In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Zhao Jun spent the whole morning shopping.

The inner city is bustling with people, and it is indeed a prosperous time.

And it’s very big, with tall gates and commercial streets everywhere, and a lot of people coming and going.

He stopped and walked, buying some snacks when he was hungry, and soup and tea when he was thirsty. Almost every few meters he walked, there were various tea shops, snack shops, and restaurants.

He stood on the Qingfeng Bridge and looked at the scenery. A young lady wearing a gauze silk gown passed by with an umbrella, a Confucian scholar holding a folding fan recited poems, and the shouts of a salesman carrying a container echoed in his ears. Everything seemed to be... So peaceful and peaceful.

Even the public security is very good. After shopping for a long time, there were no beggars begging along the street, no disputes between neighbors, and no scoundrels fighting and making trouble. Nothing happened. It was too harmonious.

Cao Xiu has left. After all, he is the envoy of the Imperial City. Although the sphere of influence of the Imperial City Division is only in Bianliang, there are thousands of inspectors in the Imperial City Division. They have to deal with all kinds of information every day. It is impossible to deal with all kinds of information all the time. , so there were only Di Qing and a few of his brothers who had just joined the army and led the team.

As for how many spies are following him, that's another story.

"Xiao Lang, that's the famous Fan Tower in Bianliang. I heard that Fan Tower is the top of the seventy-two buildings in Bianliang. The food, singing and dancing, and the young ladies inside are all top-notch."

Di Qing pointed to a tall building in the distance and said.

Willows are fluttering on the bank of the Golden River, and the tall building is looming among the greenery of the towering trees. It seems that you can vaguely see a beautiful figure flashing by the protruding railing on the third floor.

The most important thing is that this building is said to be just one of the Fan Buildings. Where they can't see it, there are buildings and courtyards, just like a palace.

"Di Qing."

After hearing Di Qing's words, Zhao Jun asked: "Is this lady you are talking about the lady I understand?"

Di Qing scratched his head and said, "I wonder what young lady Xiaolang is talking about?"

"That's it. Forget it, it's okay."

Zhao Jun shook his head.

He actually knew that the title "Miss" probably started from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty.

It has two meanings. Initially, it was called the daughter of a noble person.

However, due to the endless wars in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the families of captured enemy officials were often sent to work as military prostitutes or official courtesans. Gradually, this title naturally changed.

Shi Yu, who was standing next to him, said with a smile, "Why don't you go and see it, young man? There are more than fifty houses with tiled roofs in the alleys and alleys of Dongjiaolou and Maqian Street in Bianliang. Each house has a different style."

"Do you go often?"

Zhao Jun smiled.

"I don't go there very often. How much money do we get from working as errands?"

Shi Yu muttered, despite the fact that the Song Dynasty spent 40 to 50 million guan on the army every year, it seemed like 800,000 forbidden troops plus 400,000 Xiang troops, each person could get more than 40 guan every year.

In fact, it is not bad to get four or five guans every year. After all, these 40 to 50 million guans are sucked and exploited layer by layer, which is less than one out of ten.

"I won't go there if I don't have money. Those places are not the places I want to go. I want to ask, are the outer cities as prosperous as well?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"The outer city is much worse."

Di Qing said: "There are mostly residential buildings over there and there are many people."

"Let's go there and have a look next time."

Zhao Jun looked at the sky. It was already afternoon. According to the agreement, Wang Zeng would come over to teach him how to write today. It was time to go back.

Liu Qing wondered: "Xiao Lang, isn't the inner city fun? We have to go to the outer city."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "The inner city is not the place I want to see. There is only revelry and dissipation here. If you stay in a place like this all day, you will feel that the Song Dynasty is full of singing and dancing, and you can't see the suffering of the world."

"I think people in the inner city are suffering. For example, the inner city is full of fun places, but my pocket is cleaner than my face and I can't play anywhere."

Li Yi pinched his withered money bag. Since he followed Di Qing and was directly transferred from the imperial horse department to the front department of the palace, his income is a bit higher, but not much higher. Moreover, he has to support his wife and children. It is really not possible. How much money is there for them to enjoy.

The brothers thought they were following a big shot, introducing him to some restaurants and singing houses, and that they could follow him to see the world. Little did they know that the big shot was not good at this.

