The corpses on the edge of the doorway were all breathless, their faces were blue and purple, their eyes tightly closed, but their posture showed a longing for life.

All of them didn't want to die, and they just kept begging the people outside, but it was this door that cut off the way for all of them to live.

Rescuers at the scene poured water into it several times, and although the flames were temporarily extinguished, smoke continued to pour out of it, so that no one dared to approach it again.

"Quick, everyone disperse around the house, be sure to stop the fire from spreading!"

Huarong Zhixian knew that it was impossible to extinguish the fire in the Liu family's mansion, so he organized people to control it around the Liu house to prevent the fire from spreading from the Liu house.

Because of the fear of "flying fire", some personnel were arranged to go to the roof next to it.

"Mother?"

"Lady?"

"The third?"

……

Liu Daxia had already pushed away the restraints of others, and when he came to the door more than a foot away, when he saw the identity of the pile of corpses clearly, it was like being struck by lightning.

He was originally the founder of the most brilliant family of the Liu family in hundreds of years, although the four sons were unproductive, but it did not prevent their Liu family from becoming the "king" of Huarong County.

It's just that today was originally the Mid-Autumn Festival for family reunions, but it turned out that just a fire made him a lonely man, and he was experiencing the greatest sorrow in his life.

Liu Daxia saw the corpses of his mother, wife and children, and suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood, and then the whole person collapsed to the ground, and cried sadly.

The fire had spread to the door, and the silk satin on the Liu family was very flammable, and many corpses were set on fire.

Liu Zhong looked at the rescuers who were trying to stop the spread of the fire, turned his head to look at Liu Daxia, who was crying sadly, but shook his head gently.

It's not that he wants to sympathize with Liu Daxia, but he just regrets that the Liu family died in the fire, but this situation is completely Liu Daxia's own fault.

Just now, Liu Daxia's wife and children were shouting for help behind the door, and even Liu Daxia's old mother begged, but Liu Daxia refused to let go.

In fact, he knew that Liu Daxia was lucky, but he hoped to solve the problem by doing nothing.

If the people in Liu's house succeeded in extinguishing the fire, or if he, the governor of Huguang, stood up and ordered the door to be opened to save people, then Liu Daxia would not need to be threatened by Wang Zhi.

It's just that Liu Daxia seems to have forgotten that the bargaining chip that Wang Zhi used to threaten was the lives of his entire family. Although he chose to confide in the truth at the last minute, it was too late.

"Wang Zhi, you're dead, you're dead! The old man's family and the old man died tragically at your hands, the world can no longer tolerate such a great evil person as you, and the sentient beings of Shilin will definitely eat your flesh and blood! After Liu Daxia's grief, he pointed at Wang Zhi and convicted loudly.

At this moment, a strong hatred swelled up in his heart.

He knew that the death of his family was irreparable, but Wang Zhi's actions just now were also certain death, and officials all over the world would attack Wang Zhi with this until Wang Zhi went to hell.

Wang Zhi is actually a cold-blooded person, even if Liu Daxia's family all died tragically in front of him, there was not much turmoil in his heart, and he even continued to sit leisurely on the chair and watch the play.

Facing Liu Daxia's accusation, his face did not show the slightest fear: "What is the world of corporal forest, the miscellaneous family only has His Majesty in their hearts!" ”

"If you lock my house and kill dozens of the old man's family, the people who read the world will be angry with the gods, and Your Majesty will not be able to protect you!" When Liu Daxia found out that Wang Zhi did not know that the emperor also had to "conform to the will of the people", he hated to point out the facts.

Liu Zhong knew that once the news of this place spread, those scholars would probably make up another truth, not only would Wang Zhi cause big trouble, but he would also be affected, and he also felt a trace of worry in his heart.

In fact, it is not that Liu Daxia is exaggerating, but that the reading group in this era is indeed very strong.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not preach "ruling the world with scholars", once scholars could find a strong reason to attack, then they would cooperate with the important ministers of the court, thus forming a force that the emperor feared.

Just like a literary website, although the writer is the object of the website's fish, if these writers are truly united into a rope, then the website will have to make certain concessions.

Liu Daxia burned Zheng He's archives that year, and he was already famous all over the world, and he was praised as a model for readers.

Now it is a fact that Wang Zhi sealed the door and threatened Liu Daxia with the lives of the Liu family, and it is also a fact that the Liu family was collectively burned to death, and there are many officials in Daming who hate Wang Zhi, this matter is destined to cause an uproar.

"The miscellaneous family is guilty or not, Your Majesty only counts when he says it! It's you, you confessed earlier, you could have saved people earlier, but you pretended not to hear your wife and children's cries for help, should you take a good look at yourself? Wang Zhi believes in the Son of Heaven, but he complains in reverse.

Although Li Wei knew that Wang Zhi was deliberately teasing Liu Daxia, he also turned his head to look at Liu Daxia, and Liu Daxia did have to bear some responsibility just now.

The outsiders couldn't distinguish the voices of the people calling for help inside, but Liu Daxia should have known that it was the old lady and his wife and children, but he didn't react the whole time.

