Great Wei Dynasty.
First year of Wuchang.
25th March.
Ping’an County.
For ten days in a row, Xu Qingnian stayed at Zhou Ling’s home for a full ten days.
During these ten days, all she did was read books and practise her writing every day.
Reading books was fine, for Xu Qingnian could absorb all kinds of knowledge like crazy and replenish her blind spots.
But the writing practice made it a bit difficult for Xu Qingnian.
His handwriting was not ugly, but the problem was that it was not neat, which was a big no-no for a scholar, especially when he was about to take the Imperial examination.
In the Great Wei Dynasty, not only is your talent valued, but writing is also a hard criterion.
As the saying goes, if an essay is handed in crooked and messy, it is a torture for the examiners who review it, and for yourself too.
Of course if your essay is truly amazing, it will be fine.
Can Xu Qingnian write such an essay?
Xu Qingnian himself did not believe it.
So he could only practise his writing honestly.
But the process was excruciating.
First, he practised his grip, pinching the chopsticks with two fingers and tying a stone to each end of the chopsticks, each weighing about two pounds, and then maintaining his balance without a tremor for two hours.
Then it was time to practise the script, just like writing a character, writing one word a thousand times, and so on.
The good thing was that Xu Qingnian was a martial artist and could withstand the torment, but if he were an ordinary scholar, he would have to break his wrist in half an hour, not to mention two hours, if he practiced with such intensity.
But Xu Qingnian knew that this could not be helped.
On the 15th of April, it would be the day of the Southern Yufu examination, and with 27 days before and after, Xu Qingnian had to make the most of her time to practise.
In Zhou Ling’s words, she did not expect to be able to practice her handwriting well, but at least to be neat and concise, so that she could not lose her impression points.
The good thing was that although the process of practising was painful, Xu Qingnian was already able to do it neatly in ten days’ time.
The font was fine, at least it looked good to me.
And now he could also do it while practising his grip strength and reading at the same time, without delaying the process.
For the past ten days, Chen Xinghe, on the other hand, had been writing in his study, and when he was done, he would show it to Zhou Ling, who would start explaining it after reading it.
The days were rather dull, yet they seemed very peaceful.
Reading was like that, boring and tasteless, but it was also the only shortcut for a humble family to escape their cla*s.
It has been true since ancient times that reading is the fastest shortcut and the only shortcut.
At least compared to business, the status of a scholar inherently suppresses that of a rich person. Don’t look at some wealthy owners who hire a scholar to work for them, but in the end, when it comes to the top, even the wealthiest person is not as high as the status of a masters.
Xu Qingnian understood this, and having suffered once in his previous life for not studying, he naturally would not repeat the same mistake in this life.
Inside the side room.
Xu Qingnian retracted her mind and began to practise her calligraphy.
With the brush in hand, her writing is small, yet very neat.
In a row of ten characters, Xu Qingnian finished them in one breath, and then wrote another ten characters.
The ten characters written in a row were extremely neat, and the ones written afterwards were also neat.
One hour later.
Xu Qingnian practiced until his wrists were sore and then he stopped. After putting the brush aside, Xu Qingnian moved his muscles, stretched his back and rubbed his wrists.
At that moment, Zhou Ling’s voice rang out.
“Qingnian.”
Hearing the shout, Xu Qingnian immediately got up and walked towards the study.
When he came to the study, Zhou Ling had prepared a board with a piece of white paper clipped to it. Chen Xinghe sat on the desk and nodded when he saw Xu Qingnian.
Xu Qingnian nodded in return. The two of them had been together for ten days and their relationship was not bad, but Chen Xinghe was indeed a bit colder, not talking much but answering all questions and being very responsible.
“Qingnian, sit down first.”
Zhou Ling told Xu Qingnian to sit down first.
After Xu Qingnian had settled down, Zhou Ling held a brush in his hand and wrote down a few words on a white sheet of paper.
[An Guo]
[Xingguo]
[Clan King]
Border]
[Demon].
Five words appeared, Xu Qingnian was a little curious, but did not speak waiting for Zhou Ling to follow.
“Qingnian, Xinghe, this time I have studied for several days, and some days ago even discussed with several fellow students, this year’s government test questions, if there is no accident, should be these five questions.”
Zhou Ling said with some confidence.
The question is actually a technical task, if you get it right, you will get twice the result with half the effort, if you don’t, it doesn’t matter, just pretend you didn’t bet.
The two people didn’t say anything, they just nodded and their eyes fell on the five questions.
And Zhou Ling didn’t sell himself short and spoke directly.
“A female emperor ascends to the throne, creating a strange story for the ages, the Great Wei Dynasty was founded seven hundred and forty-three years ago, and the country prospered, yet the emergence of a new dynasty was a change.”
“Since ancient times, no woman has ever been crowned emperor, and there is discontent throughout the court, and many voices of opposition outside the temple, especially among the people, who are easily controlled.”
“Now that the demons are in chaos, the world is saying that it is a female emperor who has ascended the throne, bringing uncertainty, so for His Majesty today, he needs a policy of peace to control the country, otherwise rumours will spread, people will be on edge and the country’s fortunes will not be in order.”
“The reason why my master is so confident is that this time, all the papers and documents of the government examinations must be presented to Kyoto, and this treatment is only available to the capital subject, yet the capital subject still has to wait for half a year.”
“His Majesty can’t wait any longer, that’s why.”
