Qing Yao

Chapter 63: Not even a Santana

The Dongtai County School will hold a county examination, namely the Tongsheng examination, in a few days.

It is also the first important examination in a scholar's life. After passing the county examination, one must take the prefectural examination and the academy examination. If one ranks among the top in all three examinations, one can officially obtain the qualification of a student (scholar), enter the Confucian school (public school) in the prefecture, state, or county, and enjoy certain privileges.

For example, one does not need to kneel when meeting an official, is exempted from some corvee labor, and can report to the county magistrate when encountering official matters.

The main contents of the county examination are eight-legged essays, examination poems, classics and policy essays, etc. Zhao An does not know any of these, so he does not understand why the provincial school wants him to go to Dongtai to supervise the examination.

But it soon became clear why.

Because invigilation is a tough job, there is no benefit except for a dinner hosted by the local county school.

The reason was that the chief examiner of the county examination was the local magistrate, and the deputy examiner was the local teacher, which meant that the benefits belonged to these two people.

As an invigilator sent from the government office, Zhao An had no say in the county exam. It was just like when Zhao An took the final exam in his previous life, the county education bureau would send people to inspect the exam room but they were unable to interfere with the exam process and rankings.

It's just a formality.

If you understand it more deeply, it means that the quality is not high enough.

How can you, a ninth-rank academic official, snatch food from the seventh-rank county magistrate and the eighth-rank teacher?
A strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake, let alone a mere earthworm.

If you're polite, I'll call you Officer Zhao. If you're rude, go wherever you want.

Who said that the ceiling a ninth-rank student can reach in this life is the eighth rank?

There is no money to be made, and Dongtai County is very far away from Yangzhou. It takes at least half a month to go back and forth. Who would be willing to go?
As a key middle school in the prefecture, every academic official has a lot of things to do.

You pushed him.

As a result, the principal, Professor Jiang, looked around for a long time but no one was willing to go. Finally, at the reminder of Ma Xuezhen, this difficult task naturally fell on Zhao Xuelu, who had nothing to do.

I'm free anyway, so going on a business trip is at least considered a government-funded trip, right?
Zhao An was bored staying at the provincial academy and wanted to go out for a walk, so he readily accepted the job of invigilator. While taking the invigilator's credentials from Ma Xuezheng, he casually asked, "Sir, am I going to take the provincial academy bus?"

Without even looking up, Ma Xuezheng said, "The number of buses available at the prefectural school is limited, so we can't send one to you. You can hire a mule cart to Dongtai and return the money to me."

Ok?
Zhao An was embarrassed. This person really didn't regard him, a ninth-rank student, as an official.

After all, he is a deputy mayor. It's okay if he can't get an Audi or a Coaster when he goes on business trips, but he has to get a Santana at least. It's okay if Santana doesn't have an Iveco. But in the end, he has to take the bus to the long-distance bus station to buy a ticket.
This cadre feels so frustrated.

No wonder Old Wu refused to teach at the Imperial College. It seems that teaching positions are really not well regarded in official circles.

If there is no bus, then there is no bus. We have to send two people to go with him.

He was also a ninth-rank official, no higher than an official.

As a result, the provincial school did not provide him with any entourage, so he went there alone and returned alone.

It’s not that Ma Xuezhen didn’t send anyone, but that in the teaching system, except for the professors, instructors, and Xuezhen who were accompanied by attendants when traveling to show the “respectability” of the instructors, the rest of the people were not allowed to have attendants when traveling.

To put it bluntly, only instructors of the eighth rank or above can be assigned secretaries, drivers, and security guards.

Zhao An is not qualified.

In desperation, he had to go home to pack up his things and go to Dongtai County to supervise the exam.

Although we were supposed to pack, there wasn't much to pack, just two sets of clothes.

"I might be in Dongtai for half a month this time. You and Xiaoxiao should take care of yourselves at home. If you have any troubles or difficulties, go to see Song Jiaoyu from the county school. Go buy whatever you want to eat. If you don't want to cook, go to a restaurant. Don't be stingy with your money."

Although it was Zhao Youlu who took the call, Zhao An had no discrimination against Miss Chunlan and had no grudges in his heart. After all, he was now the husband of the woman and needed her full cooperation.

What's more, they have had sex several times. Maybe there is already a spark in the girl's belly. After the child is born, they will be husband and wife even if they are not.

Therefore, Zhao An treated Luo Chunlan, his cheap wife, with a normal attitude.

After thinking about it, he left another five taels of silver for the young lady.

The young lady didn't say anything, but picked up her daughter and whispered, "Then I'll take you there."

"Ah."

Zhao An nodded, put the package that the young lady had packed for him on his shoulder, and pushed the door open to leave.

Although he said he was sending the mother and daughter off, how could he really let them go far? He just sent them to the gate of the official school and asked Chunlan and her daughter to go back. Then he stopped a mule cart and asked the driver directly how much it would cost to take him to Dongtai County.

"Brother, are you going to Dongtai?"

The driver was both surprised and happy. He was surprised because the distance from Yangzhou City to Dongtai County was at least three hundred miles, and a one-way trip would take at least five days.

The reason for being happy was that he had encountered a big client who had chartered a car. The price of chartering a car was much more expensive than picking up passengers on the road, because not only the driver's food and drink expenses but also the mule's food and drink expenses had to be counted.

The longer the distance, the higher the car price.

In the end, Zhao An agreed on a price of two taels of silver with the driver for renting a car, which was quite a high price. Under normal circumstances, a driver could earn at most three or four hundred coins for five days of work in the city.

