The Palace Exams were scheduled for the hour of Mao around 5-7 AM. They arrived early. After all the Gongshi had gathered and been checked for concealed notes or other forbidden items, the eunuch in charge led them to a side hall of the Baohe Palace, where the exams would be held, for breakfast.
Yes, that's right. The Palace Exams provided meals—two of them, in fact: morning and noon meals.
The food was quite good. The morning meal consisted of four large buns filled with pure meat and a bowl of fragrant, rich ginseng soup.
Xu Huaiqian had a small appetite. He was full after two buns and couldn't finish the remaining two, so he gave them to Zhang Bingwen, who was young and still growing, with a bigger appetite.
"Thank you, Senior Brother!" Zhang Bingwen took them without hesitation. As he ate, he asked, "I wonder what kind of meat this is? It doesn't taste like pork or mutton. It's delicious!"
Zhang Bingwen had eaten pork and mutton buns before, but these tasted different.
"It's beef," Xu Huaiqian identified it immediately. He took a sip of the ginseng soup to settle his slightly full stomach and explained to the others.
"Beef?" Now not only Zhang Bingwen but also Meng Fangxun looked over.
The Jin Dynasty prohibited the private slaughter of farm cattle. Only cattle that died of old age, illness, or accidents could be reported to the authorities and then butchered for consumption.
For ordinary families, owning an ox was a significant asset, treasured highly. Even if one died, unless the family was desperately short of money, who would have the heart to eat an animal that had toiled for the family its entire life?
Thus, there weren't even shops selling beef among the common people. If you wanted beef, you had to inquire extensively and be lucky enough to find some.
Both Zhang Bingwen and Meng Fangxun came from ordinary families. Although their families were moderately well-off, they didn't go out of their way for such culinary desires.
Pei Wangshu and Duan Youyan had eaten beef before, but so infrequently they had forgotten the taste. Hearing Xu Huaiqian mention it now, they realized it was indeed beef.
"Yes, it's beef," they confirmed after tasting carefully.
Trying beef for the first time, Zhang Bingwen instantly loved the flavor. "If only we could eat this every day."
"Don't even think about it," Meng Fangxun kicked him under the table. "A farm ox is more valuable than a person. Even the imperial palace probably doesn't eat it often. And you want it every day?"
Meng Fangxun was right. The Jin Dynasty was newly established, with a severe shortage of manpower and resources. Farm cattle, essential for plowing fields, were extremely valuable. Even the imperial family couldn't slaughter them arbitrarily.
Only during annual sacrificial ceremonies would the Emperor permit the imperial clan to slaughter cattle.
It was now March, coinciding with the Qingming Festival sacrifices. The palace had slaughtered many cattle and sheep for the rituals, which was why the Gongshi could have beef buns. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had any.
Xu Huaiqian thought about the married couple Chen Lieju had bought for twenty taels. In Mishan County, the price of a young farm ox was around fifteen taels, and that was just for a calf. A prime, mature ox was even more expensive and hard to find. Indeed, an ox was more valuable than a person.
"If only there were tools to replace oxen for plowing," Zhang Bingwen said indignantly between bites of his bun, "then we could free up the oxen, and everyone could eat beef!"
"It's not that easy," Xu Huaiqian shook his head. Besides plowing, oxen also served as the primary means of transportation in this era.
While horses and mules could also do this, horses were even more expensive—so much so that ordinary families couldn't afford to keep them. Mules, on the other hand, were sterile. All things considered, oxen were still the most cost-effective. So even if agricultural tools replaced oxen for plowing, oxen would remain a "luxury" item in this era.
Zhang Bingwen was deflated. "So if we want beef in the future, we just have to rely on luck?"
"Not necessarily," Xu Huaiqian said, taking another slow sip of soup. "Besides farm oxen, there are also dairy cows and yaks."
"Yaks I know!" Pei Wangshu pointed to the jade pendant hanging from Xu Huaiqian's waist. "The comb I gave you is made from yak horn. It was very hard to find!"
Pei Wangshu remembered he had to pull many strings just to acquire one yak horn. If a horn was that difficult to find, the animal itself was even rarer.
"And what is a 'dairy cow'?"
Forgive them for coming from remote villages; they genuinely hadn't heard of dairy cows.
"It's a cow that produces milk," Duan Youyan clarified. "Since my Xiao Jin is expecting and doesn't want to use a wet nurse, the clan found him a dairy cow. I heard it can produce thirty or forty jin of milk a day. Households with excess often use it to make pastries."
"That's good!" Meng Fangxun, inspired by this, said, "If ordinary families could have a dairy cow, even poorer men could afford to feed their children?"
As everyone knew, although men could bear children like women, their constitutions were still male, so they didn't produce milk.
However, since they could give birth like women, after delivery, they would produce a very small amount of milk—not much, just a little—which would cease after being expressed.
Meng Fangxun's remark made Xu Huaiqian suddenly imagine Chen Lieju expressing milk after childbirth.
