In the early autumn of Yonglong, it will be past the middle of summer, the autumn coolness in the south of the Yangtze River has not yet arrived, and the people in the market have not added more clothes, but the sound of cicadas on the treetops is about to stop.

Today's Suzhou is unusual, the market is a little less noisy, and the government is a little more popular. Although the flow of people in Suzhou is chaotic at this time, there are some rules from the inside to the outside, most of the people closest to the government are scholars in long robes, followed by quite graceful and wealthy businessmen, and finally the people who are watching the lively market, as for the official eunuchs, they have already entered the palace in advance, so as to know the news for the first time.

Most of the scholars in front of the government office looked eager, and they kept stroking their foreheads with their sleeves when it was clear that the midsummer had passed, while the few people who were calm on the surface but turned the river and the sea in their hearts turned over the river and the sea, but their hands were unconsciously entangled.

The businessmen in the back were talking to each other with a sneer, pointing to a young man with an extraordinary bearing in front of them from time to time, and the corners of their smiling mouths were curled up to their cheeks.

The onlookers were all in different expressions, some were the families of the people who read in front of them, all of them lowered their eyes and secretly prayed for blessings; some lean men with squirrel-eyed eyes squinted their eyes; and some of the ladies with broken mouths discussed whether the neighbors would be enlightened and take their chickens and dogs to heaven......

But as the five bells rang, the noise gradually dissipated, and everyone held their breath, not daring to make a sound, looking at the slowly opening door of the Suzhou Mansion, their eyes widened.

As the gate opened, two lines of armor poured out of it, guarding both sides, and then three officials in official uniforms walked out slowly and stood in front of the door.

The man at the head was about forty years old, dressed in green clothes, wearing a crown on his head, and holding a rectangular wooden box with two seals crossed on it.

Seeing the official uniform of the person at the head, the scholars standing in front were all startled, and their breathing became even more cramped, and the businessmen or ordinary people who knew the goods in the back almost screamed! The people in green clothes and the five crowns were actually dignified and five-grade masters who read out the list......

Although everyone didn't make a sound, but the various demeanors made the atmosphere of the scene a little weird, the two people behind the five-grade officials already felt a little uneasy, and the standing body was a little unconsciously swaying, but the five-grade master headed by him seemed to be unconscious, and his face was still unshocked.

The five-product master held the long box with one hand, tore open the seal with one hand, took out a list from it, and slowly opened it.

"In this scientific examination, I raised more than 400 people from Jiangnan Province to participate in the palace examination, and the middle jinshi ......" Speaking of this, the Wupin senior deliberately raised his voice, causing everyone to stretch their necks.

"One hundred and sixteen!"

With the heavy words of the five-grade master, everyone gasped, you must know that every three years of scientific examination, only 300 jinshi are taken! This time, Jiangnan Province occupies 40 percent, which is an earth-shattering event. Although Jiangnan is the best in the world, in recent years, with the prosperity of Dawu, there have been more and more scribes from all over the country, and the number of Jinshi in the Jiangnan examination is only two percent.

If you are in a good mood to catch up with Your Majesty, these 116 Jinshi are enough for all the officials in Jiangnan to be collectively promoted to the next level, no wonder even the officials who read out the list are all five-grade members.

"One hundred and two in the top three, one hundred and thirteen in the second class!" shouted twice, and everyone was shocked again, the thirteen second-class jinshi were already more than twice the size of the last scientific examination.

"Huh!?" one of them asked, "What about the other one?" and everyone looked sideways, as if to say, "Don't you know how to count when we do?"

I saw that the Wupin senior smiled slightly and said: "In this scientific expedition, one person from Jiangnan Province is a Jinshi and the first ...... Take the top prize!"

The crowd breathed for a while, and then there was a burst of cheer.

