The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Open the seal."

Emperor Jiajing said this, which also showed that he did not seem to have any objection to the rankings arranged by the readers.

However, since ancient times, the imperial power has been supreme. 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 17th, and tomorrow is March 18th. The Chuanlu Ceremony will be held, so today we need to fill in the yellow list and use the seal to complete all the procedures that need to be completed.

As the seal was opened, the names of the first scroll were revealed, including the big ribbons.

Then the second name also came out, it was Tao Dalin, and then the third name Chen Xi

It wasn't until the eighth question paper was opened that Yuan Jinda's name appeared in front of everyone.

Although Yan Song was dissatisfied with Jin Da, he did not dare to severely suppress Jin Da's ranking, so he could only push it down appropriately.

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

Then he continued to open 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 true of the rules of the examination room. Even Yan Song would find it difficult to deliberately suppress the rankings of some people, and naturally it would be difficult to improve the rankings of some people.

No matter how dissatisfied Jinda and Yan Song are, they can't overwhelm him to the top three.

Wei Guangde, no matter how hard he pushed, it was impossible to push him to the second place. Everything was in order.

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 time's entrance exam, placing Jinda at the bottom and moving Wei Guangde to the top four of the top three. Although this also raised Wei Guangde's ranking by more than a hundred places, it still didn't count. Bad rules.

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

Emperor Jiajing looked at the twelve question papers on the table, and without wasting any time, he directly wrote his comments on the first and second question papers with the ink pen on the table in advance. This was also Emperor Jiajing's habit.

Write down your own opinions to show that you have read the question paper.

However, after writing down two question papers, Emperor Jiajing did not write a comment on the third question paper of Chen Xi. Instead, he picked up the eighth question paper and placed it in the third position.

As a minister who had followed Emperor Jiajing for many years, he naturally understood what he meant. Huang Jin, the eunuch who was accompanying him, immediately stepped forward and moved the other papers back. Yan Song, the first assistant, only narrowed his eyes slightly and then resumed his duties. It's normal.

Emperor Jiajing finished his work in one go, wrote his own comments on Jinda's question paper, and then put down his ink pen.

At this moment, the top three in the Jinke Palace Examination were determined.

The number one scholar, Tao Dali, the number one scholar, Jin Da, the number one scholar.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the papers at the back again. The emperor had the final say on the palace examination rankings, but the rankings represented by the questions on the paper reflected the will of the civil servants.

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

Pretty good?

What does this mean?

Although Emperor Jiajing spoke in a very soft voice, the silence in the hall could be heard, so naturally the eunuchs and fourteen record readers serving him could hear clearly.

Then he saw Emperor Jiajing stuffing the question paper in his hand into the fourth position, behind Jinda.

This ranking adjustment is a bit big. He was directly transferred from the third-A team to the second-A team. He was still first in the second-A team, in the "Chuanlu" position.

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

At this time, almost all the readers were speculating that maybe Emperor Jiajing had given Yan Song some hints before, so that was why this happened.

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

Although Wei Guangde's papers generally scored very high, his ranking in the examination was dragged down and he could only stay in the top three.

Moreover, none of the tributes who were able to pass the palace examination were novices. They were all very capable. Wei Guangde's actual test paper level was not outstanding among these 300 people. His ranking in the examination was still the same. Very objective.

Among the examiners, only Wu Peng and Lei Li were sweating slightly on their foreheads, but who could blame them?

After reading the paper, they discovered the paper with ten top grades, two middle-top grades, and two medium papers. At that time, they thought they were related to Mr. Yan Ge, and they did not expect that they belonged to the emperor.

However, Emperor Jiajing's performance was, in Yan Song's view, solid.

Emperor Jiajing is taking more and more elixirs every day. That stuff is definitely not a good thing.

In Yan Song's opinion, Emperor Jiajing must have felt something, so he began to prepare manpower for the prince.

He knew a lot about Wei Guangde.

He was born into a hereditary military family, and then stood out through the imperial examinations.

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. He was brave and resourceful, and could be regarded as both civil and military.

At this time, Yan Song has already thought about how to arrange Wei Guangde in the future. With his level, he probably won't do well in the imperial examination, and it will still be difficult to enter the Hanlin Academy.

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

Yan Song was thinking about how to arrange Wei Guangde, and the other readers were also thinking about how to treat this little guy who seemed to be a saint.

