Chapter 100

Freezing cold, near dusk.

In the households of Gucheng, smoke and fire lit up one after another, setting off the haze in the sky to be exceptionally heavy.

The snow on the ground was a foot deep, and it was still falling in the sky, as if it were getting heavier.

The biting north wind blew up the snow on the ground, making the entire Gucheng white.

"Creak, creak."

Zhao Zheng stepped on the thick snow, carrying a thick rope on his shoulder, at a forty-five-degree angle to the ground, his little face flushed red.

"Eeya!"

He gathered all his strength, wanting to drag the shovel plow behind him, but the snow was too thick, and the shovel plow was deeply trapped in the snow. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move forward at all.

"Plop~"

His feet slipped, and Zhao Zheng was printed in the snow.

Where he fell, he lay down there, Zhao Zheng panting:

"Big Brother, I can't drag it!"

Zhao Xing pulled the shovel plow out of the snow, leaned it against the wall: "Get up, go change to a small iron shovel, keep shoveling."

"Oh." Zhao Zheng scrambled up from the snow and went to get the shovel from the courtyard at home.

Everyone sweeps the snow in front of their own door. At this time, in Kangping Ward, neighbors came out one after another to clear the snow, clearing a path for people and horses to pass.

Zhao Xing raised his head, looked at the sky, and also felt a trace of coldness.

It is now the solar term of Light Snow.

Half a month has passed since the last Profound Heaven Sect attack.

"Light Snow arrives until Heavy Snow, Heavy Snow arrives until no snow."

"The first period is that the rainbow hides and is not seen; the second period is that the weather rises and the earth vein descends; the third period is that it closes and becomes winter."

"In this solar term, even sensing the earth vein has become somewhat difficult for me, and the height of Cloud Walking cannot be pressed too low."

"However, the power of the Ice Rain spell only increases, not decreases. Although the earth vein descends, as long as the Yin wind can be summoned, the power is also much stronger than before."

Zhao Xing took his little brother to shovel the snow in front of the door, then carried a few catties of pickled vegetables, bacon, and dried fish made by Madam Cai, and walked toward the Xue Mansion.

Arriving at the Xue Mansion, no need to report. The gatekeeper saw Zhao Xing and opened the door directly.

The old Agricultural Official was busy in front of a high stove in the courtyard at this time.

"Teacher, why are you up so early to brew Light Snow wine." Zhao Xing put down the things in his hand and ran over to help.

"Nothing to do and can't be idle." Xue Wenzhong smiled and took the long spoon handed by Zhao Xing, standing on a ladder to stir in the wine cellar.

In the woodshed, a young man wearing a thin shirt came over with a bundle of firewood.

He was six or seven points similar to Xue Wenzhong; it was Xue Bai, who had already served his sentence and was released.

"Little Master Uncle."

"Mm, give it to me." Zhao Xing took the firewood from Xue Bai's hand.

Xue Bai is the grandson of the old Agricultural Official and was released a few days after the Beginning of Winter.

At that time, Zhao Xing also went to the commandery city with Xue Wenzhong to pick up someone.

When he was released from prison, Xue Bai spoke slowly, showing respect and courtesy. After learning that Zhao Xing was his grandfather's disciple, he respectfully called Zhao Xing Little Master Uncle. It was hard to connect him with the dissolute young man who injured someone because of jealousy.

I don't know if he was beaten in prison, but after contacting Xue Bai a few times, Zhao Xing's perception was quite good.

Xue Wenzhong was also happier. It was best for his grandson to turn over a new leaf.

The student performed outstandingly, blue out of blue, so Xue Wenzhong had been in a very good mood these days, looking happy to see everyone, and even his mental state was much better than before.

After busy for a while, Xue Wenzhong came down from the ladder.

"You don't have to come to see me all the time. After the winter evaluation, the Beginning of Spring is the temple examination."

"The imperial court's assessment, especially the theory, will involve the heaven time, earth advantage, and plants of different regions in the nineteen states. You should still study more and focus on preparing for the exam."

"Yes, I will go back to read after eating." Zhao Xing said.

"It's still early to eat. Go to my study to read." Xue Wenzhong clapped his hands and smiled, "What I can teach you now is just this theoretical knowledge."

December 7, Heavy Snow.

Donghu had already frozen a thick layer of ice, and many waterways around Gucheng had frozen, unable to pass.

Only a few mainstream river channels were barely operating, but it also greatly affected the commercial activities of Nanyang Commandery.

Because Nanyang Commandery relies on waterway transportation, if water transport cannot be guaranteed, and it freezes for a month or two, the prices in the city will soar.

"Heavy snow freezes Nanyang everywhere, and Gucheng also suffered."

"This can be considered a low-level ice disaster."

"In previous years, Nanyang Commandery had never had such extreme weather."

