Chapter 87 Going to Beijing to take the exam

When Rosen walked out of the restaurant, the groom and the guards clenched their fists and tensed their muscles.

The groom and the guard were both veterans of the battlefield and were particularly sensitive to danger.

However, Rosen just passed by them without even glancing at them.

Zhu Wen and Luo Ming chatted for two hours.

Only then did Zhu Wen say goodbye to Luo Ming.

"Mingyan, my dear brother, this is my jade pendant. If you go to the capital someday, you must come and find me. I live on Zhuque Street, and my mansion is just a hundred steps ahead."

"Of course. If I go to the capital, I will definitely drink and chat with Brother Zhu again." Luo Ming touched his body and took out a pocket watch: "Brother Zhu, this is a gift from my father. Now I will give it to you."

"What is this?"

"My father said that this is a pocket watch that can tell time. He asked a skilled craftsman to make it. I hope Brother Zhu has a safe journey and returns home safely."

Zhu Wen saw that this thing could actually move by itself and could tell the exact time. He felt it was very mysterious. He knew from the workmanship that it was of great value. He immediately felt that the jade pendant he had given as a gift was a bit cheap.

Although the jade pendant he gave was a royal item, it could not be sold for much money on the market. On the other hand, the pocket watch Luo Ming gave him was definitely worth a fortune.

"This thing is truly amazing. I'm afraid it must be worth a lot of money, my foolish brother..."

"Brother Zhu, we should not be too concerned about the value of the gift we exchanged. Please accept it."

"Well, I will accept it. If you tell me that you are coming to Beijing, I will treat you well."

"I will definitely go to the capital for the imperial examination next autumn."

Zhu Wen knew that Luo Ming came from a good family, so he didn't leave any money or goods for him. He just said goodbye to Luo Ming reluctantly.

When the two were about to part, Rosen led the horse to Luo Ming.

"Father... Dad, I was having a great time talking to Brother Zhu Wen before and neglected you. I really deserve to die..."

"Okay, okay, stop talking nonsense. I want to go back now. You go back to the academy." Rosen was overwhelmed after hearing this.

After Rosen and his two servants bought some things in Kaifeng Prefecture, they left.

Kaifeng Prefecture is more than 200 miles away from Kaiyuan County. If we go out now, we will probably have to spend a night in the wild.

Rosen and his two servants rode for a hundred miles when they saw someone chasing them from the front.

They saw Zhu Wen's carriage that they had seen earlier rushing towards them.

The two guards who were originally protecting Zhu Wen have disappeared, and there are a dozen horse thieves chasing them from behind.

At this moment, a horse thief in the rear took out a crossbow and shot an arrow at the carriage in front. The arrow did not hit the carriage, but directly hit the horse pulling the carriage.

The horse pulling the cart felt pain and lost balance, causing the cart to fall to the side of the road.

The driver rolled over on the ground twice, opened the curtain, supported Zhu Wen and ran away.

When Rosen saw this scene, he wondered how a bandit could pull out a crossbow.

If this wasn't a fight for the throne, I would have chopped off my head.

However, seeing Zhu Wen falling to the ground in such a mess, even the pocket watch that Luo Ming gave him fell out.

Seeing this, Zhu Wen reached out to pick up the pocket watch. At this time, the horse thief behind him had already rushed up to him and was about to chop Zhu Wen's head with a knife.

Rosen touched his chest and suddenly threw out a silver ingot.

The silver ingot hit the horse thief's blade, the blade deflected, and Zhu Wen was stabbed in the shoulder.

Rosen immediately rode forward, clasped his fists and said, "My dear men, let's talk it over. How much money do you want? I will give it to you with both hands. Why do we have to fight and kill and commit murder?"

The bandits drew their swords and charged towards Rosen without saying a word.

Rosen dodged the blade by leaning sideways, snatched it away with his backhand and chopped the horse thief's arm with the back of the blade.

click-

The horse thief's arm bone was broken directly by the back of the knife. Rosen did the same thing and hit several horse thieves on different parts of their bodies.

