All the children and grandchildren of the Duan family are studying. In addition to Duan Mingchen and Duan Mingqing, the two younger members of the family, Duan Yuxing and Duan Yujin, are also preparing to take the examination.
Duan Mingqing took the imperial exam, Duan Mingchen took the scholar exam first, and the other two children only took the boy exam.
With so many people in the family having exams, Wang naturally had to get busy.
The Wang family is in charge of the central government, and she makes the final decision on all matters in the house. Normally, she does not give Qiao Lan a pass, but this time she spent a lot of money, so she still asked Qiao Lan for instructions.
The exam fees for four people in the family cost more than two hundred taels at a time.
Qiao Lan was confused when he heard this: "Why do you want so many?"
Is this going to take an exam or to pay money? Qiao Lan still feels that a few dozen taels is excusable, but a few hundred taels is too much!
With such a price, how can ordinary people test it?
Wang stepped forward and pointed to the account book for Qiao Lan to see, "Mom, you don't know! Our ancestral home is not from the capital. In this government, you usually have to go back to your ancestral home to take the exams. The Yamen has added a rule called the borrowing fee.
After paying the money, you can take the exam in the capital. This borrowing fee is not something ordinary people can pay, and it requires a sixth-grade official or above to borrow."
"Previously, we only charged the scholarship fee for this scholar, and we didn't need to charge anyone from the top to the next. In the past two years, the rules have been changed, and all exams have to charge this fee. The exam fees and loan fees have increased. There are four people in our family, so
The money you have to pay is a lot more."
Qiao Lan nodded: "Okay, I understand! Just hand it over."
Except for the examination fees, the others were just some daily expenses, which didn't cost much money. Wang simply said a few words and withdrew.
After Wang left, Qiao Lan was still thinking about the exam fees.
Their family can afford this money, but those ordinary families may not be able to. It is not easy for ordinary people to support a scholar. Now that he has to go to the examination room and has to pay dozens of taels of silver, doesn't it mean that he has to sell the iron.
It seems that they are trying every possible way to get money, even the exam money.
If students from now on have to pay the examination fee before they can enter the examination room, I am afraid that all ordinary students will be turned away, and only those from high-ranking families who can afford the money will be able to become officials in the court.
This approach completely violated the original purpose of the imperial examination system to select officials based on talent, which could only select scholars from well-off families.
I don’t know if this is the idea of the little emperor or the minister below. It’s really bad!
As a parent, who doesn’t hope that their children and grandchildren can make a difference?
The situation was difficult, Qiao Lan only wanted the safety of her family, and getting ahead was the second most important thing.
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Ordinary people have to take exams, so they need to be somewhat prepared.
Mrs. Wang originally planned to ask the servants at home to buy some ginseng and deer antlers for body health, and to give some warm and tonic decoctions to the son of the family.
But I heard the servants below say that the third and fourth masters at home no longer read. They were either teaching a few young ladies to read in the study, or going to the yard to hoe and pull weeds.
The servant tactfully expressed his concern for his masters.
At this critical moment of the exam, why haven’t you read any books?
Mrs. Wang felt that her two younger brothers were not the kind of playful people, so after hearing this, she went to find Duan Mingqing herself to find out.
Duan Mingqing: "Sister-in-law, the situation in the court has not been good in the past few years. I want to wait to become an official. I have already told my mother about this, and she agreed."
Wang felt that she was a stay-at-home woman and her political acumen was not as sharp as the men in her family. However, she also probably knew that prices in the capital had risen a lot and that ordinary people's lives were not easy.
But since this was her mother's wish, Mrs. Wang didn't question it.
After all, the imperial examination is the foundation of a prosperous family.
Wang: "If third brother needs anything, just ask and I will prepare it for you."
Duan Mingqing: "Thank you for your concern, sister-in-law!"
In this way, the two boys of the Duan family entered the examination room.
At the end of March, when the results were released one after another, they both won the exam.
The children's test is in August, which is still very early, but it does not prevent several children from having fun with the adults at home.
This is the second time Duan Jiaerlang has won the exam!
Most people only win once in a lifetime!
It seemed that they were overjoyed last time. After hearing the news about winning the election, the two were not as happy as before.
Mo Qiming has been with the Duan family for a long time, and has witnessed the ups and downs of the Duan family over the years. Seeing the two masters of the Duan family win the election, he feels that all the hardships are over!
"Aren't the third and fourth masters happy on this happy day?" Mo Qiming asked.
Duan Mingqing and Duan Mingchen looked at each other, and Duan Mingchen said calmly: "I'm happy."
Mo Qiming stared at the two people with doubts. Is this happiness? Who are you kidding? Bullying him for not passing the exam?
To be honest, the two of them were really not happy.
They were unhappy from the day they entered the examination room!
The cost of this year's exam was much higher. The two of them frowned after hearing what their sister-in-law said.
Until the day I entered the examination room, I saw many students who could not afford the fees kneeling outside the examination room, biting their fingers and writing down their decades of blood and tears...
Han Chuang studied hard for decades. He originally wanted to shine and serve the country. But now he was turned away because of dozens of taels of silver.
On that day, a student was so angry that he hit his head against a pillar outside the examination room and died.
From the moment they arrived at the examination room, they felt uncomfortable.
Looking inside the examination room again, the environment was much better than before.
The original tile rooms were demolished and beds and windows were erected one by one. Although the accommodation environment was better, it also facilitated cheating and was unfair at all.
Duan Mingchen took the scholar examination in February, and then took the judicial examination in March.
After finishing the scholar exam, he came over and told his third brother that this year's questions were much easier than before.
Later, when the brothers took the examination, they felt even more like this.
So they all went over the answer sheet in a perfunctory manner, not answering the specific questions, but just answered the questions as they should.
Unexpectedly, after winning the examination, the ranking was not bad. The two looked at the names at the top. Many of the surnames belonged to high-ranking families, and everyone sighed. The high-ranking families have a merciful plan to make the son of the family.
If you don't have to take the exam to enter the imperial court, why bother competing with these poor students for a spot?
It was as if what happened in Tongzhou happened again, and the two of them really couldn't be happy.
Hearing that the two sons of the Duan family had won the election, many people sent them gifts and asked when a banquet would be held to celebrate.
Mrs. Wang went to Qiao Lan's place and wrote back to those families, saying that it was not a big deal to pass the imperial examination. She was afraid that her son would be proud and planned to wait until they won the imperial examination before celebrating.
After hearing this, those people replied and praised Qiao Lan one by one, saying that the old lady was good at raising children.
Although she didn't plan to celebrate with people outside, Qiao Lan felt that she still had to celebrate a little at home and have a fun meal.
Unexpectedly, before the banquet, He Lanfeng also sent someone a gift. By the way, he sent someone to ask Qiao Lan if he could bring him along if there was a banquet in the mansion.