Shennong Daojun

It was freezing cold, and it was almost dusk.

Fireworks were lit up one after another in the houses of Gucheng, making the haze in the sky look particularly heavy.

The snow on the ground was a foot deep, and it was still falling from the sky, as if it was getting heavier.

The biting north wind blew up the snow on the ground, turning the whole Gucheng into a vast expanse of white.

"Crunch, crunch."

Zhao Zheng stepped on the thick snow, with a thick rope on his shoulders, tilted at a 45-degree angle to the ground, and his little face flushed red.

"Ah!"

He tried his best to drag the shovel behind him, but the snow was too thick and the shovel was deeply stuck in the snow. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move forward at all.

"Plop~"

His feet slipped, and Zhao Zheng was imprinted in the snow.

Lying down where you fell, Zhao Zheng panted:

"Brother, I can't drag it anymore!"

Zhao Xing pulled the shovel out of the snow and put it against the wall: "Get up, change to a small shovel, and continue shoveling."

"Oh." Zhao Zheng struggled to get up from the snow and got a shovel from the yard of his home.

Everyone cleans the snow in front of their own door. At this time, neighbors in Kangpingfang came out one after another to clear the snow and make a road for people and horses to pass.

Zhao Xing raised his head, looked at the sky, and felt a little cold.

It is now the Xiaoxue solar term.

It has been half a month since the last Xuantian Sect attack.

"It snows heavily during the Minor Snow Festival, and there is no snow during the Major Snow Festival."

"The first sign is that the rainbow disappears; the second sign is that the weather rises and the ground veins descend; the third sign is that winter is blocked."

"During this solar term, it becomes difficult for me to even sense the ground veins, and the height of the clouds cannot be suppressed too low."

"However, the power of the ice rain spell only increases, and although the ground veins descend, as long as the Yin wind can be summoned, its power is also much stronger than before."

Zhao Xing and his younger brother shoveled almost all the snow in front of the door, and then carried a few pounds of pickled vegetables, bacon, and dried fish made by Mrs. Cai and walked towards the Xue Mansion.

When they arrived at the Xue Mansion, there was no need to report, and the doorman opened the door directly when he saw Zhao Xing.

The old Si Nong was busy in front of a high stove in the courtyard at this time.

"Teacher, why did you get up so early to brew Xiaoxue wine." Zhao Xing put down what he was holding and ran over to help.

"I have nothing to do, but I can't stay idle." Xue Wenzhong smiled and took the long spoon handed over by Zhao Xing, and stood on the ladder to stir the wine cellar.

A young man in a thin shirt came over in the firewood room, holding a bundle of firewood.

He looked about 60% similar to Xue Wenzhong, and was Xue Bai, who had been released after serving his sentence.

"Little Master."

"Well, give it to me." Zhao Xing took the firewood from Xue Bai's hand.

Xue Bai was the grandson of the old Sinong and was released a few days after the beginning of winter.

At that time, Zhao Xing also went to the county city with Xue Wenzhong to pick up someone.

When he was released from prison, Xue Bai spoke slowly and behaved respectfully and politely. After learning that Zhao Xing was his grandfather's disciple, he respectfully called Zhao Xing "Little Master". It is difficult to associate him with the dissolute young man who beat people up because of jealousy.

I don't know if he was beaten in prison. Anyway, after several contacts with Xue Bai, Zhao Xing had a good impression of him.

Xue Wenzhong was also happier. It was the best thing that his grandson could reform.

The students performed well again, and the students were better than their teachers. Therefore, Xue Wenzhong was in a good mood these days. He was cheerful to everyone he met, and his mental state was much better than before.

After a busy period, Xue Wenzhong came down from the ladder.

"You don't have to come to see me all the time. After the winter evaluation, the beginning of spring is the temple examination."

"The court's examination, especially the theory, will involve the weather, location and plants in different regions of the 19 states. You should study more and concentrate on preparing for the exam."

"Yes, I will go back to read after dinner." Zhao Xing said.

"It's still early to eat, go to my study to read." Xue Wenzhong clapped his hands and smiled, "These are the only theoretical knowledge I can teach you now."

On December 7, it snowed heavily.

A thick layer of ice had formed on the East Lake, and many waterways around Gu County were frozen and impassable.

Only a few mainstream rivers were still barely functioning, but it also greatly affected the commercial activities of Nanyang County.

Because Nanyang County relies more on water transportation, if the water transport cannot be guaranteed, the city will freeze for one or two months, and the prices in the city will soar.

"Heavy snow and ice froze all over Nanyang, and Gucheng was also affected."

"This is a serious ice disaster."

"Nanyang County has never had such extreme weather in previous years."

