Chapter 101 Winter Review and Temple Examination, the Sixteenth Year of Jingxin

It was freezing cold and almost dusk.

Fireworks from the houses in Gucheng lit up one after another, making the gloomy sky seem particularly heavy.

The snow on the ground was a foot deep, and it was still falling from the sky, and it seemed to be getting heavier.

The biting north wind blew up the snow on the ground, turning the entire valley city into a vast expanse of white.

"Crunch, crunch."

Zhao Zheng was standing on the thick snow, carrying a thick rope on his shoulders at a 45-degree angle to the ground, his little face flushed red.

"Yeah!"

He gathered all his strength and tried to drag the shovel behind him, but the snow was too thick and the shovel was deeply stuck in the snow. No matter how hard he tried, he could not move forward at all.

"Puff~"

Zhao Zheng slipped and fell into the snow.

Lie down where you fell, Zhao Zheng panted:
"Brother, I can't drag it anymore!"

Zhao Xing pulled the shovel out of the snow and put it against the wall: "Get up, change to a small shovel, and continue shoveling."

"Oh." Zhao Zheng struggled to get up from the snow and went to get a shovel from the yard.

Everyone cleans the snow in front of their own door. At this time in Kangpingfang, neighbors came out one after another to clear the snow and make way for people and horses to pass.

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

It is now the Minor Snow solar term.

Half a month has passed since the last Xuantian Sect attack.

"It snows heavily during the Minor Snow Festival, and there is no snow during the Major Snow Festival."

"In the first phase, the rainbow disappears; in the second phase, the air rises and the earth veins descend; in the third phase, the sky is blocked and winter comes."

"During this solar term, it has become difficult for me to even sense the earth veins, and the altitude of the clouds cannot be lowered too much."

"However, the power of the Ice Rain spell has only increased. Although the earth veins have dropped, as long as the Yin Wind can be summoned, its power will also be much stronger than before."

Zhao Xing and his younger brother shoveled almost all the snow in front of the door, then carried a few pounds of pickled vegetables, bacon, and dried fish made by Mrs. Cai and walked towards Xue's mansion.

When they arrived at Xue's house, there was no need to inform Zhao Xing. The doorman opened the door directly when he saw him.

At this time, the old Si Nong was busy in front of a tall stove in the yard.

"Teacher, why do you get up so early to brew Xiaoxue wine?" Zhao Xing put down what he was holding and ran over to help.

"I have nothing to do, but I can't stay idle." Xue Wenzhong took the long spoon handed over by Zhao Xing with a smile, stood on the ladder and stirred the wine in the wine cellar.

A young man in a thin shirt walked over from the woodshed, holding a bundle of firewood.

He is about 60% similar to Xue Wenzhong, and is Xue Bai who has been released from prison.

"Little uncle."

"Well, give it to me." Zhao Xing took the firewood from Xue Bai.

Xue Bai was the grandson of the old Si Nong and was released a few days after the beginning of winter.

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

When he was released from prison, Xue Bai spoke slowly and respectfully. After learning that Zhao Xing was his grandfather's disciple, he respectfully called Zhao Xing "little uncle". It was hard to associate him with the dissolute young man who beat someone up because of jealousy.

I don’t know if it was because he was beaten in prison, but after several contacts with Xue Bai, Zhao Xing had a pretty good impression of him.

Xue Wenzhong was also happier. It couldn't be better if his grandson could reform himself.

The students performed well again, and the students were better than their teachers, so Xue Wenzhong was in a good mood these days. He looked cheerful when he met everyone, and even his mental state was much better than before.

After working 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 review, the beginning of spring will be the temple exam."

"The court's examination, especially the theory, will involve the weather, geography, and plants of different regions in the 19 states. You should study more and concentrate on preparing for the exam."

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

"It's still early for dinner, go read in my study." Xue Wenzhong clapped his hands and smiled, "These are the only theoretical knowledge I can teach you now."

On December 7th, it snowed heavily.

A thick layer of ice has formed on the East Lake, and many waterways around Gu County have been frozen and are impassable.

Only a few mainstream river channels were still operating, but this also greatly affected the commercial activities in Nanyang County.

Because Nanyang County relies heavily on water transportation, if the water transportation cannot be guaranteed and the city is frozen for a month or two, prices in the city will skyrocket.

