The number house covers a huge area, row after row, densely packed with more than 100 rows, each row has 150 houses, and several wooden latrines are built at the top.

The previous number house was built more atmosphericly, with only one room in each row, two meters long, and candidates could sleep in it at night.

Now all the dormitories are divided into two, and a door is opened on the wall on the other side, so that one bundle becomes two, which can only accommodate 15,000 candidates, but now it can accommodate 30,000 people.

Guo Song walked into a house and sat down, he smiled and took the wooden board and put it on the brick support, patted the wooden board and said: "In this way, you can save the money for making a table, at least tens of thousands of dollars." ”

At this time, Guo Song suddenly found that the number house had become shorter, and the entire number house was only three feet long and three feet wide, which was half less than the previous seven feet long.

"This ..... How do test takers sleep at night? ”

Yan Shuo was helpless, he almost wanted to say, wasn't this forced by your old man?

"There is no way, in order to increase the venue, I can only change the rules, I don't spend the night in the number house, after the test on the same day, the candidates go back, and come back the next day before dawn."

"This is not bad, I said a long time ago, the solution is thought of by people, you think of a way, no, the examination room that can accommodate 70,000 candidates will come out."

"But what if there are more than 70,000 candidates?"

"Then open up Guozi Studies, and the extra candidates will take the Guozi Studies, but they shouldn't need to, I remember that the number of people who participated in the imperial examinations every year was only seventy or eighty thousand! Next year, Chengdu will divide half of it, and it will be good to have 30,000 or 40,000 candidates. ”

Yan Shuo knew that Guo Song was telling the truth, in fact, he was just complaining.

At this time, Guo Song asked again: "How to solve the shortage of examiners and invigilators?" ”

"Your Royal Highness, you have decided to secondment professors and assistant professors from various states and states in Hedong, there are hundreds of people, and you will come to Taiyuan after the New Year, which basically solves the problem of manpower, and then the chief examiner has no candidate, so I implore Your Highness to appoint."

Guo Song sighed slightly: "Actually, your father is the best examiner, but it's a pity that he is gone, so please ask Li Mi to go out of the mountain, and I will go and tell him, you have to arrange it, don't let him work too hard, he is mainly responsible for controlling the overall situation." ”

Yan Shuo was overjoyed, Li Mi had a high status, and had presided over three imperial examinations, if he came to be the chief examiner, it would undoubtedly be good news for all scholars.

"The humble post will definitely be arranged!"

..........

A few days later, a cold wave from the north hit, the temperature plummeted, a thin layer of ice formed on the river, and winter in Taiyuan finally came.

Xue Tao has been quite busy these days, her mother Han and her brother Xue Qing came from Chengdu, her father Xue Xun was demoted to the governor of Banzhou, and her mother Han was looking for help everywhere in Chengdu, but no one paid attention to her, lest she be implicated, so helpless, Han could only take his son Xue Qing to Taiyuan to join his daughter.

Han was originally more flamboyant, simple-minded, and always liked to show off herself, but after being hit hard this time, her personality changed greatly, although she was not yet stable, but at least she talked nonsense and made others laugh.

Son Xue Qing is a very sensible child, since he was a child by his father Xue Xun strict education, although only nine years old, but has been full of poetry books, writing poems and lines, but also wrote a beautiful calligraphy, in Chengdu is known as a prodigy.

Guo Song liked this brother-in-law a lot, so he let him live with his son, the two were about the same age, they both loved to read, and their personalities were relatively stable, so they just studied together, lived together, and became playmates.

In the imperial garden, Xue Tao accompanied his mother for a walk, and Han sighed and said: "Tao'er, your husband is so powerful, even the emperor has to please him, ask him to help, tell the emperor about it, let your father come back, my mother is really worried about him." ”

Xue Tao smiled bitterly and said: "The problem now is that Daddy himself refuses to come back, and my husband has written to the emperor, asking him to pardon Daddy, I heard my husband say that the emperor named Daddy as a scholar, did not give him real power, and let him come back to support his old age, but Daddy just refused to obey the edict, you know Daddy's temper, and ten cows can't pull it back." ”

"What then? Your father is in such a remote and wasteland, his body will not be able to withstand it. ”

"Mother, don't worry too much, the husband has already sent someone to protect Daddy, and the Dugu family has also sent warriors and doctors to protect Daddy and Uncle Han, I don't think it's too much of a problem, at least Daddy should be safe and sound, if he is sick, there is a doctor from the Dugu family!"

