407, Reopen Enke
407, Reopen Enke
“Da da da da—”
From afar, they heard the sound of horse hooves coming towards them.
Soon, a group of people on horseback appeared in sight. Lu Mingfei's eyes fell on the figure running in front, and he recognized that the person on horseback was the one he was waiting for.
Soon, the man on horseback came to him first.
But the man came up to him on horseback, and without slowing down, he reached out and pulled him onto the horse's back.
"!!!" The whole person suddenly flew into the air and was carried onto the horse's back. Lu Mingfei was frightened and subconsciously grabbed the hand on his waist.
"Haha, when did Lord Lu become so timid?" Zhao Lang turned his head and kissed his Lord Lu.
"Next time before you try to rescue me, could you please say hello first?" Lu Mingfei turned his head and his eyes fell on Zhao Lang's masked face.
Even if the person was wearing half a mask, he could still recognize him by the other half of his face.
"Haha, okay, next time I will definitely remind you in advance." Zhao Lang laughed softly, put the reins in his hand into Lord Lu's hand, put his chin on the young man's shoulder, and relaxed his whole body.
"Ming Fei."
"Yeah, I'm here."
Knowing that the person behind him was tired, Lu Mingfei took charge of controlling the horse and asked the person leaning on his back, "Did the journey go smoothly?"
"Well, nothing unexpected happened. As for the Prince of Zhennan, we signed several agreements with them as you said." Zhao Lang rubbed his face against Lord Lu's neck and took a deep breath.
The burning breath hit his neck, and Lu Mingfei shrank back a little due to the itch, but he did not dodge. "That's good. Did the King of Zhennan give you any trouble?"
"He doesn't dare." Zhao Lang said.
The two men rode for a while.
Behind them were their guards, all of whom were riding horses and following them from a distance, not getting too close.
When they were about to reach Kyoto City, they dismounted and got into the carriage.
Looking at the man sleeping on his legs, Lu Mingfei knew that Zhao Lang's journey there and back had not been easy. It was the first time he saw this man looking so exhausted.
***
When the emperor returned from his absence a month ago, the officials in the court did not notice that a new emperor had been sitting on the dragon throne.
However, Zhao Hu, the crown prince, noticed that something was wrong with his brother recently, as if he had become a completely different person.
With this doubt and many worries in his heart, he asked the closest tutor around him. The tutor did not hide it from him, but just told him that his brother was away on business, and asked him to study hard in the palace and not to tell anyone about this matter.
Zhao Hu knew that his brother must have gone out to do something very important, so he listened to the Taifu's words, studied in the palace, and waited for his brother to come back.
However, as his brother was away from Beijing for longer and longer periods of time, he began to feel a little anxious.
Until this day in August, his brother sent guards to call him over. He recognized at a glance that the brother in front of him had been replaced by his real brother.
"Your humble servant greets your elder brother."
"Get up. I heard from the Grand Tutor that you have been studying very hard recently. Do you want any reward?" After Zhao Lang came back, he learned from Lu Mingfei that his brother had discovered that a substitute had replaced him.
If even the crown prince doesn't know that his brother has been replaced by someone else, he really has to consider changing someone else to be the crown prince.
At this time, Lu Mingfei was sitting on the other side of the emperor.
"It is my duty to do so. I dare not ask for any reward." The prince said with his head down.
Lu Mingfei glanced at Zhao Lang and could tell that the young prince was a little afraid of his elder brother Zhao Lang. Perhaps it should be said that he was both respectful and afraid of him and wanted to be closer to him.
However, looking at the prince who was about the same age as his younger brother, and this child was also his student.
He knew the prince was the future king and had a heavy burden on his shoulders. But seeing a young boy spending his days either reading or learning various riding and archery skills, he knew that such a life would be difficult for anyone.
So he suggested, "The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up in a few days, and there will be lantern displays at the temple in the city. Why don't we take the prince out of the palace to see the lanterns?"
"..." Zhao Lang, who had originally planned to take his Lord Lu to the street to enjoy the lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival, suddenly stopped talking.
But when he met the eyes of Lu Mingfei and the prince, he could only nod and said, "If you want to go, then go ahead."
"Thank you, brother!" The prince was really happy this time, and gave a big smile to the tutor who had fought for an opportunity for him to leave the palace.
Seeing this kid so happy, Zhao Lang just felt a little annoyed. He waved his hand and told him to leave quickly and do what he needed to do.
Seeing his brother's expression, he knew that he was going to leave. Although he wanted to stay and talk to his brother for a few more words, the prince did not dare to do so and could only bow and say goodbye: "I will take my leave."
"Your Majesty, I have to go and give lectures to the prince. I will take my leave first." Seeing that the student was about to leave, Lu Mingfei also stood up and bowed to the emperor sitting next to him, and left with the student.
