The house assigned to Wang Yuan is in the Toutiao Hutong of Qingfang, that is, Wangfujing in later generations.

There are two alleys and three alleys in the north, followed by the North Huitong Hall, the Zhuwang Pavilion and the East Patrol Hall.

The same hall is the first post of the Ming Dynasty, and the official documents sent to the whole country must start from here. The Zhuwangguan is the place where the vassal kings lived in Beijing, and the patrol hall can be taken literally.

Further north, there is the Ten Princes' Mansion, and before the prince arrives, he must live in the Ten Princes' Mansion.

Across an East Chang'an Street in the south, is the Taiji Factory. At the beginning, the foundation stone of the palace was specially built, and now it has evolved into a place for stacking firewood and forage.

Wang Yuan gets up every morning, and only needs to walk along East Chang'an Avenue and west for a while to go to work at the Hanlin Academy. If it is the upper court, then walk further west for a while, and it will not be long before you reach the Chengtian Gate.

In the middle of the night, Wang Yuan got up yawning and came to the courtyard just in time to meet Tanhua Yuben.

For the time being, there are only two people in this courtyard, Wang Yuan and Yu Ben, but the hall selection examination has ended, and the monks will soon be arranged to come and live.

"Brother Ruoxu!" Yu Ben hugged his fists.

Wang Yuan replied: "Brother Zihua! ”

Their servants led the way with lanterns, and they followed behind and chatted as they walked.

Yu Ben's great-grandfather was an official to the prefect, and his grandfather and father were not officials, but his family was well-off and a local family.

"If Brother Xu, can he have friends who pass the pavilion?" Yu Ben asked.

Wang Yuan said: "On the way to the exam, I met a Sichuan scholar named Zhang Chong, and the conversation with each other was considered a deed. ”

Yu Ben smiled: "Maybe they will come to live with us." ”

Chang Lun and Jin Wei were not selected for the museum this time, and the work assignment has been implemented, and they were sent to Dali Temple to observe politics together, which is equivalent to interns at the Supreme Court of the country.

The system of observing government was very useful in the early Ming Dynasty, and new scholars had to intern for more than three months and accumulate work experience before being awarded official positions. But by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the system of observing government had become a mere formality, and it was possible to make up for the real officials by fooling around.

Halfway through, Wang Yuan met a few more jinshi, and everyone talked and laughed and went to Chengtianmen.

I also met a lot of people who sat in a sedan chair, all of whom were above the third grade.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, officials were not allowed to sit in sedan chairs to go to court, and physicists thought that this was not good, and they simply used people as animals. But as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di died, who cared about this, there were more and more officials who violated the system, and later it was simply stipulated that people with more than three grades could sit in a sedan chair to meet the court.

The sixth and seventh rank officials also sit in a sedan chair, but they don't sit in a sedan chair to go to court.

When the scholars came to the city gate to check the signs and enter, they all felt very fresh and excited. Although they have entered the imperial city several times from the palace test to the present, it is the first time they have actually arranged to go to the court.

In the place where he waited for the dynasty, Wang Yuan met Jin Wei, Chang Lun, Zhang Chong and others.

Wait and wait, everyone has found out that something is wrong, and there are too many officials attending the court meeting today! Even some miscellaneous jobs that are not in the stream actually came to participate in the early dynasty, which is simply inexplicable.

Chang Lunzu's last three generations are all Jinshi, he explained with a smile: "Today is the first time that Xinke Jinshi has gone to the court, and it is estimated that the Metropolitan Inspection Institute and Honglu Temple will be investigated more strictly, so as to avoid too many civil and military officials absent from the court, and I want to leave a good impression on the newcomers." ”

"Can the early dynasty also be absent?" Jin Wei was surprised.

Chang Lun laughed in a low voice: "I heard my father say that on a certain day in August of the fifteenth year of Hongzhi, a total of 1,160 people did not come to the court, which caused the former emperor to be furious. ”

Wang Yuan was speechless for an instant, more than 1,000 people were absent from work in an early dynasty, how many officials should be participating in the court meeting.

The main reason is that Zhu Yuanzhang is too capable and removes the position of prime minister, resulting in no person in charge in the imperial court, and everything depends on the court to solve it.

In the early years of the dynasty, no matter how big or small, it had to be handed over to the emperor for decision. Every time in the early dynasty, from the six bigwigs to the nine petty officials, and even the miscellaneous officials who are not in the stream, they must come to participate in the early dynasty. Even the guards of the imperial city caught the thieves, and they had to be dragged to the emperor and handed over to Zhu Yuanzhang to personally send them down.

Not only that, but the peasant representatives (grain chiefs) at that time could also go to the court to meet the emperor, and the officials could not stop them.

