The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde ate the lunch that was delivered to him, rested for a while, and then continued to write his strategy.

Although Wei Guangde is young, he is not one of those nerdy scholars who is ignorant of worldly affairs. The questions given by the emperor naturally have to praise his virtues. After praising the emperor, he should also remember to praise his courtiers. At least for the moment, the head of state is really one and the same.

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

Wei Guangde would not imitate those stupid young men who wanted to gain a position by relying on advice, but little did he know that he would be defeated before the examination of the examiner, and he would not even have a chance to be heard by the emperor.

Continue to write: "Chen Guan "Shu" said: "God bless the people, make them a king, and make them a teacher. But it restrains God and favors the four directions." The emperor is the reason why heaven is established to live in democracy, and the reason why the people are dependent on it is also the reason why. He also said: "I serve as my thighs, arms, ears and eyes." "If you violate it, you will do nothing. "Be obedient, follow the rules when retreating, and respect your neighbors." The ministers are the capital of the king, and they are regarded as ministers and neighbors, and they are also relied upon by the country. If the king wants to ask people to care for the people, he must uphold the philosophy of knowing people and prepare the wisdom of capable officials. , and then identify the beginning essence, and you can get the virtuous ministers of the army. If you want to serve the king and care for the people, you must do the right thing, do everything you can to be loyal, and then be loyal and loyal, and you can fulfill the responsibility of the end of the generation. The king does not know people, Then the virtuous and the virtuous are confused and cannot be distinguished, the loyal and the ungrateful cannot be discerned, the merits cannot be investigated, and it is difficult to hope that they will be of service to the people!”

There are two endings copied from "Shangshu".

The meaning of the words is that God protects and helps the people of the world, chooses monarchs and teachers for the people, establishes monarchs for the people to bring peace to the people, and establishes teachers to educate the people.

Naturally, what Wei Guangde said at the end actually means that Emperor Jiajing is the monarch chosen by God for the people, and ministers are the humerus of the monarch. If the monarch makes a mistake, the ministers must assist the monarch. Ministers should not obey the monarch in person, but talk behind his back, and the monarch should do the same. Pay attention to ministers and do not be deceived by ministers.

After writing this, Wei Guangde thought for a long time and felt that he had said what needed to be said.

I praised it in the front, but just mentioned a little bit about the administration of officials later. He couldn't control whether the emperor would be deceived.

Wei Guangde felt that this policy paper was quite good, mainly because he did not expect that Emperor Jiajing did not follow common sense and came up with a "monarch and minister question" to test people. The several drafts he had prepared before could only be scrapped, and he could only improvise one. That’s it.

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

After checking the question paper, Wei Guangde felt that there was nothing wrong with it, so he got up and walked to the east corner door of the hall to hand in his paper. After writing the paper under the examiner, he handed it to the sealing officer for sealing. After that, Wei Guangde didn't care about anything else. It's over.

After walking out of Fengtian Hall, Wei Guangde stood on the high steps and looked around. He vaguely felt that it was not much different from when he came here to travel. There may be some changes in details, but he could no longer tell.

Exiting the main hall meant that Wei Guangde's palace examination was over. Immediately, the young eunuch on duty came to take him away. Wei Guangde could not stay longer and followed the young eunuch out of the Forbidden City.

On the street, Wei Guangde found Zhang Ji and said, "Look for the nearest restaurant. Master, I'm hungry."

Now that Wei Guangde is seventeen years old, it is time for him to grow taller, so he can only eat the two steamed buns provided by the palace.

After getting on the carriage, Li San drove the carriage and ran forward to find a place for Wei Guangde to eat. Zhang Ji sat inside and asked in confusion: "Master, won't the emperor prepare lunch for you?"

"Yes, just two steamed buns, are they enough for the young master?"

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

In the evening, as the last tribute, Xia Kefan, returned to the Jiujiang Guild Hall, today's palace trial was completely over.

However, the candidates are fine, but the Wenhua Palace in the Forbidden City is brightly lit at this time. The examiner has already delivered the sealed test paper with the seal of customs seal, and divided it into fourteen according to the number of examiners. The copies were handed over to fourteen record readers.