Her daughter's relief made Han breathe a sigh of relief, and she asked again, "What about Qing'er?" I haven't seen him for a few days, where is he? “

"Mother, he's with Jin'er! The two read together, played together, and happened to be companions, I always felt that Jin'er was too lonely, and Qing'er came just in time. ”

"And who's going to take care of them?"

"The former housekeeper couple took care of their daily life, they followed the house for many years, and they have always watched Jin'er grow up, trustworthy, and the master is very strict when they study during the day, although the mother is relaxed."

"Then I'm relieved, hey! When do you want to go back to Luoyang, your grandparents are old, and I want to go and see them. ”

Xue Tao groaned and said, "I suggest that my mother don't go to Luoyang." ”

"Why?"

"Zhu Jun is likely to move the capital to Luoyang next year, and my husband is more worried about the safety of my two uncles and grandfather, so I wrote to my two uncles not long ago, asking them to move their family to Taiyuan, and both uncles agreed."

"But your grandfather will definitely not agree!"

Han shook his head and said, "He won't leave Luoyang, his students are all in Luoyang!" He regarded that school as the root of his life. ”

"He really refused to agree, but the uncle said that he had a way to ensure that the grandparents and mother-in-law came to Taiyuan happily."

"Hey! Your wife is very talkative, that is, your father-in-law is as strong as your father, unless the school moves to Taiyuan with him, and then guarantees his fine wine, it is estimated that he will not agree. ”

"That's the way, the school was merged into Guozixue, Taigong and his two uncles both taught in Guozixue, not to mention fine wine."

"Since they are coming, then I won't go to Luoyang, Tao'er, there is something I have to tell you, you are the princess, why don't you live in such a big Jinyang Palace, you have to crowd in this small place, and those eunuchs and palace maids don't need it, they will be laughed at."

Xue Tao said disappreliably: "Who would laugh at this kind of thing?" ”

"Then you don't know, what do the ladies talk about all day long, isn't it just a joke about this person, a joke about that person, everyone talks about all kinds of stories in the palace, and if you refuse to live in the palace, it must be their topic."

"The mouth grows on them, and if they want to say let them go, I don't care or care."

Xue Tao didn't want to talk about this kind of thing with her mother, she quickened her pace, and Han hurriedly caught up and said: "Also, you have to have a few more eyes, it is best to persuade your husband to promote a few more people from the Xue family, that is your mother's family, the Xue family is too weak and is not good for your status, my mother is a person from the past, I have seen a lot of this kind of thing." ”

Xue Tao sighed and said to his mother: "Mother, you should go to Luoyang!" ”

........

At night, Guo Song sat in the study while drinking tea, while fiddling with his own jade, he rarely had such leisure and elegance, and there was no time, the charcoal fire in the study was burning, making the room warm as spring, there was an iron shelf on his charcoal basin, hanging a teapot, he occasionally had the interest to cook himself a pot of fragrant milk tea.

He held a piece of mutton fat jade with red skin in his hand, and felt the overflowing fat and smoothness in his hand.

At this time, the door of the outer room opened, and Xue Tao walked in with tea.

"Husband, I'll bring you tea."

"The lady came just in time, help me judge these two pieces of jade."

Xue Tao smiled knowingly, his husband actually had the heart to taste jade, this is a situation that has not been seen for a long time.

She walked into the room, put the tea cup on the table, took the two pieces of jade and said with a smile: "I have studied these two pieces of jade, according to the three evaluation criteria of shape, color and quality that my husband told me before, these two pieces of jade are the top, the seed type is full, there is no crack impurities or waterline, the skin color is red and bright, they are all highly fat white, and the fat powder and ripe glutinous jade are just right, but I personally prefer the left piece, its ripe glutinous degree is better, I still prefer the old and mature jade." ”

Guo Song gave a thumbs up and praised: "The lady is better than the blue, and the jade is stronger than me." ”

"I look at it every day, of course I will be a little bit stronger than my husband."

"How's your mother?" Guo Song asked with a smile.

Xue Tao smiled bitterly and shook his head, "She is still the same, she asked me to find a way to get my father back all day long, but my father himself refused to come back, should I still tie him back?" ”

"You're right, your father has a strong sense of honor, he doesn't want to betray his beliefs, as long as Li Yi is in Banju for a day, he won't leave, let him leave Han Xiangguo and Li Yi to come back alone, he will definitely not agree."

Xue Tao sighed, "I told my mother too, she couldn't do anything, and then she asked me to take care of the Xue family, my head is very big, and she made noise in my ears as soon as she came, either I won't be a princess, I can't live in such a big palace, and I will be laughed at, or I don't know how to support my mother's family, I really can't stand her." ”

(End of chapter)