Tranquility

In March, the sky and the earth are sparse and the peach blossoms are brilliant.

Gongs, drums and firecrackers blared outside the gate of the Lin Mansion, and the person who announced the good news shouted three times, "Weihai Cangping Tangning, the first name Huiyuan! Great joy, great joy!"

Lin Zhong was also full of joy, and ran towards the study as if flying, but unfortunately, he had old arms and legs, and hadn't run past his son. When he arrived, he happened to see a smile flashing from the corner of Lin Qingyu's mouth.

Although Lin Qingyu returned to his cold face, his eyes were soft, and his whole body was in harmony with the spring scenery of March.

He casually took a jade pendant from his body and handed it to Lin Zhong's youngest son.

"Take it to play, and the whole government will reward you with three months' money."

The last sentence was addressed to Lin Zhong, who responded with a smile all over his face: "Yes, brat, what are you talking about, why don't you hurry up and thank you, master."

His son immediately called a thousand, "Thank you, master!"

Lin Qingyu asked again: "Can someone go to the bamboo garden to announce the good news?"

"Yes, my second brother has gone." The youngest son immediately snatched up, but was stared at by Lin Zhong, and shrank back.

"Go, go see Zian."

Tangning was very happy when she heard that she had won Hui Yuan, but after that moment, he became at a loss.

Because he didn't know who to share this joy with.

He suddenly thought of Sister Cheng, if she was still there, she would be a Jinshi lady at this moment, and she would get an imperial order soon.

He thought of Carpenter Tang again. Carpenter Tang might be the happiest one. His youngest son is really glorious. He is a decent old man, just as handsome as the old man Zhang in the village.

His parents, wife and children, he only has a six-year-old child who is far away in Cangping, and his closest people, the most direct beneficiaries of his high school, are all gone. The sudden attack of loneliness made Tang Ning feel deeply exhausted.

"What's the matter? Why are you upset?" Lin Qingyu came in from the outside, seeing Tangning's disappointed face, he couldn't help asking.

"I just thought of my father and wife, and I felt it for a while." Tangning came back to her senses. Seeing the concern in Lin Qingyu's eyes, her heart warmed up again.

Lin Qingyu would not comfort others, but just put his hands on his shoulders.

After a while, Lin Qingyu said: "There is only one month left before the imperial examination, and there will always be people from the Lin Mansion to congratulate you and disturb your studies. I have a separate courtyard in the suburbs of Beijing. You can go there now, and clean up everything there. Well, you just need to bring some commonly used books, hurry up, and congratulatory people will come in a while."

Tangning hesitated, "Is this impolite?"

"It doesn't matter, the palace test is the most important thing, many people do this, anyway, most of those congratulatory people come to me, you don't know me, I just block it.

In addition, to back up the gift, go to the Xu Mansion to thank your teacher first, but the emperor doesn't want to come up with questions this year, so Xu Yuan will still come up with the questions for the palace exam, he will definitely not see you, you can just salute outside the mansion. "

Lin Qingyu was very efficient in her work. At night, Tangning was already sleeping on a bed in another courtyard in the suburbs of Beijing. She didn't even meet Fu Jiayan when she came to congratulate her.

On the night of March in the capital, the sky is dark, the moon is also dark, and the sky and the earth fall into silence, unlike the bustle of the day.

Xie Baiyun sat beside Tangning's bed, staring blankly at the bed, the room was very dark, even though he had studied martial arts, and even though he tried his best to concentrate, he still couldn't see clearly the appearance of the person in the bed.

They haven't seen each other for three years. For no reason, Xie Baiyun, who has always been like an iron wall, also feels the sourness in his heart - lovesickness eats away at the bones.

On April 21st, the Golden Temple passed on the group of people.

Tang Ning was the leader of this subject, the examiners in the hall and even the emperor would look at him specially, which added a bit of pressure to Tang Ning.

Tangning didn't dare to think about it, she tried her best to ignore other people's gaze, and focused on the exam paper.

This time the test question is not difficult, but it is not easy to say, it is very tricky, because it asks about the serious problem of land annexation.

To put it bluntly, the country has money, but the treasury has no money, and all the money goes to the big landlords.

how to solve this problem?In fact, many people know how to solve it, but they themselves are big landlords, including all the newly promoted Jinshi in the Golden Palace today, who doesn't have hundreds or thousands of acres of fertile land?Do they want to come up with their own ideas to harm their own interests?

When Tang Ning saw the question, the first thing that came to mind was to spread the money to the mother, but she immediately denied it. This method is good, but it is very difficult to implement, and it will offend many people. Besides, others will definitely think of this method.

Since the cake is not enough, it is better to expand the cake. There is still one place in Dazhao that no one eats, and that is the customs.Now there are only many merchants in the south doing business, and there is no real political force to intervene. In fact, many people know that going to sea can make money, but why don't they intervene?

One reason is that the south has been a place of exile since ancient times, and it has always been a remote place in the eyes of these nobles. Even if they have some money in recent years, they don't take it seriously;

The second is because pirates are rampant over there. If you earn money today, you can’t be sure that you will be robbed tomorrow. They also spend money to hire people to defend against pirates. This is already on the verge of building an army, which is a taboo in officialdom.In fact, the merchants who run the sea in the south are half merchants and half army. They put down their weapons and they are caravans.

The third is because the risk of shipping is too high. If you are not careful, you will lose everything. It is better to guard a large area of ​​land to be more secure.

