Master Yuan, start!

"Brother Wang Wu, this is inappropriate. Lord Yang is definitely under guard by officers from the Ministry of Justice. If you try to save him, it's tantamount to robbing the camp, a heinous crime punishable by death!"

"Hehe." Wang Wu chuckled, put his hands behind his back and touched the back of his head, then lifted it up.

The braid was actually removed completely!

"Brother Wang Wu, what are you doing?"

Wang Wu actually cut off his braid. Cutting off braids without reason was a capital crime in the Qing Dynasty!

"Don't worry, Brother Tan, I'm not trying to do anything to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty." Wang Wu said soothingly, and then explained:

"I took a escort mission from Mongolia last year. On the way back, I encountered Mongolian bandits. During the fight, they cut off my braid with a saber. That's why I had to buy a fake one after I got back."

Wang Wu held his braid in his hand and said to Tan Sitong:

"Brother Tan, you are educated, but do you know what the crime of cutting off the queue was in the Qing Dynasty?"

"Death penalty! And it will bring disaster to my family!"

"That's all, now that I have no braids, why should I be afraid of the officials from the Ministry of Justice?"

Wang Wu and Tan Sitong looked at each other and then laughed at the same time.

"Hahahahaha, Big Brother Wang Wu is still as funny as ever."

"That's not funny at all. We rough folks are just like that on a daily basis."

"Brother Wang Wu, don't be so modest!"

"I'm not being modest, I'm just..."

The laughter of the two echoed in the glazed pavilion, and they had no idea what hardships they would face in the future.

...

In 1888, there were particularly many scholars in the capital at the end of the year, and even more after the New Year.

One reason is that the autumn examination in the second half of the year has just ended. After the results of the provincial examinations were announced, the successful scholars all wanted to rush to the capital as soon as possible to prepare for the spring examination next year in advance.

Secondly, next year's imperial examination will not only be open to scholars from the north and the south, but even the newly-minted Koreans who have passed the Chinese imperial examination will rush to the capital to participate in the spring examination together with the Qing scholars.

The third group is candidates who did not make it to the imperial examinations in previous years and want to take advantage of next year's Enkebo to get a chance.

The emperor's wedding is about to take place next year. According to convention, an additional special examination will naturally be held. In addition, there will be a regular examination next year, so the special examination and the regular examination will be held together.

The total number of people admitted to the "Zheng'en Examination" next year is bound to exceed the previous years' joint examination, which only admitted about 350 people. Perhaps 700 Jinshi will be admitted at once.

This is a good time to record 700 people in one go, which is rare in decades!

Therefore, no matter whether it is a young scholar who is fifteen or sixteen years old and whose hair has not yet grown out, or an old scholar who is in his fifties or sixties and has gray hair on his temples, none of them are willing to miss this opportunity next year.

Even if they could not study, scholars who wanted to become officials based on their status as juren would force themselves to study for another year under the urging of their relatives, friends and family.

There is no other reason, the admission rate is really too high. During the Guangxu period, more than 15000 scholars participated in the imperial examination every year.

However, only about 300 people were admitted as Jinshi over the years, and the rest failed.

The famous Zuo Zongtang never passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. After he passed the imperial examination, he failed in many examinations and had no choice but to join Zeng Guofan's army.

Unexpectedly, he eventually made the "Chu Army" famous and earned himself the title of Duke of Chu.

How many men have ever returned from the battlefields of history? It’s safer to steadily advance through the imperial examinations.

There will only be a few hundred more Korean scholars next year, but the number of admissions will double, and the chances will double. Who wouldn't want to take a chance?

0So when Yuan Shikai rode into the city early in the morning and stood outside Yongding Gate, he felt that Beijing was so bustling with people coming and going.

It’s much more lively than the last time he came!

After thinking about it carefully, Yuan Xiangcheng finally understood.

9 During the Guangxu period, the permanent population of Beijing was already around 100 million, and now with the influx of tens of thousands of scholars and their accompanying families, it naturally seemed crowded.

The Beijing city during the Guangxu period was no less beautiful than that of later generations, and was even better.

The difference is that the former has more than 60 million people living in an area of ​​100 square kilometers, while the latter has more than 2000 million people spread over an area of ​​more than 16400 square kilometers.

To put it in perspective, the population density of Beijing today is 1.6 people per square kilometer, while the population density of Beijing in later generations is 0.12 people per square kilometer.

The former is 13 times that of the latter. No wonder the capital city always gives people a foul feeling at this time.

The feces and urine of more than one million people are piled up in one city. You have to smell the stench every day!

After Yuan Xiangcheng showed his pass, he calmed down the soldiers defending the city who were about to kneel down.

He stood up and dismounted, and walked into the city with Xu Shichang and Ming Ye.

"Ah, gnashing teeth?!" What the hell?

"Kangsanmida~~~!"

Two extremely prominent sounds were heard from the street, one coming from a street breakfast stall, and the other coming from a barber's pole.

It's Korean!

