Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 190 Official Examination

Anrenfang, Yuanzhai.

Yuan Zai got up early, sent someone to prepare a small gift, put on a new set of clothes and prepared to go out.

When Wang Yunxiu saw it, he couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty is so solemn. Are you going to visit an important minister of the dynasty?"

"I'm going to pay a visit to Xue Lang." Yuan Zai adjusted his collar and suddenly asked, "But you seem to be flattering?"

"No."

Wang Yunxiu hesitated for a moment, but then said: "It's not flattery, but it seems a bit flattering. We are good friends and share the same loyalty. It doesn't hurt to help when we encounter difficulties occasionally. But if we always seek benefits from each other, it will inevitably make people look down upon."

"Where is that?" Yuan Zai said with a smile: "He has not yet had an official status. I went to see him to find an official position for him."

"That's good."

Wang Yunxiu agreed and stood in the court to see him off, but he saw that Yuan Zai still brought a carefully prepared gift when he went out. It was "Journey to the West" that Yuan Zai paid for and printed. It seemed not expensive, but it was very thoughtful.

~~

"Brother Yuan is too troublesome, there is no need for this."

"I am doing this not only for Xue Lang's fame, but also to do my best to enlighten the common people. With more storybooks like this, more people will want to learn."

This is what Yuan Zai said. Whether Xue Bai believed it or not is another matter. He responded: "I have recorded this intention."

The two sat down in the hall, and they couldn't get around the bamboo paper issue from before.

"Xue Lang also knows that Li Tan and others wanted to take away the craftsmen in order to control the bamboo paper craftsmanship. I firmly opposed it. Fortunately, Xue Lang reported it to the saint in detail, so that the right minister came forward to scare him. Later I found out that Li Tan actually sent a Thousands of generous gifts came to my house, and I used the money to publish annotations to help poor students like me."

"Thanks to your efforts." Xue Bai said: "We are not afraid of them making paper. As long as the technology is not blocked, it is the general trend that more people can read."

"This is exactly what I, as officials, should do for the world." Yuan Zai spoke loudly.

In this way, the relationship between the two became closer.

"Xue Lang has been in the spotlight recently?" Yuan Zai said in a concerned tone, smiling: "If such a young and handsome number one scholar doesn't have a destination, and is like a child holding gold in the market, won't he be coveted by others?"

"Brother Yuan is here today. Do you have any advice?"

"I'm not a lobbyist for anyone, you and I are good friends, so I'll give you an idea, how about it?"

"Appreciate further details."

"I heard that there is a confidante who wrote the lyrics for you. She is the crown prince of Yu Zhen Guan. Why don't you marry her? Her status is beyond the mortal world, and she has feelings and righteousness with you. In this way, you can not only promote Even if you refuse other people's attempts to win over you, you won't go against your will."

Xue Bai asked: "I wonder where Brother Yuan heard about this?"

"I heard it mentioned occasionally."

Xue Bai knew that Yuan Zai was still here to act as a lobbyist. Although Li Hua was not mentioned in his words, in fact Li Hua was born in the south ancestral house of the Li family in Zhaojun. He just wanted Xue Bai to compromise with the Li family in Zhaojun.

Of course, the whole dynasty is full of children from aristocratic families, so no matter how you choose, they are all the same. It is nothing more than giving some sense of oppression, even if it is just to persuade Xue Bai, the purpose is to let him get along with the light as soon as possible.

How can a Jinshi from a poor background pass the civil service examination without the help of a wealthy family?

Even in Yuan Zai, after becoming a Jinshi, he had to rely on the Wang family to find an official position.

Xue Bai simply said: "I will consider Brother Yuan's idea. Don't worry, I will prepare for the civil service examination first."

Yuan Zai sighed and stopped persuading him. He stood up and left. When he left Xue's house, he met Du Wulang.

Compared to Xue Bai who was in trouble all day long, Du Wulang looked relaxed and happy.

"Is Wulang going to be awarded an official title too?"

"How could it happen?" Du Wulang smiled happily: "After winning the Ming Sutra, there is still a period of election. After the period of election, I can participate in the election of the Ministry of Civil Affairs."

Yuan Zai said: "That's right, what has Wu Lang been busy with recently?"

