Rise From the Humble

"Brother Xu, I hope Brother Xu will not refuse these fifty taels of silver. I hope Brother Xu can prepare for the exam carefully and not distract himself from the daily necessities. In fact, Ping An should have given out more silver taels, but Ping An is responsible. To organize the army and lead the militia to fight against the Japanese, it costs countless money and food. It is really powerless. I hope Brother Xu will not dislike it."

After drinking and eating, Zhu Pingan took out a fifty-tael silver note from his sleeve, handed it to Xu Wei with both hands, and said seriously.

"How could it be possible? How could it be possible?" Xu Wei didn't mean to refuse at all. He immediately stretched out his greasy paws and took away the banknote from Zhu Pingan's hand. His small eyes narrowed into a slit when he smiled.

Seeing Xu Wei taking away the silver notes without being polite at all, Liu Dadao was heartbroken. He knew that all Zhu Ping'an's money had been invested in military expenditures, and these fifty taels of silver were the only emergency money left.

"Brother Xu, before we say goodbye, I would like to say one more word to you. I hope Brother Xu won't be surprised." Zhu Ping'an cupped his hands and said.

"As long as you don't want the fifty taels of silver back, you can say whatever you want." Xu Wei stuffed the fifty taels of silver notes deep into his arms, then waved his hands and said with a generous smile on his fat face.

"Ping'an is actually a repetitive person." Zhu Ping'an said in a dumbfounded voice.

"Haha, it's okay if you just say it." Xu Wei grinned.

"Brother Xu may not like to hear this, but Ping An still has to say it. I hope Brother Xu will pay attention." Zhu Ping'an cupped his hands and reminded Xu Wei, "In the imperial examination, the most important thing is the eight-legged essay. The eight-legged essay is the most important thing. , it is about interpreting the meaning of the scriptures and speaking on behalf of the saints. There must be no opinions that deviate from the sacred teachings and the Four Books and Five Classics. Brother Xu’s understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics is far beyond ordinary people, but he still needs to restrain himself in the imperial examination. Don’t disagree with the sage’s views or contradict the sage’s will.”

All in all, in short, Zhu Pingan wanted to remind Xu Wei not to bring personal belongings during the imperial examination.

The fundamental reason why Xu Wei failed in the imperial examination was that his thinking was too advanced and contradicted the words of Confucius and Mencius and other saints.

Maybe he didn't even notice it during the exam, or maybe he noticed it, but didn't control his thoughts; maybe he noticed it, and controlled it, but couldn't hide it between the lines. No matter what the reason is, if you include something private in the imperial examination, you will still get a zero score no matter how good your essay is.

Since Xu Wei is now focused on taking the imperial examination, Zhu Pingan, as a friend, has the responsibility and obligation to remind Xu Wei, asking him to pay attention and pay attention again, be careful and be careful, and not make similar problems again.

"Haha, this is the most basic point of eight-part essay. Of course I know it." Xu Wei couldn't help laughing when he heard this, with a familiar expression on his face. He thought Zhu Pingan was going to say something, but he didn't expect this.

"I hope Brother Xu will remember it." After Zhu Pingan repeatedly warned him, he said goodbye to Xu Wei and left.

"Okay, okay, remember, remember."

Behind Zhu Pingan, Xu Wei waved his hand perfunctorily, not taking Zhu Pingan's words to heart at all.

Even though I had taken the imperial examination, I still knew this.

How could I, Xu Wei, make such a simple mistake? I, Xu Wei, understand the meaning of the saint very well.

In fact, Zhu Ping'an was already tipsy when he came out of Xu Wei's house. After all, his drinking capacity was not very good. Although the alcohol content of the rice wine was a little lower, Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but get tipsy after drinking five or six glasses of wine with Xu Wei.

Walking back on the street, it was already dusk. The sun had already set, and there was only the afterglow in the western sky. The breeze was blowing, which was very cool, and it made Zhu Ping'an's slightly warm face feel much better.

"Japanese pirates invaded Taizhou again. They sailed for several miles, attacked cities and towns, killed and captured residents, and the local people were devastated."

"No, it's too tragic. I heard that one county was attacked by Japanese pirates, and the county magistrate was killed."

At this moment, people were coming and going on the street, and suddenly the voices of people passing by on the roadside reached Zhu Pingan's ears.

Japanese pirates invaded Taizhou again, and the county seat was captured

After these keywords reached Zhu Pingan's ears, Zhu Pingan suddenly broke into a cold sweat and his drunkenness disappeared.

"Brother, I'm sorry, do you know what the situation is in Jingnan County?"

Zhu Pingan broke out in a cold sweat and quickly caught up with the passers-by, apologizing and asking eagerly.

Zhu Ping'an had just come from Jingnan to take up his post. He had been a county magistrate in Jingnan for such a long time. His feelings for Jingnan were not ordinary deep, and his feelings for the people of Jingnan were not ordinary deep either. He could not help but care about him and he would be in trouble.

"Jingnan? Little brother, I'm sorry, I don't know Jingnan's situation. I just heard about it."

"have no idea."

Several pedestrians shook their heads, not knowing Jingnan's situation.

"What are the counties that were attacked just now?" Zhu Pingan asked again.

"It seems to be Linhai or Taiping. I don't remember it very clearly. We heard it through hearsay. If you really want to know, I suggest you go to the teahouse in front and ask. That's where we heard about it."

The pedestrian replied.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Zhu Pingan thanked them with his hands.

People are a little selfish to some extent. When he heard passers-by say that the county that was breached was Linhai County or Taiping County, Zhu Pingan felt sorry for the two counties, and he also breathed a little sigh of relief. It was not Jingnan. Fortunately, it wasn't. Jingnan

After thanking the passerby, Zhu Ping'an took Liu Mu and Liu Dadao to the teahouse directed by the passerby - Yihuchun Teahouse.

Zhu Pingan entered the teahouse and found that there were many people in the teahouse. In the middle of the table was the storyteller, who was talking about what happened to Taizhou. Zhu Ping'an borrowed ten cents from Liu Mu and ordered a pot of the cheapest tea. The three of them sat there and listened to Mr. Shu's talk.

After listening for about a cup of tea, Zhu Ping'an almost understood the situation of the Japanese invasion in Taizhou.

The Japanese pirates who invaded Taizhou this time were Chen Dong, the big leader under Wang Zhi. He seduced and gathered nearly 10,000 Japanese pirates to invade eastern Zhejiang. They landed in Xiangshan and Zhoushan, Zhejiang. Taizhou was not their only destination. After landing, they divided their forces. Four groups of bandits invaded Taizhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing. This time, the Japanese pirates committed a robbery, a passing robbery. The attack area was wide and the impact was great. However, they did not focus on attacking the city, and the attack was only a trial attack. Linhai County was more unlucky. Under the Japanese pirates' tentative attack, the county seat was captured and the county magistrate was killed.

Zhu Pingan specifically asked the storyteller how the situation in Jingnan was. The storyteller only knew that Jingnan was the county with the least casualties in Taizhou. As for the specific casualties, he did not know.

Although he didn't know the specific casualties in Jingnan, Zhu Pingan breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Jingnan was the county with the least damage. Zhou Tai did not let him down.