"It's a prick, so get out quickly."

These horse thieves come and go in a hurry. Although they are brave, they are not deadly soldiers.

Seeing that he was no match for Rosen, he immediately fled on his horse in panic.

"Sir, please save my young master." The coachman begged hurriedly.

At this moment, Zhu Wen was stabbed in the shoulder and was dying.

"Send your young master to my horse. I know a little bit about medicine and maybe I can save his life in time." Rosen said, and at the same time said to the servants who followed him: "Give one of your horses to this man, and go home slowly."

The groom quickly carried Zhu Wen onto Rosen's horse.

Rosen and Zhu Wen traveled for an hour and finally arrived home.

After sending Zhu Wen to the side room, Rosen treated and sutured Zhu Wen's wounds.

Rosen and Zhu Wen are not related, so naturally they would not give him any extraordinary treatment methods to avoid being exposed.

Secondly, Rosen had no good feelings towards the future emperor.

The second emperor of the Ming Dynasty demonstrated his incompetence to the fullest.

If it weren't for the fact that he was on good terms with his son, Rosen wouldn't have rescued him.

Half an hour later, Rosen came out of the room.

"How is my young master?"

"You are out of danger. Take good care of your master. If you need anything, please find my servants."

"Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir." The coachman kowtowed repeatedly.

He breathed a long sigh of relief. His young master was the emperor's grandson. If he died under his protection, all his family would be buried with him.

So he was naturally grateful to Rosen. After all, Rosen saved his life and the lives of his entire family.

Zhu Wen's injury was neither minor nor serious.

If it happened in modern times, his injuries would only be excessive blood loss and some minor skin injuries, and he would be able to move again after three to five days of recuperation.

However, in this era, without antibiotics, Zhu Wen’s injuries could even be fatal.

Of course, he was no longer in danger after Rosen secretly gave him a shot of penicillin.

On the third day, Zhu Wen was able to move freely except for being unable to lift his right arm.

"Thank you for saving my life, uncle. Zhu Wen has no way to repay you. When I return home, I will tell my ancestors and ask them to repay me for my kindness."

"I saved you because you and my Dalang are friends. My family is rich and Dalang is now successful in his studies and has a promising future. He doesn't need anything in return."

"A family that accumulates good deeds will surely be blessed with good fortune. A great favor is not to be thanked. If you have any mission from your uncle in the future, I will definitely go through fire and water without hesitation."

As for Zhu Wen, he is well-educated, polite, humble and grateful.

It's a pity that after becoming the emperor, Emperor Jianwen completely let himself go. If he had been allowed to be emperor for a few more years, he might have really restored the Zhou rituals.

As for changing Zhu Wen's character and making him realize his foolish ideas.

Rosen had no such idea at all. He was too lazy to correct even his own son's character, let alone an outsider who had no relationship with him.

In the following days, Zhu Wen walked around the countryside and found that the village was not big, but it was a rare place where people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the people were wealthy.

In particular, he learned about the role played by Rosen, a local gentry. Rosen rented his own land to tenants at a low price. The tenants worked hard for a year and only needed to pay Rosen 10% of the harvest. Regardless of whether there was drought or flood, Rosen would not collect more.

If all the country had gentry like Rosen, the world would be a harmonious place.

Rosen never imagined that some of his measures to benefit his fellow tribesmen would give Zhu Wen such naive ideas.

In fact, there was a decree in the early Ming Dynasty that the rent should not exceed 40%, but in reality the landlord would take away 80% of the harvest from the tenant's fields. If it was a disaster year, the rent would be collected according to the share, and it would be changed every year.

Rosen also announced to the public that he collected 70% of the rent, because if he collected too little, the surrounding tenants would come to him, and other landlords would join forces to exclude and suppress him.

So Rosen also asked the people of Luojia Village to make the same announcement to the outside world.

Zhu Wen did not understand the truth, and the human Zhu Wen from Luojia Village came from the Luo Mansion, so he thought they were one of his own and naturally had no taboos.

