Chapter 60: Building a Pier 1/3

The magistrate of Gou County was in a good mood, ordering quite a few dishes and constantly urging Li Qingzhi to eat more.

After eating for a while, the magistrate of Gou County asked Li Qingzhi, “I heard that my nephew intends to participate in the county exam next year? What books have you been studying now?”

The magistrate of Gou County had known Li Qingzhi for several days, but they had been discussing how to deal with Zhang Yunquan’s matter before, without touching on scholarly matters.

Now, the magistrate of Gou County wanted to gauge Li Qingzhi’s knowledge.

If Li Qingzhi was knowledgeable, he could give Li Qingzhi a case head. If Li Qingzhi’s knowledge was lacking, he could give some guidance to ensure Li Qingzhi passed the county exam, and even the subsequent provincial and metropolitan exams should not be a problem.

However, the later imperial exams would depend on Li Qingzhi’s own abilities.

Li Qingzhi had previously met with Li Xiucai and had already experienced such a situation.

Since he intended to pursue the path of the imperial examinations, he wouldn’t hide his knowledge. Li Qingzhi immediately stated that he had memorized the Four Books and Five Classics, and had also memorized some annotations from different scholars, but he was lacking in writing essays.

The magistrate of Gou County was astonished, much like Li Xiucai: “You’ve memorized the Four Books and Five Classics?”

“I have a good memory,” Li Qingzhi smiled.

The magistrate of Gou County immediately asked some questions for Li Qingzhi to answer. Li Qingzhi answered fluently, showing that he was very familiar with the classics.

“Excellent!” The magistrate of Gou County was pleasantly surprised.

Li Qingzhi’s basic skills were extremely solid!

With such a solid foundation, why worry about not passing the imperial examinations?

Moreover, Li Qingzhi could memorize so much, which also indicated his intelligence.

As for Li Qingzhi’s lack of essay writing… Considering that Li Qingzhi’s family was not wealthy and he couldn’t afford a famous teacher, it was normal for his essays to be lacking. He just needed to practice more.

The magistrate of Gou County became more and more excited as they talked, and his impression of Li Qingzhi became better and better.

If the magistrate of Gou County were younger now and encountered such a talented student like Li Qingzhi, he might have felt jealous, but the magistrate of Gou County was not young anymore, and he had already completed the imperial examination path.

He was now a county magistrate, and the number of scholars produced by Chongcheng County, where he was located, was his political achievement!

The better Li Qingzhi’s knowledge, the greater the benefits he would bring.

The magistrate of Gou County immediately expressed that if Li Qingzhi encountered any problems in his studies, he could come to him for advice, and he also said that there were many books in his study that he could lend to Li Qingzhi to read.

Li Qingzhi immediately got up, bowed in thanks, and praised the magistrate of Gou County both overtly and covertly, flattering him repeatedly.

While doing so, he didn’t forget to taste the delicacies on the table, eating more than the other two combined.

However, after eating almost enough, Li Qingzhi stopped using his chopsticks and didn’t ask for leftovers.

In front of the magistrate of Gou County, he still had to maintain some semblance of decorum.

They enjoyed the meal, and when they left, the storyteller was still narrating stories about the magistrate of Gou County.

The corners of the magistrate of Gou County’s mouth were always turned up.

Li Qingzhi didn’t stand on ceremony with the magistrate of Gou County. He borrowed two books from the magistrate’s study before leaving the county office.

Li Qingzhi was currently riding high on success, while on the other hand, Hong Hui was at a low point.

Hong Hui had a very good reputation in Chongcheng County before, being recognized by the people as the most knowledgeable young person in the city. People even considered him gentle and modest.

But the incident where the Hong family condoned his brother’s beating of others had damaged his reputation. That alone might have been manageable, but now, Sun Juren’s reputation has also plummeted.

He not only lost a powerful backer, but the people in the city even suspected him of colluding with Zhang Yunquan.

The only good thing was that he no longer had to marry Zhang Yunquan’s daughter.

Hong Hui was well aware that as a disciple of Sun Juren, he couldn’t sever his ties with him. Therefore, after Sun Juren encountered trouble, he had been comforting him.

But today at noon, he left the Sun family and once again entertained the businessman who placed a large order with Jin Xiaoye at the restaurant.

This merchant was surnamed Wu, named Wu Baichuan. His business was doing well, although not as well as Zhu Qian’s, but it was still quite good, with a large ship of his own.

Wu Baichuan’s business mainly involved transporting goods from Jiangnan to the capital for sale, and then buying goods from the capital to sell in Jiangnan.

The goods from Jiangnan were novel in style and were very popular among the people of the capital. As for the goods from the capital, after they were brought to Jiangnan, they were said to be used by the palace maidens, naturally causing a lot of people to rush to buy them.

Not long ago, while strolling through Chongcheng County, Wu Baichuan happened upon a clothing store. He noticed the shop assistant selling supposedly novel and exquisite small items said to be from the capital city. Intrigued, he took an interest.

Having traveled extensively, Wu had seen many things, but this fresh style caught his eye. If he took these items to the capital, they would surely sell well.

However, Wu knew these couldn’t have come from the capital. He had just come from there and hadn’t seen anything like them. After a bit of inquiry, Wu learned about Jin Xiaoye and promptly placed a large order with her.

There was a large trading company in the capital planning to organize a fleet to sail north in early November. Wu paid up, and his ship could join that fleet. They would reach the capital during the New Year, which was guaranteed to bring in substantial profits.

In order to make money, they were willing to endure the cold journey north even in the depths of winter.

Wu hadn’t planned to tamper with the order since Jin Xiaoye’s asking price wasn’t high. At this price… delivering the goods to the capital and doubling the price was no problem.

The fabrics from Chongcheng County that were unavailable in the north would easily fetch double in the capital, let alone the finished products!

However, what Wu Baichuan didn’t expect was that shortly after placing the order with Jin Xiaoye, someone approached him, asking him to breach the contract and reject the shipment.

For Wu Baichuan, this would result in a significant loss. He wasn’t too happy about it, but the person who approached him was Hong Hui.

Hong Hui was from the Hong family and was a student of Sun, a respected figure in the county. Wu had vaguely heard some rumors indicating that the Hong family intended to arrange a marriage with the Zhang family, proposing that Hong Hui marry Zhang Yunquan’s daughter.

Wu Baichuan didn’t dare offend Zhang Yunquan.

The townsfolk had suffered greatly under Zhang Yunquan’s exploitation, and the merchants were no exception.

Zhang Yunquan’s men would occasionally demand money from them, and if they refused, his henchmen would cause trouble for them when conducting business.

They had no choice but to comply!