"Come on! We sat down. ”

Zeng Bu greeted Fanning warmly, as always, to sit down, and beckoned the bartender to serve another pot of wine and add a few dishes.

Fan Ning smiled and said, "I'm no longer Fan Zhizhou this morning. ”

Zeng Bu's eyes widened, "Brother Xian resigned today?" ”

Fanning nodded, "I resigned from the Ministry of Officials this morning, and I don't know the new position yet, forget it, don't talk about this, the imperial examination was very lively last year!" Fanning changed the subject and smiled.

The imperial examination in the second year of Jiayou can be called the most glorious one in the history of the imperial examination, and countless celebrities of the Great Song Dynasty stood out in this imperial examination, such as Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong, Zeng Bu, Wang Buzhi, Zhang Chun, Zhang Heng, Lu Huiqing, Deng Xuan, Wang Shao, Lin Xi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Wang Hui, Wang Xiang and so on.

Whether it is a literary giant, a reform warrior or a theorist, they all passed the imperial examination in this year's imperial examination, and the reputation of the chief examiner Ouyang Xiu also reached its peak last year.

Lu Huiqing smiled bitterly and said: "What can I do if I am admitted to the Jinshi, I have no connections, and I have to sit on the cold bench,"

Zeng Bu also sighed, "I have to be recommended by my teacher to serve as the Xuanzhou Sihu to join the army, although it is only from the ninth grade, but I still have a little real power, I am in charge of a state household registration, Brother Lu is harder than me, and serving as the official of Zhenzhou is completely a false position, doing nothing all day long, and wasting my youth." ”

Fanning nodded, he himself has a deep understanding that if he is admitted to the Jinshi, if he has no relationship, he is basically sitting on the cold bench, and he has hundreds of Jinshi in that class, it has been almost eight years, and there are still people waiting on the cold bench, and there is no time to turn into a regular one.

Because the Zeng brothers were recommended by Ouyang Xiu, one served as the Xuanzhou Sihu to join the army, and the other served as the Taiping Prefecture judicial officer to join the army, both of which were considered a bit of real power, while Lu Huiqing was born in a small household in Quanzhou and had no way, so he had to be a Zhenzhou magistrate from Jiupin.

In the Tang Dynasty, the magistrate was in charge of the prison, but in the Song Dynasty, the person in charge of the prison was the Department of the Prison, and even if it involved local trials, it was also managed by the state judiciary and county decrees.

And the push official is either the festival degree envoy push official, or the regimental training envoy pusher, itself the temperance degree envoy, the regimental training envoy are all false positions, and their subordinates are even more fictitious, they can only wait for the opportunity to become a regular Beijing official, or have a personal relationship to obtain real power officials.

At this time, the bartender brought the wine and food, Zeng Bu rushed to pour Fan Ning a full glass of wine, and said with a cheeky smile: "You are in a high position, you have to help us juniors, I can call you brother!" ”

Fan Ning quickly glanced at Lu Huiqing, and seeing that his expression was calm and his eyes did not have any emotional fluctuations, Fan Ning couldn't help but secretly admire his city mansion.

He picked up his wine glass and smiled faintly: "I haven't settled down yet, how can I help you, or I recommend you to go to Whale State?" ”

Zeng Bu smiled bitterly, "Two years ago, the imperial court stopped sending officials overseas, and it is said that it is already overcrowded, and we didn't catch up with the time, so we were unlucky!" ”

Fan Ning drank all the wine in the cup, shook his head with a smile and said: "There are indeed too many officials in Kunzhou, in fact, only sixteen officials are needed, but more than fifty people came, all of them were stuffed in through various relationships, all of them came for the article that they could be transferred to Beijing officials in four years, and as a result, even the clerks in the county government were filled by Jinshi, which can be regarded as a great spectacle of the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Zeng Bu also knew that he was a little abrupt, so he stopped mentioning help, and talked about some interesting anecdotes in the capital in the past two years.

