Chapter 237: Three First Places in the Imperial Examination (Honoring Father)
The fourth year of Jianwu, autumn.

He was wearing a blue cotton gown that was washed so much that it looked pale, and carrying a heavy book box on his back.

The hairpin on her head was made of a polished wooden branch, the rough edges of the back collar could be seen, and the heels of her shoes were also patched.

“Ping Yuan, I don’t have anything else, so you take these eggs!”

“And this piece of clothing, which I made for my son Tiedan last year. He has only worn it twice. You can take it too!”

“Brother Pingyuan, these are all pancakes made by my wife, you can take them and eat them.”

“Brother Rong, these shoes are made by my mother for me. The capital is so far away, you can take them with you.”

At the entrance of the small village, men, women, old and young surrounded the young scholar.

Rong Pingyuan’s arms were stuffed with things by the villagers, all the good things that the not-so-rich villagers could afford.

A man who looked three-quarters like him put a small blue cloth bag into his hand.

“Second brother, it’s not much money, you take it.”

Rong Pingyuan pinched it and found some broken silver coins in the blue cloth bag.

He looked up at his elder brother, who had a frosty face, and asked, “Brother, where did you get the money?”

Brother Rong pursed his lips and smiled, “I sold our land.”

Rong Pingyuan frowned slightly, “Why are you selling the land? I told you that the county has funds for the road.”

Brother Rong, “The county provides road funding, but you still need money for food. You can’t ask others for money for food and drink.”

“Don’t worry, I found a job as a porter in the county. The income is not worse than farming at home, and it will also make it convenient for Gao’er to go to school.”

Rong Pingyuan clenched the few pieces of silver in his hand and said, “Brother, I will definitely redeem our land.”

Brother Song patted him on the shoulder and said, “It’s okay. I don’t have any other skills, but I have a lot of strength. Just do your best in the exam, and don’t worry about the rest.”

The lady who brought the eggs looked at the sun and said, “Don’t delay, leave early, don’t miss the important things!”

Rong Pingyuan carried a bag of food given by his fellow villagers and got on Old Zhang’s ox cart.

“Uncle Zhang, here you go.”

He took out a copper coin and handed it to Old Zhang.

Old Zhang in the village is one of the few farmers who owns cows. When there is no busy farming season, he drives a cart to earn a few coins to supplement his family income.

Old Zhang pushed his hand back with a smile.

“This is the last time I’ll take Uncle Zhang’s car. He won’t charge me. I’ll keep the money and go to Beijing happily.”

Rong Pingyuan’s family background was not high, as he was from a county under Fengyang.

He was a farmer whose ancestors had been working in the fields for generations, but he was the only one who liked to hang out with the old blind fortune teller in the village and listen to his stories of strange tales and the Five Classics and Eight Oddities since he was a child.

There was no private school in the village, and he had never received any education. When he was herding cattle, he met a young country gentleman who had skipped school. The young gentleman threw to him the books, pens and papers in his bag, and he was overjoyed as if he had found a treasure.

This was the first time he wrote the word “fortune-telling” crookedly according to the words on the old blind man’s banner.

When the old blind man’s neighbors saw him, they joked, “Why is the old blind man taking in an apprentice?”

Although the old blind man is blind, he can write on the sand.

Every time a word is written, it will tell him what it is.

In this way, under the ‘teaching’ of the old blind man, he learned to read and write.

Fortune-telling makes more money than farming, so Brother Rong simply asked him to become his apprentice.

From then on, he became the eyes of the old blind man.

He knew that fortune-telling was just a means of deceiving people and the last comfort for a desperate person.

When he was nine years old, the old blind man died.

He met the young master from his youth again, who hired him to go to school for him. This was his first time to enter a school.

This is the first time I have come into contact with a book other than the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams.

He had a photographic memory, and although he entered school several years later than others, he only took one year to catch up. He thought he would always be paid to go to school for rich young men.

Unfortunately, the rich young master’s father was killed by bandits. He inherited the family’s wealth, but no one forced him to study anymore, and the rich young master didn’t need his help to deal with the school teacher.

