Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 213: Mid-term Exam Questions
"Lord Teng, I came here to ask you how many people you want."

The tomboy who had spoken to Xia Lin before was sitting in the first position that Prince Teng would attack. The prince was sitting there with a sleepy look on his face. After hearing what she said, he mumbled, "Which one do you want?"

"You have Cen Wenben, who is in charge of commerce, and some officials who have been in charge of expanding trade routes. I wonder if Prince Teng can give up Cen Wenben, the main one?"

"Hmm?" The prince was suddenly excited. "That won't work. I'm short of people here. How about I recommend someone to you? I knew someone called Xu Jingzong a few days ago. He's also a good talent. It just so happens that he's now a county magistrate. It wouldn't be bad for you to hire him."

When the word "county magistrate" was mentioned, the tomboy looked a little disgusted. The prince saw her like that and said, "Hey, Li's girl, don't look down on me. I'm the county magistrate in Fuliang. I wouldn't give it to ordinary people if they wanted it."

"Really? The county magistrate of Fuliang?"

Now, apart from anything else, the word "Fuliang" is a golden signboard in the business world. Any businessman passing by who says he has a shop in Fuliang will have a business that is 30% better than that of other merchants in the same industry. This is known to everyone in the country.

"Just a county magistrate..."

"Almost done." Prince Teng waved his hand: "How about I give you their county magistrate?"

"Really?" The girl's eyes lit up at that moment: "Really give it to me?"

Prince Teng's expression twisted at that moment. He knew that these soldiers were not to be joked with, but who knew that they were so serious about it.

"You should think about it. Would you do it in exchange for your Xuanjia Army with the Fuliang County Magistrate? Pingyang, you are almost the same person. Why do you just open your mouth and say so?"

"Change!"

"No!" The prince no longer cared about the dignity of his elders: "He is still my son-in-law!"

"Change your son-in-law. I'll give you my second brother. I'll let my second brother divorce the eldest grandson's daughter."

"do not want!"

For the first time, Prince Teng felt that he had met his nemesis. He shouldn't have mentioned that. He sighed helplessly: "Why did you come all the way here to exploit me?"

"Poor. The four provinces in the north combined are not as rich as one province in the south. The people in the north also need to eat and live a good life."

"That won't work. It's good enough to give you a county magistrate position." The prince waved his hand and said, "Forget about the county magistrate position."

"I want another 100,000 kilograms of lard."

"Why don't you ask your father to raise an army to rob me?" The prince slapped his thigh and said, "You really dare to ask for it."

"Then you can have 100,000 kilograms of oil, any kind of oil. I'll trade it with you for coal."

"Hmm?" The prince was startled, then looked up at her: "Doing business? Not for nothing?"

"It's not in vain."

The prince slapped his thigh again and said, "Why didn't you say so earlier? Wait, I'll send someone to talk to you."

About half an hour later, Cen Benwen came in. He quickly got in touch with Princess Pingyang, but after talking for a long time, Princess Pingyang went to the villa to rest, and Cen Benwen came out with sweat on his forehead.

"How is it?" Prince Teng asked curiously.

"No, this Princess Pingyang is very powerful, I can't handle her." Cen Wenben smacked his lips and said, "Although she speaks very straightforwardly, she knows what's going on in her mind. Our profits have been squeezed to an extremely thin level by her. We can't make any money. This deal is not cost-effective. We still have to pay for the shipping fee. By the time we calculate it, we will have lost a lot of money."

Prince Teng paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. "It's obvious that Li Yuan gave me some support when I was suppressing the rebellion, and now he lets her come and blackmail us. This family is cunning and treacherous."

“She’s really amazing.”

"Then what should we do? Calculate how much you will lose. If it's not much, just give in."

Cen Wenben pursed his lips and said, "She not only wants 100,000 kilograms of oil, but also food, armor, and weapons. They provided us so much at the time, and now they want us to return it. She also wants to exchange coal for silk, meat, food, and dogs."

"dog?"

"Yeah, a dog." Cen Wenben was also scratching his head: "I don't know why they want to change the dog, but they just want to change the dog."

At this moment, a figure flashed at the door, and then a head popped out: "Hey... the prince is here."

You don't even need to look at who it is, as soon as you hear the voice you know which deity has come, and there is no one else in the world who can do such a thing.

"Lord Xia." Cen Wenben bowed.

"Oh, Jingren is here too." Xia Lin was holding something in his hand, which he had obviously bought on the way. He was as insincere as he could be: "I'm here to take the kids to the exam. I'm passing by the palace, so I came to take a look. Are Qianqian and the second brother here? I'll go play with them."

Xia Lin put down his things and was about to leave. Walking through the palace was no big deal. The guards at the door had long stopped him and would even greet him as "Hello, Prince Consort" when they met. Why? Because Xia Lin was the first person in the dynasty to be granted marriage by imperial decree. The moment the imperial decree was stamped, they became legal husband and wife, and basically, unless Xia Lin committed an unforgivable crime, this marriage could not be divorced.

