I studied in modern times

Chapter 740: The peaches and plums are not spoken, but they attract people
In the next few days, Zhao Xu met with civil and military officials of different levels in the palace in an orderly manner according to the rhythm arranged by the capital.

First, on Yimao (the third day of the first lunar month), he met Yitian, the chief monk of Goryeo who came to pay homage.

But it was just a meeting, and there was not much communication with Yitian.

This is clearly a form of hawk training.

Let the Koreans be more anxious.

If the Koreans are not in a hurry, the negotiation conditions of the Song Dynasty will not be good.

Then, on the same day, in the Purple Palace, civil and military officials who were allowed to be transferred to the capital as court officials or ambassadors in the second year of Yuanyou, who were introduced by the Tongjiansi and Juntoujindiansi respectively, were received.

This is also a very procedural process.

That is, he sat on a cushion and accepted the greetings of civil and military officials who were brought to him.

Then just say a few polite words and give some encouragement and that's it.

Among the ministers who were brought to the palace for audience every year, it was already good enough if there was one out of a hundred who could catch Zhao Xu's attention.

Among the newly appointed civil and military ministers brought before Zhao Xu this year, only one name caught Zhao Xu's attention.

Qin Guan Qin Shaoyou!
This is one of the four future Sumen scholars.

Su Shi also contributed to Qin Guan's promotion.

Zhao Xu was happy to do a favor, and after meeting with the newly appointed civil and military officials, he wrote a note and sent it to the Ministry of Personnel.

So, Qin Guan, who had just been appointed as a Beijing official, was immediately assigned an assignment.

Acting Magistrate of Mouping County!
Mouping, one of the four counties under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou, has three townships and two villages. The modern Weihai City is located within the jurisdiction of Mouping County and the neighboring Wendeng County.

However, at that time, Weihai was just a simple port, and its main population base was only a semi-militarized Rushan Village.

This village is one of the three townships and two villages under the jurisdiction of Mouping.

After finishing this, three days later, Zhao Xu met in the Zichen Hall with the ministers of the prefectures and counties who were nominated by the officials in the second year of Yuanyou to participate in the imperial examination.

Because there were too many unexpected things during last year's examination.

Therefore, for this year's imperial examinations, both the Dutang and the Ministry of Personnel have strengthened supervision and review.

This is to avoid any more corruption scandals as much as possible - if corruption scandals occur in the imperial examinations for two consecutive years.

That would be a complete disgrace to the government, and the officials in the capital would probably not have the face to stay there anymore.

Therefore, those who were recommended by local governments to participate in the examinations this year were of good quality.

There are future stars in the New Party.

For example, He Zhizhong, the magistrate of Bozhou, was recommended by the Jianghuai Six-Route Shipping Bureau.

This person was a Jinshi in the sixth year of Xining, and would serve as prime minister in the future along with Cai Jing.

There are also young and strong people from the old party.

For example, Su Da Huzi from Dengzhou, despite being blocked by others, took the risk to recommend Li Kefei, the magistrate of Penglai.

I can only say that the bearded guy is really brave!

Li Kefei was not only Wang Gui's son-in-law, but also personally appeared at Wang Gui's funeral after his death.

As for Wang Gui, everyone knew that the Empress Dowager in the palace "hated him deeply" and "at times wanted to peel him like hemp."

And there is... Mi Fu, who was recommended by Han Zhen from Hangzhou!
This person is a great calligrapher!

The originals would easily fetch over 10 million yuan at modern auctions!

Of course, although the calligraphy of this great calligrapher is already very famous, he has not yet truly honed his calligraphy skills to the point of perfection.

Speaking of which, Mi Fu and Zhao Xu are relatives!

Mi Fu's ancestor was Mi Xin, a general who founded the Song Dynasty.

His father, Mizo, once served as a guard in the palace during the Yingmiao era and was a member of the Imperial Dragon Guards.

