Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 726 Palace Exam
After seeing off Fan Guang, Yu Qian returned to the study and stood opposite Yu Shiyue. The candlelight flickered, and both of them couldn't help sighing.

Looking up at Yu Qian, Yu Shiyue asked.

"Ting Yi, why didn't you explain the matter to Dudu Fan just now?"

In fact, Fan Guang was only half right just now.

Yu Qian was indeed worried that this time Oala's tribute would affect the imperial government's policy of rectifying the army. However, this influence did not necessarily come from the border, and more importantly, it came from the court!
Hearing this, Yu Qian shook his head lightly and said.

"Fan Dudu is right. He is a general and honored minister, and he works in the Beijing camp. As long as the border is safe, then he should not take care of the rest."

"No matter what kind of plans they have for the tribute from Wala this time, someone in the court will definitely use them to prevent the rectification of the army."

Yu Shiyue's expression froze, his brows furrowed, and he asked.

"You mean, someone will collude with the Oirat Mission and use the situation on the border to persecute the imperial court? Or, are there shadows behind the many provocations on the border?"

Yu Qian pondered for a moment, shook his head slowly, and said.

"It's hard to say, at least so far, there has been no relevant news from the Yeburei in the army. I have also asked His Majesty in private, and the manpower deployed by the Jinyiwei at the border has not noticed any signs of it. Therefore, the border provocation It should not be that someone has connections with other races."

"However, there are many people in the capital who don't want to see the imperial court rectify the military settlements. This is for sure. These people, seeing Wala's tribute envoys coming at this moment, are afraid that they will not be safe."

Hearing this, Yu Shiyue also sneered and said.

"This group of people is filling their own pockets, eating their brains full of fat, and they don't care about the situation of the frontier army and the stability of the border. Now that the imperial court wants to rectify it, they dare to block it. They really are the moths of the country!"

Compared with the indignation of his old friend, Yu Qian's face was calm, and he spoke.

"This is why I invited Dudu Fan over again today. You and I can handle the conspiracy and struggle above the court, but the border must not be lost. If these people secretly plot to stop the rectification of the army, there is nothing they can do That's two."

"Either it is to intensify border provocations, or to passively resist. What I worry about is that the former will come true and cause social turmoil."

"However, since Dudu Fan and Marquis Yang have already made their conclusions, and the current situation in the grassland, they dare not raise troops easily, so the rest is up to the Ministry of War."

These words, Yu Qian said in a calm tone, but the more so, for Yu Shiyue who knew Yu Qian well, the more he could feel the turbulent waves hidden under this calm.

However, what he knew better was that Yu Qian's mental strength was not very shaken by others. When a trace of worry flashed in his heart, he pondered for a moment and asked.

"In that case, Na Tingyi, when do you think these people will do it?"

After this period of time, although the imperial court was calm, the Ministry of War was not idle. Although there seemed to be no major moves, Yu Qian and Chen Yi from the Metropolitan Procuratorate had basically finalized the list of censors who went on tour. up.

It won't be long before the process of clearing Zhang Tianmu will be officially launched. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that in the entire regulation of rectifying the military settlements, clearing Zhang Tianmu is the first step and the most critical step.

As long as this step can be completed smoothly, the rest will be much easier.

Therefore, if these people want to prevent the rectification of the army, then they will definitely do it in the process of clearing Zhang Zhang's fields.

Yu Qian narrowed his eyes, looked through the open window lattice, didn't know where to look, and said softly.

"March, spring hunting!"

…………

In the twinkling of an eye, February has arrived, and the capital city has become very lively. Although there are still many important events in the court, at this time of February, there is no doubt that there is only one most important thing, and that is the court's promotion. Grand ceremony, Chunwei scientific research.

Zhu Qiyu was sitting in the Fengtian Hall, and below were a group of civil and military ministers. Facing the rising sun, under the guidance of the officials, a group of new imperial examination candidates entered the hall and respectfully bowed to the ground.

"Kowtow to my emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

After a month of planning, this spring finally ushered in the final end.

Palace test!

After the ritual was flattened, under the guidance of the official, all the candidates stood in front of the set table in front of the hall, and the pen, ink, paper and inkstone had already been prepared.

Immediately, an eunuch came forward, unfolded the imperial decree on the yellow silk on the jade scroll, and read it aloud.

"Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, said: I, since ancient times, there must be three kings in the world, called Dao, Virtue, and Merit. However, Dao is like Fuxi, Shennong, and Yellow Emperor. , It cannot be changed forever.”

