In the early hours of the morning, the Forbidden City, Wenyuan Pavilion.

Wenyuan Pavilion is located behind the Wenhua Hall on the inner side of the Donghua Gate of the Forbidden City, there are two rows of bungalows in the east and west in front of the pavilion, surrounded by a high courtyard wall, which is very ordinary at a glance, no different from the surrounding buildings.

However, because Wenyuan Pavilion is the seat of the cabinet, this inconspicuous small courtyard has extraordinary significance, becoming the administrative center of the Ming Dynasty.

"Li Jieyuan, you will live here tonight, and someone will send you out of the palace early tomorrow morning." Li Hongyu was led into the courtyard of Wenyuan Pavilion by an attendant, and after entering a room in a row of bungalows on the east side, he pointed to a wooden bed with bedding in the room and said.

After finishing speaking, the chamberlain got up and left, because the gate of the Forbidden City was closed, Li Hongyu could only stay in Wenyuan Pavilion for one night at night.

There were two beds in the room, one on the left and one on the right, against the wall, and on the other bed was a man asleep, who was sleeping soundly because it was getting late.

Li Hongyu glanced at the other party and stretched lazily, stripped into the quilt and soon fell asleep, judging from Emperor Wanli's reaction, he coped well today, which made him feel more comfortable.

"This benevolent brother, it's time to eat." Early the next morning, when Li Hongyu was sleeping in a daze, a man's voice sounded in his ears.

"Thank you, brother."

Li Hongyu opened his eyes and saw a young man in an official robe standing on the side of the bed looking at him, and the bed on the side had already folded the futon, and immediately realized that this young man was the person who lived with him, and quickly sat up and thanked him.

What made Li Hongyu feel a little strange was that the official robe on the young man's body had no grade, in other words, it was an official robe that was not in the stream, which made him suddenly feel a little strange, you must know that this is Wenyuan Pavilion, how can that kind of official who does not enter the stream come in?

"Is it Gourgy?" But soon, Li Hongyu remembered something, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

In addition to the cabinet elders, there are two main types of officials on duty in the Wenyuan Pavilion, one is the officials who assist the cabinet elders in handling affairs, and the other is the Shu Jishi who study here, who are close ministers of the emperor, responsible for drafting edicts for the emperor and explaining scriptures.

The first appearance of the Shu Ji Shi in the second year of Yongle, subordinate to the Hanlin Academy, the selection of scholars who are good at literature and calligraphy to fill the position, from the imperial examination of the top Jinshi, the potential of the people were awarded the status of Shu Jishi, let them first study in the Hanlin Academy, and then confer various official positions.

After the orthodox dynasty, the custom of the Shu Ji Shi was formed, and the top ten Jinshi of the second class and the top ten Jinshi of the third class of each branch of the palace examination were able to participate in the examination for the selection of the Shu Jishi, and the examination was the Shu Ji Shi of the Hanlin Academy, commonly known as the "selection hall".

It is worth mentioning that the Jishi is not an official position, so the Jinshi who passed the examination has no position and therefore no official rank, so he cannot wear the official robe of the current system.

The Hanlin of the Ming Dynasty was the place where the imperial court stored materials, and there was an unwritten convention after the orthodox dynasty: non-jinshi did not enter the Hanlin, and non-Hanlin did not enter the cabinet.

Therefore, the Shu Ji Shi is also known as the "Chu Xiang", and those who can become the Shu Ji Shi have the opportunity to rise to the top, for example, Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet during the Wanli period, was born in the Shu Ji Shi.

The term of office of the Gyuji coincided with the cycle of the temple examinations, which lasted for three years, during which he was taught by experienced Hanlin and taught various knowledge.

Three years later, the assessment will be conducted before the next examination, commonly known as "Sanguan".

Those with excellent grades can enter the Hallym Academy, and are awarded the position of Hanlin Editor or Hallym Review, and officially become Hallym, called "Lingering Hall".

Other scholars were sent to serve in the yamen of the major ministries, and some were also sent to local positions of importance, and their Shuji background would usually make them rise to the top in their careers compared to other jinshi.

After Li Hongyu went out with the young man in the same room with the dishes and chopsticks, he found that there were already many people around the courtyard, all of whom were officials wearing official robes, and some of them were wearing official robes that were also not in the mainstream system without official ranks.

The palace attendants have already brought breakfast, including porridge, cakes, steamed buns and all kinds of side dishes, although the variety is not rich, but it looks very delicious.

Because Li Hongyu was wearing civilian clothes, he was quite conspicuous in the crowd when he was queuing up to eat, which attracted those officials around him to look sideways and secretly guess his identity.

When the meal was ready, the people in the courtyard gathered in groups to eat and chat, squatting, sitting or standing.

Li Hongyu was a newcomer, and he was not familiar with the place, so he naturally mixed with the Shu Ji Shi in the same room, but fortunately the Shu Ji Shi was still easy to deal with, and led him to meet several Shu Ji Shi who were eating around a stone table.

"Brother Yanyan, who is this brother?" Those few Ji Ji Shi were talking and laughing, and when they saw Li Hongyu in civilian clothes, one of them asked Li Hongyu the Ji Ji in the same room with some suspicion.

