Chapter 418 Before the Competition in the Seventeenth Year of Wanli
Time flies very fast, and in a blink of an eye it is New Year's Eve of the 16th year of Wanli and New Year's Day of the 17th year of Wanli.
Lin Daguan spent the New Year's Eve vigil with several fellow Suzhou residents.
As expected, the emperor skipped the New Year's Day meeting again, and the ministers were happy and relaxed.
Then the streets were full of people walking down the street to pay New Year greetings. People who had a good reputation could come into the house. For example, when Lin Tai came to Wang Situ's house,
Those who didn't have an appointment could only leave a post at the front door of someone else's house. For example, when Lin Tailai passed by the house of Shen Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, he threw a post with his name in the courtyard and left.
The craze for gathering five blessings has been going on for about ten days and is still going on.
This novel fun is mainly popular among officials and scholars. Most people can't tell how it started.
Some people were given one when they were rushing to the temple fair, some were given one when they passed the intersection on their way home, some saw one mixed in among a stack of greeting cards, and some were given one when checking out at a restaurant. Some people found one from the crack of their door.
The manuscript is folded and placed in an envelope. You don't know what's inside until you open it.
Then this activity of gathering five blessings gradually became popular. As Lin Daguan is a famous "capable" person, most people are still very interested in Lin Daguan's "a thousand pieces of gold and one promise".
No matter what happens, after gathering all the five blessings, it can be done by asking Lin Daguan to recommend Shen Shoufu, right?
Later, a large basket was handed out every day at the door of Lin Mansion, and each person was limited to one piece.
From now on, each manuscript of the Five Blessings poems will be accompanied by a thin copy of "Wu Zhuangyuan's Three Difficulties Gu Daru", which will be distributed to officials and high-ranking scholars.
Lin Tailai is very satisfied with the popularity that has been created. Compared with the efficiency of working hard to accumulate talent and reputation bit by bit at the Yaji, he can earn his reputation much faster this way.
It only took twenty days. Who among the upper-class scholars in the capital has not appreciated his New Year's poems? Who has not heard of the academic debate between himself and Gu Xiancheng?
Are there still people who doubt their Jieyuan? Are there still people who doubt that they are not qualified to be named on the yellow list?
Therefore, Lin Daguan was in a very beautiful mood until before the Lantern Festival, Xu Chaofeng, the owner of the bookshop, came over to pay the bill.
Xu Chaofeng moved the abacus skillfully and read in his mouth: "First of all, there are three thousand copies of "Wu Zhuangyuan Three Difficulties Gu Daru". We need to urgently engrave the plates and add paper, printing and binding expenses. After erasing the fraction, the total beneficiary is three hundred taels."
Then there was the urgent engraving and printing of 10,000 copies of the Five Blessings poems, as well as the cost of special paper, paint, and envelopes, plus the labor costs of festival distribution. After erasing the small change, the total benefit was four hundred taels.
Adding these two items together, the total beneficiary is seven hundred taels."
Hearing this number, Lin Daguan couldn't help but jump in shame. Seven hundred taels of krypton gold in twenty days is a bit crazy.
The thousand taels borrowed from Li Chengliang were basically thrown into it.
In addition to the plan to entertain scholars from thirteen provinces, another thousand taels will be prepared.
In other words, in the past two months, in order to reduce the criticism of the imperial examination, the various reputations and reputations have cost a total of at least 1,700 taels.
At today's prices in the capital, if you buy three large houses of thirty or forty rooms, you can buy five!
With the amount of cash that Senior Official Lin currently has in his pocket, he can actually get it out, but there won't be much left after all.
Lin Daguan didn't want to strain his finances, so he discussed it and said:
"Xu Chaofeng, aren't you also from Suzhou? You can designate a trading place in Suzhou, and I will ask Suzhou to deliver the seven hundred taels of silver to you.
Anyway, after you make money in the capital, you still have to transport it back to Suzhou, so you might as well do it in one step."
Xu Chaofeng disagreed and said: "If such a large sum of money is given to you on credit in the capital, then the bookstore will have no capital to continue operating."
After arguing for a long time, they agreed to pay three hundred taels in the capital and four hundred taels in Suzhou.
The activity of collecting the Five Blessings ended on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In the end, 16 people collected the Five Blessings, basically middle and low-level officials and scholars.
Regarding the issue of public credit, Mr. Lin did not cheat.
It's just that the probability was not controlled well. The original plan was to control it to about ten people, but unexpectedly it exceeded the estimate.
Then, under the pretext of preparing for the imperial examination, Lin Daguan postponed the next stage of activities to March, and then we could discuss what to promise and how to fulfill it.
From then on, Mr. Lin had no other chores and only two things were left in his life.
The first thing is to continue to entertain scholars from various provinces and build reputation and reputation among the candidates; the second thing is to seize the time to review the eight-legged essay writing method and practice writing to find out the feeling.
These two things filled his life, and more than half a month passed.
The National Examination is a replica of the Provincial Examination. It also has three sessions. The first session is on February 9th, the second session is on February 12th, and the third session is on February 15th.
In early February, a few days before the exam, the court suddenly announced a list of more than a dozen fellow examiners.
Then immediately, the examiner, Bachelor Xu Guo, and a dozen of his fellow examiners entered the inner courtyard of Gongyuan and locked the door to cut off any communication with the outside world.
On the same day, Chief Assistant Shen Shixing summoned Lin Tai to Shen Mansion.
In the study, Shen Shixing handed Lin Tailai a note without saying anything.
Lin Tailai opened it and took a few glances. There were three questions about the "Four Books" inside, so he understood it.
The first assistant suddenly gave him three questions before the exam. What else could they be? Could it be that the first assistant was so full that he came up with questions to test himself?
The general examination is the same as the provincial examination. It is said to be three tests. In fact, only the first test is important. The first test is mainly used to select candidates.
In the first session, there were three questions on the Four Books and four questions on the Five Classics. The candidates had to write a total of seven eight-legged essays of more than 300 words.
Among these seven eight-part essays, the first one is particularly important. Many examiners are too lazy to read all the papers and often judge the paper only by looking at the first one.
Therefore, although the note in Lin Tailai's hand only contained the first three "Four Books" questions, it was basically enough.
For this reason, Lin Daguan did not say any pretentious words such as thanks. He only said: "I will go back to prepare for the exam. I will say goodbye now."
Shen Shixing warned: "Just read these questions yourself and don't leak them out again.
Otherwise, the consequences will be unpredictable and bring you uncontrollable risks. I believe that with your intelligence, you will definitely understand this truth."
"Yes, Mr. Ge, don't worry." Lin Tailai replied, he understood very well what Shen Shoufu meant.
If the topic is passed on to anyone, it will enter an uncontrollable state. People's hearts are divided, and you don't know how many people it will pass on to.
If there is a situation where one person passes the question to another and the city is full of uproar, then the exam will definitely change the questions temporarily.
Therefore, in order to minimize the risk, Lin Tailai must keep the topic in mind and never tell anyone again.
Finally, Shen Shixing added: "Xu Guo's writing style is vigorous and simple, so your writing should not be too fancy."
Needless to say, there is nothing else to say. Lin Tailai went home and worked on the questions, slowly grinding out the length that felt best.
Then it's time to shower and change clothes, and wait for the exam to come.