A trip starting from the courtyard

Chapter 646 Can This Also Be Called 'Slandering Your Majesty'?
Princess Fukang handed over a test paper and said, "Daddy, this is the answer for Yuan Ruo's test. Take a look."

The old emperor took the paper and was amazed by the words on it.Unrestrained and fresh, floating like floating clouds, astounding as a dragon, with an iron book and silver hook, he praised, "It's really a good calligraphy! The brushwork is strong, and the meaning is natural. You can't ask for it." He took a sip from the teacup, pointed to the paper , "Is this written by Brother Heng?"

Fukang nodded his head, "I saw what he wrote with my own eyes."

"It's really good handwriting. It's not inferior to Ouyang Xun's regular script." The old emperor sighed, and then read the test paper carefully.

"Daddy, how do you feel?"

"Well, well written."

"I also think the writing is very good. It has the level of Huiyuan, but it only ranks second to last."

The old emperor frowned slightly, picked up the paper and read it again. There was no taboo in the whole article.

Princess Fukang said, "Yuan Ruo complained about the unfair scoring of the imperial examination papers. He originally thought of 'six yuan in a row', to give face to Qi's parents, and to surprise his father. He didn't expect that he would be at the bottom every time. Yuan Ruo hoped that this palace examination , Daddy can give him fairness."

This small request, the old emperor immediately agreed, "What else?"

Princess Fukang said, "He told me about it."

The old emperor glanced at his daughter, "This is really the only condition?!"

Princess Fukang said, "The concubine was there at the time, and we were also quite surprised. By the way, he also let the concubine act as a matchmaker to go to the Sheng Mansion to propose marriage."

Such a large sum of money, just for the title of champion?

Qi Heng has never done business at a loss.

The old emperor thought about it for a long time, but he still couldn't think of any clues. He suddenly saw his daughter sitting across from him, and he had a flash of inspiration. of?

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" The old emperor felt his elbows being pushed twice, and immediately came back to his senses, looking at the examination paper in his hand, "I remember that during the palace examination, Qi Heng, a little guy, wrote it in less than an hour. Finished the paper.

Bring his paper, I want to see what this little guy wrote. "

Qi Heng's paper?!
The faces of all the reviewers became a little annoyed.

Prime Minister Zeng Gongliang clasped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Qi Heng's arrogance, arrogance and indifference to all things, the palace examination articles full of nonsense, satirizing the court, discussing the government indiscriminately, slandering the emperor, and attacking the saints are really outraged by the subjects, and the heaven and the earth will not tolerate it. Please get rid of it." The fame of Qi Heng's tribute!"

"My minister agrees."

"Subsidiary"

All the examiners in the hall came out and echoed loudly, and put on a posture of being irreconcilable with Qi Heng, which surprised the old emperor and made him curious, what kind of outrageous things did this kid Qi Heng write? It was as if the important ministers had their ancestral graves dug up one by one.

"Qing and others often advise me to follow the example of Yao and Shun and despise Emperor Wu of Wei. Besides, my court has never accused me of speech crimes. Bring Qi Heng's paper, and I want to see how crazy this son is."

Zeng Gongliang picked up a test paper from a corner of the desk and handed it to the official.

After receiving the test paper and seeing the familiar font, the old emperor thought of the ranking of the test. He glanced at Han Qi, the chief examiner who was standing not far away.

"The Poetry of the Lord, the Sage and the Sage" is not brilliant, but there is nothing wrong with it, it is quite satisfactory.

The title of "Minjian Fu": Yunqi Yuansheng, the sky is close to Zhaomin, the supervisor acts as a warning, and the Nasi people are pure.It means that the Great Song Dynasty is strong because of you, and the people live well because of you.As long as the imperial court monitors various affairs and eliminates malpractices, the people can live in peace and the hearts of the people can be unified.

This flattery is several grades higher than what is generous and admonishing, benevolent and approachable.

The old emperor became light and light. The emperor is also a human being, and he also has emotions and desires, and he likes to listen to it well. The most important thing is that it speaks to his heart!

After seeing the content of the article, Senior Official Liang, the chief executive, glanced at the expressions of the officials, and immediately flattered him, "Your Majesty is respectful, thrifty, benevolent and forgiving. He acts prudently and loves the people. The people are happy and their wealth is abundant. He is the most benevolent monarch in all ages!"

The old emperor was elated when he heard it, but he was still shameless, and said humbly, "This is what Taizong Taizu and his ancestors did. I will never match it."

Picking up the teacup, he drank two sips of tea, then glanced at the prime minister, with a trace of dissatisfaction in his eyes, can this also be called 'slandering the emperor'?
Prime Minister Zeng Gongliang looked at his nose and heart, as if he didn't see the emperor's eyes.

The old emperor snorted, lowered his head and continued to read the article. The more he read it, the more moved he became. He thought it was pure flattery, but unexpectedly he gave a solution to one of the court's problems - redundant officials.

