The light rain on the heavenly street is like a crisp, and the geographical location of the capital is closer to the south from the map, so at this time of year, the autumn rain has also begun.

But this kind of weather is very unpleasant for candidates who are about to enter the examination room, because when it rains, those who read books will become sentimental and really have no inspiration to write those magnificent essays.

There were four subjects in the imperial examination of Da Chu, namely arithmetic, literary talent, political theory, and law.

Among them, the first three are not as important as the last subject, because most of the scholars after the middle school are going to be sent to various places to be parents and officials, and they are not familiar with the laws of Dachu.

These exams take a total of five days, and all the students are asked to go into a room, and they have to eat, drink, and sleep in it during the exam.

Today's Da Chu is quite good, and he has built an examination room for candidates, and the room is not big, but it is also reasonably arranged. You must know that in the previous dynasty, the examination room was almost the same as a kennel.

When the exam starts, the examiner will hand them out the test papers in one go, as long as they can complete the answers within five days and hand them in.

In fact, for these candidates, the five-day exam time is nothing, and it will pass in the blink of an eye, and the really difficult thing is the waiting time for half a month after the exam.

......

"Hey, Lao Feng, look at this candidate's test paper, the answer is not bad. ”

This voice came from the yamen of the Ministry of Officials, who was responsible for marking the test papers for the candidates, and it was two Wai Lang who were responsible for marking the papers.

"Well, that's good, let me see if there's his name on the list. ”

The middle-aged man named Lao Feng took the test paper and looked at it, and then picked up a yellow cloth full of names from the side and checked it one by one with the names of the candidates on the test paper.

He looked carefully at both sides, but he still didn't find the candidate's name.

"It's a pity, but as long as he gives a gift of one hundred taels, I will guarantee him. ”

"What?

"yes!"

Lao Feng's tone was full of helplessness.

"Why don't you show the test paper to Lord Squire?Isn't there a quota that doesn't require the name on the gift list?"

This year, ninety percent of the quota was nominally sold, but in fact it was sold ninety percent of the quota, and the powerful and powerful people in the court all came to erect a flag to share dividends. ”

Lao Feng said even more helplessly to the man who was about the same age as him next to him.

In fact, there are no dividends for small employees like them, at most they have dozens of taels of overtime pay, but almost all the work related to the exam is done by them.

"Isn't that still half a percent, as long as we put a little effort into handing it over, maybe he will have a chance. ”

Lao Feng first looked left and right, and when he was sure that everyone else was doing their own work and no one cared about them, he put his mouth into the old Qi's ear and whispered.

"Have you forgotten that the top five have already been chosen? In other words, there is not a single quota for the scholars to grab this year!"

Lao Qi's face suddenly became ugly, this is to block the way of the world's scholars!

"Those people who are difficult to reach above are not afraid of the emperor?"

"Afraid!?"

Lao Feng's tone was a little strange.

"In this capital, as long as the officials above the third grade are not involved in this matter, if they gather their forces together, even the emperor will have no problem with them!"

After finishing speaking, Lao realized that he seemed to have said the wrong thing, so he immediately changed his words.

"By the way, except for Taishi Lu Xiangrui, the others are Su Xiang, who also has a share!"

"Alas, forget it, let's not get involved in the games played by the big guys. ”

As he spoke, Lao Qi threw the exam paper that he judged to be quite good into the pile of test papers next to him......

It didn't take long for the old Qi who made the sound to laugh.

"Lao Feng, look, look, what kind of fool is this, he wrote a five-character quatrain in the subject of Wencai, I'll read it to you!"

Then, Lao Qi shook his head while reading.

"The stone on the left is big, and the stone on the right is big. If you want to say who is the biggest, neither is small!"

Show me, Lao Feng snatched the test paper from his hand, and let him laugh next to him until he was about to lose his breath.

Qian Dabao!

There was such a name written in the name of the examinee in the exam paper, and then, when Lao Feng picked up the list of gift money, this name was ranked sixth, and the ranking was only behind the five sons and brothers in the capital.

And on that yellow cloth, there was a maddening number written after his name.

Eight million taels! This rank was bought by his family for a full eight million taels of silver.

"Old Qi, stop laughing, stop laughing!"

He interrupted Qi Baihe, who was still laughing, and was about to tell him this cruel truth.

"I said, Feng Yonglin, what's wrong with you? Aren't you usually like this? Isn't this poem funny?"

"You laugh at a fart, I think it's funny because you're funny, and you're still in sixth place!

"How is this possible!"

Qi Baihe snatched the yellow cloth full of names from Feng Yonglin's hand in disbelief, and looked at it for thirty seconds before putting down the list in despair.

"Dead end! The dead end of the previous dynasty! In the long run, my Da Chu will follow in the footsteps of the previous dynasty!"

