Xiao Jiading froze, and when he looked back, it was the chubby young scholar who was yelling for Zhong Wenbo to drill the gutter, and he quickly chased after him with a few servants.

He was among the onlookers just now, but he didn't greet him, but followed him for a while before talking, obviously, although he had a prejudice against Zhong Wenbo, he didn't want people to know that he was on Xiao Jiading's side. At that moment, Xiao Jiading stood with a smile and looked at him, seeing that he was wearing brocade, very luxurious, at first glance, he was the son of a rich family, and after he came over, he arched his hand and said: "Is there something wrong with Brother Tai?" ”

The chubby young scholar said: "The younger brother's name is Zhu Haiyin, he is the scribe of the county government, I just saw you defeat Zhong Wenbo, the first talent in Yizhou, it's really happy." Your poetry is really good, I admire it very much, and I want to invite you to go to the Jade Building to drink together, I don't know if Brother Xiao is willing? ”

When Xiao Jiading heard this, as he expected, this fat scholar was indeed on the wrong path with Zhong Wenbo and even had a grudge. I heard that this fat man was actually a scribe of the county government, and seeing that he was dressed in high-end clothes, he must be very rich, why did he go to the yamen on an errand? I really can't figure it out. Now I want to go to the county office, and I will inevitably meet in the future, so it would be best to get to know him now. However, he just rejected Na Ya Niang's invitation, and now he is going back, a little bad, and then it is still unknown whether he can enter the Yamen as a scribe, but he does not have to be too anxious to get to know the colleagues of the Yamen, and he arched his hand at the moment: "It is really an honor for the little brother to meet the playboy, thank you very much for the invitation of the playboy, but I really have something to do tonight, why don't you do it another day?" ”

"Okay? Where does Brother Tai live? I'll look for you tomorrow. ”

Xiao Jiading thought to himself, he had already told Du Erniu that he would meet at noon tomorrow, and then he should know if it was possible for Lu Dao to enter the yamen, if not, maybe he could find a relationship through this fat scribe, and smiled at the moment: "I am temporarily staying in Yizhou Inn." ”

"Good! Then say well, I'll come to you tomorrow night! We've got it. ”

"Okay!"

After Xiao Jiading and Na Zhu Haiyin said goodbye, they returned to the inn. I'm waiting to meet Du Erniu the next day to see how this little girl helps.

I slept very soundly until the next day, when I woke up. Called the shopkeeper Li San, washed with water, ordered a plate of refined breakfast to eat, and then asked him to go to the most luxurious Yizhou restaurant near the yamen to help him book a clean seat. He went shopping yesterday and had already memorized some of the main buildings in the city, so there was a luxury restaurant opposite the county government in Zhilu Road.

Seeing that it was almost noon, he wrapped two pieces of money around his waist, and deposited the rest of the money at the inn counter shopkeeper, and then paced out the door.

He came to the Yamen of Shaocheng County, and now the Yamen has dispersed, and there is no one in or out of the Yamen, and the two gatekeepers are sitting lazily on the stools, chatting without a word.

He looked around to see if Du Erniu was here, but heard a surprise cry from behind him: "Young Master Xiao!" ”

Xiao Jiading turned around and saw Du Erniu standing not far away, and there was a white-haired old man beside him, looking at him scrutinically.

Du Erniu ran over, looked him up and down, and said, "You are really a scholar, you were dressed like this yesterday, they are afraid that they won't dare to bully you so fiercely." He pulled the old man over and said, "This is my grandfather." - Grandpa, he is Xiao Gongzi, he is very righteous and talented, you must help him! ”

The voice was full of coquettishness, and it seemed that this Du Erniu was very doted on by her grandfather.

Xiao Jiading already learned from Du Erniu that her grandfather's name was Du Dayin, and he was a retired old scribe in the county government, and it was also the key to whether he could enter the yamen to find an errand. hurriedly stepped forward, with a smile on his face, and bowed to the ground: "Late Xiao Jiading, meet grandpa!" ”

Du Erniu listened to his affectionate call, and liked it even more, holding Du Dayin's arm to see his reaction.

Du Dayin also smiled, nodded frequently, and said, "Brother Xiao doesn't have to be polite!" ”

Xiao Jiading said: "I booked a seat in Yizhou Restaurant in my later life, and invited my grandfather and the second girl to have a glass of water and wine, I don't know if the two of you are willing to appreciate it?" ”

Du Erniu couldn't help but be overjoyed when she saw that Xiao Jiading was so good at doing things, and quickly shook her grandfather's arm, and said in a loud voice: "Go!" It's rare for Xiao Gongzi to have a heart, grandpa, let's go! ”

Du Dayin patted the back of her hand dotingly, and said, "Okay, then bother Brother Xiao." ”

"Where to say, I heard that Erniu said that her grandfather is a decades-old veteran of the Yamen, and it is an honor to be able to listen to her grandfather's teachings in person in her later life! This side please. ”

At that moment, the three of them entered the restaurant, Xiao Jiading reported the private seat he had booked, and the shopkeeper hurriedly led them inside.

This Yizhou restaurant is also one of the most luxurious restaurants in Yizhou, so almost all the guests here have some status, and most of them are scholars.

