"But since this person is going to take the township test, I can't take him home, so I can only rent a room in an inn near the Confucius Temple for him to live in, and come to see him every few days and ask what he needs. The villain happened to come over to take a look today, so here we are at this time. Xiao Zhuo replied with a smile.

But as soon as he finished speaking, two young men came out of the inn, one of them was about twenty years old, and the other was fifteen or sixteen years old. Both of them were dressed in clothes made of cotton, and they didn't look like the children of rich families, but their demeanor faintly revealed a style that only rich people would have, which made Yun Xi feel at a glance that they were definitely not poor people, and wondered in his heart why they wanted to hide their origins.

However, he didn't have to secretly guess in his heart immediately, because as soon as the two young men walked out of the inn and saw Xiao Zhuo, they showed a very surprised look on their faces, and blurted out: "Sixth uncle/father, didn't you say you left?" Why are you still here? ”

"You two, I'll go out as soon as I leave, and I haven't taken a book or a newspaper yet, are you going out to play? Two bunnies! ”

Xiao Zhuo scolded, and was about to scold again, when he suddenly remembered that Yun Xi was still there, he instantly thought of something, and immediately turned his head and knelt down to Yun Xi and said, "The villain is guilty, please forgive the son!" ”

"Dad, what are you doing here?" The younger man was puzzled when he saw this scene, and subconsciously stretched out his hand to help him up, but Xiao Zhuo knocked his hand off and said, "Don't kneel down yet!" ”

"Daddy?" The man was about to say more, but the older man glanced at Yun Xi, suddenly understood something, and knelt beside Xiao Zhuo, and said to the younger man: "Fifteenth brother, kneel down!" ”

Seeing that both of them said this, although he was still puzzled, he also knelt down.

Yun Xi glanced at them a few times, looked around, and saw a small alley where few pedestrians passed by, and turned his horse's head towards the alley; A guard immediately said to Xiao Zhuo and the other three: "Don't kneel, follow behind." When Xiao Zhuo heard this, he pulled the two young men to stand up and hurriedly followed.

"Xiao Zhuo, what are you doing here?" When he arrived at the alley, Yun Xi asked again.

Although Yun Xi's tone was still kind, Xiao Zhuo shuddered when he heard this, and knelt down and kowtowed: "The villain has made a big mistake, please punish Your Majesty." The villain has made a big mistake, please punish your majesty. He said this twice, and secretly looked up to see Yun Xi's expression becoming a little impatient, and then he talked about things.

According to the rules of the imperial examination formulated by Yun Xi in the second year of Jianye, the selection of people is a provincial examination, and the quota is admitted by the government, and the number of places in each province is fixed. The Xiao family is a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, Ningbo is close to the sea, very suitable for trading at sea, whether it is smuggling or legal business, the Xiao family has made a lot of money by virtue of its geographical location, and has always been very satisfied with their own students in Ningbo, until Xiao was able to show off in the unified examination.

The Xiao family also had talents before Xiao Tong, such as Xiao Zhuo, but they were very reluctant to be admitted to Xiucai, not to mention that they didn't have the intention of taking the exam, and even if they did, they would definitely not be able to pass the exam; But Xiao Tong has been very smart since he was a child, and his memory is also very strong, he passed the county examination and the government examination at the age of nine to become a child, and at the age of twelve, he was admitted to Xiucai, and the whole family had high hopes for him to be promoted in the examination, and even in the examination.

But at this time, the Xiao family studied the form of the national imperial examination and began to scold Ningbo, a broken place. In the Ming generation, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang are all major scientific research provinces in the country, and even if they are divided into the north and south lists, the number of Jinshi in the annual examination is also the top three in the country.

In Zhejiang Province, Ningbo is second only to Shaoxing Prefecture to take the most Jinshi, and there are many people who take the Jinshi, which means that the average level of lifting people is higher, and it is more difficult to lift people in the local examination than elsewhere.

