In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, the age is in Bingchen, on the first day of the first month, when the Ming Jingguan congratulated the emperor, Hetuala, the capital of Jianzhou Jurchen four thousand miles away in the northeast, a ceremony for Nurhachi's honorable title was also underway-

In Nurhachi's Yamen, a group of Nurhachi's sons and nephews Daishan, Amin, Mang Gurtai, Huang Taiji and other Beile led the Eight Banners and arrows to kneel in four rows, four corners and eight places, Nurhachi sat behind the big red table, and the Eight Banners ministers knelt to submit documents, and Nalan Bakshi, who created Manchu based on the Mongolian language, read out the documents, calling Nurhachi "the wise Khan of Fengtian to overlay the nations", the country name Dajin, the year name of the Mandate of Heaven, the Jianzhou Jurchens who had always submitted to the Ming began to openly break with the Ming Dynasty, showing their unruly fangs, and from the "Covering the Nations" These four words can see Nurhachi's ambition and arrogance, this year, Nurhachi was fifty-eight years old-

The news of the founding of the slave chieftain did not spread so quickly to Yanjing City, Yanjing City from the officials to the people are busy greeting the New Year, the officialdom of the capital New Year's greetings is quite special, on the first day of the first month, the officials will not stay in their own homes, but everywhere to congratulate colleagues, township officials, their own foyer will be placed paper books and pen inkstones, greeting guests arrived, only sign on the paper book, even if it is the New Year, of course, this only refers to the general friendship, good friendship or need to climb the friendship of course, to prepare a gift and wait for the face to face to gree, Shang Zhou Zuo as the supervision of the hundred officials of the left Yushi, There are still a lot of people to stammer, Shang Zhou Zuo's concierge refused to give gifts to the guests, if they are not right, how to monitor others?

Zhang Yuan in Beijing in addition to the fang teacher Yang Lian, senior brother Xu Guangqi and clan uncle Zhang Lianfang and a few other people need to congratulate, the rest is to gather with colleagues in the Han Society to give lectures, he originally planned to meet Mr. Liu Zongzhou with Qi Biaojia, Huang Ting, only to learn that Mr. Qidong had been dismissed two months earlier and returned to his hometown, at this time the court is the Zhejiang Party, the Qi Party, the Chu Party is in power, the Donglin Party is often excluded, Liu Zongzhou is not an official but just and outspoken, was scolded as the young Zhengmao of the Lu State, want to ask Shang Fang to punish him and then quickly, Liu Zongzhou felt that the group was small in the dynasty, When the party was about to be in trouble, he resigned and returned to his hometown, and since then he has begun his road of gathering disciples to teach-

On the third day of the first month, Zhang Yuan went to the outer house of Eunuch Zhong in Shichahai, Eunuch Zhong was not there, Zhang Yuan left a sticker and a gift and left, and the next day the small chamberlain Gao Qiqian sent Eunuch Zhong's reply and gifts, and said that he wanted to invite Zhang Yuan to drink, but considering that the spring is approaching, he will not disturb for the time being, and will congratulate Zhang Yuan after Zhang Yuan's gold list is titled-

Under the Danqi of the Qianqing Palace, from the twenty-fourth day of the first year of the month of the first year, the king of the stove began to put on the fireworks, and it has been put on the eighteenth day of the first month, and the fifteenth day of the first month is the day of the firecrackers, and the ministers and palace dependents are wearing the lantern scene complement python clothes, and look at the "strange flowers and fireworks" made by the internal officials and the gunpowder pharmacy, the patterns are Lanhui, plum, chrysanthemum, wood, narcissus, etc., fireworks, fireworks, this is called fireworks, the people outside the imperial city look forward to looking at the prosperous fireworks blooming over the palace city, and feel that our Ming Dynasty is still peaceful and prosperous-