And Mizo was able to get this lucrative job not because of the favor of his ancestors.

It was because he had a good elder brother - Gao Shilin, who was then a member of the Inner Palace Chongban.

This person is the younger brother of the current Empress Dowager!
The biological father of brothers Gao Gonghui and Gao Gongji!
Because of her close relationship with Gao Shilin, when Zhao Xu's father was born, Yan, who had just given birth to Mi Fu, was recommended by Gao Shilin to become one of Zhao Xu's father's wet nurses.

In other words, Mi Fu and Zhao Xu's father were raised on the same mother's milk.

It was for this reason that in the early years of Xining, Zhao Xu's father, the emperor, specially favored Mi Fu and promoted him to the position of proofreader in the Secretariat.

This is also the background in which Mi Fu can wander around without any pressure.

The next day, on the seventh day of the third month, I met with the ministers who participated in this year's imperial examinations.

Zhao Xu also received the military officials, nobles, and sons of relatives of the emperor who were taking part in the imperial examination this year in the rear hall of the Purple Palace.

The so-called Gemen Examination, as the name suggests, is an examination to select Gemen Tongshi Sheren.

As long as you pass this exam, you can work in the Kamonji.

If you are lucky, you can even serve as a secretary of the Imperial Court, or even as the Chief of Imperial Court, Chief of Tongjiansi, or other close ministers to the emperor.

Therefore, the Kaimen examination was also considered to be the official examination for military officials.

As long as you pass it, you will be able to rise to the top from now on.

Naturally, presiding over both the Gate Examination and the Imperial Examination was the emperor's prerogative.

Outsiders cannot be contaminated.

That is to say, in the past two years, the situation was special and was handled by the two palaces with "power together".

But starting this year, Zhao Xu will have to participate in both the Imperial Examination and the Gate Examination.

As this was the first time that the new monarch directly participated in the imperial examination, the Privy Council was still very attentive.

Many sons of border officials were allowed in.

For example, people from the Zhe family in Hedong, the Yao family and the Wang family in Xihe, and even the Bao family were selected to come to the capital to participate in the imperial examination.

Of course, the main force of the imperial examination has always been the relatives of the emperor and the disciples of meritorious officials in Beijing.

This year is no exception. Among the more than 30 people participating in the imperial examination, more than 20 are disciples of relatives and meritorious officials in Beijing.

This is normal!

Because the rule of the Gate Examination is to select young and promising military officials to serve as the country's military reserve.

How do we evaluate the standards of being young and promising?
Naturally, the first thing to look at is age, and the second is seniority.

Who can compare to these young masters who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths?

He is still in swaddling clothes, but he has already become an official!
The starting point for many people is the end point for others!
When the assessment was over, the list of candidates selected for this year's entrance examination was also released.

More than thirty people participated in the election, and finally ten were selected.

And among these ten people, eight are from the Yanei family!
Moreover, these people have never led a soldier for a day! They have never been on the battlefield!

When Zhao Xu saw the list, he fell silent.

He observed the entire process of the entrance examination and naturally knew that the result was absolutely fair and just.

But, that's the rule.

The imperial examination of the Song Dynasty was not about military tactics, strategies, battle tactics, or leading troops.

What they competed in was the simplest and most basic thing - archery and martial arts.

Archery accounts for a large proportion of it!

Shooting at fixed targets in the palace...isn't this an aristocratic sport?

In this case, how could a young military official from a poor family on the frontier be a match for the nobles and relatives of the emperor who lived a life of luxury in the city of Bianliang and practiced their archery day and night?
This is called fairness within the rules!

Does it look familiar?

It looks familiar!
That is, the military officials selected through this method are basically not allowed to go to the battlefield.

Zhao Xu didn't have any better solution for this.

We can only adapt to it first and wait for changes in the future.

Of course, during the reform process, he could also use the emperor's privileges to bypass the gate examination procedure and directly squeeze people in.

The second day of the imperial examination was Gengshen (the eighth day of the third month).