"Heavy snow froze all parts of Nanyang, and Gucheng was also affected."

"This is considered an ice disaster of considerable magnitude."

"Nanyang County has never had such extreme weather in previous years."

When the ice disaster hit, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in various places began to get busy.

Since the entire Nanyang County is involved, it is not enough to thaw the land in just one county, and it must be uniformly allocated by the county.

Otherwise, once the section of the river near Nigu City thaws, the ice from upstream will float over within a day and freeze again.

It will also have an impact on the downstream. The water will overflow the surface of the ice, but it may not cause any impact.

If there is another flood in winter, it will be fatal.

Chen Shijie wanted to complete his last shift, so he led the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture to travel around, and he had not returned for several days.

"If the weather is changed too much in normal times and the five elements are not in true balance, then when the problems accumulate in the dark, it will cause an irresistible natural disaster." Xue Wenzhong analyzed the causes of the snowstorm to Zhao Xing at his home.

"In the twelve counties of Youshan County, Hu County, Mingshan County, and Shuihe County, during the first three seasons of this year, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture were either lazy or incompetent, and used magic to change the celestial phenomena many times."

"From the notice issued by the county capital, it seems that they only addressed the symptoms of the problem and not the root cause, which has led to the excessive accumulation of yin energy and excessive rise of yang energy in these twelve counties."

"After the beginning of winter, the power of the Minor Snow solar term has increased exponentially."

"Among them, the chief agricultural officials of Mingshan, Shuihe and Dangyue counties made serious mistakes. They did not find the root cause, but instead wanted to reverse the Minor Snow solar term and start winter again."

"As a result, the problem broke out completely. The earth veins in these three counties completely sunk, and the negative energy spread to the sides, affecting the other counties. The agricultural officials in these three counties will probably have ugly evaluations this year. If they are not handled properly, they may even be demoted." Xue Wenzhong said.

Zhao Xing picked up the rubbing of the document and took a look. Fan Dongping's documents to the three counties were all written in the form of "檄", and the first line of the document was "to report to the Minister of Agriculture of Shuihe County..."

Just by looking at the style and beginning of the official document, you can tell that these three counties have made serious mistakes.

Because in other counties, all official documents were sent out in the form of "die", and the beginning of the document was just "xuan", "wen", "cha", and the tone was relatively mild. Moreover, the document was only delivered internally and not made public.

"You need to learn from these mistakes. You may see similar questions in the temple exam next year."

"Yes, I'll take a good look."

December 21st, Winter Solstice.

The three days of the winter solstice are also the winter review.

Due to the ice disaster, the Gucheng Sinong Supervisor did not conduct any more on-site assessments. Instead, in accordance with the instructions of Nanyang County, he used the ice disaster as a case and gave it as a question to the officials.

Zhao Xing didn't need to refer, but he went anyway.

Three days later, the Nanyang County Agricultural Supervisor announced the results of the winter evaluation.

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

According to convention, out of these fifteen people, probably only one-third or even one-fifth can pass and be formally accepted as an official.

As for the remaining 400-odd people from the Sinong Supervisor, they all became runners-up and did not even have the qualification to take the temple examination.

"It's all in vain again this year." "There are only fifteen places for the temple exam, but there were twenty-five last year."

"What's the use? We took 25 last year, but we only took five."

"Those five people were transferred to Shangdang, Fengshan and other places, thousands of miles away from their hometown. What good is that?"

"Don't be jealous, Brother Liu. That's at least the ninth rank. If you were really given this opportunity, you would crawl over there."

"That's true, hahahaha."

Many officials were discussing the list before it was posted.

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

Many officials gave up their seats.

"Zhao Xing is coming!"

"Brother Zhao, congratulations!"

"Make way, let Lord Zhao take a look first."

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

Zhao Xing bowed in return, and after reading the notice, he did not stay for long and left quickly.

January 5th, Minor Cold.

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

After being busy for more than a month, Chen Shijie finally returned to Gucheng.

"The officials in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture in Mingshan, Shuihe and Dangyue counties are damn stupid."

"I went over there to help for half a month, and I was almost pissed off to death by those idiots in these three places."

Chen Shijie was drinking Xiaoxue wine and eating barbecue, and he was still a little excited.

"What's going on?" Zhao Xing asked.

