Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Seeing Lu Ci's expression of embarrassment, Mrs. Li, who was quite satisfied with the word he had chosen, also sensed something was wrong: "But what's wrong?"

Lu Ci smiled helplessly: "To be honest, when the student returned to Suzhou to visit the old man two years ago, I met a friend by chance, whose character was none other than Xiwen."

This statement is half-truth and half-false - it is none other than Fan Zhongyan, who has been crowned and crowned in history, by writing Xiwen.

Master Li regretfully said, "So that's how it is."

Although it is not uncommon to see overlapping words, most of them should be avoided as much as possible.

Especially when the other party was a friend who was acquainted with Lu Ci...he should avoid it if he could.

Lu Ci bowed to him apologetically, "Mr. Xie is understanding."

Master Li waved his hand briskly, and after a little thought, he looked at Lu Ci, and said in a gentle tone, "'You're super vulgar, and you're restful.' I know you have a talent that is proud of the world, and I hope you will keep it up." With the heart of ambition, I present you with the word '瑅羽', and wish you to 'take the six dragons and wind the cicadas, and gallop and ascend to the clouds.'"

Lu Ci smiled, and there was no reason to refuse. Instead, he saluted without hesitation, and said in a calm manner: "Students will use this to encourage themselves day and night, and dare not forget the teacher's promise."

Master Li stroked his long beard and smiled contentedly.

He always firmly believed that he, a proud student, would not know where he would be in five years and how much he had achieved, but it must be impossible for him to be far behind.

If you really wait until Lu Ci is able to perform the crowning ceremony and add inscriptions, it will definitely not be his turn. Naturally, it is better to act first.

Lu Ci didn't know that this mentor had such a rare and childish thoughtfulness that he didn't bother to preach it to his acquaintances after he got the letter from the teacher.

After all, they are all acquaintances, and if they solemnly tell the other party that they have newly obtained a special letter from the master, it will always be superfluous or flaunting.

Lu Ci is used to keeping a low profile, but Mrs. Li, who is proud of himself, doesn't allow him to keep a low profile.

When the class started the next day, this scheming gentleman pretended to call out Lu Ci's words frequently and asked him to get up to answer questions.

Naturally, let the whole academy know.

The more Master Yang slapped the table angrily, the more Master Li laughed.

Lu Ci had no choice but to silently cooperate with his master's show off.

After learning that the word '摅羽' was taken by Master Li himself, the expression on Yi Shu's face changed from curiosity to envy, and then to admiration: "You are indeed worthy of Brother Lu, who can get the word from Master on his own initiative!"

Lu Ci smiled: "That's because the gentlemen gave my father a long time pity for my father's death, so he gave me the letter. You should find your father. How can the gentlemen do it for you?"

After hearing this, Yi Shu also felt quite reasonable, smiled embarrassedly, and decided in his heart that he would also ask his father to give him a letter tonight.

After Zhong Yuan tossed '摅羽' over and over silently for a few times, he was inexplicably awed.

He quickly shook his head, hesitated and said, "Should I also go to the whole place?"

To be honest, he is two years older than Lu Ci, and he has a family, and he will also apply for the exam together after a while...it should be.

Lu Ci smiled and said, "What do you think?"

With Zhong's father's level of education, it is obviously not enough to get characters for Zhong Yuan. Of course, it is the best thing to ask for characters from his masters.

I don't know if the masters will choose to beat Zhong Yuan out of the door directly, or they will reluctantly agree.

"must go."

Zhong Yuan didn't want to be made a joke by his father's nicknames like "Zhong Facai, Zhong Fugui", even though he couldn't help feeling a little numb at the thought of looking for those old-fashioned wives, he still pretended to be cheerful announced the decision.

Zhong Yuan has a bad record with the master, and there are no bonus points such as the mountain race recently, of course it is not an easy task.

Lu Ci knew that his masters would probably give him some lessons and experience hardships, but they would not seriously make things difficult for him, so he did not offer advice for him, but went about his own affairs with peace of mind.

The reason why Jieshi is also called Qiuwei is because it is usually held in autumn.

Coupled with the courtyard lock system to prevent fraud, Lu Ci calculated according to the time of tribute examinations in previous years, and found that it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and he might not be able to come out until early September.

The days before this had to be spent in the Gong Yuan.

At present, the tribute courtyard is not like Lu Cisuo thought it was a test place specially built by the government for tribute examinations, but mostly Buddhist temples, school palaces and official residences borrowed temporarily.

In addition, after submitting the application materials, he will completely enter the examination preparation stage until the court is locked. It is best to arrange all the chores at home during this time.

This includes reporting to the government in advance that the payment of the second tax will have to be postponed due to taking the exam.

On Lu Ci's household certificate, he was the only one in the principal household, and Zhu Shuo and Liu Qilang were only clients.

However, Lu Ci is not yet 20 years old, and with the tax relief brought by the two statuses of scholar and single, only the second tax in summer and autumn is required to pay.

Lu Ci had no time to go out to do business in the past two years, so he used the monthly living income to expand the house first, and then bought some land in the suburbs of the city one after another. After calculation, there were more than 80 mu.

He rented out all of them, and asked a few trusted acquaintances to plant them. Although the scale was far smaller than the Li's Manor that Li Xin was thinking about, it also made him a middle-class household.

However, in this bustling dense city where there are so many merchants, where people get rich one day and become impoverished the next moment, although Lu Ci's steady and steady way of getting rich makes acquaintances feel amazed and admired, it will not be too much conspicuous.

