Aspirations

Chapter 53 Seeing His Royal Highness
In addition to a tall sycamore tree in the courtyard, there is also a pagoda tree hugged by three people. The pagoda tree flowers are falling like snow and falling on Lian Ruohan's body. The petals landed on a strand of hair on her forehead, swaying but not falling off, which complemented her flowery appearance.

Xia Xiang quickly walked a few steps and went up to meet him: "It's an honor for even the little lady to come here."

Lian Ruohan smiled lightly: "No need to be polite, Xia Langjun, I have something to tell you."

When they got to the room, they were seated separately. Cao Shujun wanted to sit next to Lian Ruohan, but he had no chance. Lian Ruohan sat on the top, Xia Xiang accompanied him on the left, Shen Bao sat on the right, and he He had no choice but to sit across from Lian Ruohan angrily.

Zhang Hou turned a blind eye to Lian Ruohan's arrival. He wished he could go to the courtyard to practice martial arts with Xiao Wu with Mantuo. Of course, the practice of martial arts was just an excuse. What he really wanted in his heart was to be with Mantuo.However, he still suppressed the excitement in his heart and stayed, wondering whether the big drama that Xia Xiang said was true or a myth, if it is said that the appearance of Mantuo and Lian Ruohan is a big drama, it is too childish.

Lian Ruohan didn't drink Xia Xiang's tea, she said straight to the point: "I just passed by the Gongyuan, and saw many examiners pointing around the door, and when I got closer, it turned out that there was a yellow card with no words on the door of the Gongyuan. The list, under the yellow list, there is a black list, and there are words on the black list..."

Lian Ruohan had an appointment with Xiao Jia today, and when he went to Anzhiju, he passed by Gongyuan.Seeing a group of people surrounded by a crowd of people at the entrance of the Gongyuan, I can't help but wonder, tomorrow is the day for the release of the list. Is it possible that the list will be released earlier today?Unexpectedly, when I got closer, I was surprised to see a few big characters "Xia Xiang is off the list" on a black list.

When I asked, I found out that I didn't know who posted the yellow list in the Gongyuan, and posted a wordless yellow list, which attracted the nearby students thinking that the list was released ahead of time, and they came to see it clearly. The yellow list was on, but it was empty. Not guesswork.Some people are daring. When I looked up, there was another list under the yellow list. When the yellow list was revealed, it was a black list.

The black list posted at the gate of the Gongyuan is an amazing event, and the four characters "Xia Xiang is off the list" on the black list are even more shocking.Some students worried that the black list would cause trouble, and wanted to remove it, but were stopped by everyone.If the black list was taken down and thrown away when there were few people, the matter would not be a big one, but the yellow list was posted first and attracted many testers to watch, and there were already dozens of people. If you want to cover it up, it is already cannot.

As soon as the news spread, there were more and more test students watching, and when there were hundreds of people, the people in the Gongyuan were finally alerted.Because the list will be released tomorrow, everyone in the Gongyuan Academy is busy sorting out the test papers and transcribing the list, so when they learned about the black list, things were already big, and there was still time to end it.

When Wen Changju, Gao Hai, Chen Feng, and Zhang Ze arrived in a hurry, the entrance of the Gongyuan was already surrounded by angry students. There were also people who took the opportunity to make trouble, claiming that if he also fell out of the list, it would not be because the article was not good, but because he did not give gifts to the examiner.

For a while, the crowd was boiling, and the voices were like waves.

Wen Changju's face sank immediately after seeing the four big characters "Xia Xiang is off the list", his face was as black as ink.No matter how hard it was for him to maintain a calm demeanor, his beard was shaking with anger, so Gao Hai immediately won the black list and strictly investigated who and what happened.Without saying a word, Gao Hai stepped forward and wanted to reveal the black list, but was pushed and shoved by countless test students. In his rage, he grabbed one of the test students and slapped the other.As a result, this action sparked public anger, and everyone rushed forward and knocked Gao Hai to the ground.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Wenchang took the road and fled, hid in the Gongyuan, no longer showed his face, and left Gao Hai, who was beaten by the group of Kaozi, to ignore.Fortunately, Chen Feng and Zhang were not helpless, they bravely moved forward to separate the crowd, saved Gao Hai at the risk of death, and put Gao Hai into the Gongyuan.Poor Gao Hai, who was beaten with a bruised nose and a few shoe prints on his face, swept the floor in a gentle manner.

