When Wang Fulin finally arrived in the capital, it was already the fifteenth day of March in the fifth year of Wanli, and it was the day of the palace test.

Although the examination has ended, in principle, the unsuccessful lifters can already return to their hometowns, but they are coming, and many people want to wait for the end of the palace examination to see who will be in the top three before leaving. Moreover, under the calm on the surface, many people are talking about the fact that the children of the big men in the DPRK and China are at the top of the examination list. Compared with Zhang Juzheng's eldest son Zhang Jingxiu who failed in the last examination, Zhang Juzheng's second son Zhang Sixiu, Lu Xingzhou, the eldest son of Lu Tiaoyang, and Wang Qian, the son of Wang Chonggu, all three of them are on the list.

Not only the people, but even many people from the families of dignitaries and dignitaries are also discussing the ranking of these three in private.

On this day, at the gate of Wang Daokun's house, the two porters said a word to me, and they actually made a bet on the ranking of the palace examination. One bet is Zhang Sixiu in the front, Lu Xingzhou in the middle, Wang Qian last, and the other bet is Zhang Sixiu in the front, Wang Qian in the middle, and Lu Xingzhou last. But there is one thing that both of them recognize, and the three of them must be in the second grade, and they will never fall into the top three. However, on the question of who is stronger, Lu Tiaoyang or Wang Chonggu, they have different views.

The younger porter suddenly pouted angrily and said: "When Wang Chonggu was the secretary of the criminal department before, he also added Zhuguo, and this time the secretary of the military department is about to be vacant, and he will make up for it." In addition, he is a lot older, and the imperial court will definitely treat Wang Qian a little better in order to appease the old ministers, as for the second assistant Lu Gelao, he is a humble person, and he will definitely not compete for the ranking. ”

"You're stupid. When will this kind of thing be fought for by Ge Lao Shangshu in person. When reading the paper. Which one of the others didn't count? Besides. Wang Chonggu and Lord Shoufu may not be the same way, since today is the day of the palace test...... Yes! ”

Because of the red face, the old porter didn't suddenly wake up until he found that there was another person in front of him, and he chuckled in his heart. Especially when he recognized the person who came from the dust, he was even more frightened, and hurriedly fell to his knees with a thud, and said in a trembling voice: "Small." The little ones shouldn't be broken for a while......"

Wang Fulin first went to the General Administration Department in accordance with the rules, and asked the emperor to repeat the trip to Guangdong, and then went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, because Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Chen Zhan, the left imperial history of the Imperial Palace, were both summoned to the palace to read the papers, so he was able to come back.

When he had just dismounted in front of Wang's Mansion and walked over, he had already heard what the two were arguing about. At this moment, his face was as heavy as water, and he saw that the young porter was stunned at first, and it took a while to react, and then he knelt down, and he said lightly: "It's just a matter of betting directly on the major events of the DPRK and China." It's just a joke, but it's so arguing at the door that I forget about my serious duties. How can it be spared! Come, show me the gate, and escort him two to follow me in! ”

Seeing that Wang Fulin stepped forward from behind him, the two porters were shocked, and before they could open their mouths to beg for mercy, their mouths were blocked, and they were actually carried in like chickens. This movement immediately alarmed the inside, and Butler Kelin hurriedly came out, and as soon as he recognized that it was Wang Fulin, he left everything else behind, and stepped forward to greet him with a smile on his face. Wang Fulin bowed his head slightly and said hello, and then asked: "Today is the day of the palace examination, is my uncle in the military department, or is he going back to participate in the reading papers?" ”

Historically, the palace has tried to read the papers, except for the old monks and scholars in the pavilion, the rest of the people have to depend on the choice of the Son of Heaven, so Wang Fulin added one more sentence. Under his gaze, the housekeeper's forehead sweated slightly, and he said: "Because Tan Shangshu is seriously ill and doesn't read the scroll at home, the emperor appointed the master as the official who reads the scroll, and it is estimated that he will not be able to come out of the palace for a while." But the fourth master is at home, and the lady is also there. ”

