In addition to the Anthology Division, the second fat gap in the Ministry of Officials is the Examination Division, and the same as the Anthology Division, the function of the Examination Division can also be seen from the name, it is responsible for the KPI assessment that all officials in the world hate the most.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty did not have such a fashionable name, but the specific situation is similar, it is all performance appraisal. Right! In the Ming Dynasty, like in later generations, officials also had performance appraisals. However, the KPI of the Ming Dynasty was called Jingcha Daji, which refers to the performance appraisal of Jingguan once every six years. The general plan refers to the performance appraisal of magistrates, which is conducted every three years.

For example, if you are an official of the Huguang Qing Officials Department of the Ministry of Households, then you will be assessed on how much grain your Huguang Province has received this year. The officials of the Ministry of Industry and the Department of Water Cleansing will assess how well your farmland water conservancy facilities are being repaired, and so on.

There are more indicators for the evaluation of magistrates, such as what taxes are collected, whether there are murderers, what crises have arisen, and so on. When he was in power, because he could not meet the performance indicators issued at the beginning of the year, the prefects of many provinces were forced to commit suicide.

Like the Department of Literature and Anthology, the Department of Examination is also responsible for the assessment of officials in Beijing and the local five grades, and has great power in its hands.

In addition to the two departments of the Ministry of Officials, there are also two fart-oiled crotch fat shortages, that is, the Military Election and Clearance Division of the Ministry of War and the Arsenal Clearance Division, one of these two departments is in charge of the promotion of military generals, and the other is in charge of the manufacturing, storage and distribution of weapons and equipment, but the specific operation will not be detailed.

Yue Qijie made great contributions to the coup d'état, and was promoted by Ma Shiying to be the servant of the Ministry of Officials, and was in charge of the Department of Literature and Literature and the Department of Examination and Merit. At noon today, Yue Qijie was going home for dinner, and he happened to see Ma Cheng wandering in the thousand-step corridor, so he asked him.

When Ma Cheng saw Yue Qijie, he quickly dismounted and came to Yue Qijie, bowed down and asked, "Uncle, you haven't returned to Zhejiang yet?" ”

Yue Qijie said with a smile: "Zhonghe, your kid's news is not bright, the old man is now a servant of the ministry, and the errand in Zhejiang has been handed over!" ”

Ma Cheng was stunned when he heard Yue Qijie say this, he didn't receive the news of Yue Qijie's promotion at all.

Yue Qijie looked at Ma Cheng's appearance, and knew that this kid really didn't know. However, Yue Qijie didn't take it to heart, now that Ma Cheng has a noble status, where can he know about the changes in officials in Beijing?

"Boy, what are you doing here? It just so happens that the old man has no food at noon, so you can arrange for the old man to have a meal! ”

A meal is completely trivial to Ma Cheng, and Ma Cheng hurriedly said: "This is naturally no problem, Huaiyang Building in Nancheng is our family's industry!" ”

Ma Cheng occupied the property of the Xu family of Wei Guogong, and this Huaiyang Building naturally became Ma Cheng's industry. Yue Qijie nodded with satisfaction after hearing this, got on the sedan chair on the side, and followed Ma Cheng out of Hongwumen.

Ma Cheng is now the prince of Zhenguo, the prince of Bi, and there are personal guards to open the way in front of him when he travels, and he is extremely majestic. Coming to the Huaiyang Building on the edge of the Qinhuai River in the southern city, Ma Cheng dismounted and came to Yue Qijie, and said respectfully: "Uncle, I have arrived, please go upstairs!" ”

Yue Qijie made a sedan chair, and saw that Ma Cheng's personal soldiers had closed the road, and at the same time, the shopkeeper and men of Huaiyang Building knelt at the door to greet him, and walked into the hall Yue Qijie saw that there was no one inside, knowing that this was Ma Cheng In order to entertain himself, he drove out the guests who had dinner in advance.

