Wanli forty-three years is a leap year, there are two Augusts, there is a proverb "leap seven is not leap eight, leap eight with a knife to kill", it seems that every leap August year natural disasters [***] are relatively more, not to mention others, this year's Hangzhou Township Examination alone is full of rumors, troubles, originally scheduled for August 30 in Wangxian Restaurant to hold the new imperial examination gathering, because of the 29 night of the Gongyuan turmoil and postponed to the second day of the eighth month of the leap - this day at noon, Chaotianmen Wangxian Restaurant, 120 new imperial examination people gathered together, greetings, During the feast, some people said that when the candidates received the papers yesterday, they were making a fuss saying that the papers were unfair and asked for a re-examination, and the new imperial examination people present were sneering at them, and these new imperial examination people were on the list of dragons and tigers, and looking back at those who had fallen into the ranks, they naturally had a great sense of superiority, and they could kindly have pity and sympathy for those who had fallen behind, but if those who had fallen behind wanted to climb them and drag them into the quagmire, then they would be decisively disgusted -- Zhang Dai sneered: "Grinding the examination papers, That's just to send the examination papers of the people we were admitted to the Hanlin Academy to be refuted by the ministers, who will grind the papers, there is no such rule - I wait for the three art halls to be upright, the marking officer, the room official, the deputy chief examiner, the chief examiner, and the main examiner, recommend it layer by layer, why not be afraid of picking thorns! ”

All the people nodded yes, and they were indignant and condemned those who spread rumors -- Zhang Yuanxin said: "This is instigated by Dong and Wang's forces again, and it is wishful thinking to want to re-mark the papers, and the imperial court in order to maintain the dignity of the examiners, even if there is an unfair situation of marking the papers, it will generally not be investigated, unless there is a blatant and extensive fraud, otherwise the loser will re-examine and re-examine as soon as he makes a fuss, and it will not be chaotic!" ”

-- According to Zhang Yuan's knowledge, Ai Nanying, a master of eight-stock literature in the late Ming Dynasty, participated in the examination during the Chongzhen period, and his house official Xiang Yu was extremely irresponsible, and only put Ai Nanying's first art circle in four lines and threw it into the pile of falling papers.

- Ai Nanying's craftsmanship is indeed good, and the official Xiang Yu is indeed sloppy in reading the file, but the imperial court did not condemn and punish Xiang Yu, but Xiang Yu's reputation was greatly damaged because of this incident.

Although the rumors are aimed at Zhang Yuan and Hanshe, they have an adverse impact on them, and the Dong family and the Wang family of Huizhou have offended the Zhejiang people of the Yimao family -- Wang Ruqian gave Zhang Yuan 10,000 taels of silver to Zhang Yuan and seemed to beg for mercy and reconciliation, but in fact, he harbored evil intentions, but Zhang Yuan gave it to the Hangzhou Nursing Home in the name of the Han Society. Now Zhang Yuan's prestige is far from being comparable before the township examination, Zhang Yuan with his four yuan Lianjie and the 28 stars of the Han Society on the list of dragons and tigers, proving his own talent and the talents of the Han Society, the people of the Han Society are even more heartfelt support, in the field of talking about the spirit of the Han Society has limited influence, only with the real imperial examination to promote the spirit of the Han Society, many new imperial examination people are asked to participate in the Han Society, Zhang Yuan is now the Han Society is trapped by rumors and refuses, the Han Society is now famous, the selection of members should be more cautious, so as not to mix the fish and dragons, and corrupt the social styleNow rumors are everywhere, if these people are absorbed into the Han Society, it will not be twenty-eight stars, but one hundred and eight days of gang, which is not good for the Han Society - this is said that after the banquet of the same year, a group of people went to the Wangxian Tea House near the Wangxian Restaurant to listen to Liu Jingting's story, this is a chartered venue, three days ago, Liu Jingting's market is bullish this year, if it is not booked, he can't be invited at all, and the book has also risen. I remember that last year it was priced at eight yuan, and now it is one or two, Zhang Yuan and Zhang Dai first went to visit him, Liu Jingting had already heard that Zhang Yuan was a good guy, thinking that Zhang Yuan was wide, and he would no longer take care of him as a friend in the market......

Wang Ruqian has moved out from the garden on the third day of August, Zhang Yuan immediately sent someone to clean up and clean up, the flowers and trees in the garden are intact, only the utensils in the pavilion have been removed, Zhang Yuan did not plan to live there, only let people buy some guan seats and a few cases, wine and food are transported from the city, the fifth day of the first month, Zhang Yuan invited the same year to all people to visit the garden - not tied to the garden on the West Lake Road, adjacent to the Yanggong Embankment, the whole West Lake can be seen in the high place in the garden, there is a small wharf in the garden, the boat can sail directly into the garden from the West Lake, the fame of the garden is red leaves and incense, There are thousands of maple trees with pentagonal leaves on the side of the garden near Yanggong Embankment, in the late autumn season, the maple leaves are red, standing on the side of the Yongjinmen City Tower, you can see the maple forest that is scorching like a flame, the people who visit the garden see the maple forest like fire from afar, they can't help but cheer, Zhou Menong smiled: "If there is a fate in the future, you can come here every autumn, the garden is seventy years, haha, I don't know how many people can be alive after seventy years?" Looking around, he said: "Maybe there are only three people, Qi Huzi and Zhang Sheshou brothers, the youngest of the others are over twenty years old, and if they want to live to be more than ninety or even a hundred years old, then from now on, they have to abandon their fame to seek immortals and ask, Ge Ling is not far from here, haha." ”

The crowd laughed.