Wang Fulin knew that the so-called fourth master was referring to Wang Daohui, and he noticed that Wang Daoguan was not there, and his heart suddenly moved: "Uncle is also in the palace test?" ”

Steward Lin nodded with a wry smile, and his voice was lowered: "Because the second master participated in the palace examination, the master originally asked for resignation from the official reading the paper together with the first assistant, the second assistant and Wang Shangshu, but the emperor insisted on not allowing it. ”

Of course, Wang Fulin knew that Wang Daokun was not a lecturer beside Emperor Wanli, and he didn't have this face in front of the Son of Heaven, so he didn't avoid suspicion this time, he should have been stained with the light of Zhang Juzheng, Lu Tiaoyang, and Wang Chonggu. However, it is a good thing that Wang Daoguan can be a jinshi, but according to the posture of the children of the powerful in the DPRK and China to take the exam this time, it may be difficult to occupy a place in the second class, and maybe it will fall into the top three. Of course, Wang Daokun and Yin Zhengmao Xu Guo were only top three jinshi back then, and the ranking issue was not too important, but thinking about it, Zhang Siwei brushed Wang Daoguan down without passing the main examination before, which is too suspicious.

He was about to ask Steward Lin for a list of exams, but he happened to see the two concierges who were brought in by himself, so he instructed Steward Lin to retreat from the others, and briefly mentioned the whole story, and when he saw Steward Lin's face sank, he said: "The argument is that I am acting on behalf of me, but Wang Fu also has some reputation in the capital, if it is not for me, but by others, I am afraid that my uncle will not only be a small fault of being ineffective under restraint." ”

"Yes, yes, it's all small, too lazy and negligent these days." Steward Lin was sweating profusely, staring at the eyes of the two porters, which were like sharp swords, eager to poke a few holes in them.

"People first find an empty house to look at, and wait until I see my aunt and Uncle Zhongjia, you don't have to make a noise about this matter first, just say that they have offended me." said this, but Wang Fulin had other plans in his heart. He is not such a strict person, where will he shout and kill because of his subordinates' broken mouths?

Since Wang Fulin ordered so, the housekeeper of Na Lin was speechless, even if the people were still watching Wang Fulin's entourage, and Wang Fulin's people were guarding the door for the time being, he didn't dare to do anything. You must know that because Tan Lun's condition suddenly worsened, and even almost died, Wang Daoguan had to take the exam, Wang Daokun had to read the papers, and Mrs. Wu was not in good health, so he couldn't take care of it at home for a while, and he was busy helping Tan Lun contact the imperial doctor of the Tai Hospital to find a doctor and ask for medicine, otherwise how could there be such a thing in front of the door? When he thought that Wang Daokun heard about this after he came back, he might be furious, and he was full of anxiety.

And when Wang Fulin went to visit Mrs. Wu. But he didn't come up with this statement in front of Steward Lin. Because the small house he bought before was given to his father-in-law Ye Junyao. The inn he bought two years ago was converted into a house, and he only sent someone to say it. So as soon as I entered Beijing this time, I first arrived at Wang Daokun's house, and after smiling and saluting at this time, I touched my stomach and said that I was tired and hungry.

Mrs. Wu knew that Wang Daokun valued him the most as a nephew, so she hurriedly asked someone to serve him to wash his face and change clothes, and asked someone to go to the kitchen to urge snacks, just like half a mother. When Wang Daohui brought his nephew Wang Wujing over, he saw that Wang Fulin was gobbling up food, and Wang Wujing was just about it. Wang Daohui suddenly quipped: "It turns out that our God of Food has returned." ”

swallowed the pea yellow in his mouth, Wang Fulin got up and saw Wang Daohui, but he ignored the banter of the god of food, and reached out to help Wang Wujing, who was saluting. After the greetings, he inquired about the list of the previous exams, and learned that Shen Maoxue was among the best, and Feng Mengzhen and Tu Long, who had seen him in Xuancheng before, were also on the list, but Tang Xianzu and Jiao Hong were on the list. However. Wang Daohui's next sentence made him slightly distracted.