With the arrival of the ice disaster, officials from the Agricultural Office in various places also began to get busy.

Because it involves the entire Nanyang Commandery, it is not enough to thaw a single county, and it must be uniformly deployed by the commandery.

Otherwise, if you thaw this section of the river in Gucheng, it won't take a day for the ice layer upstream to drift over and freeze again.

It also has an impact downstream. The water will overflow the surface of the ice layer, and it is not certain what impact it will cause.

If there is another flood in winter, it will really be life-threatening.

Chen Shijie wanted to stand the last shift, so he led the officials of the Agricultural Office to run around in four places, and hadn't returned for many days.

"If the heaven time is changed too much in normal times, without conforming to the true balance of the Five Elements, then when problems accumulate in the dark, it will cause major natural disasters that are difficult to resist." Xue Wenzhong analyzed the reasons for this snow disaster for Zhao Xing at the mansion.

"In the twelve counties of Shan County, Hu County, Mingshan County, Shuihe County, etc., in the first three seasons of this year, the officials of the Agricultural Office were either lazy or incompetent, and changed the weather many times with spells."

"Judging from the announcement issued by the commandery city, they cured the symptoms but not the root cause in solving the problem, so it led to the accumulation of Yin energy in these twelve counties, while Yang energy rose too much."

"After the Beginning of Winter, the power of the Light Snow solar term appeared to increase exponentially."

"Among them, the Agricultural Official main officials of Mingshan, Shuihe, and Dangyue counties made serious mistakes. They didn't find the root cause, but wanted to reverse the Light Snow solar term and re-establish the Beginning of Winter."

"As a result, the problem completely erupted, the earth veins of these three counties completely descended, Yin energy spread to the side, and even implicated other counties. I'm afraid the evaluation of the Agricultural Officials of these three counties will be very ugly this year. If not handled well, they might even be demoted." Xue Wenzhong said.

Zhao Xing picked up the copy of the document and read it. Fan Dongping used "Xi" for the downward documents of these three counties, and the text started with "Report to the Agricultural Office Order of Shuihe County...".

Just looking at the official document style and the beginning, one knows that the mistakes made by these three counties are very large.

Because for the other counties, the downward official documents all used "Die," and the beginning of the text was only proclamation, questioning, and inspection. The tone was also relatively gentle, and the document was only delivered internally and not made public.

"You need to take these error cases as a warning. Maybe you will see similar questions in the temple examination next year."

"Yes, I will take a good look."

December 21, Winter Solstice.

The three days of Winter Solstice are also the winter evaluation.

Due to the ice disaster, the Gucheng Agricultural Office did not conduct on-site assessments, but followed the instructions of Nanyang Commandery and used this ice disaster as a case study to set questions for the officials.

Zhao Xing didn't need to take the exam, but he still went.

Three days later, the Nanyang Commandery Agricultural Office announced the winter evaluation results.

There were only fifteen people in Gucheng who obtained the temple examination quota.

According to convention, I am afraid that only one-third or even one-fifth of these fifteen people can pass and become regular officials.

As for the remaining four hundred or so people in the Agricultural Office, they all became runners-up, and didn't even have the qualifications for the temple examination.

"Another busy year for nothing."

"There are only fifteen temple examination quotas, there were twenty-five last year."

"What's the use? There were twenty-five last year, and only five were taken in the end."

"Those five were transferred to Shangdang, Fengshan, and other places, thousands of miles away from their hometowns. What's good about that."

"Don't be sour, Brother Liu, that's at least the subordinate ninth rank. If you really have this opportunity, you will crawl over."

"That's true, hahahaha."

In front of the notice board, many officials discussed one after another.

Zhao Xing also took time to take a look. When he came over.

Many officials gave way one after another.

"Zhao Xing is here!"

"Brother Zhao, congratulations!"

"Let's all give way, let Lord Zhao look first."

"Among these fifteen people, Zhao Xing has the greatest chance. He is the hope of our Gucheng Agricultural Office."

Zhao Xing bowed to return the salute, and didn't stay long after reading the notice, and left quickly.

January 5, Minor Cold.

Yang energy increased slightly, and the ice disaster that had lasted for a long time was resolved with the concerted efforts of various counties in Nanyang Commandery, returning to normal levels.

Chen Shijie, who had been busy for more than a month, finally returned to Gucheng.

"The Agricultural Office officials of Mingshan, Shuihe, and Dangyue counties are really idiots."

"I ran over to help for half a month, and I was almost pissed off by the idiots in these three places."

Chen Shijie drank Light Snow wine while eating roasted meat, and was still somewhat excited until now.

"What happened?" Zhao Xing asked.

"What else could it be, stupid! Especially the Agricultural Official of Shuihe County!"

