Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 573: The Lantern Festival of the Tenth Year of Tianqi
Istanbul is far away from the Ming Dynasty, so it will take a long time for Chen Zizhuang and Richelieu to return. When they were on the road, the wheel of time had entered 1628, and the Ming Dynasty had entered the tenth year of Tianqi.
This year's Lantern Festival in Beijing was particularly lively.
On the one hand, this is the tenth year of the emperor's accession to the throne. According to the Chinese custom of celebrating the fifth and tenth anniversary of the birth of the emperor, although the emperor was not in the capital during the Spring Festival this year, the regent Zhu Youxiao still set the tone: this year's Lantern Festival should be more lively.
On the other hand, this year was the last year of the old-style imperial examination.
Although the imperial examination has been fine-tuned for more than ten years since the emperor took office as regent, the proportion of eight-part essays in the imperial examination has become smaller and smaller. However, in any case, the imperial examination in the tenth year of Tianqi was still a pure liberal arts examination: poetry, song, composition, and policy essays. Even if there are a lot of data in the long paragraphs of information in the policy essays, they are ready-made and only need to be analyzed, not calculated.
According to the emperor's previous regulations, starting from the prefectural examination in the eleventh year of the Tianqi reign, the content of the imperial examination would undergo a revolutionary change: the art of writing was completely gone, poetry and songs only accounted for 10% of the total score, policy essays accounted for 50%, and the remaining 40% was given to the civil service examination. The provincial examinations in the twelfth year and the metropolitan examinations in the thirteenth year all followed this new examination method and scoring standard.
Thanks to the well-developed printing and publishing industries in the Ming Dynasty, scholars from all over the country had already obtained the simulated test papers released by the royal family. Then the scholars were surprised to find that, not to mention the math questions that made them feel like they were dying, even the ordinary liberal arts questions gave them a headache.
For example, there are many questions about "synonyms" in the civil service exam: this is actually to test whether the candidates have a precise grasp of the meaning of each word, and whether they can write official documents accurately after becoming a civil servant - this is a purely liberal arts question, right? However, traditional candidates who have only read the Four Books and Five Classics throughout their lives cannot guarantee a high accuracy rate when answering such questions.
For example, in order to test the breadth of candidates' knowledge and ensure that they will not make common sense jokes when they become civil servants, many questions in the civil service exam test common sense, world history, Chinese geography, etc. Such questions make those traditional scholars who have never touched ordinary things and have never heard of anything outside the window helpless.
So, what else is there to say? If you don’t pass the imperial examination this year, you may never pass the imperial examination in your lifetime: don’t expect to have a career in the overseas vassal states. The four earliest overseas vassal states, Zhou, Tang, Fu, and Gui, were even more radical than the Ming Dynasty itself, and they started to use the civil service examination a year ago - because they had fewer scholars and less burden.
As for the other vassal states? Come on, except for the Qin Kingdom on Luzon Island, which has the former Spanish Governor's Palace to live in, which is barely a bit decent, the kings of other vassal states don't even live in a decent place. Unless it's absolutely necessary, who would be willing to go to those wild places?
Therefore, in the tenth year of the Tianqi reign, more than ten thousand candidates flocked to Beijing: those who had passed the provincial examination but failed repeatedly, those who had passed the provincial examination and were enjoying themselves in the countryside, and more than one thousand new candidates who had emerged from the provincial examination last year, all came to Beijing to seek this last chance.
At this time, the economy of the Ming Dynasty was still dominated by agriculture. Although industry and other things developed rapidly, it would take a considerable amount of time to accumulate wealth. The secondary industry had not yet gained an absolute advantage, and the tertiary industry naturally had not yet reached its peak. Therefore, during the ten years that Zhu Youdong had controlled the country, he had never taken the tourism industry seriously, and naturally, the number of restaurants and inns in Beijing was extremely limited.
In previous years, there were only two to three thousand candidates who came to Beijing to take the examination. With the crowding of candidates from all over the country and some candidates who had relatives and friends in Beijing, they could always be accommodated. But this year, so many people came in at once. In the countryside, candidates were called masters. Generally speaking, except for a few candidates , most candidates would bring a large group of followers with them. More than 10,000 candidates coming to Beijing often meant that the temporary population in Beijing increased by at least 40,000 to 50,000 in the short term! The population of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was only more than 800,000 at that time!
As a result, during the entire Spring Festival, all the restaurants, inns, temples, Taoist temples and even many private residences open to the public in Beijing were packed.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, the court launched an unprecedented large-scale lantern festival, and the imperial guards participated in the continuous fireworks display. Hundreds of thousands of residents in the entire Beijing city poured into the streets, creating a grand scene of people rubbing shoulders with each other and sweating profusely.
On this night when the whole city is plunged into noise and bustle, the elegant room on the sixth floor of the authentic Nanyue restaurant near Chaoyangmen is a rare quiet place in the bustling city.
"Ah, it's all thanks to His Royal Highness the Regent. If it weren't for His Royal Highness the Regent , we would never have been able to book the authentic Ya Ge in Nanyue during the Lantern Festival."
"Hahaha, brother-in-law, this is a family dinner, so let's not talk about the regent. As for the difficulty in booking the elegant pavilion here, hey, this is my Zhu family's property. Even if I don't show up, it shouldn't be difficult to book it for my sister's sake, right?"
