My life skills in Daming Liver

Tang Xianzu and Gu Xiancheng came to a tea shop outside the dormitory.

During this time, the entire Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate took action as Guanzheng Jinshi prepared to take the selection examination.

On the one hand, in order to prevent cases of fraud in the selection examination, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has extremely strict supervision over the officials responsible for the selection examination.

On the other hand, these young Guanzheng Jinshi are also the seeds of scholars in the southeast. In order to prevent them from causing bad influence, the Metropolitan Governor's Office also issued an order to encourage them to study, hoping that they can prepare well for the exam.

Therefore, there were informants from the Metropolitan Procuratorate patrolling everywhere in Nanjing. Tang Xianzu and Gu Xiancheng did not dare to go to restaurants, so they found a tea shop to drink tea.

The location of the dormitory of the Guanzheng Jinshis is quite good. Since most of the Guanzheng Jinshis have to work in the Second Supervisor of the Seventh Department and Five Temples, the dormitory of the Guanzheng Jinshis is on the edge of the Imperial City of Nanjing, where every inch of land is at a premium.

The tea drinkers in the tea shops here are basically officials from nearby government offices.

Government offices all have places for tea breaks, but most of those places are used by officials.

Although the status of officials in the Southeast is much higher than that in the Ming Dynasty, there is still a natural barrier for officials.

Therefore, most petty officials rarely drink tea in the tea break area where officials gather inside the yamen. They prefer to drink tea in tea shops outside the yamen during their lunch break.

Over time, these tea shops near the yamen have become regular gathering places for officials. They will exchange some internal news of the yamen in the tea shops.

It was the lunch break, and Tang Xianzu and Gu Xiancheng walked into the tea shop like this. Their two young scholar faces did not attract too much attention from the tea break staff in the tea shop.

The yamen in the capital were so big that these officials only regarded them as officials from nearby yamen.

After all, this is a tea shop in the core area of ​​Nanjing. This is not a simple tea shop like the one in the outer city industrial zone. The bright shed is inlaid with glass on the outer wall. The afternoon sun shines into the tea shop, and you can enjoy the scenery outside. It can also block outdoor sand and noise.

The tea shop is not the kind of slatted benches, but has been changed into comfortable wooden chairs. Large or small tables are placed with different numbers of chairs. Here, many people can gather together to drink tea, or two or three people can gather together to drink tea. Individual drinks.

It was obviously not the first day for Gu Xiancheng to come to this kind of tea shop. He ordered a pot of tea skillfully and took Tang Xianzu to sit down near the glass curtain wall.

While waiting for tea, the two heard the discussion of the officials on the table behind them.

The table behind him was a big table, with a dozen young people dressed as officials gathered together.

Every yamen in Nanjing has a lunch break at noon, but the lunch break is generally not long, and the surrounding officials are in a hurry.

The table behind was also constantly urging the boss to bring their black tea as soon as possible.

"Have you heard? All the first-class clerks in the Railway Department who had just been employed for two years were poached by the Songjiang Railway Company with an annual salary of three hundred silver dollars!"

The official system of the Southeast ranges from first to sixth grade. After reaching the sixth grade, they are the most senior officials. The first-class officials are also the most basic officials in the entire Southeast system.

The annual salary of an ordinary first-class official is about one hundred silver dollars, and even the most senior sixth-class official's annual salary does not exceed two hundred silver dollars.

This is already the salary of Southeast's preferential treatment for officials. This salary is actually considered to be at the middle level among scholars in Southeast.

But three hundred silver dollars a year is already a decently high salary.

Only those shopkeepers from big chambers of commerce and mechanics who understand technology can get such high salaries.

A newly hired railway official could get an annual salary of three hundred silver dollars when he changed jobs. The officials around him expressed strong envy.

However, some people also said:

"If you go to Songjiang Railway, you will have to resign from your official position. Are you willing?"

Several officials thought for a while and shook their heads.

Even if commerce in the Southeast is developed, the idea of ​​officialdom still exists for thousands of years, and officials in the Southeast are treated better than those in the Ming Dynasty, and they can support a family without corruption.

"Have you heard? Songjiang Railway Company also went to poach Lu Zhusi and Tang Guanzheng."

"Are they so brave? Do the officials of this dynasty dare to poach them?"

"Do you know what their salary is?"

Everyone pricked up their ears, even Gu Xiancheng pricked up his ears.

"The price they offered to the two principals is two thousand silver dollars per year! This does not include equity and dividends!"

"Good guy!"

Everyone took a breath, this was already a huge amount of money that no one could imagine!

Gu Xiancheng looked at Tang Xianzu in front of him. He was the one who recommended Tang Xianzu to the Railway Department. Unexpectedly, a year later, other Guanzheng Jinshi were still familiar with the daily work in the department and worried about whether they could pass the selection examination.

Tang Xianzu had already been offered two thousand silver dollars a year to dig it.

"Your tea is here!"

A pot of green tea was served.

The person at the next table saw that the two people who came later were served tea, and said to Dr. Tea: "Where is our black tea? Come on, come on! The ones who came after them are all served."

