The imperial court is anxious about the matter of Huang Taiji's claim to be the emperor, but Xi'an Mansion is a prosperous and lively scene. Since Zhu Jun opened the "government-run grain store" at the end of last year, grain prices have been quickly stabilized, and the official grain of 20 yuan a pound has become a lifeline for the people to tide over the difficulties, and many people are already bankrupt, let alone 20 yuan, and they can't even get a penny, but Zhu Yuanzhang distributed the silver taels he collected from the black-hearted grain merchants to the people, so that they can use the money to save an emergency first. And some taro will be purchased for planting next spring. In the spring of the ninth year of Chongzhen, after sowing early potatoes, these people could rely on this batch of grain to be self-sufficient, and they finally embarked on the road of happiness.

However, there were also several interesting incidents in the process of selling grain. A wealthy merchant from Hanzhong tried in vain to buy all the affordable grain from the government-run grain store, and then sell it at a higher price. Li Qingshui was furious about this and wanted to send someone to bring the rich businessman lock.

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped Li Qingshui's move, he said with a smile: "He wants to buy all our official food to speculate, so let him buy it, I don't believe it, with his own strength, he has the ability to compete with the power of the administration." On the ninth day of the first month, you go and bring all the grain we can transport, especially the old brothers in the four places of Baishui, Chengcheng, Dali, and Huanglongshan, and let them mobilize all their forces to transport potatoes, I want to see how much financial power this merchant has. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang's order reached Baishui, and the rich peasants in Baishui responded one after another, they had been planting potatoes for several years and had very rich planting experience, so the yield was higher than in other places. Moreover, Zhu Jun has an excellent mass base here, and as soon as he heard that he was going to fight an economic war with others, the rich peasants and squires here donated their own grain stocks one after another, and it was not long before Zhu Yuanzhang piled up millions of catties of potatoes in the Xi'an grain store.

The rich merchant from Hanzhong made a force to buy, Ma Zhixiong made a force to sell, millions of catties of potatoes were continuously transported away by the rich merchant, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were continuously transported, and after a month or two, the rich merchant finally went bankrupt. I can't buy it anymore. However, the grain storage of Xi'an Grain Bank is still full, and the price of 20 wen a pound has not moved at all.

The merchant's plan to buy the price was stillborn, and all the wealth of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver turned into potatoes, when he could no longer afford to buy them. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the price of potatoes in Xi'an Grain Bank to be reduced to 15 wen a catty. That's it. The rich merchant bought back potatoes not only failed to increase in price. The price has to be reduced. Only then did he know that he was afraid, and ran to Zhu Yuanzhang to cry, expressing his willingness to change his past. No more petty actions of stealing chickens and dogs.

After cleaning up this businessman, other businessmen naturally felt scared, and did not dare to do this kind of black-hearted business that harmed the people, and everyone began to do business in a proper manner. Zhu Yuanzhang strictly forbade any grain bank to transport grain to neighboring provinces for sale, grain was still a strategic resource in this era, and it was a matter of course for the official management of grain, and grain merchants did not dare to disobey.

Chongzhen nine years, May.

The front of Xi'an Academy was crowded with people, and it turned out that today was the day of Zhu Jun's "government examination" to open the imperial examination and recruit officials. Three days ago, the academy was surrounded by Zhu soldiers, after a few days of cleaning, the academy has been cleaned, the courtyard has built 30 rows of "small wooden grids", a row has 30 grids, a total of 900 grids, this kind of wooden grid is used for the exam, you can put a small desk inside, a stool, each candidate occupies a grid, during the examination in the grid to complete the examination papers, during the period is not allowed to come out.

If calculated according to the imperial examination system of the imperial court, the scale of this imperial examination is between the "government examination" and the "courtyard examination", and only the scholars in southern Shaanxi participate in the examination, including Xi'an and Hanzhong, which are a little higher than the government examination, but a little lower than the "provincial examination" as the unit.

Zhu Yuanzhang made it clear when informing scholars and students everywhere that anyone who was admitted in this exam could be an official!

When the scholars heard the news, they were quite happy.

If it is according to the system of the imperial court, if you pass the imperial examination, you can only be called "Xiucai", and "Xiucai" cannot be an official, and you have to be a person or a jinshi to be qualified to be an official, but here in Zhu Jun, you only need the level of Xiucai to be an official, which means that it is much easier to be an official for Zhu Jun than to be an official of the imperial court.

Therefore, many bold readers plan to try it, especially the squires in Baishui, Chengcheng, and Dali, who are even more bold.

On the day of the exam, there was a crowd of people outside the academy, all of whom were scholars, and most of them had a good family background, so they also brought scholars or slaves, and these many people were crowded together, as if they were rushing to the market. The crowd was bustling and noisy, and it was inevitable to discuss in private, and one scholar said to the other: "Yo, isn't this Brother Li from Chengcheng?" You're also here to take part in the imperial examination? ”

Brother Li smiled and said: "Who should I be, it turned out to be Brother Zhang of Dali, if you have the courage to come, I can't come?" ”

It turns out that these two people are children who failed the list, a few years ago the two of them participated in the imperial court in Xi'an to hold the hospital examination, the results were both unsuccessful, this time Zhu Jun opened the imperial examination, the two thought: the thief's imperial examination is estimated to be simpler than the imperial court, and once the examination is passed directly as an official, the step of the township examination, the meeting examination, and the palace examination is omitted, and the steps of the township examination, the meeting examination, and the palace examination are omitted, so they are bold to come.