This is a five-fold increase.

After the decision was made, the driver did not rush to set off. Instead, he took Zhao An home to talk to his wife and took some clothes to change on the way. When the driver's wife heard that her husband was going on a long journey, she was a little worried and went out to check on Zhao An. Seeing that Zhao An did not look like a bad person, and her husband said that he was a scholar going to Dongtai County, she was relieved.

There are bad guys in the city who specialize in deceiving rickshaw drivers and robbing them of their money on the way, and there are even some who kill people and sell their rickshaws.

After leaving the city, the driver chatted and laughed with Zhao An all the way, which was quite relaxing.

The driver's surname was Zhang and he was the second child in the family, so Zhao An called him Second Brother Zhang.

From the "taxi" driver Zhang Erge, Zhao An learned that Dongtai County, where he was going, was very close to the sea, so the main economic activity in the area was salt boiling. The mudflats stretching hundreds of miles north of the county were the famous Lianghuai Salt Field distribution area. Millions of tons of salt were produced and sold each year, creating countless wealthy salt merchants.

Unfortunately, no matter how tempted he was, he was unable to get a share of the salt industry, because salt merchants were "giants" who were the result of collusion between officials and businessmen. Some of the children of salt merchants were high-ranking officials in the court, and their influence in the local areas was unimaginable. Therefore, it was simply a dream to want to get food from the salt merchants.

On that day, Zhao An and Zhang Erge lived in a small town called Dingjiahe. After inviting Zhang Erge to dinner, Zhao An went to bed.

They continued their journey the next day. Everything was fine at first, but it suddenly started to rain heavily at noon. The thunder and lightning made it impossible to drive. The two had to take shelter in a villager's house for half a day.

If we set off again, the road will be difficult to travel on.

These days, except for the official roads between prefectures which are built to the highest standards, the official roads between prefectures and counties are built unevenly. In many places, the roads become typical "cement roads" when it rains.

Except for some areas that were paved and compacted with bricks and stones by wealthy and kind people nearby, the rest of the areas were muddy roads that raised dust on sunny days and accumulated water on rainy days that trapped cars.

Zhao An was not surprised by this, because it was not until the early 21st century that China's roads were completely paved. Before that, muddy roads were common in the countryside.

The rainstorm caused the road more than ten miles ahead to become extremely muddy. Not only did the mule carts slip on it, but in some sections, people even had to get off and push it, otherwise the wheels would get stuck in the mud and could not get out.

Zhao An didn't mind getting down to push the cart, no matter how dirty it got.

While pulling the mule in front, Brother Zhang kept complaining. He was not complaining about the government not repairing the road, but complaining about the gentlemen living here who were reluctant to spend money to repair the road.

This also indirectly reflects a fact, that is, most of the roads in the countryside are built and maintained by local gentry. Unless the county magistrate is a good official who truly serves the people, it is difficult to get funds from the county to build roads.

After the two men finally pushed the mule cart out of the muddy area, several small boats suddenly came from the river on the left. They were covered tightly and there was a big man on the bow who looked not to be trifled with.

Seeing Zhao An and the other man on the shore, the big man sitting in the lead boat looked at them warily for a few seconds. After confirming that they were just passers-by, he withdrew his gaze and focused on the river ahead.

The same was true for the several ships that followed.

Seeing this, Zhao An couldn't help but ask Zhang Erge curiously, "What do these people do?"

"Those who are smuggling salt, don't look at them, bro."

Brother Zhang was obviously a little nervous. He led the mule, whose four legs were covered in mud, forward for a while before letting Zhao An get in the car.

After getting in the car, Zhao An was very confused: "Isn't the imperial court strictly prohibiting illegal salt? How dare this illegal salt dealer sell illegal salt in broad daylight?"

"You can't call them illegal salt dealers. They just can't occupy a place, so they sell salt covertly."

As he was speaking, Brother Zhang also jumped onto the mule cart.

Zhao An didn't quite understand what "occupying a nest" meant, so Brother Zhang, who was in front of him, knew a little and explained it to him.

The general idea is that the salt merchants in charge of sales reserved salt from the salt-making households through the government, but the price offered was very low, so the salt-making households tried to secretly take the "surplus salt".

Who should we sell the remaining salt to?

These are the merchants who failed to reserve stove salt through the government.

"I see,"

Zhao An nodded. He knew that salt and iron were both monopolies. The salt merchants who could make a fortune and the government were all in the same boat. Salt was also very profitable, so naturally some people would try their best to get involved.

This type of people are generally called private salt dealers, and famous people among them include Huang Chao and Zhang Shicheng.

"So, the cook must have a lot of leftover salt."

"Who doesn't want to make more money? The salt merchants simply don't have a way to transport the salt and sell it. If they did, there wouldn't be any need for salt merchants."

Zhao An hummed, "Brother Zhang, can we make a lot of money by transporting the salt?"

Hearing this, Zhang Erge couldn't help but look back at Zhao An and said with a smile: "Don't look at the few boats that just passed by. If they were sold, they would be worth at least several hundred taels. But those people are all desperate criminals who value money over their lives. Young master, you are a scholar, so don't let your imagination run wild."

Zhao An smiled after hearing this, and then said nothing more, but he had some vague ideas in his mind.

Desperadoes and boats, it seems he can handle them all.

Because he is the "little boss" of the Green Gang.

If we can get hold of the salt producers, it will be entirely possible to set up a sales channel for smuggled salt.

It's all money.

If you want to be an official, how can you do it without money?

(End of this chapter)