"Xue Bai is busy looking for an official position, and I am busy with marriage."

"Why do I need you to organize it yourself?"

"Hey." Du Wulang sighed at this time and said: "Isn't my prospective father-in-law back? He should take care of many things, but how can he do anything? It's too late to send people to watch him, and I'm afraid of my family He was not happy when he found out, so he had no choice but to do what he was supposed to do."

Yuan Zai couldn't understand it and asked, "Why would Wulang find such a portal?"

Du Wulang didn't answer, but giggled twice.

Yuan Zai couldn't help but sigh again, thinking that both Xue Bai and Du Qi didn't know the hardships of the world.

~~

On March 16th, the Ministry of Officials held a erudite examination of Hongci.

Xue Bai got up early and went to the imperial city, all the way to Shangshu Province.

Here, he visited both the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Rites, but rarely visited the Ministry of Personnel.

The Yamen is located in the southeast of Shangshu Province. When you walk into Cao Yuan to the south, you can see mostly officials standing there waiting.

Because when you are an official in the Tang Dynasty, you have to be dismissed when your term is over, and you have to go home and wait for the election. If you don't want to stand the election, you can only take part in the civil service examination, or go to the border town to join the shogunate.

In addition to these officials who are waiting for election, there are also some old Jinshi who passed the exam a few years ago but have never been an official. Most of the people had a lifeless expression on their faces.

Xue Bai was the only one who was a Jinshi, and he was very young. Standing among the crowd, he stood out.

When the time came, several clerks came out of the veranda with serious faces and said: "Line up, the erudite poets will go to the left, and the calligraphers will go to the right."

Everyone then lined up in two lines and stepped forward to check the documents.

The person in line in front of Xue Bai was an official who was over forty years old. The official robe should be around the eighth grade, but it was full of patches. The boots under his feet were also torn, and he looked sallow and thin.

He turned around and saw Xue Bai, surprised: "So young?"

"lucky."

"Oh, I can't do it anymore."

The official didn't care who Xue Bai was, and just sighed about his own affairs.

"I have been elected for six years since I was dismissed. I have no salary. It costs too much to rush to Chang'an every year to take the civil service examination. Why don't you come? When will I get an official position?"

At this moment, a person who was checking documents in front was dragged out by the clerks, and he yelled unwillingly.

"I am Liu Chengsi! Why do you say I am not me?!"

"Alas." The official standing in front of Xue Bai looked sad and murmured: "The name verification also needs to be taken care of. For this expense, if I can no longer serve as an official this year, I will have to beg. gave birth."

After a while, it was finally this person's turn.

Xue Bai stood behind him and looked around. He saw the clerk took the document, rolled his eyes twice and asked, "Pei Feng, who am I?"

"It's me."

"What is the evidence?"

The down-and-out official named Pei Feng quietly handed the cloth bag over. The clerk opened it and saw some golden light. He weighed it and let Pei Feng in.

Then it was Xue Bai's turn.

A document was handed over. When the clerk caught a glimpse of Xue Bai's name, he immediately looked up at him and said with an apologetic smile: "Please, Mr. Zhuangyuan."

~~

The official examination pays attention to "body, speech and calligraphy". Body is the appearance and figure, words are the demeanor of conversation, book is calligraphy, and judgment is the literary talent for writing official documents.

Xue Bai went to the veranda to wait, and saw Pei Feng talking to a clerk.

"Is this going to refute it?"

"Otherwise? This year, Minister Daxi will take charge of the examination himself. Can you handle it? Go back and listen to the winter exam."

Pei Feng's face turned earth-colored, his body trembled, and he finally left slumped.

As they passed each other, Xue Bai could feel the despair in this man. He can't help him now. There are only a few officials in the Tang Dynasty who came to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for election every year and spent their savings only to be rejected for various reasons.

Even some children from the side branches of aristocratic families can't afford such long-term management expenses, let alone the children from poor families who have nothing themselves?

Xue Bai actually understood why Yuan Zai was so easily swayed and became a lobbyist to persuade him.

If Yuan Zai had not married Wang Yunxiu, how could he have become such an official? It is precisely because he knows the difficulty of official career that only by joining a high-ranking family can he find a way out, so he naturally feels that this approach is right.

