In a few moments, the green onion noodles are ready.

Zhou Juan put a bowl of steaming green onion noodles in front of Li Hong, and said with a smile, "Lang Jun, this is your noodles." ”

Looking at the slender noodles in the bowl, the fragrant soup, and the fried green onions, Li Hong's appetite increased greatly, and he couldn't help but say, "Lady, can you put more green onions?" ”

"Ah——! No problem, you wait! Zhou Juan was stunned for a moment, then quickly walked into the stove, and walked out quickly and put half a bowl of fried green onions in front of Li Hong, and said very happily, "Yours!" ”

Li Hong saw that she treated herself so well, so he smiled at her. And she didn't say anything more, and successively brought the green onion noodles to the tables of Yan Zhuang and Chen Gong and the four guards, quietly watched Li Hong eat noodles for a while, and then went back to the stove to pack up her things.

After Li Hong finished eating noodles, he walked straight outside the store and found the young man squatting under a poplar tree not far away to read a book. He walked up to the young man and saw that the other party was reading a hand-copied copy of "Wu De Lu", but this hand-copied book was obviously a little tattered, but the young man held it in his hand and regarded it as a treasure.

Because the first printing technology was not invented by Bi Sheng until the Northern Song Dynasty, so now the Tang Dynasty still uses woodblock engraving printing, that is, the books that need to be printed are first written on the paper according to the required specifications, and then pasted on the planed wooden board according to the text to carve out the reverse characters of Yang, and then the ink is applied on the plate, the paper is laid, and the brush is printed with a brown brush, and then the paper is lifted up and bound into a book.

Because the carving has too high requirements for raw materials, hand-carved technology and printing, and the cost is very high, so this printing technology is not very popular in the current Tang Dynasty, only the official or the family has the ability to afford such a huge cost, so it is not a disciple of the family, it is difficult for ordinary people to afford to buy books to read, they can only borrow books from others if they want to read books, and then copy them by themselves. Therefore, Li Hong was not surprised at all that the young man in front of him regarded such a tattered manuscript of "Wu De Law" as a treasure.

Li Hong didn't bother when he saw that he was concentrating on reading, but sat on a stone next to the young man to bask in the sun. After a while, the young man who was tired of reading looked up and found Li Hong sitting beside him, his face showing a little vigilance.

Seeing that the other party seemed to have misunderstood him, Li Hong smiled slightly and asked, "You read the books on the law so seriously, do you want to participate in the Ming Law Department in your imperial examination?" ”

Candidates for the imperial examination in Datang can apply for the examination according to their chosen professional specialties, which are divided into Xiucai, Ming Jing, Kaiyuan Li, Sanchuan, History, Jinshi, Tongzi and Ming Law, Arithmetic, Calligraphy and other categories. Among them, the regular subjects are: Xiucai Branch, Ming Jing Branch, Jinshi Branch, Jun Shi Branch, Ming Law Branch, Ming Character Branch, Ming Arithmetic Branch, One History Subject, Three History Section, Daoju Section, Tongzi Section, etc. In the early Tang Dynasty, the requirements for Xiucai were extremely high, and few people could pass it, and Junshi was not often held.

"Hmm!" Speaking of the imperial examination, the vigilance in the eyes of the young man disappeared, and he said with a resolute face, "Alas! What a pity! This year, because I read too few books, I accidentally fell behind when I took the law exam, but I must be admitted next year, and I can't let my sister work so hard for me! ”

"I have a lot of books on the law at home, and if you like to read them, I can borrow them from you." Li Hong said in a calm tone.

He liked the momentum of the young man in front of him. Because it is indeed not easy for the children of ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty to learn by borrowing books and reading books, and to participate in the imperial examination. It's just that there is no problem with giving hundreds of books to the other party as Li Hong, but he didn't do it, he was afraid that when he said that he would give the books to the young man, he would intimidate the other party and make the other party suspect that he had any purpose or intention for sending books to him. After all, books are still very precious, let alone obscure books like the Law.

"What you said is true?" When the young man heard Li Hong say that he wanted to borrow a book for him, his vigilance against Li Hong had long been gone, but he was very happy, he hurriedly got up and bowed deeply to Li Hong, and said excitedly, "My name is Zhou Xing, I don't know what Lang Jun is called?" ”

Zhou Xing?

Li Hong's eyebrows moved slightly when he heard the introduction of the young man, he knew that there was a person who lived in Chang'an City, studied legal knowledge when he was a teenager, and when he grew up, he entered the officialdom and became a cool official of the Tang Dynasty called Zhou Xing, could it be the young man in front of him? Is he Zhou Xing, one of the two cool officials under the Empress Wu when he is in charge of the government in the future?

