Of course, Ma Mingfeng didn't know what happened in Nanjing, but he had already planned some things in advance, so he could actually know a rough idea.

He also expected the fight between merchants, but he did not know that the rice merchants had a relationship with Ruan Dacheng, but he knew that his father Ma Shiying had a good relationship with many officials in Nanjing, so he had already made plans. Once an official came to interfere in his business, he would bring the old man out.

However, Ma Mingfeng also remembered Ruan Dacheng. He knew that Ruan Dacheng had earned a lot of money by opening a theater, otherwise he would not have been able to pay 10,000 taels of silver to bribe Zhou Yanru, so he thought of persuading him to give up some money to help the people in the year of famine, so he came up with a set of rhetoric to win the hearts of the people.

Of course, Ma Mingfeng's speech was not directly said to Ruan Dacheng, but to his father Ma Shiying. He knew that his father's reputation was not very good, so he used this to persuade him and specifically told Wu Jing to send two thousand stones of food to Ma Shiying, so that he could give alms to the people to win the hearts of the people.

Ma Mingfeng knew that Ma Shiying had a close relationship with Ruan Dacheng and had similar situations, so he would definitely say what he persuaded him to Ruan Dacheng.

However, Ma Mingfeng did not know that Ruan Dacheng did not directly pay the grain and silver, but instead showed goodwill to the people by advising grain merchants to lower prices and avoid using inferior products as good ones and short of weight. Moreover, the next day, he specifically asked those merchants to spread the matter of admonishing grain merchants everywhere. In this way, although he did not spend a single or a tael of silver, he also won a good reputation for himself.

The secret competition between rice merchants finally came to an end. Although the rice prices in Nanjing have risen, they have finally stabilized, especially as the drought continues, how difficult this stability is.

In this process, almost everyone knows that it is Mingfeng Rice Store's persistence that can make the rice price basically stable. And only Mingfeng Rice Store insists on high-quality, low-price and sufficient trading from beginning to end. Although other rice stores have been constrained, they still have short-term and slightly higher prices.

Therefore, the reputation of Mingfeng Rice Store has gradually increased and has become the most trustworthy rice store in Nanjing.

This of course also allowed Mingfeng Rice Store to earn huge wealth.

This made Wu Jing admire Ma Mingfeng and he never expected that Nanjing would actually encounter a disaster, and the rice price rose to this level. This deal was really cost-effective. It was estimated that after the price came, it would be able to reach tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Next, Wu Jing decided to follow Ma Mingfeng's instructions and use the money he earned to buy and sell real estate. Although the current property is indeed cheaper than before due to the disaster, he had never heard of it before and could not imagine it. However, since the boss gave the order and had his previous foresight, he naturally would not violate it and began to buy real estate.

At the same time, as the disaster became more and more serious, Wu Jing was preparing to allocate some white rice to the young lady for the charity porridge so that the poor could save their lives at critical moments.

This was also what the boss ordered. Although the disaster was not so serious yet, Wu Jing was also ready. He knew that at most one or two months, he would have to give alms to the charity porridge. This matter must be prepared in advance. If something is wrong, what kind of face will he have to meet the boss in the future?

Sometimes Wu Jing also wonders, I don’t know if the boss has passed the exam this time, but I think the boss is so smart, so there should be no problem?

Of course, Wu Jing didn't know that Ma Mingfeng not only passed the imperial examination, but also ranked third. Not only that, after this imperial examination, Ma Mingfeng also met many friends, and these people will bring him a lot of help in the future.

Just as the disaster in Nanjing became more and more serious, Ma Mingfeng's life was very comfortable and comfortable. During this period, Ma Mingfeng made friends, attended banquets, visited historical sites, and secretly practiced martial arts and read military books. In this way, Ma Mingfeng not only increased his experience, but also gained considerable improvement in martial arts, but also had more experience in the research of formations.

But Ma Mingfeng sighed in his heart, how many years can such a prosperous scene be preserved? Four years later, the mountains and rivers are broken, and how many people will moan under the iron hooves of the Qing army?

In a blink of an eye, the time for the palace examination was coming. On March 15, 1913, the 296 tribute scholars including Ma Mingfeng came outside the Huangji Hall to take the last undergraduate exam. Because this competition only focuses on rankings and not on elimination, these 296 people will all become Jinshi, just a difference between the first, second and third lists.

This exam only tests one current policy, requiring only pragmatic and erotic words, with more than one thousand words. Emperor Hongwu once gave a personal question, but later it was all the Grand Secretary who pre-programmed the questions and then determined by the emperor.

When Emperor Chongzhen was able to select outstanding talents, he personally set the topic in the seventh year of Chongzhen, talking about some of the current emperors’ bad things, such as how to change the corruption of officials, why the Ming Dynasty could not defeat a small Jurchen, how to support both soldiers and people, etc. As a result, the candidates answered nothing, and even the top scholar Liu Lishun was too stumbled through the shoes, which was specious.

Chongzhen suffered this blow and did not set questions personally in his next subject, that is, Chongzhen for ten years, but the selected talents were even more unsatisfactory.

Chongzhen did not set the questions himself in this exam, but found a few questions from Xue Guoguan, Cai Guoyong and others, and regarded them as undergraduate questions.

Before the examination officially began, as usual, they had to go to the emperor with all civil and military officials. Many tribute scholars were so excited that they didn't know what to do because they could pay their respects to the emperor in person. Ma Mingfeng looked indifferent. The emperor had a maximum of four years of life. He saw him just to build the Southern Ming Dynasty to gain some capital. He lost his own country and caused China to sink for three hundred years. Later, under the threat of the powerful ships, powerful cannons, and he spent another hundred years of humiliation. Therefore, Chongzhen not only felt ashamed of his ancestors, but also the people in the world. Except for the king's integrity of the country, there were few respects.

Because Ma Mingfeng was kneeling in the Danbu outside the hall, and the emperor was in the hall, he could not see what the other party looked like. He only heard the other party's voice a little weak and tired. He just encouraged the candidates according to the convention and then retreated.

After the emperor left, all the civil and military officials also left one after another. At this time, outside the Huangji Hall, the tables were ready. Ma Mingfeng and others sat down on the ground in sequence according to the license plates they had received in advance. Soon after, the test papers were sent and the exam officially began.

Ma Mingfeng looked at the test paper quietly. The questions on the test paper were nothing more than the current national conditions, such as the strategies to control the army, the strategies to safeguard the people, etc. During this exam, Ma Mingfeng tried to restrain himself, and wrote some of his thoughts in his heart, and those who tried not to anger Chongzhen, such as helping the victims and reducing taxes in the disaster area. He believed that his writing was pragmatic advice. Whether it was a Grand Secretary or Chongzhen, it was impossible to put his ranking down so far.
Chapter completed!