Hexi Road is not an overly rich place, compared to Jianghuai Road, Henan Road is far behind. But there is Longxi County in Hexi Road, and there are several aristocratic families in Longxi County that can be ranked among the top fifteen in the entire court of the Sui Dynasty. The most famous one is the Li family in Xiangcheng.
Among the aristocratic families in Longxi, the Li family is the most special one. According to the background, this family that has risen for less than a hundred years cannot be compared with the Yu family, the Liu family, or even the Cui family. Aristocratic families like the Yu family and the Liu family were famous all over the world before the founding of the Sui Dynasty. And the Li family was able to make a fortune because of the Great Sui Dynasty's dominance in the Central Plains, and it was not until the previous head of the family, Li Luan, that it really became a first-class family.
But there is no doubt that it is precisely because of His Majesty's trust in the Longxi Li family that this family, which is still very young compared to other aristocratic families, has become the leading family in Xiangcheng, Longxi County, and even Hexi Road.
There are one hundred and forty cities in Hexi Road. When recruiting students from the Academy of Martial Arts, each of the one hundred and forty cities selects a young talent to take the exam. Regardless of whether the city is large or small, there is only one place. The candidates for Xiangcheng's previous two Yanwuyuan examinations were all from the Li family, and the person selected six years ago is the current Fan Guya General Li Xiaozong. Li Fubo, who was selected three years ago, is said to be even better than Li Xiaozong, and he has been ranked among the top three in every assessment of the Academy of Martial Arts in the past three years.
This achievement is enough to make the Li family proud.
You must know that after each class of students from the Academy of Martial Arts graduates, the top three students will be directly removed by the Ministry of War. Worst of all, he was directly named a fifth-rank general.
The recruiting slogan of the Academy of Martial Arts is that regardless of family background, as long as you have talent and learning, you can apply for the election. But this is just a slogan, those children from poor families have no chance to become candidates at all. Only one student is selected for each city. In the twenty-four worlds of the Sui Dynasty, there were thousands of cities, and the Academy of Martial Arts only took 300 students. How could it be possible for a tenth of the enrollment rate to fall on someone from a poor family
Only choose one person per city, still want to be fair
Fairness has always been proclaimed.
However, it is said that because of this incident, Dean Zhou of the Yanwu Academy and His Majesty the Emperor of the Sui Dynasty had a very fierce quarrel. According to Dean Zhou, since the system of one examinee per city was established, it is necessary to formulate another One, that is, candidates from aristocratic families and children from poor families must score fifty to five. Half of the children of the aristocratic family, half of the children of the humble family. The emperor smiled at the time and said that regardless of the background of the candidates, isn't it enough that you have obtained countless outstanding students
It doesn't matter if you come from a poor family or from a family. Candidates are selected from those who are both excellent in character and learning, and from among them, the best ones are selected to enter the Academy of Martial Arts. Even if they were all from aristocratic families, could there be fewer good students in the Academy of Martial Arts
Hearing the emperor's words, Dean Zhou walked away in a huff. Coldly throwing down the words Yiye Blind Eyes, the emperor ignored them and left directly.
His Majesty the Emperor was furious when he heard these four words, and woke up after sitting quietly for half an hour. Immediately thereafter, a decree was made to change the rules for the admission of candidates to the Academy of Martial Arts, adding one more than one person per city, each guard soldier, soldier of each county, and frontier army select outstanding talents, and report to the Ministry of War to take the exam of the Academy of Martial Arts. The number of candidates is equivalent to that of the candidates selected by each city, and the official position of candidates from military and military backgrounds cannot exceed that of a school lieutenant.
In this way, it is the real opportunity for the poor family to enter the Yanwu Academy and become a blockbuster.
Dean Zhou, who returned to Qingluan Mountain, heard the emperor's will, and then smiled and said to himself, fortunately, he was not completely confused. In the entire Sui court, only two people dared to directly accuse the emperor of his faults. One of them is Huai Qiugong, the elder of the Ministry of Rites of the Three Dynasties, and the other is naturally Zhou Banchuan of the Academy of Martial Arts.
However, Huai Qiugong's accusation of the emperor's fault was limited to etiquette and learning.
Huai Qiugong was the emperor's teacher, and he often hit the emperor's palms when he was in the Taimiao.
Zhou Banchuan was not the case, he was the one who dared to smash the emperor's teacup.
The emperor once joked that the Academy of Martial Arts was indispensable for the selection of good talents for the Sui Dynasty. But the Academy of Martial Arts does not belong to me, but to Zhou Banchuan.