And this place in Ningbo is probably because everyone makes money by trading, and there are many people who read; There are many scholars, and there are many people who are admitted to the show, and now although the township examination is organized in the whole province, the number of places admitted is allocated according to the government, and you are competing with the talent of the same house, which means that the competitive pressure of Ningbo is greater than that of other provinces.

The Xiao family specially found people who were proficient in mathematics, combined with various materials bought from the yamen, and finally calculated that the competitive pressure of Ningbo Mansion was the second in the province and the sixth in the country.

Although Xiao Tong is very smart, but he is not smart to the extent that he is the first in the world, they deliberately found out the test questions and test papers of the people who were raised in the previous township examinations and asked Xiao Tong to write articles according to the exam questions and compare them with the previous ones, and found a relationship and specially invited officials from the Jinshi in the government to judge, all said that it is between the best and the best, and may not necessarily be able to win.

How does this work? How can Xiao Tong have the possibility of failing the exam? The Xiao family was discussing at that time, discussing how to ensure that Xiao was in the examination. Discussion came and went, and finally it was decided: to emigrate. Changing Xiao Tong's place of origin to a place where the exam is relatively easy can guarantee that he will be successful.

But moving is not a simple matter either. If it were simple, then the restrictions on the place of origin in the imperial examination would be useless. In the Ming Dynasty, it was very difficult to emigrate, and even if you changed your place of origin to another place, you had to live in this place for three generations before you could participate in the imperial examination. When testing children and talents, they may not be strictly investigated, but the township test and the tribute test are very strict with this, and once they are found out, they will be deprived of all their fame, and they will even be exiled. And any Xiucai who falls off the list in the same county may report to the government because of jealousy, and there is no way to prevent it. The people of the Xiao family thought about it for a long time, but they didn't think of a foolproof way.

Just when everyone was about to give up, Xiao Zhuo suddenly thought of a way, or rather, a loophole in the Ming administrative system.

When Yunxi first set up the Shanghai Shipping Division, he asked the promotion of the Shanghai Shipping Division to concurrently serve as the magistrate of Shanghai County, but later ordered the establishment of Qingpu County in order to clarify the rights and responsibilities, and transferred the household registration and land of the people who originally belonged to Shanghai County to Qingpu County, and Shanghai County was revoked, leaving only the Municipal Shipping Division.

But after the news came out, it caused a boycott from the local people in Shanghai. Many people don't want to turn their household registration into merchants, but they are reluctant to work in the city to earn money, and once the household registration is transferred to Qingpu County, they can't go in and out of the city to work as much as they do now, so they are opposed.

The promotion of the Shanghai Bo Division had given advice to Yun Xi, but at that time, the Battle of Annam had already been fought, and Yun Xi's energy was devoted to preparing for the war with Samarkand, but he only approved that 'it must not affect the business of the City Bo Division', and did not say anything else.

Since the emperor approved it in this way, he did not dare to forcibly move the people's household registration to Qingpu County, so it dragged it down.

Xiao Zhuo said to the clansmen: "You all know that we were worried when we first did business in Shanghai, for fear that Your Majesty would slaughter our family as a fat sheep that day, so we were very concerned about Your Majesty's various wills, figuring out Your Majesty's thoughts, and reading some other regulations by the way. ”

"I found that according to the regulations of the imperial court, under normal circumstances, even if a newly established state or county is established, it must live in this village for three generations before it can participate in the imperial examination; But what about the residents of the new county seat? The county seat of each newly established county is newly built, and there were originally no residents, but after the county seat was established, there were residents, how can the residents of these counties be counted? ”

The statutes of the imperial court did not stipulate this. I checked the previous practice and found that if someone in the county seat of such a new county wants to take the imperial examination, as long as they can prove that their family has lived in the county seat since the establishment of the county, they can take the examination. ”

"So I plan to move Xiao Tong's hometown to Qingpu County." Xiao Zhuo said: "Qingpu County, as a newly established county to replace Shanghai County, has been established for a very short time, and it is completely possible to falsify the previous records, falsely claiming that Qingpu County's household registration was moved to Qingpu County as soon as Xiao Tong was established; As for why he didn't live in the county, it can be argued that he didn't want to live because the county was deserted and inconvenient to buy anything. ”

"Moreover, Qingpu County was established after the last township test, so there is a reasonable explanation for Xiao Tong to participate in the township test in Zhejiang last time."

