Chapter Ten: The Willow-Shoot Conference

  Menda spoke first: "Dalan, you've been promoted to Colonel, I'm sure your wife will be thrilled!"

  Mentioning his mother but not his father, it was clear that the situation in his own home had already been thoroughly understood. Although he had mentally prepared himself, Zhang Jiamu still felt a somewhat indescribable sense of unease.

  Whenever the parents are mentioned, he must stand up. He stood up and said to the door: "Thank you for your concern, sir. This afternoon, I have sent someone to report back home, and I think my mother will be very happy."

  "Yes," Meng Da said slowly: "I think your father has ascended to the heavenly realm, and your mother's honor or shame for the rest of her life depends on you."

  "I understand, so whatever you instruct me to do, I will definitely carry out with all my heart and strength."

  Meng Da suddenly had an epiphany: the young man in front of him was not someone who didn't care about anything, at least he cared about fame and fortune. The reason was simple, his family had an elderly mother and a younger sister, if he couldn't support them, this family would have no future.

  That's easy, understanding this point made Mendan extremely happy.

  He stood up and walked in front of Zhang Jiamu and Ren Yuan, looking them up and down for a while before smiling: "Not bad, you two have done this thing well."

  Before the two men could ask, he said: "In the palace, we will 'shoot willows' in the first month, and there are still several months to go. Now we are selecting people, and each hundred households recommend two people, just right, it's you two!"

  "Shooting willow" originated in Liao Jin, and Mongolians also liked it. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, it had become a favorite sports and martial arts project among the upper and lower classes in the palace. From Chengzu to Jingtai, every emperor loved it, and shooting willow competitions would be held in the palace from time to time. The winner, of course, would gain great fame and receive generous rewards.

  What's most crucial is that the archery activities in the palace were conducted right before the emperor's eyes, what could be more tempting to a military general than this?

  Zhang Jiamu and Ren Yuan were both from families of the Imperial Guards, and they didn't need anyone to tell them what that meant. They exchanged a glance, and both saw the fervor in each other's eyes.

  It's all gone!

  "Thank you for your guidance!"

  "I will definitely bring back a gold medal for you, sir!"

  At that time, the winner of the archery competition would be awarded a gold medal. With this sentence, Menduo was even more satisfied.

  Although he intended to recruit Zhang Jiamu, he wouldn't easily give opportunities to others. As for Ren Yuan, it's not worth mentioning; in the afternoon, he sent someone to investigate and found out that the Ren family was also a hereditary military family of the Brocade Guard, and Ren Yuan was the ninth child, the most promising and skilled in martial arts among his siblings. He had a honest and simple nature, actually being a good candidate for a great general, but due to his family's poverty, he never had the chance to bribe officials to get selected.

  Zhang Jiamu need not mention, Changjie Ma, in the upper layer of the capital has been widely circulated, Mendah good luck, near water tower first got the moon, thinking of this, Mendah a self-satisfied smile.

  "But I'm telling you," Mend said solemnly, "Shooting the willow is not about martial arts, it's about horsemanship and archery, neither of which can be missing."

  Indeed, a hundred paces away, willow branches were inserted into the ground with cloth as markers. The martial general rode his horse and shot at the willows; whoever hit the white one would win. At that time, for martial artists, hitting the willow was not difficult, but what was difficult was coordinating riding and shooting, strength, accuracy, and even some fancy techniques - it wasn't just about being accurate, but also looking good.

  The capital has three major camps, the Ten Team Camp, the Imperial Horse Guard, the Four Guards under the Imperial Stables, the Brocade Uniform Guard, the Flag Hand Guard, the Metropolitan Prohibition Guard, the Golden Gate Guard, and the Yan Mountain Guard, totaling twenty-two guards, with a total of 230,000 people.

  Among so many people, selecting the best ones, who can stand out in each camp and then be sent to the palace, is already a one-in-a-thousand selection. Under the siege of so many good hands, to show one's face again in front of the emperor, how high must one's strength be!

  Moreover, the descendants of meritorious officials and aristocratic families, as well as young generals from high-ranking military families who were conferred with honorary titles, were given special attention. With both strength and connections being taken into account, each level was a fierce competition, and the one who emerged victorious in the end would undoubtedly be the crown prince of that day!

  At this moment, Zhang Jiamu didn't care about archery or horsemanship; he knew that this opportunity was a million times better than catching someone on the street!