Li Hong hurriedly moved his gaze to Zhou Xing's face and looked at the other party carefully, seeing that Zhou Xing was a little nervous because of the matter of borrowing books, and was anxiously waiting for his answer, he was a little disappointed that he should not be ruthless and ruthless as a cool official at all, but when he thought about it, he thought that Zhou Xing in front of him was only seventeen or eighteen years old, and he was still a civilian child who only worked hard for scientific research, he was relieved, so he withdrew his gaze and replied in a somewhat stiff tone because he was not used to the title "I", "I, my name is Li Hong!" ”

Seeing that Zhou Xing did not guess that he was the prince of the Tang Dynasty because he reported his real name, Li Hong continued, "In the evening, I will send someone to send you the book!" ”

"Then I'll thank Lang Jun a lot! Today, Lang Jun's great kindness Zhou Xing can't be repaid, if Li Langjun has any dispatch in the future, please give an order, as long as Zhou Xing can do it, he will definitely refuse! Zhou Xing bowed again excitedly. It was satisfying to be able to borrow a book to read him, and how could he not be happy or excited to be able to borrow a book to read it? Because as long as he had more books on the law for him to study and copy, he would be more confident about next year's imperial examination!

"Lang Jun has a collection of laws at home, so you must also be a child of a big family, right?" Because Zhou Xing was happy, he lost his vigilance and restraint just now, and began to talk happily with Li Hong.

"Not a ——!" Li Hong said lightly, and naturally changed the topic and asked, "What do you think of the children of the family?" ”

Since the beginning of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system has officially become the country's official election system, until the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the scholar gate valve has always occupied a pivotal position in the court. In addition to controlling the selection and recommendation of officials, they also occupy high positions to control the government and influence the change of dynasties. Just like Emperor Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty took the Dugu clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty and established the Sui, it is a typical gate valve to replace the royal family. And Tang Gaozu Li Yuan replaced Sui Jiantang because of the excessive power of the Shi clan.

Therefore, in the Sui and Tang dynasties, whether it was Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian or Tang Taizong Li Shimin, in order to consolidate the state power, they had vigorously cracked down on the gate lord clan, and spared no effort to promote the poor people.

However, because the shortage of books hindered the spread of knowledge, the children of the poor family had no money to buy books to read, and reading became a privilege only enjoyed by the children of the family, even if Emperor Wen of Sui initiated the imperial examination, Tang Gaozu and Tang Taizong had vigorously promoted it, but still did not achieve much effect.

Therefore, the gate valve system blocked the road of the children of the poor family, and over time, the confrontation and hatred between the scholars and the Shu clan were formed!

Zhou Xing belongs to the children of the poor family through and through, and naturally has no good impression of the Shi clan, and because of the bad behavior of the children of the royal family bullying men and women in the small shop just now, he is even more resentful of the children of the family, plus he is young and vigorous, and out of a good impression of Li Hong borrowing books to him, he does not have too many scruples when he speaks, so he said indignantly, "It's just a group of gentlemen, relying on the power of the family to run rampant and domineering, and they can be added to the rank and rank without learning and ignorance, but they are just a group of corpses and vegetarian meals, they should be killed!" ”

Li Hong was silent after listening to Zhou Xing's words quietly.

Whether it is the children of the official eunuchs who "have a five-flowered horse under the crotch and wear a golden fur", or the children of the family who "ride a horse and lean on the bridge, and the building is full of red sleeves", they have indeed fallen into unbearable use. If the Tang Dynasty wants to become more powerful in the future, and if it wants to continue the prosperous scene of "Zhenguan's rule", it has to solve the big problem of confrontation and hatred between the clan and the Hanmen. Because now the scholars of the Tang Dynasty have hindered the advancement of the children of the Han family, and the children of the Han family have hatred for the children of the Shi clan, and the contradictions between the two have intensified.

This point is vividly and exquisitely displayed from Zhou Xing's words.

It is no wonder that there is such a clause in history when evaluating the merits of Empress Wu: it is said that she was politically clear when she was in power. Mainly because she advocates science and is able to use people exceptionally. It is said that during her reign, the scientific system was further developed, and the palace examination and martial arts were established. Through the imperial examination, bootstrapping and the recommendation of others, a group of outstanding talents were selected and became the mainstay of the Wu Zhou regime.

Now that Li Hong had personally experienced the contradictions between the soldiers and the sons of the Han Sect, he finally understood why Empress Wu would win many battles with Gaozong and later the Li Tang clan.

It is precisely because she saw through this that she took advantage of the contradiction between the children of the Han family and the clan gate lords to vigorously promote the children of the Han sect and let them deal with the gate valve clan who thought she was from a low background and was unwilling to let her interfere in politics.

It is no wonder that the previous Li Yifu and Xu Jingzong, as well as the later Zhou Xinglai Junchen and others were willing to work for her, but she obeyed her life, and did not hesitate to let her hands be stained with the blood of the Li Tang clan and the children of the Shi clan.

Because Empress Wu gave them a road to the official career, and gave them the hope of such a poor family to climb up!

Thinking of this, Li Hong suddenly knew what he should do.

He plans to immediately print a large number of books, reduce the price of books, try to make the children of poor families can afford to buy books, read books, and then reform the existing imperial examination system, and gradually improve the imperial examination system, so that the imperial examination becomes the only standard for the Tang Dynasty.