The seventeenth year of the reign of the Ming Dynasty, August. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At the time of the township test competition, the students from various provinces in Henan rushed to Kaifeng Mansion and gathered in the provincial capital. As a result, the inn business in Xiangfu County has become very prosperous, and the low-end rooms in each inn have long been sold out.

The imperial examination, as a national ceremony for selecting talents, has always been highly valued. The township examination is the first official imperial examination, and its importance is self-evident.

It must be known that after passing the township examination and becoming a lifter, you can also become an official. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were countless people who raised people as officials, but in today's period, there are not many people who can be officials.

As the saying goes, a turnip is a pit.

The imperial examination has been carried out for so many years, and there are more and more scholars, and although the imperial court is constantly increasing various official positions, it has long been saturated, or it has reached a state of redundancy.

Nowadays, it is not easy to become an official, if it has nothing to do with the court, it will take at least ten or eight years to wait for the official position appointed by the Ministry of Officials, and even if the official vacancy is released, it is at most a petty official such as a magistrate, a county order, a county official, a master bookkeeper, or a school official.

Those who can release a magistrate or county order as soon as they are released are usually those who have some connections in the court or are well-known in Shilin.

Since he is not from the background of a jinshi, it is difficult to have a great future if he tosses around for a lifetime on the way to the office, and a person like Hai Rui who was born and finally promoted to a high-ranking official is just an example.

However, the treatment of lifting people is still very good, and it is a world of difference from the students.

First of all, the land under the name of the lifter can be exempted from taxes, and this alone can ensure that the lifter will not be poor. The amount of tax exemption for the fields under the name of a person is still quite large, so there will be many yeoman farmers who voluntarily come to "donate".

In this way, he can become a large landlord who collects rents.

Secondly, lifting people is equivalent to half an official, and it is not clear that one day he will be able to take office and become an official. As a reserve official of the imperial court, lifting people has its transcendent status, and there are people who call him "master" everywhere he goes.

In contrast, although Xiucai will also be called "Xiucai Gong", the gold content is very different.

Finally, there is the power of the superiors, and the lifting of people can reach the heavens.

As long as they have good advice on today's political affairs, or feel that the magistrates are unfair, they can unite to play the imperial court, and they belong to the figures who can directly oppose the government.

In the local area, the people are all squire bosses with heads and faces, and even the magistrates dare not offend them easily.

Therefore, if you win the lift, it is the real glorious lintel, and the whole clan is honored. Don't you see, after Fan Jin was lifted, did he go crazy when he was excited?

The Township Examination was divided into three sessions to be held on the 9th, 12th and 15th of August.

Because the examination period is autumn, it is also called "autumn squirt", and all the provincial imperial examination students and supervisors can take the examination.

There are two chief examiners and four examiners in each province who preside over the township examination. The six examiners serve as the internal curtain officials for marking the papers, and the provincial political secretaries and the chief officials of the judicial departments will jointly promote the current Confucian scholars between the ages of 30 and 50 to serve as the examiners.

On the other hand, there are a number of external curtain officials, including those who are promoted, invigilated, and supplied, and are usually selected from the cloth of various provinces, according to the two divisions and government officials, and are responsible for maintaining order in the examination room and other logistical work.

Since the internal curtain officials are all low-ranking academic officials, and they can only be appointed by the local officials, they are naturally susceptible to the intervention of the outer curtain officials when evaluating the papers, resulting in a very serious phenomenon of fraud in the scientific field.

As the saying goes, "there is a policy, there is a countermeasure", although the imperial court explicitly forbade the external curtain officials to interfere in the reading of the file, it could not put an end to this drawback. The outer curtain officials usually decide in advance some admission places for the inner curtain officials to choose, nominally to prevent fraud, but in fact to open the door to bribery.

In the twelfth year of Hongzhi, the imperial examination case was in an uproar, and after the imperial court disposed of a cadre involved in the case, there has indeed been less fraud in recent years. There still exists, but not many people dare to commit blatant fraud anymore.

For this township test, Lu Cheng felt a little uncertain, because he had offended many officials and masters now.

In the case of Wang Chaoli a few months ago, Han Taye was indeed merciless and directly sentenced to imprisonment.

As for Sun Xu's side, it was even more straightforward, directly uniting with a few officials such as Han Tai and He Rong, Shangshu impeached Wang Qiong for committing murder, ignoring the king's law, and the eunuch Liu Lang took bribes, begging the court to severely punish the two in order to set an example.

