prosperous age

Chapter 172 Chapter 171

"Open the seal."

Emperor Jiajing's words also showed that he didn't seem to intend to have any objections to the rankings arranged by the examiners.

However, since ancient times, the imperial power was supreme, and it is not certain whether the ranking will be adjusted after the seal is opened.

There are many factors that the emperor has to consider when opening a subject to obtain a scholar.

Today is March [-]th, and tomorrow is March [-]th. The Ceremony of Chuanlu will be held, so today we have to fill out the yellow list and use the seal to complete all the procedures that need to be completed.

As the seal was opened, the name of the first scroll was revealed, Zhu Dashou.

Then the second name came out, it was Tao Dalin, and the third name was Chen Xi
It was not until the eighth question paper was opened that Yuan Jinda's name appeared in front of everyone.

Although Yan Song was dissatisfied with Jinda, he didn't dare to suppress Jinda's ranking, so he could only lower it appropriately.

According to the normal situation, Emperor Jiajing had no idea of ​​adjusting the ranking before, so Jinda, as Huiyuan, would become No.5 in the second class and miss the top three in the first class.

Afterwards, they continued to unwrap the seal at the back, and the four names Bao Chengyin, Liu Xingsu, Chai Xiang, and Wei Guangde appeared in front of everyone.

The same is the rules of the examination room, even Yan Song, it is difficult to deliberately suppress the ranking of some people, and it is naturally difficult to raise the ranking of some people.

Jin Da, no matter how dissatisfied Yan Song is, he can't beat him to the top three.

Wei Guangde, no matter how hard he pushes, it is impossible to push to the top two, everything has rules.

There is only one way to break the rules, and one person can do it, and that is the emperor.

Yan Song played a clever trick in this entry paper, pushing Jinda down to the bottom, and putting Wei Guangde in the top four of the top three. Although this also raised Wei Guangde's ranking by more than 100, it was not too bad. rule.

Next, it depends on Emperor Jiajing's attitude, which is very important for Yan Song's attitude towards Wei Guangde in the future.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the twelve test papers on the table, and didn't waste any time. He directly wrote his comments on the first and second test papers with the ink pen on the table ahead of time, which was also the habit of Emperor Jiajing.

Write down your own opinion, indicating that you have read the test paper.

However, after writing down two test papers, Emperor Jiajing did not write comments on the third paper for Chen Xi, but picked up the eighth paper and put it in the third place.

As a courtier who has followed Emperor Jiajing for many years, he naturally understood what he meant. The eunuch Huang Jin who was accompanying him immediately stepped forward and moved the other question papers to the back. normal.

Emperor Jiajing wrote his comments on Jinda's test paper in one go, and then put down the ink pen.

At this moment, the first and third places in the Jinke Palace Examination are confirmed.

The first prizes are all the big ribbons, the second place is Tao Dalin, and Tanhua Jinda.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the papers at the back again. The emperor had the final decision on the ranking of the palace examination, but the rankings represented by the papers put up reflected the will of the civil servants.

Emperor Jiajing finally picked up the last paper, flipped through it seemingly casually, and said, "It's pretty standard."

Fair enough?

What does this mean?
Although Emperor Jiajing spoke very softly, the quiet needle drop could be heard in the hall, which was naturally heard clearly by the eunuchs serving beside him and the fourteen paper readers.

Immediately, Emperor Jiajing stuffed the question paper in his hand into the fourth position, behind Jin Da.

The adjustment of this ranking is a bit big, directly transferred from the top three to the second top, and it is still the first place in the second top, the position of "Chuan Lu".

Including Yan Song, all the examiners couldn't help but open their eyes wide and looked at the question paper on the imperial case again. No one said a word, but their eyes drifted to Yan Song's side.

At this time, almost all the examiners were guessing, maybe Emperor Jiajing had given Yan Song some hints before, so it happened.

After all, Xu Jie also chose Yan Song's method at that time, and handed them Wei Guangde's paper alone, and asked them to read it first and grade it.

Although Wei Guangde's papers are generally scored very high, but after all, his ranking will be dragged down, and he can only stay in the top three.

Moreover, among the 300 people, the actual level of Wei Guangde's papers is not really outstanding among the [-] people, and the ranking of the test is still very high. objective.

Among the examiners, only Wu Peng and Lei Li were slightly sweating on their foreheads, but who is to blame for this?

After reading the test papers, they found the ten top, two upper middle and two middle test papers. At that time, they thought it was a relationship with Mr. Yan Ge, but they didn't expect it to be the emperor's.

However, Emperor Jiajing's performance, in Yan Song's view, was a real blow.

Emperor Jiajing is now taking more and more elixir every day, and that thing is definitely not a good thing.

