Outside the west gate of Changsha from Yongzhou Wharf to Fish Wharf along the river, it is undoubtedly the most lively and prosperous place in Changsha City now, smoking and gambling halls, brothels abound, and even in this place where the folk customs are conservative, several Western-style western-style buildings can be seen standing on the side of the street along the side of the newly built street of Xiangjiang, which adds this modern atmosphere to the ancient city of Changsha. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Two years ago, the iron ships of the Huguang Steamship Bureau sailed into the Xiangjiang River through the Yangtze River and berthed at the wharf outside the West Gate, which immediately brought changes to the city and Hunan, which is close to the Yangtze River, has Dongting, and has the four major water systems of Hunan, Zi, Yuan, and Li. Compared with the old-fashioned wooden boats, people had to go out of the city, or travel, or visit relatives, or go to other places to do business or study, and the fast steamship really became the best means of transportation. Under this demand, under the control of the Huguang Steamship Bureau, Changsha's shipping industry is naturally quite developed, and the development of the shipping industry has also made the wharves outside the West Gate more and more prosperous.

Diagonally opposite the wharf, there is a Western-style red brick three-storey small building, which is different from the Western-style buildings in the wharf area, which were built by most of the Huguang government-run enterprises, but this Western-style western-style building has a bronze plaque of "Hunan Branch of Beiyang Trading Company", and even a sign of "Changsha Branch of the Bank of China". Obviously, this is the base camp of the famous "Northeast Department" in Hunan.

Trade and banking, in the past year or so, have been the foundation of the northeast's expansion into the hinterland, and the two complement each other, even in this remote hinterland, it has also grasped a certain market share. In addition to the young people from the countryside who wore hats and carried a flat burden on their shoulders, there were also a few people wearing other costumes who were looking around at a notice on the wall -- "Enrollment Guidelines for the Changsha Branch of the East Asian Tongwen School."

Although the Dong-A Tongwen Hall, which was invested by the Education Commission of the former Unified Supervision Office, was established in Hankou two years ago, it was not until this year that it was established in Changsha. The school opened in this conservative place, and its opening time was even later than that of the Chengdu branch. At this time, this enrollment brochure has attracted many young people, and the reason why it attracts them is not because of the exemption of tuition fees, food allowances, or even the promise of allowances. After all, the Huguang Academy also has the same conditions. He even promised that after passing the examination after graduation, he could be awarded the title of Seven Grades.

Compared with the Congqipin of Huguang School, this Tongwen School is a little insufficient, and after graduation, at most it is only qualified to enter Northeastern University or Tongwen College. However, despite this, this enrollment brochure still attracts many people, and what really attracts these young people is probably that the threshold for enrollment is extremely low, which is different from the university hall that requires talents to be famous and above to apply for the examination. The requirements for Tongwen schools are very low - anyone under the age of 18 can apply for the examination as long as they pass the children's examination.

Bumpy along the way, Cai Genyin, who came to Changsha for the first time, followed his brother of the same clan, and his brother looked at the low threshold on the brochure, and was greatly moved, but what he saw was the mention in the brochure that "those with excellent graduation grades can sign up for the public international student examination", although there are also public international students in Huguang Academy. But after all, its quota is extremely limited, not to mention, and more importantly, Cai Genyin has not yet achieved fame. This means that if he wants to apply for the Huguang Academy, he will have to wait until next year, that is, after he has achieved fame in Xiucai this year.

In contrast, if you apply for the same language school, you may have already obtained the qualification to study abroad by this time next year. Compared to other provinces. Hunan's folk customs cannot be said to be conservative, but this conservative folk customs have been affected by various impacts in the past year, especially the emergence of a newspaper office, which has slowly changed the original conservative folk customs.

Even Cai Genyin, who is only twelve years old, has now accepted Western learning like many young people. In contrast, Cai Genyin went further, he hoped to study abroad and see what the Western world was like.

"Cousin, what do you think?"

Cai Genyin looked at his cousin beside him and asked softly.

Although he knew that this Tongwen School was by no means the same thing as Huguang School, and he would not even give him a title after graduation, Cai Genyin was still a little moved.