"Come on, come on! Doesn't this black tea need to be seasoned? Wait a moment, everyone, it's coming!"

Tang Xianzu smelled the strong citrus aroma and sweetness, and he was very familiar with the taste of this kind of black tea. When the Su-Song Railway was built, this kind of black tea with sugar was given to railway workers during their tea breaks.

Today in the Southeast, sugar is no longer a luxury product.

The governor improved the sugar production method, and now there are a large number of sugar cane plantations in Annan, Damuan, and Qiongzhou, constantly sending cane sugar to all parts of the southeast.

Even an ordinary workshop will provide sugar water to employees and tea breaks for employees.

However, Gu Xiancheng doesn't like the taste of black tea. He prefers the fragrant green tea.

"Brother Tang, I heard from the chief that the Grand Governor wanted to promote you to the chief, but he refused."

Tang Xianzu thought of Lu Gang's appearance and said with a smile: "This is expected. I understand Chief Lu's temper. He will continue to do it."

Gu Xiancheng sighed and said, "Everything is good in your department, but you have to run out a lot. This time I came back from Annan, but I was tortured."

"I thought I would be stable if I stayed in the capital, but I didn't expect that all of us in the same year are busy. Have you heard about Brother Pang from the Securities Center? I heard that he is still in Shanghai and can't come back until the day before the exam."

The Securities Center was upgraded from the former Railway Public Bond Center. Pang Xinyue, a Jinshi from the same department, was in charge of the Securities Center. He had a lot of cooperation with Tang Xianzu when issuing railway bonds, and the relationship between the two was quite close.

Tang Xianzu nodded and said: "I know this. Originally, I was going to come back from Suzhou with Brother Pang, but he was entangled in the Suzhou Railway stock issuance. I heard that several adults from the Ministry of Revenue are in Shanghai, and the Governor I also attach great importance to this stock.”

Gu Xiancheng asked: "I heard that those stocks are very crazy. The stocks of Donghai Trading Company have doubled this year. Every day when the securities center opens, a large number of people rush in and wait to buy stocks?"

Tang Xianzu nodded and said: "Yes, there are even people who specialize in stock trading and can earn thousands of silver dollars a day. But stocks are not without risks. The Ming Dynasty fought several counterattacks in North Korea a few days ago. Donghai Trading Company's The stock price plummeted, and some people even jumped from the building opposite the Securities Center."

Gu Xiancheng quickly shook his head and said, "Then I won't touch it."

Tang Xianzu said: "The cabinet will also issue a ban. Officials cannot speculate in stocks casually. We officials related to stocks will have to regularly disclose our properties to the representatives of the Constitutional Assembly in the future, especially the stock income under our names. If there is any If you use stocks for personal gain, the censors of the Imperial Procuratorate will come looking for you."

Gu Xiancheng admired Su Ze even more. With the development of Southeast, various new problems emerged one after another.

Let’s just talk about this stock. When it first appeared, who would have known that this thing could be so profitable?

However, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development quickly issued a series of policies, which curbed some of the speculative enthusiasm.

While most ordinary officials did not know about stocks, the Governor's Office had already made plans for the issue of stocks for personal gain.

Just like the special Metropolitan Procuratorate in Annan, there are many masters like the Metropolitan Governor. When Gu Xiancheng left Annan, all parties in Annan had stopped.

Tang Xianzu said: "Brother Pang's position is very important. Several adults in the Ministry of Revenue think highly of him. I heard that the Governor is planning to open a securities center in the south."

Gu Xiancheng secretly wrote down that one year after entering the officialdom, everyone was no longer the kind of simple new scholar.

In other words, everyone has their own small circle. These small circles are not factions, but they also represent some kind of small group.

Tang Xianzu of the Railway Department of the Ministry of Industry had a closer relationship with the same year of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Chi Hongmo from the Pedestrian Department of Honglu Temple had a close relationship with Zhang Yunbiao from the Monk and Taoist Department.

Gu Xiancheng also traveled among these people of the same age, carefully weaving his own network of relationships.

The two simply reminisced about old times. As the lunch break of each government office ended and the people in the tea shop gradually dispersed, Gu Xiancheng said:

"The information I got from the head office is that the selection test is not very difficult. The main tests are official document writing and departmental practice."

Tang Xianzu nodded. After working on the Su-Song Railway for a year, he had seen many of Gu Xiancheng's good intentions.

However, Tang Xianzu was not as dazed as he was when he first entered the officialdom. If he wanted to do things, he had to handle all aspects of the relationship. Even the upright Lu Gang had to deal with people from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works.

Gu Xiancheng was good at chatting, and the topic quickly changed from official business to what he had experienced in the past year. Tang Xianzu talked about interesting things on the railway, while Gu Xiancheng talked about Annan's story.

The two had a great conversation this time. Tang Xianzu was surrounded by either craftsmen or senior officials. It had been a long time since he had chatted with his peers.

Gu Xiancheng was sent to Guangxi and Annan, and he also lacked the same level of exchanges among scholars.

The two agreed to meet again after the exam, and Nanjing finally ushered in the selection exam for the new Jinshi.