The fifth day of the first lunar month, also known as the fifth day.
After this day, all the shops on the street were open.
From time to time, the sound of firecrackers can be heard, and there are more pedestrians on the road, all dressed in new clothes, with smiles on their faces, full of joy for the New Year.
Located on the corner of the street, there is a very small stall.
The main body of the stall is a small cart with bamboo poles on it. There are some nets, purses, etc. on it, most of which are all kinds of flowers.
There were two small tadpoles in the back of the stall, with two children sitting on them. The older one is a boy with a stubborn head, and the smaller one is a girl. Although she is wearing a coarse cotton jacket and cotton trousers, it does not hide her appearance of pink and jade carvings.
There are also a few food stalls set up on the street. The stall owner is doing business, and he doesn't forget to watch the two children distracted. Seeing that the older boy knew how to look at his sister, and that someone walked to the stall and asked them what they needed to buy, they couldn't help but smile.
The children of the poor are in charge of their homes early, the children can be involved, and the parents can relax. That is, the man from the Shi family is not a thing, he is so poor, he even gets a concubine back, and he fights in the house every day, but he just doesn't know how to take on the responsibility of being a husband and a father.
The owner of the wonton stall couldn't help feeling a little distressed when he saw it, and asked, "Is your brother hungry? Uncle will give you a bowl of wontons. You and your sister will eat it first."
The boy named Cheng boy looked over and said, "No, uncle, mother has already bought breakfast for me and Xiao Tao'er."
The proprietress who sold the flatbread on the side whispered to the man: "What a sin, what do you think the man from the Shi family thought, he smashed all the pots and pans during the Chinese New Year, this family even has a problem with eating."
Her man was making cakes in front of the pot, and he was distracted and answered her: "You need to worry about it. If you smash it, you will smash it. The whole family doesn't need to eat it."
"The poor ones are the children and the Shi family, those two short-lived ones, who will worry about them."
"Let me say that the Shi family is not stupid. Anyway, I didn't point to the fact that the family could eat hot food. If you smash it, you will smash it. It will also prevent the Shi family man from asking her for money all day long and filling the mouth of the little woman. , but the two children couldn't take a bite. Now it's so easy, the mother and son eat outside, and go home after eating, and the two at home take care of them."
"Yeah, it's a sin."
"Old New Year's Eve, what are you sighing about? Take this cake for two young ones to eat, just as a happy New Year's Eve."
The proprietress hurried to get a hot cake and stuffed it for the two children. She didn't want the two children, but she insisted on it. She came back and said that the two children of the Shi family taught well. They didn't care about people asking for things, and they knew how to say thank you.
After a while, the wonton stall also sent bowls of wontons, and the two brothers and sisters ate from a large bowl.
When Chen Xiulan came back with the hot steamed buns, what she saw was such a scene.
"Mother." Cheng boy was a little uneasy.
"Eat it as soon as you eat it. Mother goes to give people money, and they don't owe us anything. How can we always eat."
Putting the buns up, Chen Xiulan took out the copper plate and went to the two stalls next to it to pay. The two stall owners didn't want it, saying it was for children.
She was really embarrassed, she turned her head and went back to her stall and took two flowers, which was considered to be the money for the meal.
Chen Xiulan came back to eat the buns, and Xiao Taoer wiped her mouth after eating and said, "Mother, the wonton soup is really delicious."
"Good drink mother will buy it for you tomorrow."
"Don't buy it anymore, wontons are too expensive, and my mother doesn't let others eat them for free. I won't be able to sell a few flowers this day. We can just eat buns, which are delicious." Cheng said.
Xiao Tao'er also hurriedly said, "Then don't eat wontons."
Looking at the two sensible children, the mist rolled in Chen Xiulan's eyes, but it still didn't flow down.
She was afraid of scaring the two children.
"When my mother earns more money, I will go out and rent a house to live in. When the time comes, let's move out and leave that place, and you two won't have to follow my mother out to set up a stall in the winter."
