The weather was gloomy all the way, and the convoy arrived in Anqing in the evening. Although the weather was hot and humid along the way, fortunately it did not rain, and we bought a lot of time for the autumn harvest at home.
Because it was already evening when he arrived in Anqing City, Zhu Ping'an stayed in Anqing for one night and prepared to go to the riverside the next morning to look for the passenger ship to Yingtian.
The next morning, Zhu Ping'an checked out of the room and left the inn carrying his luggage. It was drizzling outside. Zhu Ping'an covered the luggage with a tarpaulin and walked towards the river with a bamboo umbrella.
After finding a small shop by the river, Zhu Pingan drank a bowl of old duck soup with the fried cakes made by his mother Chen. People along the Yangtze River love to eat duck. According to local people, duck is cool but warm in nature, and is best cooked. After breakfast, Zhu Pingan went straight to the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River wharf was bustling with people and masts.
The shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the pinnacle of the feudal period. Even though the eunuch Sanbao's voyages to the West has become history, the ships anchored in the Yangtze River at this time are still breathtaking. It is hard to imagine that such a large ship is a product of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Ping'an asked three boatmen for prices on the riverside, and settled on a passenger ship. He paid more than 300 wen for the ship's fare and boarded the ship. This was a large streamlined ship with a long hull, spacious and neat superstructure, fast speed, and comfortable accommodation.
Zhu Pingan paid for a third-class seat. The cabin he stayed in had four beds, but it was clean and tidy, with good air circulation, and the tables, chairs and beds were in good order. Meals were also provided, but of course, this required extra money to buy. It was my first time to take a long-distance boat, and it was quite fresh. After getting on the boat, Zhu Pingan put his luggage on the berth and opened the bay window. He could sit or lie down, holding the window frame and feeling the river breeze, which was very comfortable.
When the ship set sail, no one had come up to the room where Zhu Ping'an was. The price of a third-class seat was the price of a first-class seat, which was quite good. In the Ming Dynasty, there were many white dolphins in the Yangtze River. From time to time, white dolphins would follow the passenger ship outside the window. They would jump and jump, just like the dolphin show in the aquarium, which was very beautiful.
I left Baidi in the morning among the colorful clouds and returned to Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day.
The boat was sailing smoothly. The boat set out in the morning and arrived at the dock outside Yingtian City at noon the next day. When we arrived at Yingtian, the original dock was submerged due to the high water. The temporary dock was built with bamboo rafts and floating barrels. The owner and the staff of the passenger boat kept shouting, "Be careful to put both feet on the same board and pay attention to safety."
Carrying his luggage and standing outside Yingtian City, Zhu Ping'an suddenly felt like "I, Hu Hansan, have returned."
"Hey, hey, hey, the one in front, if you want to move, move aside. Don't block the way."
The rough voice of a man behind him shattered Zhu Ping'an's high-spirited feeling.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Zhu Ping'an turned his hand and bowed awkwardly, then made way.
"Oh, it's the scholar, my apologies." The man was also knowledgeable, and when he saw the student uniform on Zhu Ping'an, he couldn't help but speak in a more respectful tone. He stopped and let Zhu Ping'an go first.
"No, no, please go in." Zhu Ping'an bowed and motioned the other party to go first.
"You go first, I'm not in a hurry." The man shook his head.
Uh. Well, Zhu Ping'an, carrying his bag and holding an umbrella, walked towards Yingtian City first. After entering Yingtian, Zhu Ping'an went straight to the inn where he stayed last time.
The familiar Qinhuai River case. The familiar Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall, the familiar Confucius Temple, and soon we arrived at the inn where we stayed last time. Because we only spent less than two days on the road this time, and there were still about seventeen days before the imperial examination, there were not many people in the inn at this time.
As soon as Zhu Ping'an entered the inn, the innkeeper immediately recognized the first place in the imperial examination. He warmly welcomed Zhu Ping'an into the inn, and asked the waiter to get a dry towel and the waiter to pour ginger soup. He really felt at home.
"Mr. Zhu, you want to stay in the hotel, right? The room you stayed in last time is still reserved for you."
Perhaps because Zhu Ping'an's last case brought a lot of business to the store, the shopkeeper directly arranged Zhu Ping'an to stay in the upper room where he stayed last time. When it came time to pay, the shopkeeper repeatedly refused to accept the money, but only accepted it under Zhu Ping'an's insistence, but the price was one hundred coins less than the last time he paid for the attic.