"Sanjia, the same Jinshi origin: Bai Lanqiu, Danyang County, Runzhou, Xu Jiu, Yongjia County, Wenzhou, Xu Jiu......" The three hundred and two people read for half an hour, Rao is Wupin member can not avoid a dry mouth, after reading more than seventy, the voice has long since lost the original high-pitched, and even a little sluggish in the end, if the sharp-eyed accompanying officer behind him secretly tugged the belt, the names of the last few people may only be heard by the three of them.

"Erjia, the person who was born as a jinshi:" When he read Erjia, this official seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, and he returned to his initial impassionedness, and read a full thirteen names in one breath.

"Huh......" The chief of the five grades took a breath and shouted: "Jinshi and the first champion:"

After this sound, the audience couldn't even hear the sound of breathing.

"Poyang County, Raozhou: Xu Liangsheng!"

A long time ago, there was a saying: Half of the fish and rice in the world are out of the south of the Yangtze River.

In fact, at least seventy percent of the world's fish and rice come from Jiangnan! In addition to grain, there is no shortage of rich and noble businessmen, no shortage of scholars, and the most important thing is that there is no shortage of scholars. learned the art of literature and martial arts, sold it to the emperor's family, and then passed it back to Jiangnan, making this land more and more outstanding.

But since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the fragrance of books in the south of the Yangtze River seems to have declined a lot, and the luck of the scholars seems to have been trampled by the iron hooves of the southward counterinsurgency several times.

In front of the yamen of Suzhou Mansion, after the Wupin officials announced the list, some people were happy and some were worried, but no matter what attitude they made, they were almost looking for this person named Xu Liangsheng, but they couldn't find half of him in the whole of Suzhou.

At this time, someone suggested to Xiao Ye, the assassin of Suzhou, that this person named Xu Liangsheng might come to Suzhou, maybe in his hometown. After hearing this, Xiao Ye immediately dispatched a soldier for 600 miles to rush to Poyang County.

There is a clear law in the imperial court that everything under the war is at most 400 miles urgent, but Xiao Ye, who has been the assassin of Suzhou for 14 years and is also the deputy economic envoy of Jiangnan Province, has not managed so much, he just wants to find this person named Xu Liangsheng as soon as possible.

Poyang County is adjacent to Poyang Lake, so it is so named.

Poyang County is quite rich on the whole, although it is not as good as Suzhou and Hangzhou, but because it is close to Poyang Lake, the people live a good life every year by selling fish, but this is only for the merchants and ordinary people who sell fish, and the life of the fishermen is a miserable.

Fan Ji has been the county guard of Poyang County for more than 20 years, and when he first arrived, he was still working hard, but the good times did not last long, and he couldn't stand the gold and silver treasures of people from all walks of life, and he became a corrupt official within a year.

At first, there was some restraint, but they only engaged in some smuggling activities of tax evasion and tax evasion, but later they began to intensify their efforts to loot the people's fat and ointment, first clearly stipulating the fishermen's monthly fishing period, and later adding a "fish trafficking tax"! The so-called "fish trafficking tax" Although it is explained that the tax is set to the merchant, but in fact, the merchant who sells the fish has already opened up the relationship with the county guard, and the tax is still paid by the fishermen in the final analysis, and the fishermen who have been restricted in the harvest are even more bitter.

Xu Liangsheng was born in a fisherman's family, his parents overturned the boat in the early years of fishing, died early, all rely on his elderly grandfather to make a living from fishing, although it is to make a living, in fact, it can be said that he is struggling and stealing, a meal and a half full meal every day, sometimes he drinks two mouthfuls of fish head soup, and he can stew a whole big fish in clear soup and little water during the New Year's Festival, and the fish that is caught on weekdays are used to sell.

Although Xu Liangsheng's grandfather never complained to Xu Liangsheng about the bitter water, for fear that his grandson, who could read and write, would be angry and go out to make a living to supplement the family, Xu Liangsheng has always had some understanding of the fish selling industry, at least in terms of selling money.