"What else can it be? Stupid! Especially the Si Nong 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 River into two branches, the inner and outer branches. Following the example of Caoxi Zhenjun, they built embankments, weirs, and set up Guiyuan waterwheels."

"Four magic arrays were set up at Lidui, Huishayan, Baopingkou and Yuwei, and combined with the terrain, the dangers of the four waters were turned into benefits."

"Fifteen years ago, these arrays and projects began to show gaps and aging problems, and they needed maintenance from time to time."

"Originally, we should just follow Li Yu and Li Erlang's method and solve it in the same way."

"But for some reason, the Minister of Agriculture of Shuihe County had gone astray and insisted on following the example of Master Caoxi and dug eight canals in the county."

"Another 108 Five Elements Waterwheels were set up in one go."

"That place originally had turbulent water veins and fragile ground veins. Although Li Yu and his son also learned from Caoxi Zhenjun, they took the situation of Shuihe County into consideration, and the method they gave was already the best choice."

"As a result, the fools in Shuihe County acted on their own, thinking that they had surpassed their predecessors. They even wanted to follow the example of Master Cao and build a sacred mountain in Shuihe County!"

"He spent fifteen years doing this, but not only did it not work, but he also destroyed the earth veins in Shuihe County. This is simply stupid!"

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

Chen Shijie snorted, "How is that possible? The problem has already occurred, but this idiot believes that he has the ability to do it and refuses to repent. Whenever there is an abnormality in the weather and location, he uses magic to force a change."

"When I looked through the records of the Minister of Agriculture, I almost wanted to beat him to death. This bastard secretly changed the seasons more than 300 times in just 15 years!"

"He even changed the solar terms for summer and autumn more than a thousand times!"

"He's so smart, so stupid. I went over to help him, but he still thinks he's not wrong! He said that it can be solved in a few years."

Zhao Xing was surprised and asked: "How could there be such a person? How did you do it?"

Chen Shijie said, "I can't stand idiots, especially those with a stubborn mind. If he doesn't listen to me, I will just throw him into the river."

"He thinks it's right, so let him feel it and see for himself whether it's right or not."

Long Xiao chuckled and said, "Old Chen used the water imprisonment method. He couldn't get out for more than ten days. He stayed in the river for as long as he stayed in Shuihe County. In the end, people from the county came and released him."

Zhao Xing raised his glass: "Master Chen is so powerful! We deserve a toast!"

Chen Shijie and Long Xiao picked up their glasses and drank them all. After complaining, he finally felt much better.

After finishing his business, Chen Shijie asked, "How are you doing in studying with the old Sinong?"

Zhao Xing said: "I am 10% sure."

Chen Shijie was surprised and asked, "Why is it only 10%?"

"One percent refers to unexpected situations where one fails the exam, and the remaining 99 percent refers to successful acceptance."

"Hahahaha, you kid."

January 19th is the Great Cold.

End of the year, the year-end party.

At this time, there were very few people going out to work inside and outside Gucheng.

Every household gets rid of the old and puts on the new, and neighbors start visiting each other for food and drinks and visiting relatives.

Either I eat at this restaurant or that restaurant.

Zhao Ruide no longer practiced martial arts, but took Mrs. Cai to visit relatives and friends.

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

Even Zhao Zheng had some rare time to relax. He stopped practicing martial arts and just happily played around all day.

That day, Zhao Zheng ran into Zhao Xing's room, looking around with his pair of black eyes.

"What are you looking for?"

"Brother, do you still have the firecrackers you bought last time?" Zhao Zheng asked, "Give me some more, with more powerful ones!"

"It's good enough to give you a few small ones, but you want something more powerful? You want to blow up the county government office?"

"Besides, I gave you a lot, how come it's over so quickly?"

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

Zhao Zheng's eyes were a little evasive: "Nothing, just playing with Er Gouzi and the others."

"Hmm? Are you in trouble?"

Just as Zhao Xing finished speaking, there was a hurried knock on the door.

"Open the door, open the door!"

"Damn you Zhao Ruide, I'm in the toilet, what did that bastard of yours throw at me?!"

"Open the door! You bastard..."

Zhao Xing: "..."

February 3rd, the sixteenth year of Jingxinli, spring.

All things come back to life and the glaciers melt.

Zhao Xing walked out of the house.

The annual temple examination for officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty has begun.

(End of this chapter)