Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 448 Farce

When grading the papers after that, Jia Zheng paid special attention to Lu Che's papers.

Jia Zheng read several papers at the same time and felt relaxed and happy.

During this period, Jia Zheng served as the Minister of Rites, and most of the people he interacted with were literati. Jia Zheng believed that he was very talented and learned, but when he encountered Lu Che's paper, Jia Zheng knew what it means to be quick and intelligent, and what it means to be talented and smart.

Thinking that Lu Che, who was only a few years older than his own Baoyu, could produce such excellent articles, made Jia Zheng a little fond of talent.

So he named Lu Ce as Huiyuan on the spot.

The other two examiners had no objection to Jia Zheng's decision.

After all, Jia Zheng is the examiner, so everyone still has to give him face.

After that, the papers were sent over one by one, and several examiners reviewed them one by one. Finally, a total of more than 180 papers were selected. These are the tribute students who will take the exam this year.

Of course, there were still seven or eight of them that Jia Zheng was dissatisfied with, but since the other two examiners had recommended them, Jia Zheng didn't force them.

Everyone is in the officialdom. Although Jia Zheng is an upright person, he does not know how to adapt.

This time, under his own auspices, the examination was fair, and there were only seven or eight people who were successful.

The two deputy examiners did not cause trouble for him, so Jia Zheng stopped pursuing it.

The next day, Jia Zheng entered the palace with all the examination papers, went to the Yangxin Hall, and asked to see Jia Rui.

After receiving permission, he entered the Hall of Mental Cultivation and saw Jia Rui sitting on the throne, correcting memorials like an emperor.

Jia Zheng stood below and did not dare to disturb him. It was not until half an hour later that Jia Rui put down the pen in his hand and stretched out, as if he had just seen Jia Zheng at this time.

"How long has it been since uncle came?"

After finishing speaking, Jia Rui glared at Lao Li who was standing next to him, "Uncle is here, why didn't you remind me?"

Lao Li didn't dare to refute, lowered his head and said nothing.

Jia Zheng couldn't let Old Li take the blame for him, so he quickly explained: "It's not his fault. I asked Eunuch Li not to disturb you."

In fact, Jia Rui just pretended that when Jia Zheng said this, he stopped pursuing it, and then ordered someone to give Jia Zheng a seat in the Yangxin Hall.

Jia Zheng sat on the chair, then raised the test paper he was holding in his arms and said: "This is the test paper for this year's Enke examination. I and several other examiners have selected the person who won the examination. Please Your Excellency, take a look."

As soon as Jia Rui raised his hand, Lao Li quickly walked over, picked up the thick stack of papers, and then sent it to Jia Rui's Long Shu desk.

There were hundreds of papers, so it was impossible for Jia Rui to read them all, so he flipped through the first few.

The papers above are all very good, and the articles are full of flowers.

Jia Rui happily patted the papers and said, "Not bad, they are all talents."

"Sir, can the palace examination be held as required?"

Jia Rui did not answer Jia Zheng immediately, but asked an irrelevant question: "How many people in the north of the Yangtze River in Enke won this year? How many people in the south of the Yangtze River are Gongsheng?"

For this kind of basic common sense, Jia Zheng was naturally confident. He stood up and raised his hands and said: "Sir, this time Enke admitted a total of 182 Gong students, including 163 from Jiangnan and 19 from Jiangbei. .”

After Jia Rui heard this, his face became gloomy.

"What's going on? Is Jiangbei's exam results so bad?"

Jia Zheng felt helpless after hearing this, "Sir, although I don't want to say it, there are indeed a gathering of literati in Jiangnan, and the academic atmosphere is much stronger than that in Jiangbei."

Jia Zheng did not say anything else, but Jia Rui also understood the meaning, that is, the scores of Jiangbei students were one notch lower than those of Jiangnan students.

But Jia Rui doesn't care about this. He can't let the students from Jiangnan have an absolute advantage. If this happens, won't the world belong to the Jiangnan faction?

"The imperial examination is for the purpose of selecting talents for the country. It should be both north and south and should not be biased."

Jia Zheng was standing below, his head already sweating, and he didn't dare to say anything.

In fact, it was Jia Rui who wronged Jia Zheng. Since the founding of this dynasty, Emperor Taizu relied on the power of Jiangnan to conquer the world, so he never intervened in the imperial examinations where the south was strong and the north was weak.

Therefore, among the officials in the imperial court, officials from the south account for 70-80%, and the rest are officials from the north and officials from remote areas in the southwest.

Jia Rui didn't care about this before, but now that Jia Rui is in control of the court, he hopes that his court will be more stable, unlike the current situation where one family is the dominant one.

"Go back. This year, 40% of the northern scholars will be admitted, and the rest will be from the south and southwest."

After saying that, Jia Rui turned around and left the Yangxin Hall.

After Jia Rui left, Jia Zheng wiped the cold sweat from his head, then picked up the paper and returned to Gongyuan.

At this time, none of the examiners from Gongyuan left. They were waiting for Jia Zheng to come back.

When they saw Jia Zheng walking in, a group of people immediately gathered around them.