In Yan Song's view, Emperor Jiajing had already felt something, so he began to prepare manpower for the prince.

He also knows a lot about Wei Guangde.

Born in a hereditary military family, and then came to the top of the imperial examination.

They were the ones who wiped out the Japanese pirates in Nanjing last time. It is said that this kid even went into battle and killed a Japanese pirate himself.

At this moment, Yan Song had already thought about how to arrange Wei Guangde in the future. With his level, it is estimated that he would not be successful in the imperial examination, and it would still be difficult to enter the Imperial Academy.

Although Yan Song and his son can now say that they control the government and have the right to speak in the six ministries, the Hanlin Academy has always been the headquarters of Qingliu. To be honest, his influence on this yamen is really not great.

Yan Song was thinking about how to arrange for Wei Guangde, and the other examiners were also thinking about how to treat this little guy who looked like a holy family.

In fact, in Emperor Jiajing's heart, what he thought was to give Wei Guangde a compensation.

In November, the rewards for the suppression of the Japanese in September were finalized and sent to Nanjing.

Because Wei Guangde did not have a military position, he was not included in the list of rewards. The first-class military exploit of beheading Japanese pirates under his name was transferred to his cousin Wu Dong.

However, in Emperor Jiajing's view, meritorious deeds should be rewarded and demerits should be punished. Since Wei Guangde can't get military merits, then give him a compensation in the imperial examination.

Maybe there are other ideas, who knows!

Before, he planned to give him a chance to be a tribute, but he didn't expect that his name was already in the roster reported, so he could only give him a better rank in the palace examination, which was worthy of his loyalty.

"You can decide the rest."

Emperor Jiajing looked at the results of the imperial examination that he had appointed, nodded slightly satisfied, and then said.

After instructing the ministers, Emperor Jiajing said to Huang Jin: "Let Shang Baojian and Zhichifang cooperate. After filling out the imperial list, immediately stamp it with a seal. Don't delay tomorrow's grand ceremony."

"Yes, the servants will go down and talk to them."

Huang Jin immediately bowed and replied, Huang Jin is now the supervisor of ceremonies, the eunuch and the admiral of the East Factory. Naturally, the Shangbao Supervisor is within the scope of his direct control, but he pays more attention to the affairs of the palace. He then handed over to Chen Hongzai the responsibility.

At this time, the fourteen examiners also bowed to Emperor Jiajing, then took twelve copies of the test papers and left the room, and went to the next room to sort out the results of the palace examination and fill in the list.

At this time, in the city of Jiujiang Prefecture, the commander of Jiujiang Guards made Si Yamen everything as usual.

A few years ago, the Nanjing Ministry of War and the Fifth Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief came to present the reward for the suppression of the Japanese. At that time, it made the whole guard happy. The reward was a bit unexpected.

Most of the first-level guard commanders are not ready for promotion. Naturally, no one thinks that they can be promoted, and even if they are promoted, where can they be promoted?Transfer to the Beijing camp?
In this day and age, the military officers still feel that it is a good place to be, and it is really not a good place to go if they have to nod and bow all day when they go to the capital.

Because of the great contribution this time, although they were not rewarded with official titles, they were all promoted to the first rank. The Jiujiang Guard Commander and Commander Tongzhi were even given a bullfight uniform, while the other generals were given a bullfight uniform. Obtained a unicorn suit.

Only Wu Zhankui was promoted to command Tongzhi, and Wei Meng was promoted from the position of the fifth-rank guard to the post-military thousand households, and his rank was raised by one level to the fifth rank.

Wei Wencai, one of the hundreds of households of the Youjun Thousand Households, was also rewarded with a unicorn suit as a special case because of his meritorious service in the battle.

There are also some rewards of silver, but not much. Although the circulation of gold and silver among the people has increased due to the relationship with the sea trade at this time, it is still very tense in the court, so the military officer's gift of silver is 50 taels more, and less That's 20 taels.

The rewards of silver are really not cared by these soldiers now, that is to say, the officers and soldiers below are happy, they are all guys who have never seen money, and the military officers are more concerned about getting congratulations.

The bestowal of the Ming Dynasty is quite rare for foreign generals.

There were still many types of clothing in the Ming Dynasty, especially Emperor Jiajing, who liked to bestow Taoist things on people, but there were mainly four types of official clothing: python clothing, flying fish clothing, bullfighting clothing and unicorn clothing.

The boa suit was the highest-ranked garment in the Ming Dynasty, second only to the dragon robe worn by the emperor, and was a special gift for the envoys, eunuchs, prime ministers, etc. of the Ming Dynasty.

"History of Ming Dynasty Yufu Zhi" records: "Giving pythons is not easy for civil and military officials."

