49 It’s Good to be Educated

He would only be qualified to participate in the imperial exam if he passed the state exam? After that, the best scholar was selected from those that passed the imperial exam? Before he could become an official, he first had to spend thousands of taels of silver?

How could a family of farmers afford thousands of taels of silver?!

If they couldn’t afford it, they would have to try again, but the more they waited, the greater the competition.

Could a person who couldn’t even pass the state exam go that far?

Lin Dachui and Old Lady Lin could no longer listen to the rest of the sentence.

Their dream to have a son who was an official was shattered.

The other members of the Lin family were also shocked when they heard this. They even felt that Lin Yuanshan had wasted their family’s money.

After talking for a full 15 minutes, Zheng Yongzi finally finished explaining the process to become an official.

Lin Yuanshan felt a great sense of shame which made him wish he could hide in a hole.

The villagers, on the other hand, had learned a lot.

After knowing that it was that difficult to become an official, they thought that it was pointless to spend so much money on studies.

Lin Xiaoyue thanked Zheng Yongzi.

Hearing the villagers’ discussion, she said to everyone, “actually, studying is not just to become an official. It can broaden one’s horizons. In reality, for example, to make a living, those who are educated could find better jobs. Just because it’s hard to become an official doesn’t mean that studying is useless.”

“Yeah, those who are educated could go to town to find work. Those who aren’t can only do hard labor like my husband,” said a woman.

“Besides, being educated makes it less likely for one to be scammed!” Another person said.

“Yeah, it seems that it’s important to be educated…”

The village chief looked at Lin Xiaoyue with admiration.

“In addition, although scholars are only qualified to become officials if they pass the imperial exam, there are also benefits even if they only pass the preliminary exam,” the village chief said to the villagers.

“What benefits, village chief?” someone asked.

“First, if there is a scholar in the family, two people in the family can be exempted from mandatory labor.”

“Second, they will be given preferential treatment. If you are a scholar, you don’t have to kneel before an official, and you can not be tortured in court.”

“Third, you are exempted from grain taxes. You can be exempted from the grain tax of 20 acres of land.”

As soon as he said that, the villagers immediately started chattering, especially when they heard about the grain tax exemption. This could save a lot of money for farming families.

Thus, many families wanted to send their children to school.

Seeing that the villagers no longer had any misunderstandings about studying, Lin Xiaoyue looked at Lin Dachui again.

“Grandpa, do you still think that letting fifth uncle go to school is the same as letting all the children in the family go to school?”

As soon as she said that, everyone turned to look at Lin Dachui.

In particular, the sons and grandsons of the Lin family all turned to look at him.

It was good to go to school, even if one couldn’t become an official. Perhaps one could earn a better living in the future. If one had knowledge, one could become a teacher.

However, their parents (grandparents) favored his fifth son and spent all the money in the family on him. He was convinced that he could become an official after he passed the exam.

However, Yongzi explained that the process was much more complicated than they had expected.

Lin Yuanshan had failed the state examination twice. Was it possible for him to become a scholar? Even if it was possible, how many years would it take?