Zhu Yuanzhang relied on communicating with the grain chief to grasp the grassroots information all over the country, and even the grain chief was directly promoted to a member of the imperial court. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the grain chief family disdained to be admitted to the Jinshi because they were the most glorious grassroots representatives.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's later years, his energy was already insufficient, and the court meeting became very casual, but the rules set could not be changed.

Zhu Di fought outside all the year round, and the prince liked to drink alcohol, which led to frequent changes in the time of the court meeting, so the civil and military officials were absent from work in various ways.

Later emperors and ministers really couldn't bear this kind of court meeting, so the cabinet system gradually matured. At first, it was stipulated that only eight things could be discussed at each court meeting, but later it was changed to five things to be discussed, and the things that were played must be dealt with by the ministers one day in advance, and the emperor could just read the book when he went to court.

What does this mean?

It means that the early dynasty is just going through the motions.

As a result, more and more officials were absent from work, and it became the norm not to attend the court meeting.

There was a noon dynasty in the Chenghua year, the emperor came but did not see the minister, and after a long time he found that he was released pigeons, but not a single official came. Angry, Emperor Xianzong scolded: "You often speak of diligence and despise the court, but you are sluggish!" ”

Such a court meeting is really unnecessary, and it has no effect if the emperor does not go to court for decades.

After waiting for the noon gate, waiting for the court outside the Jinshui Bridge, Wang Yuan raised his eyes and looked around, and was immediately stunned. I saw that under the moonlight, it was densely packed with human heads, just like the temple fair on the fifteenth day of the new year.

According to rough estimates, there may be close to 2,000 officials in the DPRK.

It must be able to fit in the Fengtian Temple, but it is too crowded to make it a system. Therefore, the low-end petty officials, as well as miscellaneous petty officials, can only stand in the square to go to court, and the treatment is similar to that of tourists who visited the Forbidden City in later generations, except that they do not have to pay for tickets.

Today is to welcome the new science and technology scholars, and tomorrow it is estimated that there will be few people, and even the emperor may be absent from work.

It's still Zhang Juzheng, this bad habit has lasted for more than 100 years, everyone knows that it is a waste of time and useless, but no one dares to reform the system. Only Zhang Juzheng dared to go under the knife and changed the morning court every day to the morning court of 369, and he only needed to go to the morning court nine times a month.

Wang Yuan was wearing a sixth-grade official uniform, and Yang Shen and Yu Ben were wearing a seventh-grade official uniform. Since the other jinshi had not yet been ordained, they all wore whiteboard costumes and stood silently in the crowd as a backdrop.

is different from the TV series, there is no eunuch shouting "If there is something to do, play early, and if there is nothing to retreat".

Instead, the drum band played music, and the officials of Honglu Temple announced that they had entered the class, and then saluted and performed.

There is no exact time for the early dynasty, and when the sky is light, it will officially begin. Zhu Houzhao obviously didn't wake up, and sat on it with a yawn, listening to the affairs that had been handled by the cabinet yesterday - the emperor even put the script in front of him, and all kinds of lines were ready.

Liu Kai, the secretary of Honglu Temple, was the first to come out: "Your Majesty, Shang Zhen, the king of Zhongshan in the Ryukyu Kingdom, sent the doctor Liang Neng and other things to the tide." ”

Zhu Houzhao immediately said to the line: "Reward with him." ”

So Liu Kai was ordered to retreat.

Sun Jiao, the secretary of the household department, also came out and said: "In response to the disaster in the six counties of Shangyuan, Jiangning, Jurong, Liyang, Lishui, and Gaochun under Tianfu, please reduce the grain tax for this summer." ”

Zhu Houzhao said to the lines again: "Reduce the levy with him." ”

Sun Jiao also said: "In the fifth year of Zhengde, it was changed to 28,000 stone of non-levy rice (that is, the grain has been transported to Beijing), please store it. ”

Zhu Houzhao said: "Reservoir with him." ”

A series of state affairs were said by the bigwigs like this, and the emperor only had to answer and express his position according to the script. And Wang Yuan and other petty officials are like wooden stakes and pestles there, and all they hear is the result of being handled by the cabinet.

In the long run, Wang Yuan also wanted to be absent from work.

After a long time, the morning court was over, and the ministers retreated to the sound of ritual music.

Zhu Houzhao stood up suddenly: "Where is Wang Yuan?" ”

Wang Yuan was about to leave, and when he heard this, he immediately stepped forward: "The minister is here." ”

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "Accompany me to the leopard room to play...... Well, I've come to Xiyuan to listen to the errand, I have something important to tell you in detail. ”

When the ministers heard this, they all reacted, and most of them cast envious glances at Wang Yuan.