After parting ways with Chen Zilong, Yan Yingyuan returned to the camp and saw a crowd of envious eyes. After all, just being admitted to the emperor can be summoned is enough to be enviable.

"Brother Yan has been favored by His Majesty, and he envies me."

"When Brother Yan is soaring, don't forget my brothers."

A familiar scholar came over and congratulated him with a smile, but Yan Yingyuan could only deal with it with a smile.

The soldiers who had not been admitted had been kicked out of the camp, and the camp was much more empty. On this day, there was no parade to practice, and the admitted scholars enjoyed a rare leisure, gathering in groups of three or five to chat, imagining the life of being an official in the future, and Yan Yingyuan gathered the most people around him. Not long ago, because of his status as the son of a servant, many scholars were still reluctant to associate with him.

However, the good times did not last long, and early in the morning of the second day, there was the sound of drums, and these soldiers hurriedly got up from their beds, quickly packed up their beds, and came to the school yard to assemble.

"Whoever hears his name read, go out and follow your captain to his camp." A burly officer shouted with a bullhorn made of paper tubes.

"Yan Yingyuan, Wu Chengji, Bai Tong......"

Unsurprisingly, hearing that the first one was his name, Yan Yingyuan hurriedly stepped out of the ranks. When the names of the thirty men were read out, three men came out from among the officials in front of them, and motioned for fifty of them to follow.

Taken to a corner of the school grounds, the leader of the officials asked the fifty scholars to stand in three rows, and then began to lecture.

"My name is Hu Xuan, I graduated from the Royal School of Commerce and Trade, followed His Majesty all the way south, and now I am your captain, responsible for everything. The name on my left is Zhu Yilang, and he is your vice-captain, who is in charge of discipline and punishment, and assists me in handling daily affairs. The name on the right is Liu Xiangming, who was originally the head of the Praetorian Guard beside His Majesty, and was responsible for military training. ”

"From now on, fifty of you are my subordinates, and the next task is to go to Juntian in Yanling Town! Now I'll give you a quarter of an hour to prepare, take your belongings, gather here in a quarter of an hour, and head to Yanling Town! After Hu Xuan finished speaking, he ordered everyone to disband.

The soldiers hurriedly returned to their original camp, whispering as they went.

"Shouldn't you be awarded an official if you pass the exam, how can you go to Junshitian?"

"Yanling Town is at least a hundred miles away from here, and I don't know how to get there, most of them are walking."

"It's nothing to walk, we are all from poor backgrounds, it's not that we can't endure hardship. I just don't know what I'm doing. ”

"By the way, Brother Yan, have you met Your Majesty, do you know what we are going to do?"

Yan Yingyuan was silent for a moment, of course he knew what to do, but he didn't want to show off, he just said: "What exactly do Captain Hu will tell us when the time comes, let's just do what we are told." Remember, we are not lifting people or jinshi, we are only qualified to be officials by His Majesty's grace, and we must obey the instructions of the superior and work hard to live up to Your Majesty's grace! ”

"What Brother Yan said is that we will do whatever Your Majesty asks us to do!"

"Yes, yes, without Your Majesty's grace, I'm afraid we won't have a chance to be an official in this book."

The scholars quickly returned to their respective camps, cleaned up their personal belongings, packed them on their backs, and then returned to the school grounds.

is still in the original position, in addition to the three officers Hu Xuan, Zhu Yilang, and Liu Xiangming, there are also twenty soldiers wearing military uniforms and carrying cross-swords, each soldier is leading a horse, and he doesn't know what is on the horse.

"Queue up!" Seeing that everyone gathered, Hu Xuan gave an order and took the lead to leave the school.

Yan Yingyuan followed the team, and when he looked around, he saw a line of people standing on the school ground, all of whom were admitted scholars, and there were also teams that were setting off, but the direction of the past was different from theirs.

Just as they guessed in advance, it was really walking to Yanling Town, thinking about the distance of a hundred miles, some people were already secretly complaining in their hearts.

Fortunately, Captain Nahu is not an unkind person, considering the poor health of some scholars, he will order a break every hour to drink water. In the interval between breaks, the clan surnamed Zhu would give a lecture to everyone, emphasizing discipline, obeying orders in everything, not speaking while marching, and so on, warning them that those who violate discipline will be directly expelled from the team again after the first warning.

It was dusk that day, and after at least 60 miles of walking, Hu Xuan ordered to set up camp. I saw that the soldiers who had been silent all the way unloaded all kinds of items from their horses, and soon set up seven or eight tents, and then took out the military pot, looking for water and firewood to prepare for cooking. Yan Yingyuan paid attention to the observation and found that these soldiers moved very neatly, while setting up a meal, there were soldiers who were sentry at the high post, and several soldiers rode horses to different places to sentry, and they actually put on a posture of marching and fighting. Thinking about it all the way, these soldiers also led their horses forward, and did not ride horses, which consumed the same physical strength as everyone else.

"I'm going to help collect firewood." Yan Yingyuan didn't want to sit and rest anymore, so he took the initiative to stand up and say.