"Tang Hairuo is too high. The second son of Shoufu and the second son were invited to attend the meeting several times, but he refused to go, and this and again inevitably annoyed people, and it is not surprising that he fell off the list. As for Jiao Shanchang, he was unlucky, and he forgot to avoid it when he heard that he would try. ”

Although Wang Fulin had only intersected with Tang Xianzu in the Shen family in Xuancheng for a while, he had to admit that Wang Daohui's evaluation was really in line with Tang Xianzu's temperament. As for Jiao Hong's bad luck, it is indeed that the gods can't do it. Of course, this time the more important thing is the title of Wang Dao's apricot list, he couldn't help but ask Wang Dao why he didn't participate, but the answer he got was a helpless sigh.

There are too many children of the minister's family in the DPRK and China who go to participate in the exam, and all of them are named on the apricot list, is it possible that the Wang family will take the top spot of the same list as a brother again? Zhang Juzheng has so many sons in the family, but they didn't do that this time! And, to be honest, his grasp is not so great, even Wang Daoguan, in the past few months, Xu Guo and his eldest son have been temporarily honing their craft, which can be described as resentful. In contrast, Xu Guo's eldest son still fell behind, it was said that there was a stain on the surface, but he felt that this statement was not very credible, but these words were not good to say to Wang Fulin.

When Mrs. Wu saw her uncle and nephew looking at each other and smiling bitterly, she had a lively atmosphere, and immediately instructed Wang Wujing: "Da Lang, you go to Xu's house to deliver a letter, just say that your brother is here and call Jinbao back." Go to Ye's house again and inform ......"

Wang Fulin also planned to call Jinbao over to ask, since Mrs. Wu was so caring, he would save trouble, but for his father-in-law, he immediately smiled and said that he had sent someone over to inform him, so as not to prevent Wang Wujing from running again. After pondering at Mrs. Wu's place for a while, he got up with Wang Daohui to leave, but went to Wang Daohui's study outside to talk.

Although Wang Daohui and Wang Daoguan often occupy Wang Daokun's study on weekdays, even if the Wang family in the capital is far less neat than the garden in the old house in Songming Mountain, the three brothers are not really even crowded together in the study. At this moment, when he stepped into Wang Daohui's study, Wang Fulin swept around, and his eyes suddenly fell on a vase between the bookshelves.

Ji Hong? No, maybe something like that...... You must know that this is a real royal vessel, others will treat it as a treasure, and it will definitely be shelved from outsiders, after all, it is a taboo, it is said that since Xuande, even the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen has not been able to burn this kind of good thing!

Wang Dao will follow Wang Fulin's gaze, hehe, smile and say that it is just imitation, the craftsmanship is far inferior to the real Ji Hong, so he went straight to the desk and took the copy of the apricot list to Wang Fulin. Wang Fulin retracted his gaze at this time, swept the names one by one at a glance, and when he finally read it, he found that Zhang Sixiu was among the top ten, Shen Maoxue occupied the fourth high position, Wang Qian and Lu Xingzhou were both around thirty, Wang Daoguan was outside the fifty, and Tu Long was as far as one hundred, but the most striking thing was that Feng Mengzhen was high in Huiyuan!

He couldn't help but sigh softly. Sure enough, there are people in the DPRK who are good officials...... In the past, even if it was a pavilion old scholar, most of the heirs were Enyin, even if they were admitted to the Jinshi, most of them would not be in their own office, where is it like now, they all want to let their sons take the Jinshi exam during their tenure, and they can't be the top three! And without Zhang Juzheng's approval, Shen Mao learned from Feng Mengzhen, even if he was a celebrity in the southeast, would his ranking be so good?