……

Zhang Yuanchu said that the fifth day is to invite the same year to visit the garden, the seventh day of the first month is the Han Society Yaji, more than 100 Han Society colleagues walked through the Su Causeway together, the voice is high, high-spirited, this is said to be the Yaji is mainly to agree on the head of the Han Society Zhejiang 11 counties and the vice president of the society, because some of the members of the club are no longer suitable for the head of the company, the vice president, to leave their hometown to Beijing, can not manage the affairs of the branch, the head of the branch is in charge of the correction of the offer, the deputy director of the company to and fro, and there is a joint review of new members, so they have to choose another member to serve, Zhang Yuan solemnly asked the head of each branch, If such a thing happens, he will send a letter to the branches to expel the members who violate the rules and regulations from the Han Society, and the dismissed person will regret his reputation at that time......

It is precisely because there is a leap August, so the new imperial examination people do not need to be in a hurry to prepare for the entrance examination in Beijing, they also have to compile the "Yimao Zhejiang Township Examination of the same year", please preface the examiner Qian Qianyi, the same year record is arranged in the township list, a person occupies a page, the name, trade name, place of origin, wife, children, ancestors of the three generations of names, subject names, official positions, registered clearly, much more detailed than the later generations of university classmates, this "same year record" by the new imperial examination people themselves, by the political envoy Si Yamen out of the silver magazine engraved 300 copies, each person has a volume, All the examiners and the provincial, prefectural, and county yamen must also be retained -- the official bookstore engraved the "Records of the Same Year" very quickly, and the three hundred copies of the "Records of the Same Year of the Zhejiang Township Examination of the Yimao Branch" were engraved on the 13th day of the eighth month, one hundred and twenty pages, the paper is excellent, and the name of Xie Yuan Zhang Yuan is impressively on the first page, Zhang Yuan, the word Jiezi, the number Longshan, this number is taken by Zhang Yuan temporarily, there are many people in Shanyin who take Longshan as the number, Zhang Yuan is called Longshan, and others are only afraid of changing the number in the future, and the number is the atmosphere of the late Ming scholars. Generally, the students will take the number, call each other not by name, but by number, which is a symbol of status, the number can be taken at any time, this is very similar to the pen name of later writers, some writers have a pen name in their lives, and some pen names have several -- Zhang Dai also took a number for himself, called "Tao An", Zhang Dai's mother's surname is Tao, Zhang Dai was sick when he was young, often lived in his grandfather's house, and now he misses the Tao family courtyard, so he called himself Tao An, Zhang Yuan saw the eldest brother write the word "Tao An", and couldn't help but think: Will there be a beautiful and affectionate "Tao An Dream Memories"?

On the 14th, each room official returned to his own county, and the people from each house saw off their respective room teachers, and the parting remarks made a parting speech, and the friendship between teachers and students was strengthened -- since there were two Augusts, there were two Mid-Autumn Festivals, but the chief examiner Qian Qianyi untied the cable and boarded the boat at the canal wharf on the afternoon of the Mid-Autumn Festival in this leap August, and left Hangzhou to return to the capital, and one hundred and twenty new imperial examination people came to see off the teacher, Qian Qianyi naturally encouraged these protégés to work hard to prepare for the exam and strive for a successful examination next year -- Zhang Yuan was also among the send-offs, and he saw that Qian Qianyi had a gloomy color between his eyebrows. Qian Qianyi sent someone to summon him to meet in the Gongyuan, and the teacher and student naturally wanted to talk about the rumor-mongering case of Dong and Wang, Qian Qianyi wanted to close the case before he left Hangzhou, so that he could return to Beijing to report to the Ministry of Rites innocently and without worry, but he didn't think that the trial of the case was difficult, and Wang Lizhi didn't know who he had told him, not like he confessed in front of the Gongyuan in a panic, but insisted that it was his own rumor, saying that he had drunk too much wine and was talking nonsense, and it had nothing to do with Dong Zuyuan and Wang Ruqian. According to the procuratorate, Zhang Qilian believed in Wang Lizhi's confession, and privately advised Qian Qianyi not to compare the truth with this ridiculous drunkard, and the rumors stopped at the wise, and if the investigation was investigated, it would cause everyone to know about it, but it would damage the reputation of the Qing Dynasty -- Zhang Yuan sneered in his heart: "Zhang Qilian, this old fox, has a very good relationship with Dong Qichang, and this time I don't know how many benefits Wang Ruqian has received, and he actually fooled Teacher Qian like this. ”

Qian Qianyi couldn't stay in Hangzhou longer, he regretted that Zhang Yuan no longer pursued the case of Dong and Wang's rumors, if Zhang Yuan and his colleagues from the Han Society stared at this case, according to the prosecutor, he would not dare to bend the law too much, but Qian Qianyi also knew that Zhang Yuan was about to go to Beijing to take the exam, and he didn't have the time and energy to stare at this case, this rumor and framing seemed to be going to end like this, and at most Wang Lizhi would be sentenced to exile - Zhang Yuan knew very well that the officialdom of the late Ming Dynasty was all about ripping, talking about relationships, and being intertwined everywhere, if he went all out to pursue the case, It is bound to convict Zhang Qilian and other officials who have accepted benefits from Dong and Wang, and the best result of pursuing this case is to remove Dong Zuyuan's fame and exile Wang Ruqian, and it is impossible to eradicate Dong and Wang's forces at all, so he still decided not to pursue the case for the time being, and made every effort to prepare for the meeting in February next year.

(To be continued)