Therefore, when Yuan Zai and Chen Xilie said their words of persuasion, they all felt that it was right and good for Xue Bai.

Today, Xue Bai is standing in the official department, and he understands more deeply that in many cases it is not that he has the ability, but that he is too lucky to break these shackles.

But it is precisely because of this that he must persist and bring changes to this world.

If you just want to be like the light, why do you need this luck?

"Please, Number One Scholar."

The clerk in the veranda did not embarrass Xue Bai and raised his hand to ask him to go through the other door.

Across the corridor, in another public room, Du Youlin, dressed in red robe, was sitting there.

"Here we come." Du Youlin stood up and said, "As you said, the left prime minister has no ability and cannot hinder your future. When you arrive at the examination room, sit down behind the window and the desk on the far right, and you will naturally pass. .”

Xue Bai asked: "I don't need to take care of it?"

"It's only been a few days since the big show in Ziyun Tower. Who dares to take your advice?"

Du Youlin said, looked outside, and sighed: "As for those people, there is nothing they can do. Look, there are only a few guards, but how many people are waiting."

He handed over a piece of paper, and it was written on the current officers, almost all of whom were eighth or ninth grade officials. The better ones were Bingcao from Beijing who joined the army, and the worse ones were from remote lower counties.

Party Yang does have some salt officers, but they don't know how to recruit people from the civil service department.

Xue Bai wanted to take the right path. For him, these official positions were all mixed with the same qualifications... but it was still inconvenient to go to the remote lower county. It was best to find an official in the capital, so that he could use the Holy Family to get the job as quickly as possible. During the period, he put on a red robe and was directly promoted to be the governor of one party.

After reading the note and returning it to Du Youlin, he turned around and walked to the examination room, sitting down at the indicated location.

This is a seat by the window. When you turn around, you can see the green leaves of the willow trees in the courtyard, which reminds you of the scene of reading when you were a teenager.

Later, I saw Da Xishi leading the junior officials to hand out test questions, a judgment, and a poem.

What's interesting is that there is a piece of paper under the question given to Xue Bai, with all the contents of the answer sheet filled in. Xue Bai glanced at Da Xixun and saw the Minister of Civil Affairs nodded slightly, indicating that he would just copy it once.

This is the character of Chen Xilie, the Prime Minister of the Left and Minister of Civil Affairs.

The title of the poem was "Qi Ji Fu". Xue Bai copied it and finished writing it. Then he looked at the judgment text, which was about a current event.

"General Yu Lin, Wang Chang, died without a legitimate son. His nephew took over the title, and his concubine complained. It is not in line with the system."

The sentence that Xue Bai was asked to copy was very long, and it was written in parallel prose, like a poem. The first long paragraphs were full of meaningless nonsense.

"Father shows off his son Mu, a rite of passage that lasts for thousands of years; inheritance from ancestors is the way of interdependence for all generations. If the flesh and blood are dull, the beauty of the dove will prosper; if the blood attributes are different, how can we send the son of a borer?"

Since the chief official of the Ministry of Personnel was a weakling like Chen Xilie, Xue Bai didn't even bother to copy. He wrote the verdict himself and even changed the penalty.

"According to the law of the Tang Dynasty, if a prince's uncle is a son, if there is no legitimate son, he will be a legitimate grandson, and if there is no legitimate grandson, he will be a concubine. If he dies and there is no successor to the title, the country will be eliminated, and the title will be inferior to his brothers. Wang Chang's nephew committed the crime of 'fraud' and was not a descendant. If we inherit it, we should join it two thousand miles apart, and those who should continue it should make corrections."

As long as he writes a judgment, he will judge according to the current Tang law.

~~

A gong sounded in the courtyard of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the clerks began to get up and collect their papers, and then followed Da Xixun to the lobby with their papers in their arms.

On the way, they looked at the marks on the papers, pulled out the papers of those who had extraordinary family backgrounds and had sorted them out, and gathered them together. After entering the hall, he placed these papers on top.

Only Xue Bai's paper was left untouched and no one dared to touch it.

"Ugh."

Chen Xilie also came, read a paper for a while, and sighed: "This guy doesn't give me any face at all."

Da Xixun said: "He is proficient in Tang law. This case really deserves a sentence of two thousand miles of exile, not two years."

