Chapter 74: Zhang Jie, a Good Citizen of the Great Song

"Uncle, you flatter me."

Zhang Jie maintained his usual humility.

"Uncle, please come inside."

Zhang Jie invited Wenbin into his home.

"Nephew, please."

Wenbin replied. Unlike before when he was high and mighty,

Zhang Jie, after winning the Jieren exam, already had the capital to sit on equal footing with him.

Although a Jieren is not necessarily guaranteed to pass the imperial exam,

a Jieren has a great advantage compared to other scholars.

And Zhang Jie is still young; youth is his greatest capital!

After all, youth represents infinite possibilities.

Zhang Jie led Wenbin by a distance of one step and led him into the Zhang family.

Along the way, Zhang Jie talked about interesting anecdotes on the road to the imperial exam, which could be considered to liven up the atmosphere.

And Wenbin also looked quite interested,

and for a time, the two, with an age gap of decades, talked happily.

"The Young Master has grown up!"

Looking at this scene, the old steward was very gratified.

The current Zhang Jie already had the full ability to support the Zhang family.

And Yan Poxi's eyes were filled with brilliance:

In her eyes, the County Magistrate was already a great figure,

and Zhang Jie talked and laughed with such a great figure,

which meant that Zhang Jie himself had entered the upper class.

Even the Zhang family's laborers felt a sense of honor.

Compared to other wealthy landlords who squeezed the marrow out of bones, Zhang Jie was extremely good to them.

Not only was their wages not deducted, but there were also rewards during festivals,

and there was much relief when there were difficulties at home or when someone was sick.

Now that Zhang Jie's position was stable, their lives would have hope.

Zhang Jie waved his hand at this: how can there be a reason to want the horse to run without letting the horse eat grass?

Zhang Jie brought Wenbin into the living room for a good reception.

The conversation between the two was nothing more than:

Wenbin: "Little brother, I, your elder brother, am optimistic about you!

In the future, in Yanggu County, I will cover you!"

Of course, he also implicitly indicated not to do anything too outrageous,

such as using the privilege of the Jieren title to be tax-exempt to accept large-scale donations.

If next year's taxes cannot be collected, then it will not be good for everyone.

Donations and such are fine, but not too outrageous.

Zhang Jie expressed: I have always been a good citizen of the Great Song Dynasty,

loyal to the Emperor, and will not do anything harmful to the people.

At the same time, Zhang Jie also took out a jade pendant, indicating that this was found by his nephew on the way to the imperial exam,

but unfortunately, he was addicted to the sea of books and could not appraise it, hoping that his uncle would take it for appraisal.

Wenbin, holding the jade pendant worth at least three or four hundred taels, had an even brighter smile on his face:

As the magistrate of Yanggu County, he certainly did not lack three or four hundred taels of silver;

what he was happy about was that Zhang Jie, this little brother, was still sensible,

and did not look down on him because he won the Jieren exam.

The Great Song followed the system of the Five Dynasties, and the term of office for County Magistrates and County Prefects was three years.

After the Zhenzong era, although there were adjustments, the three-year term became the mainstream system.

However, due to the increase in the number of officials and the serious problem of redundant officials,

the actual term of office was often shortened to two years or even shorter.

Frequent transfers made it difficult for county officials to become familiar with local affairs, exacerbating the phenomenon of "strong clerks and weak officials,"

forcing county magistrates like him to rely on local snakes to govern.

Zhang Jie, who now has the Jieren title, is like a gradually rising local snake.

Pulling in a batch, suppressing a batch, and supporting a batch of local snakes

is the necessary process for every County Magistrate after taking office.

He came here to pull in Zhang Jie, this new local snake, and suppress the old local snakes headed by the County Assistant and County Lieutenant who were competing with him for power.

As for whether Zhang Jie will become exceptionally powerful in a few years and be able to confront the County Magistrate?

What is the problem with that?

Anyway, his term of office is only a year or so, and he only needs to ensure that Zhang Jie does not confront him during this period.

After that, whether Zhang Jie has the upper hand or the new County Magistrate has the upper hand has nothing to do with him.

He chooses to believe in the wisdom of later generations~

And maybe Zhang Jie will pass the imperial exam next year?

By then, Zhang Jie will be an official in the same dynasty as him, so he should be even better friends.

After all, being an official in the same dynasty is like riding on the same boat!

"Nephew, no need to send me off."

At the gate of the Zhang family, Wenbin, who got a satisfactory answer, said with a spring breeze on his face.

"Uncle, take care; my nephew will definitely arrive on time tomorrow."

Zhang Jie bowed and said goodbye to Wenbin.

"Why are there so many banquets?"

Zhang Jie, who sent Wenbin away, had a headache.

After passing the exam, he had already attended the banquet in Jinan Prefecture,

and went to Yuncheng County to attend the banquet of the County Magistrate Wenbin,

and now that he is back in Yanggu County, Wenbin invited him to attend a banquet tomorrow.

Day after day, just attending banquets, how can he do other things?

