Please don't force me to be a god.

Xu Wen said: "Master, I know my own limitations. With my level, it is extremely difficult for me to pass the imperial examination."

"It is impossible to be the first place winner."

"I am afraid that the emperor gave me the title of first place winner because of your blessing."

Zhang Tian smiled and said: "Even so, what is there to worry about?"

"I have done so many things for the Nan'an Dynasty, and you have saved the emperor. A mere first place winner is far from enough."

Xu Wen blushed and said: "According to convention, the essays of the top three need to be announced to the world. I am afraid that my essay will not be able to convince the public."

Xu Wen hesitated for a while, and suddenly said: "Master, how about asking the emperor to change the ranking and put me in the second or third place?"

Xu Jingye on the side said: "Wen'er, this is not right. It's not right, don't mention it again in the future."

"What's wrong?"

Xu Jingye said: "If you ask the immortal to go to the palace to discuss with the emperor before the results are announced, there is still a possibility of change."

"Now that the results have been announced, everyone in the world knows it."

"If you ask the emperor to change his name again, wouldn't it be a slap in the face of the emperor?"

"Even if your article is difficult to convince the public, you can only bite the bullet now."

Zhang Tian patted Xu Wen on the shoulder and said: "Can't you afford such a small criticism?"

"Then Prime Minister Cai has been scolded as a traitor by the world for decades, but he still eats well and sleeps well, and does what he should do without ambiguity."

"If you can't stand this little pressure, how can you achieve great things in the future? How can you face setbacks in life?"

Zhang Tian knew that the emperor and Prime Minister Cai would take good care of Xu Wen in this imperial examination.

But I didn't expect that the emperor and Prime Minister Cai would be so bold and directly sent a champion.

In this case, I'm afraid there will be a big storm.

The imperial examination was a relatively fair path to promotion in this era, and it also brought positive effects in this period.

But Zhang Tian is a person of later generations.

From the historical experience spanning more than a thousand years, the various drawbacks of the imperial examination can be seen at a glance.

Since the emperor and Prime Minister Cai have made such a big thing to please themselves.

Then let's go with the flow and use this incident to make some arrangements and practice some ideas in their hearts.

As for the pressure of criticism from scholars all over the world.

If Xu Wen can't stand it, there are still the emperor, the prime minister and himself.

If it really doesn't work, find a few achievements that surpass this era from the database to help him resolve it.

Of course, Zhang Tian is not going to tell Xu Wen about the plot right away.

Let him bear some pressure, which is a necessary stage of growth.

After being scolded by Zhang Tian, ​​Xu Wen had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "I will do my best to live up to the expectations of the Immortal Master."

…………

Originally, Xu Wenzhong's understanding of the Yuan was a great event. According to the usual practice, all officials would certainly come to the door to give gifts and make friends.

But this year's imperial examination, all officials in Beijing have heard about it, and no one dared to congratulate Zhang's house openly.

Only familiar friends like Fu Jinyu came to convey the words of their elders.

A few days later, the Xu family far away in Xiangyang City was very lively with gongs and drums.

A horseman came to the Xu family with a loud announcement of good news from outside the city.

Xu's father knew Xu Wen's level and was a little skeptical at first.

But thinking of Zhang Tian's methods, he thought that Zhang Tian had given Xu Wen some advice, so he put away the good news with peace of mind and sent the congratulatory people away with money.

After the congratulators left, all the big and small families in Xiangyang City came to congratulate.

The first one was naturally General Guo.

The person who announced the good news had to be allowed to enter the city by the soldiers guarding the city, and he was the first to receive the news.

Naturally, he prepared a generous gift and came to congratulate in person.

The second was Zhang Baiwan's family.

With the previous "relationship" with Zhang Tian and Xu Wen, the gift was particularly heavy.

Zhang Baiwan said to everyone: "I have long said that Xu Xiucai is a top scholar. Now he has won the first place. If he wins two more times, he will win the third place in a row."

…………

Unlike the lively atmosphere in Xiangyang, the atmosphere in Lin'an Prefecture is getting heavier and heavier.

The list was released, and some people were happy and some were sad.

After the excitement of congratulations, the articles of the first and third places that thousands of scholars had been looking forward to were not released.

After waiting for a few days.

Some scholars could not hold back and began to gather frequently in the Imperial Examination Hall.

Some people even said: Why haven't we seen the articles of the first place for a long time? Is there any favoritism or fraud?

Finally, one of the civil servants who was in charge of the examination could not bear the pressure and posted the essays of the top three.

It would have been fine if they had not posted them, but once they did, the powder keg exploded.

Thousands of scholars were in a turmoil, and they loudly cursed "the treacherous minister Cai An, who was corrupt and abused his power for personal gain."