The imperial government's current policy towards the south is to turn a blind eye and close their eyes, whatever the merchants do. The imperial court does not have a navy, so they have the right to pay them to fight against pirates. Therefore, these officials in the imperial court have never thought about collecting tariffs.

Because Tang Yun was in the south, Tangning had been paying attention to the south all these years, and she had a good understanding of the situation there.He first explained with figures how much money businessmen in the south can earn every year; then he proposed the idea of ​​setting up customs and collecting customs duties; finally he wrote in detail how to operate it.

Tang Ning had this idea for a long time, and she wrote a lot, very specific.Fortunately, he still remembered that he was taking an exam, and at the last moment of closing the papers, he closed the pen in time.

The examination papers of the Palace Examination need to go through the hands of eight examiners, who grade each paper in turn. The best is a circle, the second is a triangle, the worst is a slash, and the worst is a fork.Whoever gets the most circles in the test paper will be number one. Of course, he has to pass the emperor's test. If the emperor is not satisfied, even if your test paper is full of circles, you are not the champion.

Tang Ning's calligraphy is top-notch, with novel viewpoints, meaningful words, and excellent literary talent. As soon as his papers were handed in, the eyes of all the examiners were amazed, and in the end they were all passed.

The emperor is not in charge, and Tangning is outstanding. There is no reason for the emperor not to like him. It can be said that he is the number one scholar.

In this matter, outside the "Dragon Pendant" outside the Meridian Gate, there were already three circles of people crowded in and three circles out, and a special guard shouted: "Sanjia, come out!"

Then he began to read according to the list, "246 of the top three, You Tianhe, people from Xinyang..."

The crowd squeezed in again, and from time to time someone shouted: "My master has been hit! Go back and announce the good news..."

After a while, the guard shouted again: "Second Jia, come out!"

This time the movement was even bigger, everyone was pushing forward desperately, and their eyes were about to pop out.

After a while, another team of guards came out holding yellow silk from the door. The highlight of the previous imperial examinations——Yijia finally came out. Everyone stared at the yellow silk intently, even though it said that it was not their own family. .

"Yijia, get out!"

"Yijia Tanhua, Lin Zizhang, a person from Gusu in the south of the Yangtze River!"

"No. [-], Qu Minbo, from the capital!"

"First-ranked champion, Tangning, from Weihai Yizhou!"

"Tangning, isn't it Yizhou Jieyuan and Jinkehuiyuan? Oh my god! Lianzhong Sanyuan, it really is Lianzhong Sanyuan!"

"It's not easy! It's been almost a hundred years since the founding of Dazhao, and there is only one champion who has won three consecutive awards. This is the second one, right?"

"Only 21 years old, so young, such a genius."

When Tang Ning led more than 200 new Scholars and appeared outside the Meridian Gate, he finally felt what it means to be named on the Gold List and what it means to attract attention!

He took a deep breath, stepped on the horse first, and galloped towards the Lin Mansion, "The horseshoe is so proud of the spring breeze, and I can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day."

This is the so-called "No. [-] parading the streets".

In the teahouse outside the Meridian Gate, a person was sitting by the window on the second floor, holding a cup of tea in his hand, staring at Tangning's retreating back, he gently moved his hand forward, and said silently, "Congratulations!"

Tangning galloped all the way, before reaching Lin's residence, she was stopped by people she knew and did not know to congratulate her. When she arrived at Lin's residence, there were a bunch of people waiting to congratulate her. Tangning stayed busy until dark before sending everyone away. like a dog.

The next day, he got up early again, leading more than 200 people to pay homage to the god of the ancestors, Da Sicheng, and the Confucius Temple...

It wasn't until noon, when the Qionglin banquet was held, that he could sit down and have some food. Before he had eaten a few mouthfuls, he was toasted endlessly.Mr. Cheng once told him that as long as he wins the three yuan and the first prize, he will be a benchmark. As long as he doesn't make big mistakes, his career will be bright.

The Qionglin Banquet was held in the peach grove just outside the palace. The weather was fine, the scenery was pleasant, and the fragrance of birds and flowers was everywhere. These Jinshi were at the happiest time in their lives, so it was no exaggeration to feel that they were in a fairyland.

Outside the side door of Peach Blossom Grove, Gao Run, dressed in white, was leaning against the red wall, listening to the sound of people drinking together, his teeth almost bit his lip, he struggled for a long time, and finally stepped into the door.

He didn't dare to approach, chose a secluded corner, held a peach tree in his hand, and looked at the people in the banquet with blurred eyes. He used to have the opportunity to participate in the Qionglin Banquet.

He remembered that he had such a dream, he won the first prize in the examination, he rode a horse and paraded through the streets, everyone congratulated him, he was so happy, his mother was so happy that she recovered from her illness, he was so radiant at the Qionglin Banquet, He circled among the crowd, talking and laughing at Yanyan...

Suddenly, a young eunuch suddenly appeared in the center of the banquet, and his sharp voice cut through the beautiful atmosphere around him, "Servant! The emperor is calling you!"

He knew that he was dreaming, he thought it was a beautiful dream, he was addicted to it and didn't want to leave, so he was punished the most severely, his dream became a nightmare that he never wanted to think of again for the rest of his life.

He didn't want to come here to stimulate himself, he didn't even want to hear words like Qionglin Banquet, Imperial Examination, and Chunwei.

However, he has not seen him for six years, maybe this is the only chance, if he loses it, he will not only feel heartache, but also regret it, regret it day and night.

Gao Run's eyes quickly passed over the crowd, and directly locked on the person sitting high on the main seat.