Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi held their wine glasses high and kept urging a scholar in Tsing Yi across from them to drink.
Chen Wenxian looked as if he was enjoying himself and shouted: "Brother Meng, it can be said that Cao Zijian, my dynasty, has the best talent in the world."
Chen Wenyi also held his stinky feet at the side and said: "Brother Meng will definitely go to high school for this imperial examination. Brother, I would like to congratulate you in advance."
The scholar in Tsing Yi is named Meng Qing, a native of Daming Prefecture, a wealthy local man, and quite talented. He came to Beijing this time to take part in the imperial examination.
The two brothers Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenwei are from Xianyou County, Quanzhou, and belong to the Chen family in Quanzhou. Their father was the nominal third-in-command of the Qingyuan Army in the past, the second most powerful figure, and held military and political power in the Qingyuan Army.
Chen Hongjin, who must be afraid of three points if he follows the results.
When Liu Congxiao offered his land, the Chen family became restless and planned to bribe officials in Beijing and continue to serve in the Qingyuan Army.
As a later generation, Luo Youdu had no reason not to attach great importance to the port of Quanzhou, so he arranged for his brother-in-law, Fu Zhaoxin, who had "broken up" with Fu Yanqing, to go to Quanzhou to serve as the magistrate.
Fu Zhaoxin himself had great abilities, and he had a thousand-year-old fox to advise him. Within three months of taking office, he seized the military power of the Chen family, took control of Quanzhou's military power, and then took over the monopoly of the Chen family's ports.
Chen Hongqian, the head of the Chen family, showed extraordinary courage at this time. He knew that merchants could not defeat the imperial court no matter what, so he gave up his monopoly on Quanzhou's seaport and cooperated with Fu Zhaoxin to renovate Quanzhou Port.
Fu Zhaoxin originally wanted to wipe out the Chen family in one fell swoop, but faced with the Chen family's cooperation, he lost his excuse.
The Chen family withdrew from the maritime trade business, but had made a lot of money from its monopoly on Quanzhou Port in the past ten years and had sufficient capital.
The two brothers Chen Hongqian and Chen Hongjin discussed it and decided to follow the old path.
The two brothers, one engaged in business and the other in politics, supported each other.
Chen Hongjin also moved his family to Bianjing in search of opportunities.
However, since the establishment of the Luo Yu court, it has conquered the south and the north, destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, captured Lianglong, leveled Jiangnan, settled Bashu, overturned Lingnan, captured Jiaozhi, and also fought a battle with Dali to define the boundaries.
Among the military generals of the Luoyu court, which one does not have a luxurious resume worth mentioning?
A person with no military exploits, who dare not speak loudly even after drinking in the Wuchen Group, would not have a place like Chen Hongjin.
Chen Hongjin thought again and again and decided to abandon martial arts and follow literature.
With the improvement of the status of literati, many generals have been faced with the problem of joining the military service.
After all, there are many people who have fought hard to gain wealth and cannot bear to let future generations live a life of licking blood from the edge of a knife.
Chen Hongjin's two sons, Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi, were pampered and spoiled. They were soft-handed in killing chickens, let alone killing people.
The two brothers also received education in classics and history from childhood, and both of them had certain literary talents.
Chen Hongjin asked various famous teachers to give guidance to Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi, striving to win the imperial examination and enter the official career.
The two brothers were able to live up to their father's trust, but both had a bad reputation.
With the financial support of the Chen family, even if one of the two brothers wins the first prize, they will be able to have a good resume.
Chen Wenxian said casually: "Brother Meng appeared in the weekly newspaper three times in two months. I am afraid that only White Lotus layman Li Yu can be treated like this."
Chen Wenyi immediately said: "Brother, what you said is wrong. I don't think Li Yu can be as good as Brother Meng. Li Yu is just lucky and got the first place. When the newspaper first started, not many people contributed articles and took advantage. Now the world's talented people gather together.
