Chapter 386 The Mansion of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Two or three months later, it was August in the fifteenth year of Wanli, and the weather gradually cooled down.
During this period, Suzhou City was generally relatively calm, probably because Mr. Lin did not start any new projects.
The main reason is that Mr. Lin can no longer think of any other projects he can start.
Is it possible that we should imitate those lifestyle players and engage in businesses such as distilling liquor, selling furniture, and opening restaurants?
Just forget it and leave a little more room for others to survive!
Of course, not opening new projects does not mean that we are standing still. All business lines are developing steadily, but they are not as noticeable as when they first opened.
Dongcheng's weavers gradually lost more than 2,000 people, which put the Weaving Industry Office into deep pain.
It feels like being slowly bleeding out, but there is nothing you can do.
The opponent they encountered was not the government, but the monster hiding behind the government, and they had no experience in dealing with it.
For Lin Daguan personally, the greatest joy is that the Lin Mansion in Nancheng is finally nearing completion.
This is a large mansion that is fully worthy of Lin Daguan's status. Not counting the Canglang Pavilion garden, just talking about the main residential area, it spans five roads from east to west and seven entrances from north to south.
Among them, the easternmost and westernmost roads span the outer courtyard, and are mainly arranged for the guards to live. There is no way, Lin Daguan does not feel safe, and it is normal for there to be more guards at home.
What's more exquisite in the design is that the gate is not in the center, but close to the southeast corner.
The first is to ensure the integrity of the residential area and Canglang Pavilion garden area, and the second is for safety.
After entering the gate in this way, you will see the easternmost guard courtyard, and then walk westward along the outer courtyard for a while to reach the Yimen in the middle.
Under this layout, if someone attacks Lin Mansion, even if they enter the gate, they will not be able to get straight in.
In the middle three roads, the halls on the central axis are mainly used as "public activity venues", and the two sides of the central axis are residential areas.
The place is large enough. Lin Daguan also reserved independent living courtyards for Huang Wuniang, Fan Niangzi and other outer rooms, but they probably will not live here permanently.
Probably during the holidays, I would occasionally come here with my children to stay for a few days.
In addition, between Canglang Pavilion and the residential area, there was originally a small river and laneway belonging to the public domain.
But Lin Daguan built a high wall at the entrance of the alley, closed the alley and the river, and turned it into an internal passage. Then he built a covered bridge on the river, which can lead directly from the residential area to Canglang Pavilion.
Regardless of the residential area or the Canglang Pavilion garden area, the height of the exterior walls is higher than that of ordinary homes, and it looks like a fortress from a distance.
In order to build this house, without affecting the development of various businesses, Lin Daguan almost emptied his personal wealth.
Now that we have finally reached the finishing stage, all that remains is the furnishings.
Lin Daguan has already moved in and plans to invite his parents to live with him before the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th.
Then wait until next month to hold the wedding here.
Of course, Lin Tailai didn't want to worry about all kinds of trivial matters at all, leaving them all to others, and all he could think about now was studying.
Since the time entered August, not only Lin Daguan, but also the scholars in Suzhou City suddenly became passionate about learning, as if they had received the same signal.
Because next August will be the time for the Wuzike Provincial Examination, which is exactly one year away from now.
Don't think that a year is too early, because there are other exams before the provincial exam.
Not every student is qualified to participate in the provincial examination. Before the provincial examination, the most important task is to obtain registration qualifications.
Generally speaking, according to the practice, from the last few months of this year to the early months of next year, the academic officers will conduct examinations on students from all over the country to decide who can register for the provincial examination, which is called the subject examination.
So strictly speaking, what the school scholars are preparing for now is not the provincial examination in a year, but the scientific examination in a few months.
Therefore, Fuxue, which usually had few people coming, suddenly became a lot more lively. You can see people basically every day, and there are more and more people.
No matter how bad a person usually is, at this point, he will always want to sharpen his skills in battle and try his luck.
From being a scholar to being a scholar, it is truly a leap in class.
What if I get caught in the eye by a great master and get the qualification to register for the Provincial Examination? What if I get lucky and a blind examiner in the Provincial Examination admits me?
As a result, the school, which was usually crowded, now has dozens of people coming every day.
It doesn’t have to be to attend lectures or study, information exchange is also very important.
For example, what style of eight-part essay has been popular in the past two years? What is the taste of great masters in writing? Should it be exaggerated and gorgeous, or should it be simple and clumsy?
