north of the mountain. At the moment, I felt that something was wrong, so I immediately packed up my weapons and climbed up the hill to check. I saw a group of strongmen besieging a carriage at the foot of the mountain, and a middle-aged man with five family members was fighting with the strongmen around the carriage. There are few people on the middle-aged man's side, but the martial arts are exquisite, although the number of strongmen is large, but they don't know how to cooperate, and after being cut down by a group of middle-aged men, they retreated and besieged without attacking. Ziren immediately expected that this was a robbery by a bandit, so he immediately called Youcai to let him rush to the official with two horses, and ran down the mountain with a bird gun and a saber.