Early the morning of the second day after arriving in the capital, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin went to visit Zheng Lin and Wu Yuanhao's house together.

Since Zheng Lin and Wu Yuanhao were on duty in the Hanlin Academy, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin did not stay at their home for a long time, and left after greeting the receptionists for a while.

Although it is said that the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water, this is a world of sophistication, and Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, who are wealthy, must not come empty-handed.

Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin had long known that Zheng Lin and Wu Yuanhao were not at home, and it didn't matter if the two of them could see Zheng Lin and Wu Yuanhao this time, the key was the attitude of the two, so that Zheng Lin and Wu Yuanhao knew that they would visit as soon as they came to the capital.

After leaving the Zheng family and the Wu family, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin's next target to visit was naturally the leader of the Chu Party, one of the four major parties in the officialdom of the capital.

The members of the Chu Party are mainly officials from Huguang, so after the people from Huguang come to the capital, they will definitely visit the wharf of the leader of the Chu Party, and they will have a care in the officialdom in the future.

The so-called four major parties in the officialdom of the capital refer to the Donglin Party, the Zhejiang Party, the Chu Party and the Qi Party, which are composed of officials from the same region according to the region, and at the same time absorb officials from other regions, becoming the most powerful party in the imperial court.

The reason why the Donglin Party, the Zhejiang Party, the Chu Party, and the Qi Party will become the four major parties in Beijing is naturally related to the large number of officials from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang, and Shandong.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the admission of the tributes to the examination was uniformly hired across the country, that is, from the examination of the candidates according to the grades to admit the tributes, because the style of writing in the north is not as good as that in the south, so each time the tributes in the north are much lower than in the south.

In addition, most of the examiners in charge of the examination were mainly officials from the south, so the famous north-south list case in the history of the Ming imperial examination later occurred, which caused the Ming Taizu to be angry.

The 51 tributes admitted to the examination in February of the 30th year of Hongwu were all southerners, known as the "Nanbang" in history, and this incident immediately caused an uproar in the north, some went to the yamen of the Ministry of Rites to complain about grievances, some shouted grievances along the road in Nanjing, and even stopped the official sedan chair of the imperial court officials to complain, and the matter was in an uproar.

Ming Taizu was deeply angry about this, as the emperor, he naturally hoped that the southern officials and northern officials above the court could restrain each other, if the power of the southern officials crushed the northern officials, it would not be conducive to the stability of the court.

In addition, people who write well-written articles do not necessarily have strong political skills, and the reason why there is a difference in the results of the North and South Juzi in the examination has a great relationship with whether the local style of study is strong, and if the students in the north and south are given the same learning environment, the results of the examination in the north will definitely not be worse than that in the south.

The so-called selection of materials for the country is to select talents who govern the government and select capable people from all over the country, and the examination is just a stepping stone, and the talent of the northern people cannot be denied just by the results of the examination.

Therefore, through the synthesis of various factors, Ming Taizu personally selected the tributes who would take the examination in June of the thirtieth year of Hongwu, a total of sixty-one, all of whom were northerners, known as the "Northern Bang" in history, and it could be regarded as an example to deter officials in the central and southern parts of the DPRK.

Although since then, there has never been a case of all the northern juzi falling off the list, due to the local differences between the north and the south, the number of tributes admitted in each session of the examination is only one or two percent, which makes the southern officials more and more influential in the imperial court.

Therefore, after Emperor Hongxi ascended the throne, he carried out a huge innovation in the examination of scholars, stipulating that the number of candidates for the examination should be divided according to the north and south regions, with the southern quota accounting for 60% and the northern quota accounting for 40%, so as to ensure that the northern scholars could enter the office, which is known as the "north and south volumes" in history.

However, due to the complex geographical situation of the Ming Dynasty, some provinces are not easy to simply divide the north and south with the Yangtze River, so the crown prince of Emperor Hongxi, Emperor Xuande, succeeded to the throne and reformed the "north and south volumes" again, and separated the "middle volumes" from the "north and south volumes", which took shape in the Zhengde period, and then laid the custom of the imperial examination according to the region in later generations.

Among them, the "southern volume" refers to a part of Nanzhili and the five provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Huguang, and Guangdong, and the quota for the examination accounts for 55 percent.

"Beijuan" refers to Beizhili and the four provinces of Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Shanxi, as well as the three capitals of Liaodong, Daning, and Wanquan, and the number of places in the examination accounts for 35 percent.

The "middle volume" refers to a part of Nanzhili and the four provinces of Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, and the number of places in the examination accounts for 10%.

As a result, it ensured that the Ming Dynasty and the 13 provinces of Beijing could have people to take the Gongshi, and this method of taking scholars continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty, which had a great impact on the imperial examinations in later generations.

Although the "South, Central and North Volumes" of the imperial examination ensured that all the lifters in the Ming Dynasty had the opportunity to enter the ranks, but in the competition of the palace examination with no quota limit and unified admission, the tributes of the "Southern Volume" took advantage of their excellent results and occupied many places in the first and second grades of the palace examination.