The location of Canglang Pavilion Lin Mansion is right next to Fu Xue, so it is very convenient for Lin Daguan who moved to his new home. When he has nothing to do, he often visits Fu Xue.
As a result, over time, Lin Daguan became the student with the highest attendance rate in recent years.
Don't think that Lin Daguan is always domineering and very unpopular. He still relied on various dishonorable means to get into school, so he must be collectively isolated by all his classmates in the government school.
People who think this way must not have been in society very well.
The social truth is that people like Lin Daguan, although he is arrogant and domineering, unscrupulous and oppresses good people, no matter where he goes, he still has friends.
As long as Lin Daguan stays in one place long enough, people will naturally approach him.
Of course, if, like before, Lin Daguan never appeared in the government school, then others would have no chance to get close to him.
However, Mr. Lin is not a bad person who does not know how to refuse. Not everyone can be recognized by Mr. Lin.
After all, Lin Daguan has a sharp eye and is very capable of recognizing people.
It should be said that as an education highland in the country, the success rate of Suzhou Fuxue is still very high, and there are a lot of accomplished people.
For example, when Mr. Lin visited the mansion today, the two people who appeared next to him were not unknown people.
One of them is named Jin Shiheng. Lin Daguan doesn’t know exactly what this person did. He only knows that his father was a third-rank official, and he seems to have seen this name in the information.
If a name can appear in the data hundreds of years later, that is already very impressive.
The other one is Chen Yunjian, who comes from a prominent family in Suzhou. He has an uncle who is a disciple of Wen Zhengming.
This person seems not to be well-known, but in history, he had a star son named Chen Renxi, who passed the third prize in the Tianqi Dynasty.
The joke about Li Bai grinding an iron pestle into a needle was written by Chen Renxi; and it is said that Chen Renxi and Empress Zhou of Chongzhen Dynasty had gossip.
At this time, Professor Cui from the Fu School had not yet appeared, and students gathered in twos and threes to chat.
Chen Yunjian, who came from a prominent family, was very well-informed and said, "I heard that the academic advisor has recently resigned from Nanjing. We have to wait for the new academic advisor to take office."
The upcoming academic examination will be conducted by the Grand Master, the Tixueguan, so the students are very concerned about the Grand Master's developments.
Lin Daguan sighed: "Speaking of the academic officer, I miss Fang Gong so much. What a good academic officer he is."
Jin Shiheng couldn't help complaining: "But that Fang Tixue was greedy and tyrannical, and his reputation was very bad. All the scholars in the south and north of the Yangtze River hated him."
Lin Daguan said with great regret: "But he is so obedient. It is rare to see a censor who has no integrity like this. I really miss him."
I think back then, Fang Tixue became completely honest after being beaten, and a case was assigned to him.
Lin Daguan felt that he might never meet such a good academic advisor again in his life.
Jin Shiheng asked Lin Daguan again: "With your ability, you shouldn't care who the academic officer is, right?"
Lin Daguanren replied sincerely: "I took the exam and didn't care whether I could pass or not.
However, what we need to pay attention to is to minimize disputes and leave as few gripes as possible on various procedures, so it is still necessary to have close cooperation with academic officials.
The reason why I often appear in the provincial school recently is to prevent me from being slandered by public opinion, saying that I have missed too many classes and am not qualified to register for the provincial examination."
Jin Shiheng: "."
Is the exam you, Lin Tailai, took the same as others?
Others are thinking about how to get through, but you, Lin Tailai, are only thinking about how to settle public opinion?
While Chen Yunjian looked around at all the scholars in Minglun Hall, he replied: "It's not just Lin, there are many people I have never met before, and they will probably appear in Fuxue in the near future."
Lin Daguan seemed a little angry and said, "I originally thought I was a new face in the school, but I didn't expect that there are many people who are more familiar than me."
Chen Yunjian didn't understand at all. Why was friend Lin suddenly angry?
You yourself are the one who takes the lead in truancy, so why are you angry because others are truant?
Subconsciously explained: "After all, the government school is not a county school, it is a school belonging to the entire Suzhou Prefecture.
Many students from the prefecture are from surrounding counties, so it is understandable that they are not in Suzhou city."
Lin Daguanren snorted coldly, "As a senior of the government school, I have decided to rectify the situation from now on!"
Jin Shiheng asked in surprise: "Last time the professor asked you to be a senior, wasn't it declined by you?"
Lin Daguanren replied: "But now I have decided to accept it. If I can become a senior, it means that I am the best student, and it is natural to qualify for the provincial examination, right?"
It turned out that Lin Daguan only came to study every one or two months, thinking that he was a privileged person above everyone else.