Fang Jie caught up with the good time and caught up with the Martial Arts Academy to open the door to the soldiers at the bottom of the army.
However, the children of nobles have always been hostile to candidates from the military, the reason is very simple. If there are no candidates from the military, then the Academy of Martial Arts will draw 300 students from the thousands of students referred. But now, the Academy of Martial Arts is drawing 300 people from nearly 10,000 people. For no reason, half of the places were robbed by those low-born soldiers, how could they not be angry
Li Yuan was even more angry, because Yang Xiuchen, the Governor of Hexi Province, recommended the recruitment of the Martial Arts Academy this time, that idiot from the Cui family. How could he, who is so proud and arrogant, accept it
In the previous two sessions, talents were selected from his Li family. Li Xiaozong was nothing more than a lowly figure from the Li family. When he graduated, he was ranked among the top five in the martial arts academy. Li Fubo is the legitimate son of Li's parents' house, and he is even more competitive. Now that he is about to graduate, there is no problem in entering the top three.
And Li Yuan is also the legitimate son of the Li family, and his status is much higher than that of Li Xiaozong. As long as it is in the Li family, even if Li Xiaozong has a military position of the fifth rank, even if he is his uncle in terms of seniority, as long as he is in the Li family compound, Li Xiaozong will take the initiative to make way for him when he sees him.
How can a person who is a concubine be able to do it? I can not
This was Li Yuan's greatest anger, even more angry than learning that Cui Lueshang had become a candidate for the Yanwu Academy.
In the dense forest of Mushan, he knew that as long as he showed his words a little bit, the sycophants around him would definitely do what he wanted. If Cui Lueshang is disabled, who else in Xiangcheng is more suitable than him to enter the martial arts academy
It's just a person who is disabled, even if the person who is disabled is from a family, it's no big deal... His father is also surnamed Li!
…
…
When Fang Jie found Cui Lueshang, the guy was washing his face by the stream down the mountain. A person from a family is the most important in appearance, his face is already cleaner than Fang Jie's buttocks. But he was washing vigorously. If Fang Jie didn't stop it, it was very possible to wash his bald skin.
Fang Jie knew that Cui Lueshang washed his face not because it was dirty, but because it was hot.
After giving each of Cui Lueshang's servants a piece of silver, he squatted down beside Cui Lueshang with a smile on his face: "Brother Cui...don't wash it anymore, it will bleed."
Cui Lueshang looked back and saw that it was Fang Jie. He was surprised for a moment, and then he was annoyed: "I don't have the face to go back to Xiangcheng. It's good to wash out the blood. No one will know me if I bleed. I don't know why. After thinking about your bad idea, you actually did such a disgraceful thing! Alas... it's not nice to meet people!"
Fang Jie chuckled and said, "Brother Cui, you don't have to worry about that. I know where those girls came from, and they didn't intend to enter Xiangcheng. Besides, only a few of your servants were present at the time. Could it be that they still Dare to speak out about this?"
"Those women won't enter Xiangcheng?"
Cui Lueshang was taken aback, not knowing whether to be happy or regretful: "How do you know?"
"They rushed to Chang'an City in a hurry, and if you think about it, they are so eye-catching in this remote place. If they enter Xiangcheng, they will inevitably cause a sensation. If they are entangled by those dignitaries again, think about it. It will be difficult to get out. So they rest here tonight, go to the town on the mountain side to buy what they need on the road, and leave early in the morning, and they will not go in if they go around Xiangcheng."
"That's good… "
Cui Lueshang smiled sheepishly: "However, the classmates who came with me also saw it. I escaped and didn't see them waiting for me just now. Obviously, it was because I was disdainful for doing that nasty thing, and I was ashamed to be with me. Go back first."
Fang Jiexin said that your good classmates were discussing how to break your limbs in the woods, so he naturally had no time to talk to you.
"Just now I saw that they went up the mountain, maybe they were looking for a place to stay."
Fang Jie comforted: "I bet they will come back to you soon. If you are really good brothers, how can you hurt your feelings because of such trivial things?"
"Right… "
Cui Lueshang said with emotion: "They are all sincere to me, and they are all life-threatening friendships."
Fang Xie scolded an idiot in his heart, for the life-saving friendship, everyone wants to kill you now.