But they didn't know that it wasn't that Zhao Jun didn't want to go. When he passed by a Goulan store, he took a few more glances.

I am more curious about that kind of place.

But some time ago, he was shouting slogans to revitalize the Song Dynasty, but as soon as he left the palace, he went straight to Goulan brothel, which was really outrageous. Moreover, when I have time to visit such a place in the future, although I am curious, I am not impatient.

Zhao Jun visited two markets in the inner city in the morning, and also saw the most prosperous area in the Song Dynasty. It was indeed as Sima Guang said, "the soldiers wear uniforms like soldiers, and the farmers walk on silk shoes."

If the entire Song Dynasty was like this, then the Song Dynasty would be a paradise, a fairyland on earth. Why would he be needed to revitalize it?

It's a pity that along the way, Zhao Jun saw not only singing and dancing, but also the criss-crossing of various cities. There were forbidden troops and government officials on the streets to maintain order, and there were turrets and watchtowers to observe all directions. The public security and business environment were naturally very good.

Is it like this even in the outer city?

The group of people went back home. After Zhao Jun returned home, he went to the study to read.

The study room was filled with books, all of which were classics annotated by great Confucians. He focused on the "Book of Filial Piety" and took a book annotated by Kong Yingda, a great Confucian of the early Tang Dynasty.

At 3:30 p.m., Wang Zeng got off duty and was taken directly to his residence by a bearer. Zhao Jun came out to greet him in person.

The imperial city police officers who were the guards at his house almost stared at him when they saw this scene.

Mr. Wang is actually here?

"Who is this young man? Mr. Wang actually came to visit in person?"

"Who knows? Let's just follow orders."

"It's better not to worry about the matters above."

The leader of the several guards was Zhou Xin, who was a guard in the Detective Department. He sounded like an ordinary government servant, but in fact he was a sixth-grade personal guard with military rank and belonged to the emperor's personal army.

He had long sensed that something was wrong. Although the Imperial City Division was feared by the civil servants, they often sent memorials and shouted for beatings and killings, asking the officials to abolish the yamen.

However, because he was highly relied upon by the officials, the imperial envoy's status was not low. How could an ordinary person be qualified to let him accompany him here? Moreover, Chazi was left as a bodyguard.

Now another gentleman has arrived, which proves that the one inside obviously has a shocking identity. This makes the police officers who were originally sent to stay behind for no reason, as if they were in jail, suddenly became energetic and did their guard work seriously.

Zhao Jun didn't care about them. After all, they had just met on the first day and they were not familiar with each other. He just asked them to do their job well and personally led Wang Zeng into the study.

"Boy Jun, how are you staying here? Are you still used to it?"

Wang Zeng came in and took a look at his house. Although it was a bit small, it was not as good as his Wang family mansion outside Yujiezhou Bridge, but it was close to the palace and it was still easy to get into the palace.

Zhao Jun sorted out his pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and said with a smile: "It's not bad, as long as I have a place to live. I'm from a rural area, so I'm not very picky about places."

"Ah That's good."

Wang Zeng saw that the Book of Filial Piety had been placed on Zhao Jun's desk, and there seemed to be signs of turning it over. He nodded with satisfaction and said, "It seems that you have begun to study the scriptures and its meaning."

"Then what can I do? I ask you guys to help me but you don't help me. I can only learn by myself. I can't bypass the imperial examination. The officials can just canonize me."

Zhao Jun tentatively made a joke.

Wang Zeng's face suddenly became ugly and he said: "Zhao Jun, it's better to take one step at a time and keep your feet on the ground."

"hehe."

Zhao Jun replied with a smile.

"Today I'm going to teach you the writing format. I brought a few papers that I wrote before. You can copy them first and take a look at them to familiarize yourself with this kind of writing."

Wang Zeng came over and took out a few papers from his sleeves.

Zhao Jun took it and scanned it, then prepared a pen and paper, dipped the brush into the newly poured ink in the inkstone, then sat down and started copying.

Wang Zeng frowned when he saw the way he held the pen and said, "Don't you know how to use a pen?"

"It's not that I don't know how, it's just that I haven't used it for a long time and I'm rusty."

Zhao Jun said.

He has learned calligraphy. Now under the compulsory education, calligraphy classes are basically offered in primary schools in ordinary towns as long as they are not in particularly remote rural areas. He has studied calligraphy for three years from the third grade to the sixth grade.