This is exactly what Lu Ci wanted - to hit the top bird with a gun, and to make a fortune with a muffled voice.

Life is getting better and better. The only thing that makes him feel regretful is that the tap water system he suggested a few years ago has never heard of it. It seems that it has been completely ignored by the government.

At this time, there was no one else in the house except the two female envoys hired to help, so Lu Ci concentrated on calculating how much this year's autumn tax would be paid, to see if he needed to save some living money to prevent floods and droughts. There was a soft knock on the study door.

He raised his head from the ledger room and said softly, "Please come in."

Envoy Zhang gently pushed the door open, but she didn't dare to come in, she only asked in a low voice: "Ah Lang, there is a guest outside the door, who claims to be entrusted by your husband."

Lu Ci got up without thinking, closed the account book, pushed it aside, and as he walked out, he explained: "I personally invited him in. Just make a pot of good tea and send it to the front hall."

Master Li forgot to tell Lu Ci the specific name of the other party, and Lu Ci accidentally forgot to ask.But the other party probably didn't forget to ask this point, so they found the door smoothly.

What Lu Ci didn't expect was that the young scribe who was leaning half against the door frame looked very unwell, as if he was seriously ill.

"My lord, Teng Zongliang," the man cupped his hands at Lu Ci with a disheveled face, and continued angrily, "people from Luoyang, thanks to Mr. Li's entrustment—"

As soon as he started talking, his complexion changed drastically, and after he quickly said "I'm sorry", he rushed into the Lu's courtyard with a brisk walk, holding a large vat by the side of the small vegetable field, and buried his head in it without hesitation. Started to vomit.

Rao is as experienced and knowledgeable as Lu Ci, but he was taken aback by his impertinent behavior, and after subconsciously dodging away, he was about to stop him: "Wait a minute, that's—"

Did not have time.

Before Lu Ci could finish speaking, Teng Zongliang, who exhaled the contents of his stomach and throat in one breath, rolled his eyes like a cramp carp, and immediately slipped limply to the side of the tank.

"—The tank my mother brought for septic retting."

Lu Ci finished speaking, dumbfounded. Seeing that the other party was smelly all over and had lost consciousness, he instantly lost the desire to give him a hand.

He stared at the other party for a while, seeing if he could get up by himself, he simply called the dry man who was sweeping the dust in the tile room, first boiled a bucket of hot soup, then stripped him naked, threw him into it and washed it clean , Then wipe it dry and throw it on the bed in the guest room.

By the time Teng Zongliang, who was fainted by the smell of the manure tank, was awakened hungry by the faint smell of food, it was already dark.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw an extremely handsome young man calmly eating a bowl of delicious pan-fried three-color bream beside his bed.

Before he opened his eyes, Lu Ci knew that he was awake from his tiny body movements, and greeted him with a smile: "Brother Teng is awake?"

Teng Zongliang, who had been recalling the embarrassment before he fainted, could not help but smile coyly, struggled to get out of bed, and sincerely apologized to Lu Langjun, who was several years younger than himself: "Go all the way by boat Come on, I didn’t know that I still have the problem of seasickness. Since I got off the boat, I have been holding back all the way and haven’t found a place to solve the discomfort. That’s why... Alas! Brother Lu laughed."

Lu Ci said with a smile: "The matter is over, what can we do now? Brother Teng, would you like to try the baked dove seeds and crispy slices of hoof with wine and vinegar, so that you can moisten your mouth and whet your appetite?"

Although Teng Zongliang felt quite annoyed, but Lu Ci had already exposed his embarrassment openly, and he would not be entangled in it anymore, he just said straightforwardly: "Then I would rather be respectful than obey my orders."

Lu Ci is a person who will never wrong himself in daily life once he has the conditions, and Lu's mother, after enjoying the joy of earning money, also understands that it is better to hire someone to do it for her than to waste time on doing the housework herself. It's good to concentrate on taking care of the business of the store.

Lu Ci hired a lot of manpower openly, including two female envoys, three handymen, and a cook.

He is also a little gourmet in later generations, he knows a little bit of novel recipes, and although he doesn't cook himself on weekdays, he does not hesitate to instruct the cook, so he is quite lucky.

Teng Zongliang was still a little reserved, but later he started to eat with a big appetite, and he was full of praise for the dishes: "My name is Zijing, if Brother Lu doesn't like it, you can call me Brother Zijing, it sounds a little closer. "

Just as Lu Ci was about to answer, he couldn't help but froze.

——In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli, Teng Zijing was relegated to Baling County.

It's like thunder.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. The word Biao comes from "Shou Zhi" in Chu Ci

2. It has been stipulated since Song Taizu that women do not need to register for household registration.So Mother Lu is not included in the household stickers.

3. Ding, old, young, and yellow represent age groups.The Song Dynasty stipulated that children under the age of three were yellow, those under fifteen were young, those under twenty were middle, between 21 and sixty were small, and those over sixty were old.Ding needs to serve in the military and pay Dingqian. Scholars and official households are exempt.

(The above is from "Living in the Song Dynasty")

4. As long as you have land, you must pay the second tax, including scholars and government households. ("Song Dynasty Imperial Examination Society" P170-171)

5. The Gongyuan was only established in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and it was borrowed from places such as temples before. "General History of China's Imperial Examination System - Volume [-] of the Song Dynasty"