Fortunately, Gao Hai only suffered some skin trauma, which was not serious.For this reason, he also cried out in pain and anger, claiming to severely punish the murderer and arrest Xia Xiang, Xia Xiang must be the initiator of this incident.

Because Lian Ruohan knew Wen Changju, he stopped to go to the Gongyuan and met Wen Changju.

Wen Changju was both angry and resolute about the black list, claiming that he must bring the matter to the emperor, and that he would never tolerate such behaviors that disrupt the imperial examination and confuse the public.Lian Ruohan thought for a while, and asked Wen Changju why someone knew that Xia Xiang had fallen off the list in advance?Wen Changju was speechless.

Lian Ruohan was greatly disappointed. Originally, she respected Wen Changju as an elder, but did not want Wen Changju to be a person who cheated for personal gain only based on personal preferences.In order to prevent cheating in the Daxia Imperial Examination, there is a set of standardized precautions for spoofing and transcribing. Don't think, Wen Changju deliberately took out Xia Xiang's examination paper and removed it, otherwise he would have no way of knowing which examination paper was written by Xia Xiang.

Lian Ruohan felt sad for Wen Changju's move, but also felt worthless for Xia Xiang, but she thought again, the person who posted the black list, even if it wasn't Xia Xiang himself, would be someone around Xia Xiang, obviously, Xia Xiang also learned about his failure in advance.This matter can be big or small, big, maybe it can be heard in the sky and passed on to the emperor's ears.Small, just a group of Kaozi made a commotion outside the Gongyuan. Wen Changju stopped the situation from further escalating in time, and then the matter came to nothing.

Since Hou Pingpan became prime minister, countless ministers who opposed Hou Pingpan's reforms have been dismissed from office or exiled from Beijing. Today, Hou Pingpan is one person and more than ten thousand people, and there is no objection anymore. sound.This fraud in the field is an excellent opportunity that can be used to make a big fuss.

Lian Ruohan bid farewell to Wen Changju and left the Tribute Court, seeing that the examiners outside were still arguing endlessly. helpless.She sighed in her heart, Wen Changju is so incompetent, he can only be a minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the third prince does not know people, so how can he reuse Wen Changju?Although she still wants to call Wenchang a family uncle, it's just that no matter how good the family relationship between the two families is, it's just a personal relationship. When facing big right and wrong, she must make a decisive decision.

Therefore, Lian Ruohan quickly confessed three things, one is to have someone go to Anzhiju to meet Xiao Jia, and today's meeting will be cancelled.The second is to send someone to King Jing's Mansion to inform him of what happened in Wang Gongyuan.The third is to go to the Quanyou Inn with Ling'er and meet Xia Xiang.

The people who didn't want to send to King Jing's mansion had just left, and when they saw the king, they rode a high-headed horse and led a group of entourage. Shi Shiran appeared at the gate of the Gongyuan, which surprised Lian Ruohan secretly, thinking that the king was coming so fast, Who was in front of her to inform the king?It seems that there are other people behind it who are also secretly promoting this.

Seeing that Wang Gang arrived, the servants of Shangjing Mansion also arrived.

A total of five yamen servants came, they were patrolling yamen servants responsible for public security in the capital.The leader, surnamed Wang and named Eryi, is in his early 30s and looks smart and capable.Wang Eryi happened to be in charge of public security in the Gongyuan area, and when he received the news sent by Wen Changju, he hurriedly brought people here.

Compared with a group of literati-born officials in the Gongyuan who only knew how to persuade and would not do anything, they had a stalemate with the examiners for a long time and were unable to remove the black list.The status of yamen servants is lower than that of clerks. Although clerks have no rank, they are still official personnel, while yamen servants have no official status at all, and only belong to the nature of serving the yamen, which is equivalent to temporary personnel.And the subordinates of an official yamen servant will bring three to five white servants, and the white servants are extra-staff servants. The yamen servants can also receive the salary issued by the government.But often the dirtiest, tiring and most dangerous jobs are done by white servants.Well done, the credit goes to the yamen servant.If you don't do a good job, you will take the blame yourself.

Even for the yamen, the salaries are extremely low. Although the salaries of officials in Daxia are the highest in history, Daxia only treats literati and scholar-officials preferentially, not including yamen.The yamen were not of the scholar-official class, and some even belonged to the pariahs, not to mention the white servants.