At this time, more than a dozen tables had been placed in the center of the hall, spliced ​​together. The fourteen examiners each occupied a table and began to read the examination papers. They gave their own evaluations based on the strategies on the question papers, and ranked them in the order of "top, middle, top". Mark a mark on the five levels of ", middle, middle, lower, and lower" to facilitate subsequent statistics.

The deacons directly sent the test papers of the tributes, eliminating the copying process in the previous imperial examinations.

After everyone had made their own preparations, a chamberlain went into the side hall to invite the book reader.

They arrived here directly after leaving Fengtian Palace. According to the rules set in the fifth year of Jiajing, during these three days, the readers could not leave the palace to go home and could only stay in the court to rest.

As each answer sheet is read by the examiner, he or she will write down the evaluation criteria given by him or her. Then they will rotate. Each answer sheet must be read by the examiner, who will write fourteen marks and then Summary.

The best question papers are naturally those with more top-notch judges, the better. The deacons below also arranged the completed question papers according to this standard.

Of course, the file reader is not a robot. He cannot stay in Wenhua Hall all the time. He can rest if he feels tired in the middle. The food for these days will be delivered to him on time by Guanglu Temple.

In a small resting room, Yan Song frowned and looked at a chamberlain, "You mean that on his way back to Xiyuan, His Majesty asked about Wei Guangde again?"

"Yes, I heard it with my own ears. It was Eunuch Chen Hong who replied at that time. His Majesty even asked him about his ranking."

What the chamberlain said next was no longer important. Yan Song had already judged that Emperor Jiajing might be really interested in Wei Guangde, otherwise he wouldn't have asked him several times.

Yan Song entered the upper echelons of the imperial court and had been in contact with Emperor Jiajing for a long time. He had been a monarch and minister for almost twenty years, so he naturally understood what kind of person Emperor Jiajing was.

Even though he is devoted to cultivation, he is very knowledgeable about matters in the court.

After the chamberlain left, Yan Song's cloudy eyes gradually became clearer, and he felt that he might have guessed something.

Even though Emperor Jiajing seemed to be in good mental and physical condition on weekdays, what were the elixirs he had been taking for a long time? Could they still be hidden from him?

Not to mention that he once took an elixir given by Emperor Jiajing, which made him lie in bed for three days. When he came back, he would smile and say that he was not blessed to take it.

To the emperor, people with hereditary backgrounds in the Wei Institute were all soldiers who had achieved success in battles. In fact, they were similar to those nobles in the court, and they were worthy of the trust of the old Zhu family.

They have hereditary military positions in the guards, which actually illustrates this point.

Originally, the emperor should have put more emphasis on the descendants of the nobles, but now the descendants of the nobles are generally not very good, so the situation of dominance of civil servants in the DPRK and China has taken shape.

Being noticed by the emperor naturally means that Wei Guangde may have a bright future, and of course it is possible.

Yan Song thought for a while and made up his mind. After testing, he would know what the emperor was thinking.

The tributes were waiting for the results of the palace examination with both eager anticipation and trepidation. Wei Guangde was the same, but what he didn't know was that his name had been obscured and logically should not be recognized. , but some thoughtful people found it and saw it.

Many of the fourteen record readers appointed by Emperor Jiajing this time are people who follow Yan Song. It can be said that his every word and deed will be followed without reservation by these people.

When Yan Song saw a paper that he had hinted about appearing in front of him, Yan Song browsed it hastily and wrote an "up" mark on it, and then handed it to Xu Jie, the second assistant next to him.

At this time, the original second assistant Lu Ben had rarely participated in cabinet affairs due to health reasons, and Xu Jie had become the de facto second assistant. Although Lu Ben was also appointed as the file reader this time, in fact he is now in the cabinet The position can only be ranked third.

Xu Jie was actually a little confused when he took the question papers handed over by Yan Song. He had read a stack of question papers before sending them over. What does it mean to hand over a single piece of paper like this?

Seeing the marks above, the nearest one was the "up" mark, and the first two were both "middle", Xu Jie somewhat understood what it meant.

At this time, the position of judging papers is fixed. No matter how many people have read the paper and given a judgment, you can know who gave what judgment based on the order, not to mention that Mr. Yan Ge is alone. Pass this question paper over.

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

But just thinking about it, after browsing it hastily, he also wrote the judgment mark "up" on this question paper. It was not his ability to interfere with what the people behind him did. It seems that no one would not notice the first assistant and the The judging criteria given by the second assistant.

