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

In the evening, everyone just had some dry biscuits and fried soybeans. The boatmen had even worse food, which was just black steamed bread, and no one knew what it was made of.

Although the boatmen in this village did not seem like bad people, Zhang Ping'an still arranged people to stand guard at night so that he could sleep peacefully. The ones with the strongest fighting power were his eldest brother-in-law and several of his brothers. This time, Zhang Ping'an deliberately separated them so that the safety factor would be higher.

The boatmen ignored the commotion on this side and slept on the other side, and also arranged for someone to keep watch at night.

We were sleeping soundly at night when suddenly everyone was woken up by a loud noise, "Hurry up, someone is coming!"

The boatmen, who had been living on the water for years, were more alert. As they walked deeper into the reed marsh, they said, "Damn it, this is really bad luck. We ran into the River and Bottom Bureau. They know that boats often rest here, so they come to check from time to time. We'll hide for now, and you guys can do whatever you want."

Xu and the others were still confused, and their instinctive reaction was to run after him.

Zhang Pingan grabbed his mother and whispered to everyone, "Don't panic, don't run. There are so many of us, there's nowhere to hide. Besides, you can't swim. Just stay here and see what happens."

Zhang reacted quickly. She stood up and walked quickly to her grandson's side, whispering, "There aren't usually many people on patrol like this. They're probably here to seek money. Try to get rid of them with silver first. If that doesn't work, have your brother-in-law kidnap them."

"I understand," Zhang Pingan said in a deep voice.

In just a moment, the patrolman walked to the center of the reed marsh with a torch and shouted, "What are you doing? Stand still!"

Zhang Pingan looked around and saw only five people on the opposite side. They were wearing the clothes of the Hebosuo and were all strong and sturdy. They also had long swords on their waists. The leader had a full beard and was the one who had just scolded them. As soon as he finished speaking, he called out to his men: "Go and tie them up for me!"

"Sir, I don't know why you want to kidnap people," Zhang Pingan asked.

"Why? You are resting in the reed marsh in the middle of the night. You must have done something bad. Maybe you are salt smugglers or draft dodgers. Of course I have to tie you up and bring you back to the government office for trial," the bearded man sneered.

This matter is indeed unreasonable according to the law, and there is no suitable excuse to explain it, so Zhang Pingan is not prepared to reason with them.

He walked straight forward, saluted, and whispered, "Sir, we are indeed good citizens, but we cannot board the ship, so we are resting here. Please be flexible."

After saying this, Zhang Pingan took out ten taels of silver from his pocket and handed it over.

The bearded man looked everyone over again, especially at Zhang Pingan. He took the silver, weighed it, and said with a smile, "You think you can get rid of us with just this little money? It's not even enough for us brothers to fill our stomachs. I see that you look like a scholar, how can you be without money?"

Zhang Pingan took out his purse and handed over the remaining five taels. He also shook the purse downwards, implying that it was really gone. "Sir, we are all ordinary people and we really don't have much money. Although I am a scholar, I don't have much to do at the moment."

He paused before continuing, "My senior brother, Pan Shibei, is the deputy officer of the Hebo Office in the prefectural city. I wonder if you know him?"

The person opposite was startled and asked suspiciously, "Are you Master Pan's junior fellow apprentice?"

"That's right," Zhang Pingan nodded, and took out the token given to him by his teacher from his arms, "Senior Brother Pan and I both became disciples of Mr. Han."

The man took the token, squinted his eyes, and hesitated. "So, do you have any achievements now? Let me see your household registration card."

"I am not talented, but I passed the imperial examination last August and became a scholar," Zhang Ping'an took out the scholar's certificate and household registration card in his arms and handed them over.

After carefully examining the area with the help of a torch, the man on the other side said after a long pause, "Okay, Mr. Zhang, I'll do your brother a favor this time. Don't take it personally. We're just following orders. Someone reported that a large number of people were evading military service and that they were probably resting in this reed marsh tonight. That's why we came here to inspect. Conscription is a major issue in the government office now, and we can't afford to be careless!"

"What, someone reported it?" Zhang Pingan was surprised.

The bearded man nodded. "Yes, that's quite true. To be honest, we're quite familiar with him. We came here just to show off to the higher-ups."

"Thank you for telling me, sir. I am deeply grateful," Zhang Pingan said, bowing. "I will write a letter to my senior brother now. Please give it to him. I will also tell him the truth about your help this time."

The bearded man laughed heartily upon hearing this: "Very well, very well. I was wondering why a talent like Mr. Zhang would need to evade military service. That's a complete lie!"

Zhang Ping'an was thankful that when he set out, he had the village chief stamp his household registration card to prove that he was in normal military service. Otherwise, today's matter might have been even more troublesome, and he didn't know if it would be enough to save his senior brother's face.

There was a ready-made pen, ink, paper, and inkstone in the bundle. Zhang Pingan wrote the letter, dried it, and handed it to the bearded man. He then asked, "I wonder what the situation is like in the capital now? I heard that people are allowed to enter but not leave now."

The bearded man nodded and said, "The city is under martial law now, so I can't reveal any other details."

After saying this, he waved his men away.

Zhang Ping'an breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the people leave. The King of Hell is easy to deal with, but the little ghosts are hard to deal with. He was really afraid of being entangled with them endlessly. He didn't want to cause any deaths unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, things were not completely chaotic yet, and the law was still there!

Liu Sanlang beside him also breathed a sigh of relief and raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. After hearing his brother-in-law's instructions to take action if the situation was not right, his whole body had been tense. Killing a pig is easy, but killing a person is too much of a test of human nature!