I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 623: Book of Official Affairs
"After today's assessment, with Brother Yuanbo's talent, I don't think he will be assigned to a post outside the capital. He should be able to be sent directly to the government office!"

Hearing this, Wang Xiong, who had just finished the civil service examination in the Third Office, said humbly: "The selection of officials is decided by the superiors. Whether you stay in Luoyang or go to the local areas in the future, you are serving the country!"

"Of course, if I can stay in Luoyang, I will undoubtedly be able to realize my ambitions!"

It's no wonder Wang Xiong was so confident. He was born into a special family, Wang of Langya. His grandfather Wang Ren and father Wang Rui served as governors of Qingzhou and Jingzhou respectively. The only regret was that his father had some problems as governor of Jingzhou and was eventually dismissed from office.

But even so, the Wang family's reputation in Langya was not false, and his father had more energy to teach Wang Xiong wholeheartedly after Wang Rui resigned.

This made the civil service examination of the three offices not difficult for Wang Xiong. Although the three offices themselves had the function of training officials to handle civil service, public classes were difficult to compare with private lessons.

Therefore, many officials in the three offices saw that Wang Xiong was quite accomplished in civil affairs, and some wanted to curry favor with Wang Xiong and get his advice. Wang Xiong did not blindly cherish these people, but selectively made friends with them through his knowledge.

"In my opinion, your attainments in administrative affairs are sufficient to pass this assessment. In the future, you and I may serve as officials in the same company," Wang Xiong continued.

"Then I'll borrow your good words."

As they were talking, they saw a man coming towards them.

Wang Xiong asked casually, "Gongyi, how did you do on the test today?"

Hearing Wang Xiong's question, Zhang Ren shook his head. The official assessment of the three offices was still a bit too difficult for him who had never served as an official.

Zhang Ren bowed to Wang Xiong and the other two and said goodbye. Just after he took a few steps, he suddenly heard a whisper from behind him: "Now anyone can be nominated as a filial and honest official!"

Zhang Ren turned around immediately after hearing this.

"Be careful with your words!" At this time, Wang Xiong's voice reached Zhang Ren's ears.

Wang Xiong also turned around at this time, and bowed to Zhang Ren and said, "I hope Gongyi will not be offended by my good friend's outrageous words. Li Bao, why don't you apologize to Gongyi!"

Li Bao originally thought it was a small matter, but when he saw Wang Xiong's serious attitude and even called him by his name, he did not dare to disobey and bowed to Zhang Ren to apologize.

Zhang Ren was not afraid of being insulted himself, but he did not want the Shu County Governor Shen Pei, who had recommended him as a filial and incorruptible official, to be humiliated.

Seeing that Li Bao apologized in time, Zhang Ren did not intend to pursue the matter further. He said: "I lack insights into official affairs. This is my incompetence and I am ashamed of the county governor. However, the county governor recommended me as a filial and honest official because of my virtue. If you have any objections to this, you can use swords to discuss it!"

Hearing Zhang Ren's murderous words, Li Bao immediately became timid.

Instead, Wang Xiong continued after hearing this: "Gong Yi, there is no need to be too modest. Gong Yi's progress in the assessments these days is obvious to all. How can you say he is incompetent?"

Zhang Ren's martial spirit is more obvious than that of a scholar, and he was the kind of person that Wang Xiong's father Wang Rui used to look down upon - but Wang Rui suffered a great loss because of this contempt, and therefore, under Wang Rui's guidance, Wang Xiong learned a lot from past mistakes.

In Wang Xiong's opinion, although Zhang Ren was not very good at administrative affairs, it did not mean that Zhang Ren was incompetent, but that he had never been exposed to these things before.

However, Zhang Ren had never humbled himself enough to ask for his advice, and he felt it was a pity that their relationship could not go further.

Although the two sides are now in conflict, he thinks this is a good opportunity to deepen their friendship, so he took the initiative to extend an olive branch: "Justice is above official affairs, but if you have any doubts, you may come to me. I should be in the office during this period."

The place where the three people were was not empty. In fact, there were people watching when the conflict between the two sides began.

There are six or seven hundred officials in the three offices, but not many of them are familiar with each other. However, as Wang Xiong is a prominent figure, there must be more people who know him.

"On ordinary days, many people want to ask Wang Yuanbo for advice on government affairs but are unable to do so. Today, he actually took the initiative to make friends with Zhang Gongyi. It seems that this person is also quite good!"

"I think he will definitely agree... I know Zhang Gongyi. He comes from a poor family and has never been a county official before. Now that he finally has such an opportunity, he will definitely not give it up."

