After all, Wang Dahu failed to rescue his old acquaintance Tan Gongdao from Fang Yingwu. He could only watch as Fang Yingwu led his relatives and tied Tan Gongdao and others up the mountain road and headed towards the county town.
This time when he came into contact with Fang Yingwu, Wang Dahu also clearly felt that Fang Yingwu was completely different from before, but it was hard to describe the feeling. The slight sense of reserve and alienation really couldn't be described in words.
"Does this look like the person who owes me thirty taels of silver? Am I too kind to him, so I am being bullied by others?" Wang Dahu looked at Fang Yingwu's back in confusion and murmured to himself.
He began to consider that when he returned, he would discuss it with his daughter. He should not indulge this debtor too much and must act like a black-hearted creditor.
The ten-mile radius outside the west gate of the county town belongs to Zitong Township in terms of administrative division. At this time, capital mapping had not been really promoted, and the county level was still divided by townships and li. Huaxi, where Fang Yingwu is located, is located deep in the mountains in the north of Zitong Township.
Li, about eight or nine miles away from the county seat.
Fang Yingwu and his relatives started on the road in the afternoon, and only arrived at the west gate of the county when the sun set slightly in the afternoon.
Along the way, the closer we got to the county seat, the more people we saw. When we arrived one mile outside the west gate of the county seat, we suddenly saw a temple with a lot of incense. Fang Yingwu learned from his memory that this was the Heqi Temple, also commonly known as the Heqi Temple.
West Temple.
And He Qi was a figure in the Three Kingdoms period, the founder of Chun'an County 1,500 years ago. According to Chinese custom, he was made a god after his death. Chun'an people called him the ancestor of He Qi, and they built temples to worship him at all times.
The area near the temple is also considered a lively place in the county town. When Fang Yingwu and his party passed by this place, other tribesmen kept looking around with interest and walked slowly. One of the criminals almost escaped if they were not careful.
But Fang Yingwu, who has two lifetimes of memories, is not very interested in this. The prosperity of a small county in a mountainous area always has its limits, and this turmoil in the world cannot shake his state of mind.
However, it was not that there were no things that caught Fang Yingwu's attention. As he walked along, he saw five archways on the road outside the west gate of the county.
The count is correct, there are five archways outside the west gate alone, four of which are Jinshi archways, which stand tall in the middle of the road outside the west gate of the county, accepting the worship of passers-by.
These four Jinshi Squares were built by Hu Gongchen, a Jinshi in the fourth year of Zhenghua, Ying Hao, a Jinshi in the tenth year of Zhenghua, Wang Bin, a Jinshi in the second year of Chenghua, and Lu Hong, a Jinshi in the eleventh year of Chenghua. All of them are newly built in recent years.
The most recent Jinshi was thirty-eight years ago, and the most recent was the year before last.
Among them, Hu Gongchen, the orthodox fourth-year scholar, is also from Zitong Township, and can be considered a real fellow villager with Fang Yingwu. I heard that he is about to become a minister in Nanjing, and even his hometown village Cixi plans to change its name to Huxi
.
Fang Yingwu had studied many ancient archways and monuments on site in his previous life, and was no stranger to the shape of archways. But what appeared in front of him now was not an ancient monument, but a real symbol of a living person. Behind every archway there was a local place with a shining lintel.
Celebrities stand here for people to admire.
But it was a bit too dense, and it was so dense that it was shocking. Fang Yingwu, who was determined to take the imperial examination road, was shocked. Once again, he had a personal experience of Chun'an County, the group that died in the imperial examination competition. And this was just outside the west gate of the county.
The tip of the iceberg, there are still countless imperial examination archways in other places.
Among the fellow tribesmen, there was a clever man who saw Fang Yingwu looking at the passing archway and flattered him in a fun way: "A smart person like Brother Qiu will definitely be on the gold medal list in the future. There needs to be one more archway here.
"
"Thank you for your good advice." Fang Yingwu smiled and said nothing. Now he is trying to find a way to gain a reputation as a scholar. The rest is still far away and unpredictable.