On the day of the Shangyuan Festival, Zhang Yuan and his eldest brother Zhang Dai, Huang Zunsu, Qi Biaojia and several people in the Dalongfu Temple saw Bailing challenge Lin Fuqing, Zhang Lianfang's gambling color, each said a game, five games in a row, the first to win three games will win a hundred taels of silver, although the law of the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibits gathering people to gamble, but during the New Year's Festival, the curfew is open, this chess gambling is a good thing, who will care, Zhang Yuan has seen the first game of Lin five games of chess, Lin Fuqing attacked and killed sharply, once had an advantage in the middle game, but the second half of the game and the ability of the official is too strong, By closing the game, he forcibly pulled back the disadvantage in the middle game, and won four sons in the final game, and Lin Fuqing, who was arrogant before the game, was like earth at this time-

Shangyuan Festival to Dalongfu Temple or Daci Yanfu Palace with joy and prayer is the custom of the people of Jingshi Dongcheng, one is a Buddhist temple, one is a Taoist palace, the men and women of Dongcheng often worship the three Buddhas in Dalongfu Temple, and then go to Daci Yanfu Palace to worship the heavens, earth, and water officials, whether the Buddha or the gods, one by one will not be wrong -

In the afternoon, Shang Zhouzuo and his wife and daughter also went to Dalongfu Temple for a turn, Jinglan and Jinghui sisters saw the game of the two national players in Xiangfeng Hall and couldn't move, just when Shang Zhouzuo met Qi Chengjiao talking on the side, the two little sisters were on Zhang Yuan and Qi Biaojia on both sides of the protection to watch chess, Xiao Jinghui knew that Zhang Yuan was good at Go, and asked Zhang Yuan quietly: "Brother Zhang Gongzi, can you play them?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "They gave me four sons to go down." ”

"Ahh Xiao Jinghui exclaimed: "It's so powerful, Brother Zhang Gongzi wants to give me five sons, so wouldn't they want to give me twenty sons!" ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "It's not superimposed like this, they will also give Xiaohui nine sons." ”

Xiao Jinghui was happy, suddenly remembered something, looked around, and asked, "Brother Zhang Gongzi, what about the old monk who can beat people?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "I haven't seen it since it hit me." ”

Xiao Jinghui looked at Zhang Yuan's chest and said with a grin: "Is it that Brother Zhang Gongzi's chest is hard, but he broke the old monk's head?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled, and was about to speak, when he saw his brother-in-law Shang Zhouzuo beckoning to him, he walked over and bowed his hand to his brother-in-law and Qi Chengjiao, Qi Chengjiao said: "Zhang Gongzi is far-sighted, the previous year's "On the Establishment of the Old Slave General in Jianzhou" has been said, Fushun garrison Wang Mingyin yesterday said that there was a document urgently sent to the Ministry of War, saying that Nurhachi had established a country, and the slave chieftain was rebellious, vainly claiming to overlay the wise Khan of the countries, and the heart of not being a subservient was obvious, and Wang Garrison asked the Ministry of War for countermeasures——"

Zhang Yuan asked: "What countermeasures will the military department have?" ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "After the two generals, the joint department will discuss and see what kind of countermeasures to take, in my opinion, it seems impossible to send troops to conquer, the army moves, the military salary is often hundreds of thousands of taels, and the military department has no money and no food." ”

Zhang Yuan also knows that Nurhachi's climate has been completed, and the Eight Banners are strong, unless the Ming Dynasty now uses more than five times the opponent's troops to conquer, that is, to have more than 200,000 elite soldiers, otherwise it will not be able to win, but now from the emperor to the ministers, he has not yet felt the personal threat of Nurhachi, and it is impossible to gather the whole country's troops to recruit and suppress, and it is useless if there are fewer soldiers, so he will definitely not use troops, and he should issue an edict to reprimand Nurhachi's disobedience, which is the so-called severe condemnation-

Zhang Yuan said: "The border army is short of salaries and its armaments are not repaired, so it is not possible to send troops to conquer, but at least it is necessary to rectify the armaments and strengthen the defense." ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "The silver of the household and the two departments of the industry is beyond their means, so it depends on whether the saint can send the silver from the inner treasury." ”