Only recently did I discover that there are actually classmates who have never been in the government school in the past year.
This made Lin Daguan feel angry. His privilege was not the greatest, and there was someone more privileged than him!
Lin Daguan will not allow such an awesome person to exist in the government school!
Immediately, Lin Daguan said to Jin Shiheng: "Go and tell Professor Cui to stay in the room these two days and not come out to give lectures!"
While he was talking, he saw a strange face walking into Minglun Hall. Lin Daguan came forward to greet him and asked:
"Who are you? Why haven't I seen you come to my house to study and listen to Chinese language in the past?"
The man also said arrogantly: "I'm Li Hong."
Hearing this name, the faces of the people nearby changed slightly. If you guessed correctly, this name should be the son-in-law of the chief minister Shen Shixing!
It's just that this person has been away from Suzhou for a long time, so many people feel unfamiliar.
Official Lin muttered a few times in his mind, there is something interesting in this government school.
He can probably understand the virtues of those who do not come to the government for a whole year to study and listen to lectures.
"What? You, Lin Tailai, still want to discipline me?" Li Hong asked with some disdain.
But official Lin looked around and asked, "Who is Li Hong?"
Someone replied: "She is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Shen."
"Why have I never heard of it?" Lin Daguan said in surprise.
Li Hong shouted: "Lin Tailai, don't act stupid!"
Lin Daguan was still very strange and said: "When I was in the capital, I talked and laughed with Prime Minister Shen many times, and assisted Prime Minister Shen in his court battles.
After leaving the capital, he and Prime Minister Shen often exchanged letters and talked about everything.
But I’ve never heard Prime Minister Shen mention this son-in-law, so I really don’t recognize him, so I’ll just pretend he doesn’t exist.”
At this time, another stranger came in, and was blocked by Lin Daguan and others. He still asked:
"Who are you? Why haven't I seen you come to my house to study and listen to Chinese language in the past?"
The man replied indifferently: "I am Wang Heng of Taicang. What's the problem with studying at home?"
Hearing this name, the surrounding scholars secretly exclaimed, because this is the son of the great scholar Wang Xijue!
Lin Tailai was also quite surprised. This Suzhou government school was really a crouching tiger, hidden dragon. One of them was the son-in-law of the chief minister, and the other was the son of a bachelor.
Also, aren’t Shen Shixing’s son-in-law and Wang Xijue’s son the two most important figures in this exam season?
These two were the prime minister's children who were both accused after the provincial examination in the 16th year of Wanli.
Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, he, Lin Tailai, would bump into him.
But Official Lin didn't care about Wang Heng's father's background. There were two main reasons.
First, the relationship between Wang Xijue and Wang Shizhen is very close, so it is impossible for Lin Daguan to have a good relationship with Wang Xijue.
Second, as long as Chief Minister Shen is in power, there is no need to fear Wang Xijue. And historically speaking, Wang Xijue has been in power for a short time, so the threat is really not great.
When Wang Heng saw Lin Tailai blocking the door, he couldn't move on, so he could only ask, "What else do you have to say?"
Lin Daguan said: "Previously, the chief minister was criticized and was in trouble, but as a fellow Suzhou native, your father-in-law did nothing. It is really disappointing."
Wang Heng's face gradually turned angry, and he said something that was almost treasonous: "My father is my father, and I am me. If you talk to me, you don't need to mention my father."
What he hated most in his life was that others thought he got everything he had from his father.
Lin Daguan said nonchalantly: "But the people I usually deal with are all people of your father's seniority.
But for young dandies like you, we really don’t have much contact, so we don’t have much in common.”
"No need to ramble, what do you want to say when you stand here?" Wang Heng asked.
Official Lin looked at Li Hong, then at Wang Heng, and replied: "Let me tell you clearly, my idea is, can you two sons of the prime minister not take part in the provincial examination?"
Both of them were a little confused. What the hell kind of request is this?
Lin Daguanren explained: "Because I'm afraid of being implicated by you, and I don't want to be accused together with you in the end.
If I am the only one being accused, it will be easy to fight back, but if I am dragged down by the two of you, we will be in trouble together."
Wang Heng: "."
Li Hong: "."
Are you polite? Just point at other people's noses and say, you are pig teammates.
The others around him were extremely frightened. Official Lin was already very impressive for daring to block the prime minister's children.
I didn’t expect that I could be even more awesome, and directly asked others not to take the provincial examination!
I'm in a sluggish state, so I can only write hard. I hope I can regain my feeling soon.