The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

Early the next morning.

Zhuge Laifu first took Zhuge Yunshu and Zhuge Yunchu to the town school to pay their respects to Master Wang.

The Great Xia Kingdom stipulated that all scholars who passed the county, prefectural, or academy examinations must report the good news to their teachers as soon as possible.

It was really just a matter of exchanging pleasantries and thanking the Master for his guidance over the past few days.

In this county examination, four students from Yunshui Town participated. Apart from Lu Jin'an, who failed in the first round of the county examination, the other three all achieved good results.

Thinking of this, Master Wang looked at Zhuge Yunshu and Zhuge Yunchu below him with increasing satisfaction.

Although Zhuge Yun Chu was not his student, he had taught him for a period of time before the county examination. In Master Wang's opinion, this child's talent was no less than that of Wang Yi and Zhang Hao.

Master Wang was always very generous to his satisfied juniors.

He then took out a thick stack of yellow papers from the bookshelf behind him.

Don't underestimate these nearly worn-out yellow papers; they are all handwritten copies of the official gazettes that Master Wang painstakingly obtained from various prefectures and counties in Pingchuan County during this period, using his connections.

Unlike modern newspapers, the official gazettes of this era were strictly controlled by the imperial court, and ordinary people and even ordinary scholars had virtually no access to them.

Zhuge Yunshu had to admire his master's connections.

This is not just a county report, but an important official report from the entire Pingchuan County over the past year.

With these, Zhuge Yunshu could better understand the important official documents issued by the imperial court to local authorities, including important information such as political views, current affairs, and changes in local officials.

Zhuge Yunshu was overjoyed, for this was a treasure that couldn't be bought even with points within the "Serve the Country and the People" system.

Zhuge Yun Chu was equally excited. Although she had the opportunity to read many official gazettes in the capital because of her grandfather, there were still many differences between the central and local government decrees. She knew that she was able to read these gazettes thanks to her cousin Yun Shu.

On their way back to Zhuge Village, the two couldn't wait to bury themselves in studying it carefully. It has to be said that this was much more interesting than reading the Four Books and Five Classics.

From these official reports, they not only learned about the major events that had occurred in the court over the past year, but also gained insights into the political views and attitudes of important court officials.

Just like the official gazette from April last year, the State of Qi sent an envoy to request the State of Xia to establish trade relations with them at the border for the first time.

A faction led by the Qin chief minister supported trade and proposed: four trade sessions a year, each costing 100,000 taels of silver (mainly for purchasing horses). If, due to special circumstances, the cost of silver was too high in a given year, the number of trade sessions could be reduced to two the following year…

However, the faction represented by Chen Cifu insisted on opposing the idea, believing that this was a trap deliberately set by the Qi Kingdom. The fifty-year truce agreement was about to expire, and the reason why the Qi Kingdom wanted to start trade with the Xia Kingdom at this time was to take the opportunity to stockpile grain... Their wolfish ambitions are despicable.

The two factions held their own opinions, but the Qi Kingdom envoys were waiting for the results... So Zhuge Yunshu and Zhuge Yunchu searched in the official gazette and finally found the answer in the official gazette from June of last year.

The Minister of War, taking into account the points of contention between the two factions, finally drafted the necessary preconditions for border trade, which consisted of five points: the return of the three prefectures of Liaodong, the arrival of the prince of Qi as a hostage in Xia, the renewal of the fifty-year truce agreement, the Xia state determining the prices of goods traded, and the Xia state deciding the content of the next three-year academic exchange among the five states.

Zhuge Yunshu: "..."

Zhuge Yun Chu: "..."

Even though they were native Xia people, they felt that the preconditions for this trade were too harsh.

It is conceivable that the Qi envoy did not agree to this condition, and Zhuge Yunshu could imagine how angry the Qi envoy was when he left.

The Minister of War who drafted this agreement appears to have been closer to Vice Minister Chen.

The more Zhuge Yunshu and his companion read, the more excited they became. They even took out their brushes to write down key points on the bumpy carriage.

