Chapter 469 468 No Old Yan Ge

Time slowly approaches the end of February, and the results of the Beijing Examination will be announced soon.

The day before yesterday, Wei Guangde took a leave of absence to King Yu and Shide Den. He went to Jiujiang Guild Hall tonight and waited for the results of the exam with the candidates who were taking the exam. Of course, there was still Lao Kan, Ouyang Yijing and others.

Ouyang Yijing has been run by Wei Guangde to the capital from the position of Xiaoshan County Magistrate and was placed in the sixth department. He is currently in the Criminal Department and is given a position as a clerk.

"I heard that Sansheng's father also participated in this examination?"

Sitting in the meal, Lao Kan suddenly asked.

The three festivals he mentioned were Zeng Shengwu, who is currently the magistrate of Fuchun. It is interesting to say that Zeng Shengwu passed the imperial examination after being a Jinshi in the 35th year of Jiajing, but his father participated in the 41st year of the imperial examination.

"I received a letter from the three provinces before. I went to the Huguang Guild Hall to see him a few days ago."

Wei Guangde nodded with a smile and said, although he has now added to Anlu, Huguang, but he is a branch of the Pengze Zeng family after all.

In recent years, the Pengze Zeng family has not produced many talents, and they all fall into the Anlu branch.

"Their family is also very powerful. Three generations of people are all juren, and they are the youngest three provinces to pass the imperial examination first."

Wei Guangde thought of what he knew and said to Lao Kan and others with a smile, "I don't know if Uncle Great can pass the exam this time."

"Yuan Shu and the others are still in the provincial examination. If they know, they will be ashamed again."

At this time, Ouyang Yijing suddenly interrupted and said.

"Being able to pass the college entrance examination actually means that the level is high. The subsequent provincial examination and the college entrance examination are more of luck. Just like me, I just dodged my waist twice during the provincial examination, and then the luck comes, and I can't even stop it."

Wei Guangde said with a smile.

Although he said this was true, it was also for the sake of lenient work. Zhang Dao and his friends were all the first time to participate in the imperial examination. It was impossible to say that they were not nervous. That is, Zhu Shilong and Duan Mengxian had taken several exams, and their psychological qualities were also developed. This time, they could accept it.

Wei Guangde's self-deprecating words caused Lao Kan, Zhu Shilong and others to burst into laughter.

Of course they knew Wei Guangde's level, but as Wei Guangde said, when luck came, the emperor finally ordered a list of quotations. Who should I ask for reason? It is said that as a person in the third grade, he would never be able to get to the first place in the second grade.

In the 35th year of Jiajing, the Hanlin Academy had no intention of choosing Shujishi in that year, and was also forced into it by Emperor Jiajing.

"Look at the time, it's time to get the result."

Lao Kan looked at the dim light outside and roughly estimated it in his heart.

"It should be yours, I can't run away."

Wei Guangde just said with a smile on his face.

Such days are only once every three years. Now with everyone, Wei Guangde misses the days he used to be, and he is waiting with anxiety and hope.

"We won two of us in the last session?"

Zhang Dao from Hukou suddenly asked.

Wei Guangde did not answer, and pointed at Ouyang Yijing next to him and said, "You ask him."

Ouyang Yijing was the one who passed the previous year by chance. He naturally had the most say in his subject situation.

Nodded, Ouyang Yijing smiled and said, "There are two. Fortunately, I entrusted Shandai and Renzhi and the others with my blessing. Before them, no one in our Jiujiang Prefecture had been on the list."

"Don't be nervous, learn from Mr. Zhu, see how calm he is."

Wei Guangde saw that Zhang Dao was a little nervous and hurriedly smiled and comforted him.

Soon, the noise began to get out, and there was a sound of blowing and drums. Wei Guangde and the others knew that someone had already heard the names of candidates for the current exam from the Gongyuan and began to send good news.

This is the second time that Wei Guangde has participated in such an event. He was a little nervous during the last session, and now he is completely calm.