The autumn rain outside the window refused to stop, like silver-gray sticky spider silk, weaving into a soft web, entangling the entire Yingtian.
It is true that every autumn rain brings a chill. It has only been two days. It was still very hot when I left home, but now I can feel the coolness.
Zhu Pingan packed his things, took a hot bath, changed into clean clothes, and sat at the table with his pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. He wrote a letter of peace, wrote down the address, the recipient, and other information, and asked the shop assistant downstairs to take time to deliver it to the nearby Minxin Bureau. Zhu Pingan only knew that there was a Minxin Bureau at that time, but he didn't know how much it cost. He gave the shop assistant a penny of change, and the extra money was used as his meal money.
The Minxin Bureau is a professional postal institution that emerged among the people during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. The emergence of the Minxin Bureau is the inevitable result of the growing development of private trade and private exchanges. Of course, Zhu Ping'an didn't care what the reason for his appearance was, as long as he could send the news of his safety to his parents.
In the evening, the shop assistant brought dinner and gave Zhu Ping'an a receipt with a private seal on it, and told Zhu Ping'an that the letter had been delivered to the Postal Service Bureau and that there were twenty cents left.
After thanking the shop assistant, Zhu Ping'an had dinner, then sat in front of the window, lit the oil lamp, and practiced writing policy papers.
After the boy's exam, the provincial exam, the metropolitan exam, the palace exam, etc., all have a considerable weight in policy essays. In addition, in ancient times, the evaluation of a person's talent was roughly divided into three parts: poetry, debate, and policy essays. Among them, the proportion of policy essays was no less than that of poetry. For example, Su Xun, one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties, is Su Shi's father. Have you heard of his poems? No, he became famous for a policy essay "On the Six Kingdoms". His comments on the Northern Song army and his ideas on combat were circulated among scholars and the court, making Su Xun one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties.
Although eight-part essays dominated the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court always focused on "policy essays" when selecting candidates for the imperial examinations, and the Ming Dynasty was no exception. Eight-part essays were just a style of writing, and those with outstanding writing skills were better, but your unique insights were the best choice. Especially during the palace examination, policy essays dominated the core. The emperor asked questions about current politics, farming, folk customs, etc. at the time, and the candidates answered them. This was the policy. For example: The emperor asked you how to deal with the Japanese invasion along the coast, and you came up with your own ideas, insights, and opinions.
Well, at this time, Zhu Ping'an was trying to write a policy paper on how to pacify the Japanese invaders along the coast.
"Everything the Japanese need is produced in our great China. For example, the mats they need in their houses are woven in Chang'an, Hangzhou; women need cosmetics, and fans and lacquer workers need gold and silver foil, all made in Wulin; other things, such as porcelain from Rao, silk and cotton from Hu, gauze and silk from Zhang, and cotton cloth from Song, are especially valued by them.
The Japanese have lost their morals and music, the bandits are fighting each other, the Japanese have not been civilized, and they are greedy for the prosperity of our great China, and they are also motivated by their livelihood. The Japanese have plundered the sea and attacked Shandong, Zhili, Zhejiang, and the coastal counties of Fujian. The bandits are getting more and more rampant.
The reason why the barbarians are a threat to the coastal areas is not because the Japanese barbarians dare to invade China, but because China has become the barbarian. The government has no way to educate and care for them. They are forced by hunger and cold to become bandits, and there is no way to disperse them or recruit them. As a result, the situation has become serious, and they have linked their boats and built camps. The barbarian soldiers have burned the Chinese ships.
After finishing, Zhu Pingan read it once, then suddenly crumpled it up and threw it into the trash can. After thinking for a while, he picked it up again and burned it near the oil lamp.
Now is the time when Jiajing was making elixirs and Yan Song was in power. He said there were a lot of problems such as corrupt administration and disorganized military. But the emperor is granting special privileges because of the frequent auspicious signs in the prosperous times. If he reports all these problems, isn't that a slap in the emperor's face? He is also reporting Yan Song. Yan Song has many minions, and he is so small now. If any of Yan Song's minions move their little fingers, he will be sent to the Jinyiwei or Dongchang prison.
Yan Song is a treacherous minister, but now is not the time to confront him head-on.
So Zhu Pingan took out another piece of rice paper, and under the light of the oil lamp, he changed his train of thought and wrote another article. (To be continued.)
(This book is collected from the source website. Please go to the latest chapters. The chapters are clear, without pop-ups, and updated quickly)