Early in the morning of the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Lin Jin came to Wu Jiugong's private school, and when she heard that his private school started on the seventh day of the first month, she was very puzzled and asked, "Why is your private school still open?" I didn't expect someone to send the children of the family, I thought it should have been closed a long time ago? ”

In the stall of the Chamber of Commerce, Lin Jin is just doing a general direction, and Wu Jiugong is busy with specific affairs. In such a big mess, he is so busy that he has no time to teach children to read and write. Therefore, most of the teaching work in the current private school is carried out by the scholars Xiaowu and Xiaotong around Wu Jiugong.

Wu Jiugong replied slowly: "Although some people's children study for the imperial examination, some people just want to be literate. My fee is low, and in addition to enlightenment, I also teach some math and other courses, if you want to find a light job after passing literacy, choose my private school, which is much better than other homes. What's more, I open this private school, and it is more convenient for us to connect with each other, and it is more secretive. ”

Although Lin Jin asked the Chamber of Commerce to control the shipment of illicit salt so as not to be discovered by the imperial court, Wu Jiugong agreed, and destroyed all the private salt points, but since the salt field opened up in Luzon to produce salt, although the Chamber of Commerce also sells illicit salt to the surrounding countries such as Qianxiang and Fusang, it does not mean that they do not sell illicit salt inland?

There is no way, Daqin has a vast territory. The large population means that the market is much larger than the surrounding small countries, and they are already a member of Daqin, and they themselves have sales channels, so in Daqin, they make far more money selling illicit salt than selling it to other countries.

In this case, as the son of Lin Ruhai, who patrols the salt imperial history and is in charge of the official salt, walks around with Wu Jiugong, the largest "smuggler of salt" in Daqin, although Wu Jiugong's identity has not been exposed at this time, and it is well hidden, and many officials in the entire Yangzhou officialdom have dealings, but things in the world are changing rapidly, who knows if Wu Jiugong's identity can be hidden forever, not afraid of 10,000, just in case, therefore, on the bright side, Lin Jin has to tear up Wu Jiugong no matter what. Therefore, the interaction between two people must not be placed in each other's homes, and the third-party intermediary point of the private school is still more suitable.

Thinking about this, Lin Jin didn't entangle with Wu Jiugong on this topic, and hurriedly said his intentions: "By the way, from the day after tomorrow, I will go to the Yangzhou prefect's house to study, go out every day, and come back at the time of the unitary, so if there is any urgency during this period, go to the Yangzhou prefect's house to find me; If it's not an urgent matter, just tell the inkstone, and when I come back from school, I'll leave the inkstone at home. ”

Wu Jiugong glanced at Lin Jin and said with a smile: "Reading is a good thing, why do you have a bitter face, as if you are on the execution ground?" ”

"Don't talk cool here, it's not like you haven't passed that stage if it's a good thing to study, do you really think it's a good thing?" Lin Jin sighed and said: "It's okay if you just study, the key is that my family wants me to take the imperial examination." ”

I have known Lin Jin for many years, and I have heard that Lin Jin does not take the imperial examination, Wu Jiugong is very puzzled by this, and said with doubts: "Since the family is going to let you take the imperial examination, then you can try it." Anyway, for ordinary people, the unbearable expenses are not worth mentioning at all for your family. ”

Lin Jin glanced at him and said unhappily: "Is this a problem with money?" You know, it's not about money at all. ”

"Actually, I don't really understand, why don't you want to take the imperial examination?" Wu Jiugong, who knew Lin Jin's family relationship, said curiously: "For scholars, the imperial examination is the primary purpose of studying; Besides, there is no title inheritance in your family, to put it disrespectfully, if Master Lin is gone, you want to continue to maintain your identity and status as a yaini, and it is not safe to rely on relatives to be officials. ”

Because I am a woman, I can't say that I can't pass the imperial examination, so Lin Jin can only say another answer: "Because I know that even if I go to the exam, I won't be able to pass the exam." In that case, why waste that time, what is wrong with having that effort, doing something else? ”

Wu Jiugong once read Lin Jin's article, so he said: "Although your article is not sufficiently written, I think as long as you work hard and work hard, it is still no problem for a talent to become famous." When you become a showman, you have the privilege of not kneeling down to see officials, and this is already entering the class of 'scholars', although it is the lowest ......"

"Thank you for your high look." Lin Jin sighed: "But I know my catties, I really can't." It took me half a month to piece together an eight-strand article, and every time I wrote it, I squatted in the study to check the information and the dictionary, and it took a lot of tossing to squeeze out an article that you think is acceptable.

