The palace at night is bright everywhere, and the Chongzheng Palace is as bright as day, and the good candles made of huge whale fat burn silently, brighter than ordinary candles, and less smoke; The air is filled with the scent of ambergris, which makes people feel refreshed when they smell it.

If Yang Jian was alive, he would see such luxury, he would definitely scold Yang Yong for being a loser, and in the early days of the emperor, in addition to festivals, the palace did not even light ordinary candles, only used oil lamps, but now it is not what it used to be.

After the emperor returned from the expedition to Goguryeo, the development of the navy that made great achievements was even more rapid, looking around, there is no navy of any country that can act as the opponent of the Great Sui Navy, in addition to exploring the open sea, guarding coastal transportation, whaling has also become an important task of the navy, every year from September to March of the late year, this more than half a year, the navy will be dispatched in a big way, hunting and killing whales, a whale can provide several tons of oil, Yang Yong is naturally not heartbroken.

Yuan Hao stood in front of the emperor with his head down, and reported to the emperor what happened today, under the bright candlelight, you can see that Yuan Hao's face is somewhat depressed, and in two days it will be the day of the examination, but today he was played by his opponent, and easily turned things in the direction that the emperor did not want to see.

After listening to Yuan Hao's report, Yang Yong had no expression on his face, threw a stack of pieces to Yuan Hao, and said calmly: "Take a look for yourself." Yuan Hao took the recital and looked at it, and he couldn't see half of it and broke out in a cold sweat, these recitals were sent by various ministers before nightfall today, and the content of each recital was about the leakage of the exam questions, and many of them were even more euphemistically proposed to the emperor, since the exam questions were leaked, there was no point in taking the exam again, so it was better to cancel the scientific examination. Reverting to the previous system of recommending officials of the family, many officials have a strong voice, for the moral character of officials, talent is indispensable, the examination is only to examine the ability = how to get the recommendation of officials can make a full understanding, even if some of the cantata does not propose to abolish the scientific examination, it is also recommended that the date of the scientific examination be postponed for the sake of prudence. Until the matter is found out, it is not too late to take the test again.

"Your Majesty, Weichen is incompetent, he will smash the errand, please punish the emperor." Yuan Hao didn't dare to look any further, and hurriedly pleaded guilty.

"Please, I forgive you for your innocence, the opponent may have spent a year. Even after two years of doing this, it is normal for you to have no results in just a few days. ”

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty." Yuan Hao got up again.

"Hmph, I just can't believe that those local officials recommend cronyism to choose talents equally among the scholars in the world, what to say that for the sake of prudence, temporarily stop the scientific examination, in my bones I am still the same as all families, I am unwilling to give up the privilege of electing officials and appointing officials, more than 10,000 scholars are gathered in the capital, can I not find out in January, let those scholars wait for January. If you can't find out for a year, it's just nonsense to let those scholars wait for a year, or if something happens to a scholar in the future, they can justifiably let me abandon the scientific expedition, and I can't see their thoughts. ”

Yang Yong's words were full of indignation, but how much of them were true. I'm afraid it's just that Yang Yong himself knows that the scientific expedition is the trend of the times, and how can a few families who only dare to hide behind it be able to stop it, and if they don't find out, it will be their luck, if they find out. It's time for their heads to move.

Yuan Hao didn't dare to respond, so he had to ask: "Your Majesty, what should you do with these recitals?" ”

"How to deal with it, the leakage of the exam questions is just a remote transmission, I will send all the chapters back to Shangshu Province, so that the ministers will not listen to the wind is rain, and the time of the scientific examination will not change. The title remains the same. ”

"The emperor is wise. As long as the emperor's will is issued, those panicked scholars will definitely settle down.

"Hmm. After all, the Dark-Cloaked Guards can't expose too much, and I will make a decree tomorrow to let Jing Zhaocheng's officials assist Aiqing in continuing to investigate this matter. ”

Yuan Hao heard it, the emperor was obviously dissatisfied with his current progress and wanted to send someone to divide power, but he didn't dare to be dissatisfied: "Weichen understands. ”

The current Jing Zhaocheng is still Qu Tugai, Jing Zhaocheng has always been a hot official position, he is high and powerful, he has jurisdiction over a million people in the capital, and the official is too small, but he is only a five-grade prince, the princes and nobles of the capital, and there are many people like dogs in one or two grades, and it is not easy to offend any person.

Qu Tugai can sit firmly in this position, and he has been sitting for eight years, so he naturally has won the trust of the emperor, but when the people of the capital mention this person, they will not shake their heads privately, and call it a cool official, he has been in office for eight years, a total of nearly 10,000 people have been exiled overseas, an average of three people have to be exiled every day, and more than 100 heads have been killed.