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

Two days later, on March 17, Emperor Jiajing once again rode the dragon out of Xiyuan to the Wenhua Hall.

Originally, emperors generally came here after going to court, but Emperor Jiajing had not been in court for many years. He just asked the ministers to salute outside the Meridian Gate and then left. Naturally, he could only return here directly from Xiyuan.

After more than a day, all the 300 Gongshi test papers of the Jinke Examination have been read, and they were divided into three, six and nine grades according to the marks on them. Today is the day to read the papers.

In the view of the Gongshi, their palace examination papers should be fairly judged by the examiners, and the emperor would give the ranking after the distinction. However, in fact, five years before Jiajing, the Gongshi's papers were actually They have been divided into three grades according to their examination results.

For a person with a ranking like Wei Guangde's, the question paper must be in the lowest grade. No matter how lavishly he writes about his strategy, it is impossible to change his ranking in a general direction.

Especially before this, during the sealing process, the sealing officer would often hand over the essays of the Gongshi with the highest scores in the general examination to the other Gongshi question papers. Naturally, they are the first- and second-class candidates. A strong contender for the position.

This is also the reason why the scores in the general examination and the palace examination 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 the time, in order to prevent corruption during the grading of the palace examinations, the examination papers should be "mixed". The candidate should also be decided upon by the reviewers through joint discussion.

In addition, he also suggested to Emperor Jiajing that "officials who have been awarded official titles are not allowed to be sent in advance, and officials who read records should withdraw from the court and live directly in the Ministry of Rites" and are not allowed to return to their private residence.

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

The last emperor of the Ming Dynasty was deceived by civil servants for a long time that "the ancestral system cannot be abolished." In fact, in the Jiajing Dynasty, when Emperor Jiajing was in power, no one cared about it at all, and they just changed it if it was necessary.

It's just that Emperor Jiajing came to the throne as a vassal king, so he made many facts tentative, rather than pushing them away completely.

At the beginning of Emperor Jiajing's reign, he changed many established rules. From this, later generations had the term "Jiajing New Deal" or "Jiajing Reform", many of which involved "taxes and servitude" and "titles", which were called "Jiajing New Deal" or "Jiajing Reform". Zhang Juzheng's reforms, which were much talked about by later generations, were actually based on some practices of the Jiajing New Deal to a large extent.

However, due to the strong resistance of interest groups, most of the Jiajing New Deal was only carried out on a local scale, and the "Several Actions and Several Stops" failed to be carried out comprehensively and lastingly. Therefore, its effectiveness and influence were also very limited, far less than those during the Zhang Juzheng period. of violence.

Emperor Jiajing entered the Wenhua Hall and sat on the throne. He looked at the fourteen readers below and said, "Let's get started."

The current Emperor Jiajing prefers to spend his time on monasticism, and naturally does not want to take up too much of his time on irrelevant matters, so now he speaks and does things very simply and directly.

Immediately, Yan Song, the chief minister of the cabinet, picked up a question paper and began to read it aloud. This was "reading the paper".

This time it was exactly the same as before. The three bachelors in the cabinet each read one paper, which they thought was the best paper, Grade One.

Emperor Jiajing had closed his eyes and meditated since Yan Song was still reading the scroll, as if he was wandering in a fugue without saying a word.

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

Afterwards, Xu Lun, the Crown Prince's Taibao Minister of War, also unfolded the examination paper in his hand and began to read aloud.

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

The examiner selected four volumes from each of the upper, middle, and lower grades that had been divided in advance and submitted them to the emperor for inspection.

After reading the twelve volumes, Emperor Jiajing slowly opened his eyes and looked at the twelve question papers placed in sequence on the imperial desk in front of him. The order in which the question papers were placed was actually their ranking. If he did not want to interfere if.

So, the twelve question papers in front of us are the papers for the top three in the first-class and the top five in the second-class, and the rest are the top four in the third-class.

"Open the seal."

Obviously, Emperor Jiajing wanted to see the names of these tributes, because there was the last step, which was to select people.

As a role model for all Jinshi, Dingjia Jinshi represents the image of the entire group of officials.

Therefore, whether the appearance condition is qualified is also one of the conditions that needs to be considered when determining the candidate for the first A.

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