Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 218: The Court Meeting Reveals the Sacred Heart

Ever since Jia Cong won the top prize in the provincial examination.

The next day, the Ministry of Rites sent a letter inviting him to attend the Lu Ming Banquet for the Enke County Examination.

The Lu Ming Banquet was a banquet specially organized by the imperial court to call out the names of new candidates in the provincial examinations, and examiners, academic officials, and outstanding Chinese students were invited to chat and drink together.

For scholars, being eligible to attend the Lu Ming Banquet is an honor on the road to the imperial examination. As the first place winner of this special provincial examination, Jia Cong is naturally the most eye-catching focus at the banquet.

A few days after the Deer Singing Banquet, the number of people coming to the Jia Mansion to express congratulations reached its peak, and among them were many nobles and dignitaries.

People who were old friends of Jia Cong, such as Prince Jiashun, Prince Ning, Minister of War Gu Yankui, Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding, Dali Temple Yang Hongbin, and Ministry of Rites Liu Jizu, either came to visit in person or asked their families to send gifts.

All the old relatives of the Jia family in Beijing came to give gifts to celebrate the occasion. Some of them even wanted to prepare for a rainy day and were optimistic about the popularity of the eldest son of the illegitimate wife. They tried to find out what the Jia family was thinking about, as if they wanted to discuss marriage with him.

……

On the day when the results of the provincial examination were announced, the turmoil at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall had not completely subsided.

On the day after the announcement of the results of the Yongzhou provincial examination, in the court, the censor of the Yongzhou Dao of the Censorate impeached the students Zhou Zi'an and Shi Yongxin for making false accusations against the top scorer of the examination and inciting students to criticize the examination on the day when the results of the special provincial examination were announced.

He caused chaos in the Emperor's Shou En and Ke Lun Cai Ceremony. He had treacherous intentions and was causing harm to the moral integrity of scholars. He should be stripped of his academic title to serve as a warning to others and to purify the academic style of scholars.

Zhou Junxing worked in the Court of Judges. He was always good at framing and slandering others. He spared no effort to eliminate dissidents for the emperor. Such a person was almost a public enemy of the court officials.

Such a person who is hated by everyone is naturally the best tool for the Censor of the Censorate to gain fame.

Moreover, there was no precedent among the emperors of the Great Zhou Dynasty of killing censors.

Being convicted for speech is a label that marks a ruler as incompetent.

Therefore, even if there was a vicious man like Zhou Junxing, as long as the censors were careful, they would not be afraid of being killed by his backlash.

However, Zhou Junxing usually had the emperor's support and acted very carefully, so under normal circumstances it was difficult to find any evidence against him.

Now his son Zhou Zi'an framed the top scorer of the imperial examination, instigated students to cause trouble and discredited the imperial examination for the emperor's birthday. How could the censors who are good at talking miss such a big handle?

Then, as the thirteen censors of the Censorate, how can they display their good reputation of reporting rumors to the emperor?

As soon as the censor started to impeach Zhou Zi'an and Shi Yongxin, Zheng Yan, the Junior Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Guo Youchang, the Minister of Rites, immediately stepped forward to second the motion.

One of them was the chief examiner of this special provincial examination, and the other was the Minister of Rites who was in charge of the provincial examination.

What Zhou Zian and Shi Yongxin did at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall that day was to undermine their plan.

Now that the censor has taken the lead in investigating, they naturally have to voice their support. Otherwise, they will be seen as weak and can be bullied, and they will have no use in this court in the future.

Everyone understood that the impeachment by the Censor of the Censorate was aimed at Zhou Junxing of the Court of Inquisition, and that Shi Jian, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was just an unlucky guy who was implicated because his nephew was close to Zhou Junxing.

The civil officials were so unanimous because they were resisting and fearing Emperor Jiazhao's plan to reopen academies.

Emperor Jiazhao was a man of great strategic insight, so he was naturally aware of the tricks behind the civil servants' impeachment of Zhou Zi'an and Shi Yongxin.

However, promoting academies is like a sharp knife in the emperor's hand, how could it be sheathed easily? However, Zhou Zi'an and Shi Yongxin disrupted the emperor's birthday special examination, which was equivalent to undermining the emperor's dignity in showing filial piety, and they had to be punished.

Emperor Jiazhao then issued an edict to strip Zhou Zi'an and Shi Yongxin of their academic titles and prohibited them from taking the imperial examinations for three years.