"What's the use of a good judgment?" Chen Xilie said: "The judgment is written without any literary talent, but it's still the number one scholar... who has to wait for pen and ink."

Da Xixun was stunned for a moment, feeling a little bitter for the left prime minister, and said: "After all, there are still some calligraphers in the civil service department who are good at calligraphy."

Chen Xilie smiled bitterly and said: "Come on, old man, this Yan Kai is hard to imitate."

"Thank you Prime Minister for your hard work."

The paper and ink were spread out, Chen Xilie picked up the pen and started to re-write the judgment for Xue Bai.

What else? The right minister has already said that he must pass the official examination. No matter how unhappy you are, you can only endure it and don't miss this matter.

"Don't stare at me here."

While Chen Xilie was copying, he said, "Have you thought about what official position to give this guy?"

Da Xixun said: "The right prime minister wanted to give him a chance, but he refused to give in at all. There is no other way. It is most suitable to choose a Wangxian county captain from the east and west roads of Jiangnan and send him out of the capital."

Counties in the Tang Dynasty were divided into ten grades, namely Chi, Cichi, Ji, Ciji, Wang, Qian, Shang, Zhong, Zhongxia and Xia. The ranks of county officials were also different. For example, county captains ranged from the eighth rank to the lowest rank. They are available at all levels of the ninth grade.

What Da Xixun wanted was to give Xue Bai a Wangxian county lieutenant who was in the ninth rank, which would be worthy of the number one scholar and his reputation, and at the same time send him out of the capital to eliminate all the troubles.

He looked at the officer and finally said: "How about Dongyang County Lieutenant? Wuzhiwang County is an official position that ordinary Jinshi cannot ask for."

It's unnecessary to ask "how". Chen Xilie didn't say a word about the matter decided by the right prime minister's office. He silently copied the verdict and said, "But, it's useless for me to advise this guy. He really doesn't know the heart of a good person."

In this way, they wrote "Note that Xue Bai will be appointed as the captain of Dongyang County" and sent it to Zhongshu Provincial Hall together with other notes. Together with other documents, they sent it to Youxiang Mansion for review by Li Linfu.

It has to be said that Li Linfu handled general affairs very efficiently. In less than an hour, he returned to Zhongshu Province as soon as he responded to the paperwork.

Several officials were sorted into categories and were about to send back the official notes when they suddenly heard someone scolding them.

"Wait a minute."

They turned around and saw Yang Zheng coming, and couldn't help but be shocked.

Yang Hao, wearing a purple robe, sat down directly on the upper seat, straightened his sleeves, and said: "But what is the official's note? Let me see the truth."

Mentioning the word "truth", the officials remembered that this Uncle Yang Guosheng was "the same as Zhongshu's sect." Although he had never participated in Zhongshu's affairs, he did have this that power.

Even then, an official winked at the junior official in the distance and asked him to quickly inform the right minister.

Yang Hao saw all this and ignored it, saying: "Let you take it."

"Here."

The note was opened. Yang Hao looked around and saw that Li Linfu had already stamped it.

This was also his first time dealing with official documents from the Zhongshu Province. He was not very experienced, so he simply picked up his pen, crossed out "Dongyang County Lieutenant" and wrote "Secretary and Provincial Secretary" on the side.

Because this is one of the best jobs among all starting officials. Although the rank is only from the ninth rank, it is a central official and is suitable as a springboard for promotion.

Xue Bai was an outsider. He first served as a school secretary and then went outside. His grade and destination were greatly different.

But Yang Hao's actions made all the officials around him stunned.

"Uncle Guo, you can't do this..."

Yang Wei said disapprovingly: "What? Don't I and Zhongshu's disciple Ping Zhangshi have this power? Do you want to ask the saint?"

"This... your Majesty is asking me to re-write this note?"

"Alright."

Yang Sui really rewrote it, but he did not have to ask Li Linfu to stamp it. Instead, he took out his own seal, dipped it in red ink, breathed a sigh of relief, and stamped it with a "snap".

　Sorry, I am getting late every day. I may need to find opportunities to adjust and stabilize the update time in the past two days~~ I also wrote more than 9 words today, please vote at the beginning of the month~~

　　

　

(End of this chapter)