"Shuihe County is located at the intersection of four waters. Five hundred years ago, Li Erlang and his father Li Yu divided Binjiang into inner and outer branches, imitating the practice of True Person Cao Xi, built embankments and weirs, and set up waterwheels."

"They also set up four magic arrays: Lidui, Huisha Weir, Baoping Mouth, and Fish Enclosure, combined with the terrain, to turn the disaster of the four waters into a benefit."

"Fifteen years ago, the gaps and aging problems appeared in these magic arrays and projects, which needed to be maintained from time to time."

"Originally, according to the methods of Li Yu and Li Erlang, it would be fine to solve it in the same way."

"But the Agricultural Official of Shuihe County didn't know which nerve was wrong, and insisted on learning the practice of True Person Cao Xi, and dug eight channels in the county."

"And set up 108 Five Elements waterwheels in one breath."

"That place originally had surging water veins and fragile earth veins. Although Li Yu and his son also learned from True Person Cao Xi, the method they gave was already the best choice considering the form of Shuihe County."

"As a result, the idiot in Shuihe County acted on his own, thinking that he exceeded the level of his predecessors, and actually wanted to imitate True Person Cao and raise a spirit mountain in Shuihe County!"

"He spent fifteen years doing this, not only without results, but also ruined the earth veins of Shuihe County. It is simply stupid!"

Zhao Xing asked curiously: "Did it take fifteen years to discover the problem?"

Chen Shijie hummed: "How is that possible? The problem appeared long ago, but this idiot thought he had the ability to do it, refused to repent, and every time an abnormality in heaven time and earth advantage appeared, he would forcibly change it with spells."

"I went to check the records of the Agricultural Office, and I almost couldn't help but want to beat him to death. This bastard actually secretly changed the four seasons more than 300 times in just fifteen years!"

"The solar terms of summer and autumn were repeatedly changed more than a thousand times!"

"Self-righteous, stupid. I went to help, and he still insisted that he was not wrong! Saying that if he was given a few more years, he could solve it."

Zhao Xing was surprised: "How could there be such a person, what did you do?"

Chen Shijie said: "I can't stand idiots, especially idiots with a straight brain. I said a few words and he didn't listen, so I threw him into the river directly."

"Doesn't he think he's not wrong? Then let him feel whether he is wrong or not."

Long Xiao laughed secretly on the side: "Old Chen used the Water Prison Method. He couldn't come up for ten days. Old Chen stayed in Shuihe County for as long as he was drowned in the river. Finally, people from the commandery came to release him."

Zhao Xing raised his glass: "Lord Chen is mighty! Worth a toast!"

Chen Shijie and Long Xiao raised their glasses and drank it down. After complaining, he finally felt much more comfortable in his heart.

After talking about official business, Chen Shijie asked: "How are you learning from the old Agricultural Official?"

Zhao Xing said: "I have a ten percent grasp."

Chen Shijie was surprised: "Why only ten percent?"

"Ten percent refers to the unexpected situation of not passing the exam, and the remaining ninety-nine percent is successfully becoming an official."

"Hahahahaha, you kid."

January 19, Great Cold.

End of the year, Tail Tooth Festival.

At this time, inside and outside Gucheng, very few people go out to work.

Every household gets rid of the old and sets up the new, neighbors start visiting each other to eat and drink, and visit relatives.

Not eating at this house, then eating at that house.

Zhao Ruide no longer practices martial arts, but takes Madam Cai to visit relatives and friends everywhere.

As for Zhao Xing, because he had to prepare for the exam, he didn't go out, but he also ate, drank, and played with Zong Shichang, Chen Ziyu, Qian Dong, and others for a few days.

Even Zhao Zheng had rare relaxation time, no longer practicing martial arts, and spent the whole day playing happily everywhere.

On this day, Zhao Zheng ran into Zhao Xing's room, a pair of black eyes looking around.

"Looking for what?"

"Big Brother, do you still have your firecrackers from last time?" Zhao Zheng asked, "Give me some more, and make them more powerful!"

"It's not bad that I gave you a few small ones, and you want more powerful ones? Do you want to blow up the county office?"

"And didn't I give you quite a few? How did you finish playing so quickly."

Zhao Xing asked: "Tell me, what did you use them for?"

Zhao Zheng's eyes dodged: "Nothing, just played with Er Gouzi and the others."

"Hmm? Did you cause trouble?"

Just as Zhao Xing finished speaking, a burst of hurried knocking came from outside.

"Open the door, open the door!"

"Damn Zhao Ruide, I was squatting in the latrine, what kind of thing did your family's bastard throw at me?!"

"Open the door! You bastard..."

Zhao Xing: "..."

February 3, Jingxin Calendar Year 16, Spring.

Everything recovers, the ice river thaws.

Zhao Xing walked out of the house.

The annual temple examination for Great Zhou officials began.