Blessings of Time Traveling

In February and March, the ice and snow melted, everything recovered, and there were more things in the fields.

Seeing Zhao Dalang planting pumpkin seeds in his backyard, Qi Mingcheng was stunned!Didn't it mean to plant melons and beans before and after Qingming?Even if he lacks common sense in this area, the proverb can never go wrong, can it?Tomb-sweeping Day is at the beginning of April, and it’s still a month away. Why is Brother Zhao starting to grow pumpkins now?Could it be that there is a difference between the North and the South?The average temperature in the south is a little higher, so melons are planted in advance?

and many more!

A flash of lightning suddenly flashed across Qi Mingcheng's mind.He acquiesced that Qingming Festival is in April, and Qingming Festival is indeed in April, but the "April" here refers to the solar calendar, but now everyone uses the lunar calendar.According to the lunar calendar, Tomb-sweeping Day is actually in March.

In order to facilitate his work, Zhao Dalang rolled up his sleeves to his forearms, and when he was busy for a while, the sleeves fell down a bit.Zhao Dalang looked at the mud on his hand, and wanted Qi Mingcheng to help him pull it up, but he saw Qi Mingcheng standing beside the vegetable field with an indescribable expression, his eyes were empty.

"Brother, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Dalang asked.

Qi Mingcheng shook his head, and said with self-disgust: "It's nothing...just for a moment, I suddenly felt so stupid."

Zhao Dalang shook his head.If brother is stupid, are there any smart people in this world?It's just that there is a specialization in art, and when it comes to things in the fields, I'm afraid that Brother is really not as good as him.But in fact, Zhao Dalang is not a good way of farming, he can only be regarded as average.Old men who really know how to farm, they can look at the sky, can estimate the temperature throughout the year, and know which crops should be planted early and which should be planted a few days later.

For example, this year, some old men in the village said that this year is a warm year, so pumpkins should be planted in the fields earlier.

Zhao Dalang can't look at the sky, but he can look at people. Seeing that everyone has started to grow pumpkins, he followed suit.

In this way, Qi Mingcheng officially started to confront these pumpkins.

When spring just came, in the cold spring, the younger sister of the Zhao family got married.Both Ji's dowry and Zhao's dowry showed sincerity.

Qi Mingcheng got married off, and came back to continue facing Pumpkin.

In the middle of spring, Saburo and Shiro of the Zhao family, as well as Ji Liang, the freshly baked son-in-law of the Zhao family, were going to take the exam in their respective counties. The county government is therefore not the same way.This time they are going to participate in the children's test.

Qi Mingcheng faced the pumpkin at home.

The children's examination is held once a year. If they pass the examination, they are scholars and are eligible to participate in the township examination that occurs every three years.If you pass the provincial examination, you become a Juren and are eligible to participate in the general examination.Those who pass the general examination will be able to participate in the palace examination. After the palace examination, they will be national cadres and reserve soldiers waiting to be awarded officials.

In fact, juren can be awarded an official after enrolling in the imperial examination, but compared with Jinshi, juren lacks "birth" and is somewhat short of breath.

Compared with the previous dynasties, the treatment of scholars in the Jing Dynasty is not bad.But this is not bad since the examinee was selected as a scholar, and if he was selected as a scholar, his family could be exempted from part of the land tax; Juren's treatment was better, and he could be exempted from corvee.If you have not passed the child test, you will never have preferential treatment.

Therefore, even though people at this time believe that "everything is inferior, only reading is high", and everyone elevates the status of the scholar, but at the same time they faintly look down on most scholars, thinking that "a scholar who is useless is a scholar." ".For example, there are two scholars in the Zhao family. They are supposed to be respected, right?But because they have never been famous, the villagers have never looked at them highly.

To put it bluntly, these people in the village don't think that they can really produce a talented man, so in their view, the money for their children's education is just thrown into the water and listened to.Isn't it just wishful thinking for someone like the Zhao family who has been supporting scholars all the time?

There is actually a kind of sadness in this contradiction.

The cost of education is too high, and if we are reluctant to invest in education, "foolish people" will always be foolish people.

The children's test is a qualification test for taking the scientific examination, and the difficulty is not low.A complete children's examination consists of three stages of examinations: county examination, government examination and hospital examination.The county examination is conducted in the county and presided over by the county magistrate; the government examination is conducted in the government and presided over by the prefect;

Zhao Jiasanlang took the children's test last year, passed the county test and the government test, but was passed in the hospital test.