"I want to study the subtleties of its mind, push it to govern, and educate the world. Although it is not related to farming, tribute, school, ritual and music, conquest, and punishment, I want to participate in the meeting of its production. , Tongfu has nothing to judge from the past, so how can he be accurate to the present?"

"I inherit the great position of my ancestors, and I have always been in my heart. I can only expect from the moral merits of the ancient saints. If one of the moral merits is one, I can be called a saint. However, Fuxi, Shennong, Huangdi are called emperors, Yao and Shun are called emperors, and Yu is called emperor. Tang Wenwu called the king. The reason why his titles are different is due to his morality and merit? Does governance and education have to be replaced? The reason why a saint is a saint is nothing more than that. Why did the emperor descend to become the emperor? The emperor descended to become the king Huh?"

"Master Zi learns from his teacher and learns from his own. It is advisable to know everything about it. The one who talks about it, since he inherited a division, he came here with pleasure, and his features are Chen's. I will see it personally, thank you!"

Different from what ordinary people expected, the policy theory of the palace examination is not a simple sentence, but a whole set of questions, and the content is no longer the Four Books and Five Classics, but is selected by the emperor. Usually, it will involve state affairs Great events, or ways of governing the country.

The topic of the palace examination this time obviously belongs to the latter. After such a long paragraph, it is actually very simple to sum up. It is the usefulness of Tao, virtue, and merit in governing the country. Or to put it more bluntly, in today’s world, governing the country What principles should be followed in order to form a flourishing situation.

It should be said that this topic is very grand, and even the princes present at the scene, no one dared to say that they could give a specific answer.

However, although it is grand, the difficulty is actually not high. Compared with those topics that investigate government affairs, this kind of big and empty topic is easy to write.

After all, these scholars read the Four Books and Five Classics, and what they are best at is "words on behalf of sages".

Therefore, after the questions were announced, each of the scholars present received a copy of the questions, but they could not start answering the questions, but knelt down to thank them first.

Afterwards, the emperor got up and drove out of the hall, and all the civil and military officials also left the hall. Only the deacons and scholars were left in the whole hall before they could sit down and start answering questions.

The palace examination process is very boring and takes a long time. It lasts from early morning to dusk, and there will be a short break in between. Guanglu Temple will serve wine and meals, but during the whole process, you are not allowed to say a word, otherwise you will be expelled directly Fengtian Temple.

Therefore, throughout the day, Fengtian Hall was basically quiet.

However, different from the quiet atmosphere in the hall, the elders left Fengtian Hall, and before returning to the yamen, they were already discussing among themselves.

This topic of the Son of Heaven is common to scholars, but to the elders in the court, it is worth pondering carefully.

"Xiao Xueshi stay here."

As soon as he left the palace gate, there was a sound from behind, Xiao Yi turned around, only to see that the one who stopped him was none other than Jiang Yuan, a cabinet scholar.

Logically speaking, the chief examiner of the palace examination is the Son of Heaven, so the Son of Heaven should read all the test papers in person.

However, every time there is an examination, the number of scholars who enter the palace examination ranges from nearly a hundred to as many as two to 300. How can the emperor have the time to look at them one by one.

Therefore, there is a palace examination paper reader, called reading papers, but in fact it is reading papers.

Moreover, there is only one day to mark the palace examination papers. Today the palace examination is over, and the papers will be graded after the papers are sealed. Within two days, the paper reader will select about ten papers and submit them to the emperor for review by the emperor one by one. , and finally determine the top three in the palace examination.

Therefore, the workload is still very large, and there are not many examiners for the palace examination, there are a total of ten people.

Among them, the cabinet occupies three, except for the first assistant Wang Ao and the second assistant Yu Shiyue, the others are all the examiners, and the remaining seven people, each of the six ministries has a minister, plus the head of the Hanlin Academy. Xiao Ying, formed together.

Although it is said that there is no priority in the name of the ten examiners, in fact, in the previous examinations, everyone tacitly agreed that the Hanlin Bachelor is the main examiner.

After all, after the first and third people point out, they will eventually enter the Hanlin Academy. It is considered that the Hanlin Bachelor is choosing students for himself.

If you are really dissatisfied with ordering a few Hanlin bachelors, you will also find yourself in the Hanlin Academy.

Xiao Yi has always been a good-tempered person, not to mention that this time he was going to mark the papers with Jiang Yuan and others, so his attitude was naturally very good, he turned around and said with a smile.

"Old Jiang Ge, what's the matter?"