Normally, a two-pound fish can be sold to a merchant for two pennies, but at least half of it must be used to pay the messy tax money, what "fish trafficking tax" and "fishing boat tax", there is still one penny left, but then you have to face some "ruffians" to exploit it, and it would be good to have two or three copper plates left for one penny.

Although Xu Liangsheng's grandfather is old, his fishing skills are really good, but although he can catch twenty or thirty catties of fish every day, he only has five or six Wen in his hand, and the price of Poyang County is extremely expensive, and a bucket of rice costs eighty Wen!

In addition to repairing fishing boats and nets, the monthly hard work can only buy a bucket of rice, a bag of salt and dozens of vegetable leaves.

Xu Liangsheng went to Beijing to take the exam last month, and Xu Liangsheng's grandfather sold all the fishing boats, so he scraped together a small half of the money for Xu Liangsheng's travel expenses. In fact, people from all over the country went to Beijing to take the exam, and the local government should help the candidates to enter Beijing, but the county guard was reluctant to pay even a little bit of travel expenses.

Xu Liangsheng wanted to rush to Suzhou the day before yesterday to wait for the unveiling, but the family really couldn't afford a little bit of travel expenses, and after the fishing boat was sold, it was even more difficult to maintain his livelihood.

Xu Liangsheng was looking at the fifteen scriptures he had read for ten years at this time, wondering if he should burn them all, his grandfather was getting old, and he couldn't eat even half a bowl of vegetable soup every day, let alone his grandfather who fished all day.

Laboriously carrying the fifteen books out of the door together, Xu Liangsheng took out a piece of firewood from the stove, held it in his hand, and tears flowed from the corners of his eyes.

Xu Liangsheng clearly remembered that the top book of "Analects" contained: If you learn and excel, you will be a scholar, but you, who are not even a poor student, should think more about how to live.

"Meng Ruyao, I can't marry you in a beautiful way......" Closing his eyes bitterly, Xu Liangsheng threw the firewood to the fifteen sage books that had accompanied him for ten years.

threw out the firewood, Xu Liangsheng sat on the ground, holding his forehead with both hands, crying bitterly.

When the grandfather, who had just returned from fishing, saw this, walked behind Xu Liangsheng, slapped Xu Liangsheng on the head, and shouted: "My stupid grandson, ......" and then collapsed on the ground.

This slap used up his ten years of hard work, and used up his strength to pick up twenty catties of fish pockets with half a bowl of vegetable soup every day.

"My stupid grandson, why can't you think about it. The old man muttered tremblingly, his mouth was full of hatred for iron and steel, he knew his grandson's thoughts, and if he didn't read, he would be blind for more than ten years of hard study, and his heart was full of sourness.

Just when the grandfather and grandson were crying bitterly, a fast horse came, and the leader dismounted and bowed down and asked, "But Xu Liangsheng?"

Xu Liangsheng stood up and replied suspiciously: "It's right down there, I don't know ......" As he was talking, his grandfather stopped Xu Liangsheng behind him, and said pitifully: "Ladies and gentlemen, my family even sold the fishing boat a few days ago, and I really don't have any money, please let us go......" As he spoke, he was about to kneel.

But how dare the person who asked him just now let him kneel, so he hurriedly ran over and helped his grandfather up, and said respectfully: "The old man is laughing, don't bother us little soldiers." "All the people in the rear have dismounted, clenching their fists.

Grandpa Xu Liangsheng was confused, but Xu Liangsheng seemed to know something, and asked in a slightly trembling voice: "But I got into the Jinshi?" When the man heard this, he quickly replied: "Yes!"

Xu Liangsheng and his grandfather glanced at each other, both saw the excitement and joy in each other's eyes, Xu Liangsheng then asked, "I don't know how many are below?"

The man took a deep breath and said in a loud voice: "Suzhou Mansion first-class scout congratulations to Zhuangyuanlang!"

The people in the rear shouted in unison:

"I'm waiting to congratulate Zhuangyuanlang!"