Even if Xu Qiong, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, is not good, it is also a close minister of Emperor Hongzhi, when Empress Zhang's two younger brothers Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling were knighted, Xu Qiongke helped a lot, and even Liu Ji, the first and auxiliary minister at the time, refused to write an edict, and was ordered by Emperor Hongzhi to give a letter. ☆→☆→, Wang Shu, one of the three gentlemen of Hongzhi, wrote to the emperor, but it was not adopted, which shows that Emperor Hongzhi was partial to his wife.

Yuan Shouzhi said: "Please also ask the two Shangshu to mention more." ”

Zhou Jing smiled, obviously Yuan Shouzhi This is a kind word, Yuan Shouzhi did not become a palace test paper official for the first time, the last time was in the ninth year of Hongzhi, Yuan Shouzhi was the general political envoy Si Tong, but after all, the previous palace examination paper reading officials were not as grand as Ji Weike's this session, and the cabinet university scholar plus Hanlin bachelor plus the sixth secretary of the seventh Qing such a luxurious combination of paper readers, obviously Emperor Hongzhi wanted to use this to block the mouth of the world's scholars.

On the contrary, Zhou Jing himself has not yet had the experience of being a palace examination officer, and Ma Wensheng has served as the secretary of the military department for many years, and this is his third time as a palace examination examination officer, which can be said to be experienced.

Zhou Jing saluted and said: "I have to mention something to you." "That's also kind words. The official of the palace examination must be from a jinshi, which is the rule. A Jinshi, even if he has not served as the chief examiner and fellow examiner of the Hui Examination and the Shuntianfu Township Examination, at least he understands the process and can distinguish the quality of the article, and the content examined in the palace examination is not the Bagu Wen, but the policy problem of the Son of Heaven.

The most important of the scholars are those Hanlin scholars and cabinet scholars, the Hanlin scholars are responsible for selecting excellent articles, and the cabinet scholars are responsible for reviewing and submitting them to the Son of Heaven.

The Son of Heaven summoned the ministers this time in the Wenhua Palace.

Wenhua Hall is located in the east of the Concord Gate of the Outer Dynasty, and the Wuying Hall is far away from the east and west, the Wuying Hall is the place where the emperor lives and receives the ministers on weekdays, and the Wenhua Hall is the place where the prince sees things, and the prince practices Zuo before. The first regent is in the Wenhua Palace, but all the palace test papers are in the Wenhua Palace.

On the first day of the palace test, the minister was ordered to go to the Wenhua Palace. In fact, I already knew that I was going to be appointed as the next day of the palace examination officer, which was a great grace for the minister, and the scholars of the world were selected by you on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and they would be protégés of the Son of Heaven in the future. Count as your protégé.

Before the ministers arrived outside the Wenhua Palace, they saw a person coming in front of them.

All the ministers, whether they are cabinet scholars, Hanlin scholars, or the chief officials of the six ministries, all saluted and greeted, and it was the British Gong Zhang Mao.

Zhang Mao is nearly sixty years old, and is a descendant of Zhang Yu, the hero of Jingnan, and his father Zhang Fu, the British duke, posthumously crowned the king of Dingxing. He became Duke of his father at the age of nine. Often from Xianzong to read the horse shooting Xiyuan, he three times in the company, the emperor rewarded the gold belt, and then ordered the commander of the military capital of the army, and the military positions such as the Beijing camp and the five army governors. Later, he added the prince and the prince, and entered the prince and the prince.

As the most noble minister of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Mao can be said to be detached from the courtiers, but he himself will not interfere in the government.

As the prince and the prince, Zhang Mao will act for the Son of Heaven many times, and after the palace examination in the Hongzhi period. All the Jinshi will receive the feast, and it is Zhang Mao who usually presides over the banquet on behalf of the Son of Heaven.

Waiting for Zhang Mao to leave, Zhou Jing leaned over and asked Ma Wensheng: "In the past, even if Old Master Zhang wanted to give a banquet on behalf of the Son of Heaven, he had to wait for the announcement of the gold list. But I don't know what happened to Old Man Zhang's entry into the palace today? ”

Ma Wensheng glanced at Yuan Shouzhi.