After a hustle and bustle on the street outside, I don’t know how many teams of good news came over. Just as everyone gradually felt disappointed, a team of people finally entered the Jiujiang Guild Hall, which also means that some candidates who participated in the imperial examination in Jiujiang Prefecture passed the imperial examination.

"The best news for the Renxu exam in the 41st year of Jiajing. Congratulations to Duan Mengxian, Mr. Duan of Hukou County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, for being ranked 211 on the A-list, and the Beijing News has been ranked 200 and 110 consecutively."

Two hundred and eleven, the fate of the Three A, but the position is still very high among the Three A.

Wei Guangde and others hurriedly stood up and congratulated Duan Mengxian, followed by the current subject candidates like him, and finally the merchants in Beijing in Jiujiang Prefecture at the corner of the guild hall.

Although they are rich and powerful, they are still the lowest-ranking group here.

Wei Guangde was familiar with them, but he just said a few words at the beginning. It depends on how they were all compared to his father, otherwise they would really ignore them.

After Duan Mengxian thought about the good news, no one entered the Jiujiang Guild Hall again.

Zhu Shilong, Lao Wei, Zhang Dao and other candidates were filled with despair at this time. Duan Mengxian, who received the good news, was not as energetic as before, and was sitting there quietly.

"Okay, if you don't win the Jinke, you will wait for the next subject. Everyone is still young. Come on, let's drink this cup and you will definitely win the next subject."

Wei Guangde had already stood up and picked up the wine glass in front of him and said to the people on the table.

The results of the test have come out. Although they are a little disappointed, they are better than nothing. Finally, some people are on the list and they don’t let everyone sit here for a night.

Of course, there is nothing else in Beijing, but for the candidates who took the exam, they could only pretend to be smiling, raise their glasses to greet Wei Guangde, and then drink all the wine in the glass.

In February of the 41st year of Jiajing, there were 300 Chinese juren Wang Xijue, and there were 300 Chinese juren.

The imperial examination has passed, but Duan Mengxian still has to prepare for the palace examination. Wei Guangde and his friends will return home to rest after dawn. Today he has asked for leave, so he doesn't have to go to Prince Yu's mansion to serve as a servant.

He came back early, so he went straight into the backyard and slept beautifully under Xu Jianglan's service. After all, he had been staying up all night, and now he was sleeping.

Perhaps, only Duan Mengxian and other tribute scholars on the list will be so excited that they are sleepless. They should have set off to the tribute court to wait for the list to be released. This is how Wei Guangde came here at the beginning.

It was not until the afternoon that Wei Guangde woke up from his dream, got up to wash, and took a beautiful bath. Only then did he feel comfortable all over.

"Master, I've written a letter from my home in Nanjing."

While Wei Guangde was having dinner, Xu Jianglan walked in with a letter that had not been opened.

Wei Guangde was now holding chopsticks in his right hand and a steamed bun in his left hand and was having a meal. He glanced at the letter and said, "Why didn't you take it apart and see what happened?"

"I'm too lazy to read the letter if I say I'm going to get it open in person."

Xu Jianglan put the letter on the table and sat on the empty seat on the side watching Wei Guangde eat voraciously.

It is difficult to see Wei Guangde eating at home during the day, after all, most of the time he is in Prince Yu's mansion.

Wei Guangde just looked up and smiled at her, ate the steamed buns in his hand in a few bites, and then picked up the envelope on the table. He had already had a premonition that the letter might be related to the news that he sent someone back last time.

The maid next to him began to clean up the dishes under Xu Jianglan's instructions, while Wei Guangde directly took the letter to the study.

After taking apart and seeing the contents on the letter clearly, Wei Guangde was secretly surprised.

Nanjing actually needs to transfer 100,000 taels of silver to the capital for activity funds, but the money is placed in a certain business in the capital, and Wei Guangde can directly withdraw it when needed.

The letter also directly pointed out the families he wanted to visit, including two cabinet masters and the Ministry of War.

Touching his already furry chin, Wei Guangde was thinking about so much money, and he used it there.