  At this moment, he had only one thought: "The gold medal is mine!"

  ……

  "Officer Zhang, this is yours."

  Xiao Qi is in charge of distributing the money, everyone's silver is collected and handed over every day. This month's errand has been completed, and the part that was submitted to the superior has been kept for oneself, leaving the remaining amount to be distributed to the lower-ranking officers.

  Yu Gang was quite generous in this matter, although he deeply resented Zhang Jiamu for stealing his thunder and losing face, but the money that should be divided was still given to Zhang Jiamu without deduction.

  Everyone already knows that Zhang Jiamu has been assigned to the hundred households under Menduo, so there's no need to draw lots again. Next month's errand will continue in Zhengnanfang. Ren Yuan still needs to go and draw lots, but he has also been assigned to participate in the Sheliu Conference competition. Seeing these two spirited young men, everyone is as envious as Duao!

  Zhang Jiamu, apart from the twenty taels awarded by Mendaxian, had also collected a large amount of loose silver and small coins over the past few days, which added up to seven or eight taels more.

  That was already a huge sum of money at that time, enough to buy nearly ten acres of land outside the city.

  The silver was all packed in a small blue cloth bag, about thirty taels, plus some loose change, and it was quite heavy to carry. The amount of silver that Rěn Yuàn had was less than one-third of Zhāng Jiǎmù's, but even so, he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.

  At his age, he had never seen so much silver before.

  The Ming dynasty was not as prosperous as the Song dynasty. At the beginning of its founding, gold, silver, copper and other heavy metals had been plundered by the Mongols. In the early days of the Ming dynasty, it returned to a bartering level. At the time of its founding, taxes were all collected in kind, until the Zhengtong period when 2 million dan of grain was converted into 1 million taels of gold and silver for use within the imperial court.

  So this is still okay, there are already many gold and silver circulating in the market, if it were fifty years ago, even if you searched the entire Beijing, there wouldn't be much silver.

  Received the silver, and the two of them headed towards the gate. This time, it was really a life-changing event for both of them. Now, they were all eager to rush home to show off and share the good news.

  He was walking with a pleased smile when a group of people came from the direction of Zhengnan Fang's gate. The leader wore a gauze hat, a seventh-rank civil official's supplementary uniform, a dark blue official robe, black boots and a cowhorn belt.

  Behind this official was a team of helmeted and armored men with glittering knives and halberds, the elite imperial guards of the Ming Dynasty.

  "It's High Commissioner Gao Ping!"

  Zhang Jiamu and Ren Yuan recognized each other at first sight, and it turned out that he was the touring censor of the Ducha Yuan who came to Nanjing for inspection, and not only Zhengnan Fang but also five or six nearby Fang were under his jurisdiction.

  This guy has never gotten along with the Brocade Guard, and previously when everyone was at a stalemate in Zhengnan Alley, he was also the main one causing trouble. The other day, Zhang Jiamu had many people arrested, but Gao Ping wasn't there, and after hearing about it, he was extremely unhappy, saying that he would deal with the Brocade Guard according to the law. Could it be that these two brothers were unlucky and ran into a bullet?

  The capital of the Ming Dynasty is divided into five cities: East, Central, West, South and North. Each city has a battalion commander who leads soldiers to patrol the streets, suppress local unrest, and arrest thieves. However, the commanders are only sixth-grade military officers, while there are numerous marquises and nobles in the capital who outrank them. To put it bluntly, even a third-rate servant from a marquis's household is more powerful than a battalion commander!

  The censor is different from the ordinary military commander. The Ming dynasty attaches great importance to the supervision of officials, and the Censorate has always had a tradition of daring to speak out. The censor is noble and even if he is not afraid of the princes and nobles, some censors will deliberately provoke these powerful people! When encountering such fearless and poor censors, the aristocrats can only admit defeat and do not want to argue with them.

  To put it bluntly, among the three departments responsible for maintaining law and order in the capital, the Five City Garrison is an ordinary functional department, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is the imperial hawks and dogs, while the Touring Censor represents the entire civil official group!

  "Take it down!"

  Two brocade-clad imperial guards, riding high-headed horses, followed the censor without a word. With one order, the Imperial Army behind him suddenly shouted in unison, and their long spears and halberds were immediately placed on Zhang Jiamu's and Ren Yuan's heads.

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