Coming from the palace gate, Yuan Shouzhi has been following him and Zhou Jing, although the three of them are friends, but they are different from each other. It was precisely because of the big light bulb of Yuan Shouzhi that Ma Wensheng didn't talk to Zhou Jing much along the way.

Ma Wensheng and Zhou Jing are one of the military department and the other is the household department. When we meet on weekdays, people will definitely pay attention to it.,This time it's rare to get together and enter the palace.,I originally wanted to talk about the case of stealing grain from the household.。

There is a lot of involvement behind this case, involving local military and political officials and some moths in the six departments of the imperial court. It is precisely because of the wide range of involvement that this case has been carried out secretly, because judging from the information obtained by Ma Wensheng, this case is greatly implicated with his cousin Zhang, even if it is not done by Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling's brothers, there are also their interests entangled.

Except for the two of them, others didn't dare to fight the idea of the imperial court's grain treasury, which was a big crime to exterminate the nine clans.

Ma Wensheng said leisurely: "Or as you think." ”

Then they looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

It is obvious that Emperor Hongzhi summoned Zhang Mao, and it was impossible to just talk about the banquet after the palace test, and it must include this grain theft case.

Zhang Mao is also a minister in charge of the military power, and he belongs to the emperor's trustworthy person, and there are some things that the emperor is inconvenient to say to the ministers, but this kind of henchman still has to be summoned to talk and ask for opinions.

Ma Wensheng looked at Yuan Shouzhi as a reminder: "Your Majesty has been in good shape these days, so you have to be careful to reply for a while." ”

It is true that the emperor is in poor health, but in fact, it is true that he is upset, mainly because things are somewhat unsmooth in the royal family these days.

First, the little princess had just died, which made the emperor and queen feel very sad, plus the crown prince Zhu Houzhao was sick, and the imperial doctor was jumping on the side, and it seemed that he was not lightly ill.

It's no wonder that Zhu Houzhao has been pampered since he was a child, and a younger brother died shortly after birth. As the only seedling of Emperor Hongzhi, the future son of heaven, and the father and mother are husband and wife in distress, respect each other like guests, and love him very much, and he likes to run around since he was a child.

According to the imperial doctor, the prince came back from an illness, but in fact, he had an unknown strange disease.

The emperor is suffering from the death of his daughter and the headache of his son's illness, and the grain theft case in the treasury of this head is a total of the imperial court, and the grain lost by the imperial court in the first few years is enough to feed more than 100,000 troops, if it were not for Ma Wensheng leading the troops to fight in the northwest, no one really knows that the original local grain depot is so empty.

This is not counting, the imperial examination was held to select talents, and the Ministry of Rites will take the examination again, and the matter is getting bigger and bigger, and it is not enough to take down Tang Yin, Xu Jing and other people involved, and now public opinion is saying that the imperial court is biased, and the chief examiner Cheng Minzheng has not been imprisoned, and at the same time, the examination will also be involved in the case.

At this juncture, I saw that the spring flood was coming again.

Emperor Hongzhi's biggest heart problem in these years is still how to govern the Yellow River, when it comes to the spring flood, the Yellow River is basically going to have an accident, and it is useless for anyone to govern.

The ministers entered the Wenhua Palace, and the Son of Heaven arrived early.

The three cabinet scholars stood at the front, Ma Wensheng walked in the middle with the wat board, and when everyone stood still, Emperor Hongzhi was still looking at the recital on the dragon case, looking listless.

Emperor Hongzhi was the third son of Emperor Chenghua. At the same time, he is also the only son of Emperor Chenghua who lived to adulthood, his mother was just a palace maid, and he was born to Emperor Chenghua after he was fortunate to be six years old. Emperor Chenghua only knew that he had this son and made him the crown prince, but then his mother died violently.

It is known that Emperor Chenghua's favorite woman in his life was Wan Zhen'er, even shortly after Wan Zhen'er's death. Emperor Chenghua fell ill and left, even if Emperor Hongzhi was made a prince since he was a child, he also lived in the shadow of the power struggle in the palace, and he and Empress Zhang could respect each other like guests, and it was because of this.