When they passed the lobby downstairs, they heard a table of scholars in the lobby talking excitedly while eating wine, and a scholar said: "You didn't see the embarrassment of Zhong Gongzi yesterday, hahaha, it's the first time I've seen him so embarrassed, it's really funny." ”

Another scholar was full of envy and jealousy, and said, "Then what kind of scholar who meets friends with poetry can really become a poem in seven steps?" ”

"Of course, in front of everyone's eyes, so many people have seen it, can there be a fake? People asked Zhong Gongzi to come up with the question, he wrote poems on the spot, the three capitals are like this, think about it, that Zhong Gongzi is the first talent in Yizhou, how can he rub sand in his eyes? But I can't find fault at all. In the end, he was cheeky enough to take out the Zhaojun poem that he had won the championship in the Jade Building, and wanted to turn defeat into victory, but Xiao Gongzi made a seven-law long poem in seven steps! The poem was too long, and he only read it once, and I couldn't remember it, but I only remembered two of the most brilliant lines: 'Once I went to the Zitai Lianshuo Desert, I left the green mound alone to the dusk',—— how vivid and touching was the description of Wang Zhaojun's misery? All the people on the spot, including the ** Oiran Yaniang girl, all agreed that Xiao Gongzi had won. Hey, hey, hey."

Another scholar said: "Such a good poem, it's a pity that it wasn't copied, I really want to read it." ”

"This is easy to do, Miss Yaniang is born with a good memory, she only listened to the long poem of the seven laws once, she remembered most of it, and copied it down, and said that Xiao Gongzi had promised to rush Ming'er to meet Miss Yaniang, and then she could make up for it. Most of what she wrote down was copied by many people. ”

"Did you copy it?"

"Me? Which green onion am I? How can I meet with Miss Ya Niang, all of which have not been copied. However, I believe that this poem will be circulated after Xiao Gongzi is completed, and the three poems in front of him, especially the three poems of the second and the ground, are also just as wonderful, I don't remember well, I can't remember, I only remember that one of them is 'But so that the host can get drunk, I don't know where it is' - listen! Listen up! In another country, as long as there is wine in the cup, you can forget your homesickness, get drunk to the heart, and the other country is also your hometown! This Xiao Gongzi is a complete drunkard! Hahaha! ”

"This Xiao Gongzi is the dragon and phoenix in the real person, but he is not his honorable name?"

"I remember this, he said his name is Xiao Jiading!"

When these scholars said this, Du Erniu and they had already walked halfway up the stairs, and when they heard this, they all stood still, looking at Xiao Jiading, their eyes full of inquiry. Xiao Jiading smiled and shrugged.

Du Dayin and Du Erniu glanced at each other and smiled. Du Erniu was even more excited, and directly grabbed Xiao Jiading's arm and went upstairs with him. The three of them came to the seat. After the guests were seated, Xiao Jiading instructed the shopkeeper to have a table of exquisite banquets.

After he finished arranging the banquet, Du Erniu was the most anxious, shaking Xiao Jiading's arm and saying excitedly: "What the scholars downstairs said is true? Are you the scholar who defeated Zhong Wenbo with his poetry friends? ”

"Hehe, yes, but that's just no way, because I know that if I want to enter the yamen as an official, I can't do it if I want to be a talent, and I also need money to make a little bit up and down, which should be an unwritten rule, and I don't have any money, I can only write a few crooked poems, so I came up with such a bad idea, the purpose is to make some money and do things well. I can't let you keep giving money to help me. Hey hey"

He told the truth, just because Du Dayin was an old scribe of the yamen, and he was familiar with a set of unspoken rules in the yamen, and he was good at talking to him after picking out the back, and saying it so frankly can also show his honesty and easily win the favor of the other party.

Sure enough, Du Dayin stroked his beard and smiled and nodded: "Very good, you kid is also sincere in what you say, the matter of your victory over Zhong Wenbo, the number one talent in Yizhou, has spread throughout the entire Yizhou City overnight." The old man has also heard, since you are so talented, why don't you go to the imperial examination and enter the official career? Why do you need to seek the position of a small county clerk? ”

Xiao Jiading is still self-aware, he is good at plagiarizing Tang poems from later generations, if he is asked to write one by himself, it will be a dry stare. Besides, it's not like you can memorize a few Tang poems for the imperial examination, otherwise, Li Bai and Du Fu would have been high school champions long ago. At the same time, the admission rate of the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty was very low, and he learned the history of the legal system and knew that the main ways to become an official in the Tang Dynasty included the imperial examination, the door shade and the flow of foreign and influential, of which the main way was not the imperial examination, but the latter two.

The door shade is the hereditary official who relies on the merits of his ancestors. Outflow and inflow means that the outflow is promoted from an out-of-flow official who has no official character to an in-stream official with official character. As now, he has worked his way up from a clerk and a section clerk to a county-level, prefecture-level and even provincial-level cadre. This is actually the main way for ordinary people to embark on a career in public office. There was no insurmountable gap between officials and officials in the Tang Dynasty, on the contrary, it was very common for officials to become officials through the flow of foreign goods, and the number of people who went up through the way of becoming officials first and then becoming officials was more than ten times that of those who directly became officials through the imperial examination. Therefore, it is safer for Xiao Jiading to take this path. Besides, he is very tired of listening to things in the officialdom, so it is better to be a little scribe who has no quarrel with the world.