Dao Fruit

His clap scattered several neatly arranged memorials for the visit, but he seemed not to notice. He stood up from his seat with a "swoosh" and was about to walk out.

"I am going to see the emperor now!"

The Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Council, combined into two offices, are the real center of great fortune, in charge of politics and the military.

People often say "the highest position among the ministers", and the ministers in the two offices are truly worthy of these four words. They hold the power of heaven and earth and manage the yin and yang of the world. They can be called prime ministers and ministers. In the previous dynasty, they were the prime ministers of a country, under one person and above ten thousand people!

However, with the changes in the world, the power of the prime minister has long been divided. It is no longer a single person who holds the power, but is divided into two offices, and many prime ministers discuss and agree.

The Political Affairs Hall is the center of political affairs. On weekdays, even if the prime minister wants to go there, he must be led by the Zhongshu Zhisheng officials on horseback, and he cannot enter easily.

The prime minister handles daily affairs in the government hall, which are mainly divided into two categories. One is to meet with officials and understand the political situation of the world; the second category is to review, execute the emperor's orders, and review the official documents of various governments.

The decoration of the government hall is not luxurious. There are several desks, and three men of different ages sit in it. Each of them is condensed and presents a grand pattern and atmosphere.

The old man who suddenly spoke was like a withered figure, but his eyes were bright. When he spoke, his blood surged and a little red appeared on his face. He was reviewing official documents. After seeing a memorial, he slammed the table and stood up, showing an angry look, which made the people around him feel a little confused.

"Mr. Zhang, what's wrong with you?" A middle-aged man in his forties put down the memorial next to him. He frowned and looked over.

This man has neat hair and a long beard. He speaks with full energy, giving people a sense of shrewdness and competence.

This man is called Xu Jin. He was recently admitted to the Political Affairs Hall because of his meritorious service in supervising the war in the Western Frontier, expanding the territory, and governing well. He is a new noble in the court.

The old man he called Zhang Lao was named Zhang Lian. He was a veteran of three dynasties, with a high level of experience and a high prestige in the Political Affairs Hall.

Since Wang Xianggong entered the Political Affairs Hall two years ago and presided over the reform, Zhang Lian has been hostile to him and is one of the major giants of the old party.

He did not respond to Xu Jin's question. Instead, he took a step with a snort and was about to walk out of the hall. At this time, another old voice came from the side-

"Is it the memorial from Wang Fu? But the new law is used to do the examination questions?"

The person who spoke had almost gray hair and a thin body, but a big frame. He also had a long beard and looked energetic. If Qiu Yanren was here, he would not need to look at him at all, but would recognize him by his voice.

This person is Ma Yang. The descendant of the Shi family, now a prime minister. He is the backbone and flagship of the old party. He fought against Wang Xianggong several times during his reforms. Although he lost more than he won, he also gave the new party a headache.

As for Wang Fu, he is the name of the black-faced Xianggong.

Wang Fu, Ma Yang, Zhang Lian, Xu Jin, and Yan Dongting, who caught a cold and was recuperating at home, these five people are all the people in the Political Affairs Hall, and they are the most powerful people in the whole of Da Rui!

Zhang Lian stopped, raised his skinny old hand, and pointed at a memorial: "Pan Zhi submitted a memorial, saying that the change in grain prices in Xingjing endangers the safety of the country, and prices should be stabilized as soon as possible. He still used the same tone of praising the law and said that he would use the opportunity of the imperial examination to select the country's talents! Isn't it just to take advantage of the situation to change the purpose of the imperial examination?"

"Oh? Pan Zhi's memorial?" Ma Yang also frowned, "He supervised the war in the north this time and had some military achievements, but I don't know whether it is true or not. Now it seems that he wants to take advantage of the situation. However, this time the imperial examination is handed over to Wang Fu to preside over. We have already made a concession. What we want is to ensure that the purpose remains unchanged. If they want to take the opportunity to change their course, it's too much!"

"The group of people under Wang Heimian, At a young age, they are uneducated and unskilled. Many of them have poor morals and act recklessly. They are definitely capable of doing such things," Zhang Lian sneered, "If you want to take advantage of the situation, the incident of the merchants in Xingjing was caused by this group of people? First, in order to prepare military funds, they ignored the quota and issued a lot of Jiaozi. Now they are going to issue the Market Exchange Law to suppress the merchants in the capital. Behind these merchants, there are no easy people. How can they get what they want? "

The so-called Jiaozi is the paper money issued by the court of Darui. It was originally a payment voucher made by several wealthy merchants. After all, iron coins and copper coins are large in size and small in value. Ten strings of coins weigh 65 kilograms, which is inconvenient to carry and restricts the development of business. When they are poor, they think of change, and then Jiaozi is born.

Afterwards, the court changed it to an official business, and set up Jiaozi affairs in Xingjing and Dongdu respectively to be responsible for the issuance of paper money.

In Qiu Yan's previous life, many people looked down on the ancients and thought that their knowledge was limited. But in fact, in this world similar to the ancient times, there are many smart people who clearly see the disadvantages of paper money and write to the court, so that the court sets laws and regulations, stipulating that each issue of Jiaozi must have a quota of about 1.25 million strings of cash, and there must be a reserve of 360,000 strings of cash. Every three years, a new Jiaozi will be made when the quota expires and the old Jiaozi will be replaced to avoid inflation.