It was considered a great honor to be given a python suit.Adding a boa robe to the body means that you are an extremely human minister, rich and prosperous.

The second is the Flying Fish Clothes, which generally require officials of the second rank or above to have a chance to get them. Jin Yiwei is actually not worthy of wearing Flying Fish Clothes. Most captains wear blue cotton armor. Only military officers with more than a thousand households can get the Flying Fish Clothes.

The bullfighting suit is the third bestowment after the flying fish suit, and it is generally awarded to officials above the third rank.

The last unicorn suit was originally the official uniform of the princes, marquises, concubines, and earls of the Ming Dynasty. However, because the unicorn is a famous beast of benevolence and righteousness in ancient legends, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty also used the unicorn suit as a gift, rewarding four, Minister of the fifth rank.

It is worth mentioning that most of the royal guards and bodyguards accompanying the emperor were also given unicorn clothes.

Except for the tufted python robe in the python suit, most of the four types of costumes in the Ming Dynasty are difficult to identify. You can only distinguish which one by looking at the head and tail of the animal. This may also be the source of the saying that Jinyiwei wears flying fish suits.

However, the festive atmosphere lasted until the end of the new year, and it had already faded after the Spring Festival.

At noon, a fast boat on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, under the acceleration of the sails and paddles, quickly approached the Jiujiang Wharf. Looking at the lantern on the bow, you can tell that this is an official ship, which belongs to the water horse station and is used to deliver official documents. clippers.

After the ship docked at the Jiujiang Wharf, a postman quickly disembarked with a bamboo tube on his back, and made a simple handover in a small courtyard next to the pier with the word "post", and then a postman took the bamboo tube and turned on his horse towards the city. rush in.

Not long after, the postman rode through the gate of the city, and the crisp sound of the jacket and luan bells pierced through the hustle and bustle of the market. All the pedestrians on the street consciously stood on both sides of the road, and the postman rode their horses to pass.

Not long after, the postman arrived outside the magistrate's yamen, and the yamen servant immediately went up to greet him. Knowing that it was the official document, he immediately brought the postman into the magistrate's yamen.

The prefect of Jiujiang was having lunch at the moment, when he suddenly heard someone outside the door reporting that an urgent official document had arrived, he had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and let the others continue to eat, then got up and went out by himself.

When I got outside, I asked the visitor, "What official document?" '

"The results of the exam will be announced, the good news, and the official document will be sent directly to Jiujiang Mansion."

The yamen servant hurriedly bowed and replied.

"Ok?"

When the prefect of Jiujiang heard that it was the result of the public examination, he was surprised at first, and then surprised.

The prefect of Jiujiang served two terms here, but he never had a chance to be promoted. According to his understanding, the Jiujiang prefecture had suffered several consecutive defeats in the imperial examination, which affected his own evaluation.

It's all right now, there is a message from the test, indicating that this time the test Jiujiang Mansion has finally produced talents.

In a hurry, the magistrate finally opened the bamboo tube and took out a roll of sealed official documents. According to the usual practice, he checked the seal before opening it, and took out the official documents written on yellow paper inside.

Good guy, I opened it and there are five pieces of paper inside, one of which is an official document, which is kept by the Yamen and used as evidence to modify the household registration information of Gongshi.

The magistrate opened it and saw, good guy, four people's names appeared on it. This time, Jiujiang Prefecture only passed four people, which is more than last year's township test.

A bright smile appeared on the face of the Jiujiang magistrate in an instant, and he carefully read the information above.

Lao Kan, Xia Kefan, Zhang Ke, Wei Guangde.

He still has impressions of Lao Kan and Wei Guangde. Last year’s Juren, Xia Kefan was from Ruichang. He was a Juren in Jiajing’s 28th year and scored 212 in the general examination. Zhang Ke was from Hukou.

Wei Guangde is from Jiujiangwei, the prefect naturally has an impression, 271 is not bad, at least he is on the list, the top three, he should be able to reach the prefect position, if he is lucky, it is unknown if he can be promoted to another rank.

Lao Kan is very powerful, there will be 80 candidates in the exam, and he will be a proper second-class Jinshi.

"Call the envoy, experience it, immediately."

The magistrate immediately ordered that the good news of Gong Shi should be sent out immediately, especially the good news of Zhang Ke and Xia Kefan should be transferred to their household registration places immediately, and he would go to Lao's house by himself, and ask someone to go to Jiujiangwei Na How about it?

The traffic in the Ming Dynasty was like this. After the palace examination in the capital was over, the examination results finally reached Jiujiang Mansion.

Although the test results are important, they are different from emergency military situations. Naturally, there is no need for special communication channels such as express delivery shops, so the water horse post is used, but it is considered fast, and it was delivered in only ten days. Jiujiang Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)