However, in all fairness, the order of the capital is developing in a better and better direction under the governance of Qu Tugai, almost to the point where the road is not left behind, and some princes and nobles do not dare to fly in the capital, and the number of people who want to be exiled and killed every year is decreasing, and last year only about 200 people were exiled, which is very few.

"By the way, what does Zhao Nian do as a eunuch?" The Emperor suddenly asked about the eunuch, the former chieftain who had been in the hands of the Darkcoat Guard for several days.

Yuan Hao shook his head with a guilty face: "Back to the emperor, Gonggong Zhao has always insisted that he has never asked about the examiners in the palace, nor has he revealed to anyone the situation where the examiners live. ”

"You're tortured?"

Yuan Hao hesitated for a moment, not knowing what the emperor meant by asking, he still gritted his teeth and said, "Go back to the emperor, use it." ”

"In that case, then don't put your hope in him, and the execution will stop."

"Wechen obeys!" Yuan Hao hurriedly responded, knowing that the emperor still had a little affection for the eunuch who had been waiting for eight years, but he didn't understand why he didn't hesitate to hand over Zhao Nian to the dark clothes guard a few days ago.

"Well, this time, this Zhao Nian will also be distributed overseas along with those who buy exam questions." The Emperor's voice became cold again.

"Yes!" Yuan Hao didn't dare to say more.

After talking for a while, Yang Yongcai waved his hand to let Yuan Hao leave, standing in the square in front of the imperial city, hearing the sound of the palace gate closing one after another, Yuan Hao realized that he was out of the palace, and remembered the conversation with the emperor just now, and couldn't help but have a faint headache.

With Qu Tugai's help, presumably things will progress much faster, however, even if it is the dark guard, there is a faint fear of the officials in the capital, the dark guard only has the right to supervise officials above the seventh grade, and has no right to arrest and interrogate, Qu Tugai is selfless, and his private life is extremely simple, there is only one wife and one son, one daughter and two servants in the family, and the food and residence are in Jingzhaocheng Mansion, and there is not even a private house, and the needs of life depend on the income of the officials, such a person, naturally there is no need to worry about the dark guards will find out what he is**, therefore, All the officials regarded the Darkcoat Guard as a tiger, but Qu Tugai didn't care, if a Darkcoat Guard broke the law and fell into his hands, even Yuan Hao's face would not be given, and he would be punished according to the sentence. In the past eight years, a total of more than 100 dark-clad guards have fallen into the hands of Qutugai, of whom seven have been cut down by Qutugai and more than 30 have been exiled.

In this regard, the dark guards are quite aggrieved, many of them broke the law because it was inconvenient to disclose their identities to handle the case, but they were treated as criminals by the officials, however, once such a person is found out, Qu Tugai will still release him, but the identity of this person has been disclosed, either he will be transferred to Mingyiwei, or he can only be transferred out of the capital.

Outside the capital, even the Ming Yi Guard can be a high officer, but the dark guard in the capital is pressed by the government service, and now the government and the dark guard are cooperating, whether the dark clothes guard is the main or the government is the main one, this is a problem, but Yuan Hao immediately thought about it, anyway, the power of the dark clothes guard is mainly in the dark, and the power on the surface is not a problem to cooperate with some officials.

The next day, the officials of Jingzhao Chengfu went out and posted notices one after another, telling them that the scientific examination questions were not leaked, and all the questions bought by the scholars were fake, and the scientific examination was carried out as usual.

"What's the matter, these exam questions are obviously true, why would the emperor put up a list and say that they are fake?" A middle-aged man said almost in a roaring voice.

This house is very large, the building inside is magnificent, rockery, flowing water, and the cloister are all exquisite to the extreme, even compared with the inner courtyard of the palace, it is not inferior, in front of the house, two ancient big characters show that the ground is the word Li House.

The voice came from the main hall at the back of the house, there were a total of five people in the main hall at this time, and the four of them were men in their fifties, two of them were dignified, with a look on their faces that they were not angry and arrogant, and they were wearing brocade jade robes, and they knew at a glance that they were people who had been in a high position for a long time, and the other two were thin faces, dressed in cloth clothes, and their eyes were constantly turning, most of them were staff, and the last person was slightly younger, and he was still in his forties, with a ruddy complexion, a handsome face, and a beard fluttering under his chin, which was really a rare beautiful man.

"Uncle, could it be that we have been deceived, those guys take money and don't do anything, and use fake questions to visit us?" The handsome young man asked.