And many Henan officials led by Wang Qiong jointly slandered Sun Xu, saying that he was purely a fake public servant, taking revenge on Liu Lang with personal grudges, and vigorously denied the establishment of the dynasty, and pushed the murder and murder of Lu Cheng on his henchmen.

As a result, the final decision of the imperial court was to make the major fifty boards.

Sun needed to be reappointed as the governor of Shaanxi and went to his post immediately; Liu Lang was edicted to return to Beijing, and the silver "donated" by the Zhang family was used to build the river embankment; Wang Qiong was demoted two levels in a row and transferred to the Zhejiang Political Envoy Department to participate in politics and serve as a military patrol.

Wang Chaoli's case was reviewed by the Criminal Department and convicted, remembering that Wang Qiong had served the imperial court for many years, and the death penalty was changed to 100 rods, exiled for 3,000 li, and served for three years. And because Zhang He donated a lot of money, his son was also given a light sentence, the same 100 rods, exiled 3,000 li, and served for three years.

The rest of the cadres will be fined for half a year!

The thunder is loud and the rain is small.

No one could have expected that the matter that they had been making trouble for nearly a month would end up with a perfunctory attitude by the imperial court.

However, everyone knows in their hearts that the court is warning them: keep their duties well, do their jobs well, and don't make trouble for me again! If there is a next time, it will definitely not end so simply!

No matter how you say it, the matter was caused by Lu Cheng, a small student, and the magistrate would naturally settle this account on his head.

In this regard, although Lu Cheng is worried, he is not afraid.

It is inevitable that the magistrate will make things difficult for himself, but it should be impossible to say that he will let himself fall off the list casually. After all, he has now made a name for himself with Zhu Youjiao, and if he can really get on the list, the magistrate should not dare to brush off his own casually.

Do you dare to deliberately let my name fall to Sun Mountain?

Cheng, I'll sue you to go to the capital, who is afraid of whom!

On an autumn afternoon, the sun is not too strong, and it shines warmly on the body, which makes people feel very comfortable.

Lu Cheng leisurely strolled on the bluestone paved road, and the streets were full of young scholars dressed as Confucian scholars, most of whom were students from various prefectures who came to take the township examination.

Beside him, Zuo Guoji looked at him and said with a smile: "What happened recently, my brother-in-law already knows, I think it was the news sent to him by the great grandmaster------ he came with a letter saying that you have done a good job, a student of the first house was assassinated, these people simply ignore the law of the country!" My brother-in-law also asked me to tell you that you should take the exam well, and I hope to meet you in Beijing in the future. ”

"It's all in the past, so why bother holding on to it?"

Lu Cheng shook his head and smiled, and said in his heart that according to Li Mengyang's temperament, he should have gone to impeach Wang Qiong. Thinking of this, he said to Zuo Guoji: "You have thanked Master Li for your kindness on my behalf. ”

"The exam will start tomorrow, can Brother Lu be sure to win the undergraduate solution?"

Zuo Guoji asked casually, but before Lu Cheng could answer, a disdainful voice came from his ears: "Dismissal?" When our Luoyang case head no longer exists? ”

The two of them looked up and followed the voice, only to see a few young scholars not far away, also looking at Lu Cheng's side.

At a glance, Lu Cheng found Xu Jie, the head of the Luoyang case, surrounded by everyone.

At that moment, he arched his hand to him with a light smile and greeted: "It turned out to be Xu Gongzi, it's been a long time!" ”

Xu Jie also discovered Lu Cheng after the man spoke up, and returned with a somewhat embarrassed face: "My friend has offended the head of the Lu case, and I hope that the head of the Lu case is not strange." ”

Others don't know Lu Cheng, so they naturally don't know his horror, but Xu Jie has the bottom in his heart.

Now in Kaifeng Mansion, on the territory of Ren Lu Cheng, no matter how capable he is, he has to be humble, so as not to follow in the footsteps of Wang Chaoli and others. Just before, Wang Qiong let him downgrade two levels in a row, and now who in the whole of Henan doesn't know the name of the head of the Lu case?

However, this does not mean that he is convinced of Lu Cheng in his heart, after all, in the article, he thinks that he is still not inferior to the other party. Thinking of this, he spoke again and reminded Lu Cheng: "Presumably the head of the case Lu hasn't forgotten, our agreement, right?" ”

The others were confused, and what kind of agreement did they say? Could it be the two of them------

"Brother Jinsheng, this person is the head of the Lu case?"