"Yes... I am from Donghai. I know that although the Wang family of Langya is not a prominent family, it can be considered as one of the most powerful families in Langya. It would not be a bad thing to make friends with Wang Yuanbo."

The whispers around did not reach the ears of the two parties involved, but Wang Xiong had already felt the emotions of the onlookers, and he felt that Zhang Ren would definitely agree to him.

People like Zhang Ren lack background and rely on their character when they go out. Once someone accepts his help, he will definitely get a greater return for his kindness to Zhang Ren in the future.

"Thank you for your kindness, Yuanbo. I appreciate it...but I don't want to receive rewards without merit. I am now lacking in official duties, so I will just make up for it double tomorrow." Zhang Ren said.

He just lacked political experience, but he was not stupid. He certainly knew that accepting Wang Xiong's kindness came at a price.

"He actually refused?" Wang Xiong was shocked.

Even the onlookers wandering nearby were generally shocked after hearing what Zhang Ren said - in recent years, due to various reasons, there was a huge shortage of officials in the counties and states across the country, which directly led to a greatly increased mobility of the three offices of the Zhonglang officials who served as the "senior official training base."

In the early years, there was a shortage of official positions, and family background was important in selecting officials. The situation where people of low family background worked in the three departments until they were old and gray and still could not be appointed to other posts has basically disappeared.

In other words, most of the Langguan present here will be appointed as officials outside the capital in the next few years. So what does it matter if they make friends with others at this time, even if they owe them some favors?
In particular, it involves administrative affairs that are closely related to the assessments of the three offices.

The Third Office was not like any other place. Wang Xiong still had some manners. He did not lose his composure because of Zhang Ren's rejection. Instead, he continued to express his position to Zhang Ren: "Gong Yi, my words today are valid at all times. Gong Yi can come to me anytime!"

Afterwards, Wang Xiong bowed to Zhang Ren and the onlookers for nearly a week, then turned and left.

Li Bao, who was beside him, finally reacted, turned around and quickly followed.

Wang Xiong stopped only when there was no one around.

Li Bao then said, "Zhang Ren is of humble origin and does not know the big picture. Brother Yuan Bo, you don't have to bother with him."

At this time, Wang Xiong turned around and glanced at Li Bao. The gloom in his eyes scared Li Bao.

When Li Bao came to his senses, he saw that Wang Xiong had returned to his humble appearance, which made Li Bao think that he must have seen it wrong.

"We are exchanging our experiences on administrative affairs voluntarily. It's fine if Gongyi doesn't want to participate. It doesn't mean he looks down on us..." Although he said so, Wang Xiong has gradually understood why his father looked down on warriors.

Especially the warriors who come from humble backgrounds!

What Wang Xiong didn't know at this time was that after he left quickly, Zhang Ren did not leave, but was stopped by someone. The person who stopped Zhang Ren was not someone else, but Guanglu Xun Fu Xie.

Fu Xie had not come over just now, but someone had already told him the whole story. When Zhang Ren was brought in front of Fu Xie, he found that Fu Xie, the highest official in the three departments who held the final power of promotion for the officials, had two men who looked to be in their twenties and thirties beside him. Zhang Ren instinctively felt that the identities of these two people were not ordinary.

Fu Xie had no idea what Zhang Ren was thinking, so he asked directly, "Just now Wang Yuanbo wanted to teach you about government affairs, why didn't you accept? As far as I know, Wang Yuanbo is quite accomplished in government affairs, and he has served as a county official for several years. Those who received his guidance performed well in the government affairs assessment."

The biggest reason why Zhang Ren rejected Wang Xiong was that he didn't want to form a clique in the future because of a favor, but if he said this in front of Fu Xie, he might be suspected of being a villain.

After a brief thought, Zhang Ren replied: "I think I have not yet learned the administrative affairs taught in the three offices well, so I dare not aim too high..."

"I see. I thought you were unwilling to form a clique in the three departments?"

Zhang Ren was shocked when he heard this suddenly. What kind of vicious words were these?

He looked up and saw that the person who spoke was the man in his twenties. After he finished speaking, Zhang Ren found that Guanglu Xun Fu Xie did not express any opinions, let alone dissuade him... This made him vaguely guess.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ren replied: "I personally think that there is no solid evidence for the theory of forming a clique, so it is too early to speak. However, I have been valued by the county governor and selected as a filial and honest official, so I should keep myself clean..."

After Zhang Ren answered, he did not get an immediate response. Instead, he heard the man ask a man in his thirties, "What does Yuan Zhi think?"

The man called "Yuan Zhi" answered: "The noble man gathers together but does not form a party, while the villain forms a party but does not gather together."

"That's right. Whether he is a gentleman or a villain is still unknown. How can we make a conclusion in advance?"