According to the order of the Ming Dynasty, those who scored well in the palace examination stayed in the yamen of the major ministries and institutes in the capital, and the rest waited until the local yamen to serve, which made the officials from the "Southern Volume" gradually occupy important positions in the court, laying an indelible hidden danger for the party struggle at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely because the Jinshi of the "Southern Volume" occupies a pivotal position in the court that the Donglin Party, the Zhejiang Party and the Chu Party among the four major parties in the capital are all from the "Southern Volume", and only the Qi Party is from the "Northern Volume".

The Chu Party has three major party leaders, namely Ying Zhen, the official of the Hukedu, Wu Liangsi of the Military Section, and Huang Yanshi, the Yushi of the Right Command.

Although the official ranks of the three are not high, the highest Huang Yanshi is only the fourth rank, while the official Yingzhen and Wu Liangsi are only the seventh rank.

However, there is a unique phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty, that is, the level of official rank is not proportional to the official position, and the reason why this is so is because the Ming Dynasty has a special officialdom group, that is, the Yanguan.

The officials are all born in the Jinshi, and they are among the best in the Jinshi, composed of Hanlin, Yushi and the Shizhong, which can be described as the mainstay of the Da Ming scholar and doctor class, and the close ministers around the Son of Heaven, although the official rank is low, but the power is very great, supervising and impeaching civil and military officials.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, successive emperors have paid attention to a check and balance on the relationship between the various yamen in the officialdom, the most important thing is to use speech officials to check and balance civil and military officials, and later developed to use the cabinet to check and balance the six departments, and use eunuchs to check and balance civil officials.

It is precisely because of this that the Wanli Emperor can operate as usual without coming to the court, which is not how conscientious the civil official group is, but that the Wanli Emperor has balanced the relationship between the various factions in the court very well, so he can sit back and relax, and the affairs of the court can operate in an orderly manner.

Although there are many criticisms of eunuchs in later books, considering that most of those books were written by literati, and that eunuchs were the servants of the emperor and represented the monarchy, and the literati were the source of the civil and official group and represented the power of the ministers, there were many contradictions between the two sides, so the records cannot be trusted.

If the eunuch group is really so unbearable in the history books, then the emperor will naturally not sit idly by, but the actual situation is that the emperor is quite protective of the eunuch group, which has to be intriguing, is it that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are so deaf and unbearable that they are blinded and coerced by the eunuchs?

In fact, although the eunuchs fought to the death with the civil bureaucracy, they never posed a threat to the imperial power.

Both the powerful Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian were easily eliminated by the emperor, which shows that the eunuchs are dependent on the imperial power, unlike the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty, who can override the imperial power.

When Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin went to the mansion of Guan Yingzhen, Wu Liangsi and Huang Yanshi with their names and gifts, they were warmly received by the families of the three people.

There is no other reason, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin hold the titles of Huguang Township Trial Xie Yuan and Ya Yuan, so they naturally have to be valued by the other party, you must know that the two are likely to become Jinshi next year, and then become a member of the Chu Party.

Unlike Li Hongyu, Zhao Xin not only met with the three major leaders of the Chu Party, but also went to meet with the leaders of the Qi Party, Qi Shijiao and Zhou Yongchun.

The poetry is the official branch to the matter and Taichang Temple Shaoqing, because of the concurrently Taichang Temple Shaoqing, the official residence is the fourth product, Zhou Yongchun is the left of the department to give the matter.

Because the Jurchens rebelled and captured Fushun, the Wanli Emperor appointed Zhou Yongchun as the governor of Liaodong, praised military affairs, and rushed to Liaodong in October to take up his post, not in the capital.

Zhao Xin's identity is very special in the Ming Dynasty's examination, although she is from Shanxi, but she won the township test Yayuan in the Huguang examination, so in addition to the Chu Party, she naturally has to meet the Qi Party from the north.

Bi Shijiao and Zhou Yongchun's family naturally treated Zhao Xin with courtesy, even if Zhao Xin did not join the Qi Party in the future, but at least he had contacts with the Qi Party, and it might come in handy at a critical moment.

Li Hongyu is both a member of the Huguang family and a trial solution of Huguang Township, so he naturally can't follow Zhao Xin to meet the poet and Zhou Yongchun.

Although there are many temples in the capital, it is not a temple, and he has to go in to worship, so it is easy to be regarded as a capricious snob, and then be excluded by all parties.

Li Hongyu has already made up his mind, since he was born in Huguang, he naturally wants to get close to the Chu Party, although the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party are the two largest civil official parties above the court, but how can he, as a Huguang person, easily get together, at least wait for the other party to take the initiative to extend an olive branch before responding.

In the final analysis, any party in the court is not only the local people's clan, but also absorbs the clans of outsiders to join, and Huguang, like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, both belong to the "southern volume" at the time of the examination, and are geographically similar, so it is not surprising that Huguang's officials joined the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party.

But to be honest, although the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party are powerful, Li Hongyu is not much interested in participating.

Because both the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party represent the interests of the Jiangnan gentry and merchants, they will inevitably suppress the interest groups in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Hongyu will definitely have a conflict of interests with him if he wants to do something, and if he goes with the flow, he can only achieve nothing.