A few days later, the place where the post was posted at the entrance of the street outside Guozi Prison was already crowded and congested. A group of scholars who came from all over the country to take the test left their temporary inn early and came to see the list. Seeing that those on the list were overjoyed and cried, there were countless people who fell to Sun Shan, beat their chests and feet, and hung their heads.

At noon, in an inn hall not far from Chengxian Street, Guozijian, a table of scholars wearing square scarves was already sitting.

The gray-haired shopkeeper saw that the four smiling people at this table were all dressed as scholars, and it was obvious that they were scholars who came to take the exam in the day, and he was busy taking a bowl of dishes from the small second-hand people, and personally brought it to the table, and said respectfully: "Look at everyone so elated, but it's already high school?" ”

The young man who sat on the top of the house, about twenty years old, was very happy when he heard this, and the other three young men who were of the same age at the same table and wore clothes said loudly: "Xiaosheng Li Lin, and three fellow townsmen have already won the tribute. "There was a lot of excitement between the words.

The shopkeeper couldn't help but tremble slightly when he heard this, and bowed down by two points, and asked in a trembling voice: "In the store where the four Gongshi live in the store, the little old man has looked away, if it is the four high school first-class, can you write a plaque for the little old man to light the lintel?" ”

The first three people are the champions, Bangyan and Tanhua. Li Lin couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "If it is thanks to the auspicious words of the old man, he will be the first in high school, and he will definitely write a plaque for your store." ”

The innkeeper is very busy, he has been running the inn here for a long time, just because it is not far from the country, every time he meets the test, he is so begging to live in his own shop, but he has a good calculation, that is, one of the four people has been in the eye of the flower list, writing a plaque for himself, and the reputation of his own small shop is afraid that it will have to spread a few streets away, and this business will naturally roll in.

A young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes on Li Lin's left hand saw the old shopkeeper go away, so he hurriedly stretched out his hand and pulled his sleeve, and said with a wry smile: "Brother Chengfeng, I can't wait to pass the literary exam, and the skills such as etiquette, music, and archery in three days have not yet been examined, and I am not a tribute." Such a flamboyance is not in line with the etiquette of the sages. His surname is Zhao Shanhe, and he is very familiar with the other two scholars Qin Song and Wang Ting, who are sitting next to him. Although the three of them also had several relationships with Li Lin during the township exam, but because of the disparity between the rich and the poor in their family backgrounds, they had no deep friendship, and when they looked at the list today, they suddenly found that the four of them had all passed the literary exam.

Qin Song, who was slightly thin in stature, couldn't help but smile when he heard this: "Brother Jingwen is old and serious, although this statement is reasonable, but when I wait for the four of us to try, this riding and shooting has already passed easily, but how can I miss it after three days?" ”

Li Lin was originally a child of a rich family, although it was inevitable that he had some young master habits, but his mind was lively, and although he was quite dissatisfied with Zhao Shanhe's words in his heart, he still lowered his voice and slightly restrained his posture. It's just because he understands in his heart that the palace examination after the examination is the current Hongwu Emperor's personal examination and strategy, and it is only ranked. In case he only gets the top three, but the three fellow villagers with poor families in front of him are the first and second in high school, then he is an official in the same dynasty every day, and he may not rely on the three fellow villagers, so he will try to suppress his temperament, and he will not dare to pretend to be a young master at home, and oppress people with wealth. Such a kind invitation to three fellow villagers is also a meaning of friendship. When the shopkeeper brought the wine, Li Lin frequently persuaded him to drink.

Although Zhao Shanhe and the other three are not as flamboyant as Li Lin, after all, they are also young and vigorous, thinking back to the cold window in the past, they have to raise their eyebrows like today, so they immediately pushed the cup and changed the lamp, and drank together, but what they said during the banquet was the proud sentence in their own article during the scientific examination, and the voice became louder and louder.

At a table not far from each other, there were two young scholars who were about the same age as Li Lin and others, and a young scholar who was about twenty-seven or eighteen years old, with a lonely face.

A slightly young, handsome young man named Chen Jinfeng couldn't stand the noise of Li Lin and the other three, and couldn't help but say in a Shandong accent to the oldest scholar beside him: "Brother Ziling, in my humble opinion, all the previous scientific examinations were mainly examined by people from the south, and the literary style of the northern scholars such as us did not match their Jiangnan literary style, and we suffered a lot. ”

Chen Jinfeng's side of the word Ziling scholar named Wang Guanchao, just because he was a few years older, his nature was more calm, although he was frustrated in the scientific examination, but he did not dare to rashly question the fairness of the imperial examination, but after a moment of silence, he picked up the green vegetables on the plate with chopsticks, put them in his mouth and chewed carefully, and did not speak.