"Uncle, if you were an official, you would definitely benefit the people." Zhu Wen said with emotion.

No wonder Luo Ming has such a literary character, it turns out his father is so extraordinary.

Not only is he an excellent martial artist, able to fight against more than a dozen villains, but he can also turn Luojia Village into a paradise, with every household having surplus food. He is also humble and polite. If he is chosen to be a local official, he will surely make great achievements.

Rosen looked at Zhu Wen deeply, as if he was looking at a fool.

"I don't like being an official. Officialdom is full of twists and turns. One could be doomed if one is not careful. It's better for me to be a rich man and live a down-to-earth life." Rosen said expressionlessly. He was afraid that after this silly boy became emperor, he would inexplicably give him an official position.

When Zhu Di comes to power, he will probably put his entire family on the liquidation list.

What a headache...

During this period, Rosen was even able to see many of Zhu Yunwen's stupid ideas.

It is definitely not a good thing for such an emperor to ascend the throne. It is a disaster for both his own family and the people of the world.

A month later, the groom returned.

"Uncle, my grandfather has sent someone to pick me up, and I am here to say goodbye to you."

"Okay, take care on your journey." Rosen nodded. Since the coachman came back yesterday, Rosen had roughly guessed what had happened.

Zhu Yuanzhang should have sent a lot of escort teams, but these soldiers did not enter the territory of Luojia Village, so Rosen didn't know how many came, but it should be quite a few.

After Zhu Wen left, Luo Mansion returned to peace.

In the same year, Luo Ming won the first place in the provincial examination and came back as the top scorer.

The entire Luojia Village was in an uproar, and Chen Lian was so excited that she ran around all the major temples and Taoist temples in Kaiyuan County and donated a lot of incense money to each temple.

Rosen directly invited many chefs from Kaiyuan County to Luojia Village, and set up a three-day banquet in Luojia Village. People from all over the place could sit down and have a full meal as long as they came and said a few auspicious words.

However, the excitement only lasted for a few days. Luo Ming needed to prepare for the autumn examination next year, so he began to study even harder.

Many classmates came to visit Luo Ming. Some came to establish a relationship, some came to make common progress, or to borrow books.

Luo Ming occasionally went out to travel with his classmates.

As he had the status of a juren and had won the first place in the provincial examination, Rosen was not worried about Luo Ming's safety.

The bandits and robbers in this world dare to kill scholars, but they dare not kill juren.

This is just like the village bandits and bullies in later generations. They only bully farmers without any background, but if it is a city's top scorer in the college entrance examination, even the village bandits and bullies will have to avoid it.

Being the top scorer in the college entrance examination means attention, while those stink bugs in the gutter are most afraid of being exposed to the light.

After preparing for half a year, Luo Ming finally began to prepare to go to Beijing for the exam.

Rosen asked four servants to accompany Luo Ming to Beijing.

"Da Lang, this is a land deed. It is a vacant mansion in the capital. When you go to the capital, you will live in the mansion and buy some servants to serve you. The four of them are loyal to our Luo family. If there is any important matter, you can ask them to handle it."

"Dad, when did you buy the mansion? Have you ever been to the capital?"

"A few years ago, a wealthy businessman in the capital didn't have enough money, so he gave me this mansion as a deduction."

In fact, it was Lawson who went to Yingtianfu to buy it himself.

Not only in Yingtian Prefecture, but even in the current Shuntian Prefecture there are many fields and shops. This is Lawson's investment in the future.

After all, this trip is a long one,500 miles to Nanjing.

Rosen was also afraid that something might happen to his son.

These four servants were recruited by Rosen over the years, and they passed Rosen's tests before being kept by his side.

Now let the four of them stay with Luo Ming and take care of him. Unless he encounters a large number of bandits, the four of them are enough to protect Luo Ming.

At this moment, Luo Ming couldn't wait to go to Yingtian Prefecture.

After all, to him, it was the most prosperous place in the world.

It is no surprise that young people are full of longing for that place.