Shi Zhiyou quarreled with the woman, so he vented his anger with the two children. After Cheng boy was beaten once, Chen Xiulan never left the two children alone at home again.
"But can he let us move out?" He naturally meant Shi Zhiyou.
Chen Xiulan said with a strong smile, "It's definitely possible."
She even made up her mind secretly, and when she had enough money in her hand, she quietly left with her two children.
There was no business at noon. Seeing that everyone else had closed the stall, Chen Xiulan also closed the stall and went home.
After returning home, the house was cold, and the kitchen was cold.
Now there is only one big iron pot left at home. She boiled some hot water and scrubbed the two children. The mother and son went back to the house, hid in the house, and ate steamed buns with hot water.
While eating, Shi Zhiyou broke in from outside the door.
"Okay, the three of you, actually stealing food behind my back!"
In fact, this is not a secret, but when Shi Zhiyou is full, he will not care about these things. But he had been hungry for a whole day, and his eyes were naturally red.
Making a big fuss is also to pave the way for robbing buns.
There were only four buns in total, and he robbed three of them. It was useless for Chen Xiulan to cry and scold. He ate two and took the remaining one back to the main room.
Don't look at him arguing with the outer room, arguing, and eating will not forget each other. It's also that the other party is not as honest as Chen Xiulan, and it's useless to scold Shi Zhiyou if he doesn't eat, so he makes trouble with Shi Zhiyou, which is probably the only way a woman can control him.
Chen Xiulan wiped her tears, got up from the kang, and said, "Mother will go buy it for you."
"Mom, I'm going too."
Seeing that although the Cheng boy did not speak, his eyes were frightened. Chen Xiulan knew that the two children were afraid, so she nodded.
The mother and son tidied up and quietly walked out of the door, the main room was silent.
The three of them walked out of the courtyard together. Chen Xiulan turned to close the door, and before she turned around, she heard the boy called Uncle Cheng.
"Big brother."
Chen Xiulan looked at the gentle man on the opposite side in disbelief. Two cars were parked not far from here. Xu Shi, Xue Tingxiang and Zhao'er were all standing there.
"Go back with me."
Chen Xiulan wanted to cry a little, but also wanted to laugh, but in the end she was unable to say a thousand words.
She lowered her head and rubbed the corner of her clothes: "Brother, I'm still not going, in fact, I'm having a good time."
How could Chen Jian not know if Chen Xiulan was doing well or not. Xu Shi and Zhao'er talked about this before. When the two men came back from the palace, they came to see Chen Xiulan together. Naturally, they saw her hard work with her two children to set up a stall, and also saw her many changes.
In fact, the original intention was to make Chen Xiulan give up on Shi Zhiyou completely, just to see if she could come out. Fortunately, she was in a desperate situation, and she was just a mother. She did not disappoint everyone.
"Go home with big brother."
At this time, Mrs. Xu, Zhao'er and the others also came over. Mrs. Xu smiled at Chen Xiulan, then stepped forward and picked up Boy Cheng, and Xiao Taoer asked Zhao'er to pick it up.
"Brother, I..."
"Let's go, I'm still waiting to go back for lunch." Xu said.
"Sister-in-law, Sister Zhao'er... Sister Zhao'er, I'm sorry for you..."
Zhao'er smiled and didn't care: "Okay, I can care about you, if I care about you, I won't be here today. Let's go, Ajian and your sister-in-law care about you every day, if you don't go back, Both of them are not stable during the New Year."
Just like this, the group got into the car, and the closed courtyard door was opened from the inside, but it was Shi Zhiyou who heard the movement and ran out.
"Xiulan, Xiulan..."
Two entourages came up to stop him, Chen Xiulan's indifferent face and Chen Jian's cold eyes showed in the carriage's window.
"Let him write a letter to release his wife."
Then the carriage went away.