Another young man who was about the same age as Chen Jinfeng couldn't help but sigh when he heard this, and said with a sad face: "In the past, the four talents of eastern Zhejiang, who were very famous, Wu Zheng, Liu Ji, Zhang Yi, and Song Lian were all southerners. I heard that the scientific examination system of our Ming Dynasty was jointly formulated by Liu Ji, Song Lian and Liu Sanwu, the chief examiner, and what Brother Lingyun said did not make sense at the beginning. Between the words, it is also a Shandong accent. It turned out that his surname was Liu Mingjiang, and Chen Jinfeng and Wang Guanchao at the same table were both from Qufu, Shandong.

Wang Guanchao was about to speak, but he heard a man's voice say coldly: "What kind of scientific examination is not fair?" The name of the test paper is confused, and the examiner recognizes you as South or North? How can this really be true? ”

The three of them turned their heads to look, but saw that it was Li Lin, who was talking, who was holding a wine glass in his hand, and turned his head to look coldly at his side.

Wang Guanchao was about to speak out to persuade the two friends, but at this time, seeing that Li Lin's words were very aggressive, he couldn't help but be angry, knowing that although they usually know books and etiquette, after all, they are also strong in blood, and couldn't help but say angrily: "The system of scientific examination is determined by the southerners, and the scientific examination officials of the Ministry of Rites are all from the south from top to bottom. Can it be said that it is absolutely fair to me and other northern scholars? He said that the six imperial examination champions were all in the south, but he knew it from the champion tablet where the name of the champion was written in the Guozijian.

Li Lin couldn't help but sneer when he heard this: "That's because you and other people from the north have lived together with barbarians for hundreds of years, and they are vulgar and unliterate. "He was originally a son of a rich family, and he was quite arrogant at home on weekdays, but after drinking two more glasses at this time, he was already a little unscrupulous.

Chen Jinfeng heard Li Lin's words "mixed living" extremely harsh, and couldn't help but have blue tendons bulging on his forehead, and angrily slapped the table and reprimanded: "The three of us are all from Qufu, Shandong, Confucius, and Mencius, the two sages are all immortals here, which can be called the place where the Central Plains culture flourishes. The three of them are also in the township examination, and the thesis is by no means a general person, and in his heart, he is proud of being fellow villagers with the two great sages of Confucianism, so he naturally blurted out.

Li Lin never expected that these three northern scholars were actually from Qufu, Shandong, and they could hear the dialect of Confucius and Mencius, but they were speechless when they were suffocated.

At this moment, I saw a thin figure in front of Li Lin's table staggering to stand up, wiped his lips after drinking the toast with his head up, reluctantly learned Chen Jinfeng's Shandong accent, and said word by word: "The three of us are all people from Qufu, Shandong, Confucius, and Mencius, the two sages are all in Xianxiang, which can be called the place where the Central Plains culture flourishes. The person who spoke was none other than Li Lin's fellow countryman Qin Song.

Zhao Shanhe, who was sitting at the same table with Li Lin, was originally a calm person, and at this time, the wine was surging, and seeing this Qin Song's strange tone learning Chen Jinfeng's Shandong accent, he couldn't help laughing, and when he said shameful and ridiculous words, he rhymed with the "hateful and annoying" in the other party's dialect, and even squirted out the wine in his mouth, and the four people at the same table were all laughing.

Chen Jinfeng saw Qin Song pretending to play tricks on him, his face turned red, and he scolded angrily: "Nanban is so rude. ”

Zhao Shanhe and the other four people heard that the other party actually said "Nanban", and they couldn't help but change color, knowing that this Nanban was the contempt of the barbarians for the southern Han people in the former Jin Yuan period, which can be said to have touched the scales of all the southerners, so they couldn't help but be angry.

Li Lin couldn't hold back his anger, reached out and picked up the pig's trotters in the soup basin on the table, and didn't care about the juice, so he smashed his head and face.

Wang Guanchao heard that his friend Chen Jinfeng's words were too unbearable, and he was about to say a few words of persuasion, so everyone gave up, but unexpectedly, he was dizzy and dizzy by the pig's trotters flying with his head clip, and when he saw Li Lin rushing like a tiger, he immediately stretched out his hand to parry.

