The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

The meal prepared by the store was pretty good, with chicken, duck, fish, meat, and rice wine.

At the banquet, everyone got to know each other again. This student named Du Lei had just reached the age of twenty this year. He had been married for four years and had two children. He had originally planned not to take the imperial examination again if he failed this year.

"I'm lucky this year. Many students' examination halls were leaking, otherwise I wouldn't have made the list. Now I finally have the title of Tongsheng, which is enough for me to live in the countryside. I'll consider taking the college entrance examination when I'm more affluent," Du Lei said gently. He was already very satisfied with being a Tongsheng.

"Alas, it's all your family's fault that you didn't start learning until you were 8 years old. Your teacher had long said that you had a talent for studying, but your family didn't have the money to find a better teacher for you, so you've been wasting time until now," said Brother Du, choking up as he spoke.

"Brother, what are you talking about? My talent is actually very average. The city is full of talented people, and there are countless people who are smarter than me. I am already very satisfied to have passed the Tongsheng examination," Du Lei said with a smile. "Come on, come on, everyone, raise your glasses. We are now of the same year, so let's just talk about happy things."

People are in high spirits when happy events happen, and everyone enjoyed the meal very much. Zhang Pingan especially appreciated Du Lei's open-minded and optimistic character.

After the meal, everyone started packing up and preparing to go back. The students who went to see the list also went back. Apart from the four people who reported the good news, no one else in Tongfu Inn made the list.

No one knew where Master Yang had been these past few days. He returned to the inn in the afternoon and informed everyone to return to the county at noon tomorrow. He had already told Lin Junhui and the others about it, and everyone should gather at the city gate.

After packing up the packages, everyone went out for a walk for a while. Zhang Pingan used the money he had to buy a pair of leather boots for his father.

Zhang Laoer often travels back and forth between the county town and the village, which requires a lot of walking, so his shoes wear out. Cowhide boots are comfortable and waterproof.

He bought a pair of gold lilac earrings for Xu. Ever since he gave the silver lilac earrings to Daya, Xu had not worn any earrings. Although the family's conditions had improved in recent years, neither Zhang Laoer nor Xu cared about them and had never thought about buying more. Xu was already forty years old this year, which was considered an elderly person in ancient times. Zhang Ping'an wanted to make up for it for his mother.

He brought a velvet flower for each of his sisters, bought new tobacco for Old Man Zhang and Mrs. Zhang, and new hairpins for his grandparents. He didn't stop until he had spent all the money he had.

Liu Sanlang bought food and toys for the children, and also secretly bought two silver rings. It was easy to guess who they were for.

The atmosphere between Liu's father and Liu Shengyuan was not good. The father and son walked together without talking and just bought some things casually.

However, Li Mingxuan bought a lot of practical things to eat and use. The room fee refunded by the shopkeeper was several hundred coins, which was not a small amount of money for him.

Have a good night's sleep!

The sun actually came out the next day, and it was nice weather.

Everyone gathered at the city gate and talked to each other, only to find out that Lin Junhui was the top scorer in this provincial examination, which meant he was a scholar for sure. Even the pretentious Tan Yaoqi passed, and ranked 25th in the provincial examination, ahead of Zhang Pingan, which really made Zhang Pingan look at him with admiration.

This time, seven people came from Qingsong Academy, and four of them made the list, which is a very good result.

Master Yang saw that everyone had arrived and shouted, "It's still the same old routine. I'll lead the way, Lin Junhui, you'll be the last. Let's go!"

Several cars slowly began to move out of the city. Unlike the mood when they came, some people were happy and some were sad on the way back.

When Liu Sanlang left the city gate, he looked back several times reluctantly. The work at the dock could earn a lot of money in a day and it was easy. He didn't know when he would come to the provincial capital next time!

Because most people had purchased a lot of things in the provincial capital, and Zhang Laoer even had several large jars of old wine in his car, the car was not moving fast.

Since they couldn't find a suitable village to stay that night, they slept in the car in the wild. Master Yang and several guards took turns to keep watch, and fortunately, nothing happened that night.

The incident happened the next morning. Just as everyone was about to set off, Master Yang suddenly called a halt, got off the car and looked around carefully. He found several sets of messy footprints, indicating that someone had been there last night, most likely to scout the place.

"Everyone, please be careful on the road. I think someone came to scout out the place last night." Master Yang said solemnly.

Tan Yaoqi put away his fan with a "whoosh" and asked in confusion: "Then why didn't you do it last night? The dark night and strong wind were a good time to do it"?

"Tsk, you're not stupid at all," Lin Junhui sneered. "Robbery and murder are two different things. Besides, many people have night blindness and can't see clearly at night. We have a lot of guards here. If we really fight at night, who knows who will suffer!"

"It's always a good idea for everyone to be vigilant," Master Yang held up the long sword at his waist.

This made everyone very nervous. The car slowed down even more. After driving for about ten kilometers, everyone was preparing to eat when suddenly twenty or thirty people rushed out from the bushes on both sides and blocked their way. The strong man in the lead held a knife and shouted, "I planted this tree and built this road. If you want to pass through here, you have to leave money for the road!"

Zhang Ping'an counted carefully and found that there were 26 people on the other side. Most of them were holding hoes and shovels, and only a few leaders were holding knives. They were not serious bandits.

Master Yang naturally saw that the other side was just a mob. He didn't want to cause any more trouble, especially since he had a few weak scholars on his side. If something went wrong, it would be unprofitable. So he bowed and asked, "How much is the toll?"

The leader hesitated for a moment and shouted, "Twenty taels."

Master Yang refused, "That's too much! Seven taels! If it works, we'll pay you the money. If it doesn't, our guards won't let you down."

The leader thought it was feasible and asked his men to go over and get the money. The remaining men holding knives refused to do it: "It's obvious that they are children of officials and scholars. They have horses and bows and arrows. This alone must be over a hundred taels, not to mention that they must have more silver on them. Seven taels is too little."

Seeing the quarrel erupting across from them, Master Yang said calmly, "How about you discuss it first?"

It is estimated that this robbery team was newly established, and the leader has no prestige and is unable to control the people under him.

Before they could come to an agreement, an arrow suddenly shot at the leader of the other side, hitting him right in the chest and killing him instantly. Everyone on both sides was stunned.

Zhang Ping'an immediately realized that it was the followers led by Tan Yaoqi who did it. He was the only one under his command in the entire team who had bows and arrows.

Three arrows were fired in succession, and three people fell to the ground. The robbers finally reacted and immediately exploded like mercury splashing into a frying pan, rushing over and shouting: "Anyone who dares to kill us must not be spared. We will not only rob you of your money, but also your life."

Master Yang, Lin Junhui and Zhang Pingan all cursed him inwardly as an idiot, but there was nothing they could do. Lin Junhui immediately called on his followers to take action. These four followers were all armed with swords. Zhang Pingan usually saw them helping to wash dishes and cook, and thought their kung fu was just average. Unexpectedly, they were also ruthless characters, and every move they made was fatal. After a while, two or three robbers lost their lives, and blood sprayed all over the followers.

Liu Shengyuan vomited uncontrollably while watching it, and although Zhang Pingan also felt uncomfortable, he could still bear it.

Zhang Laoer and Liu Sanlang brought two butcher knives with them this time, and they were now on high alert.