The two entourages were forced to come up with the deeds given by Zhao'er, either being sold as slaves or writing a letter of letting go of their wives. I believe that Shi Zhiyou would do a good job in this multiple-choice question.
Of course, what awaits him is not only these, but also being sent out of the capital to be repatriated to his hometown.
In his hometown, he had no land, no house, no relatives, and no skills, so he could only live in poverty, and soon died in a cold winter.
However, this is another story.
After Xue Tingxiang left that time, Yin Zhan knew that if he didn't handle it well this time, the Yin family would be sad in the future. Since there is no way to please the left and right, he simply tore this matter out in the court.
He recounted the ins and outs of the matter at the time, but he omitted Xue Tingxiang's visit, and pleaded guilty to Emperor Jiacheng. Under such circumstances, Emperor Jiacheng was naturally unable to punish him, but instead reprimanded the person who was making trouble in the dark.
Since then, things have been bright.
The Yin family was no longer among the important officials, the first official to fall to the New Deal, and retained the name of 'a last resort, a last resort' in Shilin.
At the same time, he also fell well in front of Emperor Jiacheng.
Therefore, none of the old ministers who can stand up for two dynasties are simple roles.
But no matter whether the matter of the Yin family was caused by someone deliberately making trouble, at least the occurrence of this incident was a good start.
After the New Deal was implemented in Henan, it was inevitable that some officials' families would bear the brunt.
In view of what happened to Yin Zhan, he was afraid of being used as a gun, so he naturally followed the excuse of Yin's family, "Since it is a clear order of the imperial court, as a citizen of Dachang, I naturally dare not disobey it", and followed the imperial court's excuse. New Deal.
Therefore, the implementation of the New Deal in Henan was very smooth, and there was almost no obstruction.
Following the trend, the New Deal spread from Henan to Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi and other northern provinces.
With Xue Tingxiang's preparations to publicize it in advance, it was a victory. Although there were inevitably some people scolding him in private, the court did not deny everyone preferential treatment, but reduced the amount of preferential treatment.
There are various examples from the previous dynasty. Could it be that the former ministers were all good, but it was not your turn? Are you still an honest official? So it can only knock down teeth and swallow blood.
Everything is going in the right direction.
The time entered June, it was the big summer day, and the courtroom was so lively that it was like boiling oil.
This is because this year is the year of the big exam, and the township exam in August of the Xin You year is about to start. At this time, it was the time when the imperial court sent Beijing officials to invigilate the local examinations.
The various ministries and departments were bustling, and the officials who were sent to invigilate the exam outside Beijing were not rated, but had to take part in the exam. Anyone who is a serious jinshi, and is an official of the Hanlin, Liubu, Kedao, and Guozijian can participate in the examination of the integrated examination.
Most of the interviewers were selected by the same examiners or deputy examiners. Originally, most of the same examiners were selected from local officials. Since there was a major fraud case ten years ago, the court was even more cautious about this. The same examiners were all selected by Beijing officials. If they are not enough, they are selected by local officials.
As for the main examiners, they are generally selected from the six ministers, cabinet bachelors, and senior officials in the Jingtang department. Only those who are not enough will be selected from the trial.
However, no matter whether he can be the main and assistant examination or not, this kind of errand will attract all the officials of the capital, and therefore there will inevitably be some open and secret struggles between the ministries and academies. Of course, all of this has nothing to do with Xue Tingxiang.
According to his qualifications, in fact, this time he should also be within the scope of the test, and he started as the chief examiner of a province. It's a pity that the time is not right. At this time, the New Deal is at a critical point, and he can't find time.
On the other hand, Chen Jian had a good chance, and this time he just caught up.
By the way, there is also Lin Miao.
However, Lin Miao meant that he would not join in the fun this time, because he was also afraid that both he and Chen Jian would leave the capital, and Xue Tingxiang would be alone in the capital.
But Xue Tingxiang meant the exact opposite. Although Lin Miao had entered the cabinet, he was at the bottom of the table. Serving as an examiner is a good opportunity to accumulate resources, and you must not give up.