Hongzhi Emperor Zhu Youzhi succeeded to the throne at the age of eighteen, and was only thirty years old at this time, which was still young, but his body was weak and sick because of his childhood experience, and he once believed in the art of Buddhism and health preservation, and believed in the eunuch Li Guang, who was gullible and deceived the public.

Just last year. Li Guang persuaded Zhu Youzhu to build the Yuxiu Pavilion on the Long Live Mountain, but as soon as the pavilion was repaired, the little princess died, and Li Guang committed suicide in fear of sin. Zhu Youzhu actually believed that Li Guang's family had some heavenly book, and sent someone to look for it, but the heavenly book was not found, but found evidence of Li Guang's bribery.

Liu Jian served as the first and auxiliary minister of the cabinet. Seeing that Emperor Hongzhi ignored the courtiers, he saluted first: "Ministers, say hello." ”

All the ministers bowed.

Zhu Youzhu raised his head slightly and looked at the people present. Said: "I'm bowing, just talk flat." ”

All the ministers straightened up, but they had to keep their heads down, and they could not look at the Son of Heaven. Zhu Youzhu asked the eunuch Bingbi to forward a copy of the edict to Liu Jian, and said: "The edict I will issue tomorrow will be at a glance with the family of the emperors. ”

The ministers present know. This is the edict that Emperor Hongzhi will issue to the tributes who will participate in the palace examination tomorrow.

First of all, the Son of Heaven had to say a few words to the tributes who participated in the examination, which were like speeches, which were not only brilliant, but also showed the prestige of the Son of Heaven, as well as the courtesy and expectations of the Son of Heaven to the tributes.

This kind of edict is generally drafted by the cabinet scholars, and after the emperor gets it, he can let the eunuch read it out at that time, and it does not necessarily have to be written by the emperor himself.

But this time there was no palace test, and Emperor Hongzhi paid special attention to it, and actually drafted the edict himself, and asked the minister to put forward opinions and revisions.

Liu Jian, as the first assistant of the cabinet, read it first, and then circulated it to many ministers present, except for Li Dongyang and Xie Qian, the two second assistants and the Hanlin bachelor, who need to carefully scrutinize the above words, the other palace examination officials only need to read the article thoroughly, because even if they want to revise this edict, they can't talk about it.

After all the ministers had circulated it, the edict returned to Zhu Youji's hands, and Zhu Youzhu said: "What is the opinion of the secretaries? Together......"

Emperor Hongzhi's words seem to be asking about the content of this edict, but in fact, it is consulting the question of this Ministry of Rites.

Since the twelfth year of Hongzhi, Zhu Youji's failure to make a difference has increased significantly, and even aroused criticism from the outside world, saying that it is the cabinet scholars who block the way of speech, but in fact, Zhu Youji's governance has begun to be a little inadequate, and his physical and mental state has recently begun to decline.

After the occurrence of the problem, Li Dongyang promptly turned the case into a small one, and even played Zhu Youji, but Zhu Youzhu dragged the case down, and did not send Cheng Minzheng to prison for torture, but instead sent the whistleblower Hua Yu and the two candidates involved in the incident, Xu Jing and Tang Yin, to prison, which is quite incomprehensible.

Just when everyone was silent, a square and dignified voice suddenly came: "The minister thinks that the imperial examination is the foundation of the country, and the people involved must be investigated to the end and will not be tolerated." ”

Although none of the ministers turned their heads, they knew that it was Bai Ang, the secretary of the Criminal Department, who said this, and that correcting the law and discipline was exactly the duty of the Secretary of the Criminal Department.

************

PS: The sixth update has arrived!

Unconsciously wrote here, this plot was supposed to be brushed aside, but if the situation in the court was not explained clearly, Shen Xi's participation in the palace examination would not be convincing, so despite the suspicion of dragging the scene, the Son of Heaven still had to grit his teeth and write.

It is estimated that there is still one chapter to get to the point, although the Son of Heaven is very tired, but he doesn't want to rest, finish this chapter first, and tomorrow will be a happy plot! (To be continued.) )