"Virtuous nephew, it's just a meal, how to get everyone else

Walk? Doesn't this make the virtuous nephew break the bank? ”

Huaiyang Building is one of the largest restaurants in the south of the city, and the daily flow of water is enough to have three or four hundred taels of silver, and now in order to entertain Yue Qijie, it is not open.

Ma Cheng heard Yue Qijie say this, and said with a smile: "Uncle is extremely noble in the heart of the little nephew, how can he eat with those ordinary people?" After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he helped Yue Qijie to walk up to the Tianzi No. 1 box on the third floor of Huaiyang Building.

Nanjing is the capital of the Ming Empire, in order to show the majesty of the emperor in the city, there are not allowed to have buildings higher than the palace wall of the imperial city, but the previous owner of the Huaiyang Tower is the Xu family, which can build the Huaiyang Tower into three floors, which is extremely close to the height of the imperial city.

This Huaiyang building is nearly ten meters high, and standing on it is almost catching up with the height of the city wall. Open the window to see the crowded Gongyuan Street outside, a little far away is the Confucius Temple, the prosperous Qinhuai River is downstairs, Yue Qijie standing on it is really refreshing.

Yue Qijie looked at the Gongyuan and said with a smile: "Virtuous nephew, in order to calm people's hearts, Yuanfu decided to hold a township test on March 15, and then you will have a chance to make money in Huaiyang Building!" ”

Ma Cheng's family cares about this little money, and after listening to Yue Qijie's words, he frowned and asked, "Township test?" Is the country going to resume the imperial examination? ”

It has been five years since the most recent examination was in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. Zhu Yousong was about to take an exam in the first year of Hongguang, but the progress was interrupted by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. When Zhu Lunkui became the emperor and fought for several years, Nanzhili and the provinces of southern China were in chaos, so what was the intention of engaging in the imperial examination? So it stopped.

"It's not a test, but a township test, this time the Ministry of Rites issued an official document, in addition to Nanzhili can go to the Nandu Gongyuan Township Test, students from other provinces can also come over to participate in the Township Test of Nanzhili, and at the same time, because of the lack of talents now, so the people selected by the Township Examination directly participate in the Ministry Election, that is, they can become officials without going through the examination!"

In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination system was already very mature, and if a scholar wanted to become an official, he had to first go through the children's examination and the academy examination to become a showman, and then after the township examination to become a juren, he could come out to be an official. However, people can only be some petty officials of the seventh or eighth grade, and if they are lucky, they can also be officials of the fifth or sixth grade, but the fifth rank is already the ceiling, and it is basically impossible to enter the ranks of senior officials.

If a scholar aspires to be the first assistant of the cabinet, he will have to take the triennial examination after the middle examination, and become a tribute after the middle examination, but the examination will not be ranked, but will also participate in the palace examination.

The chief examiner of the palace examination is the emperor, the emperor decides the ranking of these tributes, if you are lucky to become a first-class, it is awesome, basically enter the cabinet preparatory class, and the future career is very smooth, as long as you don't die, you can mix with the deputy ministerial level when you reach the office.

If you are poor in study and get admitted to the second grade, it is also very good, and the top few in the second class are eligible to be admitted to the Ji Jishi, and you can also enter the cabinet preparatory class after passing the exam. Even if you don't enter, it's nothing, you can go to the six ministries to watch politics, and three years later, after being elected by the ministry to become a low-level official of the six ministries, there is nothing special about meeting Zhishi to be able to mix with the fourth grade.

The rest is the top three, although these people are not as good as the first and second first, but they can also go to the local magistrate county, these guys are called the tiger class, and they are also very awesome when they are filled. However, it is difficult for these top three to mix with the fourth grade, and most of them stop at the fifth grade, but there are also lucky people who have been the first assistant, such as Zhang Zhang, the old man of the Maqiao Pavilion in the early stage of Jiajing.

