Tian Ergeng, the righteous son of Wei Zhongxian, is now a thousand households in Dongchang, he is cunning and vicious, the first to attach himself to Wei Zhongxian, and is known as the eldest son Tian Ergeng. Wei Zhongxian originally planned to promote Luo Sigong to the commander of Jinyiwei after two years, but the incident happened suddenly, Tian Ergeng's qualifications were not enough, so he promoted Hou Guoxing, the son of Ke Yinyue.

"Ergeng, you are safe in doing things, and you never let your father down. Quick, come in and sit. Wei Zhongxian waved to Tian Ergeng outside the door with a smile.

"Yes, father-in-law." Tian Ergeng walked to Hou Guoxing and sat down, and arched his hand: "I have found out Zou Jiaren's current situation. ”

"Zou Jiaren was transferred to Henan last year as a political envoy, and he is quite upright and shrewd as an official, and he has made some achievements in governing the local government, although he is also corrupt and bribery, but he does not have any tricks. It's just a tiger father and a dog, he has a son who is not angry, a typical gentleman, every time he is idle, he has caused a lot of trouble for Zou Jiaren, but he has been turned into a small thing and a small thing. Now Jingcha, he is the backbone of the Qi party, although the political envoy is not within the scope of Jingcha, but his protégés and cronies are estimated to lose a lot in this Jingcha. As for that Yue Su, he was indeed Zou Jiaren's protégé, and he was the Xie Yuan when he took the township exam. Tian Ergeng said.

"Good." Wei Zhongxian nodded and said, "For us at the moment, Yue Su's matter is still secondary, and the top priority is to fight for the real shortage of the Ministry of Rites. Secondly, it is this year's Jingcha, [***] star presiding over Jingcha, and he will definitely attack the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang, and a large number of officials will definitely be dismissed at that time. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us, and we must pull in all the officials who have been overthrown by the Donglin Party, take them for our own use, and strengthen our forces. In this way, we can have the capital to confront the Donglin Party, and when the Donglin Party is eliminated, it will not be too late for us to deal with Yue Su. Zou Jiaren's line, let's put it first, and we will definitely be able to use it in the future, whether it is to bring down Yue Su or recruit Yue Su, it will fall on him. ”

"In this way, I will first ask someone to arrange wine and food, you will gather here, I will go to the palace, and I will come back soon." After speaking, Wei Zhongxian stood up. In any case, we must also rush to the front of the Donglin Party and arrange the affairs of the Ministry of Rites.

A month later, the new appointment of the Ministry of Rites was finally finalized, and Gu Bingqian took the position, and Wei Zhongxian won the round. Jingcha was also in full swing, and the Donglin Party was defeated in the fight for the Ministry of Rites, so they intensified their efforts to eradicate dissidents, as if they wanted to kill all the non-comrades in one go.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with Yue Su, his first priority now is to be busy with work. Yue Su ordered the news that the people would re-try, and the horse quickly passed it to all directions, intending to spread the news to the ears of those who had already left Beijing as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, his speed was fast enough, and the speed of those who failed to move was too slow, and many people were overjoyed when they heard the news, and immediately turned around and returned to Beijing. In less than a month, eighty percent of the lifters returned, and went to the Gongyuan again to sign a registration.

Everything was arranged, the examination was reopened, Yue Su moved into the tribute courtyard, and began to be nervously busy. The cabinet found two deputy examiners for Yue Su, and it was also because of Yue Su's rank that he did not arrange for officials at the level of squire to assist. These two benevolent brothers were selected, one was Yang Lian, and the other was Gu Dazhang, a member of the Ministry of Rites. Both of them are members of the Donglin Party, and the purpose of letting them go is nothing more than to supervise Yue Su and find fault with Yue Su.

However, Yue Su sat upright, and when he presided over the examination, he didn't say anything at all, but also did it himself, and was very diligent. Because of this, Yang Lian had a good impression of Yue Su, and often chatted and talked. Both of them are from Huguang, and under the chat, Yang Lian recalled an old incident, that is, when he passed by Yuesu's hometown Yunmeng County in order to take the exam, he stayed at Yuesu's house temporarily to avoid the rain. And that day happened to be Yue Su's birth, Yue Su's father asked Yang Lian to help choose a name, and it happened that a thunder sounded in the air at that time, and Yang Lian gave Yue Su the name Bingyan.