There are tens of thousands of submissions to the capital every day. Brother Meng can be on the cusp of this storm and win three prizes. How can Li Yu be able to compare?"
Chen Wenxian realized this and hurriedly raised his glass and said: "The slip of the tongue is because of my brother. How can Li Yu, a mere man, compare to Brother Meng? Come on, I will punish myself with three glasses of wine for my brother!"
As he spoke, he drank three glasses of wine boldly.
Meng Qing was so excited that he said with drunken eyes: "I don't dare, I don't dare to compare myself with the White Lotus layman. In fact, it is not difficult to be published in the newspaper. As long as you are willing to give up the things outside yourself, it is not easy to be published in the newspaper."
Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi looked at each other and saw the shock and joy in each other's eyes.
They felt there was a problem.
It cannot be said that Meng Qing has no talent. His articles and poems do have some flavor and are above average. But compared with the real masterpieces, they lack a little charm and something that is eye-catching.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
The difference between a good work and a great work is just that little bit of unexplained key.
But there are thousands of people in the world who can write good works, but only a handful of people can write excellent works.
Some people write articles all their lives, but they rarely get a masterpiece. Some people drink a bottle of wine, or even join in the fun, and their names will go down in history.
The simplest and most straightforward way to become famous in Chang'an is to publish it in a newspaper.
In particular, Bianjing newspapers have become the most popular publications. Once a work is published in the newspaper, it will immediately receive a lot of attention. If it catches the eyes of Dou Yujun, Zhang Zhao, and Tian Min, it will be criticized by them, and it will rise directly to the top.
It's just that because of Li Yu's existence, the Bianjing newspaper has a very high threshold for selection. In order to avoid shoddy writing, poetry articles have been transferred from daily newspapers to weekly magazines.
The purpose is to select truly excellent poems and articles from thousands of submissions. Sometimes, if there are no good articles, we will even publish some wonderful poems and articles by "unpopular poets".
Just like Zhang Ruoxu's "Spring River with Flowers and Moonlight Night".
Zhang Ruoxu's talent is well-known, but "Spring River Flower Moonlight Night" was almost lost due to various reasons, and no one paid much attention to it. It was not really spread to the world until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Therefore, the scarce spots in Bianjing newspapers are even more precious.
Articles and poems are written by thousands of people, and they may feel different in the eyes of different people.
Two articles and one poem written by Meng Qing in the newspaper were read by both Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi.
The standard was not much different from theirs, but it was published in the newspaper three times in two months. This made Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi secretly dissatisfied and slightly suspicious.
Chen Wenyi suppressed his shock and said, "Brother Meng, what do you mean by this?"
Meng Qing's head was dizzy, his tongue was hanging out, and he said casually: "Song Bai, the editor of the Academy of Music, is my classmate!"
Chen Wenxian and Chen Wenyi looked at each other again, with indescribable shock in their eyes.
Song Bai?
How could it be him?
Song Bai, courtesy name Taisu, was born in the Song family in Guangping. He became famous for his literary talents at the age of thirteen. Some people even compared him to Wang Bo, the supernatural power. He was the second place in the first imperial examination of the Luo Yu court. Before the provincial examination of the Ministry of Rites, Song Bai was the number one.
The seed of the number one scholar. After the provincial examination, Song Bai also beat the number one scholar Suo Xiang without any doubt and ranked first.
However, during the imperial examination, Song Bai, who was from a good family background, performed slightly worse than Suo Xiang, who was from a poor family, because of the issues related to people's livelihood.
Suo Xiang was also selected as the number one scholar by Luo Youdu.
In terms of literary talent, Suo Xiang is far inferior to Song Bai.
When the rankings were released, many people complained about Song Bai and felt that Suo Xiang was not qualified to compare with Song Bai.
Facts have also proved that Suo Xiang, the number one scholar, was sent to He Huang, while Song Bai started as a Zuolang, and with his vast knowledge, he rose through the ranks and entered the Academy of Music as an editor.