Although the words were fierce, he didn't dare to amplify his voice, if this was listened to by some people with a heart, it was not clear whether Da Chu would die or not, but he was about to embark on a dead end.

In the final analysis, he Qi Baihe is just a small five-grade outsider, and if he wants to do something, it is just a futile effort that he has no power to return to. If you can't say it well, you will lose your job because of this sentence!

Helplessly, he put the test paper full of "big stones" into the small handful of Zhongju......

At the same time, in the yamen of this ministry, in the independent office room of Shangshu Sun Liufang, Zhou Mowu, the left waiter, and Zheng Liang, the right waiter, were sorting out a large number of silver tickets.

The denominations of these silver bills range from large to small, the smallest one is only a hundred taels, but the largest is a staggering million taels.

"Lord Sun, all the silver tickets obtained from this trading rank are here, a total of 32,567,800 taels of silver, and besides, we have already divided the silver according to the share of each household in the capital, so we sent someone to send the silver over!"

"Three thousand two million five hundred and sixty-seven thousand eight hundred taels!"

Sun Liufang repeated the number.

"Doesn't it mean that there are still people in our Dachu who don't have enough to eat? But why can this small scientific expedition scavenge for so much silver? It seems that the poor are still those of us who are officials!"

He took the silver ticket from the hand of Zhou Mowu, the left waiter.

"It's a pity, but only two million taels belong to me. ”

As he spoke, a hint of loss appeared in his eyes.

"My lord, isn't it easy to want silver? If they want to become officials, there is only one way to conduct scientific research, as long as we tighten the entrance, then we still have the final say!"

Zheng Liang, who was holding the dividend list in his hand, spoke, and his tone was a little calm.

"That's right, Lord Sun, didn't you say a few days ago that you want to lift the ban on those farming and reading families? Those families who want to be officials and have gone crazy have accumulated wealth for hundreds of years, so it's not too much to let them take out a small part of it to change their ranking!"

Then, Zhou Mowu also fanned the flames on the side.

"That's right, then we will raise the price by one percent next year, as for those families, if anyone comes, then don't blame us for opening our mouths!"

So saying, the three men in the room laughed heartily together, as if the silver had fallen into their pockets.

After laughing, Sun Liufangzhi said to Zheng Liang proudly.

"Show me the list!"

took the list, and the first name on it was Su Wang, with the words three million written on the back of him.

Next, there are princes, princes, and three imperial envoys, etc.

"Just because there is an extra subordinate character behind my first product, my dividend is less than one million taels, which is still on the premise that I can get an extra 500,000 taels if I am the secretary of the ministry. ”

Looking at the names of those official positions at the top of the list, Sun Liufang's eyes became red!

"Sooner or later, I'm going to take off the word 'from' on the top of my head!"

After finishing speaking, he played with the silver ticket in his hand with great interest, and counted it seriously, until he was bored, he handed the silver ticket to Zhou Mowu.

"According to the dividends on the list, send the money to the mansions of all the adults!"

"Yes!"

After Zhou Mowu nodded, he bowed down and retreated with the silver ticket, which also made Sun Liufang's office room quiet.

......

In front of the Su Mansion, a small official dressed in an eight-grade official uniform and holding a small black cloth bag in his hand was calling the door, and a person who looked like a housekeeper opened the door and welcomed him in...

"Su Xiang, the total income from this trading ranking is 32,567,800 taels of silver! This is your share and dividend list, please take a look!"

The little official respectfully handed over the small black cloth bag! Su Wang opened it after taking it.

Ignoring the three million-dollar silver tickets, he pulled out the list and looked at it.

"I heard that this time, your Lord Sun Liufang Sun sold all the rankings?"

The little official lowered his head more and more.

"Back to Su Xiang, Lord Sun also hopes that everyone's dividends can be more, besides, it doesn't matter whether there is a half-percent quota or not, and it is of no real use to Da Chu!"

"The human heart is not enough to swallow the elephant!"

Su Wang shook his head and sighed, and then threw the little black cloth bag back to the little official.

"I'm sorry for you to help me bring a sentence to Sun Liufang, just say that my Su family will not be involved in this matter in the future, so I don't have to worry about my Su family's feelings, in addition, for the sake of my colleagues for decades, I persuaded him: There is a fixed number of how much food a person can eat in this life, and he should leave after eating!"

"Yes, yes, yes!

The little official glanced at the Minister of State inexplicably, and then picked up the cloth bag from the ground and turned around and ran away, he had to hurry up and go back to report the situation to Lord Shangshu.

Su Wang stood in place with deep eyes and muttered to himself.

"I'm Da Chu, I'm really about to get to such a terminally ill situation..."