At this time, Fan Ning pondered and asked, "Today I seem to have heard that Senior Ouyang committed something in the Ministry of Officials, what is going on?" ”

Zeng Bu's face suddenly changed, and he stared at the table viciously and said: "Brother Xian, don't mention this matter to me, I told people, whoever mentions this matter will be in a hurry!" ”

Fan Ning was stunned and said for a while: "I only returned to Beijing yesterday afternoon, and I don't know anything. ”

"I don't mean to blame Brother Xian."

Zeng Bu drank all the wine in the cup, and scolded angrily with a blue face: "A group of despicable and shameless villains slandered my teacher, I only hate myself for not being able to lift a three-foot sword and kill all these dog thieves!" ”

He drank three glasses of wine in a row, and Lu Huiqing next to him hurriedly persuaded him, "Brother Xian, you drank too much, don't drink anymore." ”

"I'm fine, let me have a few more drinks." Zeng Bu was depressed, drank a few more glasses of wine, and soon collapsed on the wine table.

Fanning didn't feel very comfortable, so he called the bartender and asked, "I'll settle the bill for this table of wine!" ”

Lu Huiqing hurriedly waved his hand, "This is our treat, we don't need to break the bank!" ”

Fanning smiled: "You're welcome, I'll come!" ”

The bartender said: "There are two hundred and seventy pieces of wine and food!" ”

Fanning took out three silver horns and handed them to him, "The rest is for you!" ”

"Thank you for the reward!"

Fan Ning got up and smiled at Lu Huiqing: "I still have some things, let's go first." ”

Fan Ning clenched his fists and arched his hands, turned around and left, Lu Huiqing looked at Fan Ning and couldn't help but sigh lowly.

Fan Ning has been an official for almost eight years, from the governor of Taixue to the governor of Kunzhou and the deputy envoy of overseas economic strategy, he is in charge of the military and political power of Kunzhou, even if he is also coercive to the Japanese court, and his four-year political career has made him invisibly develop an indescribable mentality of a superior.

And Zeng Bu is like a big boy, although he was admitted to the Jinshi, he still doesn't know the world, and he keeps calling him a virtuous brother, you must know that even Li Dashou and Su Liang have such a good relationship, they can't call him senior brother in public, they have to respectfully call him Zhizhou.

This Zeng Bu was a virtuous brother in the restaurant, and finally turned his face with him on the spot, which made Fan Ning feel comfortable.

Fanning walked out of the restaurant, although he was not full, but he didn't want to stay outside longer, he stood on the street and looked, only to see an ox cart slowly coming, Fanning beckoned, and the ox cart stopped in front of him.

Fan Ning saw that there was no one in the ox cart, so he said to the coachman: "Go to Huihefang, I have chartered this car, don't get on anyone again." ”

"Official, if it's all-inclusive, it will cost fifty yuan."

"No problem."

Fanning got into the ox cart and waved, "Let's go!" ”

"Great!"

The coachman waved his long whip, and the ox cart started slowly, and he had just walked a dozen steps, only to hear someone shouting: "Fan Zhizhou, please stay!" ”

Fan Ning opened the curtain of the car behind him, and seeing that it was Lu Huiqing chasing after him, Fan Ning hurriedly shouted: "Stop!" ”

The ox cart stopped, Lu Huiqing ran up panting, Fan Ning beckoned, "Come up and talk!" ”

Lu Huiqing got into the ox cart and sat down opposite Fanning, so tired that she couldn't breathe.

"Where's Zengbu?" Fanning asked with a smile.

"His little servant helped him back."

Lu Huiqing hugged his fists and said: "I apologize to the envoy on behalf of Brother Zeng Xian, he has been in a bad mood for the past two days, and he doesn't know the severity of his speech, please forgive him!" ”

Fan Ning smiled faintly, "He's always been like this, I won't care, but something happened to Senior Ouyang, do you know?" ”

Lu Huiqing smiled bitterly and said: "It's really a little difficult to say, he was involved in a very unbearable affair, and this matter spread throughout the capital." ”

Fan Ning frowned, and said, "Since it's unbearable, don't say it." ”

"Thank you for your understanding."