This is also expected by everyone.Yangquan County, where Lidong Town is located, is a county with weak education, and the number of scholars who have passed the exams over the years can be counted on one hand.

As for Zhao Jiashiro and Ji Liang, this is the first time they have taken the exam.

The children's test is so important, but the Zhao family is very calm.The three candidates were about to go on a long trip, but there was no one at home to accompany them.Among them, Mrs. Zhao and Qi Mingcheng were really calm.The old lady has experienced many things, and she really didn't take a small county trial seriously.The others are because they were instructed by Qi Mingcheng. In order to reduce the pressure on the candidates, everyone is trying to maintain a normal mind!

The trial establishment of the county in the Jing Dynasty was at the end of March, the trial establishment of the government office was at the end of June, and the trial establishment of the courtyard was at the end of September.That is to say, if Saburo and Shiro do not pass the exam, they should go home in April or July, and if they can continue to take the exam, then they should go home around October.

Qi Mingcheng devoted himself to serving those pumpkins.In order to make the pumpkin grow better, he also gave up a few drops of spiritual water.

Calculated according to the solar calendar, the ripening period of pumpkins should be between July and September. Converted to the lunar calendar, it should be one or two months earlier.I haven't seen Sanlang and Shiro return home in June, and the Zhao family knew that they must have obtained the qualifications to take part in the government examination, so Qi Mingcheng planned to visit them in the mansion.

The main purpose of Qi Mingcheng's trip here is not to visit the two candidates from the Zhao family, but to go to the capital.He deliberately picked the best-looking pumpkin in the field.This pumpkin was picked when it was almost ripe, and it was not eaten by moths or damaged. It should be able to be stored for more than three months.

Zhao Dalang looked at the pattern of the word "Shou" on the pumpkin, and couldn't help but click his tongue twice.

In fact, the method of making this pattern is very simple. As long as you come up with an idea, there is no difficulty in operation, and almost everyone can do it.Qi Mingcheng seldom read time travel novels before time travel. He didn't know that this method has been used badly in all kinds of novels!

It turned out that before the pumpkin was ripe, Qi Mingcheng cut out the character "longevity" he wanted with opaque paper, and pasted it on the sunny side of the pumpkin.In this way, when the pumpkin is ripe, the color will be lighter because the amount of sunlight collected in the place where the words are pasted is less.The color of other places is dark, only the color of this place is different, and the words are displayed, which looks like the "shou" grown by the pumpkin itself!

In this process, just be careful not to wash away the words cut out of paper by the rain.Qi Mingcheng goes to see it two or three times a day.

However, the pattern growing on the pumpkin that Qi Mingcheng picked is not so much a word, but a pattern.It's just this pattern. If you look at it carefully, you will feel a little bit like the word "Shou".Qi Mingcheng did this on purpose.

"What would you guys think if there was a straight character 'Shou' growing on the pumpkin?" Qi Mingcheng said when explaining to the Zhao family, "It must be amazing at first, right? But wait for this magical After working hard, don’t you think it’s strange how ordinary pumpkins grow words? Will you start to think about it? Once you start thinking about it, maybe you’ll figure it out.”

In fact, people at this time called pumpkins golden melons, but the Zhao family got used to it after hearing too much about pumpkins from Qi Mingcheng.

Before crossing, when Qi Mingcheng saw a square watermelon for the first time, he thought it was a bit funny at first, and then he thought that this watermelon is definitely man-made, for example, put a square mold on it during the growth period of the watermelon , it is absolutely impossible to grow like this naturally.

In the same way, the feeling of "there are words on the pumpkin" is the same. The reason for the words may be more difficult to understand than the reason why the watermelon is square, but some people can't guess it, which doesn't mean everyone can't guess it. .Archimedes can find buoyancy even after taking a bath. Some people have an idea, thinking that after a fair-skinned person basks in the sun, there will be a white mark on his forehead. Will they have an insight into the word pumpkin? practice?

Again, don't underestimate the ancients!The creativity of the ancients is amazing!

Take Zu Chongzhi of the Southern and Northern Dynasties as an example. He created a new calendar called "Da Ming Calendar". The measured difference was only 50 seconds.Moreover, the number of days for the moon to go around in the calendar is less than one second different from that measured by modern science, which shows its accuracy.Zu Chongzhi also calculated that the pi is between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927!Everyone touched their conscience and said, how many modern people can achieve such an achievement?

In ancient times, there were scientists and mathematicians, and naturally there were also people who were extremely talented in human relations!

