With Zhao Han's recommendation letter and Wu Bing leading the way, Wang Wei and Lin Xue found jobs quickly.
Wang Wei went to work as a teacher at a girls' school in Jishui County, while Lin Xue cooperated with a number of bookshops and usually drew illustrations for books.
In order to test the price of paintings in Jiangxi, Lin Xue took out a picture of Guanyin he had painted, and the calligraphy and painting shop directly gave it five taels of silver. Moreover, the owner of the calligraphy and painting shop also said that for paintings of this quality, he would charge as much as he painted.
Five taels of silver is equivalent to ten days' wages of Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua and others.
Even if she did nothing and only relied on painting and selling paintings, Lin Xue could live a prosperous life, but she came to Jiangxi to get married.
Not as a concubine, only as a wife.
As for how superb Lin Xue's painting skills are, Dong Qichang once commented. Among the female painters in the late Ming Dynasty, Yang Huilin of the Southern Sect and Lin Xue of the Northern Sect were called "South Yang and Beilin".
There is also a great writer Li Yu. Regardless of what his masterpiece is, friends who know it all know it.
When Li Yu created "Yi Zhong Yuan", he lamented the experiences of the two female painters and married Yang Huilin to Dong Qichang and Lin Xue to Chen Jiru in the opera.
On this day, Liu Rushi came back in a sedan chair, and a bookstore clerk helped deliver books.
Returning to the courtyard they shared, Lin Xue was surprised: "Buy these many books, do you really want to be a female official?"
Liu Rushi smiled and said: "I have inquired about it. Yamen in various places recruit government officials every quarter. During the period of government supervision, there is no salary, and they have to take care of their own food and accommodation. As long as they don't make mistakes, they can be converted into reserve officials in three months."
"It seems you have made up your mind." Lin Xue smiled.
The two of them each hired a maid, and their mother-in-law did the cooking and laundry, and they lived a very happy life.
Liu Ru asked the store clerk to bring the books to the room and gave him a handful of copper coins as a tip.
She rolled out a book and said, "Sister Lin, what do you think this is?"
Lin Xue came over and took a look: "Ban Yin."
"This is the Tianxia Datong silver dollar. One silver dollar is one tael of silver. It is much more convenient than broken silver and silver ingots." Liu Rushi threw the silver dollar over and said, "I'll give you one and treat it as rent."
It was a sunny day today, so Lin Xue took her paintings and calligraphy to the yard to dry them.
Liu Rushi was reading a book in the corridor. The book she was reading was about writing official documents. She already knew the format, but there were other rules in Jiangxi. Official documents must not contain uncommon words, try not to quote allusions, and must be written in popular prose.
Popular articles are articles that are more colloquial and can be understood as ancient vernacular.
In fact, many academic articles in the Ming Dynasty, including the works of Confucian scholars, were often explained in popular prose. The degree of colloquialism was between classical Chinese and vernacular, and was only slightly more formal than "Water Margin".
After Liu Rushi understood the rules, he stopped reading the book and picked up "The Law of Increase and Loss of the Ming Dynasty".
"Increase and Loss of the Ming Dynasty Law" is a deleted version, and about one-third of the entire book has been changed.
After spending a few days like this, they suddenly remembered that they had not registered yet, so they made an appointment to apply for household registration. They can only apply for temporary household registration, and they need to settle down for more than half a year before they can change it to permanent household registration.
Come to Huke.
The middle partition wall has been removed, and it looks like a large office room with clear windows.
The section chief of the county government office was very young, and he was writing at his desk. Maybe he had been working for too long, so he put down his brush and rubbed his wrists. Suddenly he saw Lin Xue and Liu Rushi, and he stared at them intently.
"What are the two young ladies going to do?" asked a petty official.
"Settled down." Lin Xue replied.
The clerk took out a household card and said, "Sit down. Are you a stranger?"
Lin Xue said: "Yes."
The clerk asked: "Name."
"Lin Xue, courtesy name Tiansu."
"Hometown."
"Fujian, Jianning."
"..."
"The household registration fee is fifteen cents. If you don't charge Chongzhen, you will get ten cents off. The security fee is twenty cents per month. You can pay it monthly or pay it in advance for a whole year."
"What are security fees?"
"There are too many people in Ji'an Prefecture. The county's criminal department should set up branch offices and build a police station every three squares to be responsible for patrolling, detecting theft, fire fighting, and calling police."
Both women had paid security fees for half a year and thought this police station was very interesting, a bit like Nanjing's Five Cities Military and Horse Division.
Due to stability and prosperity, the population of Ji'an Prefecture has expanded rapidly, many of which have migrant household registrations. The total number inside and outside the city has exceeded 250,000.
Even some farmland around the city has been demolished to build houses.
How can the county officials take care of this?
Zhao Han ordered the integration of the original agencies and the establishment of five police stations. Each police station has jurisdiction over more than 50,000 people and has the responsibilities of civilian police, criminal police, patrol police, and fire police.
Big cities must do this. Nanjing and Beijing have five-city military divisions.
However, the five-city army and horse departments in the northern and southern capitals of the Ming Dynasty basically lost their functions in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. A large number of departments were able to direct them to do things. In the end, no one was doing the actual work, and they were almost reduced to servants of nobles, eunuchs and civil servants.
.
You can understand that the police in Nanjing and Beijing are unable to find anyone all day long, and they are all working for free for officials.
Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the Five Cities Military and Horse Division. If he knew that he was being treated like this, he would probably be so angry that he would crawl out of the coffin.
After the two women completed their household registration and left, the young section chief came over immediately.
"Section chief!" the clerk greeted quickly.
The young section chief asked: "Two women share the same hospital?"
"Yes." said the clerk.