When the ice disaster came, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in various places began to get busy.

Because it involves the entire Nanyang County, it is not enough to thaw the land in a single county, and it must be uniformly allocated by the county.

Otherwise, if the river in Gucheng thaws, it will take less than a day for the ice layer upstream to float over and freeze again.

It will also affect the downstream. The water will overflow the surface of the ice layer, and it may not cause any impact.

If there is another flood in winter, it will really be fatal.

Chen Shijie has to stand his last shift, so he led the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to run around in the four places, and he has not returned for many days.

"If the weather is changed too much in normal times and it does not conform to the true balance of the five elements, then when the problems accumulate in the dark, it will cause a natural disaster that is difficult to resist." Xue Wenzhong analyzed the cause of the snowstorm to Zhao Xing in the mansion.

"In the twelve counties of Shan County, Hu County, Mingshan County, and Shuihe County, in the first three seasons of this year, the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture were either lazy or incompetent and used magic to change the celestial phenomena many times."

"Judging from the announcements issued by the county and city, they treated the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem, so in these twelve counties, the yin energy was too accumulated and the yang energy was too high."

"After the beginning of winter, the power of Xiaoxue solar term has doubled."

"Among them, the agricultural officials of Mingshan, Shuihe and Dangyue counties made serious mistakes. They did not discover the root cause. Instead, they wanted to reverse the light snow season and start winter again."

"As a result, the problem completely broke out. Since the earth's veins in these three counties have completely dropped, the Yin Qi has spread to the side, and has also affected other counties. I am afraid that the evaluation of the agricultural officials in these three counties this year will be ugly. If they are not handled well, He might even be demoted," Xue Wenzhong said.

Zhao Xing picked up the rubbings of the document and looked at it. Fan Dongping's downward documents to these three counties were all in the word "Xi", and the beginning of the text was "Appeal to the Agriculture Supervisor of Shuishihe County...".

Just looking at the style and beginning of the official document, we can tell that these three counties made huge mistakes.

Because in the rest of the counties, official documents were all written in the form of "ultimatum", and the beginning of the text was just to declare, ask, and inspect, and the tone was relatively mild, and the ultimatum was only delivered internally and would not be made public.

"You need to take these error cases as a warning. You may see similar questions in the temple exam next year."

"Yes, I will take a good look."

December 21st, winter solstice.

The three days of the winter solstice are also winter reviews.

Due to the ice disaster, the Gucheng Division Agricultural Supervisor did not conduct on-site assessments again. Instead, following the instructions of Nanyang County, he used the ice disaster as a case and presented it as a question to the officials.

Zhao Xing didn't need to refer to it, but he went anyway.

Three days later, the Nanyang County Agricultural Supervisor announced the results of the winter evaluation.

There are only fifteen people in Gucheng who have obtained the temple examination quota.

According to the usual practice, of these fifteen people, only one-third or even one-fifth may pass and be officially accepted.

As for the other 400 or so people of the Si Nong Supervisor, they all became running companions and were not even qualified to take the temple examination.

“It’s been a waste of time again this year.”

"There are only fifteen places for the temple examination, and last year there were twenty-five."

"What's the use? Last year there were twenty-five, but in the end I only took five."

"Those five candidates were transferred to Shangdang, Fengshan and other places, thousands of miles away from their hometown. What's the good thing?"

"Don't be bitter, Brother Liu, you are at least in the ninth rank. If I really give you this chance, you will be able to crawl over."

"That's true, hahahaha."

Before the list was announced, many officials were discussing.

Zhao Xing also took the time to take a look when he came over.

Many officials gave way one after another.

"Zhao Xing is here!"

"Brother Zhao, congratulations!"

"Everyone give way, let Mr. Zhao take a look first."

"Among these fifteen people, Zhao Xing has the greatest chance. He is the hope of our agricultural supervisor in Gucheng."

Zhao Xing returned the favor and left quickly without stopping after reading the notice.

January 5th, Xiaohan.

The Yang Qi increased slightly, and the long-lasting ice disaster was resolved with the cooperation of all counties in Nanyang County and returned to normal levels.

Chen Shijie, who had been busy for more than a month, finally returned to Gucheng.

"The agricultural supervisory officials in Mingshan, Shuihe, and Dangyue counties are damn idiots."

"I ran over to help for the past half month, and I almost pissed off the idiots from these three places."

Chen Shijie was drinking Xiaoxue wine and eating barbecue, and he was still a little excited until now.

"What's going on?" Zhao Xing asked.

"What else could happen, you idiot! Especially Si Nong from Shuihe County!"