Rong Pingyuan reluctantly left the school holding his books, and his elder brother Rong found him a job as an accountant in a grain store.

During the day he kept accounts in the grain shop, and at night he sneaked into the school and read the teacher’s books in the moonlight. Occasionally, when he came across something he didn’t understand, he would go directly to the teahouse next to the grain shop to ask the scholars gathered there.

Relying on himself, he managed to finish learning all the lessons taught by his teacher in the school.

When he had nothing more to learn, he wrote his first article, “Coming Out into the World”. He gave this article to his teacher as an explanation for the fact that he had secretly read so many books.

Now it seems like a laughably arrogant article.

But the gentleman was surprised and asked him who he was from.

He pointed at the books on the bookshelf, and wandered in the sea of ​​books accompanied by the moonlight.

He studied secretly in school for three years.

When he was thirteen years old, his teacher recommended him to the provincial school. This was a crucial turning point in his life.

At the age of nineteen, relying on the travel expenses of the county and the food and clothes prepared by the villagers, he moved from a poor mountain village to the prosperous Yanjing and stood in the magnificent palace.

He is Rong Pingyuan who has nothing, and he is also Rong Pingyuan who is full.

Although he was poor, he had noble people to support him along the way.

He came from a muddy little mountain village, carrying everyone’s hopes.

He was originally a poor boy with nothing. It was the old blind man, the teacher, the provincial school, and the big guys in the village who lifted him up step by step and brought him to the presence of Your Majesty.

He wanted to achieve something and give back to all the kind people he met in his life.

“Who is Rong Pingyuan?”

The emperor on the high platform had a low voice, but it carried an invisible pressure.

Of the three people kneeling on the ground, the two on both sides were already middle-aged, while the one in the middle was so young that it was eye-catching.

The young man in the middle raised his hands in front of his chest and said, “I am Rong Pingyuan, a commoner, and I pay my respects to Your Majesty.”

Meng Zhicheng never thought that such a brilliant fu came from the hands of this young man.

He glanced at the young people in the audience who were full of high spirits, and then cast his gaze on the last sentence on the scroll in his hand: “All things are mixed together into one, how can one feel Peng Shang?”

Despite his young age, he is still such an unruly person.

But he also had the slickness of an old official in the court.

Meng Zhicheng looked at the three test papers in his hand. Among the three people, except for this young man, the remaining two were the distant nephew of the left prime minister Jiao Zhaoguo and the cousin of the empress dowager.

How could he not know what kind of worms these people had in their stomachs?
Two learned and noble sons, and one arrogant and innocent son.

Humph, he has been on the throne for four years. Don’t these people know his temper?

Meng Zhicheng handed the scroll in his hand to Eunuch Cao beside him.

“Rong Pingyuan was appointed as the first place winner of the imperial examination in the fourth year of Jianwu.”

The eyelids of several old ministers below twitched, but no one moved. After a while, they knelt down one by one and said, “Congratulations, Your Majesty, on the birth of the unicorn and phoenix.”
Rong Pingyuan’s heart trembled, and his heart was suddenly filled with joy.

He suppressed his excitement and said, “Thank you, Your Majesty!”

From a poor student who could not even afford clothes to a famous top three scholar in Fengyang, he fought a great turnaround.

From Xie An’s “Lanting Poems·No. 2”, which means that the principles of all things are the same, and there is no difference between dying early and dying late

Lin Feng: a metaphor for people with outstanding talents and wisdom
The rest of the story is all about Rong Pingyuan
I know this person is very controversial. Some people think that he is unforgivable because he crossed the bottom line, while others think that he is changing the situation in his own way.

Because we are now in a modern society ruled by law, we have been educated in the rule of law since childhood, so many children are very emotional about Rong’s father’s behavior.
So, I want to write about the first half of Rong’s father’s life.

His goodness cannot cover his evil, but I don’t want people to think that Rong Pingyuan is a flat villain. His goodness deserves praise, and his evil is also condemned by the world.
So, babies who read the story should stay calm. Everyone has different opinions, so just keep your own point of view.

As for the author’s opinion, I also like Rong Fu, but I don’t like Muchun. I will just treat them as two different people. TT