The section chief had lived abroad for a long time with his father, who was an official. He returned to Jiangxi two years ago and was promoted to chief of the Criminal Section of Luling County very quickly.
He is twenty years old this year, his fiancée has died of illness, and he is thinking about getting married.
Liu Rushi was too beautiful, which put him off. Lin Xue was very suitable. It didn't matter how old she was, and it didn't matter if she was a good prostitute. Her appearance was enough to ignore many things.
It can only be said that the influence of literary and artistic works on the ideological atmosphere is likely to exceed the education of the missionary department.
In recent years, a large number of drama novels describing the love of maids and prostitutes have made many young people less scrupulous and privately dreaming of a beautiful marriage.
Of course, we must overcome the stubbornness at home and break through the obstruction of feudal parents.
Every year after get off work at noon and evening, the young section chief would go out for a walk, secretly observing Lin Xue's whereabouts, and trying to create scenes of chance encounters on the street.
After observing for half a month, the young section chief was completely obsessed with it, and he discovered that Lin Xue's painting skills were amazing.
What a talented woman!
Liu Rushi read the notices every day, and after she had memorized half of the "Laws of Increase and Loss of the Ming Dynasty", she finally came to the county to recruit observers.
Only thirty people were accepted, but more than a hundred people signed up.
In the past, scholars with a good reputation were unwilling to be officials. This kind of thing is an intern. They do chores for others without getting paid. After three months of service, they can only serve as reserve officials.
But as Zhao Han occupied Hunan and Guangdong, a large number of scholars from all prefectures and counties came to sign up!
"Are you signing up for yourself?" The clerk looked at Liu Rushi stupidly.
Liu Rushi asked: "Can't women sign up?"
"That's not true, but...but..." The clerk didn't know what to say.
Liu Rushi smiled and said: "Since women are not prohibited from registering, then it is okay. Please register your name for me. Liu Yin, whose name is Ru Shi."
"well!"
The clerk felt light all over and was fascinated by Liu Rushi's smile. He fainted for a long time and finally said: "Come to the county government examination tomorrow."
The county officials, including many applicants, all looked at Liu Rushi stupidly, firstly because of his beauty, and secondly because there was actually a woman who signed up to watch politics.
Nowadays, there are indeed many women working in missionary groups, but only Xiaohong is an official in the county government.
Moreover, Xiaohong is also a missionary officer turned political officer, and Liu Ru is the first one to sign up to take the exam to become a political officer!
"Next person!"
"I am a Juren, and this is my certificate."
"It turns out that you are a candidate for Juren. You don't need to take the exam. You can just go directly to the county government office to observe the administration."
There are a lot of talented people in the country, but there are far fewer candidates.
Once a candidate is willing to observe politics, he or she will be admitted directly without taking up a quota, and will be promoted to full-time positions quickly. This approach can not only select talents, but also win over scholars.
The next day.
Liu Rushi came to take the exam. The official document was simple, the law was acceptable, he was blind at farming, he was confused at mathematics, and he passed the Datong theory.
He did so badly on the exam and was ranked eighth, but he could stay in the county government office and observe government affairs instead of being assigned to the township government office.
The chief of the civil service department had a sad face, took Liu Rushi's test paper, and went to ask Zhang Huanjun, the magistrate of Luling, for instructions.
"Your Majesty, this is a woman," said the chief of the civil affairs department.
Zhang Huanjun nodded in approval and said: "The calligraphy is really good, the literary talent is also excellent, and the popular prose can be written catchy. I should record it."
The chief of the civil affairs department repeated: "The county minister is a woman!"
Zhang Huanjun burst out laughing: "A woman is a woman, just a government official."
Luling County Magistrate is equivalent to Zhao Han's Jing Zhaoyin. How can someone who can achieve this position be a pedantic person?
The previous Luling County Magistrate punished both Fei Chun’s parents!
On Liu Rushi's first day as an intern at the county government, he immediately caused a sensation. Officials from various departments took turns to watch and went to the household department with random excuses.
Liu Rushi was just doing odd jobs for the first two days. The young section chief of the household department saw that there were too many onlookers, so he threw her into the back to copy official documents. Gradually, she assisted in handling government affairs, and various tasks came to her at her fingertips. After completing them, she was still free.
Self-taught mathematics.
General Military Mansion.
Zhao Han said amusedly: "She is watching the government in the county government?"
"Yes, the news has reached the General Military Mansion." Secretary Wang Dai said.
"I am ordering the people below not to make things difficult and not to take care of them," Zhao Han asked, "Has the marching army been organized?"
Zhang Jiayu said: "We have been training for half a month."
Fei Ruhe has been transferred back and has been restored to his post, but now he is in charge of the Dongbing Academy. He transferred backbones of the army from Guangdong as a framework, and also transferred back some officers from Hunan, and then recruited farmers and soldiers from poor areas in Jiangxi to join the army.
The number of professional soldiers under Zhao Han finally increased to 28,000.
Calling Pang Chunlai, Li Banghua, Fei Chun, Chen Maosheng, Xiao Huan and others, Zhao Han said: "We have been discussing for a long time in the past few days, and I have made a decision. We will keep Fujian this year without attacking, and occupy Jiangnan first.
, each department should make corresponding preparations, and send troops as soon as the summer grain arrives in the warehouse!"
What made Zhao Han change his strategic decision was a letter sent by Xu Ying.
Zhejiang scholars are about to revolt!
Fushe has branches in various places, and Yishe is the most influential branch in central Zhejiang.
Xu Du, the leader of the Righteous Society, actually wanted to launch an uprising. He had already contacted scholars from several counties and received support from many businessmen and small and medium-sized landowners.
Zhao Han must change his expansion plan.
This time, Zhao Han will personally conquer the south of the Yangtze River and personally control the big families in the south of the Yangtze River.