When Zhang Ren heard the twenty-something man talking like this, he became more certain of his guess - because he sensed that Guanglu Xun Fu Xie was vaguely centered around that man, and there was probably only one person in the world who could make Fu Xie behave like this.

In other words, the three offices of Langguan have lost their original duties of guarding the palace and have been transformed into a complete official training base, otherwise Zhang Ren would have recognized Liu Bian at the first opportunity.

That’s right, the person who spoke was Liu Bian.

This time he brought Fu Xie and Xu Shu to the three offices. In addition to wanting to take a close look at the situation of the officials in the three offices, it was also because Beidi County and Shuofang County were in urgent need of talents after recruiting many Xianbei tribes. That's why he brought Xu Shu to the three offices specifically to bypass the "middlemen".

However, he also discovered some problems that he had previously overlooked.

For those who have a family background in education or who have served as minor officials in counties since childhood, they have a natural advantage in the assessment of official affairs.

In contrast, even if scholars of commoner origin became palace officials and entered the three offices through examinations such as Xiaolian and Taixue, and even though the status of Taixue students would be relatively better, they would still have to spend more time because they did not understand official affairs.

But Liu Bian felt that people should not be allowed to lose at the starting line.

Relying on the two sharp swords of papermaking and printing, bookstores that own Confucian classics including annotations from various schools of thought have already flourished in counties and states across the country.

Today, all kinds of Confucian classics, even the more rigid Imperial College examination contents, contain guiding ideas on how to govern - but they are only ideas. Although it cannot be said that specific practical matters are not touched upon, they have never been the focus of Confucian examinations.

The current Han Dynasty still lacks a "Book of Official Affairs".

But at the moment, Liu Bian did not mention this matter first, but continued to ask Xu Shu: "What does Yuan Zhi think?"

Xu Shu naturally understood that the previous sentence was asking about things, while this one was asking about people.

The strengths and weaknesses of Zhang Ren in front of us are obvious - he has great potential and does not seem to lack military strength. His biggest problem is that he lacks experience.

But this is not a problem. Xu Shu thinks that as long as he sends people to Beidi County to train for a year or so, it is better than studying in the three offices for three years.

Thinking of this, Xu Shu replied: "The more the better."

After hearing this, Liu Bian couldn't help but laugh and said, "Yuan Zhi is indeed greedy, but I wonder if Fu Qing is willing to give it up?"

"Why can't I bear to leave?" Fu Xie was originally from Beidi County. When he was born, Beidi County had not yet moved inland. Later, Beidi County had repeated ups and downs, but now it has finally recovered its homeland. Naturally, he hopes that Beidi County will continue to prosper in its homeland, and the more talents who go to Beidi County, the better.

This is both a private and a public interest.

He immediately asked Zhang Ren, "I see that your attainments in government affairs are becoming increasingly profound... Beidi County has been restored to its old territory for less than a year and is in need of good officials. I wonder if you are willing to go there?"

After hearing these remarks, Zhang Ren was still unsure of who he had met... After hastily saluting, he immediately stated, "I will not decline even if I have to die!"

Xu Shu would never be satisfied with just one person being chosen, and Fu Xie did not hide his feelings about this.

However, after confirming Zhang Ren, Fu Xie recommended him to Liu Bian first, saying, "Your Majesty, my son Fu Gan is not talented, but he has some skills. He has been with me for many years and has been taking care of me. Now that the North is in need, I am willing to recommend him to be an official in the North!"

If it were any other place, Fu Xie would naturally not be willing to recommend Fu Gan.

In fact, as his son, Fu Gan was qualified to become a palace attendant. However, according to Fu Xie's idea, as long as he was Guanglu Xun, Fu Gan, as a palace attendant, would not be promoted. This was something he had to avoid.

But it’s different when I return to my hometown where conditions are harsh.

Although Fu Gan has always been by his side, he has not returned to his hometown for many years.

"Recommending relatives is a practice in ancient times. Gan has talent, you should have recommended him earlier!" Liu Bian said, "When Yuanzhi returns to Beidi County, let him go to Beidi with Yuanzhi!"

"Yuanzhi, what other suitable official positions are there in Beidi County?"

Before Xu Shu could answer, Fu Xie said, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible. I lack experience and should start as a minor official."

After hearing this, Liu Bian said, "Neither you nor I should interfere with the details. Let Yide and Yuanzhi use their talents accordingly!"

Fu Xie then said no more.

Afterwards, under Fu Xie's arrangement, Xu Shu promoted many talented people and then left the three offices with satisfaction.

On the way back, Xu Shu's face was filled with an undying smile.

(End of this chapter)