It is not so much that Wang Zhi is cold-blooded, it is better to say that Liu Daxia is far from being filial on the surface, and is even a hypocrite.

This time there was still a chance to open the door to save people, but Liu Daxia refused to let go, resulting in missing the best opportunity, and Liu Daxia undoubtedly had to bear some responsibility.

"The old man is for millions of people in the southwest to avoid war, and for the Ming Dynasty to usher in Zhongxing!" Liu Daxia responded with justice and awe, and then knelt down sadly at the corpse at the door and said, "Mother, the child is not filial!" ”

"What a good one for the people of the Southwest! Not to mention whether your point of view is right or not, why did you end up recruiting again? Are you a loser to millions of people in the southwest? Wang Zhizhi didn't think that people like Liu Daxia could really pretend to be the people, so he deliberately provoked the authenticity.

Liu Zhong and the others nodded lightly, also feeling that Wang Zhi had some truth in what he said.

Putting aside the fact that the Annan archives belonged to the imperial court for the time being, Liu Daxia chose to loosen his mouth in the end, and his so-called righteousness has also been lost.

"The old man was coerced by you, and the emperor's order cannot be violated!" Most of the tears in Liu Daxia's eyes disappeared, and he defended with great concern.

The corners of Wang Zhi's mouth rose slightly, and he said with a murderous heart: "The emperor's order cannot be violated, but you have violated it!" As for coercion on you, I knew that you were afraid of coercion, and the miscellaneous family should torture you, not threaten you with the lives of your whole family! After all, you're the real culprit who killed your whole family! ”

"Wang Zhi, don't be here to be pestering! You killed dozens of people in my Liu family, heaven and earth can prove it, I, Liu Daxia, do not share the sky with you, and everyone in the world will be punished! Liu Daxia looked at Wang Zhi with gritted teeth and cursed.

Wang Zhi knew that those scholars must make a fuss about this matter, so he patted his ass and stood up and said: "There are no readers in the eyes of the miscellaneous family, and I advise you not to use chicken feathers as tokens, you should take care of yourself now!" If the southwest archives are still not found, you Liu Daxia will definitely be unable to escape death, or even Ling Chi's punishment! ”

In fact, this is not the end of the matter, not to mention whether Liu Daxia lied just now, and the archives in the collection may not be there.

It is precisely because of this that the most important thing now is to send the information of Liu Daxia's confession back to the palace, and His Majesty will find the Annan archives hidden by Liu Daxia, so as to formulate a more reasonable combat route.

The next day, Wang Zhi led the Shenji Battalion directly to Lianzhou Mansion in Guangdong, while Liu Zhong sent someone to release the criminal Liu Daxia to the capital, and the court would determine life and death.

The capital, the gate of Suncheon Gongyuan.

"The topic of our strategy this time is very tricky!"

"Isn't it? Geometry problems are all out! ”

"Fortunately, I've been paying attention to Diao Minji, otherwise I really don't know how to answer!"

……

After nine days and six nights of hard work, more than 3,000 candidates left from the gate of the Gongyuan one after another, ending their current Enke Township Examination, but they all found themselves with emotion.

The imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty has been a hundred years, and the predecessors who have painstakingly pursued fame have dismantled the Four Books and Five Classics paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, and have already explored a series of excellent model essays, such as "Wenfu Big Questions" and "Wenfu Small Questions" have already included all the key examination questions.

The current Baguwen questions are actually just a test of the candidate's memory, and they only need to memorize the standard answers to each sentence in the four books, and then write them silently.

The small questions of the eight-strand essay are ever-changing, since you can choose half a sentence, you can also cut it off, but the final result is that the candidates have more articles to memorize.

The topics of the four books of this year's township examination seem to be decent, but the difficulty is to put on the later policy topics, and the five policy topics are beyond the scope of the past.

"I'm not talking to you! This dynasty has always focused on practice, so there is no need for articles that have nothing to say, and His Majesty has allowed the review of the papers to be postponed for another seven days, so we have enough time to review the papers, and we can slowly review the papers and review the third policy articles! Song Cheng, who was wearing a three-grade official uniform, sat in the Jukui Hall and admonished the other five examiners.

At this moment, the deputy chief examiner Hanlin Xiu Lin Han was the only Hanlin official, and in the face of such a strong Song Cheng, he was finally forced to claim that he was.

After the new monarch ascended the throne, their respected Hanlin officials became the biggest losers.

More and more ministers can't get ahead, and now the chief examiner of the township examination who originally belonged to them has fallen on this Shuntian Mansion Yin, who was not from Hanlin.

What's even more desperate is that this arrangement will become customized.

Song Cheng knew that he was an experimenter in reform, but now countless pairs of eyes were staring at him, but he ignored the thoughts of Lin Han and others, and continued to devote himself to his review work.

In late August, the candidates in the capital finished their exams, but many people became even busier.

In the north of the city, in a house near the city wall, this yard is very clean, and there are two chickens in captivity, one a hen and the other a rooster.