"Well, I know this. The deeds of Zhu Yunkeng and Zhu Shengmiao have been reported by the six major newspapers. As for your sister, haha, the Princess of the Ming Dynasty was overwhelmed with choices and chose a poor man like me, which is not very impressive."
After years of operation, the Nanyue Zhengzong restaurant has been renovated: reinforced concrete pillars and wood grain materials on the outside. The entire restaurant has been transformed from a two-story building to a 20-meter-high six-story building. In the east of the city, it stands out from the crowd. It is precisely because of this that the three elegant rooms on the six floors are particularly difficult to book: the scenery is unique.
At this moment, living in one of the six-story elegant pavilions were two couples, Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan, and Lu Xiangsheng and Zhu Huijuan.
"Sister, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, let me offer you a toast."
"My sister-in-law is pregnant, please sit down quickly, no need to be polite."
"Haha, yes. Our family, the Grand Emperor, You Ji, and You Mo are in Southeast Asia right now. My brother should be in Chengdu celebrating the New Year. The Queen Mother is in the palace with her sisters-in-law. You (Mu Xue) has a few cases in Baoding, not to mention You Jian. Hey, with such a big family, only the four of us can sneak out to enjoy the Lantern Festival."
"Speaking of this." Lu Xiangsheng lowered his voice and said, "I heard that His Royal Highness Prince Xin is in danger in Huai'an. I wonder..."
"It is indeed dangerous." Zhu Youxiao replied solemnly, "I have already asked Li Shizhang of the Imperial Guard and Tian Ergeng of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to send a team of elite soldiers to the south. I think my brother will also ask the East Factory to send more people."
"Hey! It's New Year's Day, why are you talking about these things? What's wrong with the men of our Zhu family facing some difficulties?"
"Hahaha, that's right, sister. Speaking of which, I want to ask you, how is the progress of the artificial fiber in your textile materials laboratory?"
"It's OK. I just finished an experiment of drawing a mixture of sugarcane bagasse, wood and cotton yarn a year ago. The quality of the newly obtained fiber is much coarser than pure cotton yarn, but the cost is reduced by at least 30%, and the warmth retention effect is quite good."
"Hey, that's great. If the clothing prices of the people in my Ming Dynasty can be reduced by 30%, then Sister will really benefit the people."
"It's more than that." Lu Xiangsheng took over the conversation and said, "Nowadays, a large number of people have abandoned their land and entered factories. The number of silkworms, mulberry trees, cotton and linen plants has been declining, so on the one hand, the production capacity of spinning mills is constantly expanding. On the other hand, the production capacity of raw materials is insufficient. If Madam's research can be successful, who knows, the spinning mills and garment factories in Daming will usher in another surge."
"Yes, food, clothing, housing and transportation are the basic necessities of life. In recent years, droughts in the north have become worse and worse, and floods in the south have not decreased at all. If it were not for the granary of Nanyang, although our Ming Dynasty would not starve, the price of grain would not be able to maintain the low level of one silver dollar for two stone of rice. Now, the problem of food has been solved, but clothing has become a problem again... Hey, I feel that the past two years as regent are more difficult than working in the shipyard for ten years. I don't know how my eldest brother has survived these ten years."
"Big brother is big brother. Father died early. If it weren't for big brother, none of us would be alive today."
"Sister, you are right. Come, let me offer a toast to you, brother."
Just as the two pairs of four began to raise their glasses, there was a knock on the door.
"What is it?"
Amid the noise, a guard walked in and said, "Your Highnesses, a guest has booked the elegant room next door and wants to come up now."
"What do you mean? The Lantern Festival is about having fun with the people. The princess and I are not eating in the palace, but to see the people's fireworks. Of course, we want them to come up, and you must not stop us."
"yes."
After a while, there were bursts of voices coming from the elegant pavilion next door. Zhu Huijuan put her finger on her lips teasingly, and Zhu Youxiao smiled knowingly, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and began to listen attentively.
Seeing the looks of the two siblings, Lu Xiangsheng, who was standing by, could only shake his head and smile bitterly: These two royal children are really good students of the emperor, and they seize every opportunity to listen to the voices of the people - but how could those who can book this elegant room for the Lantern Festival be ordinary people?
"Everyone, please take a seat. If it weren't for Lord Yuan's intervention, we wouldn't be able to book this elegant pavilion. You should know that in the first year of Tianqi, the first number one scholar appointed by the emperor, Chen Zizhuang, beat a member of the royal family here and became famous overnight."
"Hahaha, Brother Yun is extremely talented, and Elder Yuan is rewarding young talents. We are all benefiting from this."
"Well, everyone, although I am from the same hometown as Mr. Yuan, Mr. Yuan cannot meet with us before the examination, so please bear with me."
"No, after the examination is over, regardless of whether we pass or not, we must go to see Elder Yuan. I hope Brother Yun can lead the way then."
After Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Huijuan listened for a while leaning against the wall, their expressions gradually became solemn.
The total area of the sixth floor of Nanyue Authentic is very small, which results in the three elegant pavilions being small in size. There are only four people in the elegant pavilion next door.
The leader, Brother Yun, the two listened for a while and recognized that his name was Cao Xun, from Henan, and a fellow villager of Yuan Keli, the second assistant of this dynasty. The other three were named Liu Ruozai, Chen Yutai, and Shi Kefa...
