After the completion of the writing countermeasures in the middle test, you can go to the East Corner Gate Collector to hand in the paper, Fan Jin's writing is not slow, but there are people who are faster than him. By the time he handed in the papers, Zhang Sixiu was no longer in his position, and had obviously handed in the papers and left, and there were more than a dozen copies of the papers in the hands of the collector. Seeing that he handed over the scroll, the collector nodded, and glanced at the people around him, and someone stamped a seal on the scroll, and then handed it over to the official to send to the East Pavilion.

From this point of view, it seems that the whole process is rigorous, which can ensure the privacy of the exam papers. But the problem is that anyone who has a little insight in the officialdom of the Beijing division knows that there is not much difference between the sealing of the palace examination and the non-sealing of the palace examination, and the reason here is that they know each other about the papers, the seals, and the palms, and they also know who the candidates are (written on the papers) and they can talk to each other.

There is no rule for the receiver to send the roll, if he wants, he can get a roll and run to the East Pavilion, or he can pile up a hundred rolls and send them once, no one can say that he is wrong. It is because the examiner does not need to know who is the author of all the candidates, but only needs to know who the owner of certain papers is.

A Huiyuan like Fan Jin also enjoys the power of this special channel, not that Huiyuan must become a Dingjia, but if Huiyuan becomes a Tongjinshi, where will the examiner's face go? After all, Zhang Siwei is a freshly baked elder, and in order to maintain the dignity of the elder, Huiyuan's ranking is not too low.

Fan Jin could even see that the handler held his scroll alone, which was obviously for the purpose of distinguishing. And this arrangement, in fact, is part of the rules of the palace examination, no matter how upright the official is, he cannot use this question to make trouble, because it is in accordance with the procedure. Thinking that he had also enjoyed a reasonable and legal cheating escort, Fan Jin was secretly refreshed, left the Imperial Palace, and walked to Zhengjiapu with satisfaction.

Theoretically, the division of the imperial examination rank is by more than a dozen paper readers in the East Cabinet to read the volume separately, and then according to their own judgment on the volume to make a division of the grade symbol, the volume rotates to each person's hand, the volume reader will read each volume, and finally according to the number of evaluations obtained on the paper, to divide the ranking.

That is to say, the higher the praise, the more likely you are to be in the top one, and in turn, if there are a bunch of bad reviews, you can only find them in the top three. Fortunately, the palace test generally does not brush people, as long as you don't jump up and scold the street in this link, or make amazing words, generally speaking, you will not be deposed.

Of course, there will always be a difference between theory and practice, and by the Wanli Dynasty, reading the scroll had actually become a formality. Each volume was read by Zhang Juzheng first, and divided into equal parts, and then transferred to the hands of the second assistant Lu Tiaoyang and Zhang Siwei, and only after the three of them evaluated it could it be transferred to the hands of the paper readers.

The cabinet ministers have already set the tone, who will go against the tune of the subordinates? is based on the so-called ranking of the first class, in fact, it is basically determined by Zhang Ju, and the others are just a foil.

Since the scroll is not transcribed, even if the official in charge of the scroll does not say anything, Zhang Juzheng can also see his son's font. Looking at the text, he snorted, and said as if scolding and boasting, "After teaching for so long, he still hasn't grown, and he doesn't want to think about the champion of this subject." ”

He marked the scroll with a pen, and handed it to the second assistant, Lu Tiaoyang. "Yu Suo, come and see how this little beast's writing is better than that of his brother."

Lu Tiaoyang is older than Zhang Juzheng, but the name of the department is one term later than Zhang Juzheng, and the importance of the name of the department in officialdom is greater than the age, plus Zhang Juzheng monopolizes the power, Lu Tiaoyang, the second assistant, has a very low sense of existence, and has always been pressed on his head by Zhang Juzheng.

His temperament is gentle, and Zhang Juzheng can be regarded as two extremes, one is as fierce as fire, and the other is like swallowing warm water. On weekdays, he speaks little, and he may not be able to say a few words a day, and he has no opinion on himself when he encounters an incident, and some people in the court will even forget that there is a second assistant. But from a cultural point of view, Lu Tiaoyang can definitely be regarded as a scholar in today's Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng was the ninth Jinshi in the second class, and Lu Tiaoyang was born in the list, and he was even more famous in the imperial court. Wedding and funeral ceremonies and regulations, people in the Ministry of Rites may not be able to find it by looking through the old books, as long as they ask Lu Tiaoyang to know everything, it can be called the human flesh of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the aspect of knowledge, the most commendable point of his person is his integrity.

