Chapter 162 161 Arrival in the Capital

There was a jingling sound of horse bells in the distance, and the three carriages kept speeding along the official road, chasing each other at a very fast speed.

This is the main road into Beijing. In the past, it was already bustling with traffic and pedestrians. However, since winter, there have been fewer and fewer pedestrians and caravans on the way, which allows this small convoy to have fun on the narrow official road. An ancient version of Fast and Furious.

"Hurry up, hurry up."

Wei Guangde opened the curtain and kept urging the coachman to speed up. At the same time, he kept observing the changes in the positions of the two carriages next to him. He held the carriage with one hand to stabilize his body.

The situation on the other two carriages was exactly the same as here. Lao Kan and Shen Liangdong also kept urging the carriage drivers to speed up.

The carriage was speeding on the road, bumpy and bumpy, and Zhang Ji in the carriage was shaken to his wits. But just like this, the three young men were playing happily and enjoying themselves.

With the cold wind howling, the three carriages quickly ran away.

Wei Guangde and his party set out from Jiujiang Prefecture on November 20th. Each of the three of them had a carriage.

There was a small yellow flag on the carriage with the four small words "Ministry of Etiquette Examination" written on it.

Lao Kan and Shen Liangdong borrowed the car from the inn. This is a bus and they have to return it when they arrive in the capital.

Wei Guangde's family now has a bit of a nouveau riche temperament. Wei's father directly prepared a car for Wei Guangde to rush to the exam in his own private car.

Since they were going to Beijing to take the exam, the three families were naturally not stingy. Not only did they prepare for the expenses, but they also asked them to bring their schoolboys with them.

As for the benefits provided by the imperial court, Wei Guangde and the others also went to receive them. They received fifty taels of silver and a "fire" waist badge, which allowed them to stay at the inn.

However, after staying there twice, even though they were eating and drinking for free, to Wei Guangde and Lao Kan, the money was really nothing.

From then on, most of the three people chose to stay in inns in the county instead of inns. Only if they missed the time and could not enter the city, they would choose inns outside the city.

Father Wei originally planned to let four soldiers follow him north to the capital, but Wei Guangde stopped him.

They took the official road all the way. Although bandits and bandits have become more and more rampant these days, the risks encountered by taking the high road are actually not great.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were always many good people.

Father Wei had no choice but to find a soldier who was familiar with the carriage to follow him on the road, which was also a protection.

Zhang Ji is good at it, but he may not be as strong as Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde started boxing in the past two years. Although he never went out to the streets to challenge anyone, he still had fights with his own soldiers. According to the soldiers' words, two or three people could not hurt the second young master.

This time when he went to Nanzhili to suppress Japanese pirates, Wei Guangde killed a Japanese pirate and seemed to have developed his courage.

"From now on, Li San will follow the Second Young Master. No matter where he is in the capital or anywhere, you will follow and protect him. You have an elder brother at home, so don't worry about your mother. I will give your salary to your mother as usual. Second Young Master They will also give it to you over there. Anyway, you haven’t married yet, so I won’t miss you if I follow the second young master.”

This is what Father Wei told Li San before leaving, that is, the coachman going to the capital this time.

To be honest, in these years, no one has been out much. Going to the capital with the young master is a nice job. If Li San hadn't followed his elder brother to drive the car when he was a child, and later worked up the strength to become a private soldier, where would he have got this job? He and a large group of people rushed to get on.

After leaving Hejian Prefecture two days ago, they had just passed Bazhou, and ahead was Yongqing County. The three men were listless. Wei Guangde suggested racing, and the three of them became interested.

Wei Guangde traveled through time and came to the Ming Dynasty. There were not many recreational activities. Apart from going to brothels, the only thing left seemed to be sightseeing.

Scenic spots don’t charge entrance fees these days. They are still pristine and really beautiful.

But after watching too much, I lost interest.

In the past, he and Zhang Hongfu, a group of guardsmen's children, often went horse racing outside Jiujiang City.

After leaving Bazhou and seeing few people on both sides of the road, Wei Guangde suggested racing.

Running and running, the three coachmen still knew how to behave, but they did not dare to speed up and run desperately.

Even if the horse can bear it, the car cannot.

Soon, from a distance, the city walls of Yongqing County appeared in front of everyone.

As they approached the county seat, they naturally could no longer run, and the three carriages began to speed up.

Li San had a sad face at the moment. He entered the city and checked into an inn. He also had to check the carriage to prevent it from breaking down along the way.

In the next few days, the three coachmen and their entourage were in bad luck. Seeing that the road surface was smoother and there were fewer pedestrians, the three of them started racing.

Well, the advantage of doing this is that it greatly speeds up the time to get to Beijing.

Coming out of Tongzhou City this morning, there are naturally a lot of business travelers in the Gyeonggi area. Finally, I can't race, so I can only walk forward along the official road.

When it was getting dark in the afternoon, the three carriages finally arrived at Guangqumen before the doors were closed and locked. They had no choice but to encounter a convoy transporting grain on the road, which slowed them down.

