Chapter 69: What Was Heard at the Wine House (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

  Back cover push, thank you editors for recommending

  New readers also pay attention to Lao Bai's old book "Evil Ming"

  Shaolin Monks in Another World

  Fist of Legend

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  People naturally gathered more and more, and after listening a bit, they understood the reason why this wooden stake was erected here. It's just that there is no one like Li Meng to explain it here, and everyone is uncertain in their hearts. Moving a wooden stake once is worth two taels of silver, which is enough for an ordinary family in Jiaozhou City to live a good life for a month. If they save some money, living for two months is not a problem either.

  Two taels of silver is not a small amount of money, and there are people who are tempted. However, everyone has doubts in their hearts, especially those salt peddlers who just say one sentence and leave. Who knows if there's any problem with this? What if you exert yourself to move this wooden stake over, but the other party doesn't pay up? After all, officials have big mouths, and even if they're joking, you can't do anything about it.

  More and more onlookers gathered, but no one came forward to take action. Carrying this wooden stake required real physical strength, which not even young people could muster, let alone those who were not physically robust. These people generally had a rough temperament. Just before noon, someone from the south gate of Jiaozhou City finally stepped forward with a gamble, lifted the wooden stake and started walking step by step towards the patrol office in the city.

  This is just like a riot, the young man in front carrying a wooden stake, followed by no less than a hundred people, the city's yamen saw this scene and were all startled, thinking that it was an evil cult causing trouble, fortunately there were some experienced people who explained, only then did they put their minds at ease, several curious officials also followed behind with great interest.

  The wooden stake was not light, and it was a raw wood that was very inconvenient to carry. Even the young man who was strong and powerful could hardly hold on when he arrived at the mansion of the patrol inspector's office. At the gate of the mansion, there were several salt officials guarding, looking at the man carrying the wooden stake over, all came to welcome him with excitement. They had been bored for several hours, and although the young man was brave, after putting down the wooden stake, he was also nervous in his heart, fearing that the other party would make a fool of him. The onlookers also quieted down, waiting to see how the salt officials of the patrol inspector's office would deal with it.

  When they saw the two taels of silver being placed in the young man's hands, everyone was astonished and let out a collective "wow". Some young people rushed to other city gates, where there were still wooden stakes, but it was too late and they were carried away by others.

  Several people on the side of the patrol officer's yamen smiled and pulled out a horse-drawn carriage, lifted up the wooden stakes, and walked towards the south gate. Everyone didn't notice, and Yan Ding held back the young man who was carrying the wooden stakes, whispering something to him in a low voice. The young man first looked stunned, then became excited with a bright red face, nodding repeatedly.

  In fact, although they were given silver here, there were not many people who could actually carry the wooden stakes to the patrol gate. Many people had the wooden stakes fall to the ground halfway, and the salt workers would patiently set them up again. Anyway, it was a rare leisure day for them, and they didn't have to train.

  For the ordinary people in the state, the young men of Weizuo have a few more blood types. Anyone with strength wants to try it out, even if they can't move it to the right place, this is also considered as giving Li Erlang a show, who doesn't rely on him for some benefits?

  The city and Wei Suo are all bustling, the Spring Festival is almost over, there is still such a lively scene to watch, everyone is very excited.

  The Shaohai Building by the Xiao Baihe River in the city has opened for business after the 15th of the first month. Although it is not open for business according to the rules before the 20th of the first month, the owner and staff of Shaohai Building are all local people from Jiaozhou, so they don't care about these things. There are also some old customers who are outsiders and cannot return home for the New Year, so they solve their wine and food directly in this restaurant.

  Li Meng rarely had such leisure time, he was also sitting in the elegant seat on the second floor of the wine building, self-pouring and drinking. The owner of Shaohai Building naturally knew him, the four dishes in front of him were all made with great care, it is said that this wine was also a high-quality brew, he ate very comfortably.

  The so-called second floor lounge, for this Shao Hai Lou, is just a simple screen to separate the adjacent or even nearby elegant rooms, and the conversations can be heard clearly. Li Meng didn't make a sound, slowly drinking cup after cup, he suddenly found that this was actually a good place to gather information, considering whether to arrange someone to come over and keep an eye on it.

  It's not the first month, and there aren't many guests at the wine house. The second floor is quite empty. Li Meng has been hearing a table of guests nearby talking loudly, from their conversation it seems they are scholars discussing this year's imperial examination in Jinan Prefecture in April or May.

  "Gentlemen, when I entered the city today, I saw a wooden stake standing at the city gate. The surrounding crowd was in an uproar, but I don't know what happened?"

  "Brother Zhang, it's not just that one place. Today, all four city gates have wooden stakes set up. It's said that if you move the stakes to Salt Official Li's residence, you can get two taels of silver!"

  Many people's voices of surprise were even heard clearly on Li Meng's side, but then several people spoke in a derogatory tone.

  "He's really a country bumpkin, doing such absurd things."