"The best thing is that after all, this is a loophole in the constitution of the imperial court, if it is reported by Xiucai who has lived in the local area for a long time, it is difficult to say how the imperial court will deal with it; However, because the people in Qingpu County are reluctant to move their household registration, there are few people near the county seat, and they are not worried about someone reporting it. ”

"Good!" At that time, the people of the Xiao family happily shouted a good word after listening to Xiao Zhuo. Although the competition in the Zhili area is not easy, in the history of the late Ming Dynasty surpassed Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and became the place with the greatest competitive pressure in the national imperial examination, but at this time it is still much easier than Zhejiang, and the competitive pressure in Songjiang Mansion is much smaller than that of Ningbo Prefecture.

Therefore, Xiao Zhuo used gold and silver to open the way, and successfully bribed the former officials in charge of household registration in Qingpu County, who were not in charge of the current officials, not only changed Xiao Tong's household registration, but also falsified the records of the previous two years.

It just so happened that Xiao Zhuo's son Xiao Yong was also admitted to Xiucai last year, although he was not as smart as Xiao Tong, and the probability of being promoted in the examination was not large, but he also had a heart to make progress in the imperial examination, and he pestered his father to change his household registration. Xiao Zhuo thought that one was also changed, and two were also changed, and after all, this was his own son, so he agreed.

After changing the household registration of the two people at the end of last year, Xiao Zhuo found many officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Hanlin Academy, and even the emperor's articles and recitals to see what exam questions would come out. After all, this is the capital, and His Majesty may be involved in the topic of the township trial theory. For convenience, Xiao Tong moved to the capital.

At this time, facing the emperor, of course Xiao Zhuo didn't dare to tell the truth, but he didn't dare to tell lies, so he could only say it at his discretion. But even so, Yun Hee had already understood.

After listening to Xiao Zhuo's narration, Yun Xi sighed in his heart: "This ability to find loopholes is really too strong, and such a small loophole can be found." ’

He lowered his head and saw that Xiao Zhuo had been kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy after saying this, and said with a smile: "Xiao Zhuo, the crime in this matter is not you, it is a loophole in the constitution of the imperial court, and I will not punish you and your two nephews." ”

"I also allow them to participate in the township test of Zhili."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Hearing Yun Xi's words, Xiao Zhuo immediately kowtowed and said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!" Xiao Tong and Xiao Yong also hurriedly kowtowed. They listened to Xiao Zhuo's words and understood that the person in front of them was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, how dare they be disrespectful? Moreover, the emperor just gave them a grace, allowing them to participate in the township test in Zhili, where the pressure of competition is relatively small, and with a sense of gratitude to the emperor, they kowtowed more seriously than Xiao Zhuo, and after a while, blood was already knocked out of their foreheads.

"Get up, don't kowtow anymore. Especially Xiao Tong, you and Xiao Yong, there are more than 20 days to take the Ying Tianxiang test, if your head is broken, what if you break it? Yun Xi said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The three of them saluted again and thanked them, and then they stood up.

After the three of them stood up, Yun Xi immediately turned his head and ordered one of the guards beside him: "You immediately tell Qin Song, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, about this, and ask him to send someone to Qingpu County to copy the local household registration book." Although Yun Xi believes that mistakes made before the law is promulgated should not be pronounced late because of the judicial concept left over from his previous life, and allows two people surnamed Xiao to participate in the imperial examination, it does not mean that he can allow this loophole to continue.

"You send someone to inform the six Shangshu and the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, no, you don't have to notify the Military Shangshu. Tomorrow I will go to the Qianqing Palace, and I have something to talk to them about. "It is likely that the Ming Dynasty will set up states and counties in the future, and this loophole must be completely filled in the law.

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