Chapter 100: Winter Assessment and Temple Examination, the Sixteenth Year of Jingxin

The cold was bitter, the hour drawing toward dusk.

Within Gucheng, household lights came on one after another, making the overcast sky above seem all the heavier.

Snow lay more than a foot deep on the ground, and still it fell from the sky, as if falling harder and harder.

The biting north wind swept the snow up from the ground, turning all of Gucheng into a vast white expanse.

"Creak, creak."

Zhao Zheng trudged through the thick snow, a coarse rope slung over his shoulder at a forty-five-degree angle to the ground, his little face flushed red.

"Ee-yah!"

He summoned all his strength, trying to drag the snow-plough behind him, but the snow was too deep and the plough had sunk in heavily; no matter how hard he strained, he could not move it forward a single inch.

"Plop~"

His foot slipped, and Zhao Zheng was flattened face-first into the snow.

Where you fall, there you lie—Zhao Zheng panted:

"Big brother, I can't drag it anymore!"

Zhao Xing pulled the plough out of the snow and leaned it against the wall: "Get up, go switch to the small iron shovel, keep clearing."

"Oh." Zhao Zheng flopped his way up out of the snow and went into the courtyard of their home to fetch the iron shovel.

Every man sweeps the snow before his own door. Here in Kangping Ward, neighbours came out one after another to clear the snow, clearing a path for people and horses to pass.

Zhao Xing lifted his head, looked at the sky, and felt a touch of cold as well.

It was now the Lesser Snow solar term.

Half a month had already passed since the last Xuantian Sect attack.

"Lesser Snow to Greater Snow, Greater Snow to no snow at all."

"First pentad: the rainbow hides and is not seen; second pentad: the heavenly qi rises and the earth's veins descend; third pentad: all is sealed shut, and winter is complete."

"In this solar term, even sensing the earth's veins has become somewhat difficult for me, and I can't press the cloud-walking height down too low either."

"But the Ice Rain spell's power has only grown stronger. Although the earth's veins have descended, as long as I can summon the Yin Wind, its power has likewise increased considerably over before."

Zhao Xing and his little brother had nearly finished clearing the snow before their door, then he took a few jin of pickled vegetables and cured meat made by Madam Cai, along with some dried fish, and headed toward Xue Fu.

Arriving at Xue Fu, no announcement was needed; the doorman saw Zhao Xing and opened the gate straightaway.

The old Agricultural Officer was at that moment busy at a tall stove in the courtyard.

"Teacher, why are you up so early brewing Lesser Snow wine?" Zhao Xing set down the things in his hands and ran over to help.

"Nothing to do, can't sit still either." Xue Wenzhong smiled as he took the long-handled ladle Zhao Xing handed him, stood on the ladder, and stirred it into the wine vat.

In the woodshed, a young man in a thin shirt came over carrying a bundle of firewood.

He bore a six- or seven-part resemblance to Xue Wenzhong—he was Xue Bai, already released after serving his sentence.

"Little Uncle-Master."

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

Xue Bai was the old Agricultural Officer's grandson; just a few days after the Start of Winter, he had been let out.

At the time, Zhao Xing had even gone with Xue Wenzhong to Juncheng to meet him.

When he came out of prison, Xue Bai spoke unhurriedly and behaved with respectful courtesy. Upon learning that Zhao Xing was his grandfather's disciple, he took to addressing Zhao Xing as Little Uncle-Master. It was hard to connect him with that dissolute young man who had beaten someone up over a love rivalry.

It was unclear whether he had simply been beaten badly in prison, but in any case, after several encounters with Xue Bai, Zhao Xing's impression of him was quite favourable.

Xue Wenzhong was even happier—his grandson mending his ways was the best thing possible.

His student was also outstanding, the pupil surpassing the master, so these past days Xue Wenzhong had been in excellent spirits; whoever he met, he wore a cheerful look, and even his mental state was much better than before.

After a spell of busy work, Xue Wenzhong came down from the ladder.

"You don't need to keep coming to see me. After the Winter Assessment, the Start of Spring is the Temple Examination."

"The imperial court's examination, especially the theory portion, will cover the climatic and geographical conditions and the plants of the nineteen prefectures across different regions. You still ought to study more and focus on preparing."

"Yes, I'll go back to read after we eat." Zhao Xing said.

"Eating is still a long way off—go read in my study." Xue Wenzhong clapped his hands and smiled. "What I can teach you now is just this theoretical knowledge."

December 7th, Greater Snow.

East Lake had already frozen over with a thick layer of ice, and many of the waterways around Guxian had frozen too, impassable.

Only a few main river channels were still barely functioning, but this had already greatly impacted Nanyang Prefecture's commercial activity.

Because Nanyang Prefecture relied heavily on waterway transport, if the grain shipments couldn't be guaranteed and things froze up for a month or two, the prices of goods in the city would soar.

