In the study of the Tenglong Guard yamen.
Yang Zhengshan looked at the letter delivered from the Capital, and a brilliant smile blossomed across his face.
"Not bad!"
What was the imperial examination?
The imperial examination was the fastest and simplest way to rise in social class.
Scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants—and add martial artists.
Merchants had always been at the very bottom. No matter how rich they were, they could not stand in the imperial court. Perhaps they could collude with officials, bully the market, and be wealthy enough to dominate a region, but before others, they would forever have to lower their heads first.
Farmers and craftsmen were the most bitter and the most exhausted. They were also the broadest and most fundamental class. It was said, "The ruler is the boat; the common people are the water. Water can carry the boat, and water can overturn the boat." But among those scholar-officials, how many cared about ordinary people? The Old Emperor, the civil and military officials of the entire court—who would care about the life and death of dozens or hundreds of commoners?
As for martial arts, the strength of one's own force could indeed bring many things: wealth, status, position, official posts, and so on. But martial artists fought with their lives on the line.
Whether in the rivers and lakes or in officialdom, every martial artist needed to struggle forward with their own strength.
By comparison, scholars had it much easier. Ten years of bitter study sounded very hard, but was it truly hard?
Was it harder than the farmer who faced the yellow earth with his back to the sky?
Was it harder than the craftsman who never rested day after day, drenched in sweat every day?
Was it harder than the mountains of corpses