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin started his career through mutiny and seized power, so the most worrying thing in his life was that others would follow his example and seize the old Zhao's family.In order to solve this problem, Zhao Kuangyin thought hard and finally found the answer.That is to establish a system of checks and balances between multiple departments, thereby reducing the risk of excessive concentration of power in the hands of individuals.As a result, one official and several people do it, and the bureaucratic system becomes more and more bloated.

In addition, Zhao Kuangyin wanted to win over and buy the hearts of scholars in order to let the civil officials suppress the generals. When the time comes or when the official himself resigns, the official himself can seek an official position for his relatives in his family.

Every year, there are as many as thousands of officials who become officials through "Yinbu". In addition, there are 30 million officials and local officials who have entered the imperial examination. The salary expenditure of officials alone exceeds 1500 million yuan a year.

In addition, the annual military expenditure is almost 5000 million guan, and the total of the two is around 7000 million guan.

In recent years, the financial revenue of the three divisions has increased every year, which prevents the court from making ends meet and living beyond its means.

Wang Lidong's solution is to restructure the Yushitai.The Yushitai in the Song Dynasty was similar to the "Jiwei" in function, and it had the important responsibility of supervising all officials and rectifying laws and regulations.

The total establishment of Yushitai is 30 people, and there are only 31 officials with procuratorial power (in the TV series, the ministers are impeached with memorials), and the rest are civilian personnel, commonly known as odd jobs. With 31 censors supervising more than 4 officials across the country, one can imagine the effect.

According to the configuration of the modern "Self-Law Supervision Committee", Yushitai is directly under the direct management of the emperor, and the rank of the Yushi doctor (the boss of Yushitai) is promoted from the third rank to the second rank to be a political advisor. Some redundant officials were transferred to Yushitai, and after training, they were stationed in the yamen of every prefecture and county in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, there were 25 roads, 240 prefectures, and about 1200 counties, which could solve about three or four thousand redundant officials.

The old emperor excitedly clapped his hands on the book case: "The scale of this endowment is very large, and it should be the number one scholar." He immediately thought of some advantages. After the reorganization, the emperor's power will be greatly strengthened, and internal fighting among civil officials will increase. Things can be staged several times a day, and at the same time, it also strengthens the court's control over the entire Song Dynasty
just a pity
too late.

The old emperor looked at the upper left corner of the test paper, where there were eight "crosses". In the decades since he ascended the throne, he has never seen such a low score on a test paper. The article was actually considered by the Qings to be "discussing the state affairs indiscriminately", is this how the Qings fooled me?"

Prime Minister Zeng Gongliang looked calm, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, there is another article on 'Confucianism and Conservation'."

The old emperor then shifted his attention to the next article, "Confucianism and Conservation".

The core point of Qi Heng's article is that civil servants and scholar-bureaucrats only care about their own families, and they don't care about the interests of the Song Dynasty at all.When the interests of the Song Dynasty and the family conflict, the scholar-officials will put the family interests first, so let the scholar-officials govern the country and guard the mountains and rivers laid down by the royal family of the Zhao and Song Dynasties -- daydreaming.

Kongba, the thirteenth generation grandson of Confucius, was granted the title of Marquis of Guannei by the old Liu family of the Han Dynasty. Gong (Tang). The heads of the Confucian mansions in the past dynasties, the old Liu family, the old Cao family, the Sima family, the old Yang family, and the old Li family all received rewards.

But every time the court changes, the first ones to surrender to the new regime are often the Yan Shenggongs.And the scholar-bureaucrats followed suit. Once faced with the replacement of the old and new dynasties, they immediately abandoned the old dynasty and turned to the new dynasty without any hesitation.

Seeing this, the old emperor felt that he had been slapped several times on the face.

He can be regarded as the No.1 of the Confucian family in Qufu among the emperors of all dynasties.

A few years ago, not only did Kongqiu's grandson be conferred the title of Duke Yan Sheng, hereditary replacement, but also undertook all the construction costs of the magnificent building --- Qufu Confucian Mansion, a major love project, which truly established the Confucian Mansion's status as the number one mansion in the world.

35 guan! .It's all the private money he saved every penny.

Seeing the emperor's face turned dark, all the judges looked like they were waiting for a good show. Just now this one praised Qi Heng's article, saying that it should be the champion
"Your Majesty, it's past midnight (23:45), and it's late at night. It's time to go back to the palace to rest." The No. [-] dog-legged officer in the official family immediately passed up the steps.

As soon as the old emperor waved his hand, tomorrow is the day when the list will be released, and this matter has to be settled today.On the one hand is the Confucianism that has been followed for decades, and on the other is his caring little padded jacket. After thinking about the time for half a cup of tea, the official stood up and handed the paper in his hand to the Prime Minister Zeng Gongliang, "Qi Heng is the number one scholar, second place He Tanhua will follow the opinions of the ministers."