That is to say, three years later, their classmates have all passed the imperial examination, but they have to start again from the imperial examination to become a scholar, and the road to success will take many more years.

In fact, Emperor Jiazhao's handling of the matter was already a bit too high-handed and it was also a way of giving face to his henchman Zhou Junxing.

If it were an ordinary student, he would have been stripped of his title and never be allowed to take the exam again, which would have truly ruined his academic career. …

And Jia Cong's name, since he was posthumously honored as his biological mother a few months ago, has appeared again in the court discussions, causing quite a stir.

The cause of the incident came from the Hanlin Academy.

Ge Hongzheng, an official of the Hanlin Academy, read the essay on the decline of the moral character of scholars and was impressed by Jia Cong's extraordinary talent. He petitioned the court to allow Jia Cong to join the Hanlin Academy as a seventh-rank librarian.

In fact, after passing the provincial examination and obtaining the status of juren, Jia Cong was eligible to be appointed as an official and no longer had to hold a civil service position as before.

However, the Hanlin Academy Classics Officer was not an ordinary official position. Although it was not as noble as the Hanlin Academy compiler and editor positions, and its rank was not high, it was not a position that could be granted lightly.

Because the Hanlin Academy classics were usually only awarded to the second and third place Jinshi, Jia Cong was only a Juren, so it was a bit of a high title for him.

However, Ge Hongzheng advised that Jia Cong's essay on the decline of moral character among scholars was a great work of the time and could serve as an unchangeable true method for scholars to set their sights on studying. Such a unique talent would be a perfect match for him if he were admitted to the Hanlin Academy.

As soon as Ge Hongzheng's memorial was put forward, the civil servants in the court were all excited and had their own expectations.

Although Jia Cong was born into a noble family, he was a student of Emperor Wenzong Liu Jing'an. His literary talent was so outstanding that it had long since concealed his background. He was a natural civil servant.

Such people will be recruited into the civil service group at an early stage, and ten years later, they will inevitably become important figures among the civil servants.

It is naturally better than for him to be included in the military honors because of his background and become one of the few military honors who can compete with civil officials in literary affairs.

It is naturally best for those with military merit to be of humble character, so that they will suffer less from being restricted by civil officials in the court.

However, Ge Hongzheng's proposal was rejected on the spot by Emperor Jiazhao.

Emperor Jiazhao simply said in front of all the civil and military officials in the court: The sons of nobles should cultivate a brave and martial spirit.

This sentence shocked all the civil servants in the hall. They believed that such obscure thoughts were actually seen through by the emperor.

The emperor actually did not approve of the Jia family's son's choice of civil servant career, saying that the son of a noble family should cultivate bravery and martial arts. It was such a pity for such an outstanding literary talent.

Only the ministers close to Emperor Jiazhao, such as the Minister of Rites Guo Youchang, the Minister of War Gu Yankui, and Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding, heard the emperor's deep meaning and felt a chill in their hearts.

Jia Cong was not only gifted in literature and art, but also had the practical ability in firearms strategy. With such a combination of talents, it would not be difficult for him to become a civil servant and enter the cabinet as a prime minister.

And he has a family background of top military merits, and he is a man of both civil and military talents, almost like a powerful minister. The emperor is worried that he will become too powerful to be controlled in the future...

No wonder the emperor said that such a cultured person should cultivate bravery and martial spirit and pursue military exploits. But he was wary of a teenager, which was too ungrateful and cold.

……

When the news from the court reached the Jia Mansion through various channels, it was nothing more than Jia's grandmother and others saying that even Jia Zheng could not appreciate the true meaning of the sentence "the sons of noble families should cultivate a spirit of bravery and martial arts."

Jia Zheng only thought that Cong'er had a bright future, and someone actually suggested that he be admitted to the Hanlin Academy. The emperor, on the other hand, hoped that he could master both civil and military skills, which showed that he valued Cong'er very much.

Thinking of this, Jia Zheng couldn't help but sigh that the Jia family truly had a talented child.

When Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang heard the news, they once again concluded that Jia Cong was really unlucky. The emperor stripped the emperor of his official titles just because the nephews of the two high-ranking officials said a few bad words about him at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall.

In short, they have heard too many weird things about this kid and are probably numb to it.

Their attention has recently been focused on matters in the inner house, for example, some news that came out after the wedding in the East Mansion.

(End of this chapter)