Thinking that he was a vested interest three years ago, Wang Fulin's slander flashed away. Moreover, after Wang Daohui read the list, he immediately said in a deep voice: "I'm afraid Tan Butang's illness won't last for a few days." ”

When Wang Fulin heard the bet between the two porters before, he knew that Tan Lun's situation was not optimistic, but now that he was really sure of such a news, he still felt heavy in his heart. Wang Daokun can gain a firm foothold in the court, Tan Lun has made a great contribution, not to mention that once he dies, the position of the secretary of the military department is likely to fall into the hands of Wang Chonggu, and Wang Daokun, the squire, is afraid that he will have to make a living in the hands of the other party, which is simply too bad news to be bad. Although the squire of the military department can be released as a governor, as long as the secretary of the military department is Wang Chonggu, it is difficult for Wang Daokun to be the governor wherever he goes!

Of course, Wang Daokun's relationship with Zhang Juzheng is not so bad at the moment, and he may not necessarily be afraid of Wang Chonggu, but this year, a boss with a background, means and ability, it is too easy to find fault with his subordinates, and Wang Daokun is not a cautious and error-free saint.

Knowing that although Wang Fulin is a junior, he is the most outstanding figure in the next generation of the Wang family, and in terms of wisdom and courage, he is more powerful than himself and Wang Daoguan, so Wang Daohui will talk about the idea that Ye Junyao had come up with before, and Wang Daoguan therefore thought that Zhang Xueyan, the governor of Liaodong, could be placed on the candidate for Tingtui. However, as soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly saw Wang Fulin slap the desk vigorously.

"I see, when I got on Zhang Siwei's big time, I dared to love that he didn't block the way for Uncle Zhongyan when he tried it!"

Seeing that Wang Daohui didn't understand it at first, he began to think hard, and finally he was shocked, and Wang Fulin knew that Wang Daohui also understood. Blocking people's roads is equivalent to not sharing the enmity of the sky, and Zhang Siwei won Wang Daoguan when he took the examiner in this meeting, so he is Wang Daoguan's teacher, Wang Daokun does not say that he will repay the favor and change his course to support Wang Chonggu, so he must at least remain silent on the court push of the Ministry of War, otherwise in the eyes of others, this is to get cheap and sell well, and it is inevitable to weigh Wang Daokun's political quality.

"Could it be that this is already a boat?" Wang Daohui only felt that the joy he had when he heard the title of Wang Daoguan's apricot list was completely gone, replaced by a deep irritability, "You know, the eldest brother has already written a letter to Zhang Xueyan before." ”

This time, Wang Fulin finally couldn't help but turn black and feel bad. Moreover, Zhang Siwei deliberately chose only one among the sons of Xu Guo and the younger brother of Wang Daokun, it's not that he is suspicious, there are ghosts nine times out of ten!

When he traveled to Liaodong, Zhang Xueyan used him, but he also used Zhang Xueyan, and the two sides were barely even, but Zhang Xueyan saw that Wang Daokun had inspected Jiliao back then, dealt with him, and was Zhang Juzheng's confidant, so he showed most of his kindness. But what really wants to say that he would rather succeed him as the secretary of the military department is his old boss Ling Yunyi in Guangdong, which is still the same year as Wang Daokun and Zhang Juzheng!

But if Wang Daokun has already sold to Zhang Xueyan, but he has shrunk back on the court push of the Ministry of War, then I am afraid that he will completely offend Zhang Xueyan. Just looking at how Zhang Xueyan adhered to Zhang Juzheng's intention to deal with the former Liaodong Governor Liu Tai, you know that this person's eyes will be repaid.

Wang Dao hesitated for a moment and said, "Fu Lin, it is estimated that it will take at least two or three days for the eldest brother to leave the palace, you see......"

"Uncle, if Wu Jing comes back with Jinbao for a while, and let Jinbao wait for a while, I will go to Tan's house to see Tan Shangshu first. Anyway, he gave my name to me at the beginning, and since I returned to Beijing, how could I not go to visit the sick? As for the two concierges that I asked Steward Lin to close before, I bother you to tell your aunt that they have offended me, and you don't have to send them down immediately, and I will talk about it when I come back. ”

Speaking of this, Wang Fulin couldn't help but pray silently in his heart. I only hope that Tan Lun can stay sober, otherwise it will be really difficult.

PS: Just a change...... (To be continued.) )