"Shuihe County is at the intersection of four rivers. Five hundred years ago, Li Erlang and his father Li Yu divided the riverside into two branches, the inner and outer. Following the example of Zhenjun Caoxi, they built embankments and weirs to erect the Guiyuan waterwheel."

"We also set up four legal formations at Lidui, Huisha Weir, Baopingkou, and Yuwei. Combined with the terrain, we turned the four water hazards into benefits."

"Fifteen years ago, these formations and projects had gaps and aging problems, and required maintenance from time to time."

"Originally, the solution was to follow Li Yu and Li Erlang's method and follow the same pattern."

"But this Si Nong in Shuihe County didn't know which of the tendons was wrong, so he insisted on learning from Zhenjun Caoxi and dug eight channels in this county."

"Another one hundred and eight five-element waterwheels were erected in one go."

"The water veins in that place are turbulent and the earth veins are fragile. Although Li Yu and his son also learned from Caoxi Zhenjun, the method they gave was the best choice considering the form of Shuihe County."

"It turns out that the idiots in Shuihe County took it upon themselves to think that they had surpassed the level of their predecessors, and actually wanted to follow Cao Zhenjun's example and raise a spiritual mountain in Shuihe County!"

"He spent fifteen years doing this, but not only was it ineffective, but it actually destroyed the ground of Shuihe County. This is simply stupid!"

Zhao Xing asked curiously: "It took fifteen years to discover the problem?"

Chen Shijie snorted: "How is it possible? The problem has already arisen, but this fool thinks he has the ability to do it and refuses to repent. Whenever there is an abnormality in the right time and place, he uses magic to force it to change."

"I went over to look through the records of the Agricultural Supervisor and almost wanted to beat him to death. This bastard actually secretly changed the four seasons more than 300 times in just fifteen years!"

"In particular, he changed the solar terms of summer and autumn more than a thousand times!"

"You are too smart to be stupid. I went over to help, but he still insisted that he was right! He said that he would be able to solve it in a few years."

Zhao Xing said in surprise: "How could there be such a person? How did you do it?"

Chen Shijie said: "I can't stand idiots, especially those who are stubborn. I threw him into the river after I said a few words and he didn't listen."

"He thinks he is right, so let him feel whether he is right or not."

Long Xiao laughed at the side: "Old Chen used the water imprisonment method. He couldn't get out for ten days. He stayed in the river for as long as Old Chen stayed in Shuihe County. In the end, people from the county came to release him."

Zhao Xing raised his glass: "Lord Chen is mighty! Deserve a toast!"

Chen Shijie and Long Xiao took up their glasses and drank them all. After complaining, he finally felt much better.

After talking about official business, Chen Shijie asked: "How are you learning from the old Si Nong?"

Zhao Xing said: "I am 10% sure."

Chen Shijie was surprised: "Why only 10%?"

"10% refers to the unexpected situation of failing the exam, and the remaining 99% is to successfully accept the official position."

"Hahahaha, you kid."

January 19th, Dahan.

End of the year, Tail-Duck Festival

At this time, few people went out to work in and outside Gucheng.

Every household was getting rid of the old and getting the new, and the neighbors began to visit each other to eat and drink, and to visit relatives.

Either eating at this house or eating at that house.

Zhao Ruide stopped practicing martial arts, but took Mrs. Cai to visit relatives and friends everywhere.

As for Zhao Xing, he didn't go out because he had to prepare for the exam, but he also ate, drank and had fun with Zong Shichang, Chen Ziyu, Qian Dong and others for a few days.

Even Zhao Zheng had a rare time to relax, no longer practicing martial arts, and happily played around all day.

That day, Zhao Zheng ran into Zhao Xing's room, looking around with a pair of black eyes.

"What are you looking for?"

"Brother, do you still have the firecrackers you had last time?" Zhao Zheng asked, "Give me some more, I want more powerful ones!"

"It's good enough to give you a few small ones, but more powerful ones? You want to blow up the county government office?"

"And didn't I give you a lot? How come you finished playing with them so quickly?"

Zhao Xing asked, "Tell me, what did you do with them?"

Zhao Zheng's eyes were a little evasive: "Nothing, just playing with Er Gouzi and the others."

"Huh? Did you get into trouble?"

As soon as Zhao Xing finished speaking, there was a hurried knock on the door outside.

"Open the door, open the door!"

"Damn Zhao Ruide, I'm squatting in the toilet, what did your bastard throw me?!"

"Open the door! Bastard..."

Zhao Xing: "..."

February 3, the 16th year of Jingxinli, spring.

All things are revived, and the glaciers are thawing.

Zhao Xing walked out of the house.

The annual temple examination for the officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty began.