He practiced benevolent government widely in his life, but in the end he ended up with no successors, and only a few poor daughters were left
99% of the things in this world can be solved with money, including marriage.

The daughter and son-in-law are at odds, mainly because the son-in-law's appearance and personality are not pleasing, and there is not enough money.Afterwards, the two of them will earn millions of dollars a year, and the daughter will be much more tolerant of her son-in-law's ugly appearance.

Even if there is a change in the marriage between the two, the annual income of two to three million can still make the daughter live a carefree life.

The officials were astonished. As a staunch defender of Confucianism, the old emperor actually chose Qi Heng as the number one scholar. Isn't he out of his mind?
The prime minister saluted, "Your Majesty! Qi Heng"

The old emperor interrupted with a wave of his hand, "Don't say any more, gentlemen, I've made up my mind. That's it." After speaking, he stood up and slowly walked out of the political affairs hall with the support of the eunuch.

In the early morning of the next day, the weather in Bianliang, Tokyo was bright and clear, and the wind was smooth.

Outside Donghua Gate, flowers are red, willows are green, warblers fly and swallows dance.The road has already been paved with yellow sand, and the clean water is splashed on the street.There were huge crowds of people along the street, and even the girls who seldom go out at ordinary times were dressed up today, standing on the side of the road and waiting eagerly, looking forward to the elegant demeanor of the champion of Jinke.

And some dignitaries and their female relatives have already occupied a favorable position, drinking tea and talking, but their eyes drift to Donghuamen from time to time.

The eldest lady of the Sheng family brought her three daughters to the Renhe restaurant outside the Donghua Gate. Rulan thought of the cold face of her future mother-in-law, Princess Pingning, and her calf felt weak. She grabbed her mother, Wang, and whispered. Said, "Mother, I... feel a little uncomfortable, why don't you take the fourth and sixth sisters up, I'll go home first."

Mrs. Wang grabbed the little daughter who was about to run away, and gave her a hard look, "It's all agreed, if you want to go back now, your future mother-in-law will be even more displeased with you! Usually you are not afraid of anything, but today How did you become like this?" Pulling the little daughter, she dragged her to the restaurant.

"Mother, mother, my stomach is really big."

Walking into the private room, Mrs. Wang greeted her future in-laws with great enthusiasm.

"Sister Wang, you are here, please take a seat." Princess Pingning pulled Wang to the seat on her left.

Ru Lan moved into the private room, seeing Princess Pingning with a serious face, her little heart trembled, and she said a blessing, "Ru Lan, I have seen the Princess Princess."

Princess Pingning saw that her future daughter-in-law looked like a little quail, her face warmed up three points, and she looked up and down, "Ru'er, I haven't seen you for more than a month, and it seems that I have grown a lot taller."

Ru Lan tried her best to squeeze out a smile and said, "It's half an inch longer than last month."

Mrs. Wang then asked Sheng Molan and Xiao Liu to salute Princess Pingning. Princess Pingning waved her hand and praised the two girls casually. Dim Sum, "From now on, we will be a family. If you like it, you can eat it, don't worry about it."

At the beginning, Rulan was still a little restrained, Princess Pingning and Rulan talked a few words, and then chatted with Wang about the wedding.

Ru Lan pricked up her ears and felt bored after listening for a while, then she took a plate of rose shortbread closest to her, took a small bite, her eyes lit up, it tasted really good.
At the same time, on the square outside the Chongzheng Hall, more than 300 tributes who participated in the palace examination were divided into rows and stood neatly.

Chen Mancang was very excited. Han Chuang studied hard for decades, and finally he was about to reap the fruits.Seeing Wang Lidong next to him looking leisurely and breezy, he stretched out his hand to grab his arm, leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Brother Qi, you don't seem to care about today's ranking at all?"

Wang Lidong said, "Starting from the county examination, my ranking has been all the way from the bottom to the general examination, so there is nothing to look forward to."

Chen Mancang had also heard about some nasty things between Wang Lidong and the civil servants, so he hesitated, "The palace exam is marked in person today, so Brother Qi's grades won't be as usual, right?"

Wang Lidong glanced at the position of the sun, the ceremony should start soon, "I hope."

Before the words were finished, Zhonghe Shaole sang together, the old emperor was supported by two eunuchs and walked to the dragon chair, turned around with difficulty and sat on the dragon chair, feeling a little out of breath from exhaustion.Several confidants of Emperor Renzong's eyes darkened when they saw this scene. The good days are about to pass.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live."

"Everyone is safe." The current official took over the list handed over by Mr. Liang, opened it and read slowly,
"On March 11th, 27th year of the Emperor's Royal Highness, the test of the world's tributes, Yijia No. 1 Kaifeng Qiheng!"

(End of this chapter)