Fang Yingwu and his group were watching the excitement, and others were also looking at them. They were quite eye-catching. In the strange eyes of passers-by, Fang Yingwu led his tribe and escorted Tan Gongdao and others into Chun'an County.
The west gate is the Huancui Gate.
Chun'an County is located in a small basin at the southern foot of Longshan, with mountains to the north and Xin'an River, known as Qingxi to the south. There are six city gates in total. However, Chun'an County has no city walls. The so-called city gates are
It's just a wooden fence at the entrance.
The entire county is not big. From Fang Yingwu's perspective, it is similar to a small town in the time and space of his previous life. He estimates that the entire county has a population of only a few thousand people at most.
The county government office is located in the north of the county. Outside the gate is the famous eight-character wall, which opens to the south. There are several notices posted on the wall. There is a scholar who looks like he is shaking his head and reciting, and a few idle people are gathered around to listen.
Fang Yingwu went to take a look at the notice and saw the signature at the end, "Chun'an County Zhengtang Wang". He was convinced that the current magistrate's surname was Wang.
The gate of the county government office was undefended, so Fang Yingwu took the lead and stepped in with his head held high. The tribesmen who followed hesitated for a moment and then followed cautiously.
We walked along the corridor to Yimen, which is the core area of the county government. There is a gate guard here, and no one is allowed to enter easily. Fang Yingwu and his group of more than a dozen young men gathered in front of the gate, which attracted the attention of the gate guards.
They were extremely vigilant and stared at them suspiciously.
There is a stool in the gatehouse of Yimen. There is a boy who looks like a boy sitting on the stool with his legs crossed, opening and closing his mouth and cracking melon seeds. Judging from the melon seed shells on the floor, he is already sitting here.
It's very old.
Although he had never been to the county government office, Fang Yingwu knew that this smart-looking young man was the county government office's son, responsible for communicating internal and external reports.
He stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "I've invited you, a small official. The villagers of Xiahuaxi have escorted several gangsters who came to the village for extortion to report to the official."
The man quickly spit out two pieces of melon seed shells without raising his eyelids, and then quickly threw another one into his mouth, but the other party ignored them.
Of course Fang Yingwu knew that he was waiting for him to send a package, and then decide whether his attitude was good or bad based on the weight of the package. The disciple was just looking for this benefit. But he was so poor, how could he have any money to send this disciple?
There are ways to spend money, and there are ways not to spend money. How can such a small obstacle prevent Fang Yingwu. He turned around, patted Tan Gongdao hard, and sighed: "I don't want to."
If you can’t even get through this door, you’d better go back to the village and worry about it later!”
Fang Yingwu pretended not to care, but Tan Gongdao became anxious. He was tied up and tortured for a long time to the county government office, and then went back to figure out, when will his suffering end? What if these unruly people get impatient and kill him?
If it is buried in a ravine, won't it never see the light of day again?
When he entered the county government gate just now, Tan Gongdao had his head lowered. The reason was that he was too embarrassed and he didn't want to be recognized. In addition, he was now unkempt, so others didn't notice that it was him.
At this time, Tan Gongdao couldn't care anymore, stretched his neck and shouted to the door: "Brother Xu! It's me! Please report to the great master as soon as possible!"
When the disciple named Xu heard the familiar voice, he raised his eyes and took a closer look. He recognized it as Tan Gongdao. He jumped up from the stool in surprise and exclaimed: "Why is Brother Tan so embarrassed!"
"It's hard to say anything, just go quickly!"
Xu Menzi refused to shirk anymore and turned around and ran towards the lobby. At this time, the county magistrate was sitting in the lobby as a director. Not long after, Xu Menzi returned to Yimen and sent a message: "The great master has spoken and summons you to the hall!"
After entering the Yimen Gate, I saw a Jie Shi Pavilion built in the middle of the corridor, with the two characters "Jie Shi" clearly engraved on the stone inside.
No need to look, Fang Yingwu knew that the back of the stone must be engraved with the familiar words "Salary and salary, people fatten the people, the people are easy to abuse, the gods are hard to bully", which is the same as "Serve the People" in the previous life, every yamen has a form
.