Zhao Lang reacted and looked at the backs of the two people, one big and one small, leaving together. He was so angry that he almost laughed.
However, he did not call Lu Mingfei back. He got up and went to the imperial study to handle official business.
After returning from a month away from the palace, even though Lord Lu helped him review memorials, the things that needed to be dealt with by the emperor were still piling up, enough to keep him busy for a while.
***
Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there was another major event in Kyoto Prefecture, which was the start of the provincial examination.
The imperial examinations had been suspended for several years due to political instability in the past few years. Only after the new emperor ascended the throne this year had the imperial examinations been reopened, leading to an unusually large number of candidates taking the exams. Those who had failed in previous exams, as well as those taking the exams for the first time, all gathered in the same examination hall to take the exam.
Therefore, the competition for a place on this year's literary list is very fierce.
However, in addition to the resumption of the civil examinations this year, the martial arts examinations, which had been suspended for decades, were also resumed. This also gave martial artists the opportunity to enter the officialdom through participating in martial arts competitions.
In August, in addition to the civil and military examinations, the Ministry of Revenue also held a separate mathematics examination. The main purpose of this examination was to recruit talented people with mathematical skills for the Ministry of Revenue.
The notice issued by the Ministry of Revenue has stated that any candidate who passes the mathematics exam can enter the Ministry of Revenue to work, and the positions will be of different ranks.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Revenue deliberately arranged the mathematics exam after the imperial examinations to allow candidates to take both the civil and military exams. This also gave candidates who failed the civil and military exams a chance to enter the Ministry of Revenue.
Therefore, for candidates who are good at arithmetic, this mathematics examination held by the Ministry of Revenue is like a second chance for them.
However, there were also candidates who were determined to enter the Ministry of Revenue. After learning that the Ministry of Revenue was recruiting, they gave up taking the imperial examination and focused on preparing for the Ministry's calculation test.
Ye Zhuoran is one of them.
Before the provincial examination began, he suddenly told his family that he would not take part in it.
When Zhang Lingxuan learned that Ye Zhuoran had given up on taking the provincial examination and was only going to take the Ministry of Revenue's math exam, he was actually a little angry. "You better think it over!"
"Brother Xuan, I've thought about it. I may not pass the provincial examination. If I get sick in the examination room again, it will affect my ability to take the arithmetic examination later. So I might as well not take the provincial examination and only prepare for the arithmetic examination. I can still have a few more days than others to pass."
"If I were to take the math test, I would have one more advantage over others. I'm good at using an abacus, my brain works quickly, and I can count coins faster and more accurately than others!" Ye Zhuoran felt that he had one more advantage over others when he took part in the recruitment of new members for the Ministry of Revenue, and that was his good arithmetic.
Because his family is in business, he has been dealing with money since he was a child. He doesn't dare to say that he is good at other aspects, but when it comes to dealing with money, he is more familiar with it than ordinary people.
"Okay, since you have made up your mind, just do it according to your own wishes." Hearing this, Zhang Lingxuan did not force the man in his family anymore.
Looking at the young man happily preparing to recruit new members for the Ministry of Revenue, he smiled helplessly. In fact, rather than forcing this person to do something he didn't want to do, he hoped that this person could do whatever he liked and wanted to do under his wings and protection.
When Lu Mingfei learned that Ye Zhuoran would not take part in this year's provincial examination and was determined to participate in the recruitment of their Ministry of Revenue and wanted to join their Ministry of Revenue, he did not think it was a pity that Ye Zhuoran gave up the provincial examination.
Because even if Ye Zhuoran entered the official career through the imperial examination, he would eventually be sent to work in the Ministry of Revenue.
It would have been better for Ye Zhuoran to decide to come to the Ministry of Revenue from the beginning, so that he could have avoided many detours.
So after learning the news, he handed a mathematics manuscript he had compiled to the guard beside him and asked the guard to deliver it to Ye Zhuoran personally.
After receiving the manuscript sent by his friend, Ye Zhuoran entered into an obsessive learning mode after flipping through the book that recorded mathematics and calculation methods with special numbers.
Even Zhang Lingxuan, who had returned from the Ministry of War and visited the candidates preparing for the exam at home, was attracted by the arithmetic methods in this mathematical manuscript.
So in the next few days, whenever he came back from the yamen, he would run to the study to study arithmetic with Ye Zhuoran.
After asking the guards to deliver his manuscript to Zhang's house, Lu Mingfei no longer cared about Ye Zhuoran's exam preparation. The main reason was that he had too many things to do and was too busy, so he had no time to take care of other miscellaneous matters.
By the time he had finished arranging the work at hand, it was already the Mid-Autumn Festival.
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