Surrounded by the two palaces, Zhao Xu met with the newly appointed central officials this year in the Chongzheng Hall.

Among these people, three are more eye-catching.

The newly appointed Zhongshu Sheren Liu Fu, the newly appointed Zuo Jianyi Doctor Liang Tao, and the newly appointed Langzhong of the Ministry of Works, who is in charge of the Yuanyou Hunyun Bureau, Han Gonglian.

Liu Xun was the historian in charge of the Han history section in Zizhi Tongjian Bookstore.

At the same time, he is also a famous joke king and pun maniac in the Song Dynasty.

The people he made fun of include but are not limited to Wang Anshi, Zhang Dun, Shen Kuo, Sun Jue, Cai Que, Li Chang, etc.

Many of them were broken by his jokes.

This person's personality is quite similar to Su Shi's.

They are all big mouths, and they don't care about offending people, they just care about their own ideas. As for Liang Tao?

This is a radical faction of the old party, a figure like Liu Zhi.

In Zhao Xu's previous life, the Chegaiting Poetry Case had escalated to such a tangled mess thanks to this person jumping around in the court and fanning the flames.

Therefore, his final fate was also very tragic - he was exiled and died in Lingnan.

Zhao Xu originally wanted to block his appointment, but then thought about it and gave up.

Because there are some things that we can only rely on these radicals to do.

……

Zhao Xu was busy meeting with ministers.

Thousands of miles away in Didao, a simple team appeared.

Wang Dafu noticed this team from a distance.

Because he found that this team from outside the area seemed to be very curious about everything in Didao.

He always looks here and there, and does not act like an ordinary merchant or traveler at all.

Instead, they are more like spies and secret agents.

But the problem is...

Are there spies or agents who are so blatant and open?

Wang Da Axe scratched his head.

"Guo Gui!" He turned his head and told Guo Gui who was following behind him, "Go and ask where those people came from."

"Why are you looking around and asking around on my Didao?"

"Yes!" Guo Gui accepted the order and immediately rode forward.

……

Bao Shou led the horse and walked on this ancient Di Road.

It is early spring now. The land on both sides of Didao is already planted with crops. Everywhere you look, it is full of green.

The gurgling water of the Wei River sounds in my ears.

On the river bank, the tall waterwheel turned slowly, drawing water from the Wei River and pouring it into the ditches.

Countless farmers are working in the vast fields.

In the distance, you can see smoke rising from the houses in the fields.

This Xizhou was completely different from what he had imagined.

This place doesn't seem to have any characteristics of being sparsely populated.

On the contrary, the population is quite dense, even not inferior to Yongxingjun and Qinfeng Road.

In terms of basic water conservancy facilities, especially water wheels, ditches and irrigation systems, it is not even inferior to Henan.

Especially the density of water wheels, which even exceeds that of his hometown Luzhou!
A large waterwheel can be seen almost every one or two miles.

In some places, there are even two or three water wheels within a mile, drawing water.

At the same time, he also saw the rows of trees planted on both sides of the Wei River.

These trees appear to have been planted only in the past one or two years.

Many of them are just saplings!
This was really beyond Bao Shou's imagination.

"Xihe can be said to be in great order now!" Bao Shou sighed.

The only thing that made him feel uncomfortable was that the farmers in Xihe seemed unwilling to talk to him.

Moreover, judging from the hairstyle and clothing of these farmers, they do not seem to be Han people.

Just as I was sighing, a horseman came rushing towards me on the official road in the distance.

"Hey, man, who are you? Why are you looking around in my Didao? Are you spying?" The man riding on the horse was wearing a black robe and looked like a local government official or a patrol soldier.

He came up to Bao Shou and questioned him loudly.

Bao Shou could see that at the distant intersection, there were a dozen soldiers riding on horses, carrying bows and arrows.

Bao Shou immediately laughed. He gently unbuttoned his coat, revealing the green official robe underneath, and then lifted the official bag at his waist.