In a person's life, he is always faced with too many choices, although he is young, but Cai Genyin finally chose to sign up, compared to the fame of Xiucai, the West is full of temptation for the young Cai Genyin.

On this morning, at the gate of the newly built Changsha Tongwen School, there was a road sign with the words "Tongwen School Examination Room" with an arrow. Next to it, there is also a "Notice of the Examination Committee of Tongwen School". The first thing to do in the exam is the essay, and the topic of the essay is very ordinary, although it is different from the eight-strand essay, but it is still related to the current situation, and it is nothing more than an essay on the reasons for the decline of the country. On the second day, mathematics was examined, and mathematics was also not too complicated. In fact, in the coming year, the most important study in school is mathematics and foreign languages, after all, their articles are "enough", but mathematics, especially foreign languages, do not meet the qualifications of college students at all. And after the examination on the third day, the most striking oral examination begins.

There are tables at the entrance of the examination room, and like many candidates, Cai Genyin is also standing outside the door and waiting in line, and the staff will call one for each one and enter one according to the roster, and the others can only look at the candidates who have been named one by one with excitement and unease.

What these students didn't notice was that when they were in line, there would be two teachers in the distance on the list, and if you pay a little attention, you can see that those students who are marked are all cutting in line, and their actions will cause them to be deducted a certain amount of points.

I don't know how many students who want to apply for this school are deducted points because of this detail and miss out on the same school. It wasn't until some of them were admitted to the school that they learned from their teachers that many of the students with the best grades had lost their chances of getting into the school.

"Is queuing really that important?"

At the end of the military training, taking a sip of tea, Cai Genyin asked the captain next to him, Fan Yuanlian, who was 7 years older than him, he was exactly 18 years old this year, and if he was next year, he might miss out on this school. In the previous military training, he could not but be shocked that the queue he learned from the instructor had caused nearly half of the students who passed the exam to fail.

“…… Whether members of a society are good at queuing depends on the society's perception of justice. If in real life, you find that many people can get what you want without queuing, will you still be willing to queue up honestly? If you don't "run for office," you won't get promoted, and if you don't "operate," you won't get promoted. Who's going to queue up? ”

Faced with his friend's question, Fan Yuanlian did not repeat the words of the previous instructor, but said it according to his own understanding.

"Don't talk about order, don't talk about rules, I think, the biggest disadvantage of not queuing is precisely this. You see, in this officialdom, I don't know how many officials are aiming to cater to the officials in order to get promoted, and how many people in the officialdom are willing to wait for promotion based on their political achievements and qualifications? Officialdom is still like this, not to mention other places, queuing is just a matter of queuing, but to put it more seriously, cutting in line will cause honest people to always suffer a scene from time to time. Eventually, everybody will become dishonest......"

After a short pause, because he was 7 years older than Cai Genyin, Fan Yuanlian had his own thoughts and opinions on many things.

"If you don't do things according to the rules, you will hit a wall everywhere, and if you do things according to the rules, you will go smoothly everywhere, so who can not go to the queue? And more importantly, how many people are willing to queue up who are not people of the rules, and how many people who cut the queue are not speculative and slippery? Today is just a small matter of queuing. But if he enters officialdom in the future, what will happen with his temperament? I think that's the root cause of their elimination! ”

The friend's explanation made the young Cai Genyin nod approvingly. Many seemingly unintentional small actions will really expose a person's temperament.

"What Brother Jingsheng said is extremely true, and it is this truth to look at the big from the small. It is true that queuing is fair, as the teacher said, and it is a reasonable way to deal with unnecessary competition. ”

Looking at the few instructors hiding in the shade of the trees, they were not full-time military instructors, they were all high-talent students of the same academy. In the coming year, they will work with foreign faculty to teach students in subjects such as mathematics, foreign languages, and science.

The so-called unnecessary competition in Cai Genyin's mouth is actually a concept instilled in them by these teachers -- the reason why the Chinese people are scattered is precisely because their lives are full of such unnecessary competition, in order to get out of the way. Chinese people are always looking for shortcuts in every possible way, and in the so-called shortcuts, the suppression and trampling of colleagues are inevitable choices, and excessive internal friction is depleting the vitality of the country little by little. And the saddest thing is probably that the Ming Dynasty was precisely because of the internal friction generated by this unnecessary competition, which led to the collapse of this Han dynasty, and then allowed the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which had no hope of entering the Central Plains, to enter the Central Plains and enslave China for more than 200 years.

