Wang An hurriedly nodded yes and fled from Lu, and after a while, Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang walked in, and at this time, Ling Xue was suspicious that he had retreated behind Li Jiancheng and stood beside him. Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang naturally saw this woman when they came in, and when they looked at the emperor's appearance, the two of them said secretly: It seems that the rumors that the outside world is not false about the emperor's intention to this woman.

The two of them first worshiped the emperor, Li Jiancheng waved his hand to signal that they didn't have to be polite, and he himself said to them while sorting out the jade plates: "Fang Shoufu and Han Bachelor are here, are the candidates for the secretary of state already decided!" ”

Fang Congzhe stepped forward and stood up, he took out a small post and handed it to Wang An and said: "Back to Your Majesty, it is this matter, this is a famous post, please take a look at it." ”

What Fang Congzhe said did not mean to let Li Jiancheng revise it at all, and since he Li Jiancheng had decided to give up the government, he had no intention of interfering. He is indeed looking at it on official business, presumably these lists have been the result of countless negotiations between them, and I am afraid that he Li Jiancheng will not be allowed to interfere.

Wang An took the list, Li Jiancheng looked at the list carefully, and he found that there were thirty-five secretaries of state in the entire list, with a total of thirty-five votes, and the number of the three parties in the Middle East, Lin and Qi Chuzhe each accounted for four layers, and there were 15 people on each side! And there are 5 votes that are not among these parties, and those who have these votes belong to those neutrals in the court. This is an interesting discovery, it seems that no matter how arrogant and domineering Donglin and the other three parties are, they can't ignore the opinions of those neutrals! Or left them five votes.

These five votes are big or small, let Li Jiancheng contact these people by himself, plus his only 10 votes, he can't compete with the four parties at all. But how could he, Li Jiancheng, be stupid enough to join this battle for votes? He Li Jiancheng is the object that should be fought for, and he can only sit firmly in Diaoyutai is in line with his identity.

At this time, Li Jiancheng suddenly found a very interesting name on the list. This is the name of a person on the side of the Donglin Party, and this person's name is Ye Xianggao.

Seeing this person's name, Li Jiancheng was amazed! He immediately asked Han Kuang, "Master Han, have you already convinced Mr. Ye?" Is he willing to come to work in the cabinet? I saw Mr. Ye's name on it! ”

Work? Han Kuang was a little uncomfortable with the emperor's new words, and he said dumbly: "Uh, Your Majesty, this, Weichen did not persuade Ye Xianggong to appoint a cabinet position. But Ye Xianggong listened to His Majesty's State Council and expressed his willingness to join the State Council, Wei Chen came today to report this matter to His Majesty, I don't know if Lu Dao can join the State Council like Ye Xianggong, who has no position! ”

Li Jiancheng was stunned for a moment when he heard his words, and then he laughed dumbly! I didn't expect this Ye Xianggao to come up with such a solution, this is really unbearable loneliness! This man wanted to be a leader but did not want to be subservient, and he did not expect him to join the State Council. Hehe, Li Jiancheng laughed twice, Ye Xianggao is setting a precedent! That's not necessarily a bad thing!

So Li Jiancheng smiled at Han Kuang and said, "Hehe! Yes! What's wrong with this, did I say that those who join the State Council must have a position in the court? What is not to do with a person like Mr. Ye who is highly respected and recognized by everyone! Hehe, you go back and tell Mr. Ye that this matter is accurate! ”

Han Kuang and Fang Congzhe didn't expect the emperor to be so easy to talk to, because these people had already seen that Li Jiancheng didn't really intend to let Ye Xianggao come back, he just used him as a gunman and didn't want to appoint cabinet ministers, which of these people would be fools, how could they not see Li Jiancheng's little flowery intestines. It's just that this issue is something that the two sides can't easily concede, so everyone temporarily agreed with him Li Jiancheng's point of view.

Han Kuang raised his hand and saluted: "Thank the emperor for his kindness, Weichen will definitely bring the words!" ”

Li Jiancheng nodded, and the list was returned to Fang Congzhe: "I don't think there is any problem with this personnel, and the State Council that I promised before has also ordered people to design it, and I will fund the construction in the near future." It may take some time to build, so the temporary meeting place of the State Council will be arranged in the Jianji Hall (one of the three major halls outside the Forbidden City!). The three major halls of the Forbidden City, the Taihe Palace, the Zhonghe Palace, and the Baohe Palace, collectively referred to as the three major halls (called in the Ming Dynasty: Fengtian Palace, Huagai Palace, and Jinshen Palace, and were renamed in Jiajing: Huangji Palace, Zhongji Palace, and Jianji Palace. It is now called the name of the Qing Dynasty)) held, and I have already let people do the decoration inside! Well, today is November 27th, so the first day of next month will start to officially advance the process of the Congress, and Fang Shoufu and Han Bachelor can start preparing after they go down. ”

