August 15th, Mid-Autumn Festival.

The festive atmosphere of this era is very strong, especially for officials who are in a "foreign land", they pay special attention to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is even more grand than the Spring Festival.

As night falls, the lantern festival in the Drum Tower in the north of the city is held as scheduled, and the official residences in the south of the city are also brightly lit. The thousands of houses in Beijing depict a scene of peace and prosperity.

The same is true for the Wu Mansion located in the small Yongfang. There are festive red lanterns hung in front of the door, but the lights are brightly lit inside, making it seem a bit more lively than before.

Whether it was the Wu Huashou family in the capital, Lin Haoran as his son-in-law, or other relatives of the Wu family, they all flocked to the Wu Mansion.

A full moon hung high in the sky, and wisps of pure white moonlight fell like mercury on the ground. The entire backyard was like daylight, illuminating the scenery here clearly.

In the pavilion, there is a stone table exposed to the moonlight. There are mooncakes, fruit plates, preserves and tea on the table.

Wu Shan and Lin Haoran were sitting opposite each other, and Wu Huashou showed his face and left voluntarily. He was a businessman after all, and he had just reminisced with Wu Shan, but he couldn't continue to disturb the couple's discussion.

The recent situation in the DPRK has been relatively stable, with all parties showing restraint.

Even the most restless Yang Bo, after learning that the Mongolian cavalry was suddenly ready to move outside the pass, had already focused his energy on strengthening the defense.

As for the Xu Party and the Zhejiang Party, although there are some minor frictions between the two parties, they are still restrained, mainly in the competition for local governorships or official positions in the salt administration system.

Wu Shan took a sip of tea from his cup, but suddenly he said: "There are mountains behind the village, which are evergreen all year round; there are bamboos beside the village, which are growing every day; there is a river in front of the village, which never dries up in the cold and heat.

"The village has a bright king, Jiajing, the lord of the ages!"

After so many years of officialdom training, Lin Haoran couldn't help but blush slightly when he heard these explicit words.

These words were the answer he gave to Jiajing when he asked about his hometown when he won the first prize in the past, making Changlin Village seem lively and flattering.

Time flies, and the years fly by. He has also gone from the little passionate scholar in the past to the high-ranking Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites of this dynasty after so many years of hard work.

Wu Shan did not mean to laugh at Lin Haoran, but said seriously: "When I heard your remarks at the beginning, I felt that you were too cunning, and I actually didn't like it. But when I took a closer look later, I found that you could be so concise.

Summarizing the style of my hometown, I must have the hometown in my heart, and the people should not be too bad!"

Having said this, he raised his head and glanced at Lin Haoran, but Lin Haoran touched his nose awkwardly. If he had chosen to hug Xu Jie's thigh, he might not be where he is now.

Wu Shan looked at the blue and white lotus pattern on the tea cup, then raised his head and looked at Lin Haoran and asked: "Ruoyu, do you want to go back to your hometown to take a look now?"

Lin Haoran was not too wary of Wu Shan, so he answered honestly: "My son-in-law occasionally dreams about his hometown. He actually wants to go back and have a look, but he also knows that he can't go back!"

Not to mention that Shicheng is thousands of miles away from the capital. Now he is already the left minister of the Ministry of Rites. He has never thought that an official of his level would fake it and go home to visit relatives.

The Ministry of Rites is the most leisurely yamen among the six departments, but in fact it has to deal with a myriad of affairs. Not to mention the autumn and spring festivals that occur every three years, there are also endless celebrations and sacrifices on weekdays.

If Lin Haoran wants to return to Shicheng now, he will either be dismissed from office by the court, or he will "resign and return to his hometown", but either one is not a good outcome.

"Yes, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to go back!" Wu Shan put down the tea cup with the blue and white lotus pattern, and said with deep emotion: "I won the title of "Taihuahua" in the 14th year of Jiajing. I was thirty-five years old that year.

It was that year when I took leave and went back to my hometown. It has been nearly thirty years now, but I have never been able to go back. I have been working as an official in the capital! Everyone envies being an official, but they don’t know that we are also suffering in our hearts!"

The word "bitter" appears to be sincere and does not have the slightest hint of hypocrisy.

Lin Haoran knew that this cheap father-in-law was not too obsessed with power. At least he was much more indifferent than Yan Song and Xu Jie, but he concluded bitterly: "In officialdom, you can't help yourself!"

"In officialdom, one has no control over one's own actions. This is a very insightful saying!" Wu Shan glanced at Lin Haoran approvingly, ate a candied fruit, and then continued: "There is also a small river in front of my hometown. I still remember the heavy rain every year.

Sometimes, the wooden bridge will always be flooded!"