Or rather, is attending banquets one of the important things for Wenbin and the others?

Now Zhang Jie has experienced what is called the old tradition:

"Talk while eating, chat while eating."

"Forget it, I won't attend the subsequent banquets."

Zhang Jie made up his mind that after attending Wenbin's banquet tomorrow, he would push away the other banquets.

There is even a ready-made reason, Zhang Jie:

"You say it's normal for me, a Jieren, to want to pass the imperial exam, right?

And the imperial exam is harder than the provincial exam, so it's normal for me to study behind closed doors,

or travel the world to accumulate knowledge, right?

In this case, isn't it normal that I don't have time to attend other banquets!"

Coming to the study, after dismissing the other servants, Zhang Jie asked the old steward:

"Steward Da, do those craftsmen have any new works?"

"Young Master, this is their best work in the past two months."

The old steward took a box from the shelf in the study.

Zhang Jie opened the box, and inside was a tube.

This tube emitted the cold light unique to metal,

about one meter long, with an inner diameter of about 2cm.

Zhang Jie picked it up and weighed it, then looked at it in front of his eyes,

finding it very smooth inside, with no obvious burrs.

"Not bad."

Zhang Jie nodded with satisfaction.

"Young Master, are you going to use it to make... that kind of smoking gun?"

The old steward asked thoughtfully.

He knew that his Young Master had built two short guns.

Those two short guns were extremely powerful, stronger than ordinary bows and crossbows.

"En."

Zhang Jie nodded slightly.

Building a gun is a big project, not something he can handle alone.

The old steward, who is a person close to him, must know.

And friends who often build guns know that the hardest things to build in modern firearms are the bullets and the barrel.

However, because Zhang Jie is still making black powder guns,

the bullets used are lead bullets, so the hardest thing is the barrel.

High quality of the barrel is the premise of high range and high precision.

And because the chamber pressure ignited by gunpowder is too large, the barrel cannot be cast.

At least not with the current technological level of the Great Song:

Casting barrels is prone to defects such as air bubbles and uneven organization,

making it difficult to meet the requirements for high strength and precision of the barrel,

especially in high-temperature and high-pressure environments, it is prone to dangers such as barrel explosion.

The only means that can be used in the Great Song is cutting.

The barrel of the short-barreled flintlock gun that Zhang Jie used to kill Wang Chuang

was drilled out by a master craftsman by hand.

"Young Master, the hydraulic machine design drawings you gave to several craftsmen some time ago are truly perfect.

Several craftsmen praised it after building it, and this barrel was drilled out by a hydraulic machine."

The old steward praised Zhang Jie for his profound knowledge.

"Just average."

Zhang Jie waved his hand, not proud.

That kind of design drawing is actually no different from a windmill or waterwheel, just more stable and with higher precision.

"Sigh. Why didn't a modern Zhang Jie or even an interstellar Zhang Jie appear?"

Zhang Jie sighed in his heart.

Using water power is still not as convenient and efficient as internal combustion engines or electricity.

But even though he has a photographic memory, he doesn't know the detailed structural drawings of an internal combustion engine.

After all, he had never studied the drawings of an internal combustion engine in his past life, and photographic memory does not mean he can fabricate them out of thin air.

As for generators, they can be built, but they are too crude and difficult to transmit.

Another thing is that the technological level of the Great Song is still too poor,

and there are many materials that are difficult to find in a short time, such as rubber.

If there were a high-tech Zhang Jie bringing more detailed technological data,

alloy formulas, etc., his problems would be solved.

As for the existence of high technology, such as the pacifist robot in the Pirate World?

How should I put it?

Because of the isolation of the sea, the gap between the various islands in the Pirate World is huge.

There is Vegapunk, a technological genius who is said to be five hundred years ahead of the world,

and there is the Vinsmoke family in the North Sea who started genetic modification and manufacturing clones,

but some islands are still in the primitive era of slash-and-burn cultivation.

The gap is so large that it is hard to believe they live in the same world.

One thing that must be mentioned is that when Vegapunk had already created

pacifists that could rival Major General-level experts,

the bottom-level soldiers of the Navy were still holding flintlock guns, and even the warships were still wooden.

The "high technology" for crossing the Calm Belt is rumored to be just inlaid with Seastone.

One can only say that high-end technology is so simple and unadorned...

And the cadres of the Big Mom Pirates are all ability users, each with their own great power,

it would be a ghost if they had the motivation to develop technology.

The various islands under the Big Mom Pirates mostly live a pastoral life,

planting various crops to provide raw materials for Whole Cake Island to make delicacies.

Pirate Zhang Jie is still a small shrimp, and he dare not go to the Grand Line to wave now.

It would be funny if he were taken down by some small fry who knows Haki.

Anyway, Pirate Zhang Jie has also decided that he will absolutely not leave the island until he has the power to protect himself.

Pirate Zhang Jie: Stay steady, don't wave~ ===== CHAPTER 75 =====

Pirate Zhang Jie: Stay steady, don't mess around~