"Yes, Brother Xu, do you know the head of the Lu case? When did this happen? ”

"Brother Xu, the agreement between you is ------"

“------”

Everyone opened their mouths to ask, and Xu Jie had no choice but to answer: "Last year, I made an appointment with Lu Case Chief, and this township test will be a competition. ”

When everyone heard that this was the case, they were naturally looking forward to it. After all, this is a contest between the heads of the two governments, and if Xu Jie can win, it will also represent the face of their Luoyang students, and of course they want to show their support.

I saw one of the young scholars take two steps forward, his eyes were full of disdain, he looked at Lu Cheng and said with a smile: "I have heard that the poems of Lu's case are unique, but this township test is an article, our Luoyang case is not necessarily inferior to you------ now that it is a competition, how can there be no color?" ”

Lu Cheng didn't expect that he didn't speak, but instead increased their arrogance, so he asked quietly: "Oh? What kind of color do you want to add? ”

"Simple ------" his eyes flashed, and he said with a smile: "If Lu Case Chief is not as good as Brother Jin in terms of ranking, he will no longer be able to admit that he is the first talent in Henan in the future, how about it?" ”

"What a big breath!"

Zuo Guoji's temper can be regarded as coming up, this is no longer a contest between Lu Cheng and Xu Jie, but a contest between the scholars of the two provinces. Now Lu Cheng represents the face of the scholars of Kaifeng Mansion, if he really loses by accident, the scholars of Kaifeng Mansion will completely let Luoyang Scholars step on him in the future.

Originally, it was just a competition between scholars, but now that this person has been brought to the surface, it is no longer a trivial matter. Not to mention that he is Zuo Guoji, even if he lets other literati in the house know about this, he will have such an attitude.

"Since you think that you Luoyang scholars are only the first, then I will also add a lottery, if you lose the Luoyang case, you will think that you are the second when you see people in the future, how about it?"

"You ------"

This is bullying people, it's nothing if you don't admit that you are the first, once the title of this second talent spreads, it will be really a shame. When others hear this title, they will definitely be curious to learn the details, doesn't this put the face and dignity of their entire Henan Mansion on the ground and let people trample on it at will?

"What, you're scared?" Zuo Guoji sneered.

"Who are you who dare to make a big deal out of this?"

"That is, a nobody, he still dares to act in front of us!"

"Where is the arrogant boy who dares to despise our Luoyang case leader?"

“------”

Watching those scholars denounce Zuo Guoji, Lu Cheng felt quite interesting, and he didn't plan to open his mouth to relieve him now, holding an attitude of watching the play, and quietly appreciating it on the side.

In fact, he had never taken this kind of thing to heart, and he had long forgotten what the agreement was.

What I want is just a middle-class person, and it is obviously not a very important thing to distinguish between the superior and the inferior.

"Humph------"

Here, Zuo Guoji sneered: "You Luoyang case leader, what kind of ability do you have, how can I never hear of it?" We don't need to say any more superfluous words, so I'll ask you, do you dare to fight? ”

This is the pain point of Xu Jie, his fame basically depends on poetry, his articles are really good, but the poetry is a little mediocre, and there is nothing too outstanding. But this time it was an article, and he really wouldn't be afraid of Lu Cheng, so he stood up and said, "Why don't you dare?" Tomorrow is the township test, so let's see the real chapter under your hand when you arrive! Which is better or worse, you can know on the day of the list, let's say goodbye, goodbye! ”

Xu Jie flicked his sleeves and turned to leave, and the people on the opposite side didn't stay any longer, and one of them turned around and left after dropping a cruel word. The last person even pointed the finger directly at Lu Cheng and said, "The first talent? Didn't you rely on those few poems? Maybe I bought it, bah! ”

After going through so many things, Lu Cheng's mood is now calmer than before, and he can already be pampered and not shocked. I didn't think it was so bad for that person's slanderous words, after all, I had been said to be cheating in the field, and I almost got into a lawsuit for this, so a few words were naturally nothing.

Zuo Guoji was very angry, looked at the backs of the group of people and scolded: "What is the head of the Luoyang case, he has fallen behind in this temperament, and he still wants to win our Brother Lu?" A bunch of things that can't be on the table, me! ”

Instead, he turned his head to look at Lu Cheng and said, "Brother Lu, this is no longer your personal matter, today's matter will spread soon, you have to earn back some face for our Kaifeng Mansion Shilin!" ”

“------”

Lu Chengxin said that I recruited who to provoke whom, but I didn't agree, and the entire Kaifeng Mansion scholars were represented by me?

At that moment, he had to shake his head helplessly, and said with a wry smile: "I'll do my best." ”