nashuaworldcup Chapter 554 Do You Know (21)
Chapter 554 Do You Know (21)
The two men looked serious and nodded repeatedly, putting Wangyou at ease.
With the autumn imperial examinations over, preparations now begin for the spring imperial examinations next year. Mo Lan, Ru Lan, and Ming Lan have moved back to the Sheng family mansion.
Recently, I heard that many new gadgets have appeared in the entertainment districts of Shengjing City, so Wangyou dressed herself up a bit and went out with her maid.
She had a lot of fun, and incidentally stumbled upon a murder case, but this had little to do with Wangyou. Cases like this were handled by the Dali Temple and Kaifeng Prefecture.
Before the New Year, Wangyou and her mother went back to the Sheng family again.
Unsurprisingly, many people came to the Sheng family to pay New Year's visits this year, such as Hua Lan's husband's family, and the couple and her mother-in-law who came in person. This was quite different from the usual situation where no New Year's gifts were given.
There's a saying that goes, "When you're poor, no one cares even in the bustling city; when you're rich, even distant relatives come calling from the deep mountains." This perfectly describes the current situation of the Sheng family.
Mo Lan, Ru Lan, and Ming Lan are now very mature in their dealings with people. The immature one is Wang You, who is holed up in a small room, playing mahjong with her maids and servants.
Then, just as Wangyou was happily sticking stickers on the faces of the maids and servants, someone came looking for her.
"Seventh Sister, I've been looking for you for ages! We've finally found you. The Emperor has sent New Year's gifts, delivered personally by His Highness the Crown Prince." Mo Lan pulled Wang You along and walked forward.
"It's just a New Year's gift, we see that all the time."
"Etiquette must not be neglected."
"You make it sound like I'm being polite."
"Nothing else matters, the important thing is that you have to be there." Mo Lan pulled Wang You along and quickened her pace.
Wangyou reluctantly followed. As soon as the little prince saw Wangyou, he lunged at her, but Wangyou blocked him.
Why are you leaving the palace?
"I haven't seen Grand Tutor for so long, I miss you."
"Go back quickly. It's not good for you to stay at my house during the Chinese New Year. We'll see each other again after the New Year."
"Alright, then you must accept the gift from the Grand Tutor. I prepared it with great care."
"Okay, go back now."
And so, Yuan Zhao returned home, looking back every few steps, while Wang You remained missing.
Fortunately, no one expected her to entertain guests, so they just let her play by herself.
This year's Spring Festival was quite stressful, mainly because five members of my family were going to take the imperial examinations. Those kids practically took their books with them even to the toilet.
Wangyou is also busy with various preparations for the imperial examinations in the spring, keeping her extremely busy.
In February, the streets of Shengjing City were filled with a large number of students who came to the capital to take the imperial examinations. In short, if you threw a book down, you could create a whole group of scholars.
There were relatively few women participating in the imperial examinations, and with so many people around, staying at inns was not very convenient. Wangyou had anticipated this and had these female scholars taken to a house under her name.
When Mo Lan, Ru Lan, Ming Lan, and the others found out, they also sent their gifts. They would often bring books and discuss scholarship with everyone, while also checking to see if there were any people with ill intentions among them.
The imperial examinations arrived as scheduled, and Wangyou, as the proctor, naturally went in again. This time, no one tried to cheat, so Wangyou was much more relaxed.
The imperial examinations attracted scholars from all over the country, resulting in a huge number of exam papers. Wangyou joined the ranks of the examiners, but she only looked at the printed exam papers. The original papers could not be given to the examiners to avoid tampering with them.
However, it will naturally be released later.
After looking at several exam papers, Wangyou couldn't help but admire the adults responsible for grading them, especially those who still had the mind to cheat after reading so many papers—they were truly unique talents.
Some people write plain and straightforward articles with no highlights, while others use rough and ornate language but have nothing usable upon closer inspection. However, there are also some good articles, and these will be determined by multiple examiners over time.
Wangyou didn't read much; her main task was to supervise, so she stopped after reading some, only glancing at good articles when they came across them.
Seven days later, the grading was completed, and the top ten papers were sent to the Imperial Study for the Emperor to determine their rankings.
Three more days passed, and the list was posted. As expected, all five members of the Sheng family who participated in the exam passed, and all of them ranked quite well.
Sheng Changbai and Sheng Molan ranked seventh and ninth respectively in the first class of the imperial examination.
The rest of the people are in the second tier, which is quite high in the rankings, so becoming an official shouldn't be a problem.
With five members of the Sheng family passing the imperial examinations, there were naturally many people who wanted to marry into the family.
Sheng Changbai and Sheng Changfeng were unaware of this, but Mo Lan, Ru Lan, and Ming Lan were not planning to get married for the time being. They were now more interested in forging their own path in the officialdom.
The total number of people admitted in this spring imperial examination reached 1,800, but only 300 were women. It was impossible for them all to stay in the capital; some of them would definitely be sent out to other places.
Surprisingly, Mo Lan, Ru Lan, and Ming Lan all had the opportunity to stay in the capital, but they decided to try their luck in the provinces because it was easier to achieve success there. Besides, they hadn't wasted their years of learning from Wang You; they could create their own success by imitating her.
Therefore, Wangyou expressed respect for their wishes and assigned six bodyguards to each of them to prevent them from being killed because of the saying "bad people come from poor mountains and bad waters".
“If you’re going to be assigned to a post outside the region, I suggest you go to the coastal areas. I’m planning to open up sea routes, so I’ll have to trouble you to gather information for me,” Wangyou said, pointing to the three counties on the map.
"No problem, it's up to us now."
"Don't be careless. The south is where the granaries are located, which means that the people there are not poor. However, people's hearts are complicated, and the waters there may be very deep. Be careful in everything you do."
"With the bodyguards you provided, I'm not afraid of anything," Rulan said confidently.
"Alright, I have branches of the Beauty Salon and the Brocade Pavilion over there. You can just send me a message if you need anything."
"Thank you, Seventh Sister. We will never let you down."
Amidst the reluctance of their families, the three set off with high hopes.
In the days that followed, although the three lived in different counties, they cooperated and helped each other because of their proximity. In just one year, they wiped out the local tyrants who committed crimes in the county.
The evaluation is conducted every three years, and these three even won the "Ten Thousand People's Umbrella" as a group, making it a triumphant return home.
The biggest beneficiary was Wangyou; her fleet brought back many rare treasures from its voyages and even emptied several other people's gold mines.
In the past three years, the Song army has also been revitalized, and with the joint efforts of several generals, it has become a formidable force.
The Liao army sent troops to invade, and the Western Xia were eager to make a move. This gave the Song Dynasty a good opportunity to test its new weapons. The result was naturally gratifying. The army took the opportunity to recover the Western Xia and the Khitan, and brought them completely into the territory of the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty suddenly became the master of the country, which made some of the surrounding small countries covet its power again.
These small countries came to the Song Dynasty with a bunch of junk, hoping to exchange it for a lot of things back like they did in the Tang Dynasty. But was that even possible?