In fact, in Emperor Jiajing's heart, he just wanted to compensate Wei Guangde.

In November, the reward for the September Japanese suppression was finalized and sent to Nanjing.

Because Wei Guangde had no military position, he was not included in the reward list. The first-level merit in his name for beheading a Japanese pirate was transferred to his cousin Wu Dong. This is in line with the practice of everyone sharing the credit.

However, in Emperor Jiajing's view, merit should be rewarded and demerits should be punished. Since Wei Guangde could not obtain military merit, let him be compensated in the imperial examination.

Maybe there are other ideas, who knows!

He had planned to give him a chance to serve as a tribute before, but he didn't expect that his name was already on the roster, so he could only give him a better ranking in the imperial examination, which would be worthy of his loyalty.

"You decide the rest."

Emperor Jiajing looked at the results of this palace examination that he had appointed, nodded with slight satisfaction, and then said.

After giving instructions to the ministers, Emperor Jiajing said to Huang Jin: "Ask Shangbao Supervisor and the imperial imperial office to cooperate. Once the imperial list is filled out, it will be stamped with a seal immediately. Don't delay tomorrow's ceremony."

"Yes, I will tell them when I go down."

Huang Jin immediately bowed and replied, Huang Jin is now the Chief of Ceremonies, the Eunuch and the Admiral of the East Factory. Naturally, the Shang Bao Supervisor is within his direct scope, but he is more concerned about the affairs of the palace. The East Factory He left it to Chen Hongzai to take charge.

At this time, the fourteen examiners also saluted Emperor Jiajing, then left the room with the twelve examination papers, and went to the next room to start sorting out the results of the imperial examination and filling in the results.

At this time, in Jiujiang Fucheng, the Jiujiang Guard Commander made everything at the Si Yamen as usual.

Years ago, people from the Nanjing Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion came and handed out rewards for the suppression of Japanese pirates. At that time, the whole bodyguard was very happy. The reward was really unexpected.

Most of the first-level guardsmen have not yet been promoted, so naturally no one thinks they can be promoted, and even if they are promoted, where can they be promoted? Adjust the capital camp?

In this day and age, military attachés still think it's better to stay in the local area. When they go to the capital, they have to nod and bend all day long. It's really not a good place to go.

Because of their great contribution this time, although they were not given any official or noble rewards as rewards, they were all promoted to a casual rank. The commander of Jiujiang Guards and his fellow commanders were even given a bullfight uniform, while the other generals were Obtained a Kirin suit.

Among those who were promoted, only Wu Zhankui was promoted to Commander and Tongzhi, and Wei Mengcong was promoted from the position of fifth-rank guard and governor to the post of thousands of households in the rear army, and his rank was raised one level to the fifth rank.

Wei Wencai, a member of the Hundred Households of the Right Army's Thousand Households Division, was also given a Kirin suit as a special reward because of his meritorious service in the battle.

There are also some silver rewards, but not much. At this time, although the gold and silver in circulation among the people increased somewhat due to maritime trade, there was still tension in the court, so the military attache's silver reward was more than fifty taels and less. Only twenty taels.

The little silver reward is really not cared about by these soldiers now, which means that the officers and soldiers below are happy. They are all a bunch of guys who have never seen money. The military attachés are more concerned about getting the reward.

The Ming Dynasty's gift of service is still quite rare for foreign generals.

There were still many types of gifts in the Ming Dynasty, especially Emperor Jiajing, who liked to give Taoist things to people the most. However, there were mainly four types of gifts in official terms: python clothes, flying fish clothes, bullfighting clothes and unicorn clothes.

Python clothing was the highest-level clothing given in the Ming Dynasty. It was the noblest clothing second only to the dragon robe worn by the emperor. It was a clothing given to eunuchs, eunuchs, ministers and other officials in the Ming Dynasty who received special rewards.

"History of the Ming Dynasty·Yu Fu Zhi" records: "The gift of a python is hard to obtain for a first-class civil and military official."

It is considered a great honor to be given a python suit. Wearing a python robe means being a highly respected minister, being rich and noble.

The second Feiyu suit generally requires officials of the second rank or above to have a chance to obtain it. Jin Yiwei is actually not worthy of wearing Feiyu suit. Most of the school captains wear blue cotton armor. Only military attachés with a thousand households or above can be awarded Feiyu suit.