But the imperial examination doesn't have that long time to write, and there is no place for me to look up information and allusions, so in this case, I will show my true form. So, I still don't lose that ugliness. ”

Wu Jiugong said disappreciably: "This is all because the knowledge you currently have is not enough, you have studied for a few years and written articles, and there will be no problem." ”

Hearing this, Lin Jin couldn't help but look him up and down, and said with a surprised expression: "Why did I listen to your words, and it seems that you are encouraging me to participate in the imperial examination?" ”

Wu Jiugong sighed and said, "You know, whether it is a salt merchant or a Cao Gang, there is official support behind it. After the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce, it also took this path. But it is not safe to rely on bribing officials with large sums of money to give us a protective umbrella.

If there is a stir, we may be abandoned. After all, in the eyes of those who are officials, nothing is as important as their official hats, after all, as long as the officials are still there, they don't have to worry about the money, but if they lose their officials, they will have nothing.

If you have the qualifications to be an official in the examination, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce, your official career will definitely soar. In this way, you will be an umbrella for the Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Commerce will be more assured, and you don't have to worry about not knowing when it will be abandoned. ”

Although it is said that officials and businessmen collude, because of the unequal status of the two, in fact, it has always been businessmen who collude with officials. Even if it is an imperial business like the Xue family, among the four major families of King Jia Shixue, the Xue family has the lowest status. Don't look at the Wang family's marriage of their daughter into the Xue family, but it still hasn't changed the fate of the Xue family as the other three "money bags".

Lin Jin sneered and said, "What you say can only be used to deceive ghosts, and you want to coax me to be fooled, it's a little close." When I take the imperial examination and can be an official, it will be a few years later, and even if I am selected and can be an official, at most it will be a county order, and with the current status of the Chamber of Commerce, I am not afraid of the county order, let alone after several years of development. Otherwise, the Chamber of Commerce will simply close the door. ”

Wu Jiugong shook his head and said: "What you said is not right, how can you look down on the county order, don't you hear the words 'broken county order'?" What's more, after the lifters were admitted to the Jinshi, except for some who entered the Hanlin Academy, most of the rest were sent to serve as county magistrates. The prefectural order is the location of the official journey. ”

Lin Jin rolled her eyes angrily and said, "I understand what you mean, why do you have to count on me if you want to cultivate the descendants of the Chamber of Commerce in the officialdom?" When I enter the officialdom and climb to the official position, it will take more than ten years, to say the least, is it possible that there are so many members of the Chamber of Commerce, and there are no scholars at home? ”

Although there is a "retreat" in Luzon, but with the temperament of those people in the Chamber of Commerce, Lin Jin feels that they will not put all the treasures on Luzon, not to mention, the idea of the official standard has been circulating for so many years, she does not believe that the people in the Chamber of Commerce do not want to change the social class, so she feels that these people should also train their families to become scholars.

Wu Jiugong smiled slightly bitterly and said, "Of course, there are other scholars in the Chamber of Commerce, but you and I are at the helm of the Chamber of Commerce, but I am a cripple, and the forces you currently rely on come from Master Lin." If the scholars cultivated by the members of the Chamber of Commerce want to overthrow the two of us, do we have the strength to fight? If not, then you are willing to give away your hard work in vain? So ......"

Lin Jin said: "So, this imperial examination, I can't pass the exam?" ”

"Indeed, you have no other choice." Wu Jiugong gave her a very cruel answer.

The unequal status of officials and businessmen has contributed to this result.

"Let me think about it." Lin Jin didn't give a direct reply, and was going to go back and think about it to see if there was any other way out.

Wu Jiugong didn't understand, the words were so clear, why didn't Lin Jin let go, as if letting her take the imperial examination was like killing her.

Coming out of Wu Jiugong and being blown by the wind, Lin Jin felt that her somewhat hot head was sober, and she felt that she should have been fooled by Wu Jiugong just now. The matter is definitely not as serious as he said, even if someone in the chamber of commerce wants to "seek power and usurp the throne", with Wu Jiugong's ability, he can suppress it.

Back then, he was nothing, and he was able to subdue the two forces of the salt merchant and the Cao gang by himself, and integrate them together to suppress it to this day. What if there is an official in the Chamber of Commerce?

In this society, there is a world of difference between the status of officials and businessmen, Lin Jin doesn't think that in addition to her as a strange person, there are other people in the world who can run back and compete with Wu Jiugong for the "dragon head" status of the Chamber of Commerce after becoming officials.

If it weren't for the official's personal fate, she felt that even if the other party supported one hundred and eighty puppets in the Chamber of Commerce, he would definitely not be Wu Jiugong's opponent; Of course, even if the official himself went into battle, if he didn't take advantage of the inequality between the status of the official and the businessman to suppress Wu Jiugong, he might not be able to succeed.

Besides, even if he goes into battle in person, Wu Jiugong may not be able to lose, you must know that there is a gap between people, Wu Jiugong only has a broken leg, but his brain is not bad.

He only told Lin Jin after integrating the two forces of the salt merchant and the Cao Gang, which were originally unbeatable, and getting things done, that at that time, Lin Jin didn't take out any technology from the library, so he did it completely with his own ingenuity, so if he wanted to shake his position in the Chamber of Commerce, how could it be so easy?