Just as he was talking about this, Li Yuan, a suave and suave son of the Li family, dressed in white, with a slender figure and a face like a crown jade, walked over from a distance with Shi Shiran, his followers. It was still far away, and Li Yuan said loudly: "Lue Shang, where are you going? Just now we went to the Taoist temple in the middle of the mountain to donate incense money and live there at night. We waited and waited, but we didn't see you. I had no choice but to go down the mountain to look for it again, you are so excited to watch the scenery here!"
Cui Lueshang said in a low voice to Fang Xie: "Sure enough, you were right. This is the real good brother."
Fang Jie followed him to stand up, and walked towards Li Yuan and the others slowly. Although the clothes on his body are scholarly styles, they are not brocade clothes. So compared with the handsome Mr. Li Yuan, he looks much shabby. It's just that he has a handsome face. Although he can't be said to be extremely handsome, he is still comfortable to look at.
Li Yuan had a photographic memory since he was a child, and he remembered that the young man next to Cui Lueshang was the wild boy who peed on the hillside. At this time, seeing him standing with Cui Lueshang was a bit surprised, but after thinking about it, maybe this person and Cui Lueshang were old acquaintances, otherwise how could they be so familiar? You must know that Cui Lueshang is an outlier in Xiangcheng, not only he has good friends with the princes of aristocratic families, but also many students from poor families in the city have many contacts with him.
The most stupid sentence of this fool is that there are many heroes who slaughter dogs. When Li Yuan and the others heard it, they almost laughed out of their teeth.
"Who is this?"
Li Yuan bowed his hands slightly to Fang Jie as a salute, although he couldn't find anything wrong with it, the undisguised contempt on his face made people uncomfortable. Fang Jie was not happy with the surname Li, but he was even more disgusted seeing Li Yuan's superior appearance. People from aristocratic families look like this. They obviously look down on those who are not as good as them, but in order to show their etiquette, even they have to pretend to be polite even to traffickers and pawns.
This kind of affectation was particularly disgusting to Fang Jie.
"My surname is Shang. I come from the border town of Fangu. I'm a small businessman."
When it comes to acting, Fang Jie will naturally not lose to others. He cupped his fists in return, and his waist was bent extremely. The expression on the face is also humble, and there is even a kind of fear in the eyes that will never be doubted. This feeling, as if he really felt inferior to others.
"I heard that Fangu City is full of big business."
Li Yuan smiled and said: "I heard that the Shu brocade trafficked from the land of Xichuan to Fangu can sell twice as much silver as that in the Central Plains? That's really not a minority, can you earn five hundred coins for a trip? See With Mr. Shang’s attitude, his annual income should be tens of thousands of dollars, even in Xiangcheng, he can be considered a wealthy family.”
Fang Jie smiled and said: "Don't call me son, I don't have any fame."
"Ha ha!"
Li Yuan smiled and said: "You are very knowledgeable and interesting."
Although the Sui Dynasty did not have any clear classification of the common people, since ancient times, businessmen were the most looked down upon, with scholars, farmers, businessmen, and merchants having the lowest status. Even a poor and stubborn farmer who meets a businessman on a narrow road can proudly raise his head and wait for the other party to make way.
Fang Jie laughed a few times along with him, and then said cautiously: "Young Master Cui and I hit it off right away, and just now I wanted to invite him to have a drink at night. It just so happened that I hunted some wild game on the mountain before. have a drink?"
The short man scolded: "Where you have time to drink with you, you can do whatever you want! Please discuss, we have already set up a good table at the Taoist temple, let's go."
Cui Lueshang looked at Fang Jie in embarrassment, and just as he was about to apologize to him, he heard Li Yuan say with a smile: "You can always eat the food from the Taoist temple on the mountain, but this brother Shang can't eat game. Liu Yineng, you It’s just so vulgar. Brother Shang kindly invites you, isn’t it because you refuse to be afraid of breaking Brother Shang’s heart?”
He clasped his fists at the other party and said in a gentle and polite tone: "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders. I will bother Brother Shang tonight."
The quick change in his attitude before and after is admirable. Fang Jie sneered inwardly, but his face was full of fear and fear: "Please hurry up, my servant thinks he has packed up the wild game, and I will cook meat for the distinguished guests myself tonight... Fortunately, there are still a few pots in the car." liquor."
Li Yuan said a few more polite words, and while Fang Jie turned around, he lowered his voice and said to the short and thin man named Liu Yineng: "You almost drove away someone who was a scapegoat, and you won't take advantage of it... Stupid !"
Liu Yineng was stunned for a moment before he understood. He couldn't help but gave a thumbs up and praised, "High! It's really high!"