He does not accept bribes, does not accept common practice, does not form gangs, has very little contact with the protégés he hires, and even made it clear that he does not want his protégés to regard him as the master, just remember that he is a courtier. Zhang Juzheng called it Bingji in the Han Dynasty, and now he is a public, comparing it to Bingji, a virtuous minister of the Western Han Dynasty, which is a recognition of his personality.

At the time of the last examination, Zhang Juzheng's eldest son Zhang Jingxiu went down, and at that time, Lu Tiaoyang was the chief examiner, and Zhang Jingxiu was not recorded, which caused a storm in the officialdom at that time, but Zhang Juzheng didn't say anything, and let his eldest son go home to study, which was a loss. This time, he handed him Zhang Sixiu's volume, and said this sentence again, if he didn't record it again, it could be regarded as deliberately embarrassing Zhang Jiangling.

Lu Tiaoyang took the exam paper and read it carefully a few times, nodded and said: "People say that only Chu is talented, and when I saw it today, it was really the case." The second son's article is like a cluster of flowers, the length of a hundred schools, and there are many words in it, which can be called a stroke of genius. The fly in the ointment is that some places are too bold, and it is not surprising if the ministers of the ruling state have this opinion, the second son is still young and has no official position. To make such amazing words, I am afraid that there are some high-minded things, and we should keep them in mind in the future. ”

As he spoke, the old man's pen marked the scroll: Second Class.

Although the question of the palace examination was theoretically given by the Son of Wanli in the early morning, in fact, everyone knows that this question was written by Zhang Juzheng a long time ago. This palace exam is the same as the previous exam, it is Lao Tzu to test his son, and my son does not know how many times he has done this question at home, and his father may personally participate in the correction. It is the head of a hundred schools of thought in Lu Tiaoyang, and the amazing words seem to be ironic that this article is not from Zhang Sixiu's hand. It's just that on this occasion, no one will break this point and pretend to be confused.

When the scroll was transferred to Zhang Siwei's hand, he didn't look at it carefully, and wrote a first class on the scroll with a pen. Zhang Juzheng said: "Fengpan, don't you take a closer look anymore?" Hengwen, the president of this branch Fengpan brother, has seen the article on the dog for a long time, so you might as well talk about it, how is his text compared to when he tried it? ”

"Yuan Weng, the ink scroll when the second prince will take the test is read by the lower officials, and the second son's knowledge is naturally well understood, and it doesn't matter if you look at this strategy or not. Xia Guan thought that it was not fair to judge a student's literary talent based on only one article, and that the imperial court ceremony was intended to select materials, and if possible, it should be based on his ordinary knowledge, rather than one or two words. During this time, the articles and poems made by the second son, Xia Guan has read a lot, and he also knows about his knowledge. The second son is rich and has five cars, and this strategy is naturally not bad, and it can be a first-class choice. ”

Zhang Juzheng looked at the two of them, didn't ask anything more, and only said to the others: "Liegong, then please take a look." ”

The son's scrolls were passed in the hands of a dry reader, and they were marked one by one. Under the torch-like gaze of Shoufu, the only one who dares to play second class like Lu Tiaoyang is the newly appointed Shangshu Yan Qing of the Criminal Department. This person is a person in the clear stream, and he has the strongest friendship with Liu Yiru, the secretary of the criminal department in Jiangning, and has a similar temperament. This person is famous, no one sells face, and he doesn't talk about human feelings, so Zhang Juzheng is not surprised by his judgment.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng is not worried about Zhang Sixiu's ranking, the second son's talent is far better than that of the eldest son, even if there is no relationship, it is enough to rank second. On the surface, he broke the rules this time, and seemed to attach great importance to his son's fame, but few people knew that Zhang Juzheng didn't care about the results of his son's exam.

It is easy for the children of important ministers to get meritorious and famous official positions, in addition to the imperial examination, there are shadow supplements, Shang Baosi and other seal officials, which have always been used as ministers' children to make up for the shadows. The Zhang family is from a military family, and it is logical that they can also attack brocade clothes. With Zhang Juzheng's current powerful position, if he wants to pave a way for his children within the rule system, it also means that Gu Jian does not need to be so troublesome.