Jiang Yuan cupped his hands and said.

"Xiao Xueshi, although the time is still early, there are a large number of scholars in the imperial examination this time. I'm afraid we will have to work overtime. However, after all, it is a grand ceremony for national talents, so we must be cautious."

"The topic proposed by His Majesty is grand in content and seems simple, but it is not easy to have something to say. I am afraid that we will have to discuss a regulation on how to grade the papers at that time."

"Jiang had a discussion with Mr. Zhang Ge and Mr. Zhu Ge. If Scholar Xiao is fine, why not have lunch in the cabinet and invite a few others to discuss together?"

Xiao Yi already had this plan in his heart, but before he could say it, Jiang Yuan didn't hesitate much when he mentioned it, nodded and agreed.

…………

Two days later, Wen Hua Hall.

Zhu Qiyu sits high on the throne, and below is a group of officials, Xiao Yi, a scholar of the Imperial Academy, said.

"Your Majesty, the examination papers for the imperial examination have been finished, please Your Majesty please name the top three."

At this moment, what Zhu Qiyu had in front of him was the ones that had been selected, and all the examiners agreed that they were the best examination papers. What Zhu Qiyu had to do was to pick out the top three among them and award them Jinshi and rank.

Stretching out his hand to look through it, the one on the top was a scholar named Cheng Zong. Seeing this situation, Zhu Qiyu couldn't help frowning, and his eyes fell on Xiao Yi who was at the bottom.

You should know that although theoretically speaking, the ten papers in the palace examination are not ranked in order, and the specific ranking is determined by the emperor, but generally the top three papers are the top three in the eyes of the examiners by default. three.

In other words, Cheng Zong's paper is the one that wins the hearts of Xiao Yi, the examiner of the palace examination.

Of course, this is not accurate enough.

In fact, at this level of the palace examination, the talents and writing styles of many scholars are almost the same. It is really impossible to say how much insight can be gained from policy theory. After all, they are all scholars who have devoted themselves to studying. It's empty talk, therefore, the real competition in the palace examination is no longer talent and learning, but sophistication.

In fact, after the examination, these candidates who have half-stepped into the official career have already entered the officialdom.

In the officialdom, the most inescapable thing is connections, and those who know a little bit about human relations, after the examination is over, have already begun to show their abilities to the examiners of the palace examination that they think are possible.

There are ten examiners in total for the palace examination, and there is no order of ranking, but there is no doubt that Xiao Ying, who is a scholar of the Imperial Academy, has the most say among them.

So in fact, the so-called most favored by the examiners actually means that they are most favored by the examiners and want to be accepted as disciples.

This is an unspoken rule commonly used in palace examinations, and Zhu Qiyu doesn't care about it, but he has to say that Xiao Yi's vision is really not very good.

If it's someone else, it's fine. Cheng Zong, let alone the champion, even if he scored in the top three, Zhu Qiyu feels that it is not enough!
In the previous and present lives, many things have changed, but in this palace examination, Zhu Qiyu still met many familiar faces.

One of them is Cheng Zong.

It should be said that in the previous life, Cheng Zong's scientific examination results were not outstanding, he didn't even make it to the second class, and only got a No. 30 in the third class.

The reason why Zhu Qiyu was deeply impressed by this man was because he was a well-known treacherous official in the Chenghua Dynasty, who had neither ability nor morality.

The imperial court sent him to inspect Yunnan to appease the chieftains, but instead of mediating conflicts, he relied on his power to do his best. While squeezing the local chieftains, he flattered the cabinet ministers of the court, hoping to get ahead, and almost caused another rebellion in the western part of Yunnan. .

How can such a person step into the official career?
Glancing at Xiao Yi dissatisfied, Zhu Qiyu didn't reprimand him for no reason, but opened Cheng Zong's paper first.

In the final analysis, only he himself knows these reasons, and only he knows Cheng Zong's character. It is a bit too much to use this to criticize Xiao Yi.

However, reading the whole story, Zhu Qiyu's brows couldn't help but become more and more wrinkled.

After a while, he put down the paper, thought for a while, picked up the ink pen and wrote a few words on it, and handed it to the servant beside him.

Cheng Jing was serving by the side today, and he couldn't help being surprised when he saw the test paper that the emperor had finished reviewing, because the emperor only wrote two sentences on this test paper.

"It's a bunch of nonsense, don't use it!"

The simple eight characters mean that Cheng Zong has changed from being a candidate for the number one scholar to a failed candidate...

(End of this chapter)