Be a small county magistrate in ancient times

Qi Renli adjusted his sitting position and nodded to Meng Changqing, "I am narrow-minded."

"I was born in the Meng Mansion. I have a famous father and brother, and a mother who has ardent expectations. I am afraid of making mistakes every step I take. Even though I am so cautious, I still inevitably get false rumors, and my life is not happy."

Meng Changqing took the teapot from the waiter's hand, stood up and poured a cup of tea for Qi Renli, "Brother Qi, judging from your behavior, the family should not be worried about money. Since you want to enter the court and have already passed the imperial examination, why not spend some money?" You can find a stable job with money, and you can save yourself the trouble of going to the official department and being looked down upon."

"I have had this thought too." Qi Liren said, "But to tell you the truth, although my family has a little money, it's not to the point where we don't have to worry about money.

I was not the only one in my family who was studying for the exams. My cousins ​​also pointed out the family property and asked me how I could not give my personal money to Shangguan.

Besides..." At this point, Qi Liren smiled bitterly, "Furthermore, if I really do this, how is it any different from buying an official position? Why do I have to study hard for decades to get to this day. "

"Indeed." Meng Changqing greatly agreed, "If you take a step further, you may fail to live up to yesterday's fighting spirit, and if you take a step back, you will be so frustrated now. Brother Qi is really in a dilemma."

Qi Liren didn't expect that the person in front of him could understand him so well. The more he looked at Meng Changqing, the more he felt like a belated confidant in his life.

"Yes! It's really difficult!" Qi Liren sighed and shook his head, "Hey, if I were left to myself, it wouldn't matter if I didn't do it, but I spent my family's money to get to this point.

My family expects me to be successful, but they also know that my ranking in the palace examination is not high, so they don't expect me to have a high official position. They only hope to have a foothold in the government offices of the capital.

Unfortunately, I can't even do this. "

"Drink tea, drink tea." Meng Changqing waited for him to drink half of the cup and immediately gave him another cup, "Brother Qi, don't be too demanding on yourself. There are only so many official positions in the imperial court, especially in the capital. When you are an official under the imperial city, knowledge is just one thing." aspect, what’s more important is luck.”

"Luck?" Qi Liren put down the tea cup, "How do you say this?"

"Let me first ask, in the last palace examination, there were people who were born as Jinshi like you, are there any who have become officials now?"

"Have."

"Among those people, are there any who stay in the capital and serve as officials?"

"Yes, there are a few who have entered the Sixth Department Yamen. Although they are only in the eighth grade or from the eighth grade, they are much better than me."

"Those people must be better educated than you? Must their moral character be nobler than yours? Are their families must be wealthier than yours?" Qiliren thought about it and said, "That's not the case. Some people are not as knowledgeable as me, some people borrow money and don't repay it, and some people have mediocre families. .”

Meng Changqing continued: "But they have become officials. This does not mean that you are inferior to them. It only means that their luck seems to be better than yours at the moment."

Qi Liren nodded, "Maybe so."

"Brother Qi, since you have mediocre luck on this path, why don't you take another path?"

"Why change your path? Not to be an official?"

"Don't be an official in the capital." Meng Changqing said, "Although local officials are not as good as capital officials, as long as you are an official, you are different from the people. Even if you, as a local official, try your best in your life and cannot enter the capital, as long as you are in the official position If nothing goes wrong, as long as your child is willing to study hard, it will be easier for him to take scientific exams and become an official in the future than it is for you."

"I have never thought about what you said before." Qi Liren said, "I only thought about myself. Because I was not married yet, I never thought about my children. I didn't expect that Master Meng, who is younger than me, could actually Think of that.”

"Once a person gets into trouble, his way of looking at the problem will be single."

Qi Renli agreed again, "Indeed, thank you Master Meng for your advice."

"How these few words of mine are accurate is up to you to think up. In fact, I don't have much to say, and given a little more time, Brother Qi will think of this himself." Meng Changqing answered quickly, "But... …”

After her final tone was slightly longer, Qi Liren followed closely and asked, "But what?"

"I have another question, what do people do when they are officials?"

Qi Liren: "Huh?"

"Brother Qi, why do you want to be an official?"

"Of course it's for the glory of the family."

"Isn't it for the common people?" Meng Changqing pointed to the writing brush Qi Renli put down at the corner of the table, "The same pen, in the hands of a scholar, is just a pen. It is a pen that memorizes the principles of the sages and writes one's own articles. It is always one's own. Things have nothing to do with the people. But if it is in the hands of politicians, every word written is closely related to the people." (End of Chapter)