The two listened to Li Jiancheng's words and saluted and said yes, now Li Jiancheng is becoming more and more sharp, even in the face of political old fritters like Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang, he can be at ease, Li Jiancheng has already finished what he wants to say, but neither of them has the intention of leaving, Li Jiancheng looked at them and said: "What's the matter, is there anything else with the two Aiqing?" ”

Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang glanced at each other, then took a step forward and said, "Returning to Your Majesty, the minister has something to do!" ”

Li Jiancheng saw it and said: "Fang Shoufu has something to say, there is no need to be so polite!" ”

Facing Li Jiancheng's big eyes looking at him, Fang Congzhe was really a little at a loss, and he said, "Uh, Your Majesty! This, Your Majesty, recently there has been a lack of officials in our dynasty, and this year His Majesty has demoted a number of officials, although many people have been appointed from below, but the problem of the lack of officials below is more serious, and the ministers came to discuss this matter with His Majesty! ”

Li Jiancheng listened to his words and frowned, as Fang Congzhe said, this Ming Dynasty has indeed had a lack of officials since Wanli neglected the government, which is also a major factor that led to social instability in the Ming Dynasty.

So Li Jiancheng asked: "How do Fang Shoufu and Master Han think this matter should be solved!" ”

Han Kuang stood up and said, "Yiweichen and Shoufu discussed that we think we should start the imperial examination as soon as possible!" ”

The imperial examination system did not start in the Ming Dynasty, but it was carried forward in the Ming Dynasty, although there were imperial examinations in the Tang and Song dynasties, but the number of admission places was very small, and only a few dozen people were often taken for a subject. Since the third year of Hongwu (1370), the Ming Dynasty opened the imperial examination and expanded the recruitment, and those who wanted to be officials were squeezed out. They all took reading as a profession, and these people were the foundation of the civil and official power of the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, the examination was divided into three levels, the first level was the college examination, the examiners were collectively called children, this child does not refer to children, seventy or eighty-year-old children are also available, the scope of the examination is the state and county, the person who passed the examination is the "Xiucai" that we are all familiar with, you don't think that the show is easy to test, the test score has six grades, only in this examination, the higher can get the title of Xiucai, and the first and second class can be qualified to participate in the higher level of the examination, called "record science".

The next level of examination is called the township examination, and this so-called township examination does not refer to the township examination, but the provincial unified examination. There is only one question in three years, usually in August, and the question is issued by the province, and there is a limit on the number of places. The person who passes the examination at this level is called a lifter, and this lifter is not simple, and he is qualified to be an official.

The last level of the examination, this exam can only be taken by those who have obtained the qualification to raise people, that is to say, your opponents will be the elites of other provinces, and the imperial court will select three hundred people among you (subject to change), but please note that these three hundred people are not what we often call Jinshi, they are just "Gongsheng", if you want to be a Jinshi, you have to pass another level.

That is the examination room of the imperial examination. At that time, the examination room was not the brightly lit classroom of today, and there were a large number of parents waiting for you outside holding watermelons. The examination room of the Ming Dynasty examination is called the Gongyuan, in fact, from the perspective of its structural environment, it can be called a cell, he is a kind of single room, called the number room, five feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet high.

If you measure it, you can feel that this is almost a cage. Candidates should be searched before entering, they can only bring books and lamps to go in, each person is given three candles, after entering, the door is immediately closed and locked, and the candidates are in it to answer questions, and they also rest in it at night, but because the room is too small, candidates can only curl up and sleep, which is really uncomfortable and uncomfortable.

It was after such a difficult examination that the candidates ushered in the last test of their lives, which was the palace examination. In this exam, they will face the rulers of this empire, and the examination will be conducted in the form of the emperor asking questions and the candidates answering, and the content is mainly strategic questions. These poor candidates did not dare and could not raise their heads, they could only answer the questions with trepidation, and then withdraw to wait for their fate.

The whole exam is so difficult, more fortunate than what we are facing today, Li Jiancheng listened to Han Kuang's words and said: "This is an early opening of the imperial examination, it can be, but I remember that the time for the imperial examination should be arranged in the year after tomorrow!" It's too early to next year! Will the candidates be in time? ”

Fang Congzhe listened to it and said: "Well, Your Majesty, there are too many people in this court, and this really can't be delayed for a year, and this matter will be detrimental to the stability of the court and the world for a long time!" ”

The officials of the Ming Dynasty were not visionless people, and Li Jiancheng also nodded and said, "Since this is the case, let's open it!" Keep opening today, and continue to open next year, anyway, there is a shortage of people, so it's no problem to open a few more! This is also a fair place for those students who can't catch up, and can't let people just miss the opportunity! ”

As soon as the emperor said this, Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang were similar, the emperor actually wanted to open the imperial examination for two years in a row, which was good news for Shilin people, Fang Congzhe and Han Kuang had no reason to stop it, they might have offended people in advance, the emperor's principle of fairness at this time This is a good thing, so both of them praised the emperor, and then resigned.

The two of them left quickly, but they didn't expect that at this time, Li Jiancheng was thinking: Imperial examination, this is the time to select talents! Can you find a way to select the talents he wants and arrange them into the government and the opposition......