After listening to Zhang Lian's words, Ma Yang remained silent. He has always been negative about the new law because the new law is contrary to his political thinking. He also knows that any reform will inevitably cause chaos and give people an opportunity to take advantage of it.

In his view, reform and new policies are, to put it bluntly, a redistribution of existing interests.

The cake is so big, if you get more, others will get less. It involves not only political struggles, but also interest fights.

Broken people's money, some people killed their parents, this reform, how many people's interests were damaged, how much resistance would be generated.

Similarly, the alternation of the old and the new, the incomplete system, the easiest for people to take advantage of the situation and cause all kinds of chaos.

Ma Yang's roots are in the East Capital, and his resistance to the reform is mainly due to his ideas, while Zhang Lian's interests are in Guanzhong, and he also has entanglements with the merchants in Xingjing, and he will definitely not let the market exchange law go.

After thinking about it, Ma Yang also stood up: "In any case, the imperial examination cannot be a joke. If it is suddenly changed, I don't know how many students' years of hard work will be in vain."

However, before he and Zhang Lian walked out of the political hall, a little yellow gate rushed in.

"Three adults, the emperor has an oral order."

The three prime ministers looked at each other, then straightened their clothes and pretended to listen attentively, but Ma Yang and Zhang Lian had a flash of bad feeling in their hearts.

………………

The Imperial Palace, the Imperial Study

Emperor Li Kun sat on the throne, across the table, listening to the words of the man opposite him, and nodded secretly.

"... The imperial examination is the trend of the world's scholars. The imperial examination is important, and the students of the world will study hard. Moreover, now the merchants in the capital are in collusion, ignoring the financial difficulties of the court and only caring about their own interests, which has worsened the situation. The officials in the court are either watching coldly or unable to deal with it. This shows that the reform lacks talents. We should use this imperial examination to select one or two talented people as supplements..."

Li Kun has become more and more calm over the years, but there is still a ball of fire in his heart, which will not be easily expressed. There were sporadic wars in the northern border a while ago, which worried him and made him sleepless at night. Now Pan Zhijie's report has come, which reassures the emperor and makes him full of expectations for the prospects of the reform. He has an intention for the next step of financial and military reforms.

At this time, Wang Fu, the host of the reform, suddenly came over and said that he would hold the examination this year, focusing on the assessment of the reform. Although Li Kun hesitated, he did not have much resistance.

Since ascending the throne, Li Kun wanted to save money and reduce his living expenses, and wanted to revive the great fortune and reappear the power of Taizu when he founded the country. He showed an urgent desire. He was impatient. As long as he could achieve his goals, he would sometimes even ignore the advice of others and break some customs.

Wang Fu's proposal, under the combined effect of the price dilemma in Xingjing and the victory report of the war in the northern border, had made Li Kun make a decision. His predecessor summoned other ministers of the Political Affairs Hall to come, nominally for discussion, but in fact to issue a decision.

Wang Fu was very clear about this. This shrewd and capable husband was a man with an unremarkable appearance, with a dark complexion and a tall stature. If he was not wearing the court dress of a first-rank official, he would easily be mistaken for an old farmer.

But it was this person who not only understood the emperor's mind thoroughly, but also stirred up the world in one fell swoop, standing at the forefront of the storm, and was the real helmsman of the giant ship of Da Rui!

He wanted to lead this ship of the people to a new river basin.

However, in this process, he had to be cautious and tread on thin ice.

At this time, an old man with a white face and no beard waved his hand, and a eunuch came to serve tea to Wang Fu.

Although Da Rui was a centralized power, the power of the aristocratic families was not small. The literati and the emperor ruled the world together, and there was no difference in status. When meeting the emperor, there was no need to kneel, and the prime ministers like Wang Fu would be given a seat.

"Oh right," Li Kun suddenly thought of something, "I remember there was a scholar in Jiannan Road who wrote a military strategy, which was very good. Will he come to participate in the examination this time? What's his name?"

The white-faced old man pondered for a moment, glanced at Wang Fu, and then said, "The emperor is talking about Qiu Yan, the champion of Jiannan, right? I will go and ask about this matter."

Li Kun shook his head and said, "My dear, there is no need to ask deliberately. I just heard about the imperial examination and remembered it. If he gets a Jinshi, it will be time to meet him."

The white-bearded old man nodded, and Wang Fu remembered the name "Qiu Yan" and thought about it.

At the same time, Qiu Yan, who was trudging on the official road, felt a little change in his luck. A wisp of breath in his flesh and blood floated up and connected with a mysterious existence in the sky.

"Dragon Qi?" Qiu Yan thought secretly, and suddenly he had a whim, and his soul went out of his body directly, soaring into the sky, following this connection, floating up to the sky.

There were no clouds in the sky, but in Qiu Yan's perception, there were many things in the empty sky, the largest of which was a...

dragon!

PS: Thanks to "Tea Ceremony Master" and "Yuanxin Little Man" for the reward!