prosperous age

Chapter 171 Chapter 170
Wei Guangde ate the delivered lunch, rested for a while, and continued to write his strategy.

Although Wei Guangde is young, he is not one of those ignorant scholastics. The emperor's topic should naturally be praised. If you praise the emperor, you must remember to praise the courtiers. At least at the moment, the heads of state are really one.

Of course, it is still necessary to make some euphemistic suggestions, otherwise there will be no bright spots, but they are all tricks that others have used badly.

Wei Guangde didn't know how to imitate those stunned youths, he wanted to rely on advice to win the position, but he didn't know that he would be defeated before the test of the examiner, and he didn't even have a chance for the emperor to hear.

Continue to write: "Chen Guan's "Book" said: "God bless the people, be a king, be a teacher.But it restrains the gods and favors the four directions." The king is the reason why the sky is established for life and democracy, and the reason why the people benefit from it is also the one who also said: "I am my buttocks, arms, eyes and ears." Obedience from the front, retreat and say something, respect the neighbors." The ministers, the king's capital, think of the ministers and neighbors, and the country's reliance. If the king wants people to be sympathetic to the people, he must uphold the philosophy of people and prepare the wisdom of officials. , and then identify the beginning and the essence, and you can get the good ministers of Huizheng. If you want to be a king and take care of the people, you must do your best to be respectful, and you must do your utmost to be loyal. Then it is impossible to distinguish whether the virtuous or not are confused, the loyal and the evil are merged, and then it is impossible to observe, the anointing cannot be investigated, and it is difficult to expect him to be sympathetic to the people!"

There are two passages copied from "Shangshu" at the end.

The meaning in the words is that God blesses and helps the people of the world, chooses a monarch and teachers for the people, establishes a monarch for the people to comfort the people, and establishes teachers for the people to teach the people.

Naturally, what Wei Guangde said at the end actually meant that Emperor Jiajing was the monarch chosen by God for the people, and the ministers were the humerus of the monarch. If the monarch made a mistake, the ministers should assist the monarch. Pay attention to the ministers, and don't be fooled by the ministers.

After writing this, Wei Guangde contemplated for a long time, and felt that what should be said has been said.

It was flattered in the front, and it is enough to mention a little bit about the administration of officials later. Whether the emperor will be deceived or not, he can't control it.

Wei Guangde felt that this policy theory was not bad, mainly because he did not expect that Emperor Jiajing did not follow the common sense and came up with a "monarch and minister question" to test people. That's it.

Wei Guangde checked it carefully, and felt that there was nothing to modify, so he copied it again on the question paper. The main purpose of the check was to prevent the use of some inappropriate words. If there is a problem with the format, it can be seen at a glance.

After checking the test paper, Wei Guangde felt that there was nothing wrong with it, so he got up and went to the east corner door of the main hall to hand in his own paper, and after the test paper was handed over by the examiner, he handed it over to the seal officer for seal, and then he didn't care about Wei Guangde something happened.

Walking out of Fengtian Hall, Wei Guangde stood on the high steps and looked around, vaguely felt that it was not too different from when he visited here back then, maybe there were some changes in details, but they couldn't be discerned anymore.

Exiting the main hall means that Wei Guangde's palace examination is over, and then the young eunuch on duty came to take him out of here, Wei Guangde couldn't stay longer, and followed the young eunuch out of the Forbidden City.

On the street, Wei Guangde found Zhang Ji and said, "Find the nearest restaurant, young master, I'm hungry."

Now that Wei Guangde is 17 years old, it is time to grow his body, and the two steamed buns provided by the palace are enough to eat.

After getting into the carriage, Li San drove the carriage forward, looking for a place to eat for Wei Guangde, Zhang Ji sat in it and asked wonderingly: "Master, doesn't the emperor prepare lunch for you?"

"Yes, just two steamed buns, is it enough for the young master?"

It's fine if Wei Guangde doesn't mention it, but he gets angry when he mentions it.

In the evening, with the last Gong Shi Xia Kefan returning to the Jiujiang Guild Hall, today's palace examination is completely over.

But the examinees are fine, but the Wenhua Palace in the Forbidden City is brightly lit at this time, and the examiner has already sent the test papers sealed and stamped with the seal of the seal, and they are divided into fourteen according to the number of examiners. The copies were handed over to fourteen examiners.

At this time, more than a dozen tables have been set up in the center of the main hall, and they are spliced ​​together. Fourteen examiners each occupy a table and start to read the papers. , middle, middle and lower, and lower" with a mark on the five grades, which is convenient for subsequent statistics.