After Xue Tingxiang's persuasion, Lin Miao also changed his mind, but whether he can be selected at that time depends on whether Emperor Jiacheng is willing to give him a chance.
It took a whole month of trial and error to select the officials selected this time, but the place where they took office was not announced.
On July 15th, Lin Miao suddenly recruited Xue Tingxiang and Chen Jian to the Lin Mansion.
It turned out that Emperor Jiacheng planned to send Lin Miao as the chief examiner this time. The reason why Lin Miao called the two of them was to give instructions on matters in Beijing after leaving Beijing, and secondly, it was considered to be a breather in advance, so that the two would not be mentally prepared.
And Chen Jian is also within the scope of the selection this time, that is to say, both of them have to leave the capital, and only Xue Tingxiang is left in the capital.
In this regard, Xue Tingyan didn't care about it, and only said that the two of them could leave Beijing with confidence.
Although now the New Deal has entered a key place - the Jiangnan area. But there is only Jiangnan in the entire Dachang, and those people will not be stubbornly resisting, and there is also Emperor Jiacheng.
Emperor Jiacheng was more attentive than himself.
After that, the three discussed the matter for a second or two, and then went home.
July 18 was the day when the imperial court announced the provincial examiners.
All the officials who should be selected for the trial work will go to the Meridian Gate with their own luggage and wait for the decree.
The chief examiner listens to the announcement the next day, and the cabinet will issue the selected person, and only when the announcement is heard will he know the location of the invigilator.
After receiving the imperial decree, all officials must set off immediately. They are not allowed to bring their family members, say goodbye to relatives and friends, or bring too many entourages. They are not allowed to wander freely on the way, and they are not allowed to be received by local officials. Arriving in the province where he was sent, he was immediately welcomed into the mansion by the promotion officer, and he was not allowed to receive local officials until he entered the tribute courtyard.
In this way, Jiacheng's 21st year exam has finally started in various places.
At the same time, the township examination of Shuntian Gongyuan is about to start.
There are two people in the Xue family to refer to this time, it is Xue Yaohong and Wang Wei.
Before the two successfully got the name of the student, and they studied in the Imperial College for a year, they were quite confident in their hearts, so they wanted to give it a try.
In this regard, Xue Tingxiang has no objection.
Whether you can pass the test or not depends not only on your knowledge, but also on your reaction and experience in the exam. You can't teach these things, you can only practice them yourself.
If you don't pass the exam, you will have accumulated experience. Anyway, the two are still young.
Zhao Di and Shen Ping were not in the capital, and Wang Wei was usually in charge of Zhao'er. This time, the two children ended up together, and Zhao'er started to get busy again. In addition to giving the two of them more food and drinks, to replenish their brains before the exam, they were also busy packing their luggage and supplies.
This township exam is different from others. It takes many days to take the exam. The two children have never endured hardship, and they are only fourteen or fifteen years old. She will inevitably worry.
This kind of worry continued until the Shuntian Gongyuan started the examination, and the two children were sent to the Gongyuan.
At the end of the first scene, Zhao'er waited in person at the gate of Gongyuan.
Sure enough, the two children had never endured hardship. When they came out of the Gongyuan, their faces were pale and their steps were vain.
After asking, I found out that the two were hungry.
It is also Xue Yaohong and Wang Wei, who lived rich and noble when they were young. Although the two are diligent and studious, gentle and courteous, they are truly indistinguishable between the four bodies and the five grains.
Not to mention cooking, even the fire has not been burned.
Based on these, Zhao'er specially prepared dry food for the two of them before they entered the tribute courtyard.
It's a pity that the weather was so hot that I could eat it on the first day, but it was sour the next day. The two could only take out the small pot in their luggage to cook porridge. Fortunately, Zhao’er brought pots and rice for the two of them just in case.