"Greater Snow has frozen Nanyang's various regions; Gucheng has also suffered disaster."

"This counts as a fairly severe ice disaster."

"In past years, Nanyang Prefecture has never seen such extreme weather."

With the ice disaster's arrival, Agricultural Monitor officials everywhere also began to busy themselves.

Because the entire Nanyang Prefecture was involved, thawing just one county alone wouldn't do; it had to be coordinated and allocated by the prefecture as a whole.

Otherwise, if you thawed this stretch of river in Gucheng, within a day the ice floes from upstream would drift down and freeze it over again.

It also affected downstream areas—the water would overflow the surface of the ice, and it was hard to say what consequences that might bring.

If a flood came in winter on top of all this, that would truly be the death of us.

Chen Shijie had to stand his post for this final stretch, so he led the Agricultural Monitor officials in rushing about across the four regions and had not returned home for many days now.

"In ordinary times, if one alters the weather too much without conforming to the true balance of the Five Phases, then once the problems accumulate in the shadows, they will bring about an irresistible great natural disaster." Xue Wenzhong analysed the cause of this snow disaster for Zhao Xing at the residence.

"In twelve counties including Shan Xian, Huxian, Mingshanxian, and Shuihexian, during the first three seasons of this year, Agricultural Monitor officials—whether out of laziness or lack of ability—altered the weather repeatedly with spells."

"From the notice issued by Juncheng, in solving the problems they treated the symptoms but not the root cause, so it led to these twelve counties' Yin qi accumulating excessively, while Yang qi rose too far."

"After the Start of Winter, the Lesser Snow solar term's power increased severalfold."

"Among them, the chief Agricultural Monitor officials of Mingshan, Shuihe, and Dangyue committed serious mistakes—they failed to identify the root cause and instead tried to reverse the Lesser Snow solar term and re-establish the Start of Winter."

"The result was that the problem completely erupted. Since then, the ley lines of these three counties have sunk deeply, the yin energy has spread to the sides, and even dragged down the other counties. The Agricultural Officials of these three counties will probably have a very ugly evaluation this year; if it's not handled well, they may even be demoted." Xue Wenzhong said.

Zhao Xing picked up the copy of the document and looked at it. The downward-issued documents Fan Dongping gave to these three counties all used the 'xi' (denunciatory dispatch) format, and the text began with "To the Agricultural Supervisor of Shuihe County..."

Just by looking at the official document's format and opening, one could tell that the offenses of these three counties were very serious.

Because for the other counties, the downward-issued documents all used the 'die' (routine dispatch) format, the text only began with proclaim, inquire, or inspect, the tone was relatively mild, and the dispatches were only delivered internally, not made public.

"You must take these cases of error as a warning. Next year you may well see similar questions in the Temple Examination."

"Yes, I will study them carefully."

December 21st, Winter Solstice.

The three days of the Winter Solstice are also the Winter Evaluation.

Because of the ice disaster, the Gucheng Agricultural Supervisor did not conduct any field assessments, but instead, following the instructions of Nanyang Commandery, used this ice disaster as a case study and made it into questions for the clerks.

Zhao Xing had no need to take the exam, but he still went.

Three days later, the Nanyang Commandery Agricultural Supervisor announced the Winter Evaluation results.

Only fifteen people from Gucheng obtained Temple Examination quotas.

According to convention, of these fifteen people, probably only one-third, or even one-fifth, would pass and be formally appointed as officials.

As for the remaining over four hundred people in the Agricultural Supervisor, they all became runners-up, without even the qualification for the Temple Examination.

"Another year wasted."

"Only fifteen Temple Examination quotas; last year there were twenty-five."

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

"Those five were transferred to Shangdang, Fengshan, and other places, thousands of miles from home. What's so good about that?"

"Don't be sour, Brother Liu. That's at least a rank-nine-from-the-bottom official. If they really gave you this chance, you'd crawl there if you had to."

"Well, that's true, hahahaha."

In front of the announcement board, many clerks were discussing among themselves.

Zhao Xing also found time to go take a look. When he arrived,

many clerks hurriedly made way.

"Zhao Xing is here!"

"Brother Zhao, congratulations!"

"Make way, let Lord Zhao look first."

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

Zhao Xing cupped his hands in return, and after reading the announcement he did not linger, leaving quickly.

January 5th, Lesser Cold.

Yang energy increased slightly. The long-lasting ice disaster, through the joint efforts of all counties in Nanyang Commandery, was resolved and returned to normal levels.

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

"The Agricultural Supervisor officials of Mingshan, Shuihe, and Dangyue counties are truly fucking idiots."

"I went over to help for half a month, and was almost angered to death by the fools in those three places."

Chen Shijie drank Xiaoxue wine while eating roasted meat, and was still somewhat worked up even now.

"What happened?" Zhao Xing asked.