Whether it is Xu Jie or Yuan Wei, it would be a big deal to give him three or five thousand taels of silver. As for the Ministry of War, it is only one or two thousand taels. I really don’t understand what my father-in-law thinks, and he actually gets so much money to the capital.

It seems that the business they run really makes money.

The business of selling private salt along the Yangtze River actually gradually developed during the Japanese turmoil a few years ago.

The private salt snatched from the Japanese pirates was directly taken out by Zhang Fugui for sale, thus establishing a sales network initially.

Afterwards, the merchants kept asking whether they could still get private salt in their hands, which led to the contact between Nanjing and Prime Minister Yan Maoqing, who directly sold off the remaining salt in the four major salt fields to make a profit.

Of course, ordinary people cannot do such a business. In the past, those who could do the surplus salt business were either big salt merchants who were willing to spend a lot of money to manage it from multiple sources. However, the salt they could get was limited after all, and more were sold directly through private salt.

After all, the money you buy salt is handed over to the capital. You don’t have to pay the money to sell private salt in private, and you can get it apart by handing it.

As for whether there is a market for so much salt, it can only be said that the government is so fucked.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the world population census was conducted. Zhu Yuanzhang personally took charge of the matter. On this basis, the "Yellow Book of Taxes and Services" was compiled, and household registration was registered based on household registration, including the names, gender, age, occupation, address, Dingkou, land, real estate and household registration level of family members.

In this operation, the emperor supervised and sent a large number of supervisors and censors to participate and supervise the census. Therefore, the data is very authentic. At that time, the census population was close to 60 million.

Because the cover of a book given to the Ministry of Revenue is made of yellow paper, it is called a yellow book.

According to regulations, the yellow book will be made every ten years, each book will be submitted to the central Ministry of Revenue, provincial, government and county houses for archives.

However, as far as Wei Guangde could find, the most populous in the Ming Dynasty seemed to be in the first year of Yongle, the Yellow Book recorded a population of 11 million households and more than 66 million.

The world has been peaceful for a hundred years. The latest yellow book ten years ago obviously had a population of more than 63 million, which was actually three million less than the Yongle period.

Because the population of the Ming Dynasty has not changed much for more than a hundred years, the salt production in major salt fields is naturally constant, and the salt price is stabilized by controlling the salt.

When Wei Guangde was still in Bengshanbao, he knew that there were hidden households in his hometown, and their proprietary and unemployed were not recorded in the yellow book. Naturally, this phenomenon would not only occur in his own homes, but is true in all provinces across the country.

No one knows how many people there were in the Ming Dynasty at this time, but there were always more than 60 million people in the official yellow book.

In the later generations that Wei Guangde didn't know, when the Qing Dynasty entered the pass and captured the world, someone actually found the Yellow Books of the Tax and Services of Chongzhen from the most important documents of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the names of the households on the Huangcai during the Chongzhen period were exactly the same as those in the Hongwu period, it is naturally not surprising.

The hidden population naturally has a huge demand for salt, which is why private salt is sold, and official salt is not enough to sell.

As for the salt tax of only more than one million taels of silver a year in the Ming Dynasty, naturally no one has any objections. Of course, the salt tax must be linked to the population. Without the population, how can the salt tax rise?

When I heard that Zhang Fugui could earn tens of thousands of taels of silver by running salt once, Wei Guangde only thought that this business would definitely make money, but he only needs so much every year that he could go a few trips, so he did not think about the salt administration after entering the imperial examination, especially after entering the Hanlin Academy.

It seems that at home, now I can earn tens of thousands of dollars in dividends from this business every year. This is already a huge fortune and I didn’t dare to think about it in the past.

But this time, Wei Guangde was really shocked by his father-in-law Xu Pengju's big move. They could take out so much money just to keep the golden waterway?

The letter made it clear that he asked him to give Xu Jie and Yuan Wei a few thousand taels of silver first. After all, he wanted to talk to Yan Song, who infringed on the government and the opposition. If the money was not given enough, the people might not be willing to buy it, but there was too much.
To be continued...