Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 444: Golden and Silver Banquet
"By the way, don't forget the dinner tonight. If you're afraid of being tired, you can take a nap at noon." Bai Tu reminded Lu Lingqi.
Tonight, Bai Tu will host a banquet in the Chu Palace for the scholars on the gold and silver lists - I don't know who started it, but the first and second places are called the gold and silver lists, and the third place is the bronze list.
After Bai Tu found out, he didn't correct it specifically. Instead, he started calling it that in his daily life. But it is not considered the official name.
"Eh? Am I not still on maternity leave?" Lu Lingqi asked puzzledly while sucking on a sour plum.
"As the head of the guard, you will sit next to me. I will prepare juice for you, but you are not allowed to drink alcohol." Bai Tu emphasized.
"Attending as the Queen of Chu?" Lu Lingqi responded and asked instinctively.
However, Bai Tu emphasized: "No, as my wife." As he spoke, his eyes shifted to Lu Lingqi's bulging belly.
That’s right, the reason why the Gold and Silver Banquet was held in this form was due to the selfish thoughts that Bai Tu had after he was about to become a father.
According to the current growth rate of Chu's technology tree, sooner or later the social sciences and humanities will be adapted. By then, the nobility of the "King of Chu", which has not been specially emphasized, will be subject to endless doubts.
After true "enlightenment", no one can tolerate blood relationship as the criterion for succession to the throne of a country.
Bai Tu was not worried about himself, but... from the day Bai Tu promoted industrialization, he never thought that the "King of Chu" could last for generations.
Bai Tu never thought about whether he should slow down the pace of industrialization or interfere with the development of social sciences in a targeted manner to allow the monarchy to survive for a while longer.
Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. What Bai Tu needs to do is to pass on the blame and cut off responsibilities as much as possible - our King of Chu has only taken one in ten thousand of the people's money for generations... If you are really not happy, you can take nothing at all!
Coupled with the future teaching of "Xiaobai" and the future "Xiao Xiaobai", and trying to be more "Buddhist", Bai Tu is still very confident that he can smoothly slide into a system of nominal monarchy within two or three generations. It is better than holding on to power and waiting to be overthrown.
Bai Tu did not believe that his "wisdom and bravery" could be passed down from generation to generation. It was not practical for him to choose a suitable person to lead a country from his limited descendants.
Tonight is the day for the selection of future officials from the Gold and Silver List. It is an honor for them to accept the banquet hosted by the King of Chu. One hundred years later, perhaps the "King of Chu" will be lucky enough to rely on the protection of his ancestors and still retain the custom of hosting the Gold and Silver List...
Lu Lingqi didn't think about these things, but after thinking for a while, she reminded: "Then bring Xiahou Juan with you."
"Ah? Ah..." Bai Tu was stunned when he heard that, as if he couldn't react to why Lu Lingqi would say that.
The result was naturally a cold stare.
…
"You are all the future pillars of the Chu State. I hope that no matter what position you hold in the future, you will remember the test paper of the etiquette department, keep your original aspirations in mind, and remain determined. Drink to your cup!"
Bai Tu was in the palace of the King of Chu, hosting a night banquet for twenty-one people with the first class honors.
Seeing Bai Tu raise his glass, the twenty-one scholars in the front hall followed suit and raised their glasses...
At the same time, more than a hundred seats were placed in rows in the front courtyard of the Chu Palace. One hundred and sixty-six people from the second class were also feasting in the Chu Palace, but they had no chance to enter the front hall as the area was limited.
However, just before the banquet began, Bai Tu walked around the courtyard twice, and the source of the rainbow covered the entire Chu Palace.
As for the nearly 600 people in the top three, the Ministry of Rites gave them the final reception.
Apart from the necessary guards, there were no other officials in the Chu Palace. However, the queen and princess consort were there, as well as Deng Ai, the adopted son of the Chu King in Jingzhou according to "legend"!
Lu Lingqi had specially used fruit juice instead of wine to congratulate the successful scholars. She also "put herself in their shoes" and complained to everyone about the hardships of pregnancy, and urged everyone to treat their wives well in the future, especially to get married and have children at the right age!
Although many of the scholars present were around 20 years old, most of them were actually married, but only half of them had children.
Bai Tu also mentioned to Lu Lingqi that the court would set up an office to protect women's rights in the future, and the queen would be in charge of it for generations. Now it was considered as fulfilling their obligations first.
It was the first time that Xiahou Juan "blatantly" sat next to Bai Tu in front of everyone. She looked very embarrassed. Lü Lingqi was anxious watching from the side - if someone didn't know, they would think I bullied you...
And now Deng Ai doesn’t look like a “silly boy”. At most, he will take a deep breath before speaking, which makes people feel that his reaction is a little slow.
That’s right, after the correction by Bai Tu and Hua Tuo, Deng Ai’s stuttering has been mostly cured. Hua Tuo also agreed with Bai Tu’s guess, believing that Deng Ai’s stuttering was caused by the serious illness in his childhood.
Since he was only five or six years old, he was able to correct his pronunciation by relearning it...
The little bit of "awkwardness" that still remains is also the most stubborn.
The scholars on the gold and silver lists were really flattered by the King of Chu's purely family banquet.
Moreover, Bai Tu left the scene "wisely" in the middle of the game. After all, no matter how much he emphasized, as long as he was still there, these new scholars would not let go.
Only friends like Sun Ce, Lu Su, and Gan Ning, who have a long-term tacit understanding with me, can escape from this...
With the help of Baitu's venue, these new scholars must have hoped to have some emotional exchanges instead of sitting cautiously in front of the King of Chu all the time, especially those scholars who originally came from humble backgrounds and did not have many connections.
Deng Ai was also left at the banquet. Deng Ai, who was like a little adult, began to communicate with these older brothers awkwardly but actively.
He was completing the "learning task" that Bai Tu had given him - to make everyone on the two lists remember him, and at the same time... not to be disliked!
During this period, Deng Ai's "supernatural" performance once again made people understand what "people's words are not trustworthy" means - is this a silly child? Are the standards so high?
It is worth mentioning that among the 166 people in the second class, there are two "big sisters"...
That’s right, the imperial examination accepted women’s applications from the very beginning, because it was in implementation of the Eight Strategies for the founding of the Chu State, and no one dared to directly deny this.
Otherwise, you won't even recognize the Eight Strategies... Why are you still objecting? Why don't you just raise an army?
The proportion of women on the list is also very high. There are only ten people who signed up, five of whom are in the second place and five are in the third place. In theory, no one will fail.
After all... the women who dared to sign up at this time were all very capable, and almost all of them came from great aristocratic families. They had been actively preparing to memorize the "Chu Laws" and Chu studies from the beginning.
However, after the results were announced, the five people in the top three and the three people in the second place all resigned.
At first, Bai Tu thought that his family did not agree, and wanted to find out which families the girls were from - but he found that this was not the case.
Since you were able to sign up, how could your family not know about it?
only……
After hearing that Lu Kang had explained that the female officials would not be directly taken to the Chu Palace after being hired, most of them left in disappointment.
Bai Tu also wanted to know who started the rumor in the first place!
But I don’t really care. At least there are still two left, which is a good start…