The deacons directly sent the test papers of the tribute scholars, eliminating the need for copying in the previous imperial examinations.

After everyone has made their own preparations, a servant enters the side hall and asks the examiner to come out.

They came here directly after leaving Fengtian Palace. According to the rules established in the fifth year of Jiajing, during these three days, the examiners were not allowed to leave the palace to go home, but could only stay in the court to rest.

After each answer sheet is read by the examiner, write the evaluation criteria given by yourself, and then it will be rotated. Each answer sheet must be read by the examiner, write fourteen marks and then summary.

The best test papers are naturally the ones with as many high-level judges as possible, and the deacons below also arrange the finished test papers according to this standard.

Of course, the examiner is not a robot. It is impossible to stay in Wenhua Hall for a full time. You can rest if you feel tired in the middle. The food these days will be delivered on time by Guanglu Temple.

In a small resting room, Yan Song frowned and looked at a servant, "You mean your Majesty asked Wei Guangde again on the way back to Xiyuan?"

"Yes, the villain heard it with his own ears. It was Eunuch Chen Hong who replied, and His Majesty even asked him about his ranking in the test."

The servant's next words are no longer important, Yan Song has judged that Emperor Jiajing may be really interested in Wei Guangde at this moment, otherwise he would not have asked him several times.

Yan Song entered the high court and had been in contact with Emperor Jiajing for a long time. He has been a monarch and minister for almost 20 years, so he naturally understands what kind of person Emperor Jiajing is.

Don't look at him focusing on cultivation, but he is very clear about the affairs of the court.

After the servant left, Yan Song's muddy eyes gradually cleared up, and he felt that he might have guessed something.

Regardless of the fact that Emperor Jiajing seemed to be in good spirits and body on weekdays, but what are those elixir that he has been taking for a long time? Could it be possible to hide it from him?
Not to mention that he once ate an elixir bestowed by Emperor Jiajing, which made him lie on the bed for three days, and when he came back, he had to say with a smiling face that he was not blessed to take it.

To the emperor, people from hereditary backgrounds in the Weisuo were all soldiers who had made achievements in battle. In fact, they were similar to those nobles in the court, and they were worthy of the trust of the old Zhu's family.

Their hereditary military position in the guard actually shows this point.

Originally, the emperor should put more emphasis on the honored children, but now the honored children are generally not very good, so the situation in which the court officials dominate has already taken shape.

Being noticed by the emperor naturally means that Wei Guangde may have a bright future, of course it is also possible.
Yan Song thought about it for a while, and he had already made up his mind, and he would know what the emperor thought after testing it out.

The tributes waited for the results of the palace examination with eager anticipation and anxiety, and Wei Guangde was the same, but what he didn't know was that his paper had been ambiguous and should not be recognized , It was still found out by some caring people.

Many of the fourteen paper readers appointed by Emperor Jiajing this time were people who followed Yan Song. It can be said that his words and deeds would be followed by these people without reservation.

When Yan Song saw a test paper that he hinted at appeared in front of him, Yan Song grass read it and wrote "Up" on it, and then he handed it to the second assistant Xu Jie next to him.

At this time, the former secondary assistant, Lu Ben, had seldom participated in cabinet affairs because of his health, and Xu Jie had become the de facto secondary assistant. Although Lu Ben was also appointed as the examiner this time, in fact, he is now in the cabinet. The position can only be ranked third.

Xu Jie took the question papers handed over by Yan Song, and was actually a little puzzled. He only forwarded it after reading a stack of question papers. What does it mean to hand over a single copy?
Seeing the above marks, the nearest one is the judgment mark of "Up", and the two preceding ones are both "Medium", Xu Jie understands what it means.

At this moment, the position of judging the papers is fixed. No matter how many people have read the papers that everyone has read and given judgments, you can know who gave what judgments according to the order, not to mention that Mr. Yan Ge is alone. Turn over this question paper.

Xu Jie didn't hesitate, but he was a little curious as to who made this paper.

But just thinking about it, after skimming through it, he also wrote the "upper" judgment mark on this question paper, and he can't interfere with what the people behind him do. Judging criteria given by the second assistant.

Xu Jie glanced at Yan Song inadvertently, and then at Wu Peng and Lei Li next to Yan Song, wondering what their expressions would be after seeing this paper.

Two days later, that is, on March [-], Emperor Jiajing once again rode a dragon out of Xiyuan and came to Wenhua Hall.