"What else could have happened? Stupid! Especially the Agricultural Official of Shuihe County!"

"Shuihe County is located at the confluence of four rivers. Five hundred years ago, Li Erlang and his father Li Yu divided the Binjiang into inner and outer branches, imitating the method of Cao Xi Zhenjun, building dikes and weirs, and setting up Guiyuan water wheels."

"They also established four formations at Luidui, Huisha Weir, Baoping Mouth, and Yuwei, combining the terrain to turn the hazards of the four rivers into benefits."

"Fifteen years ago, gaps and aging problems appeared in these formations and projects, requiring maintenance from time to time."

"Originally, following Li Yu and Li Erlang's method, it would have been sufficient to just copy their approach."

"But this Agricultural Official of Shuihe County, who knows what got into his head, insisted on learning from Cao Xi Zhenjun's method and dug eight channels in the county."

"And in one breath set up one hundred and eight Five Elements water wheels."

"That place originally had surging water veins and fragile ley lines. Although Li Yu and his father also learned from Cao Xi Zhenjun, they considered Shuihe County's situation, and the method they provided was already the optimal choice."

"But the idiot of Shuihe County acted on his own, thinking he had surpassed the predecessors, and actually wanted to emulate Cao Zhenjun, to nurture a Spirit Mountain in Shuihe County!"

"He spent fifteen years on this matter, and not only achieved nothing, but instead collapsed Shuihe County's ley lines. Simply beyond foolish!"

Zhao Xing asked curiously: "It took fifteen years to discover the problem?"

Chen Shijie snorted: "How could that be? The problem appeared long ago, but this idiot believed he had the ability to do it and refused to repent. Whenever anomalies in weather and terrain appeared, he would forcefully alter them with magic."

"When I went over and looked through the Agricultural Supervisor's records, I almost couldn't resist beating him to death. This bastard actually secretly altered the four seasons over three hundred times in just fifteen years!"

"Among them, the solar terms of summer and autumn were repeatedly altered by him over a thousand times!"

"Smarting off, beyond foolish. I went over to help, and he still stubbornly believed he was right! Saying something about giving him a few more years and he could solve it."

Zhao Xing said in surprise: "How could there be such a person? What did you do?"

Chen Shijie said: "I can't stand idiots, especially stubborn idiots. I said a few words and he wouldn't listen, so I just threw him into the river."

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

Long Xiao snickered on the side: "Old Chen used the Water-Imprisonment method. He couldn't come up for at least ten days. However long Old Chen stayed in Shuihe County, he was drowning in the river. In the end, people from the commandery came and released him."

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

Chen Shijie and Long Xiao raised their cups and drank them dry. After finishing his complaints, he finally felt much more comfortable.

After finishing the official business, Chen Shijie asked: "How is your learning with the old Agricultural Official going?"

Zhao Xing said: "I already have a ten-percent certainty."

Chen Shijie said in surprise: "How is it only ten percent?"

"The ten percent refers to unexpected situations where I might fail. The remaining ninety-nine percent is smoothly being appointed as an official."

"Hahahaha, you little brat."

January 19th, Great Cold.

Year-end, the Year-End Feast.

By now, inside and outside Gucheng, very few people still went out to work.

Every household swept out the old and brought in the new; neighbors began visiting one another to eat and drink, calling on relatives.

Eating at one house or another.

Zhao Ruide no longer practiced martial arts either, but took Lady Cai around visiting relatives and friends.

As for Zhao Xing, because he had to prepare for the exam, he didn't go out visiting, but he did eat, drink, and make merry for several days with Zong Shichang, Chen Ziyu, Qian Dong, and others.

Even Zhao Zheng rarely had time to relax, no longer practicing martial arts, spending the whole day happily running around having fun.

That day, Zhao Zheng ran into Zhao Xing's room, a pair of black eyes darting around, looking here and there.

"What are you looking for?"

"Big Brother, do you still have any of those firecrackers from last time?" Zhao Zheng asked. "Give me some more, ones with a bit more power!"

"Giving you a few small ones is already plenty, and you want more powerful ones? Are you trying to blow up the county office?"

"Besides, didn't I give you plenty last time? How did you use them up so fast?"

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

Zhao Zheng's gaze flickered evasively: "It's nothing, I just played with Er Gouzi and the others."

"Hmm? Did you cause trouble?"

The moment Zhao Xing finished speaking, a flurry of urgent knocking came from outside.

"Open up, open up!"

"Damned Zhao Ruide, I was squatting in the latrine—what the hell did that Wang Ba of yours toss at me?!"

"Open up! You rotten bastard…"

Zhao Xing: "…"

February 3rd, the sixteenth year of the Jingxin Calendar, Spring.

All things revive, the frozen rivers thaw.

Zhao Xing stepped out of his home.

The Great Zhou officials' annual temple examination had begun.