After a pause, Lu Huiqing mustered up the courage to ask: "Just now the envoy said that he can recommend going to Whale State, is it a joke?" ”

Fan Ning suddenly smiled dumbly, it turned out that Lu Huiqing was playing this idea, he said apologetically: "There is nothing in Whale Prefecture now, only a battalion of soldiers is stationed, even if I recommend it, the imperial court will not accept it, maybe an official government will be established in the future, but it will definitely not work in recent years." ”

Lu Huiqing's face suddenly showed a disappointed expression, "That's it! ”

Fan Ning glanced at him and said, "But I can write you a letter of recommendation, you go to Han Xianggong and see if he can give you a chance." ”

Lu Huiqing was overjoyed, and hurriedly got up to salute, but forgot that it was on the ox cart, 'Bang! With a loud bang, his head hit the carport heavily, Fan Ning laughed, waved his hand and said, "You're welcome, I'm just giving you a chance, but whether you can impress Han Xianggong depends on yourself." ”

........

Fan Ning went back to his home and wrote a letter of recommendation, handed it to Lu Huiqing, Lu Huiqing thanked him repeatedly, and he handed Fan Ning a newspaper, "This is today's "tabloid", and the things that make you care about are all in the newspaper. ”

Fanning took the newspaper and smiled: "Thank you for bothering!" ”

"Humble resignation!"

Lu Huiqing bowed and saluted again, turned around and left.

Fanning walked back to the door and carefully examined the tabloid in his hand.

The Song Dynasty could not help but say that with the development of the printing industry, newspapers were born, and there were two most influential newspapers in Tokyo, one was the "Chao Bao", which was more serious, analyzing national events, interpreting the strategies of the imperial court, and commenting on the promotion of officials.

The other "tabloid" is an entertainment and fashion newspaper, specializing in digging up all kinds of eye-catching news, both newspapers are daily newspapers, private publishing and distribution, especially "tabloid" has a large circulation, throughout the entire Kaifeng Prefecture, with a daily circulation of more than 200,000 copies.

The newspaper in Fanning's hand is today's "tabloid", which usually comes out around noon, because it has to be engraved and printed in the middle of the night, so it is all the news that happened yesterday.

The newspaper is about the same size as a newspaper in later generations, printed on all four sides, and one side is a variety of advertisements, such as 'Granny Cao grandly launches delicious crab cakes', 'Zhang Gu Rouge Special', 'Huang Jianzui Teahouse Opening Reward', and so on.

Fanning was surprised to find that the headline on the front page of "Tabloid News" was actually about himself, "Four years of hard work to build an overseas Kunzhou, Zhizhou Fanning returned to China with honor, and brought sky-high wealth." ’

Of course, the eye-catching gimmick is the last 'sky-high wealth', which is still very real, 300,000 catties of silver, 500,000 taels of gold, 400,000 catties of sulfur, 170,000 amber wood, and millions of stone wheat.

Fan Ning really admires it, this is the list he gave to Fan Xiang, a member of the branch yesterday, and the "tabloid" grasped the accurate news at the first time, I'm afraid that the ministers don't know it yet.

But now Fanning didn't have the heart to read his news carefully, he quickly turned to the second edition, and there was a line of black words below the second edition: "Rain on the light thunder pond outside the willows, and then the leader of the paper world picks up the ashes."

Fan Ning's eyes narrowed suddenly, Ouyang Xiu's crime was actually 'picking up ashes!' ’

=====

[Ouyang Xiu's affair with his daughter-in-law should have happened ten years later, Lao Gao advanced this matter by ten years because of the needs of the plot, of course, this matter is a means of political struggle, mainly because Ouyang Xiu has a criminal record, so this matter made a big fuss at the time. 】