The prosperity of the capital still exceeded Zheng Xunrui's expectations.

One of the policies of the Ming Dynasty is very clear, that is, to hide the wealth from the people, which is also because Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was born as a peasant, once begged for food, and knew the suffering of the peasants, so after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he paid great attention to sympathizing with the people, regardless of whether the successor did a good job or not, but this is a basic national policy of the Ming Dynasty. Even the emperor will take out the ginseng in the palace and sell it.

The agricultural tax during the Chongzhen period is very low, and it is calculated according to the output of one stone and two buckets of grain per mu in the north, and the total tax is more than three cents of silver, which is equivalent to thirty-four cents, such a tax can not be regarded as high in the agricultural society, and this is the situation after many adjustments and increases, even so, the emperor will issue an order to exempt some places from taxes every year, when collected, the tax arrears are very high, the most typical is Chongzhen five years, the arrears of taxes reach a quarter of the national tax revenue, It was almost impossible for the imperial court to sustain itself.

This point is proved by historical researchers, the later Qing Dynasty taxes, far higher than the Ming Dynasty taxes, but some Donglin Party members, after the surrender of the Qing Dynasty, in order to whitewash the legitimacy of the Qing regime, indicating that the Ming regime must be collapsed, to find an excuse for their surrender, so in the compilation of some historical materials, it is said that the Ming Dynasty taxes are heavy, and even some extreme examples are cited, thinking that the government forcibly levies taxes and leads the people to rebel.

What really made the people desperate to rebel was the natural disasters that led to the outbreak of the peasant uprising in many places, not to mention paying taxes, not to mention that they could not eat, and the government was unable to provide timely relief to the people.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty is divided into the outer city, the inner city and the imperial city, from the Dongzhi Gate, the Xizhi Gate and the Desheng Gate can directly enter the inner city, but the people who come from outside to Beijing to catch the examination are generally the first to enter the outer city from Yongding Gate, Guangning Gate and Guangqu Gate and other places, and then enter the inner city from Chongwen Gate or Xuanwu Gate, as for the Imperial City, it is not ordinary people can enter.

Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu first came to the outer city.

In his impression, the outer city should not be so prosperous, but seeing is believing, on both sides of the straight street, there are many shops, restaurants, inns and green buildings, etc., and it seems that this place has not been affected by the invasion of the Houjin Tartars, perhaps because the people of the capital have forgotten about those things, anyway, they have not suffered any losses.

If you have a meritorious reputation, you can ride a horse in the outer city, but you are not allowed to ride a horse in the inner city, and the senior officials of the third rank or above in the imperial court can ride a horse in the inner city, but as for the imperial city, no one is allowed to ride a horse.

Accommodation must be in the inner city, because the capital of the Gongyuan in the southeast of the inner city, the test will be carried out in the Gongyuan, the time to enter the Gongyuan is the time to the hour, if you live in the outer city, it means that you don't want to rest all night, this is the taboo of the test, affecting the spirit of the candidates, but the first exam is also the most important.

The rules of the general examination and the township examination are the same, the time before and after the nine days, starting from the ninth day of the second month to the end of February 15, the participants must enter the examination room one day in advance, and they must be in the Gongyuan for eight days.

The total number of people who participated in the new imperial examination and those who failed in the previous list was about 2,500 people, but the number of people who could pass the examination was only about 400 people, that is to say, only 400 people could participate in the palace examination, and the competition was very fierce. The fourth to the sixtieth are the second grade, and all the back are the top three, the first three are given to the Jinshi and the first, the second is given to the Jinshi origin, and the third is given to the same Jinshi origin, and the common people will all become Jinshi with these gold list inscriptions.

When they were in the outer city, Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu and others were still riding horses, although the speed was not very fast, but it was still much faster than walking, they needed to enter the inner city as soon as possible and find a place to stay, it should be said that they came to the capital at this time, and the place to stay was not too easy to find, either it was a particularly high-grade restaurant, or it was an inn with too low grade, and the restaurant was too high-grade to cost a lot of silver, and most of the people were still a little reluctant, the inn with too low grade was a little cheap, and the reader had a good face. Reluctant to stay in such a place.

The inner city is more prosperous, and the streets are bustling with people.

Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu came to the capital at a time that is a bit special, the fifteenth day of the first month, this day is the most lively time in the capital light market, the light market is in the east of the imperial city, the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, when the sky is just dark, the emperor is to enjoy the lanterns with all the people, even if Emperor Chongzhen is particularly industrious and simple, this day is also to go out of the imperial city.