Therefore, there is no point in stopping him and it will only make himself uncomfortable. The palace is like his home, he can come and go as he pleases.

"You, wait a moment."

The prince took two steps at a time and grabbed Xia Lin by the back of his neck. Xia Lin turned around and looked at him: "Huh?"

"Don't leave in a hurry."

The prince dragged him to the front of the hall and said, "Tomorrow you and Jingren will go to take care of something together."

"what's up?"

"Alas..." The prince sighed and sat there and said, "When the King of Lingnan rebelled before, I borrowed some equipment and armor from Li Yuan. Now he is asking me for it."

"Give it to him. Why don't you return something you borrowed from someone?"

"How can you talk like that?" The prince kicked Xia Lin on the buttocks and said, "Speak properly."

"It has been said since ancient times that if you kill someone, you must pay with your life, and if you owe someone money, you must pay it back... Don't do it!" Xia Lin took two steps back: "What can I do if I owe someone something?"

"Master Xia, please listen to me and I will explain it to you in detail."

Cen Wenben told Xia Lin everything. Xia Lin was stunned at that moment: "What? Exchange coal for so many things? There is gold in his coal? No way!"

"Things are not that simple." The prince sighed deeply: "It's all about human relationships here~~"

Xia Lin thought about it for a while, nodded and said, "Yes, it's very considerate of them to support us with so many weapons and armors when we are in a hurry. Okay, I'll go and talk about it tomorrow."

"Can you do it?"

"Can I do it?" Xia Lin patted his chest and said, "Your Highness, I am the one who negotiated for the Great Wei to recover 70 miles of territory. Can I do it? You tell me, there are so many famous generals in the world, who has helped the Great Wei recover the territory? If I can't do it, then no one can."

"That princess is amazing."

"Princess? Li Xiuning?" Xia Lin turned his head to look at the prince: "Oh... that's troublesome. I heard that this sister is more powerful than Li Erfeng."

"Well, the brothers and sisters of the Li family combined are not as good as this girl." The prince also nodded seriously: "Don't talk about being at a disadvantage."

"Don't worry." Xia Lin snapped his fingers. "I'm not good at dating, but I'm good at business. But is this afternoon okay? The kids have an exam tomorrow and I have to take them to the exam room."

"Okay, I'll arrange a dinner party tomorrow." The prince nodded and said, "By the way, is there anything going on at the dock these days?"

"Don't mention it. The day I came, a ship ran aground. It was a big ship, blocking the waterway. All the ships heading south were stuck there."

When the prince heard this, he slapped his thigh and started to complain: "What did I say? Don't let the big ships come in during the dry season. Why didn't you listen? This is troublesome. If there is no heavy rain, it will take half a month for the road to be unblocked. Oh, these people are really impetuous."

In the blink of an eye, it was already early the next morning. As the wedding had not taken place yet, Xia Lin could not stay in the palace, so he had a meal inside and then returned to the inn.

Today he came to the examination venue with students not as an official but as the leader of the academy. When he was outside, he happened to meet Lao Zhang who also came with his men.

They looked at each other, then Lao Zhang made an obscene gesture and passed by.

The students went through a series of procedures including body searches and then entered a special examination room and began to prepare. Soon the test papers were distributed. After the examination reform, the provincial examination is now divided into three subjects and four papers, which are completed in two days. During this period, students are not allowed to enter or leave the examination room. Even eating and defecating have to be done in that small cubicle. There is a bed inside for resting. The environment is okay after all, the weather is not too hot, and it is not too unbearable inside.

After the first paper was handed out, most of the candidates scratched their heads after seeing it, but only the students from Ehu Academy and Yuzhang Academy had their eyes light up after seeing it.

Because the title only has one word - locust.

What do you fear the most in an exam? It is not a long and obscure passage, which only shows that the test-taker's level is not high, but the one or two words, and then there is no freedom to express yourself, which is what the test-taker is most worried about.

I heard that the person who sets the questions for this year's provincial examination, metropolitan examination and next year's palace examination will be His Majesty himself, so the difficulty has increased explosively. In addition, it is basically impossible for the questions to be leaked, so this year's examination is said to be the most difficult year since the examination system reform.

However, the candidates from the two academies were overjoyed after seeing the questions. This was given to them for free...the questions had been predicted a few days ago, and even the ideas for solving the questions were given.

But other candidates were not so lucky, one reason was that most academies were not very politically sensitive, and another reason was that many people were studying at home, so they mostly predicted conventional questions, such as the Four Books and Five Classics. Suddenly, a question they had never seen before popped up, and everyone panicked.

According to their thinking, they naturally criticize the current ills. They just criticize officials like locusts and petty officials like locusts. They want to criticize everyone from top to bottom. After writing, they still feel that they are awesome and think that there must be nothing wrong with their indignation and petitioning for the people...

(End of this chapter)