"How is Master Jia? Is there nothing wrong with the Prime Minister?" "Yes, Master Jia, we have been staying in this Gongyuan for many days. We can't eat well or sleep well. We should be able to go out, right?"

Jia Zheng threw the papers in his arms on the table, then sat down on the chair and said: "The Prime Minister does not agree with the imperial examination list we sent, let us come back and draft it again!"

A deputy examiner was shocked when he heard Jia Rui's words. He thought that he had been exposed for bending the law for personal gain, so his calves began to tremble.

"Master Jia, what's going on?"

"The people we admitted to the imperial examination this year are too many from the south. The Prime Minister is unhappy and asked us to increase the number of northerners admitted to 40%." Jia Zheng said.

After hearing this, the other people looked at each other a little bit.

This dynasty has not had this rule since Taizu founded the country!

And if it's like what Jia Rui said, then there's no fairness at all.

Southern students study well, are they still doing something wrong?

However, everyone is not a fool and does not want to stand out, so they all focus on Jia Zheng.

"Why are you looking at me? Hurry up and re-grade the exam."

Jia Zheng's words let the people below know that their little arms could not twist the thighs, so they had to disperse and start searching for northern scholars among the failed papers.

In fact, the knowledge of many scholars in the north is not bad, but there is some gap compared to the gathering of talents in the south.

If you choose hard, you can still pick out a lot of talents.

Just like this, after another busy night, Jia Zheng finally completed the task.

However, it was already getting late, and it was impossible to enter the palace today, so Jia Zheng and other examiners had no choice but to stay in the Gongyuan again.

The next day, just after breakfast, Jia Zheng couldn't wait to leave the Gongyuan, and arrived at the palace gate in a sedan chair. After that, he successfully stood in the Yangxin Hall and saw Jia Rui again.

This time, Jia Rui was quite satisfied with the list and papers they sent.

"Yes, let's announce it according to this list! As for the palace examination, we will follow the previous rules."

After finishing speaking, Jia Rui approved a few words on the list, indicating that he agreed, and then asked Lao Li to hand it to Jia Zheng and asked him to go out and publish the list.

With Jia Rui's approval document in his hand, Jia Zheng hurriedly left Yangxin Hall and returned to Gongyuan.

At this time, the gate of Gongyuan is already crowded with people. Everyone is waiting for Gongyuan to come out!

Originally, the list should have been finalized yesterday, and I could just post the list today, but I was delayed for a whole day at Jia Rui's place.

After Jia Zheng came back, he and several deputy examiners immediately began to write a list of names to be posted.

Three people worked together to write more than a hundred names, and they were quickly finished. After that, they ordered the officials of Gongyuan to post them on the wall outside Gongyuan.

After the door was posted, everyone was still looking for their names anxiously at first, but after two hours, many people gradually realized that this year's list was different from before.

In the past, most of the names on the list were from Jiangnan. However, although people from Jiangnan still account for the majority this year, the number of scholars from Jiangbei has also increased significantly this year.

If we exclude the poor provinces in the southwest, the number of Gongsheng students in Jiangnan this year will be only half of the number on the list.

This time, the candidates in Jiangnan are no longer doing it.

How can this be done?

If we continue like this, won't it be harder for us to pass the Jinshi examination, become an official, and get ahead?

After all, the academic atmosphere in Jiangnan is strong, and competition among everyone is very fierce. If there are fewer people in the conference, wouldn't they be even more sad?

I don’t know who started shouting, and then the candidates from Jiangnan started to make a noise.

However, the clamor soon ended because there were more candidates from Jiangbei nearby than they did.

Northerners are stouter than southerners, and even the children of landlords in the north have to go to the fields. Speaking of which, they are a level better than the frail scholars from Jiangnan.

When the northern candidates saw this scene, you Jiangnan candidates had an absolute advantage in the imperial examination. I don’t know if the candidates cheated or what, but we northerners always failed the exam. Now you finally show your face, and you are still with us. Is this call still possible? Just fight it.

Then a melee broke out between the candidates from the north and the south in front of the Gongyuan.

This alarmed Jia Zheng in the Gongyuan. After receiving the news, he stamped his feet angrily.

Look, look, he just said that this kind of thing is not possible, but Jia Rui insists on having his own way, is there something wrong now?

Although he complained about Jia Rui in his heart, as the examiner, he still had to clean up the mess.

Surrounded by dozens of yamen, two deputy examiners, and six or seven examiners, Jia Zheng left the Gongyuan and went outside to see that the candidates on both sides were almost bleeding.

You must know that the candidates at this time are different from the students who were castrated by the Qing Dynasty in history. These people are full of blood and have a lot of ambition in their hearts!

Jia Zheng stood on the steps of Gongyuan and shouted loudly:

"Everyone stop it, everyone stop it. How unbecoming is it to fight in front of the Gongyuan Gate? Do you still want fame?"

When some people heard Jia Zheng's shouts, their heads finally became clearer, so they quietly stopped and then slipped back into the crowd.

However, there were still some who had already been hit on the head. No matter how Jia Zheng shouted, they seemed to be unable to hear and kept throwing their fists at each other.

(End of this chapter)