"The one in front of my village is an arch bridge. It will not be flooded by floods, but every time there is a flood, the rice fields will be flooded! Huniu likes this kind of weather very much, because there will be many fish running into the rice fields to wait for the water.

If you retreat, you can catch fish in the fields!" Lin Haoran's thoughts also returned to Changlin Village, and he ate preserves with Wu Shan and said with a smile.

Wu Shan found that Lin Haoran seemed particularly energetic when talking about his sister, but he said calmly: "I heard that you were quite down and out, and you once went to the mountains to cut firewood to make a living?"

"Yes, we are forced by life! In the past, my sister and I depended on each other for life. After some hard days, we could feel the poverty of ordinary people!" Lin Haoran recalled those days and seemed quite emotional.

Wu Shan picked up the tea cup with the blue and white lotus pattern again, but changed the topic and said: "It's not an easy journey for you, but you are also the boss, so you have to think about your Lin family!"

"Our Lin family?" Lin Haoran's brows immediately furrowed and he raised his head in confusion.

Wu Shan took a sip of tea and emphasized to Lin Haoran seriously: "There are three types of unfilial piety, the worst is not having an heir!"

At the age of seventeen, Lin Haoran became the top scholar in high school and became an official. Now he is the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and he has won great official reputation. He can be said to be the big winner in life.

But by the standards of this era, Lin Haoran has one thing that is criticized: he still has no heirs.

If this kind of thing were placed in later generations, a 23-year-old young man without children would be a normal thing, but in today's Ming Dynasty, it is out of place, and it is a manifestation of unfilial piety.

Especially with his current official position, he can already have a wife and a cute child, but because he has no heirs, he has wasted this favor.

"I will work hard!" Lin Haoran reached out and touched his nose and responded awkwardly.

Wu Shan seemed to be well prepared. He took out a prescription from his wide cuff and said, "This is the prescription I got from Dr. Li. You can take it now!"

Lin Haoran rejected this matter from the bottom of his heart, but facing his father-in-law and teacher, he had no choice but to accept the medicine and agree perfunctorily.

What happened was a bit unexpected for him. In his previous life, he was forced to get married, but in this life, he was forced to have a baby.

In fact, it's not that he doesn't want to have a baby, but that he always feels that there is no need to worry about this matter, and he doesn't know why Wu Qiuyu and Hua Yingrong never get pregnant.

However, the medical science of this era was not developed enough, and he was not sure whether he was suffering from infertility or just not pregnant yet.

Wu Shan thought that Lin Haoran was afraid, so he comforted him and said, "You don't need to be too nervous. Yan Ge was only thirty-three when he had a son, and Yan Shifan was only thirty-three when he gave birth to Yan Shaoqing. You are still young now!" At this point!

He seemed to feel something was wrong, so he added: "Of course, this matter cannot be delayed any longer. Having no heirs is the greatest unfilial piety!"

In fact, he didn't want to talk about this matter, but Lin Haoran's parents were no longer here, and his wife was always complaining about it, so he had no choice but to take action in person.

"My son-in-law, I sincerely respect your teachings!" Lin Haoran lowered his head and accepted the teachings.

Wu Shan nodded lightly, but no longer talked about this matter, but instead talked about the upcoming Shuntian Provincial Examination.

After the setback in reforming the sectarian system, Lin Haoran still did not settle down, but he reformed the Shuntian Rural Examination. This was not only reflected in the selection criteria of the examiners of the Rural Examination, but also in the reform of the admitted students.

Since the Song Dynasty, the supervisors of the Imperial College have been active on the historical stage and are also an important cradle of imperial officials.

The Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty was founded when Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty first settled in Jinling, and it was renamed the Imperial College as the Imperial Academy. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang established the capital in Nanjing, rebuilt the school building at the foot of Jiming Mountain, and renamed it the Imperial College.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were four categories of prison students: jujian, tribute prison, shadow prison, and routine prison.

To be promoted to the imperial examination refers to the candidates who participated in the imperial examination and were selected by the Hanlin Academy to be sent to the Imperial Academy as learners.

"Gongjian" means to be admitted to prison based on the contribution of talents. In the early days of Hongwu, it was stipulated that every school in the prefectures and counties in the world would select one student every year to study in the Imperial Academy. Later, the quota was slightly changed, but because the standards for selecting students as tribute were in vain,

As a result, only those who have been eating and drinking for a long time are prioritized.

In the past, some older and less educated people were sent to the prisons to study, so the performance of the prison students was poor. During the Xiaozong period, in addition to the regular tributes in each prefecture and county, another tribute was selected every three or five years, and those who passed the exam were selected.

