The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 183 Abandoned Son
The test results didn't take long to come out.

Mr. Liao is a modern teacher with good modern professional qualities.

As soon as the examinee handed in the paper, Mr. Liao put on his reading glasses and started correcting the paper as quickly as possible.

Since he set the questions himself, marking the papers was much easier.

It only took two days to mark all 332 test papers and pile them up in front of Yue Wenxuan in the "temporary palace".

The maids and servants in the palace immediately leaked the news that the test papers had been corrected. As a result, all the candidates rushed to the gate of the palace, staring at it eagerly.

They didn't dare to storm the palace, let alone make a noise, but their hearts were filled with anxiety, and the thumping of their pounding hearts formed an ear-splitting symphony.

Yue Wenxuan knew that they were anxious, so he didn't keep them in suspense and announced the list as quickly as possible.

A total of sixteen people were admitted in this exam.

Among them, ten children of ordinary people were admitted, two children from poor families and two children from merchants were admitted, and one person each from the Ma and Ji families was admitted.

Among them, eight were ninth-rank agricultural officials, and eight were ninth-rank deputy agricultural officials. What's interesting is that all eight were children of ordinary people, while the Ma and Ji families and the children of poor families and merchants all only passed the exam to become deputy officials.

They were a bit unconvinced at first, but when the test papers came back, they saw they had made several mistakes and had no choice but to admit they were inferior. Anyway, a ninth-rank official was still an official, and it was better to have one than none at all.

In Shandong, if you hold an official position, you are the boss. Even if you are only a ninth-rank official, you can still bring honor to your family.

A group of two officials, one chief and one deputy, were sent to a county town.

The four counties of Laizhou are Jimo County, Jiaoshui County, Laiyang County and Ye County.

The four counties of Dengzhou are Penglai County, Huang County, Muping County and Wendeng County.

An agricultural college was established in each county, and these eight groups of people were responsible for giving lectures, passing on their agricultural knowledge to the general public.

I saw bald prisoners from the brigade running into the eight county towns, banging away, and building eight agricultural colleges in minutes. The bald men worked very hard and were even very happy.

They feel that working like this is much safer than fighting, and they won’t die!

In mid-February, the eight agricultural colleges officially opened their doors.

As soon as the door opened, the threshold was trampled by people registering for school.

It turned out that the people in the two states and eight counties all figured out one thing. When the prince announced the imperial examination, he specifically said "the first agricultural science imperial examination." Since there was a first session, there must be a second session.

Start studying quickly now, and take the exam again in the second session. You will definitely pass the civil service exam next time.

Two states and eight counties all started the "New Agricultural Training" in mid-February. Modern planting technology, which was originally promoted very slowly, instantly took off with the help of the "civil service examination" and flew into every household.

It just so happened that spring plowing and sowing work would begin at the end of February, so we could just make it in time.

However, once the new planting technology began to be promoted, fertilizers and seeds became scarce.

After Yue Wenxuan gained control of two states and eight counties, his leadership power increased significantly. However, with the expansion of his territory, he also had to shoulder more responsibilities. He had to distribute food to more refugees, provide more craftsmen to train apprentices, and now he had to take on more fertilizers and seeds...

Leadership is always a little bit stretched.

Fortunately, the Jin army will not come again in the short term, so we can now take back the "war weapons and equipment" and provide more supplies to the Internal Affairs Department.

Just as the Agricultural College had just opened... in a pavilion at the junction of Dengzhou and Laizhou.

The governors of the two states are meeting secretly here.

The Laizhou prefect lowered his voice and asked, "What's the situation? What's the emperor's order?"

The governor of Dengzhou sighed and took out a letter, saying, "Read it for yourself."

When the prefect of Laizhou saw his expression, he knew that something bad was going to happen. He quickly took the letter and read it carefully word by word. He saw that in the letter, Zhao Gou acknowledged the identity of He Wang Zhaoye and said that he recognized his handwriting. He also praised him for his good fighting against the Jin army and promised him the privilege of "acting at his own convenience". However, from beginning to end, there was not a single word about reinforcements.

The Laizhou prefect's face darkened. "This...this...is the imperial court giving up on us? It's like giving up on the Wumashan rebels in Hebei."

The Wumashan rebel army in Hebei wrote a letter to Zhao Gou in the name of Prince Xin Zhao Zhen, and the result was the same. Zhao Gou wrote back to encourage them, but did not send any reinforcements.

Now it is the turn of the rebel forces in Denglai Province to face exactly the same situation.

The Laizhou governor's face turned grim: "What will become of us?"

The prefect of Dengzhou said, "What happened to Wuma Mountain will be our fate."

Having said this, their faces became even darker.

The news of Wumashan arrived a few days ago, but not many people know about it yet. The two prefects suppressed the news and did not spread it, fearing that it would affect the morale of the army.

It turned out that just last October, shortly before the surrender of Jinan, the Wumashan rebel army in Hebei fought a fierce battle with the Jin army in Qingping. They asked Zhao Gou for help but failed, and the rebel army was defeated and destroyed.

The news only came now because the situation in Hebei was chaotic. It was difficult for Song Dynasty spies to send news back by land, so they had to go by sea. After many difficult journeys, the news finally arrived in Dengzhou.

The prefect of Dengzhou said, "Wumashan gathered 100,000 men, but they were no match for the Jin army's casual attack. Our two prefectures of Deng and Lai are not as easy to defend as Wumashan."

The magistrate of Laizhou nodded. Even a civil official could understand this principle. It was easy to defend a mountain, but it was very difficult to defend the two states of Deng and Lai.

The Jin army attacked, and even the 100,000-strong Wumashan army could not withstand it.

How could Zhao Zai and Guan Yishi, who only had less than 10,000 people, hold up?

Previously, the two officials had hoped that the court would send reinforcements, but now after receiving Zhao Gou's letter, their hope for reinforcements was gone.

How to do?
The prefect of Dengzhou said, "Don't worry about me laughing at you, my only option now is to flee south. We still have a boat. The messengers have been able to go south and back, so we can certainly take a boat and escape to the south."

The Laizhou prefect said: "You can't run away like this. What if you run back to Jiangnan? If you abandon your post and flee the city, you will be spitted to death by the government if you don't get punished."

Dengzhou Magistrate: "This..."

Their faces were darker than each other.

Suddenly becoming abandoned by the court was a very uncomfortable feeling, as they had done nothing wrong.

After a long while, the prefect of Dengzhou suddenly sighed and said, "Forget it! Since my fate has come to this, I will not return to the court. I will escape to Jiangnan and hide my identity. I will be a stupid old man in the countryside, and no one will drown me with saliva."

The Laizhou governor actually had the same idea in mind, and the two of them immediately agreed: "Let's go! Take off your official uniforms and return to the people to be ignorant country men."

The two men had not brought their families with them when they took up their posts, so now they could escape easily. They took a few trusted servants with them, boarded a small boat, and slipped away.

(End of this chapter)