His face flushed red, and he quickly dismissed the thought. Too dangerous.
He had almost, for a moment, entertained the idea of wanting his wife to have a child.
One must remember that childbirth was a major ordeal for both men and women. His family had no throne to inherit; he couldn't bear to let his wife suffer the pains of childbirth.
No children. Absolutely not.
"It's not that easy," Duan Youyan said with a bitter smile. "Ordinary farm oxen are already unaffordable for common people, let alone dairy cows that can be used for pastries."
"You're right." Meng Fangxun snapped back to reality at Duan Youyan's words.
"I've heard the Western Regions are rich in dairy cows," Xu Huaiqian said, wiping his lips with a handkerchief. "If only we could import large numbers of dairy cows from there."
That way, they could establish their own dairy farming bases domestically. Once large herds of dairy cows were available, they could be distributed to prefectures, counties, and even villages.
Then, any man or woman in the Jin Dynasty who gave birth and lacked milk could afford to feed their child.
"Unfortunately, the Western Regions are too far from us." Even without maps, they had learned from books that the Western Regions were thousands of miles away from the Jin Dynasty.
The distance wasn't the main issue; it was the difficult terrain. The Western Regions weren't like later eras with highways; they were mostly desert routes with sandstorms.
People could easily get lost there, not to mention the challenge of traversing mountains and ridges.
"Sigh, I just wanted to eat some beef. I didn't expect it to be so complicated." Zhang Bingwen hadn't thought his casual craving would lead to such an extensive discussion.
"It's not completely impossible," Xu Huaiqian tilted his head and muttered quietly. He had almost been led astray by Duan Youyan and the others.
Distant water can't quench immediate thirst. The idea of a nationwide milk supply was too far-fetched and could be considered later. But what about short-term solutions?
Couldn't they focus on hybrid cattle to develop beef cattle?
That would make it easier for both sacrifices and beef consumption in the future.
It would also significantly reduce the slaughter of farm oxen, thereby improving farmers' productivity.
Importantly, he could also make money from it.
Multiple benefits with one stroke.
But if they were to breed hybrid cattle, where could they find the various cattle breeds needed for such a large-scale project?
While they were chatting freely about everything under the sun, Shen Wennian at the next table, who was eating his buns while constantly running through policy questions in his mind, saw Xu Huaiqian and his group laughing and talking, and shook his head.
People with both talent and good looks were different. They weren't nervous at all about the Palace Exams, relaxed as if they were on an outing.
In that case, don't blame me for taking the Zhuangyuan title from you!
Actually, Xu Huaiqian had long noticed the diligent and hardworking Shen Wennian. Seeing how he didn't relax even at the last moment, he knew Shen Wennian was aiming for the Zhuangyuan title. His own relaxed demeanor with Duan Youyan and the others was also to signal his intentions to Shen Wennian.
Don't worry, I absolutely won't compete with you for it.
Both were very satisfied with the other's behavior. After eating and drinking their fill at breakfast, the group of Gongshi were led into the main hall of the Baohe Palace to pay respects to the Emperor, who had just returned from court, and then begin the final round of the selection process: the Palace Exams.
The main hall of the Baohe Palace was enormous, with a depth of five bays and a width of a full nine bays. Xu Huaiqian estimated it was no less than 1,200 square meters.
Good grief, it was even bigger than his own house!
Xu Huaiqian wondered if the Emperor, standing up front, could even see the candidates clearly from his position.
What Xu Huaiqian was thinking was unknown to Emperor Changsheng. After leaving court, he stepped into the Baohe Palace and saw the over three hundred Gongshi of varying heights, builds, and temperaments standing neatly in the hall. His gaze instinctively drifted to the second person in the left front row.
This session's Metropolitan Exams had only admitted a little over three hundred candidates. Furthermore, the candidates were arranged in the hall according to their Metropolitan Exam rankings when paying respects to the Emperor.
Therefore, the moment Emperor Changsheng entered the hall, he spotted Xu Huaiqian standing behind Shen Wennian.
He raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
Previously, he had sent Ying Xinghai to check on Xu Huaiqian's health. Ying Xinghai reported back that Xu Huaiqian suffered from congenital weaknesses and a severely damaged constitution, compounded by failure to acclimatize to the capital's environment. Emperor Changsheng had assumed that Xu Huaiqian, coming from a common background and being in poor health, would be gaunt, frail, and pitifully wrinkled—like a pitiful child.
He never expected him to possess such cloud-like grace, moon-like beauty and jade-tree-in-immortal-realm elegance. He didn't look like a child from a common family at all, but rather a noble young master cultivated by an influential clan.
Emperor Changsheng's gaze shifted to Shen Wennian standing in front of Xu Huaiqian. Seeing that even Shen Wennian couldn't overshadow Xu Huaiqian's innate refined nobility, it occurred to him: while scions of powerful families were precious, a brilliantly talented son of heaven was even more so.
It was only natural for him to outshine others.