Since the middle of March, Gongsheng from all over the Great Zhou Dynasty has rushed to the capital in an endless stream. The sooner they come to the capital, it is the students from privileged families who can choose to get there by fast transportation, such as cars and boats. And the earlier you come to the capital, you can find a suitable place to live earlier, and have more time to make friends with some officials who can make connections, vote for posts, and worship protégés.

Although this is not beneficial to the Spring Examination, it is an extremely important part of the future career. After all, Chunfu is just a level that is not difficult anymore.

Moreover, the well-off Gongsheng did not need to worry about the cost of staying in the capital for a longer time.

But for those Gongsheng from poor families, this trip to Beijing in the spring is full of tribulations in hope. There is nothing around Gyeonggi, and those who are thousands or even thousands of miles away from the capital, if their families are poor, the cost of this trip to Beijing is a heavy burden. Although the imperial court required that all entanglements in Beijing need to be allocated by the local government, however, this regulation has long been reduced to an empty phrase in many places.

In addition to those state capitals where the financial resources are more than enough and the chief officials attach great importance to the imperial examination, more places have mutated this system into a regulation for tribute students to pay for the examination fees in Beijing and reimburse them afterwards. In fact, only those who are selected will be compensated, and those who are not selected will not be taken seriously. All the money spent is not compensated.

In this case, the poor students naturally dare not be extravagant and wasteful, in case they can't win, then it will increase their burden, which will be even worse.

Therefore, this kind of students, even if the distance is far away, they have only one way to choose, and that is to rely on two feet to walk from all over the city to the capital. Those who are a little closer to the place will set off later, and those who are far away, as early as the New Year of Qingfeng five years, when others are still enjoying the atmosphere of the New Year, they will leave their wives and bags on their backs to embark on the journey to Beijing to take the exam.

Imagine, on the vast land, among the rivers, mountains, and mountains, students are walking alone on the road with their bags on their backs, towards the holy land in their minds, the capital, and towards the battlefield that can change their fate. If there was no bright hope waiting for them, many of them would definitely not be able to hold out to the capital. After all, it takes them ten days, twenty days, a month, or even two or three months to reach such a long distance.

So, if you see people on the streets of the capital with bags on their backs, messy hair, ragged clothes and tears in their eyes, don't think they are homeless people on the streets. Because you don't know which of them will become famous all over the world in a few dozen days, and become the new upstart of the Spring Mansion. At the end of March and April, perhaps the most frequent changes of fate in the world take place. This is also a man-made miracle formed by the imperial examination system.

Whether they are poor or rich, they have one thing in common. This is also the only thing that all the tribute students from all walks of life have in common, and that is the confidence revealed in their eyes. Because these people are the winners of the thousands of troops who stood out in the autumn exam, after going through that huge difficulty, everyone is full of confidence, and none of them feel that they will fall before the low threshold of the spring festival.

Objectively speaking, the situation can indeed be optimistic. The admission rate of the spring school is much higher than that of the autumn school. If the autumn school is one in a hundred, then the spring school has an admission rate of nearly forty percent. According to the data of the spring examination of Qingfeng in the second year, it is a record of fifty percent. In the spring of that year, there were 2,700 tributes on the 15th Road of the Great Zhou, and there were more than 1,300 gold list titles, completing the pioneering feat of leaping into the dragon gate. The number of tribute students in this year's Chunfu is more than 3,500, and even if the same number of students is calculated, it is still 30% away, and more than three and a half out of 10 people can be said to be quite high.

But after all, most of them will be destined to accept the teasing of fate, and their self-confidence at the moment will also become another weight for their future disappointment, which is also something that cannot be helped. The reality is so cruel, since the imperial examination, I don't know how many people dream of breaking here.

On the morning of March 16, Zaoyuan also ushered in an old tribute student full of hope. That is Lin Hu's father Lin Youde. In fact, Lin Youde followed the Lin family's ship to Beijing on the night of March 15. That night, he stayed in Lin Bonian's house. The next morning, Lin Youde, who learned Lin Jue's address, hurried to see Lin Jue. Of course, Lin Jue was very happy and invited him to live in the jujube garden, after all, this was also a rare opportunity for him and Lin Hu to get along with father and son.

Lin Youde readily agreed, and immediately asked Lin Hu to accompany him to the Ministry of Rites to report, and then when he came back, he took out his luggage and said goodbye to the head of the family by detouring to Lin Bonian's mansion. This move made Lin Bonian very dissatisfied, but at this moment, Lin Bonian was worrying about his own business, but he didn't have the heart to care about these things.

With the arrival of all the tributes, the atmosphere in the capital has also become strange. The arrogant people of the capital showed their other side, and almost all of them were friendly to the Gongsheng, because there was no doubt that any of them would be able to rise to prominence in the future. If you offend a tribute student at this time, you will probably offend a big official in the future. Even the people who are as arrogant as the feet of the Son of Heaven have to weigh it.

Of course, that's not the whole story. In fact, for the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the importance of the imperial court to the scholars and the respect for the literati also made the people of the world have a trace of reverence for the scholars from the bottom of their hearts. Therefore, after the tributes came to the capital, once their identities were revealed, they were basically treated well.

……

Just when the people who arrived went to the Ministry of Rites to report, and busily shuttled to the homes of officials and wealthy families to meet and post, and they were actively preparing for the big exam, another thing in the capital was also in full swing.