Originally, most emperors would come here after the court, but Emperor Jiajing had not been in court all year round, and he just asked the ministers to salute outside the Meridian Gate and then leave. Naturally, he could only return here directly from Xiyuan.

After more than a day, all the test papers of the [-] gongshi in this subject meeting have been read, and they are classified according to the marks above. Today is the day to read the papers.

In the view of the tribute scholars, their palace examination papers should be judged fairly by the examiners, and the emperor would give the rankings after the winners were determined. But in fact, five years before Jiajing, the tribute papers were actually It has been divided into three grades according to the examination results.

For Wei Guangde's ranking, the test paper must be in the lowest grade. No matter how extravagantly he writes his policy theory, it is impossible to change his ranking in a general direction.

Especially before this, in the process of closing the seal, the official seal will often hand over the papers of the tribute scholars who have the highest grades in the examination and give priority to the other tribute papers. A strong contender for the former position.

This is also the reason why the test scores and palace test scores are often very close.

However, in the fifth year of Jiajing, due to the strong resistance of the ministers, especially the repeated suggestions of Xi Shu, the Minister of Rites at that time, in order to prevent the phenomenon of cheating when marking the palace examination papers, the examination papers should be "sent with mixed names". Candidates should also be decided through consultation among all the examiners.

In addition, he also suggested to Emperor Jiajing that "officials should not be sent in advance, and officials who read papers should retreat to the court and stay directly in the Ministry of Rites" and should not return to private residences.

These suggestions were finally adopted by Emperor Jiajing and issued in the form of imperial edicts, which were determined as court decrees.

The last emperor of the Ming Dynasty was bewitched by civil officials for a long time that "the ancestral system cannot be abolished".

It's just that Emperor Jiajing took the throne as a vassal, so he tried to test many facts instead of pushing them away.

At the beginning of Emperor Jiajing's reign, he changed a lot of established rules, and later generations came up with the "Jiajing New Deal" or "Jiajing Reform", many of which involved "taxes" and "titles" and were called "Jiajing New Deal". Zhang Juzheng's reform, which later generations talked about, was actually largely based on some practices of the Jiajing New Deal.

However, due to the strong resistance of interest groups, the Jiajing New Deal was mostly carried out only in a local area, and the "several lines and few stops" could not be carried out comprehensively and sustainably. Therefore, its effectiveness and influence were also very limited, far inferior to that of Zhang Juzheng's period. violently.

Emperor Jiajing, who entered the Wenhua Palace, sat on the throne, looked at the fourteen examiners below, and said, "Let's begin."

The current Emperor Jiajing prefers to spend his time on cultivating Taoism, and naturally he is unwilling to take up too much time on irrelevant matters, so now he speaks and does things very simply and directly.

Immediately, Yan Song, the chief assistant of the cabinet, picked up a test paper and began to read it aloud. This is "reading the paper".

This time it was exactly the same as before. The three cabinet scholars each read one volume, which was also the best examination paper in their opinion, Yijia.

Emperor Jiajing closed his eyes and rested his mind since Yan Song was still reading the paper, as if he was in a mind wandering, without saying a word.

It wasn't until Lu Ben finished reading the paper that he waved his hand slightly and said, "Continue".

Afterwards, Xu Lun, Minister of the Prince Taibao Military Department, also unfolded the paper in his hand and began to read aloud.

According to the order of Emperor Jiajing in the 14th year of Jiajing, the entrance examination paper was increased from the previous six volumes to twelve volumes.

The examiner selects four volumes from the upper, middle, and lower three-level question papers that have been divided in advance and presents them to the emperor for viewing.

After reading the twelve volumes, Emperor Jiajing slowly opened his eyes and looked at the twelve volumes of question papers placed one by one on the imperial case in front of him. The order in which the question papers are placed is actually their ranking. If he does not want to interfere if.

Then, the twelve question papers in front of you are the papers for the first three and the second top five, and the rest are the top four for the top three.

"Open the seal."

Obviously, Emperor Jiajing wanted to see the names of these tributes, because there was one last link in it, which was the selection of candidates.

As an example for all Jinshi, Dingjia Jinshi represents the image of the entire official group.

Therefore, whether the appearance condition is qualified is also one of the conditions that need to be considered when determining a candidate for Yijia.

As for the other things that the emperor will pay attention to, such as the quality of the name and the dreams the emperor has, a decision will also be made at this time.

(End of this chapter)