"Maybe!"

Sitting under the tree, Fan Yuanlian glanced around, looked at the students who were resting around him, and thought of some information he got from the instructor after entering the school.

"Tongwen College, Northeastern University, Northeast Political Science and Law School, Northeast Police School, well, and the Army and Navy Officer Academy, Lin Lin has finally calculated, after we graduate next year, I'm afraid there will be more than a dozen schools to choose from, Gen Yin, do you think that school will have the most applicants?"

Fan Yuanlian had a smile on his face when he asked this question, but the smile seemed meaningful. Among all the classmates, Cai Genyin is undoubtedly the youngest, but Fan Yuanlian did not despise him because of his youth, and even in his opinion, Cai Genyin is a classmate worth befriending, because of other reasons, just because of his youth, this alone is destined for his future development prospects far better than other classmates.

"Which school has the most people?"

Cai Genyin was stunned for a moment, and then immediately said with a smile.

"It should be Tohoku University, after all, he is the largest ......"

Like others, in Cai Genyin's view, since Northeastern University is the largest school among these universities, it naturally has the largest number of students, and of course the most people apply for the exam.

The friend's answer made Fan Yuanlian smile slightly, although after entering the school, he admired Cai Genyin very much, but he was still too young after all, and there were some things that he still couldn't see through.

"I don't dare to say anything else, but here we are, in Hunan ......"

Standing up, Fan Yuanlian looked at the classmates of different ages around him, looked at the energetic faces, and said with great certainty.

"At least more than half of them will choose political science and law schools next year!"

School of Political Science and Law?

Fan Yuanlian's words made Cai Genyin slightly stunned, for him, all he hoped was to get the opportunity to study abroad provided by Tongwen School, and he really didn't seriously consider choosing that school.

Why is that? Why do they choose political science and law schools? ”

Cai Genyin did not directly say what he thought, but asked the reason.

"Be an official!"

The corners of Fan Yuanlian's lips lifted slightly.

"Didn't you listen to the instructor, most of the officials in the Northeast are from political and legal schools, and if you want to be an official, studying in a political and legal school is the first step!"

Fan Yuanlian's words made Cai Genyin stunned, indeed, for scholars, their greatest desire in life is to become an official and shine on the lintel, and even together with their own hearts, Weitang does not have such hope.

"Being an official, being a big official, for thousands of years, it has been like this, Gen Yin, maybe you don't know that if you can be admitted to the political and legal school, it will not only be the door of officialdom in the northeast that will be knocked on at that time, it can be said that the door of officialdom in all of China can be knocked on, do you know why?"

"Why?"

Although he took the initiative to ask, Fan Yuanlian did not answer this question directly, but asked rhetorically.

"You see, what kind of officialdom is our official, who doesn't scrape the ground and doesn't smoke big cigarettes, he is already a good official, and the standard of a good official is so simple, but what are the benefits of this kind of official and the country? With such an official, how can those adults compete in the Central Plains in the future? ”

After a few questions in a row, Fan Yuanlian looked at the teacher in the distance and suddenly said with a smile.

"What kind of officers do they need? In the past, there was a saying that this kind of person could be met but not sought, but, Gen Yin, do you know that the political and legal schools in the Northeast are like some schools in the West, and they can graduate hundreds of such capable officials and virtuous officials, so as long as you are admitted to the political and legal school, you can't be an official in the Northeast, and when you get to the Guannai, there will be people vying to use you. ”

Regard the political and legal schools in the Northeast as the way to advance to the imperial examination, I am afraid that this is the ability of the Chinese people to turn magic into decay, but in Fan Yuanlian's view, I am afraid that things are far from being so simple, at least not as simple as others imagine. Thinking of his choice, Fan Yuanlian turned the conversation around again and asked.

"Gen Yin, what about you? Have you considered applying to that school when the time comes? (To be continued.) )