"Look at my memory, haven't you asked who Brother Tai is?" Shu Jishi, who was in the same room with Li Hongyu, couldn't help but reach out and pat his forehead when he heard this, and asked Li Hongyu with a smile.

"Brothers, try to solve Yuan Li Hongyu in Wuwuke Township, Xiahu." Hearing this, Li Hongyu hurriedly put down the chopsticks and steamed buns in his hand, and saluted the several Shu Jishi present in a serious manner.

"Huguang's Xie Yuan?" Hearing this, several Shu Jishi at the scene couldn't help but look Li Hongyu up and down in surprise, they were naturally not surprised by Li Hongyu's identity as Xie Yuan, but with Li Hongyu's qualifications, it seemed that they could not enter the palace, let alone enter Wenyuan Pavilion.

"The emperor summoned him to the palace yesterday for an audience, and because it was too late to finish, he had to stay here for one night." Li Hongyu knew that the people present didn't know why he was here, so he explained quietly.

"I see!" At this time, several of the surrounding Ji Shi couldn't help but bow slightly, understanding why Li Hongyu entered the palace, but at the same time, everyone was also curious about Li Hongyu's purpose for entering the palace.

After all, Li Hongyu is just a small Xie Yuan, and it seems that there is nothing to make Emperor Wanli meet him, and he also stays in Wenyuan Pavilion overnight.

"I don't know what to call a few brothers?" For Li Hongyu, this was an excellent time to make friends with these Jiji, so he asked in a deep voice after bowing his hand to him.

Although Li Hongyu is now just a lifter, he is Huguang's Xie Yuan, and he may not be able to win the title of the gold list in next year's examination, and then become a Shujishi, so everyone must give him this face.

"In Quanzhou, Fujian, Hong Chengchou, the word Yan played." The guy in the same room as Li Hongyu was the last to be introduced, and he smiled and said to Li Hongyu.

"Hong Chengchou?" Li Hongyu was stunned when he heard this, a shocked look appeared on his face, he never imagined that he would meet the most famous person in the history of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties here.

"Li Jieyuan, do you know you?" Hong Chengchou saw Li Hongyu looking at him with a stunned expression, and suddenly felt a little strange, and couldn't help but ask suspiciously.

"No, a friend in the next place has the same name as Brother Hong, and I was a little surprised for a while." Li Hongyu came back to his senses, smiled and casually made up a reason.

"If you have a chance, you may wish to introduce it to you." Hong Chengchou couldn't help laughing when he heard this, Daming has a large population, and there are many people with the same name and surname, so he didn't take this matter to heart.

Shu Jishi is a close minister of the emperor's side, and when they are together, they naturally talk about the major events that happened in the court, and now the biggest thing in the Ming Dynasty is naturally the war in Liaodong, so Li Hongyu invisibly got a lot of news about the war in Liaodong.

From the things discussed by Hong Chengchou and others, Li Hongyu could clearly feel that Emperor Wanli was bound to exterminate the Jurchen rebellion this time, and he withdrew nearly 100,000 main troops from the national guard to go to Liaodong, and his purpose was naturally to defeat the Jurchens who dared to commit rebellion in one fell swoop.

Li Hongyu finally understood why Emperor Wanli met him at this time, in addition to his "Ping Liao Ce" seemed a bit maverick, I am afraid that Emperor Wanli was also worried about this war with the Jurchens, after all, he was too old to deal with the affairs of Liaodong.

Thinking of this, Li Hongyu couldn't help but sigh, for him, who had long known the outcome of the war, he could only watch Yang Hao being defeated by Nurhachi.

He can't run to the Wanli Emperor and say that he can predict the prophet and predict the defeat of the Ming army, so he must let Yang Hao change the strategy of dividing the troops and marching, in that case, I am afraid that his career will be over, how can the Wanli Emperor let a god stick occupy a high position in the temple?

Besides, the building will be difficult to support alone, even if Li Hongyu can prevent Yang Hao from dividing his troops, judging from the current situation, Yang Hao will not be able to eliminate Nurhachi, which will inevitably make the war stalemate, and it is Nurhachi who will win in the end, and the demise of the Ming Dynasty is still inevitable.

"Brother Yanyan, the younger brother has settled down in the inner city, Brother Yan Yan will have the opportunity to come and be a guest in the future, and the younger brother will let the kitchen cook a few Chu dishes for Brother Yan to taste."

Soon after breakfast, an attendant came to Li Hongyu and was about to send him out of the palace, Li Hongyu warmly sent out an invitation when he said goodbye to Hong Chengchou, Hong Chengchou can be in a high position in the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty after 20 years, naturally he is not an idle person, he must make friends.

"I've never tasted Chu cuisine before, so I will definitely go to disturb me if I have the chance."

Hong Chengchou smiled when he heard this, and happily agreed, although Li Hongyu has not yet been named on the gold list, he can be summoned by Emperor Wanli, he naturally will not despise Li Hongyu, God knows what Li Hongyu has to do.

Li Hongyu also laughed, arched his hand to Hong Chengchou again, and walked away with the attendant who led the way, it seems that he has gained a lot from entering the palace this time.