Liu Ying went out with a white cotton cloth and said to her eldest daughter who was playing: "Big girl, you take good care of your brother at home, my mother took the cotton cloth to exchange for money, and came back to bring you candy to eat!" ”

As soon as the eldest girl heard that there was candy to eat, she immediately swallowed her saliva and nodded in agreement.

It used to take more than ten days to weave a piece of cotton cloth, but since the advent of this miraculous machine, the project has been shortened to five days, and this time it took her only two and a half days.

Liu Ying came to the door of the royal cloth store with a cotton cloth, and came to the cloth inspection area on the left according to the sign at the door, looking a little uneasy.

Things have to start before the Mid-Autumn Festival, where the whole city is openly looking for weavers who know how to weave.

After a few days of training in the courtyard behind the shop, the shop provided them with a shuttle loom and the cloth they weaved was exchanged for money.

Although there has been no expenditure, and there are even free meals during the training, the cotton cloth in his hand is the result of two and a half days of hard work.

It was precisely so, and she was still worried in her heart that this was an elaborate lie.

"Liu Ying in Jintaifang, north of the city?" There is an elderly shopkeeper here who is in charge of inspecting the cloth, and he raises his eyes and looks very serious about verifying his identity.

Liu Ying was so nervous that her palms were sweating, and she immediately nodded seriously: "It's the slave family!" ”

"If there is anything wrong with the shuttle loom, you can notify our people, and we will send someone to repair it! But remember, you can't dismantle the loom without permission! Shopkeeper Sun carefully inspected the cotton cloth and admonished him seriously.

Liu Ying is a well-behaved person, and this request is very reasonable, so he nodded heavily: "Slave family remember!" ”

"This cotton cloth you weave has passed the acceptance! After deducting your earlier cotton yarn 20 catties and 2 cents of silver, the use fee of the shuttle loom will be deducted 8 cents of silver at a time, so now you will be given 3 cents, and you will collect it! After the shopkeeper Sun settled the accounts, he handed over a piece of three-dollar silver.

Liu Ying took the three coins of silver that fell into the palm of his hand with both hands, feeling the weight of the three coins of silver, he couldn't believe his eyes and said, "Thank you!" ”

"No thanks, you deserve it! Grandpa Wei has already explained, we have a long-term cooperation, so you have to pay attention to your body! "Shopkeeper Sun has been working for decades, and now he likes his current position very much.

As he spoke, a middle-aged eunuch walked in from outside, with a white face, upright facial features, and a pair of eyes that seemed to be shining with wisdom.

"Grandpa Wei!" Shopkeeper Sun saw Wei Xuan appear and hurriedly stepped forward.

Wei Jun waved his hand to signal Shopkeeper Sun not to be polite, and asked with concern: "Shopkeeper Sun, our cotton cloth is sold to North Korea or Mongolia, as long as it meets the standard, don't do nitpicking for miscellaneous people!" ”

He was originally a eunuch in Tiju City, Guangdong, and was favored by Emperor Chenghua, but the new dynasty was impeached by civil officials for crimes such as encroaching on the treasures carried by Ali of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Fortunately, Xinjun did not listen to those civil officials, but he also summoned himself back. It turned out that he was running an errand in the Qianqing Palace, but not long ago, Qin Gui actually filled his own pocket and took over Qin Gui's position by himself.

Wei Wei knew that His Majesty was not pursuing profits, but wanted to meet the needs of Mongolia and Korea in advance of the production capacity of the capital, so as to obtain more vassal materials through the cotton trade.

"Father-in-law Wei, how dare the villain do such a conscience-defying thing, he just received a horse that weaves better than the weavers of our cloth factory!" Shopkeeper Sun displayed the cotton cloth he had just received, and his face was full of pride.

Wei Wei noticed the mediocre-looking woman next to her, and after asking the other party's name, she also released kindness and said, "Do a good job!" You're already a member of our Royal Cloth Shop! If anyone dares to bully you in Beijing, you tell the miscellaneous family, and the miscellaneous family will stand up for you! ”

"I haven't thanked Grandpa Wei yet!" Shopkeeper Sun immediately reminded.

"Grandpa Xie Wei!" Liu Ying faintly felt that this father-in-law Wei was very powerful, and he was grateful.

Wei Yan raised his hand to let Liu Ying leave, but his face was not overly excited.

This is his first important task to return to the capital, whether it is for the sake of loyalty to the emperor or for his own status, he needs to go all out.

Three coins of silver?

Liu Ying's hand was still tightly clutching the silver taels that had just been exchanged for weaving, and she felt a long-lost happiness in her heart.

Becoming rich through hard work seems to be a real possibility.

Her heart at the moment is extremely steady, if she can really exchange money through weaving for a long time, then she will definitely be able to get rid of the previous life of not having enough to eat.

Most importantly, it was like a dream to be able to support his children through his hard work, despite his dull and hectic days.

When Liu Ying left, Zhao Laosi's eldest son and daughter-in-law walked in here with a cloth ticket.

(End of chapter)