Zhou Ling opened his mouth, and his words were well spoken.
He stood in the perspective of the country to think about the emperor’s thoughts, while at the same time speculating about the questions of the government exams from the perspective of the government exams going into the capital.
It could be said that this viewpoint was sensible and reasonable.
Xu Qingnian nodded his head, acknowledging every word Zhou Ling said.
As expected of an old and spicy ginger, his thoughts were clear.
“The policy of reviving the country is the preparation question, since His Majesty’s seven expeditions to the border, the treasury is empty and a hundred industries are waiting to be revived, although it is important to secure the country, it is still important to revitalise the country.”
Zhou Ling said, Xing Guo is his alternative, according to the order, naturally is not as important as An Guo, now the emperor needs is to stabilize the country, if not stable how can it prosper?
Xu Qingnian looked at Xing Guo, he had also read many history books during this time, especially those about the recent times.
The Great Wei Dynasty was founded seven hundred and forty-three years ago, with the founding of the country by the Great Ancestor and three successive generations of Wu Emperors, who conquered for years and laid the foundation for the might of Great Wei.
The five generations of the Emperor Wen were followed by five generations of the Emperor Wen, who governed the country and made the economy grow rapidly.
The Five Dynasties of the Emperor were all kind in their attempts to a*similate the wolves, but unfortunately the wolves were not ripe for the picking.
The border invasion, the ‘Shame of Jingcheng’, and the barbarians from the north almost came to Kyoto, but for the strength of the Wei dynasty, and the ma*sacre of the city by the barbarians, which aroused the wrath of the gods, and the help of various clans, it would have been possible to kill Kyoto.
A year after the shame of Jingcheng, the eighth emperor of the Great Wei Dynasty, Emperor Jiankang, died, ushering in a ninth emperor, one who was also full of miracles.
The emperor was a concubine, not born to the empress, but to a concubine.
Theoretically, he could not be an emperor at all, but because of the shame of Jingcheng, Emperor Jiankang understood that Wei needed a martial emperor, the people knew that Wei needed a martial emperor, and the civil and military officials also knew that Wei needed a martial emperor.
So this concubine’s son, miraculously, inherited the throne with the state name Wu Yuan.
The use of the character Wu as the name of the state was enough to show his boldness.
For the next fifty years, Emperor Wuyuan did indeed hold up the backbone of the Great Wei, with seven personal conquests and seven northern expeditions, killing an unknown number of barbarians, and being known as the emperor on a horse for his iron-blooded methods.
Unfortunately, however, he suffered many wounds from the long years of conquests and was away from the court for a long time, and became suspicious after his seventh northern expedition was defeated.
Furthermore, the seven northern expeditions of the Wei dynasty resulted in the loss of backbone, but the money was gone, the treasury was empty and taxes rose year after year, so that the people were not able to live.
The most direct result was the salaries of the officials. The monthly salary of a magistrate was one tael of silver, which was the lowest salary since the founding of the Great Wei Dynasty.
Just a year ago, Emperor Wu Yuan died, leaving behind a huge mess and walking away.
The first half of Emperor Wu’s life was one of great achievement, what was the fervour of his seven northern expeditions? What was his spirit?
But the second half of his life was deplorable, with a lack of loyalty, suspicion, killing of innocents, and a headstrong spirit.
It has the meaning of northern expedition, but also the meaning of viciousness. In short, the aftermath is judged by future generations.
And Emperor Wu Yuan had another problem, and that problem was that there was no heir, no son to be more precise, only a daughter.
It was expected that the imperial court would choose a successor to the throne from one of the other va*sal kings, or from the royal family.
But what the world did not expect was that the only daughter of Emperor Wuyuan, who was just over twenty-four years old, would ascend to the throne and become emperor.
This led to an uproar in the world.
The reason why Zhou Ling chose [Xing Guo] was that Emperor Wu Yuan had emptied his treasury during his seven northern expeditions.
So it is likely to be titled as such.
In the light of the history books he had recently read, Xu Qingnian understood why Zhou Ling had chosen this as the topic.
Afterwards, Zhou Ling pointed to the next three questions and said.
“Clan kings, border crossings, demons, the probability of these three questions appearing will not be very high, but they may also appear.”
“Since Emperor Wuyuan ascended to the throne, the va*sal kings from all over the world have cultivated their offspring to revere martial arts, which has now caused a series of problems that might appear in the test questions.”
“There is no need to say anything more about the border, the chaos at the border is eternal, and it is difficult to put down the chaos without destroying their clans, but destroying their clans is as difficult as ascending to heaven.”
“This rebellion of demons is related to the supernatural arts, but in theory it won’t be titled with this.”
Zhou Ling pointed at the last three questions.
In reality, he wanted to explain these three questions properly, but he just had the heart to do so.
Whether it was a va*sal king or a border, or a demon, they were far away from him, and he knew a thing or two about imperial politics and military affairs.
As for the demons, let alone the special institutions to deal with them, he did not know either.
After all, he was only a teacher, he knew a lot of national events, but only just, he was able to deduce five topics with this amount of information, which was already considered very good.
Xu Qingnian absorbed these points of information carefully.
However, at that moment.
A voice sounded outside.
“Dare I ask if Xu Qingnian is within?”
“Lord Cheng of the Southern Yufu has an invitation.”
The voice rang out.
It shattered the quietness of the area.