Therefore, the income of the yamen does not depend on salaries, but mostly comes from poor regulations.The so-called bad rules are bad practices.The fares, donkeys, shoes and socks, meals, and tea money that the yamen’s office clerks collect from the parties are all bad rules, but they are not allowed to take the opportunity to extort money.Since there is no law in the case of arrest, there is no additional income when there is no case, so it is mainly collected from prostitutes and slaughter households.

It is for this reason that most of the yamen have developed the bad habit of making money as soon as they have a case.Even if there was an accident in Gongyuan, Wang Eryi's first thought when he received the case was also overjoyed as a yamen in the Shangjing government. Today, after a day's transfer, the income was only [-] wen, and a few people had one cent, which was not enough to eat.There is a big incident in the Gongyuan, and it is possible to get a few bad rules if you don’t talk about it.That's why he led people to rush forward, without saying a word, he rushed over, and with a flick of the chain in his hand, it was placed on the neck of the leading scholar.

The leading scholar was born very thin and weak. Although he was not short, he was like a hemp pole. He came from Jiangzhou on Jiangnan West Road, the Jiangzhou where Bai Juyi once served as Sima. His name was Shi Sanxin. Not only more talented and smarter, of course, but also a little more handsome.Jiangnan West Road in Daxia is a place where talents are born, from Sima Shi, the leader of the dynasty, to Hou Pingpan, the prime minister of the dynasty, and Zeng Gong, a proud student of Sima Shi, and so on.Therefore, Shi Sanxin came to the capital to take the exam this time, and believed that he could be the champion in high school.

Unexpectedly, there was a black list incident. After ten years of cold windows, he lost to a black screen. Under his anger, he rushed to the front to protect the black list from being taken down.The more the people of Gongyuan wanted to reveal the black list, the more they showed that this year's big exam was full of shady scenes. He didn't know who Xia Xiang was, and he didn't care. He just knew that Xia Xiang must have been taken down on purpose. The first Xia Xiang, there will be countless Xia Xiang, maybe he is among them.

He didn't start to fight for himself and the world's students, and he read the book of sages for ten years in vain.

Shi Sanxin was impassionedly calling on all the examinees to protect the black list from being uncovered, but he didn't expect to be chained head-on. He felt a chill in his neck and a pain in his shoulder. He was taken aback for a moment, and looked down. , was taken down.Thinking that although he came from a commoner, his background was clean. His ancestors have been farming for generations, and he has never committed any crimes. The chain on the neck was sent vigorously, and then moved forward, the chain flew back, and with a clatter, it fell on Wang Eryi's head.

"Hey..." Wang Eryi was both angry and funny. He had been on the job for many years, and it was the first time he was locked up by a prisoner. You can't live but die..."

Wang Eryi bullied his body forward, grabbed Shi Sanxin's shoulders with both hands, and pulled down hard. At the same time, he raised his right leg, and his knee made a close contact with Shi Sanxin's nose.

Although Shi Sanxin is not a scholar who is powerless, compared to Wang Eryi, who is good at street fighting, his fighting experience is still too poor.He only felt that his nose was sore and painful, and he suddenly lost the strength to resist. He squatted on the ground with his hands over his face, bleeding all over his face.

Wang Eryi was still not relieved, and put the chain on Shi Sanxin's neck again, kicked Shi Sanxin to the ground with one foot, dragged Shi Sanxin away like a dog, and said cursingly, "Dare to talk to me. Let's do it, the official will let you know today what it means to survive, not to die!"

Wang Eryi's move immediately shocked all the test students, and everyone looked at each other in dismay, and they didn't dare to move for half a minute, they were all frightened.A scholar is a scholar, and when a scholar meets a soldier, there is no rationale.

Seeing that he took control of the whole situation with just one shot, Wang Eryi was even more complacent, no matter how painful Shi Sanxin was, who was rolling on the ground, he continued to drag Shi Sanxin around in circles with a rogue face: "Everyone is reading the book of sages and sages. The literati, I can’t compare with the untouchables, but the untouchables have one life, and the most feared thing is to exchange their lives for their lives. What’s the matter, if anyone refuses to accept it, they will be let go. If you kill me, you have the ability. I will kill you, Don't be shy."