Zhao Shanhe and the other three stepped forward quickly, and they were about to pull Li away; Lin, unexpectedly, he gave Chen Jinfeng a fist and beat him violently, and he was so angry that he couldn't bear it immediately, and rushed up to fight with the other three of them.

The scholars at the north and south tables originally kept the rule of a gentleman who did not move his hands under the sword, and at this time, after eating the old boxing, his temperament was also stirred up, and he immediately stretched out his feet and kicked indiscriminately, waved his fists and beat them, and fought in the hall of the inn. For a while, the tables and chairs fell together, the dishes flew together, and the chaos was mixed with the pain and roar from everyone's throats.

After all, Wang Guanchao and the other three were few and weak, and after fighting each other, they were outnumbered, and each limped out of the inn hall and into a secluded alley not far away.

Chen Jinfeng wiped the filth of the vegetable juice and soup on his face with his sleeve, and said fiercely: "These southerners are really hateful, they are so domineering and bullying others. ”

Wang Guanchao rubbed the bruises on his cheeks, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly said lightly: "The champions of the six imperial examinations are all southerners, and all the candidates in the current examination are southerners. ”

Liu Jiangben leaned against the corner of the wall and gasped, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but ask, "Who is Brother Ziling suing?" ”

"The foolish brother is going to sue Liu Sanwu, the chief examiner, Ji Shan, and Bai Xin, the deputy examiner." Wang Guanchao said slowly word by word.

Chen and Liu couldn't help but be stunned when they heard this, and they couldn't speak for a long time.

Chen Jinfeng was silent for a moment and then stomped his feet and said angrily: "Fifty-one people who passed the examination of this branch will be judged, all of whom are southern scholars, if there is no fraud in this case, it is really difficult to be convincing. ”

Late at night on the second day, in the imperial study of the Forbidden City, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, was flipping through the folds. A man wearing a flying fish official uniform stood solemnly and was silent, it was Jiang Xian, who was the commander of the Jinyi Guard.

Late at night on weekdays, if there is no secret performance, Jiang Xian is waiting outside the Wuying Palace, and he will only enter when he is summoned. Zhu Yuanzhang knew in his heart, so he put down the fold in his hand and asked lightly: "What's the matter?" ”

"Your Majesty, yesterday more than ten Shandong scholars went to the Ministry of Rites to complain, accusing Liu Sanwu, the deputy chief examiner, Ji Shan, Bai Xin, and an official of the Ministry of Rites for personal fraud in the imperial examination, biased the southern scholars, and made the imperial examination untrustworthy in the world." Jiang Xian paused slightly and continued: "Today, dozens of northern scholars from Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other countries went to the Ministry of Rites to complain, and now in the streets and alleys of Yingtian City, rumors have gradually risen, some say that the officials of the Ministry of Rites discriminate against the northern scholars, and even say that Liu Sanwu, Ji Shan, Bai Xin and others have received hundreds of taels of silver. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help sneering when he heard this: "These old pedants cherish their wings, and they cherish the fame of Qingliu more than their lives, and they have collected hundreds of taels of silver, which is absurd." Speaking of this, he stared at Jiang Xian and said lightly: "Detain all the scholars who complained during the day in Jinyi Wei Prison, and they cannot be punished, and they will be discussed again tomorrow morning." ”

Jiang Xian saw Zhu Yuanzhang slowly get up and walked to the window, no longer paying attention to himself, so he immediately said awe-inspiringly: "Weichen obeys the order." With that, he left the imperial study backwards and went to direct the yamen to make arrangements. The reason why he came to report late this night is also to hope that the general will get up and clean up those civil officials who are above the temple and regard themselves as thorns in the eye and thorns in the flesh. During the day, he had already arranged for his shrewd subordinates to secretly follow the northern scholars who had complained, and found out where each person lived in the inn, and at this time, hundreds of subordinates in the yamen of the Jinyi Guard had already been waiting for him.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who stopped by the window, looked up at the bright moon in the dark night sky, and couldn't help frowning. According to Jiang Xian, rumors have already risen in Yingtian City, and I am afraid that those who patrol the city and the imperial history are already ready to move. The wind is born in the ground, from the end of the green apple, tomorrow's early dynasty, what kind of turbulent waves will the Ming Dynasty usher in? Recalling the years of the Nian Rong Horse War, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel relieved in his heart, turned around and sat down slowly behind the desk, flipping through the folds. Since it is a turbulent storm that will only be faced tomorrow morning, you might as well put it aside for the time being. In his life, he has faced countless near-deaths, and he has long been convinced in his heart that even if the river is reversed, he has the ability to turn the tide.