Shang Zhouzuo on the side shook his head and said: "It's difficult, it's difficult, the emperor has to spend silver on the excuse that King Hui and King Gui have to spend silver, so how can he be willing to transfer silver from the inner treasury." He also said: "This time Shandong disaster relief, the household department asked the emperor to allocate 200,000 taels of silver in the inner treasury, the emperor refused, ordered to borrow the Taifu Temple horse price silver, Linqing rice to try relief, the household had to borrow from the east and west, and sent the Taifu Temple 160,000 taels of silver and 60,000 stones of relief rice, 60,000 stones of flat rice, and supervised the imperial history of the court training has left Beijing yesterday with money and grain, and rushed to Shandong, according to the Shandong governor Qian Shiwan's 12 famine relief matters, set relief regulations, extensive relief, advocate gentry to help, Shandong disaster victims should be able to get help, but the disaster in Henan is not light, The Emperor doesn't care—"

Zhang Yuan shook his head secretly, the courtiers of the late Ming Dynasty were also very funny, they had no other financial strategies, they stared at the emperor's inner treasury all day long, and asked for the inner treasury silver at every turn, reasoning that the emperor would be the emperor's tomorrow, why should the emperor save private money, but Emperor Wanli obviously didn't eat this set, and his wallet was very tight-

……

At the end of the first month, from Nanjing and thirteen provinces to Yanjing to participate in the examination of the lifters almost arrived, the twenty-sixth of the first month, the fifty lifters of the Han Society to forty-nine people, the remaining one will never come, halfway to the death of the disease, the tragic figure who fell on the road to the imperial examination is Cixi County's Quanwan City, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Dai and Huang Zunsu had visited him in Cixi in September last year because of the affairs of the Minxin Bureau, at that time did not see any illness in the city, only a few months, he died, which makes people sigh.

On the first day of February, the Han Society colleagues held the last gathering and lecture before the spring in the Dalongfu Temple, and then they each quietly prepared for the exam in the residence, before which they had handed over their official documents to the Ministry of Rites to verify their identity, and the Ministry of Rites will issue examination papers and set the seats in the examination room, the examination room will be in the Shuntianfu Gongyuan, only more than one mile away from the Lu Gong Temple on the bank of the Paozi River, Zhang Yuan and the eldest brother Zhang Dai had walked around the Gongyuan, this Gongyuan is larger than the Hangzhou Gongyuan, there are more than 10,000 houses, there are watchtowers outside the literary field, and the guards are strict-

On the seventh day of the first month of February, a large picture was posted in front of the dragon gate of the Shuntianfu Gongyuan, which is the seat map of the examination room, indicating the number of rooms between the east and west, which piece of the house belongs to which province The candidates first indicated, the candidates of the province will be in a hurry to find a seat everywhere in the huge tribute courtyard, Zhang Yuan asked the eldest brother Zhang Dai to see together, the candidates in Zhejiang are concentrated in the "Dragon Master Fire Emperor" to the "Vertical Arch Pingzhang" in the forty rooms, each number room has twelve rooms, look for the direction, and then find a seat, the chief examiner has been determined, it is the cabinet university scholar Wu Daonan, Wu Ge Lao and other promotion officials, the monitoring officer and the reading officer of the twenty rooms of the Five Classics entered the Gongyuan on the third day of the morning, sealed the key inside and outside the door, and did not allow private entry and exit, commonly known as locking the courtyard, and now waiting for the first exam on the ninth day of the second month of February——

The rules of the examination are basically the same as those of the township examination, and it is also the fourth watch day roll call, search, and admission, so after dinner on the eighth day of the second month, Zhang Yuan took a nap for half an hour, and made an art after getting up.

Zhang Yuan asked, "What is Xiao Hui laughing at?" ”

Xiao Jinghui said: "Brother Zhang Gongzi is going to put these books on the shelf, and he won't read these books anymore after he becomes a sergeant, right?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "That's right. "Baguwen is really tired, this kind of exam is really boring, I hope this time can be done with a battle, you can stay away from these current books in the future, but I don't know why, I feel that the eve of this scientific examination is too calm, the township test at that time there were also "once a flat step to the blue sky" twists and turns, the calm at the moment made him feel vaguely uneasy, accustomed to staying on the cusp of the storm, not something happened but uncomfortable.

Zhang Yuan walked out of the bedroom and came to the courtyard, and saw that the night was clear, and the crescent moon on the eighth night of the first month had turned west, and it was the time of the second drum.

Exam starts! Exam starts!

(To be continued)