Bypassing Jieshi Pavilion, you will find the county government hall, which is the symbol of the power of a county. The west of the hall is the cabinet library and the east is the curtain hall, but it has little relationship with Fang Yingwu at this time.
Today is not a case trial day, but the necessary pomp and circumstance is still there. Two groups of servants, holding water and fire sticks, stand in two rows opposite each other, lining up from inside the hall to outside the hall.
A government official stood on the platform and shouted: "My lord has given me an order. Someone from Huaxi Village should step forward! Tan Gongdao should step forward!"
Fang Yingwu and Tan Gongdao went to the platform outside the lobby door. There was a stone slab on the platform. Fang Yingwu, who was good at historical research, knew very well that when his parents and officials tried the case, the plaintiff and defendant would kneel on this stone slab.
Go to court for hearing.
Fang Yingwu was not used to kneeling down. But he knew that if he didn't kneel down, he would be rude and disrespectful to the county magistrate.
He hesitated for a moment, doing as the Romans do. The situation was stronger than others, and people had to bow their heads under the eaves. He sighed, and his knees had no choice but to have a close contact with the stone slab.
Traveling back in time to ancient times, this was the worst thing. Fang Yingwu still felt that he couldn't live up to his reputation, so he just lowered his head and imitated the ostrich to deceive himself and others.
Suddenly, I heard a government official shouting in my ears: "That person in the hall, raise your head, don't deliberately deceive!"
Expert Fang remembered again that during the ancient trial, although all the defendants and plaintiffs had to kneel, they must raise their heads and face the presiding judge. Because facial recognition is also an important part of the trial, the presiding judge must be guaranteed
You can clearly see the changes in the expressions of the plaintiff and defendant below at all times.
Fang Yingwu raised his head. Although the light inside the lobby was slightly dark, various details still fell into his eyes.
After the public case, Magistrate Wang was less than forty years old. He had three long strands of beard, his eyebrows were sparse, and he had a square face. He had a very standard official appearance. When he saw Fang Yingwu, he raised his head, slapped the table and shouted: "Who is there in the hall?"
, tell me your name!"
"Xiaomin Fang Yingwu, a native of Shanghuaxi Village, Zitong Township, has been studying in social science school for seven years. My father is a student student at the county school, so I don't know him."
When Wang Zhixian heard Fang Yingwu introduce himself, his face relaxed a little. Seeing that this man was handsome and outstanding, he felt good about him, so he raised his hand to support him and said: "It turns out that he is a scholar, stand up and answer!"
The county magistrate asked someone to stand up and speak, which was considered a favor. After Fang Ying thanked him, he immediately stood up quickly, feeling a little proud of his own cleverness.
These days, there is a strict hierarchy, and each level has one level of privileges. When ordinary people see the magistrate, they are not qualified to stand and speak, and can only kneel all the time. When a scholar meets the magistrate, he can give his hands as a courtesy and does not have to kneel.
But there is another situation between scholars and common people, that is, people who can only be regarded as half-hearted scholars. For example, a child who has passed the county examination or government examination, but is only one step away from the college examination and cannot become a scholar, will kneel down when he meets the county magistrate.
The magistrate would often ask him to get up and speak. This was also to encourage students to learn, appease people's hearts, and at the same time demonstrate the polite and virtuous corporal style.
Therefore, Fang Yingwu's self-introduction was also very skillful. On the one hand, he emphasized that his father was the best student in the county school and a first-class student who could receive six tons of food per month; on the other hand, he emphasized that his main
My assignment is to study in social studies. Although I have never taken the exam, I am an old student who has been studying for seven years.
When Wang Zhixian heard this self-introduction, he naturally distinguished Fang Yingwu from the ordinary common people in Guizhou and classified him into the ranks of potential scholars, enjoying the same treatment as half-hearted scholars.
That's why he gave Fang Yingwu the right to stand up and speak. Anyway, he didn't lose anything. He said he was a polite corporal, and he didn't lose his dignity as a county official. At this time, Tan Gongdao could only stretch his neck and raise his head next to Fang Yingwu.
chest, and kept kneeling until the end of the trial.
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