Of course, these Korean scholars could still speak the basic Central Plains Mandarin, but during their stay in the capital, they would occasionally utter a few words in Korean dialect.

As a Korean, Mingye heard his native dialect for the first time outside of North Korea.

For a moment, I had the illusion that the Sakula in my hometown had opened again.

"Mingye."

"Ming Ye!"

"Ah? Chief Instructor, you called me?"

Yuan Xiangcheng shouted twice before he finally woke Mingye from his trance.

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed at the Korean scholar who was dealing with a breakfast vendor on the street and said to Ming Ye with a smile, "What's wrong? Are you stunned by hearing your hometown accent in the capital? Do you want to go up and say hello?"

Ming Ye scratched the felt hat on his head and said with difficulty:

"Chief Instructor, please stop making fun of me. How could I, a poor Korean who has been down and out for who knows how many generations, be associated with a yangban class that came to Beijing to take the imperial examinations?"

"What's more, they are so stupid that they can even spill tofu pudding on themselves while eating it, and they still curse and swear. It's really embarrassing."

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed at another person and asked playfully, "What about him? He is gentle and polite, quite like a scholar."

"Him?" Ming Ye stared intently, his disgust evident in his words: "This kind of person is truly the scum of China. I am deeply ashamed to be associated with him!"

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed at the young Korean scholar, who had just stood up from his barber's pole.

Many Beijing citizens passing by stopped to watch for a long time, pointing and talking, wondering what tricks he was up to.

He touched his smooth forehead, took a false braid from the barber's hand, covered the back of his head with it, and then put on a low-level hat.

A brand new wild boar skin is born!

"Young man, what are you doing?"

"Ouch!"

"He's a man!"

The onlookers pointed and talked at first, and then they exclaimed in surprise!

This is the first time in nearly 200 years that Beijing has witnessed the entire process of shaving the head and changing clothes.

Even though they all have a big braid, they all have their own judgment on whether the braid is ugly or not, and whether it gets in the way when they do their daily work.

So when I saw a North Korean boy willing to shave his head and put on a wig, I could only say "I admire you"

After all, they had to shave, but this Korean boy wanted to shave on his own initiative!

Seeing this bizarre scene, Xu Shichang could only sigh and say, "No wonder Ming Ye is ashamed to associate with this person. If I were Korean, I wouldn't want to associate with such a person either!"

"The Han rituals are no longer seen, when will China be transformed?"

This was the sentiment expressed by a Korean official 200 years ago when he visited Beijing during the Shunzhi period and saw that the city was full of people with pigtails.

I didn't expect that the boomerang would backfire on my own people.

In fact, when the Korean scholars went to Beijing to take the imperial examinations, the Ministry of Rites asked the ministers of the central government what to do with the Korean scholars who still wore Ming Dynasty style hair crowns after arriving in Beijing.

In the end, Cixi, in line with the overall situation of abolishing the feudal system and establishing provinces, tried her best not to provoke the nerves of Korean scholars and issued an imperial decree allowing Korean scholars not to shave their heads.

However, they were not allowed to wear the short-winged black gauze hat of the Ming Dynasty. They were only allowed to wear the "black hat" of North Korea, which is the large black round hat commonly seen in Korean dramas in later generations.

I just didn't want to, because the Korean Qi Tongwei in front of me really wanted to improve.

He actually shaved his head in front of the people in the capital and put on a pigtail, which was the characteristic of the Qing Dynasty.

With so many people coming and going on the street, if the news were to reach the imperial court, even if the Korean scholar's essays were terrible, he would probably have a future as a top-three Jinshi.

High, really high.

Yuan Xiangcheng gave a thumbs up to the Korean Qi Tongwei.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng planned to let Ming Ye go forward and ask what the name of the shameless Korean scholar who shaved his head was, and planned to eliminate him after returning to Korea.

Otherwise, Yuan Xiangcheng always felt sick when he thought of the scene of him shaving his head and changing his clothes.

Unexpectedly, in order to expand his influence, he shamelessly opened his arms and shouted at the busy street:

"OK, everyone, look at me, look at me."

"I have an announcement!"

"The Korean scholar Syngman Rhee has always admired the culture of the Celestial Empire. Today, he has specially shaved his head and changed his clothes to receive the grace of the Celestial Empire!"

Chapter 116 Meeting with Empress Dowager Cixi

Syngman Rhee's declaration in the street instantly blocked Qinghua Temple Street. Before Yuan Shikai could take action, yamen runners came forward to disperse the crowd.

"The muddier the water, the better."

Yuan Xiangcheng was even somewhat grateful to Syngman Rhee for suddenly appearing and attracting the attention of the Qing court.

Because he really provided a perfect cover for Yuan Xiangcheng's secret plan.

There is no party outside the party, and there is imperial thinking; there is no faction within the party, and there are all kinds of strange things.

This statement is very appropriate for the current capital city. Everyone is a member of a party. What party?

The National Salvation Party!

However, within the CNRP, there are two factions, the moderate rescue faction and the emergency rescue faction, based on the degree of radicalism.