After talking about this, the two were quite enlightened, and their words were much more cordial, and they gradually became friends. Yang Lian still admires Yue Su's personality, except that Yue Su is not a member of the Donglin Party, everything is worthy of the name he gave him at the beginning.

The exam is finally over, and the list is down, Yang Yishan deserves his name, high school will be yuan, and he will prepare for the palace exam in a few days. Before the palace examination, all the candidates who took it had to go to Yuesu Mansion to thank the teacher.

When students go to thank their teachers, it is inevitable to bring gifts, especially when they are in a good mood when they are in a good mood, and the gifts are naturally much thicker. You must know that there are many people here who failed the list last time, and they retook the exam this time, and they can get such an opportunity, all thanks to Yue Su, and it is really unreasonable to buy more gifts and filial piety. There is a poor family, and almost everything is in the pocket.

However, Yue Su, the master, is different, he specially sent someone to check the gifts at the door, and he did not accept anything valuable, and only allowed people to enter. This time, Yue Su's reputation was even worse, so much so that he also attracted many vendors to run to the door to sell melons, fruits, pears, peaches, chickens, ducks, geese and fish. The deal was still quite good, and many scholars took back the gold and jade things and rushed to buy them.

In the blink of an eye, the palace examination arrived, and Yue Su, as the chief examiner, naturally had to be present. After the retest, this time there was no indiscriminate filling, and all the tributes passed. However, when it came to the palace examination, there was nothing to do with Yue Su in this batch of papers, and all of them were approved by the cabinet, and the top ten papers were selected and handed over to the emperor to determine the ranking.

On the palace test list, Yue Su originally thought that even if Yang Yishan was not the top three in the first class, he should at least be the top in the second class, and there would be no problem in mixing with the top Jishi. Who would have thought that he would be given the penultimate place in the second class. This is a shocking achievement.

It can be said that there is fraud in it, Yue Su can't find anything wrong, the name is sealed, several scholars take turns to read the papers, and after the approval, the rankings are ranked first, and then handed over to the Guozijian to open the name and publish the list. All the procedures are very strict, and no one dares to cheat from them. Moreover, after the paper is handed over to the Guozi Prison, it will be specially read to the prisoners, everyone is not stupid, and everyone can see whether the writing is good or bad.

However, with the curiosity in his heart, Yue Su also made a special trip to Guozijian to ask where Yang Yishan's paper was. The palace test is a policy theory, and the supervisor of Guozijian told Yue Su that this paper can be taken as a jinshi, completely because of the rigorous logic, sufficient arguments, gorgeous rhetoric, and beautiful calligraphy in this article, so it should be considered, otherwise, it should be dealt with in the top three.

The reason is simple, the candidate has deviated from the way of the saints.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there were many Shilin schools, but they were mainly composed of two major schools, Cheng Zhu Lixue and Wang School Xinxue. Cheng Zhu Lixue advocated "preserving the principles of heaven and destroying people's desires" to stifle people's surnames, and used this to explain the "way of the sage", forming a complete school of objective idealism. The Wang School of Psychology was developed from criticizing Cheng Zhu Lixue, but in order to cater to the imperial examination system at that time, it could not be criticized from the front, but could only be revised in a roundabout way. It just so happens that Yang Yishan is a descendant of the Wang faction, and no matter how good his articles are, he cannot be recognized by the scholars who insist on Cheng Zhu University of Science, and it is understandable that he is ranked first from the bottom. It can be said that if his roll is really invalidated, there is nothing wrong with it.

Similar to this kind of untalented people, there were a lot of them in the Ming Dynasty, and the most famous of them was Xu Wei, one of the three great talents of the Ming Dynasty. He was the representative of the disciples of the royal family who could not eat at that time.

Yue Su had no choice but to return to the mansion, he understood that now that the overall situation had been decided, Yang Yishan could only accept the reality and wait for the arrangement of the officials. Yang Yishan, who still lives in Yuesu Mansion, doesn't seem to know any worries at all, he is the first to the second, and he can still talk and laugh with Jin Chan and others, and talk about wine. Seeing Yue Su coming back, he even expressed his reluctance to be an official, and wanted to stay in Shuntian Mansion as a guest of Yue Su and be with his brothers.