If a traveler is blindly confident and looks down on the ancients all the time, he will definitely die an ugly death.

Qi Mingcheng pointed to the lines on the pumpkin and continued: "But the lines I made are different. When the little pumpkin just grew out, I observed its original lines and made them consistent with the lines I made later. Get up. Although the final effect is not as obvious as writing the word 'Shou' directly, what is your first reaction when you see it? Do you think this is its natural texture?"

Zhao Dalang walked around the big pumpkin and said, "If I hadn't watched brother running into the vegetable field every day, I would probably have thought that this pumpkin had grown like this, but it was born with strange lines. It’s a bit like the word longevity. Is this the effect brother wants?”

"That's it!" Qi Mingcheng said with a smile, "Brother is right, I just want this effect. Even if the nobles see the word longevity, they will take it for granted that it is a miracle of nature, a coincidence, It never occurred to me that this was made by me."

Once it is acquiesced that pumpkins grow naturally like this, even if it is also miraculous, people will not go to the bottom of it.

Qi Erniang felt that Qi Mingcheng was simply... amazing, and couldn't help but ask, "Mingcheng, how did you grow your head?"

Maybe it's because businessmen are more good at fooling people?Qi Mingcheng made fun of himself in his heart.

Qi Mingcheng is about to take the "pure natural" pumpkin, which is rare in a thousand years, to the capital to meet nobles, but his family members are worried about letting him go out alone.At this time, Qi Erniang's delivery date is approaching, and Zhao Dalang must stay at home with her.So they troubled Wu Shun again.

The money he earned from burning charcoal last year was worth Wu Shun's income for several years, so it didn't matter that he was on a long trip at this time, even though he delayed hunting.

"Although the pumpkin can be stored well, it won't break easily, but this pumpkin is to please the nobleman. Why don't we go to the capital first, wait for the business, and then go to the mansion or the province to visit your husband's house when we come back. The two brothers and sister-in-law." Wu Shun re-arranged the itinerary.

Qi Mingcheng didn't have any opinion on this, he actually thought it would be better to get rid of the pumpkin as soon as possible.Starting from Lidong Town to the capital, if you take the waterway, if the journey is smooth and there are no twists and turns, it should take about a month.In this era, this distance is actually not too far away.

After arriving in the capital, of course Qi Mingcheng couldn't rush to find Zhou's mansion.He couldn't even send letters to Sanni directly, because the maids in the inner courtyard couldn't exchange letters with people outside the house.According to what Sanni told him at the beginning of the year, Qi Mingcheng got involved with a steward of an outer courtyard of the Zhou Mansion.In this way, after he waited in the inn for four days, Sanni was finally able to take the opportunity of doing things for the master, and came out to meet them.

Sanni is literate, and all the maids in the Zhou Mansion are literate.When she saw Qi Mingcheng's pumpkin, she was almost stunned.The lines on this pumpkin actually perfectly form the word "Shou"!How can there be such a good pumpkin?Could this be a good omen from heaven?

Sanni is also a very careful person.She suddenly remembered one thing. Last year, her younger brother told her that she had an idea in his heart. At the beginning of the year, he also said that he would come to Beijing in summer... Qi Mingcheng would never have known that his family's field could grow at that time. Is there such a pumpkin?

Faced with Sanni's suspicion, Qi Mingcheng once again affirmed his ability to "falsify".He and Wu Shun looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.However, Qi Mingcheng felt that there was no need to play tricks, so after laughing, he told Sanni how the pumpkin was grown.

Whoever came up with this idea first is a genius!

Sanni didn't know that there was an entire modern civilization behind Qi Mingcheng, so she felt that Qi Mingcheng was too powerful.

The pumpkin was a bit heavy, but fortunately Sanni took the carriage in the mansion when she went out, and the driver could help carry the pumpkin back.Qi Mingcheng took out another letter from his pocket and said, "When you give the pumpkin to the nobleman, you attach this letter, and they will naturally understand after reading it."

When the pumpkin was transported to the Zhou Mansion, it was said that such a pumpkin would definitely be offered as a good omen. However, after Mrs. Zhou read the letter delivered by Sanni, she ordered to cut the big pumpkin into small pieces. , made pumpkin porridge, which was quickly shared and eaten by the people in the family.

In the end, the letter was handed over to Shen Ling, the eldest lady of Zhen Guogong's mansion, through Mrs. Zhou's hand.

Only a few people in this world know the identity of Shen Ling's son, so he is naturally the "Miss" of the Duke of Zhen.