In the past few days, teams of women dressed up in flowers have appeared at the entrances of the streets of the outer city and the inner city. They set up a small stage on the corner of the street and began to sing and dance for no reason, attracting countless people to stop and linger. After singing and dancing, they began to distribute leaflets everywhere to promote the news that the Beijing branch of the Jiangnan Grand Theater in Hangzhou was about to start a play.

Many people don't have much interest in watching the show, they still think it's just another newly opened Vasher. The most indispensable thing in the capital is the Vasher, the famous upper, middle and lower three Vasher have long been the leaders of the entertainment industry in the capital. It is not unusual that red cards from all over the country are also invited to Beijing in turn to perform songs and dances and perform small plays. However, the big gimmicks on the leaflet were very eye-catching.

The first big gimmick is that the author of the play staged this time is Xie Yuan Lin Jue, the new branch of Liangzhejiang Road. This Lin Jieyuan is also one of the tribute students who are going to participate in this year's Spring Examination. That's not all, after all, there are fifteen Duke Xie Yuan in the whole Zhou, and Xie Yuan is not a unique figure. This Lin Jue's fame is not loud enough, and many people don't know him at all. But when people saw that the leaflet listed Lin Jieyuan's representative lyrics, such as "Fixing the Storm", "Queqiao Immortal", "Water Tune Song Head" and so on, people who knew the goods suddenly exploded.

"Oh my God, he actually wrote these poems, this ...... How is this possible? ”

"Yes, the few words that have been popular in our Qinglou Spring Pavilion in the capital recently are actually these Lin Jue's lyrics? We're going to meet this guy anyway. ”

"Isn't it? After making trouble for a long time, it was this Lin Jue. Then I'll have to take a look. If the word work is like this, the words are not bad. ”

The second gimmick on the flyer is: free theater viewing within three days, free pick-up, and gifts on site. This one is the most direct, who doesn't like to take advantage of small advantages? Not only do you watch the play for free, but you also enjoy the feeling of being served, and you still have something to take, isn't it a fool to go?

The third gimmick is: the opening of the theater coincides with the Spring Festival, and for every audience present, the Jiangnan Grand Theater will donate two taels of silver to the Ministry of Rites for the renovation of the book building of the Gongyuan Guozijian, and make a contribution to the selection of future pillars of the Great Zhou. It is specially noted later that the Grand Theater can accommodate more than 500 spectators per performance, so if the three days of free performances are full, the Grand Theater will donate a huge amount of 3,000 silver to help the Spring Festival Entrance Examination with a meager force, and wish the Spring Festival Examination a complete success.

This third gimmick can be described as extremely lofty, but when examined in detail, it is an extremely despicable act of touching porcelain and rubbing hot spots. Three thousand taels of silver in exchange for a tall name for the help of the spring and the worries of the court, this is simply too cost-effective. And subconsciously makes people think that the Jiangnan Grand Theater has a backstage and background, otherwise how could the Ministry of Rites accept donations from private businesses? In fact, Lin Jue didn't even greet any officials from the Genli Department. In the end, if the Ministry of Rites doesn't want this silver, Lin Jue can also push it clean, it's not that I don't donate, people don't want it.

Originally, there were no such three gimmicks, just one free one was enough to fill the theater, not to mention the upper and lower gimmicks, which made the people even more squeezed. Lin Jue is not adding to the snake, but he has decided that in the capital, the Grand Theater should take the high-end route, and it cannot be biased towards the general public like Hangzhou. In a place like the capital, where there are many wealthy families and countless high-ranking officials, it is necessary to make the Grand Theater a place where these people feel that it is worth pastime, so that they can also obtain a higher income.

Therefore, Lin Jue asked for the selection of people who were willing to come to the play. In fact, it is very simple, you can register your name, occupation, or official position, and you can initially know the personal information of these people. Of course, not all of them are selected from those officials and wealthy families, and ordinary people are also customers, so they need to be evenly stained with rain and dew, each with its own proportion. In the end, the 500-seat theater seats were 200 by ordinary people, and the remaining 300 were divided equally among large officials, merchants, etc.

Of course, for the first performance, Lin Jue naturally set aside a part of the box for acquaintances in Beijing. So Lin Jue sent invitations to Fang Dunru's family, Yan Zhengsu, Lin Bonian, Guo Kun, Ma Bin and others, inviting them to come and watch the first performance for free. However, except for Ma Bin, the rest of the invitations were politely declined. Lin Jue actually understands that it is impossible for Yan Zheng and Fang Dunru to come, they are all members of the imperial court, if they come to the Jiangnan Grand Theater to watch a play, wouldn't they be suspected of using their status to support their own scene, which they will never do.

The reason why Lin Bonian didn't come can also be understood, although this is Lin Jue's business, it does not belong to the Lin family. As the head of the Lin family, his own children are working alone outside, so didn't he come to encourage the children of the Lin family to do this. Moreover, he is also a member of the imperial court, and he can't easily attend a certain event. Not to mention, the third division is experiencing a turmoil recently, and is being strictly checked by the deputy minister, Lin Bonian has long been anxious, and he still has the heart to watch the play.

However, the little prince, Ma Bin accepted the invitation. After all, they are actually middle- and low-level officials, and they are also military positions, so they are not too restricted. Besides, it was Lin Jue's invitation, so they naturally wanted to come.