Hu Xuan glanced at Yan Yingyuan and said approvingly: "I thought that you scholars rarely travel far, so I didn't arrange for you to do things, since you still have the physical strength, let's go and help." ”

Seeing this, a few other soldiers stood up and helped the soldiers set up camp and cook, while many more fell to the ground tired and did not want to move.

After dinner, everyone finally recovered, and who knew that they were gathered again and had to go to class.

In the moonlight, a group of scholars sat on the ground, and they could hear the crickets in the fields. In Jiangnan in October, the weather is not too cold at night, and the night breeze is gentle and soft.

The first to teach them a lesson was a soldier, but he was a prisoner of the Praetorian Guard. In these days in the camp, everyone has understood that the supervisor in the Praetorian Guard is different from what they understand, it is not an official position, and his identity is still that of an ordinary soldier, but he has the responsibility of supervising officers, and he is the representative of the soldiers, although he has no official position, he has a high status in the battalion.

This prison army did not tell them any big truths, but told about the battle of Liaodong, and how under the leadership of Lu Xiangsheng's commander, he rushed thousands of miles to smash Huanglong and dig out the nest of Jiannu.

"At that time, I was not a Praetorian Guard, but a slave of the Jiannu family, responsible for farming for Jiannu, living a life that was not as good as pigs and dogs, my parents were killed by Jiannu, and my two sisters were humiliated to death by the Tartars, but fortunately, the Praetorian Guards killed and rescued us slaves, I joined the Guiyi Camp at that time, and took the Janissaries to copy the manor of Jiannu in the mountains, and killed the Tartars with their own hands to avenge their families. Then he returned to Liaoyang with the army as a people's husband, joined the Praetorian Guard in Liaoyang, and later worked hard to read and write in the army and became a supervisor. The prison army talked about the past experience, and the miserable experience of his life in Jiannu made all the poor scholars cry when they heard it, and the whole family of the master of his hand blade Tartar made everyone cry out for joy!

"Fortunately, Your Majesty is wise and martial, and sent the Praetorian Guard to attack Liaodong and save my Liao people from fire and water. From the moment I joined the Praetorian Guard, I swore that I would fight for Your Majesty in this life, even if I gave my life! The overseer finally said.

"Long live Your Majesty, long live!" Hu Xuan took the opportunity to shout.

"Long live Your Majesty, long live!" Zhu Yilang, Liu Xiangming, and nearby Praetorian Guard soldiers also shouted.

"Long live Your Majesty, long live!" The scholars also shouted loudly, only to feel that their bodies were boiling!

Then another soldier stepped forward and told his story, this is a small flag officer, from northern Shaanxi.

"I am a native of Qingjian County, Yan'an Prefecture, my ancestors have been farmers for generations, and there have been severe droughts for many years, crops have not been harvested, and my parents are reluctant to eat the last grain, so they have left it to me, but I have starved to death. When I was about to starve to death, His Majesty came with a large army and brought food to the villagers who were dying of starvation, and I survived. Later, His Majesty took pity on the people and thought that it was the greed and oppression of the gentry and landlords, and the tyranny of the government that made us unable to live. At that time, we learned that the imperial grain and national tax were actually not much, and it was the gentry and landlords who forcibly deducted the taxes they should pay on our heads, and it was the government that violated His Majesty's will and increased the land rent and taxes several times, so that we could not live.

His Majesty ordered the Jinyi Guard to arrest those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, arrest those landlords and gentry, and convene a meeting of 10,000 people, interrogate them in public and sentence them to their crimes, and those who committed the most heinous crimes were beheaded on the spot. Then, the fields of the gentry and landlords were distributed to all the people for free, and everyone was led to dig water canals to fight drought and provide disaster relief. Since then, although the weather is still dry, no one has starved to death in northern Shaanxi.

I also divided the field, and married a daughter-in-law and gave birth to a son, but to fight Jiannu, Zhang Houye recruited troops in northern Shaanxi, so I joined the Praetorian Guard, all the way to Liaodong, and then fought with the Mongols, and then came to the south of the Yangtze River. The little flag officer told his own experience, and his words were simple and unpretentious, and everyone sighed.

"Without Your Majesty, I can't survive, before I joined the army, my daughter-in-law said that the family will be handed over to her, so that I can kill the enemy for Your Majesty with peace of mind and make war achievements. I have killed a Jiannu, cut a Mongolian Tartar, and now I have become a small flag officer, with my current military position, I will definitely be able to become a security chief after retiring in the future, that is, the current town official. The little flag officer said with a smile.

"Everyone has heard the experience of the two just now, they used to be poor and dying slaves, and now after following His Majesty, how much has changed in just a few years, who still dares to look down on them?

Although you are scholars, most of you have not obtained any fame, and many people are afraid that they will not be able to pass the fame even if they study for a lifetime, if it is a normal situation, you will not have any success, and it is impossible to become an official. But now Your Majesty has given you a chance, as long as you follow me to do things with your heart, after half a year of inspection, you will be awarded an official position, at least nine grades, if you can make meritorious contributions in the future, you will have the opportunity to be promoted, and it is not impossible to be the prefect of the county, or even rank in the court! Hu Xuan smiled and said to everyone.

