The general is always teased

Old man Lin was worried about Shen Yijin, and refused to go home no matter what, he insisted on staying for lunch, and planned to stay until evening for dinner.

Although Lin Yan was very helpless, he was also worried about Shen Yijin, so he didn't object. After explaining some things to him, he took the medicine basket and went home first.

Old man Lin has been walking around with Shen Yijin, wherever Shen Yijin goes, he will follow, and annoy Shen Yijin, but he can't be said about him, because old man Lin is in a bad mood, if he is said about him, it will be true to himself Angry, when the time comes, I will coax you again.

Shen Yijin didn't want to make him angry, nor did she want to coax him.

And so on until evening.

As the sky gradually darkened, Shen Yijin put down the book in her hand, got up and went to the kitchen. This time, old man Lin did not follow, but went with Shi Nanyue.

After Shen Yijin left, Shi Nanyue took the initiative to tell old man Lin that he had already told Shen Yijin his identity.

Old man Lin nodded when he heard the words, and said, "That's fine, that kid is very smart, even if you don't tell him, he will find out by himself."

Recalling what happened in the morning, Shi Nanyue nodded slightly and said, "Brother Shen is indeed different from ordinary people, much more sensitive than ordinary people."

Old man Lin squinted his eyes and sighed, and said with emotion: "Shen Yijin's hearing has been much more sensitive than ordinary people since she was a child, and she can hear even the slightest voice, and that child is really smart. It’s really a pity to be able to memorize it like this now.”

Shen Yijin surprised Shi Nanyue too much, so he was very curious about Shen Yijin, but when he asked before, Shen Yijin showed resistance, so he stopped asking. Now that old man Lin mentioned it, he asked him: "Doctor Lin , do you know why Brother Shen no longer takes the scientific examination? With his knowledge, even if he can't get the leader in the provincial examination, it should be no problem to pass the examination."

Old man Lin glanced at him and said, "If you want to know, you can ask him yourself."

Shi Nanyue didn't hide anything, and said bluntly: "I actually asked, but Brother Shen didn't tell me, and one day before, when Brother Shen and I were talking, we found that he still wanted to be an official."

Hearing this, old man Lin shook his head, sighed again, and said, "This is actually not a secret, but this matter is a big blow to Shen Yijin, and he doesn't want to bring it up again."

Everyone in Taoyuan Village knew about that incident, but Shen Yijin didn't want to mention it anymore, and since many years had passed, gradually no one mentioned it anymore.

Old man Lin poured himself a cup of tea, stared at the white mist rising from the teacup for a while, and said slowly, "This matter started seven years ago..."

Seven years ago, it was the same winter as it is today.

That year, the Turks in the north and the Liao Kingdom invaded the Central Plains together, with as many as 50 soldiers and horses. For a while, gunpowder was everywhere in the border town, and the leading general refused to listen to the advice of the lieutenant general because of his stubbornness, and nearly half of the 70 soldiers and horses were lost. , and finally had to retreat all the way from the border town to the Jiangcheng camp hundreds of miles away.

Because of the urgency of the war, the imperial court recruited soldiers everywhere, and anyone with young and strong men in their families was conscripted. Shen Yijin was exempted from corvee service because he passed the examination of a scholar, but Shen Yijin's father was not able to do so, so he was conscripted.

Due to the tightness of the war, the recruits went straight to the battlefield before they had time to train. The winter of that year was extremely cold. Many people couldn't bear the cold and suffering, and died of illness on the way. Shen Yijin's father was one of them. .

When the news reached home, Shen Yijin's mother, Mrs. Wang, was doing laundry by the river. She couldn't stand when she heard the bad news. In addition, Miao Lan was by her side at the time. , but the tone is cynicism and schadenfreude, full of gloating.

Listening to Miao Lan's words, Mrs. Wang's heart ached, and she fell into the river in the dark. The river was extremely cold in winter. Although she was rescued quickly, she still developed a high fever.

At that time, it happened that old man Lin and Lin Yan had gone to the north to treat a plague-stricken village, and they would not be able to return for a while. The Wang family was already deeply saddened by the tragic death of her husband. She was caught with wind and cold, and the combination of the two completely overwhelmed her. She had a high fever for several days, and she was in a daze all day long. Even though she consulted a doctor and took medicine, it didn't help at all.

Although Wang surviving for dozens of days, she couldn't hold on in the end and chased after Shen Yijin's father.

Shen Yijin lost his father and mother in just a few days, which was a huge blow. He didn't understand anything at that time, thinking that Shen Hongzhi and Miao Lan felt sorry for him when they saw him lose his parents, and really wanted to help him, so they decided to I believed them, but after the funeral, they took away all the silver and valuable belongings from his family, and after Shen Yijin had finally endured the pain, he went to the Yamen to file a complaint and denounced him in front of the magistrate for being unfilial and not giving money to the Wang family. Seeing a doctor, Wang died of illness.