The bullfighting uniform is the third-class uniform after the flying fish uniform, and is generally awarded to officials of third rank or above.

The final Qilin uniform was originally the official uniform of the dukes, marquises, consorts, and earls of the Ming Dynasty. However, because Qilin is a famous benevolent beast in ancient legends, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty also used the Qilin suit as a gift, and rewarded the four, A minister of the fifth rank.

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

Except for the tuan python robe in the python suit, most of the four kinds of gifts in the Ming Dynasty are difficult to identify. You can only tell which one is by looking at the head and tail of the animal. This may also be the source of the saying that the Jin Yiwei wears the flying fish suit.

However, the festive atmosphere lasted until the end of the year and has faded away after the Spring Festival.

At noon, a speedboat in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, accelerated by sails and oars, quickly approached the Jiujiang pier. Looking at the lantern on the bow, you can tell that this is an official ship, which is used by Shuimayi to deliver official documents. Clippers.

After the ship docked at Jiujiang Pier, a postman quickly disembarked from the ship with a bamboo tube on his back. He made a simple handover in a small courtyard with the word "PI" hanging on it next to the pier. Then a postman took the bamboo tube and got on his horse to ride toward the city. Rush away.

Not long after, the postman rode through the city gate, and the crisp sound of the mantle's bell penetrated the bustling hustle and bustle of the market. All the pedestrians on the street consciously stood on both sides of the road, and the postman still rode by.

Not long after, the postman arrived outside the magistrate's Yamen. The Yamen servant immediately greeted him. Knowing that it was an official document, he immediately led 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 document had been delivered. He had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and let the others continue eating before getting up and going out.

When he got outside, he asked the visitor, "What official document?" ’

"The examination results are released, good news, and the official documents are sent directly to Jiujiang Prefecture."

The yamen servant quickly bowed and replied.

"Um?"

When the prefect of Jiujiang heard that the results of the examination were released, he was surprised at first, and then he was pleasantly surprised. The content of the official document was self-evident. There were candidates in Jiujiang Prefecture who passed the examination and became tribute scholars, and the results of the palace examination would be released later.

The prefect of Jiujiang served here for two terms, but never had the chance to be promoted. From his understanding, he was afraid that Jiujiang Prefecture had failed several times in succession in the imperial examination, which would affect his evaluation.

Now, news of the examination has been sent, indicating that Jiujiang Prefecture has finally produced talents for this examination.

After being busy, the prefect finally opened the bamboo tube and took out a sealed official document. After checking the seal as usual, he opened it and took out the official document written on yellow paper.

Good guy, open it and see that there are five pieces of paper inside, one of which is an official document, which is kept by the Yamen, and is used as a basis to modify the household registration information of Gongshi.

The prefect opened it and saw that four people's names appeared on it. This time, Jiujiang Prefecture passed four people's exams, which was more than the ones in the hometown exam last year.

A bright smile suddenly appeared on Jiujiang's prefect's face, and he carefully read the information on Juzi.

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

He still has memories of Lao Kan and Wei Guangde. Xia Kefan was from Ruichang in last year's exam. He was elected in the 28th year of Jiajing and ranked 212th in the general examination. Zhang Ke was from Hukou. He was elected in the 31st year of Jiajing and his score in the general examination was 221 people.

Wei Guangde is from Jiujiang Wei, so the magistrate will naturally have an impression of him. Ranking 271 is not bad. At least he is on the list. He is in the top three. He should be able to reach the position of prefect. It is unknown if he is lucky enough to be promoted to another rank.

Lao Kan is amazing, he can take 80 exams, and he is definitely a second-class Jinshi.

"Call the envoy and come over, right away."

The magistrate immediately ordered that the good news about Gongshi should be sent out immediately, especially the good news about Zhang Ke and Xia Kefan, which should be transferred to their registered places immediately. He would go to Lao's house and ask who to go to Jiujiang Wei. How about the edge?

The traffic in the Ming Dynasty was like this. After the palace examination in the capital was over, the results of the general examination finally arrived in Jiujiang Prefecture.

Although the release of test results is important, it is different from the emergency military situation. Naturally, special communication channels such as express delivery shops are not needed, so we used Shui Ma Yi, but it was fast, and it was delivered in just ten days. Jiujiang Prefecture.