At first, they only cursed at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall and in the inn.

Seeing that no one cared about them, the scholars became more bold.

They had already gone to the Lin'an government office to sue "the treacherous minister Cai An and"Xu Wen, the champion of the imperial examination, was corrupt and in collusion with the emperor".

The evidence was naturally Xu Wen's papers.

How could the prefect of Lin'an care about these things?

Whether it was Prime Minister Cai or Xu Wen, he was not capable of managing any of them.

But he did not dare to offend thousands of scholars, so he had to accept the petition and said that he needed to investigate, and then he was silent.

The scholars saw that the government office was not doing anything, and they became bolder and began to gather outside the palace gate.

They kept shouting for the emperor to come out and preside over justice and take down the traitor Cai An.

Even in Zhang's mansion, someone went to the gate to insult him.

Xu Wen was thin-skinned and shrank at home and dared not go out.

Zhang Tian said: "Xu Wen, don't just retreat. Watch carefully and see how the court handles this crisis?"

Xu Wen thought for a while and said: "If it was a disciple, he would definitely rectify the chaos and deprive the disciple of the title of champion, and the second and third place would be promoted in order. "

Zhang Tian shook his head. Although he didn't know much about politics, he had read a lot of news in later generations, so he could probably guess how the superiors would deal with it.

Sure enough, Prime Minister Cai took action.

First, he sent officials to persuade the scholars, saying: "Xu Jieyuan once saved the emperor and made great contributions. You should know the importance of it and don't make trouble again."

But the scholars didn't buy it. Some people retorted: "Xu Wen's contribution to saving the emperor is good. If the emperor directly grants him an official position, we will have no objection!"

"Why do we have to take the imperial examination? Grab our quota?"

"Yes! ! We have been studying hard for ten years, and we are fighting for this breath. "

The officials saw that persuasion was useless, so they had to go back to report in disgrace.

Afterwards, Prime Minister Cai dispatched a large number of officials to arrest several leading scholars and put them in jail.

The rest of the people were dispersed.

There are thousands of scholars, and behind them are thousands of families, and most of them are local families with reputation and power.

Even the emperor did not dare to arrest these thousands of people directly.

Otherwise, the gentry in the world will be disunited and the country will not be far from destruction.

I didn't expect that the scholars at this time still had backbone.

Seeing that the leader was arrested, although they did not gather in large numbers at the palace gate.

But they lingered in Lin'an Prefecture and refused to leave. With the help of their family power, they kept asking for help and began to actively rescue.

Although the Beijing officials could not help much, this secret rescue operation was known to the court.

In the end, there was really no way Law.

The court demoted Prime Minister Cai by three levels, but he temporarily served as Prime Minister.

Supervisory historian Pang Qiwen and several civil servants were dismissed and investigated.

It was called "investigation", but in fact it was dismissal, and it was finally left unresolved.

Ten more failed scholars were selected and included in the list of successful candidates.

However, the leader among the scholars was not forgiven.

The public punishment was: deprivation of all honors and never to be employed again!

Finally, a "thank you edict" ended all the chaos.

The content of the edict was very simple, which was to count Zhang Tian's contributions to the Nan'an Dynasty since his arrival.

From the two defeats of the Tianjin Kingdom army to the recent borrowing of the "Heavenly Pass Guest Star", nothing was left out.

Finally, in the name of the emperor, it was said that "Mr. Zhang has made many contributions to the Nan'an Dynasty, and the court has no way to repay it. I am uneasy! ”

Although it was not explicitly stated that the title of Jieyuan was a reward to Zhang Tian, ​​as long as the scholars were not stupid, they would naturally understand the emperor's intention.

In fact, people of this era could accept the concepts of "offsetting merits and demerits" and "blessing descendants".

It is very common for elders to pass on their merits to their descendants.

The most typical example is the nobles who inherited the title.

The reason they made a fuss was nothing more than that they felt that the "blessing" method was used in the imperial examinations, which infringed on their rights.

Therefore, they could accept the emperor directly granting Xu Wen an official position, but they had to make a fuss about giving him the title of Jieyuan.

Now that the imperial edict has come out, the matter has basically been settled.

Zhang Tian and Xu Wen have been paying attention to the direction of the matter.

Seeing that the matter was almost resolved, Zhang Tian said: "Xu Wen, do you see what the court's approach is?"

Xu Wen thought for a long time and sighed: "Disciple understands. But if the disciple is allowed to take power, I'm afraid the disciple can't do it. "

"Hahahaha," Zhang Tian laughed, "If you can't do it, don't force it."

"Since you are unwilling to do what Prime Minister Cai did, then I will send you to do something you are willing to do."