At that time, another eight months had passed, and it was autumn.

Shen Yijin always remembered that when his parents were alive, he always hoped that he would be admitted to Juren and honor his ancestors, so even though he had lived in extreme pain in the past few months, he wanted to go for the rural examination this time.

He wanted his parents to feel at ease under the Nine Springs.

But because of Miao Lan's false accusation, he lost the chance of the township examination.

Filial piety comes first in every practice, and the most important thing was filial piety in the Yan Dynasty. The first emperor even wrote filial piety into the law. The law stated: Before taking the exam, all students should strictly check whether they are filial to their parents. Those who are not filial are not allowed to refer to it. ; All scholars, eunuchs, and Jinshi, if they are not filial to this fame, they should also take away their names and be assigned to corvee; all officials in the court who are not filial, they should be removed from their positions immediately, and they will not be allowed to re-enter the official career for life. This is to warn the world.

After receiving the complaint from Shen Hongzhi and Miao Lan, the magistrate did not go to investigate, but listened to it and believed it. He wanted to deprive Shen Yijin of his reputation as a scholar and demoted him to work as a coolie. Although Shen Yijin had an excuse, the magistrate did not After listening to his words, I decided that he was really an unfilial person, and I hated him very much. If it wasn't for the last moment, Shen Yijin's mentor stepped forward in time to vouch for Shen Yijin as a juror, I am afraid that Shen Yijin would have already lost her status as a scholar.

But even if he kept his reputation as a scholar, the magistrate still required Shen Yijin to stay in mourning for three years before he could continue to refer. Shen Yijin did not pass the rural examination that year.

So far, it is not the reason why Shen Yijin is completely disappointed in the officialdom.

The real reason is the rural examination three years later.

Shen Yijin went to the township examination that year and did very well.

But before the ranking, the magistrate invited six candidates, including Shen Yijin, to visit the mansion. Three of them were the sons of country gentry and their families had little money. The other two, like Shen Yijin, were students from poor families with outstanding knowledge.

At the banquet, the magistrate smiled, and implicitly proposed to Shen Yijin and the three of them that they needed to give him a gift, so that they could get a good ranking, otherwise they would just make wedding dresses for others in vain, and lose their reputation.

Shen Yijin was young and energetic, and disdained such behavior. Among the three of them, he was the only one who insisted on not giving gifts to the magistrate, but he was also the only one, who lost his name to Sun Shan and was not admitted to Juren.

And the other three sons of squires who went with him that day were all on the list, one of them was Jie Yuan, but that man was just a young man with ordinary knowledge, who only knew how to eat, drink and play, and was ignorant.

Shen Yijin was depressed, and drank a lot of wine in a restaurant, but happened to meet the son of a country gentleman who had to know Yuan. At that time, he was already drunk and confused. When he saw Shen Yijin, he ran over and spoke first She satirized him for a while, and then spoke out loudly, telling all about her dealings with the magistrate.

It turned out that he gave the magistrate 10 taels of silver in order to get a ranking, but the magistrate disliked Shen Yijin for being ungrateful, and remembered that Shen Yijin was accused of being unfilial three years ago. Shen Yijin's test paper was exchanged for this son of a squire.

After Shen Yijin learned of this, she once tried to petition the government to accept bribes, disregarding the law and discipline, but in the officialdom in Jiangnan, officials protect each other, and others speak lightly, which is useless at all, and even nearly killed, but the magistrate was promoted again and was transferred back to the capital .

Because of this, Shen Yijin was really disappointed in the officialdom, and never took part in the scientific examination again.

After taking a sip of tea, old man Lin raised his hand to caress his long beard on his chin, sighed and said, "Shen Yijin is stubborn, once he decides something, he won't change it, even though he still wants to I am an official, but if the prefect of Hangzhou is still there, the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River is still filthy, and the court has done nothing, I am afraid that I will not have the heart of scientific research."

Shi Nanyue is a military commander, but he also hated this. After hearing what he said, he frowned and fell silent.

When he first led the decree to Jiangnan, he didn't understand why His Majesty only cared so much about the bandits in Jiangnan. He also gave him a sword so that he could cut first and play later when he encountered problems, without worrying about anything. Thinking about it now, getting rid of bandits is not the main thing, coming to the south of the Yangtze River and clearing up the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River is the purpose of His Majesty letting him go.

In this case, Shen Yijin is an extremely important witness. His existence has threatened many officials.

Thinking of this, Shi Nanyue raised his head to look at old man Lin, and said with a serious expression: "Doctor Lin, if my prediction is correct, brother Shen may be in real danger."