Shi Sanxin was restrained by the neck, rolled on the ground, breathless, and was cut through by the chains. The pain was unbearable, but he couldn't cry out.Seeing this, none of the Kaozi dared to step forward to save them. They were all shocked by Wang Eryi's rogue arrogance and intimidation on the spot.

"What are you still doing, I've been raising you for nothing, don't do anything when it's time to contribute, and wait to go home to eat shit?" Wang Eryi roared at several of the yamen and white servants under his command, "I want you to watch the fun? Why don't you hurry up? Going to work for your grandfather?"

Wang Eryi took the lead, and several of his men rushed up, separating the dumbfounded students. Guo Xiaoer ran the fastest, and before reaching the black list, he reached out to reveal the black list.Unexpectedly, as soon as the hand was stretched out, a whip sounded with a "pop", and a whip mark appeared on the hand out of thin air.

Guo Xiaoer screamed in pain: "Who dares to beat the official? It's against you, and quickly kneel down to the official..."

Before he could finish speaking, another whip sounded, and Guo Xiaoer received another whip on his face. This time, he was furious. He reached out and pulled out the knife at his waist.

Before taking two steps, two people suddenly rushed out from both sides. Both of them were dressed in ordinary clothes, and they could not tell their dates, but they were equipped with knives. , a knife was swung, and the light of the knife flashed past Guo Xiaoer's right hand.

Guo Xiaoer felt a chill in his right hand, and the knife in his hand fell to the ground. He looked down and couldn't believe his eyes. Only then did he feel pain coming from his hand, and his right hand was cut off by the wrist!

Guo Xiaoer was so frightened that he didn't have time to cry out in pain, and felt his left leg cold, lost his balance, and fell to the ground - his left foot was also chopped off by the person on the left.

As soon as the person fell to the ground, Guo Xiaoer cried out in pain, "Ah, ah, it hurts to death!" After he shouted twice, he fainted as soon as he closed his eyes.

Guo Xiaoer is just a freelancer, ordinary fish and meat people bully men and women, and he is just doing small things, and has never seen any big things in the world.After all, Shangjing is the capital city, under the feet of the emperor, the land of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he is not even a small shrimp.I thought that I came to the Gongyuan to maintain law and order today, and it was the same as usual, just a few times of scaring would make the nerds obedient, but unexpectedly, my hands and feet were cut off in one blow.

Guo Xiaoer collapsed to the ground, and everyone screamed in fright and scattered like birds and beasts.As soon as Wang Eryi's hand was released, the chain in his hand fell to the ground. Shi San felt this opportunity, hurriedly threw off the chain, got up from the ground, and without a word, slammed into Wang Eryi's stomach.

He was almost not strangled to death by Wang Eryi's chains, Shi Sanxin was frightened, frightened and angry, just now Guo Xiaoer had his hands and feet chopped off, others couldn't see clearly on the ground, and after knocking down Wang Eryi, he swept his eyes out of the corner of his eye, only to find out. Guo Xiaoer, who fell to the ground, sat down on the ground in fright, opened his mouth wide, but couldn't say a word when he wanted to say something.

Wang Eryi was caught off guard and was knocked down by Shi Sanxin. He didn't care about the pain in his stomach and fighting back. He sat on the ground and stared at Guo Xiaoer for a while, then jumped up abruptly, pulled out his waist knife and roared at the person who was whipping the whip. Rush over: "Master and you fought!"

Guo Xiaoer is Wang Eryi's brother-in-law. He used to sell fruit in Shijia Hutong. Later, when Wang Eryi gained power, he accepted him as a white servant. Although it was a little harder, he could follow Wang Eryi to eat and drink spicy food. It's better than selling fruit.It's only been two years since I didn't want to, but today I broke my limbs. After I become disabled, I won't be a white servant anymore, and I can't even sell fruit.

Wang Eryi's anger grew from anger in his heart to courage, even though he also guessed that the person sitting on the tall horse with a cold and arrogant face and whipping someone must be a nobleman of Wang Sun, but his wife and brother were beheaded and his whole body was cut off. Dare to pull the emperor off his horse, he couldn't care less, he held the knife in his hand, like an arrow from the string, and stabbed the person on the horse with one knife.

The man on the horse sneered, swung the whip in his hand, and flung a whip flower in the air. With a "snap", the whip hit Wang Eryi's face accurately, his eyes narrowed slightly, and a flash of light flashed in his eyes. Strong killing intent: "Kill..."

(End of this chapter)