Yue Su saw that his attitude was sincere, so he gladly accepted it and left him as a staff member in the mansion.

In a blink of an eye, spring went to summer, and this summer, there was a lot of rain, but it was a good year. Queen Zhang Yan's belly is getting bigger and bigger, because there are two henchmen and maids to serve, Ke Yinyue has never succeeded. On this day, after Yue Su dispersed the dynasty, he still accompanied the emperor to the Yangxin Palace, and now Zhu Carpenter began to study a big project, the Western Castle.

This is designed by Yue Su for Zhu Carpenter, the Western Gothic architectural style, the carpenter emperor is the first time to see it, and it feels very novel. I plan to make a model of the castle out of wood first, and then build one in the Forbidden City when I have the opportunity, so as to combine Chinese and Western.

They were busy until noon, and the two of them had dinner at the table, only to hear Zhu Youxiao say: "Now that the queen's belly is getting bigger and bigger, she will be able to give birth to a dragon in a few months, I am really happy." Especially the words of the hundred officials, this year's wind and rain are smooth, and it is even more auspicious. For this reason, a few days ago, I issued a special decree to re-repair the Jiaotai Hall so that it can be used on the queen's birthday next year. By the way, Aiqing, you have a lot of ideas, help me think about it, and see if I can design some new tricks, and surprise the queen at that time. ”

"You should do what you can. It's just that the minister doesn't know what the current Jiaotai Palace looks like, and he is afraid that he will be indecent when the time comes. Yue Su replied with a smile.

"This thing is easy to do, now the Ministry of Industry has sent people to construct, you and I will go to the site to take a look." Zhu Youxiao said with satisfaction.

The reason why Carpenter Zhu was satisfied with Yue Su was very simple, because when he asked the household department to allocate funds to rebuild the Jiaotai Palace, the cabinet was resolutely opposed, and there was a great unpleasantness. And his close minister Yue Su, not only did not object to his rebuilding of the palace, but also immediately expressed his willingness to help, how could he not be happy.

After the two had lunch, Zhu Youxiao took Yue Su to Jiaotai Palace. Jiaotai Palace is between Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace, there is the intersection of heaven and earth, Kangtai is happy. It is one of the three palaces of the inner court, and the scale is naturally grand, and its modifiers will not be said here.

Entering the courtyard, with a sound of "the emperor has arrived", the eunuchs and craftsmen around the Jiaotai Hall immediately knelt down and kowtowed. Zhu Youxiao waved his hand at them, telling them to do whatever they had to do. Liu Mingguo and several attendant eunuchs stood not far behind.

Zhu Youxiao pointed to the Jiaotai Hall and said, "Aiqing, how do you think this hall should be renovated to show new ideas?" ”

Yue Su took a closer look and said, "Your Majesty, I don't know if I can show the construction and maintenance drawings to the minister." The ministers are also good to embellish from it. ”

"Okay." Zhu Youxiao nodded and shouted, "Liu Mingguo, you go over and ask, which of them has the drawings in their hands, and take them for Lord Yue to see." ”

"Yes."

Liu Mingguo trotted over, he knew the eunuch's uniform, found a famous eunuch, and asked who had the drawings. The construction was managed by a director of the Ministry of Engineering and a supervising eunuch of the internal official supervisor. In the hands of this eunuch overseer, there happened to be drawings.

The emperor wanted to see it, how dare he not give it, and hurriedly handed it over to Liu Mingguo. Liu Mingguo quickly ran back and presented it to Carpenter Zhu, who handed it to Yue Su. Yue Su took the drawings and looked at them, there was nothing to be rebuilt on them, just repainted, and the doors and windows were replaced, and there were rotten places, and some wood was replaced.

However, the royal palace is not as good as the dwellings, and there are many places that need to be carved and polished. Yue Su didn't think of where to add some creativity for a while, but said casually, "Your Majesty, no matter what you say about this project, you need 10,000 taels of silver." ”

"Ten thousand taels! Not even a fraction of that is enough. Carpenter Zhu muttered: "The quotation of the internal official supervisor and the Ministry of Industry is 180,000 taels, and I asked them to keep it simple, and finally set a price of 150,000 taels." ”

(To be continued)