Later, in high school, under the promotion of quality education, liberal arts students also had a calligraphy class every week. Zhao Jun's calligraphy was actually pretty good at that time, and his writing was decent.

The problem is that he hasn't touched a brush in four years of college, so his gestures are naturally not as skillful as before.

"As long as you can write, just take your time."

Wang Zeng nodded, then pointed to the scroll and said: "You see, a policy essay can be divided into three types, namely the head, the head and the end. The head is the beginning of the paper, which can be divided into "start" and "start". The "antiverb", "introduction" and "conclusion" play a role in guiding the meaning of the entire policy topic. As for this policy item."

Zhao Jun used a writing brush to copy Wang Zeng's policies. He stumbled at the beginning. After all, he had not used a writing brush for several years, so he was definitely not as good as before. But I gradually mastered the rhythm, and my handwriting is a bit bad, but I can barely read it, so it’s not a problem.

The imperial examination is not a calligraphy test. Basically, as long as the characters are not too outrageous or so sloppy that the examiner cannot recognize them, and the content is strong enough, you can probably pass.

What Wang Zeng was talking about was the behavioral format for writing policy papers. While listening to his explanation, Zhao Jun felt that it was so familiar.

While copying and listening again, it suddenly occurred to me.

Isn’t this just a composition?

Chinese composition is not just about determining the theme first, then establishing the idea, then explaining the truth, and finally echoing the topic, which is commonly known as the beginning, middle and end.

really.

Writing this stuff has been a routine for thousands of years.

After understanding this writing format as an action, Zhao Jun's mind suddenly became much clearer.

He continued to listen to Wang Zeng's explanation, and his understanding of the strategy theory writing became much deeper.

More than three hours passed like this, and by three-quarters of the hour, which was eight o'clock in the evening, Zhao Jun already had a concept for writing a countermeasure theory.

Now I just need to deepen my understanding, learn to use the tone of the ancients and a few traditional Chinese characters that need to be used, and pick up the calligraphy again, and I can probably write a policy essay.

"These are some key points of policy essays. It seems that you are learning very quickly. There are still more than twenty days left for the Lixiang Examination. Tomorrow I will ask someone to bring over some more policy essays that I wrote back then. You can imitate them and write them first. Write your own policy essay within ten days.”

Wang Zeng saw that Zhao Jun understood very quickly and already had a certain understanding of strategy theory writing. He couldn't help but sigh that the people of later generations are really smart. He could understand at a glance what he had learned for a long time.

Little did he know that Zhao Jun's college entrance examination essay score was 58, which was only 2 points short of a full score. The reason for deducting points was lack of time. He wrote too hastily and made two typos.

"Thank you, prince. I don't know where the prince's house is. I will pay him a visit next time."

Zhao Jun stopped writing in his hand.

He has regained some form now, and his handwriting is much better than at the beginning.

Wang Zeng said casually: "It's on the side of the Drum Tower on Royal Street, not far from Xiangguo Temple. The scenery there is nice, and it's right on the edge of the Bian River."

"Is it that wealthy compound covering an area of ​​dozens of acres?"

"Yes."

"The prince's family is really rich."

"Haha, we are all the same, an ordinary family, at most the house is a bit bigger."

Wang Zeng thought that Zhao Jun disliked him for living in a hut, and he felt a little unbalanced because he lived in a mansion, so he dealt with it.

"hehe."

Zhao Jun also smiled in return.

After a while, the sky darkened, and Wang Zeng left.

Zhao Jun returned to the room. Now that he finally had his own private space, he began to think carefully.

In fact, recently, he has been testing the bottom line of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty.

When he had just traveled through time, he did wonder whether Zhao Zhen would directly give him an official position.

After all, only those with official positions have the power to give orders directly, otherwise they can only give instructions to that group of people indirectly.

The problem is that future reforms will target the removal of these scholar-bureaucrats. King Lu Yijian, Zeng and the others belong to this group, so how can they kill themselves?

Therefore, if he does not serve as an official and promotes innovation, he will still end up like Wang Anshi. The execution at the lower level will not be in place, and it will end in disgrace.

Only by entering officialdom and gathering a group of like-minded people, such as Fan Zhongyan, can we accumulate strength and defeat this group of stubborn conservatives.