Brother Zhang said in a low voice: "Brother Li, this thief's court exam, if you participate, you won't be able to run away from the crime of a bandit, brother, my family is not good, this time it is considered to risk your life to take the test, your family is well-off, and you also came to test this thing, I'm afraid it's a bit reckless, right?" ”

Brother Li also said in a low voice: "Brother, I have thought about it carefully, this Baishui Zhuba is not a simple commodity, the imperial court may not be able to take back southern Shaanxi from him, I can't imagine that he will occupy this place for ten years and eight years, if I wait for him to leave and then go to take the imperial court exam, but I am already old, even if I pass the official examination, it will not be interesting at that time......

"I see!" The two glanced at each other a few times, and they both felt that the other party had instantly become a lifelong confidant, and the two arched their hands together and discussed a plan: "If we are all successful, we will be officials together, and there will be a care in the officialdom." Or one of them, and the other person doesn't win, so it's not bad to be a master for the other party. ”

The two were discussing in a low voice, but they saw a middle-aged man next to him with a young man, who was whispering something, because they stood quite close, the two recognized it at once, the middle-aged man was the newly established Xi'an Grain Store, Ma Zhixiong of the Baishui Ma family, and the younger one was his son Ma Xinyu.

Ma Xinyu tilted his head and said: "The imperial examination of thieves, I said that I would not participate in anything, don't insult the book of sages I read." ”

Ma Zhixiong said with a dark face: "It's all here, you still talk back to me?" You have to give me a part today, or you won't recognize me as a father. ”

When Ma Xinyu heard this, he softened and lowered his head: "Dad, why do we have to come to participate in the thief's imperial examination?" You want to find a way to send the child out of Shaanxi, and the child will make some money and go to other places to participate in the scientific examination, and ensure that he will be admitted to the palace examination all the way, and the champion will come back for you to see. ”

Ma Zhixiong said in a low voice: "Dad's pair of tricks will not be wrong to look at people, being an official of the imperial court may not be promising, but being an official of Baishui Zhuba will definitely be promising, you listen to Dad's words, take the exam well, be a big official in the thief army, and in the future, our Ma family will rely on you to fly to the emperor Tengda." ”

Ma Xinyu obviously didn't believe it, and his face was full of confusion.

Ma Zhixiong pinched his shoulder and said: "If you are filial, you will take the exam well, and take the first case (the first place in the hospital exam is called the case head), if you want to anger your father, you will not pass the exam." ”

Ma Xinyu said helplessly: "How can a child be unfilial when he reads the book of sages? But it is disloyal to participate in the scientific expedition of thieves...... This loyalty and filial piety cannot be both, what should be done? ”

Ma Zhixiong saw that this son was stupid in reading, and couldn't help but sigh secretly, thinking: How shrewd I, Ma Zhixiong, actually raised a nerdy son, it's really ......

Although Ma Zhixiong has not learned much, he can still say a few coaxing words, and he said in a low voice: "In the Confucian "Book of Filial Piety", it is said that filial piety is taught, so those who respect the world are fathers; Teach to be a brother, so those who respect the world are also brothers; Teach the ministers, so those who respect the world are also ...... From this sentence, it can be seen that loyal ministers should be ranked after honoring their parents, and if they don't even honor their parents, there can be no loyal ministers. When loyalty and filial piety are difficult to achieve, of course, filial piety comes first. ”

Ma Xinyu said suddenly: "Father's lesson is that the child should go to participate in the scientific examination." ”

Ma Zhixiong breathed a sigh of relief, it was quite difficult to coax this nerd kid to do things. At this time, the examination room had opened, and the scholars and students began to pour into the academy, and Ma Xinyu followed the crowd to the inside, and the previous Brother Li and Brother Zhang were also mixed in the crowd. The servants brought by the scholars could no longer enter, and parents like Ma Zhixiong who came to see them off had to stay outside the examination room. The scholars let the soldiers check their bodies at the gate of the academy, and those who had a note were all expelled away, and it seems that the thief's imperial examination is quite strict, and he will not lose to the imperial court's examination.

When Ma Xinyu walked to the door, he was still chanting words in his mouth: "Teach filial piety, so respect the world's fathers; Teach to be a brother, so those who respect the world are also brothers; Teach the ministers, so those who respect the world are also ...... Well, the meaning of this sentence seems to be a little different from what my father explained. ”

He stood at the door and was in a dilemma, which annoyed the red lady standing at the gate of the academy, it turned out that the red lady was here in turn today, and brought a group of soldiers to check whether the candidates had any cheat sheets. She saw Ma Xinyu standing at the gate of the academy, neither coming in nor retreating, blocking the people behind her, she was immediately annoyed, and walked towards Ma Xinyu while saying angrily: "You guy, what are you doing standing at the door and blocking the way?" (To be continued.) )