  "These kinds of people are all from a background of bandits and rascals, doing this kind of showy but useless thing, isn't it what they should be doing?"

  Li Meng's position was right opposite the staircase, and these people's voices were very loud. The servants waiting upstairs could also hear clearly. Scholars all have official titles, and it wasn't something he dared to interfere with. He could only quickly run downstairs to find Lin Zhanggui. In a short while, Lin Zhanggui rushed up with a pale face.

  After coming up, he deliberately looked into Li Meng's room and saw that Li Meng was smiling and waving at him, indicating that it was not a big deal. Lin Zhanggu still looked stunned for a moment, confirming Li Meng's intention, before going downstairs in a daze, thinking that those few scholars were probably going to be unlucky.

  Li Meng didn't get angry, after all, bookworms always have some eccentric temper and like to say strange things. This is also common in modern times. Listening to these cultured people discussing themselves is quite interesting. It made Lin Zhangguan not need to be surprised, and after going downstairs, Li Meng just picked up his wine cup when he heard someone on the other side speaking in a low voice:

  "Do you all still remember Shang Yang's feat of establishing his authority? Others used wooden stakes, he also used wooden stakes, what a clever trick from the ancients!"

  During the Warring States period, Shang Yang was in power and worried that people would not believe or obey his orders. So he set up a wooden stake in the city and issued a notice saying that whoever moved this stake to a certain place could get ten pieces of gold. Everyone thought it was too ridiculous, so no one did it.

  Later, the reward was increased to 100 jin of gold. Finally, someone decided to give it a try and transported the wooden stake to that place. Shang Yang paid the man 100 jin of gold as promised, and from then on, everyone knew that Shang Yang's orders had to be carried out.

  Li Meng did almost exactly the same, only that no one had thought of a salt policy inspection in the eyes of officials and scholars on the right path, Li Meng was like a strong man from the grasslands, but he actually had this plan. Li Meng sighed, downing the wine in his cup in one gulp, this is a passage that has been told in modern historical popular readings and various film and television dramas, it's not surprising that people can see through it so easily, after all, scholars of this era were much stronger than modern times when it came to history books.

  After being pointed out by this person, the other side was quiet for a while, and then the sounds of astonishment and gasping could be heard clearly even on Li Meng's side. It wasn't until after a while that someone hesitantly asked:

  "Brother Zhou, what do you intend to do with this inspection?"

  "I also can't see through it, there are many rumors in the streets about Li Erlang's rise to power. From his every move and usual words and deeds, he is absolutely not a minor salt control inspector."

  "You all don't have to worry either, now that the wise and enlightened emperor is on the throne. Although there are petty people among the common folk, they won't cause any great harm, naturally someone will take care of them, why must we bother with this?"

  When he heard this sentence, Zhou Xiong, who was talking about Shang Yang's story, sneered and said coldly:

  "Is it the wise and bright emperor?"

  The atmosphere suddenly cooled down, and Li Meng's side was fully attentive. After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, the people he came into contact with were all quite special and grassroots, and he rarely met scholars. Ning Qian Gui was a Xiucai, which was one, and Hou Shan was actually a Tongsheng from a young age, which was also one. The rest were those shopkeepers they met in Jining, it's somewhat laughable to mention it. In this era, if you want to do business without reading books, it won't work, everyone has some kind of Xiucai identity or something similar. It made Li Meng think of the requirements for education in modern business companies.

  However, these people who claim to be scholars are merely wearing a title, having read a few books and recognizing some characters. They only talk about money transactions and commodity trading. Or they are like Ning Qian and Hou Shan, with faces full of flattering smiles, looking like they have no backbone, discussing current events in the elegant seats on the second floor of the wine tower. This is indeed consistent with Li Meng's impression of scholars in this era.

  Next, someone changed the subject and said in a flattering tone:

  "Brother Zhou is highly talented and has a broad vision. It's no surprise that he was selected in the provincial examination, and it's likely that he will pass the imperial examination and the palace examination in the future."

  Everyone applauded in agreement, but Zhou Xiong remained silent for half a day before speaking up in a sorrowful tone:

  "All officials come from the East Lin, and this official Su Song is always from three places in Suzhou, even the next best ones have to be supplemented by Hangzhou and Jiaxing. What about us northerners? If we pass the imperial examination, bringing honor back home would be enough."

  Li Meng had already finished drinking the wine in the jug and eating most of the dishes. The topic of conversation among the scholars on the other side gradually shifted to romantic affairs, which didn't interest him at all. He went downstairs to settle the bill and asked Lin Zhuang:

  "Does the shopkeeper know where this Zhou Mou from upstairs is from?"

  The shopkeeper of Shaohai Building felt that something was wrong, but he didn't dare to hide it from Li Menghui, so he opened his mouth and replied honestly:

  "He is the second son of a family outside the city walls, with the surname Zhou and the name Yang, also known as Yueyun. He is a great talent in our Jiaozhou City, and he is very kind and righteous..."