The carriage did not enter Guangqumen and continued walking along the street. Now they were asking questions as they walked, and finally found the place they were going to, which was naturally a guild hall opened by Jiangxi people.

What needs to be said is that Wei Guangde and the others went to Zhushikou. In fact, Zhu means pig. Because there is a pig market nearby, it is a homophone.

This is the Jiangxi Jiujiang Guild Hall. In Beijing at this time, in the outer city to be precise, there were more than forty Jiangxi Guild Halls, most of which were located outside Chongyang Gate and Zhengyang Gate.

In this era, the offices of various provinces and governments in Beijing have actually taken shape, but they are mainly for the convenience of businessmen and candidates rushing to take exams.

In the 29th year of Jiajing, Anda Khan led the Mongolian cavalry to break through the defense line of the Great Wall and enter the pass through Gubeikou to plunder.

At this time, the city wall of Beijing was only a slightly reduced version of the Yuan Dadu city wall. It did not protect the vast number of residents outside the city wall at all, so it suffered heavy losses when faced with the looting of the Mongolian Tatars.

After learning from the painful experience, Emperor Jiajing began the construction of Beijing's outer city wall in the 32nd year of Jiajing's reign despite the central government's financial constraints.

Due to lack of funds, only the southern wall of Beijing was built, and the remaining three walls remained on paper and were never implemented.

As a result, Beijing’s unique “convex” structure city wall was formed.

At this time, in Beijing, in addition to the Jiangxi guild hall, there were guild halls in various prefectures and even counties in Jiangxi. As long as local people became Beijing officials, most of them would buy a yard and build a guild hall to facilitate the living and communication of fellow villagers, and also invite them to Serving as a messenger facilitates contact between yourself and your hometown.

At this time, the chief minister of the cabinet was Yan Song, who took great care of his Jiangxi fellows. Although it cannot be said that he formed a clique, after all, there were some Jiangxi officials who opposed his political views, but it is true that at this period, the Jiangxi guild halls in Beijing were the most numerous. .

Along the way, Wei Guangde felt that Beijing in this era was really crowded, and there were people wearing all kinds of clothes everywhere. The further he went, the more elegant his clothes became.

After several inquiries, they finally found their destination.

After Wei Guangde and others moved into the Jiujiang Guild Hall, they quickly met acquaintances such as Zhu Shilong, Guizhi, Zhang Ke, and many others whom they did not know. The candidates for the previous provincial examinations were all Wei Guangde's seniors.

For those who are still living in the guild hall at this time, they all failed in the previous session, or even the last session, and have taken the exam countless times.

Under the introduction of Zhu Shilong and others, Wei Guangde quickly got to know these people.

Relatively speaking, Wei Guangde is more familiar with Zhu Shilong, Zhang Ke, Duan Mengxian and other Jiajing 31 candidates. After all, they all participated in the provincial examination together. For those who won the examination before, they failed twice in a row. The chances are probably slim.

Of course, this is what Wei Guangde thinks in his heart, and he will not say it out loud.

After putting down their luggage and settling in, Wei Guangde went to the front yard. Zhu Shilong had already asked someone to prepare a banquet to entertain them.

The Jiujiang Guild Hall is not big, with only two courtyards. However, the inner courtyard has purchased two adjacent small courtyards on the left and right. In fact, there are only three courtyards that can accommodate people. The front courtyard is a restaurant for catering.

In addition to the candidates from these two years on the table, Zhu Shilong also called Xia Kefan, who had been elected in the 28th year of Jiajing. It was probably because Zhu Shilong saw that he had good literary talent and deliberately wanted to make friends with him.

At the table, Wei Guangde also learned that Zhu Shilong and the other four candidates who were elected in the previous term also came to Beijing to take part in the examination. They came here full of ambition, but they are still living here now.

"Every time the joint examination is held, candidates from all over the country gather in the capital, probably tens of thousands of people, just to compete for the three to four hundred places. It is more fierce than the provincial examination."

Zhu Shilong took a sip of wine and said.

"How many moves will you try next year?"

Wei Guangde was concerned about this, so he asked.

"In the 32nd year of Jiajing, there were 400 people. I don't know about Jinke yet. I guess there won't be so many anymore. It's at least 300 people."

Zhu Shilong thought about it before saying.

Naturally, the imperial examination also needs to be calculated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. How many official positions need to be filled and how many people will become official in the next two years can be roughly estimated to determine the quota for the imperial examination.

As for the imperial examination, well, that was for the emperor to win first prize.

The top pick, the second best, and the top pick are not determined by exams. They all depend on whether the emperor is happy or unhappy.

If you are happy, you can do whatever you want and just publish the list according to the seating arrangement arranged by the examiner; if you are not happy, just click on whose name you like. It’s as simple and crude as that.

Otherwise, it would be better to say that he is the emperor's disciple. He is really the emperor, and the nine-fifth emperor can decide with one word.

Of course, the papers that can reach the emperor's hands have all been read by the examiner. Those that are too bad will not reach the emperor's hands.