A group of scholars suddenly became enthusiastic, and even Yan Yingyuan's face was also full of brilliance.

"Okay, let's go back and rest, from tomorrow, we will take the time to train you, teach you how to equalize, how to work, teach you the law of arithmetic, and so on." Hu Xuan commanded.

After a night of silence, the team continued its departure early the next morning, and finally arrived in the town of Yanling in the evening, where they stayed at a temple called Nanchan Temple on the edge of the town.

It is a monk temple that covers an area of about two acres. There are four or five large halls and small halls, and the two sides are wing rooms and ear rooms, and there are more than 50 monks who live.

Hu Xuan directly announced that the temple would be temporarily requisitioned as the yamen of Yanling Town, and that monks with degrees in the temple could temporarily live in the temple, and monks who did not have degrees would be forcibly returned to the secular and driven out of the temple.

Zhu Youzhen has never had a good impression of these monks and Taoists who do not produce and waste food, and even the Praetorian Guards are not interested in the monks. As for the temporary requisition of this temple as a yamen, it was decided in advance. Long before the team set off, a lot of information about Yanling Town was sent to Zhenjiang.

After dinner, Hu Xuan convened a meeting of everyone in the Daxiong Treasure Hall and began to arrange tomorrow's tasks.

......

Yanling Town is an ancient town with a history of 1,000 years, one of the four major towns of Zhenjiang Prefecture, and is famous for its papermaking. Because Yanling Town is located at the junction of the riverside hills and the Taihu Lake Plain, Yanling Town is surrounded by hills, with a radius of tens of thousands of acres, and the hills are covered with green bamboo, which is the best material for making paper.

And these dozen hills, including 10,000 acres of fertile land under the hills, all belong to the squire Dong family, and half of the people in Yanling Town are slaves or tenants of the Dong family. The largest paper workshop in Yanling Town is also opened by the Dong family, and the paper made by the Dong family occupies half of the Jiangdong paper industry.

The Dong family mansion is located in the east of the town, is a large mansion covering an area of more than ten acres, the house is backed by hills, the eyes are green mountains, the courtyard of five into five places, the garden pool, the rockery forest, the winding path is secluded.

The head of the Dong family is named Dong Dajun, although he is only famous, but the Dong family has Jinshi from generation to generation, and Dong Dajun's cousin is now the political envoy of the right political secretary of Yunnan, from the second rank of high-ranking officials!

After Dong Dajun passed the examination, he failed the examination several times, so he gave up the imperial examination and did business at home.

Who knew that disaster fell from the sky, the emperor actually ran to the south of the Yangtze River, stationed in Zhenjiang, and now sent a team to Yanling Town!

When the team had just entered the town, Dong Dajun received the news and hurriedly sent a steward to bring some grain, wine and meat, and inquired about the team's intentions. The thing was picked up by the guards of the gate, and then told that the purpose was to establish a town yamen in Yanling Town, and then Juntian would be carried out.

After receiving the reward, Dong Dajun was shocked and hurriedly called his son to discuss the solution.

Discussions came and went, but no good way was discussed. The Dong family has a lot of power in Yanling Town and even in Zhenjiang Mansion, but it depends on who it is, in front of the emperor who has strong force, the Dong family is not a fart at all.

"Many gentry in Shandong were raided, and many gentry in northern Shaanxi were even beheaded. In order to protect the clan, I can only cooperate with all my might! Dong Dajun sighed.

"The family property we have worked so hard to save, tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, more than a dozen hills, and the paper mill in the town, have they been robbed for nothing? Why! Dong Dajun's eldest son, Dong Li, shouted angrily.

"Just because people are emperors and lords of the world." Dong Dajun sighed.

"Can the emperor mess around, can he raid his house at will, such an emperor is simply a faint monarch, I think this Ming should also die!" Dong Li said angrily.

"Shut up, don't talk nonsense!" Dong Dajun hurriedly stopped drinking, and looked around in panic, for fear that his son's words would be heard by others.

"Hurry up and pack up some gold and silver, leave Yanling Town overnight with your wife and children, and go to Nanjing to hide for a while." Dong Dajun thought about it and commanded.

During this period, the emperor's behavior in northern Shaanxi and Shandong spread all over Jiangdong, and the gentry throughout Jiangdong were panicked, for fear that the emperor would send a large army to raid their homes and kill people. The foundation of the Dong family is in Yanling Town, and Dong Dajun can't leave by himself, but he doesn't want his son to die.

"If the emperor really raids his house and kills people, you will go to Jiangxi and go to the thief! Our family still has a store in Nanjing, and there are 500,000 taels of silver deposited in Nanjing Juxin Qianzhuang, and if you bring them to Jiangxi, you should be able to find a good position in the rebels. Looking at the closed window, Dong Dajun quietly instructed.

If he hadn't been forced to be helpless, Dong Dajun would never have wanted to do such a thing!