But when he heard that Zhao Zhen was just a Jinshi, he knew that he was overthinking.

Neither the Emperor of the Song Dynasty nor the officials of the Song Dynasty would allow a person who had not even participated in the imperial examination to directly enter the officialdom and occupy a high position.

Although there is a saying of Men Yin, they also have the bottom line, that is, people who join the officialdom in Men Yin cannot become the highest-level officials.

For example, Xia Song's father was a martyr. He relied on this to become an official and was recommended by Prime Minister Li Hang. He only became a civil servant from a young military attache to a civil servant. After that, he had to take the imperial examination to be promoted.

Therefore, if a person who has never participated in the imperial examination is directly sent into the officialdom, this in itself is a provocation to the entire scholar-official class, and will be discriminated against and opposed.

So from the beginning, Zhao Zhen and the others wanted Zhao Jun to go through a process, take part in the imperial examination, and then be granted a Jinshi status after he failed.

Zhao Jun does not object to this.

Knowing that it would be difficult to forcefully enter an official position without relying on the imperial examination, he could only follow the rules of the Song Dynasty first. Otherwise, it would be a bit overestimating one's capabilities to face the huge class of scholar-bureaucrats just after traveling through time.

This can be considered as doing as the Romans do, and integrating into their rules first, understanding their rules, and then breaking their rules.

Otherwise, forcibly breaking it from the outside would easily trigger a counterattack by the entire scholar-bureaucrat class.

The problem is that Zhao Jun needs the right to speak and understand their bottom line. Naturally, he must strive for his own interests. How can he get a Jinshi background and become a person at the bottom of the officialdom?

So he also had his own request, which was to need Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others to open the back door. In addition to fighting for the right to speak, he was also looking to see if these people would agree.

As long as he agrees, then he will have a high starting point for becoming an official, and it is reasonable for him to be promoted quickly.

At the same time, it also proved that Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others really wanted to reform and spared no effort to help themselves, hoping that they could bring prosperity to the Song Dynasty.

But at present, it is obvious that they still have their own positions and interests, and they are not willing to let Zhao Jun go so fast and cling to the bottom line.

There was nothing Zhao Jun could do for the time being. He was not stupid enough to continue to fight with them.

But he always felt that something was wrong.

For example, Lu Yijian and the others had been saying from the beginning that only by entering the officialdom can one understand the officialdom. They should obviously support their entry into officialdom, so why should they set up certain obstacles?

Moreover, when Zhao Zhen gave himself the same background as a Jinshi, it was Lu Yijian and others who had been persuading him to agree.

The truth is that this is correct, but they seem to want to get themselves into official positions through the imperial examination, but they also don't want to let themselves get in so easily. Is there any conspiracy in this?

Or do they not want reform?

Probably not.

I have told them so much, don’t they know what will happen if they don’t reform?

So they should support themselves?

Are you thinking too much?

It seems so.

After all, what they said does make sense, and the power of Song Dynasty officials was truly top-notch.

What the emperor had was military power and the power to remove officials. The rest of the governance, political, and judicial powers were all in their hands.

Therefore, only being an official can lead to reform.

It's just that taking the imperial examination and becoming an official will delay it too much. It may be decades before I really take power.

certainly.

Maybe we can control power through Lu Yijian and others.

Forget it, think about these things later.

Now I still think about the way to go in the future.

"Today I watched Bianliang's singing and dancing for a long time, but I only saw the stinky wine and meat of Zhumen. I didn't see anyone freezing to death on the road. But Wang Zeng, Lu Yijian and his family's house is really big."

"These guys are all clean and honest, and they are not corrupt, but they get a salary equivalent to several million every month. In addition, their families run businesses and live in mansions of dozens of acres. They are so happy."

"The annual salary of a first-rank minister in the Qing Dynasty was only 180 taels. These guys get 20,000 to 30,000 guan a year, which is more than 100 times that of ministers of the same level in the Qing Dynasty. It's really outrageous."

"Even if it is cut in half, it can save a lot of money for the redundant officials in the Song Dynasty. It is estimated that there must be tens of millions of guan."

"Yeah."

"First pass the imperial examination. If you fail, you can only use Lao Fan as a gun."

Zhao Jun raised his head and saw the bright moon outside through the window on the right side of the study.

Thinking to himself.

When I pass the exam, I will start with you first. I will cut your salary!