The problem is that the two of them can't cook, so they finally burnt the fire, but they were half-cooked, and one of them overcooked the pot. That is to say, in the next two days, the two of them relied on eating some half-cooked porridge, and they survived with this pickle. No wonder the two of them looked like this.
After returning to the Xue Mansion, I first freshened up.
After the grooming was over, Zhao'er had already ordered people to prepare food, all of which were easy to digest and not much oil and water. The two did not eat oil for many days, lest they suddenly eat too much oil and meat and cause diarrhea.
Xue Tingxiang came back from the Ministry of Housing and learned about all this, and he shared with the two young men his experience of ending in his early years.
I heard that my father (uncle) was in the Gongyuan back then, cooking porridge and cooking and scrambled eggs and meat. The two teenagers were full of envy, and secretly decided that they must learn to cook when they come back from the exam.
The two of them had a hunch that they did not do well in the exam this time.
The next day, the two entered the Gongyuan Academy for the second time, and Zhao'er was free again.
But at this moment, something happened to the court, and it was not a small thing.
The candidates of the Suzhou Gongyuan have stopped taking the exam.
Traditionally, the rural exams in various places are taken first, followed by the provinces.
It was not that the time was specially arranged, but that the Shuntian Gongyuan was in the capital, and the examiners were all directly admitted. Other places also need an examiner to arrive at the local time, so it will be a few days late.
But generally it won't be too late, that is, it looks like three or five days.
Therefore, Shuntian has already passed the examination, and Suzhou has not yet started the examination.
On the day of the test, Suzhou Gongyuan waited cautiously, but unfortunately the candidates refused to enter the examination room after rushing to the test room, but sat in front of the Gongyuan to stop the test.
This matter aroused the attention of local officials in Suzhou. After the persuasion was invalid, they immediately sent the news to the capital at an expedited speed of 800 miles.
Knowing this news, the whole dynasty was in an uproar, and Emperor Jiacheng quickly summoned all the officials to discuss this matter in the Qianqing Palace.
In the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Jiacheng's face was ashen, and he sat high on the dragon chair.
There were more than 20 officials standing under it, all of them in crimson official robes, and all of them were high-ranking officials.
"Zheng Yunjie, tell me what's going on."
Zheng Yunjie, who has been promoted to the Censor of the Zuodu of the Metropolitan Court, briefly explained the matter.
In fact, the cause of the matter is very complicated. It is actually related to the New Deal, and at the same time, it has something to do with the Secretary of Lijian.
At the beginning, the supervisor of the ceremonies stopped the business tax increase halfway, and set the pilot to be in Suzhou.
Suzhou has always been prosperous and prosperous. When the coastal area was not yet open to Fu, half of the court's annual taxes came from the south of the Yangtze River, of which Susong and Song accounted for nearly 70% of the entire south of the Yangtze River.
Therefore, the wealth of Suzhou is known to the whole world.
The Supervisory Committee of Literacy used this place as a pilot project, and it was obvious that they wanted to do a big thing and make a great contribution, so that people would not think that they were eunuchs in advance of the eunuchs.
The idea is very good, but unfortunately the local situation in Suzhou is too complicated, and this is also related to employment.
It happened to Zheng Ancheng's godson, a eunuch named Li Jinzhong.
This Li Jinzhong is in front of Zheng Ancheng, but he is a first-class and respectable person. He has also helped Zheng Ancheng to do a lot of things over the years.
Several of Zheng Ancheng's godsons were sent out of Beijing, but Li Jinzhong stayed by his side to serve him, because Li Jinzhong would come and understand.
This time the levy of business tax is the top priority. Zheng Ancheng could not go, so he could only send his confidants, and Li Jinzhong was chosen. Li Jinzhong slapped his chest in front of Zheng Ancheng, swearing that he would never let his godfather down.
In fact, Li Jinzhong is indeed loyal, but the problem is that he is too loyal.
After arriving in Jiangnan, he did not go anywhere, but went to Shanghai first, and met Shunxi, who was guarding the Shanghai Shipping Division. The two urged them to talk for a few days, and Li Jinzhong finally had a charter in his heart.