After everyone in the inner city of the capital, they don't have much heart to watch the prosperity of the capital, and their main task is to find a restaurant or inn to stay in.

The triennial examination and the palace examination are also the time when the business of the restaurant inn is booming, and the time between the palace examination and the examination is a little long, the examination will start on the ninth day of the first month of February, and the palace examination will be held on March 15, during which there is a gap of more than a month. This is enough to make the business of the restaurant inn boom for more than a month.

Many people from other places enter the capital as soon as possible, but also to be able to find a good inn, on the one hand, they can study their homework with peace of mind, and on the other hand, they can also make friends, after all, after entering the imperial court in the future, everyone is a colleague.

Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu's thoughts have long been different.

Zheng Xunrui needless to say, after Yang Tingshu experienced the matter of quitting the Ying Society, he looked down on the interaction between readers a lot, and sometimes this kind of interaction is not a good thing.

After walking in the inner city for more than an hour, Yang Tingshu's tired face turned pale, Zheng Xunrui didn't seem to have anything to do, as for Hong Xintao and the others, they couldn't see it at all.

I asked several restaurants and inns, but they were all full, although many shopkeepers knew that Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu were the ones who came to participate in the examination, they had no choice.

The restaurant inn attaches great importance to the lifting of people who go to Beijing to take the exam, if the title of the gold list is raised, the reputation of the restaurant inn will go out, which restaurant inn is more and more in the examination, the business will become more and more popular, if the champion lives in the restaurant inn, the fame is not to mention.

The restaurant inn also has a rule, if there is a high school champion among the people who stay in the hotel, then the name of the restaurant and the inn can be added to the Jinshi and the first floor or the plaque of the champion building, such a restaurant inn, often a few months ago is full of people who rush to take the exam, many people, who doesn't want to be stained.

"Qingyang, it seems that we are still negligent, most of the restaurants and inns are full, if we can't find a place to stay, it's really troublesome, or let's go to relatives."

"Don't worry, it's impossible not to find a place to stay in the huge capital."

Zheng Xunrui is reluctant to join relatives and friends, it is said that after he arrives in the capital, he can go to Wen Zhenmeng or Wen Zhenheng and others, these people are all officials in the capital, although the mansion is not big, but it is good to live.

Zheng Xunrui didn't come to the capital alone, and he was still followed by his entourage, in this case, it was even more impossible to join relatives and friends, Yang Tingshu's situation was better, but Yang Tingshu and Zheng Xunrui definitely wanted to live together, if everyone went to join relatives and friends, and six people were added to eat and live at once, ordinary relatives and friends could not bear it.

Until Shenshi, seeing that the lamp market was about to start, a large number of people had already gone out, heading in the direction of the lamp market, Zheng Xunrui and Yang Tingshu finally found a restaurant, the location here is a little remote, and there is no champion building or Jinshi and the second floor under the plaque.

There are also lifters who live here, but not many, probably because of the lifters who lived here before, and not many can be in high school, which makes most of the lifters not choose.

It's good to be able to find a restaurant, and after a group of people entered the restaurant, they opened two upper rooms and three plop houses.

Looking at the price on the wooden sign behind the display case, Zheng Xunrui could only shake his head and sigh, three taels of silver in the upper room, one or two silver in the ordinary room, one or two nights doesn't matter, but after a long time, the cost of accommodation alone will cost nearly 100 taels of silver, who can afford such a consumption level.

After settling in, when everyone came to the lobby, the guys immediately began to serve food, and the lantern festival was about to start, and most of the readers were going to see the lantern festival.

After eating, Zheng Xunrui went straight to the upstairs room.

Yang Tingshu followed behind and opened his mouth a little strangely.

"Qingyang, it's hard to meet such an opportunity, it's a pity not to go to see the Lantern Festival."

"Forget it, there is still some distance from the lamp market here, I paid attention when I came, the carriage was almost all hired, if we walked to see the lantern festival, I don't know how long, and it was very late to come back, so it would be more tiring, not cost-effective, Nanjing's lantern festival, you and I have seen it, presumably the lantern festival in the capital, there is not much difference, it is nothing more than more people."

"But the emperor also wants to participate in the Lantern Festival."

Zheng Xunrui looked at Yang Tingshu, with a wry smile on his face, and at this time he remembered that the thoughts of Zhongjun were in the minds of most readers, and the meaning of rushing to the Lantern Festival was that he wanted to be able to see the emperor, although he was watching from a distance, he might not even be able to see anything.