Ma Cheng did not understand the imperial examination system

degree, he didn't want to know these things, and his mind was not on this at this time, and he was a little absent-minded when he listened to Yue Qijie's explanation of the imperial examination system. Yue Qijie saw that this guy was not interested, so he didn't say anything anymore, and sat on the seat drinking tea.

Ma Cheng looked at where Yue Qijie was sitting and didn't speak, and secretly scolded this old guy in his heart for being really calm, he didn't really want to arrange for him to eat today, but Ma Cheng couldn't see the political situation clearly, and hoped that this old guy could explain it for himself.

But now Yue Qijie just didn't speak, and Ma Cheng had no choice but to speak: "Uncle, why doesn't the little nephew know that his uncle has become a servant of the ministry?" When was this? ”

"It's been half a month, on the sixteenth day of the first month, as soon as I went to work, the cabinet issued an official document, and the old man stepped down from the post of governor of Zhejiang and went to the ministry to be this waiter!"

"Uncle, how did the other officials in the DPRK and China change?"

"Well, the heavenly official of the Ministry of Officials is Li Zhan, you know the Ministry of Industry, it is your eldest brother Boyu, the Ministry of Household is Tian Yang, the Ministry of War is Yang Weiyuan, the Ministry of Rites is still Wang Duo, the Ministry of Xing is Zhang Jinyan, and you don't know the other officials. By the way, there is also your other uncle, Yang Wencong and Yang Longyou, who went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to be the imperial history of the left capital! ”

Boyu is the character of Ma Cheng's eldest brother Ma Luan, Ma Cheng listened to the personnel changes in the court and was almost as expected by himself, but wasn't the previous Ministry of Industry Shangshu his own teacher Song Yingxing? Why did you change horses this time?

"Uncle, what about Song Yingxing, the former secretary of the Ministry of Industry?"

Yue Qijie smiled when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "This teacher of yours really doesn't know how to lift, originally your father wanted to reuse him, but I didn't expect Song Yingxing to hear that the emperor handed over all the rights to your father, and he resigned angrily and returned to his hometown!" Why didn't your teacher tell you? ”

Song Yingxing has returned to his hometown? Ma Cheng was shocked when he heard it, you must know that Song Yingxing has mastered the full set of production processes of Ma Cheng Arsenal, among which the most important gunpowder formula and steel production process know that if it falls into the hands of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it will not be good.

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng waved his hand to summon a guard outside the door, whispered a few words in his ear, and then the guard bowed out.

Yue Qijie looked at Ma Cheng like this on the side, and said with a smile: "What? Don't worry about your teacher? ”

"Where, the little nephew and Teacher Song have a deep relationship, and now the teacher doesn't say goodbye, and the little nephew is worried about it, so he sent someone to send the teacher a coil!"

Now it's been more than half a month since Song Yingxing left, what else are you going to send? Yue Qijie knew that Ma Cheng was ruthless, and he would definitely send someone to assassinate Song Yingxing, but Song Yingxing's life and death had little to do with Yue Qijie, so he didn't care.

The facts are the same as Yue Qijie thought, how could Ma Cheng let Song Yingxing return to Jiangxi under the control of the Manchu Qing Dynasty safely? The secret agents of the Military Intelligence Department caught up with Song Yingxing in Jiujiang, killed Song Yingxing's entire family in the post station, and then burned them to the ground.

Ma Cheng sent his subordinates away, and then continued: "Uncle, the little nephew has something unclear, can you ask your uncle to analyze it on your behalf!" ”

"Yes, anyway, the old man ate your meal, so it's nothing to analyze it for you!"

"Uncle, just now the little nephew went to see his father, and I learned from my father that the governor of the inner city was replaced by Zhang Guozhu, and the commander of the imperial city was replaced by a guy named Zhang Kunyuan, why didn't my father listen to the recommendation of the little nephew and had to use someone else?"

Yue Qijie smiled when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "Haha, boy, listen to the old man come to you one by one!" ”