Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 404: Fighting for the Road
"Zi Qian, you are too young. The officialdom is not as simple as you think. If you are not slow, everything will be slow. Do you think you can be promoted by making achievements? The higher you go, the fewer positions there are. It is very difficult to move up without connections." Wen Yanjing shook his head.

He naturally understood what Wen Yanjing was saying. The officialdom is actually a pyramid.

The higher you go, the fewer positions there are, so it naturally becomes more difficult.

Ang Lee is not a noble person. If his future can be better through connections, he will not pretend to be noble.

But he would not rely entirely on these, and Wen Yanjing's words were a bit too extreme.

"Do you think it's not a big deal?" Wen Yanjing said, "Our county is a small town, and the county magistrate is so corrupt. I thought he was a corrupt official, but then I heard that he was a very honest official, and the people under his rule lived and worked in peace and contentment, and everyone praised him."

"But he passed the imperial examination in his twenties. For thirty years, because he came from a poor family and had no one to help him, he remained a county magistrate. Not only did he not get promoted, but his job became increasingly remote. He gradually turned from an honest official into a corrupt one."

Li An fell silent after hearing this. This kind of thing definitely happened. The Song Dynasty favored civil servants, and a lot of people were admitted to the imperial examination every time.

Even though many official positions were added, resulting in a large number of court institutions and the phenomenon of redundant officials, it was still impossible to accommodate so many officials.

Many of those who passed the imperial examinations were just civil servants and never got any real official position until their death.

It's normal not to get promoted for decades like this.

However, Li An did not think that the county magistrate mentioned by Wen Yanjing was a truly honest official.

It is difficult for people in later generations to understand the importance that truly noble people in ancient times placed on reputation.

If he was truly a man of noble character, how could he become greedy just because he didn't get promoted?

In Li Ang's opinion, the reason why that person was an honest official at the beginning was that he wanted to make achievements and get promoted.

But he never got promoted, so he gave up on himself.

But Li An had no way to refute it. If that man could get promoted, perhaps he could be an honest official for many years.

As I said, judge by actions, not by heart; there is no saint if you judge by heart.

There were too many officials in the Song Dynasty, and there were many problems in selecting officials.

"Zi Qian, the first appointment is very important, you must take it seriously." Wen Yanjing reminded: "Don't think it's bad. The higher your official position, the more you can avoid those who are idle and do nothing to occupy high positions and harm the people."

Wen Yanjing said all this to Ang Lee in order to curry favor with him.

In his opinion, Ang Lee is young and full of youthful energy, and he thinks many things are too simple.

He reminded Li Ang that if Li Ang listened to him and did well in the future, he would naturally be grateful to him.

Even if Li An doesn't listen, and suffers a loss in the future, he will be grateful to him when he thinks of his words now.

"Thanks to Shigao for reminding me, I understand." Li An said.

He both agreed and disagreed with Wen Yanjing's views.

Didn't Qi Jiguang also try to curry favor with Zhang Juzheng, who held all the power at the time, in order to gain the support of the court?

But in Li An's opinion, Wen Yanjing attached too much importance to power and was only interested in studying for the sake of studying.

The so-called attempt to avoid those who are just sitting there doing nothing but occupying high positions is nothing more than a rhetoric meant to sound good.

Wen Yanjing saw that Li An didn't want to talk to him more, so he smiled awkwardly and said nothing more.

……

When they arrived at the polo field, Li An and Wen Yanjing got off the carriage after it was stable.

Looking at those people who were dressed in fancy clothes and followed by servants, Wen Yanjing's eyes were very calm.

Although failing the exam was a bit of a blow to him, he was a tough guy and did not lose confidence.

The servant at the polo field came forward and saluted, asked about Li An's identity, and led him to a tent.

Li An didn't see any members of the Sheng family along the way, so he sat in the tent with Wen Yanjing and drank tea.

However, because of what happened on the way, the atmosphere between the two was a little awkward, and they chatted haphazardly.

"Zi Qian!" The two were chatting when Gu Tingye walked over.

"Zhong Huai!"

Gu Tingye nodded to Wen Yanjing as a greeting, then looked at Li An and said with a smile: "If it weren't for this polo meeting, I would have gone to your house to talk to you."

As soon as Li An heard it, he knew that Gu Tingye had something to say, so he said something to Wen Yanjing, and the two of them left the tent.

After getting away from the crowd, Gu Tingye's smile faded and he said, "My previous guess was correct. My father knows everything my stepmother did."

Li An could hear the pain and sadness in Gu Tingye's words, but he didn't know how to comfort him, so he asked, "How is your stepmother?"

"My father put her under house arrest, and we separated the family after I got married." Gu Tingye said.

"This is a good thing for you." Li An said.

"Let's not talk about this." Gu Tingye shook his head, looked around, and whispered: "Ziqian, now the situation has been decided, you must not be stupid."

"I know." Li An's heart softened when he heard that.

He had wanted to say that things would change in the future, but there was no point in saying that now.

As the two were talking, there was a noise in the distance.

Li An and Gu Tingye looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the entrance to the polo field was blocked and many people were gathered around watching the fun.

The two looked at each other, and Gu Tingye said, "Let's go take a look?"

Li An nodded and the two walked over.

Arriving at the door and listening to the whispers of the onlookers, the two men roughly knew what had happened.

The carriage carrying Princess Jiacheng and Rong Feiyan blocked the door and refused to let anyone pass.

The two men got off the carriage and started arguing at the door.

"Let's go."

When Gu Tingye found out what happened, he no longer had the desire to watch any further.

Li An nodded and followed.

"Zhong Huai, do you still think the situation has been decided?" Li An lowered his voice when he saw that there was no one around.

Gu Tingye was stunned, stopped, turned around and looked at Li An and said, "Do you think the emperor will easily change the candidate for the crown prince because of such a small matter?"

He also felt that Princess Jiacheng was very stupid for offending the emperor's favorite concubine's sister before Prince Yong ascended the throne.

Although the Rong family is nothing, Concubine Rong is the emperor's favorite concubine. For the emperor's face, the nobles and their families in Bian Jing will not offend the Rong family.

When Prince Yong became the prefect of Kaifeng and was almost destined to be the crown prince, Rong Feiyan still dared to compete with Princess Jiacheng for the throne, which was because she had been nurtured to have an arrogant and domineering personality over the years.

But this matter is not enough to make the government change the candidate for the crown prince.

"Zhong Huai, you should have heard about Prince Yong's actions during this period, right?" Li An said.

"I heard about it, but the emperor didn't even issue an edict to reprimand him, which shows that he doesn't care." Gu Tingye said.

Ever since the government appointed Prince Yong as the prefect of Kaifeng, Prince Yong's mansion has been more lively than the Imperial Palace.

Every day there is an endless stream of people coming to show their goodwill and loyalty.

However, King Yong accepted everyone who came.

This practice is actually very stupid. Even the son of an official would not dare to do this for fear of arousing the official's suspicion.

However, the emperor did not react at all, and many people speculated that the emperor might be in poor health.

(End of this chapter)