At this time, Hui'an County Government, Qinzhitang, and County Magistrate Liu Shouliang were slowly spinning around his seat.

From time to time, he gestured on the seat with his hands, and then touched his beard and pondered for a while. He looked like a veteran carpenter.

Yes, he is just an old carpenter.

Someone gave him a few squares of beech wood two days ago, and now he is preparing to make a new magistrate chair for himself.

By the way, he is not a county magistrate, why did he become a carpenter again?

He is indeed a county magistrate, but he is a carpenter, or his family is a craftsman.

The reason why he has never been promoted is on the surface because his grades in the imperial examination were too poor and he was the last in the third grade. In fact, the fundamental reason is because his background is too low. Otherwise, he would not have been the county magistrate for more than ten years.

Although scholars, farmers, industrialists and commerce are part of the "worker" category, their status seems to be a little higher than that of merchants, in fact, this is not the case, because merchants still have money at least, and craftsmen not only have no money, but often do not even have personal freedom.

The craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were so miserable, because they had to take shifts to the capital and had to do a month's work for the court every year to offset labor.

This guy, this one has taken away most of the craftsmen. You know, when the imperial court recruited craftsmen, no matter what distance or distance, it would not be given to travel expenses. It would be easier to say that if you were closer to the capital, you would have to walk a few days later. If you were far away from the capital, you might have to walk a few months or even more than half a year on the road.

I spent most of the year on the road, and I had to work for the court for free when I arrived in the capital, and the court still didn't pay back the money. Who can bear the money? When the craftsmen far away from the capital went to take turns, it was like going to the execution ground. There were not many people who could return to their hometown alive!

Therefore, the shift system was changed again and again. At the beginning, it was recruited once a year, but then it gradually became two, three, and four years. However, most craftsmen were still overwhelmed, and many craftsmen fled directly and became refugees without household registration. Some even lived around the capital.

Liu Shouliang's family was pretty good, because at the beginning, the capital was in Nanzhili, and his family was from Nanzhili, so it saved the hardship of the long journey. In addition, his family was famous for its woodworking skills and profits were quite abundant, so the family gradually grew up. After the capital was moved to Beizhili, their family simply sent a branch to live in Shuntian Prefecture to deal with the conscripts of the court, but the family became more and more prosperous in Nanzhili.

Now that Liu Shouliang has passed the Jinshi exam, his family is equivalent to having left the craftsmanship and waived labor, and the family has benefited a lot from it.

However, because his family is a well-known old craftsman, he has been influenced by his childhood and accidentally became obsessed with carpenter work. Even after becoming a magistrate, he was still obsessed with carpenter work for a day and did not think about government affairs. Therefore, he served as a county magistrate for more than ten years but has not achieved any results. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why he was not promoted.

I don’t know why this carpenter work is so fascinating. In history, Emperor Xizong of Tianqi was addicted to carpenter work all day long and ignored the government. As a result, he went abroad after seven years of being the emperor, leaving a mess and thrown it to his younger brother Chongzhen. Chongzhen couldn’t stand it. More than ten years later, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed like this!

Fortunately, Liu Shouliang is just a county magistrate, and he dare not neglect his duties. He stayed in Qinzhitang honestly during normal hours, and worked as a monk and hit the clock for a day, and did everything he should do. He would only do his carpenter work when he was not on duty.

Therefore, the areas he manages are basically the same, and will not become better or worse. Strictly speaking, he is a county magistrate, is quite competent.

He was thinking about what flowers were carved on the chair of the new Grand Master, and the yamen runner at the door suddenly said aloud: "Sir, Mr. Yan is asking for a meeting."

Strictly implement?

What is this old guy here for?

The two of them have been close friends for many years. Instead of getting bored by Yan Xing's arrival, he smiled and said, "Please."

Soon, Yan Xing walked in with Yang Cong's test paper and bowed excitedly: "Brother Junsui, congratulations, congratulations!"

Congratulations?

What are some congratulations?

Liu Shouliang couldn't help but say inexplicably: "Jian, where does this joy come from?"

Yan Xing handed Yang Cong's test paper to him like a treasure, and then said mysteriously: "You can understand it if you look."

Liu Shouwei took it over and saw that it was an eight-legged essay for exams. It was written in a very standardized manner and was well written. Judging from its content, it was only at the level of an ordinary scholar. What's the point of congratulations?