This time he made such a big fuss that he didn't even care about Shi Lin Qingyi, in fact, the intention was not to take the imperial examination, but to declare war. He wants to use this incident to send a signal to the world: today's imperial court, what he wants to do, can do, and he will definitely be able to do it. The old rules, whether it is the plain text or the part that everyone agrees on, can only be broken if you want to break it, and nothing can be broken.

Those who count on their ancestors to become laws, bad rules and old habits to bind their hands and feet, should see clearly that this road is doomed to fail. Since the whip law carried out by Guangdong on a pilot basis has been quite effective, and the surplus tax has been lifted for two consecutive years, Zhang Juzheng has decided to start the next step to expand the Guangdong model to the southeast. In addition to changing the old errand grain into a whip, it is also necessary to clear the southeast fields and attack the stubborn diseases of the Huangzhuang and the clan's fields.

Huang Zhuang Zi was supposed to be an important source of income for the royal family, in fact, there were Ming Dynasty all over the north of the Huang Zhuang, and the Ming Dynasty was not much different from the Ming robbery. Relying on the land forcibly seized by the eunuchs and the army, the cost is close to nothing, and it is said that the annual grain of silver should be very considerable. But the fact is that these lands have become a financial black hole in the Ming Dynasty, and not only can they not pay off the grains every year, but the number of deficits is terrifying, and the reason is that there are people behind these fields who are not easy to mess with. These backers included both clans and wealthy gentry who colluded with them locally.

Although they did not dare to oppose the imperial court openly, they still had the ability to make trouble for themselves and their staff in private, and some of them had a wide range of contacts and could ask for favors and intercede with Zhang Juzheng.

After all, Zhang Juzheng's group is not monolithic, and everyone has their own social circles. Those patriarchs or gentry are big landlords, and they often have some influence in the academic circles, so they will naturally use this relationship to talk about it, hoping to check others and not themselves.

Light and dark are soft and hard, the relationship between the parties is intertwined, and the more people who want to move, the more opponents they will face. What I did in Guangdong before could only be regarded as an appetizer, and what I faced next was a real war.

In the fifth year of Wanli, Ding Chouke will take the test this time, which is his own text, and he wants to let those opponents see who they are facing and what kind of authority and determination they have. I don't care about whose relationship I have, and I don't care about what ancestral laws or old rules I have.

At the same time, I also have the capital to not care. There have been cases of the courtiers' children going down before, or they don't win, and if they do, there will be an uproar, and if they don't do well, they won't even be able to keep their own positions. On the one hand, he risked the world's disapproval, not only to let his son be a Zhongshi, but also to make a bad ranking, and anyone who dared to come out to make trouble afterwards would become a sacrifice for the flag.

I believe that when all this is done, those gentry and heroes, or eunuch clans, will have to understand what will happen if they go against themselves again. As long as they are suppressed, the rest of the work will be easy.

Of course, Zhang Juzheng knows that the method he chooses is not very good, and it is likely to make a bad start, and the future ministers will follow the same example, and most of their own children will be stuffed into the imperial examination to seek Zhongshi. The imperial examination, which is not very fair, will be even more unfriendly to the children of the poor. But time waits for no one, even if you drink to quench your thirst, you can only drink this cup of poisonous wine first.

The Son of Heaven is getting older day by day, and with the emperor being in power, he must show his favor to the world, and at that time some cruel means can no longer be used, and the world must be treated with gentle means. The implementation of the new law was bound to slow down at that time, and with the emperor's pro-government, it was inevitable to promote and appoint some new people, and whether those people were of the same mind with themselves was also between the two. Young people will inevitably be overjoyed, and after the Son of Heaven is in power, he must want to do a few big things vigorously to prove his talents. Especially today's emperor is not strong-minded, and he likes to use art and hates Taoism, and this kind of heart of gaining and losing a good reputation is heavier than that of the emperors of the previous dynasty.

If things go well, maybe he'll take advantage of the excitement to do more. But if he comes up, he will be responsible for implementing the new law, and let him fall into the cobwebs of fighting with local officials and arrogant people, whether it is his heart or talent, he is not competent, and most of them will be defeated in the end. With his temperament, as long as he loses once, it will be difficult to cheer up again, and when the time comes, he is only afraid that he will be depressed, and he will not want to do anything, and his painstaking cultivation will be in vain.