Young and promising people who are excellent in both academics and conduct are selected to study in the Imperial College.

Yinjian refers to students who are children of third-grade officials or above or children of honorary relatives who study in prison.

Regular prison means that due to the vacancy of prison students or the lack of funds due to state affairs, the common people pay millet to the government and allow their children to study in prison, so it is also called people's livelihood.

There are too many Imperial College students who have not passed the boy examination, and their qualifications are also mixed. Of course, there are talented young men and gangsters among them, but there are also some stupid people. The overall quality is worrying.

Starting from the first year of Hongxi's reign in the Ming Dynasty, the rural examinations were conducted in a manner that determined admission quotas by province. In order to take care of some special groups, the imperial court adopted the method of numbering fonts from the Ming Dynasty to give these groups special care.

Among the examination papers of the Shuntian Township Examination, there are specially compiled examination papers with the font size "San" to distinguish the candidates from Beizhili and Imperial College. The examiners will admit thirty-five candidates from the examination papers with the font size "San".

The number of students admitted to the Shuntian Provincial Examination is 135, which is much higher than the 75 in Guangdong. However, 35 of the places are actually reserved for the Imperial College students.

Following the similar approach of "false nationality", students from all over the country are eager to enter the Imperial College, which is reflected in the preferential treatment they receive when they take the provincial examinations in the two capitals.

The same is true. The examination of the Imperial College is essentially an internal examination of the Imperial College.

Although they took the examination at Shuntian Gongyuan along with the students from Northern Zhili, the admission standards were completely different, creating an unfair imperial examination phenomenon.

However, there are always gains and losses. Those who have passed the imperial examination have always been looked down upon by others, and those who enter the official career will be ostracized and suppressed by officials.

It's just that this is an unfair imperial examination phenomenon after all, but it is strongly opposed by scholars all over the world. In every year of great competition, there will be some voices of opposition in the two capitals.

In fact, things are better here in Beijing. The opposition voices of Nanjing scholars will be more intense, and they will even get together to write petitions to the court every year during the competition.

Among the previous competitions in the rural examinations, the competition in Yingtian rural examinations can be described as fierce.

Since they were located in a prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty, the number of students who could take part in the provincial examinations was already higher than that of those from other provinces. Naturally, they were able to easily trample on the vast majority of the students in Nanjing Imperial College.

Incidentally, it was precisely because of the preferential treatment given by the imperial court to the Imperial College graduates that many of the Imperial College graduates whose standards were below them were promoted, and the voices among the scholars for the abolition of this privilege became increasingly louder.

Although Lin Haoran experienced the setbacks of the vassal regulations, he still wanted to do more for this decadent dynasty.

When it became clear that Gao Gong was not in the Ministry of Rites, Wai Lang Longchi, a member of the Department of Ceremonies and Ceremonies of the Ministry of Rites, came up with a proposal. After doing some ideological work with Li Chunfang, he finally sent the plan directly to the cabinet.

When the plan reached the cabinet, Xu Jie could not stand up to oppose it due to his status as a Southern Zhili person, so he finally chose to hand it over to Yuan Wei, his second assistant.

Although Yuan Wei did not involve the interests of his hometown, he was a proud and arrogant person, and he did not like this unfair imperial examination phenomenon, so the plan was successfully passed by the cabinet.

Jiajing was concentrating on cultivating the mysteries and didn't seem to care about this kind of thing at all. He even agreed to the proposal and directly agreed to the reform proposal.

After learning that their privileges as supervisors had been deprived, the Imperial College supervisors in the two capitals naturally objected. However, most of the supervisors who jumped out to oppose were mediocre people, and they had to face the obstruction of the scholars in the two capitals, but they were unable to change.

This is a new rule for the imperial court.

It is for this reason that this Shuntian Provincial Examination is different from the past. The privileges of the Imperial College are exempted, allowing them to compete with the candidates of Shuntian Prefecture.

The night is getting darker, and the full moon hangs high in the sky.

Wu Shan finally warned: "I know what you want to do, but now many people actually hope that you will make a big mistake. As long as you do things, you will inevitably make mistakes. Your master fell here! Now I am in the court.

I can still take care of you for a while, but I will eventually retire. You must learn to hide your strength and bide your time, and learn more about Xu Huating's way of being an official! However, if you are successful in your career in the future, you must not forget the original intention of cultivating Qi Zhiping today.

Just beg for the people like you are doing right now!"

"My son-in-law will never forget it!" Lin Haoran assured Wu Shan with a long bow.

Wu Shan felt a little sleepy, so he got up and left.

Lin Haoran did not stay and left Wu Mansion under the moonlight.
Chapter completed!