He asked in confusion: "Brother Jian, is there anything strange about this article?"

Yan Xing proudly touched his beard and said, "There is nothing outstanding about this article, but the person who makes the article is quite good. Guess, what is his identity?"

It's not difficult to guess. This person who makes a fuss is definitely not a scholar, or even a child, otherwise there would be nothing to congratulate.

Liu Shouliang said with great interest: "Is this article done by Bai Ding, who has never participated in the imperial examination?"

When Yan Xing heard this, he couldn't help but give a thumbs up and said, "Brother Junsui, you're so awesome. You guessed it all at once."

Liu Shouliang smiled and shook his head and said, "What's the matter? If a scholar did such an article, how could you be so excited? Who did this article?"

Yan Xing smiled proudly and said, "Hehe, Brother Junsui, you can't imagine that this was done by a student in our county."

Aren’t students in the county school just scholars? What’s so happy about doing such an article? Liu Shouliang was stunned for a moment and then said in surprise: “Isn’t this a regular student in the county school doing?”

Yan Xing couldn't help but ask for me and said, "Yes, it's just a student who did it. Brother Jun Sui, you are afraid that you will be developed and have such a genius under your rule. If you shine in the provincial examination or even in the imperial examination in the future, your achievements will definitely be indispensable. If you get promoted, you must not forget that this genius was taught to you by me."

Liu Shouliang understood the meaning of this sentence. He seemed to have produced a genius under his rule, and he was very willing to achieve outstanding achievements because of it.

It is not easy for local officials to obtain merit, especially for county magistrates like him who govern inaction, which is even more difficult to obtain merit.

His inability to raise this has a lot to do with his background, but achievements are also a factor. If he wants to have good achievements, no matter what, he should be promoted.

Of course, promotion does not necessarily depend on achievements. If he can curry favor with the powerful, it will be easy to get promoted.

Unfortunately, Chen Wenjie from Chen's family in Longxi put an opportunity in front of him, but because he was obsessed with his carpenter work, he did not curry favor with others at all. He missed a great opportunity in vain.

In fact, the reason why he did not curry favor with Chen Wenjie was only one aspect of the carpenter work, and another more important reason was that Chen Wenjie's identity was a wealthy family of maritime merchants, and he didn't like it, so he simply ignored him.

This time it was different. A genius came out of the rule, which was a great achievement of education. He was still quite interested in this kind of thing.

Question: Can you be considered a genius if you can only pass the exam for a scholar?

It seems that a scholar who has been ruled by himself cannot be considered a merit of education. No matter how it is, this person has to be among the top in the provincial examination or a high school Jinshi to be considered a merit of education, right?

He looked carefully at the article in front of him and said in confusion: "Brother Jian, this article can only be a scholar at most, right?"

Yan Xing explained proudly: "Yes, if this article is made in one day, he can only get a scholar at most. The problem is that this article was made in two hours!"

He wrote an eight-legged essay for the exam in two hours. Liu Shouliang asked himself that he didn’t have the ability. He was definitely a genius among geniuses!

It’s not that he can’t write a eight-legged essay in two hours. The eight-legged essay style used in the county, government and college examinations is the most standard and time-consuming, while in the provincial and ministerial examinations, it is divided into meaning, theory and strategy.

The requirements of Yihe Ce are not as high as the standard eight-legged essay. Yihe Ce usually takes about 300 words, and it is not necessary to write all the following four paragraphs into pairwise parallel sentences. There is only one or two sets. It is not surprising that such an article will be written in one or two hours.

The theory is different. The theory is the most standard eight-legged essay. It usually requires more than 400 words to write, and four sets of parallel sentences must be arranged. For such articles, both the provincial examination and the palace examination, one test for one day, which means that it takes about one day for the Jinshi to write such an article!

Who is this genius?

He couldn't help asking, "Brother Jian, who is the person you mentioned in this case?"

Yan Xing said without hesitation: "It's Yang Cong from the Yang family in Hui'an. He asked me to help me inquire yesterday to see if you have time recently. He wants to invite you to have a meal."

Yang Cong from the Yang family in Hui'an!

Isn’t that a close friend of Xu Jie, the chief judge of the government office?

Want to invite me to a pampered meal?
Chapter completed!