It is necessary to lay the foundation of the new policy before the emperor takes office, and after His Majesty takes office, as long as he does it according to his own method, he can do everything well. It is easy to succeed in doing such a thing, which just satisfies the vanity and sense of accomplishment of the little emperor. After he has done a few things, he will be familiar with fighting people, and things will be easier.

Moreover, no matter what kind of civil and martial arts the emperor wants, finance is the foundation. After he was in power for a long time, he handed him a rich family foundation, and only with this family background can he have the confidence to make great achievements. Thinking that when the time came, when he took the young emperor to see the prince of Taicang, or the treasury was full of silver, the little emperor's excited expression, Zhang Juzheng's heart also felt a burst of warmth.

After all, it is a disciple who has been taught by himself, and whether he is successful or not, he also has feelings. watched him change from a child to an adult, and I thought about how to make him more leisurely and how to be happier. I also know that the emperor is living a very hard life now, but if he doesn't endure hardship, he won't know what sweetness is.

Only by enduring some hardships now can he cherish the hard-won good days more and more. When he is in power, when he sees those achievements, he will know the necessity of living a hard life in the past few years, and when the time comes, there will be plenty of money and food, and he will not interfere with what the emperor wants to do.

Just as he was thinking about these things, Fan Jin's roll had already been delivered. Zhang Juzheng opened his eyes and said to Zhang Siwei: "Feng Pan, I heard that in this imperial examination, you are most satisfied with this person. Let's let the old man see, how is his writing? ”

Zhang Siwei smiled, "Yuan Weng, Fan Jin's talent is really appreciated, the two of us fell in love at first sight, this disciple, I must admit it." However, he was young and limited in his education. I know the situation in Lingnan in my life, and there are only so many books that I can read, unless it is a great talent like Mr. Tsuoka, it is difficult to really read any achievements. His talent and subordinate officials seem to be satisfied, but in the eyes of Yuan Weng, I am afraid it is not worth mentioning. ”

Zhang Juzheng didn't speak, his eyes looked at Fan Jin's scroll many times, lifted the pen, and approved the second class on it, and Lu Tiaoyang approved it as the first class after reading it, and the situation was reversed from Zhang Sixiu's scroll. When the scroll fell into Zhang Siwei's hands, he looked at it for a while, and the pen was also approved as second-class. Without waiting for the volume to turn below, Lu Tiaoyang said:

"Feng Pan and slowly, this Fan Huisi is your disciple, you are a teacher, it is best to judge the volume of your protégé, and tell me, why do you rate your protégé's volume as second-class?"

The eyes of several paper readers fell on Lu and Zhang, and Lu Cifu, who has always been silent, actually opened his question for the first time today, but it was not a private person who defended him, but Fan Jin, who he had never known him. Although Guangdong and Guangxi are called the two Guangzhou, Guangxi and Guangdong are not a circle, and from a geographical point of view, Guangxi has always been drawn together with Huguang, and this opening has nothing to do with the friendship of the country.

If it has nothing to do with the friendship, there are other things? Ten thousand years of second assistant embarrassment of the newly promoted group of assistants, this good old man pavilion old man has to exert his authority, and use this matter to make trouble to Yuan Fu?

Zhang Juzheng said: "Yu Suo, Hengwen is like a treasure, everyone has different ropes and inks in their hearts, and it is difficult to strengthen Fengpan with the likes and dislikes of Yu Weng." ”

Lu Tiaoyang did not mean to back down, pointed to Fan Jin's scroll and said: "Yuan Weng, it seems that in terms of words alone, the calligraphy on the scroll is dragon flying and phoenix dancing, even if the public font here can be stronger than this life, it is rare, why is it second-class?" ”

"Yu Institute, we don't care about the words of our paper. Although Fan Jin's handwriting is beautiful, the text and the characters are not the same thing after all. ”

Zhang Siwei smiled at this time: "Yu Weng is a talent for the country, and he is a model for my generation." As for Fan Jin's article...... Zhang is in the crowd, please list colleagues to evaluate first, and Zhang is based on everyone's opinion. ”