In particular, regarding the severe drought in northern China last year that caused people in the disaster area to be displaced, Zhuge Yunshu actually saw her series of articles in the official gazette on how to resettle the disaster victims and the final allocation of funds for disaster relief.

While Zhuge Yunshu's actions are regrettable, it also reveals that the current Emperor Xia Ming is, in some respects, a benevolent ruler who loves his people.

......

The entrance to Zhuge Village was unusually lively today.

Apart from the men working in the fields and the young women busy making soap in Lin Si Niang's workshop, the village elders and children who did not go to school sat chatting under the big ginkgo tree (also called silver apricot tree) at the entrance of the village.

Even the usually hardworking Zhuge Fengshou and Old Chenshi lost patience to continue working in the fields.

It should be noted that Zhuge Laigui had returned to Zhuge Village with his wife Liu Lan yesterday, not for any other reason than that they had received a message from Zhuge Laifu a few days earlier that they would be returning to the village today.

At this moment, Zhuge Fengshou was pulled down by an old man he got along well with and sat down with the group of old men to chat.

Old Chen was not to be outdone. An old woman of about the same age as her, but with white hair, quickly stood up and said, "Old sister, come quickly. I've saved you a good spot. You can see the village entrance as soon as you look up."

Old Chen was already used to this kind of attentive behavior.

You should know that ever since her granddaughter Dahua was admitted to the town's school and her third brother started doing business in town and made money, she has become the only one in the village to achieve this.

She's not bragging, but every family with an unmarried daughter or granddaughter has someone who fawns over her.

Before sitting down, Old Madam Chen touched her head, fiddled with her sleeves, and deliberately revealed the silver hairpin in her hair and the fashionable silver bracelet on her wrist.

The old woman who had given up her seat to Old Mrs. Chen glanced at it and immediately understood. She exclaimed, "Oh my, old sister, your silver hairpin and bracelet are so beautiful. Even someone as ignorant as me can tell they're brand new."

This exclamation immediately attracted the attention of the other old women nearby.

Although their eyes were full of envy and jealousy, they still had to say a few flattering words.

There was nothing they could do; they were all counting on Old Chen to help them find good marriage partners for their daughters or granddaughters.

Seeing the undisguised envy in the eyes of her fellow women, Old Chen felt a surge of vanity.

She puffed out her chest, touching the silver hairpin in her hair and the bracelet on her wrist, her expression proud:

"Isn't it new? To be honest, my fourth daughter-in-law is really bad at managing money. Look at the silver hairpin in my hair. She just bought it for me a while ago, and I haven't even had a chance to wear it yet. I didn't expect her to bring me a silver bracelet last night."

As he spoke, he raised his hand to show everyone clearly, and then continued:

"Look, this bracelet alone cost three taels of silver! Oh my, you wouldn't believe how much it broke my heart... I told her to return it, but my fourth daughter-in-law insisted that I, an old woman, have worked so hard for the whole family and haven't been able to help much, so she cried and begged me to wear it..."

"Look at these shoes of mine, all made by my granddaughters. Each of them has a pair, and I can't even keep up with them all... I told them to stop making them, but they were so stubborn, insisting they wanted to be filial to this old woman."

Everyone: "..."

This is like showing off your daughter-in-law and then your granddaughter.

This is really never going to end.

As expected, Old Chen's actions, which were met with dislike, aroused the dissatisfaction of some people in the crowd.

Despite their dissatisfaction, they dared not openly criticize, so they could only say things that sowed discord.

"Your youngest daughter-in-law is rarely around to be filial, so she can only appease you with petty favors. If you ask me, you should set proper rules for her..."

"Yeah, I think your wife is all seductive. They've only been married a short time, and she's already bewitched your fourth son."

"And your four granddaughters, Da Ya is already engaged, and Er Ya and San Ya are almost of marriageable age. They are still not well-behaved and are always being taken outside by your third daughter-in-law. They are too unruly."

"..."

Old Chen: "......"

They've really given them the nerve! Do they think I'm a pushover just because they haven't shown my teeth yet?