All the questions hit the point.
Prefect Xiong smiled. His plump white face looked well-maintained without any fine lines. "This is a long story."
Xianjin obediently brought himself a small stool, and held the almond cheese meekly. While eating, he told the servant beside him to bring another plate of cakes to fill his stomach, and then smiled at the prefect Xiong as if it was his duty, "...I came out in a hurry, and I haven't eaten yet."
Prefect Xiong: ...This girl is really not shy about strangers...
Prefect Xiong paused and continued, "Originally, the paper used for the autumn provincial examination and the spring metropolitan examination, which is what I just said about the paper for the civil service examination, was uniformly distributed by the court. It used the bamboo paper from the Yangtze River. Later, the Japanese invaded the southeast and the southwest border was in turmoil. The court calculated that if this amount of travel expenses was saved, it would be a small amount for one or two years, but it would be a large amount of money for ten or twenty years."
Xianjin nodded, "So now each place has to solve its own test paper problem."
Prefect Xiong then pointed out the core of the matter, "So, the Education Commissioner has the final say on whose paper to use in Nanzhili."
Of course, if Wang Jianfu suddenly encounters instructions or requests from his superiors or colleagues, it is up to him to find a balance.
Magistrate Xiong did not say the latter part of the sentence in order to avoid putting too much pressure on the little girl who was eating and listening in front of him.
"As for the paper you asked about, I can only tell you that this year's autumn exam is an additional special exam. I don't know why it is held. Perhaps it is because of the southeast..."
Prefect Xiong paused, "Last year in the autumn examination, the number of candidates in the Nanzhili Imperial Examination Hall was 21,000."
Xianjin's hand shaking as he held the almond cheese.
What?
What what?
More than 20,000 people take part in an exam?
Prefect Xiong laughed, quite proudly, "The Nanzhili Imperial Examination Hall has another name, the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall, which includes scholars from Jiangsu and Huizhou. Officials from Jiangnan have occupied a large proportion in all dynasties. I don't need to tell you more about this, right?"
This... This is definitely...
Since the Song Dynasty, officials from Jiangnan cannot be said to occupy half of the country, they can only be said to be kings and hegemons...
At the most powerful time, there were nine people in the cabinet, eleven of whom were from Jiangnan. You might ask why there were two more people?
One of them was a non-staff member of the six ministries who was transferred to the cabinet. He was just waiting for a current cabinet minister to die, and then he would take over immediately.
There is another one, an assistant of one of the deaf and mute cabinet ministers, who helped the old cabinet write things and pass messages, saying that he was helping, but no one knew whether the actual content of the writing and the decision were from the cabinet minister or him, which was equivalent to the secretary being in power...
There is an unwritten rule in this world: the richer you are, the richer your generation will be; the poorer you are, the poorer your generation will be.
This rule applies to any era.
Officials from Jiangnan stood on the foundation laid by their predecessors and started from a higher position than others.
It's too far away.
Xianjin swallowed the almond cheese in his mouth and scratched his scalp. "Twenty thousand people are taking the exam... How many papers do we need for one exam..."
Prefect Xiong was delighted. "Two four-foot-long pieces of rice paper, one for the draft and one for the official roll, but both need to be collected."
Twenty thousand people, each person gets two four-foot-long sheets of rice paper, which means forty thousand sheets of paper, which costs four hundred dollars.
Calculated at 800 wen per knife, the business would be 320 taels.
But everyone knows.
This is more than just three hundred and twenty taels.
Once she gets this business, three hundred taels, three thousand taels, or even thirty thousand taels will be waving at her!
Xianjin suddenly became excited and almost flattened the porcelain bowl with his hand holding the almond cheese!
Oh shit!
Got to do it!
This business has to be done!
When Magistrate Xiong looked up, he saw the raging fire in Xianjin's eyes like two balls of fire clouds, which made his pale and thin little face look extremely vital, and it was clear that he would kill anyone who stood in his way.
Magistrate Xiong suddenly understood why Qiao Fangzhi, that old man who was extremely afraid of trouble, was so partial to this little girl.
Prefect Xiong narrowed his eyes and looked at the girl from the perspective of a male elder: her appearance is naturally good, and even if she is placed in the entire Xuancheng Prefecture, it is not shameful;
She is very tall, which is rare in the south. It is said that this girl's mother fled from Qingzhou in the north, which can explain her height.
The brain, I won’t talk about it anymore, it’s very smart;
Courage is smarter than brains;
As for his wife's biggest worry about her background... there was no problem. As soon as Old Qiao came back, he would coax Old Qiao to adopt this girl as his adopted daughter. Not to mention being a match for his Xiong family, she would be worthy of being matched with the second son of the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture.
Hehehehe.
Magistrate Xiong clapped his hands, and the servant beside him took out a wooden box and handed it to Xianjin respectfully with both hands.
"Take a look at the papers used in previous years."
Xianjin opened it and touched it.
It’s Jiajiang bamboo paper for sure.
Regardless of the hype and comments of later generations, Xuan paper is indeed better in terms of exquisiteness, silkiness, and handed down from generation to generation. However, bamboo paper is better in that it is tougher, easier to obtain, has a short production cycle, and has a lower production cost. Both are good papers, but different places produce different kinds of paper.
Xianjin nodded, feeling more confident, he closed the wooden box and looked up, "Sir, can I take it back and study it carefully?"
Prefect Xiong waved his hand and said, "It's a small matter."
Xianjin nodded gratefully and had almost finished his almond cheese. He then asked a few more questions about the autumn examination this year.
Prefect Xiong answered as he was told, then suddenly remembered something and said vaguely, "...The people in power today are stern and cold-blooded, and they are extremely disgusted with cases of favoritism and corruption. When you make the paper, take this into consideration in advance."
Xian Jin raised his eyebrows: Those in power today...?
Isn’t he Emperor Zhaode?
No way?
When an emperor dies, the entire court must observe mourning.
Could it be that the person in charge of the cabinet has changed?
Xianjin wanted to ask, but she had a feeling that Governor Xiong might not tell her. She scratched her head, wrote down the information first, and prepared to leave.
Prefect Xiong saw Xianjin finish a plate of cakes and asked the servant to pack a food box. He looked at him and asked casually, "See if Sanlang is home? If he's free, ask him to come over and see the guests off."
He turned around and explained to Xianjin, "I have a lot of things to do. My wife has gone back to her parents' home, so I asked Sanlang to take you back."
Xianjin said "Oh" and said awkwardly, "No need to send me off. I came here on a mule cart. It's fine for me to sit on the open board with my knees hugged, Sanlangjun..."
In Prefect Xiong's mind, there emerged a scene of his own youngest son, who was always neat and tidy, washing his hair with both hands, sitting on a board, with a mule walking in front of him and him accepting the inquiring eyes of the people on both sides of the two rivers behind him...
Well, forget it today.
He wants to make friends, not enemies.
Magistrate Xiong waved his hand.
Xianjin hurriedly ran away with the wooden box.
Turning the corner, there was no mule cart, just a lock waiting there.
Xianjin's face darkened and he walked towards the east end of the city.
Suo'er quickly caught up with him and followed him without asking where he was going.
Xianjin had long legs and walked fast. After a while, he stopped at the door of a store at the east end of the city. As soon as he entered, he said in a deep voice, "Where is your Evergrande girl?"
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