"I am the newly appointed Tongpan of Xizhou, Bao Shou!"

"Ask your family's inspector to come see me!"

"I have something to ask!"

When the officer and soldier on the horse heard Bao Shou's self-introduction, he couldn't help but tremble.

"Are you the new judge Bao Tongpan?"

"Yeah!" Bao Shou nodded.

"Son of Lord Bao Xiaosu?" the man's voice trembled.

Bao Shou was stunned for a moment. He could never have imagined that even the officers and soldiers of Xizhou had heard of his father's name?

Then, Bao Shou saw the man dismount from his horse and kowtow to him: "I am Guo Gui, son of Guo Tong from Bianjing, and I am honored to meet you, benefactor!"

Bao Shou hurried forward and helped him up.

He was totally bewildered.

However, in the city of Bianjing, he often met the people or descendants who had received favors from his father.

When these people met him, they would often bow to him and express their gratitude.

But he didn't expect that in Xizhou, he would also meet the descendants of the people his father had helped back then!

Guo Gui was extremely excited.

His ancestors were the victims whose houses were destroyed by the flood of the Bian River.

It was all thanks to Bao Xiaosu, the then acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, who loved his people like his own children and brought the Kaifeng Prefecture's soldiers and officers from the Dushuijian to provide disaster relief in time, that his family was able to survive.

It can be said that if it weren’t for Bao Xiaosugong, he might not even have the chance to be born!
Guo Gui bowed and immediately went back to report to Wang Dafu.

When Wang Dafu heard that it was the newly appointed Pan Bao who had arrived, he was very excited and immediately rushed forward with his men to pay him a visit.

Without him.

Wang Dafu grew up listening to the stories of Bao Xiaosu.

Now, I actually have the opportunity to meet the son of Lord Bao Xiaosu.

It is definitely not to be missed!

At the same time, he also quickly sent people to inform everyone in Xizhou that the newly appointed judge Bao Tongpan had arrived!

Then, the whole Xizhou was in an uproar.

Thousands of Bao family members, after hearing that their relative, the son of Lord Bao Xiaosu, had come to Xizhou in person, flocked to the place with their elderly and children.

By the time Bao Shou arrived at the foot of Xizhou City, tens of thousands of members of the Bao family had gathered outside the city.

They were all certified by the emperor and recognized by the imperial court, and were also acknowledged by Bao Shou himself as relatives of the Xizhou branch of the Luzhou Bao family.

Moreover, most of them are his juniors.

Many people bowed their heads and called him "Uncle" or "Granduncle" when they saw him.

Bao Shun, the patriarch of the Bao family, even went out to greet him personally. When he saw Bao Shou, he burst into tears and shouted, "My dear brother!"

"I finally waited for you!"

……

You Shixiong, standing on the top of Xizhou City, looked at the magnificent scenery below the city, and the voices of "Uncle" and "Granduncle" all over the mountains and plains. He sighed softly: "Peaches and plums do not speak, but people will follow them!"

"Taishigong really didn't lie to me!"

Behind him, two fellow students from Hengqu who were invited to Xihe to give lectures were looking at the scene in front of them and were in unprecedented shock.

A minister of the Song Dynasty had never been to Xihe, nor had he ever met Bao Shun's clan, let alone done them any favors.

however……

These Qiang people, who lived thousands of miles away, still admired and worshipped the famous minister of the Song Dynasty who had been dead for twenty or thirty years.

For this reason, they wrote to the court, requesting that the court grant them the surname Bao.

Now, they have come with their families to welcome a Song Dynasty official whom they have never seen before and have no blood relationship with.

Simply because this person is the son of Bao Xiaosu, whom they admire!
This kind of power that bursts out from morality is irresistible to all Confucian scholars.

It is the theories in the book that reflect reality.

How could this not make them excited? Excited? And vow to fight for it?

(End of this chapter)