In Li Jinzhong's heart, he originally felt that Suzhou was rich. After talking with Shunxi, he felt that Suzhou was very rich.
If he completes the business tax in Suzhou, it will be a great achievement.
It's a pity that this person forgot one thing. He was preconceived that Suzhou was very rich, and he came to increase the tax. This errand was doomed to fail from the beginning.
Li Jinzhong went to Suzhou with great ambition, but encountered a very embarrassing situation.
The local officials were too lazy to pay attention to him. When he went to see others, they also saw him, but they didn't even extend a hand when it came to levying business taxes. It's just that he is not in his position and does not seek his political affairs. Besides, the business tax is cumbersome and people don't understand it. Naturally, they dare not mix it up.
Li Jinzhong was repeatedly treated coldly and looked down upon him.
At this moment, he was introduced to a group of local gangsters, and under the advice of these people, he started his own business tax increase.
He first set up a local tax office, and at the same time gave the names of the tax officials to the people he brought from Beijing, and at the same time let these helpers act as attendants, and began to set up tax cards in Suzhou.
The textile industry in Suzhou is the most prosperous, and Li Jinzhong has not forgotten this.
He ordered people to count all the local weaving workshops and weavers, and set a charter for each loom to charge two cents of tax and silver. The woven satin must be stamped by the tax officer after paying the tax before it can be sold.
At the same time, a tax card is set up at the city gate. Anyone entering or leaving the city gate must pay tax as long as it is related to business.
For a time, public grievances boiled over, and many weavers had stopped working because of the heavy taxation.
History has a strange overlap here. If Li Jinzhong is familiar with history books, he should know that during the Wanli period of the previous dynasty, there was a eunuch named Sun Long who did almost the same thing as him, which caused a riot in Suzhou, also known as a weaving maid. change.
It's a pity that he didn't know it, and he was happy because he had collected more business taxes on behalf of the imperial court. Suzhou was especially prosperous, and there were many worlds he had never seen in the palace. Under the guidance of those attendants, he lived a life of drunkenness, and he could not spend a lot of money, and he did not know that Huangquan Road had already opened under his feet.
The cause of the riot was a follower from the tax office, who brought people to the weaving household to collect taxes. He asked for money without saying anything. Seeing that the householder's wife was born beautiful, he couldn't hold back and teased the other party for a while.
The head of the household couldn't bear the humiliation and immediately fought with these people.
These Gang Xianyuan are just a group of hooligans. They are used by Li Jinzhong because they are familiar with local affairs. These days, they are running rampant in Suzhou City. They have long forgotten who they are.
It is a pity that the attack was not serious, and the person was killed.
When these people saw that they were killed, they were also a little panicked. They wanted to escape on the spot, but they were held back by the wife of the head of the household. At this time, the neighbors who heard the movement all came out.
Most of these neighborhoods are weavers. In order to make a living, the local people in Suzhou have to keep one or two looms at home, and they can weave satin and exchange for silver all year round, so that they can support the whole family, with a little surplus. Therefore, there are many people engaged in this industry, almost every household has a loom, and every household is a weaver.
The weaver hated the tax officer, and when he saw that he had killed people, he fought with them.
There were so many people, and the weavers killed two and wounded a few.
Seeing that there was a lawsuit involving people's lives, these weavers simply did not stop, and gathered a large number of weavers and weavers in the city to go to the tax office to smash them together. Tax cards were attacked everywhere, and several tax officials were killed, including Li Jinzhong, the culprit.
The riot took place a few days before the township examination. After the incident, local officials immediately came forward and arrested several people who led Zhihu to make trouble. They found out the whole story and reported it to the court.
It's just that the local officials are not efficient, and when this memorial is sent to the capital, it is the day when the Suzhou Gongyuan Examination begins. Immediately afterwards, there was a strike by the Suzhou Gong academician, and two copies of the memorials were sent to the capital.