"You haven't returned to Jiujiang in the past two years, so you have been studying in the capital?"

Well, seeing as these few who failed the general examination stayed in the capital to study for three years and never went back.

Jiujiang is far away from Beijing, but you can get there in a month. It’s time to go home and see what happens during the New Year in the past two years.

"The capital city is much more prosperous than Nanchang Mansion. After you have a few days' rest, I will take you out for a walk. Anyway, you are here quite early, and the Ministry of Rites has not even started taking names yet."

Zhang Ke smiled.

Yes, before arriving in the capital, they thought that Yingtian Mansion and Suzhou and Hangzhou were prosperous enough. Only when they arrived in the capital did they realize that this place was even more prosperous.

After all, in this city, live the most powerful group of people in the empire. Their income is extremely high and their spending power is amazing. Not to mention the merchants who come from north to south, which naturally creates a first-class city in Beijing. The prosperous and prosperous era came out.

After the banquet ended, Wei Guangde settled down in Beijing and prepared for the exam in more than a month.

Although Zhang Ke and others also said during the dinner that it would be better to stay in the capital to study than to go back, Wei Guangde still made up his mind. If he failed in the examination, he would go south when the canal thawed, and he would come to Beijing early in three years.

In the next few days, Wei Guangde followed Zhu Shilong, Zhang Ke and others around the grand city of Beijing.

It is indeed grand. After Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing and implemented the two-capital system, not only did most of the empire's power transfer here, but the accompanying population and wealth also quickly transferred to Beijing.

In order to build Beijing, Emperor Yongle moved tens of thousands of craftsmen from Nanjing, and a large number of Nanjing guards also moved here.

The newly built southern city wall attracted a large number of people from the surrounding areas, which led to a sharp increase in the population on the market, while the business in the other three areas where the city wall was not built began to decline.

Wei Guangde brought three thousand taels of silver with him to Beijing this time, all his money.

Wei Guangde certainly couldn't afford the courtyards in the future, which cost hundreds of millions. In this life, it's really not a difficult thing.

However, Wei Guangde didn't plan to buy a courtyard in Beijing at this time.

Well, if you fail the imperial examination, it means you have to stay in Beijing for a long time, so it's understandable to buy a courtyard to live in.

If you pass the imperial examination, you will be admitted as a Jinshi, and then you will be arranged to be a county magistrate or other official position in the local area because you rank low.

Wei Guangde was not worried about not being appointed after the expiration of his stay in office. If not, he would give some money to the Yan family. He should at least give them a good job for their hometown.

The main thing was that the house he bought in Beijing would have to be sold, which was very troublesome.

By the way, Wei Guangde also went to other guild halls in Jiangxi to get to know each other. After all, he had participated in two provincial examinations in a row, and he also knew many candidates from Jiangxi.

Well, this might also be a kind of accumulation of personal connections. Taking more provincial examinations might not be a bad thing.

Sometimes, Wei Guangde was still thinking about his own death.

It was December, and it was close to the Chinese New Year. At this time, the Jiangxi Guild Hall sent an invitation to the Jiujiang Guild Hall. On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Yan Ge Lao and his son Yan Shifan held a banquet to entertain fellow Jiangxi people who were taking the exam in Beijing.

All the candidates naturally agreed to the invitation of the prime minister.

Finally, it came. Wei Guangde would not miss the opportunity to contact the prime minister of the dynasty. Moreover, although Wei Guangde had never had contact with Mr. Yan before, he had heard of his reputation, that is, he would get things done for money.

As long as he dared to take money, it meant that he would definitely get things done for you.

To put it bluntly, even if the Yan family did not invite them to get together during the New Year, Wei Guangde would probably find an opportunity to contact this important official in the court. It was related to his future prospects.

Moreover, this banquet was not only attended by the Yan family. According to the post, most officials from Jiangxi in Beijing would participate.

It was still early for the joint examination in February next year, and Emperor Jiajing had not said who would be the chief examiner of the joint examination.

Therefore, at this time, Jiangxi officials in Beijing had nothing to worry about meeting their fellow candidates on a large scale.

In fact, at this time, most officials in Beijing from Huguang, Zhejiang and other places were doing the same thing, so there was no taboo.

On this day, Wei Guangde unexpectedly met an acquaintance when he went out.

"May I ask if it's Brother Zeng?"

In a bookstore near Jiujiang Guild Hall, Wei Guangde was reading miscellaneous books. As per the old tradition, he had memorized what he should have memorized long ago, and he couldn't read any books at this moment.

As for the imperial examination, he would just leave it to fate.

But when he put down the book in his hand and turned around, he saw a new scholar in the store.

At first glance, Wei Guangde felt familiar. Where had he seen him before? At second glance, he remembered. Wasn't this Zeng Yuanshu's cousin Zeng Shengwu?

I remember it was five years ago, when I just came here and entered the county town for the first time.

But the man didn't react to Wei Guangde's question for a while, just nodded, and then stared at Wei Guangde in a daze, obviously he couldn't remember.