In the evening, Fan Xian returned to his courtyard and talked to Wan'er about the meeting with the second prince during the day, and then ushered in another guest as expected-the guest was Xin Qiwu, who was close to the prince's East Palace.

Sitting down to watch the tea, looking at the names on the note in his hand, Fan Xian smiled slightly, knowing what the prince was going to do, but he didn't know why the other party came to him.

"Why are you showing me this?" Fan Xian took the note in his hand, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "Lord Shaoqing, what you can try, the lower officials can't interfere at all." ”

A few months ago, in the negotiation process with the Northern Qi Dynasty, these two were the main envoy and the other were the deputy envoys, and they cooperated very tacitly, and there was no too much resistance in their personalities. Xin Qiwu took a sip of the teacup and explained softly, "You should know what these names are. ”

Of course, Fan Xian knows that the day after tomorrow is the day when the exam will be held, at this juncture, all the mansions are like little daughters-in-law and grooms, and the threshold of the back door is about to be trampled, it is said that the elder Guo Yu of the Ministry of Rites is tireless, and he does not dare to offend too many princes and nobles, so he simply asked for the decree and hid in the palace. The other four were also examined and promoted, and they had already regarded the Ministry of Rites Taixue as their own house, and they didn't dare to go back to their homes at all.

But according to the energy of the East Palace, if the prince wants to promote some young talents he wants to cultivate in this imperial examination, there should be a way, just say that Guo Youzhi, the president of the examination, everyone knows that it is a staunch supporter of the East Palace, just hand over a word, there should be no problem, how can he find himself.

As if sensing his doubts, Xin Qiwu smiled and shook his head. said: "Xiao Fan is talented. Everyone in the world sighs, but it seems that they don't know much about the rules in Beijing. The rules of the imperial examination in this dynasty are all in accordance with the practice of the previous dynasty, and the changes are not too big, in order to prevent fraud. The students' papers had to be re-copied to prevent their handwriting from being recognized, and the most important step was to obscure their names. ”

Xin Qiwu continued: "The names of these six people on the paper are all people I have personally met. He smiled and said, "Talented people." ”

Fan Xian has always thought that he is a very calm person. But when Xin Qiwu is gone. He sat quietly in his study. When he looked at the note in his hand, he still had some faint anger. The day after tomorrow is the day after tomorrow, and he didn't know until today that in addition to the president, the door teacher, and the promotion, he would try among the officials. I also play a very troublesome and important role.

In the previous conversation, Xin Qiwu told him that the imperial court had issued an order that the Taixue Wupin Fengzheng Fan Xian would serve as the middle lang of the examination - the somewhat strange position of the middle lang was actually the official who was fully responsible for the order of the examination, and he had considerable real power in his hands, and more importantly, after the scroll was sealed that night, in the long night before the revision of the volume, the officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Taixue teachers re-copied the papers, and the matter of obscuring the name was the responsibility of the mediator.

But for those who want to play some small tricks in this meeting, the first thing to deal with is the link of fame. Even if the background behind those students has already bought off the officials of the Ministry of Rites, or even the examiners of the seat teachers, if they don't do it first, the examiners who mark the test papers will not be able to start.

Originally, after so many years of imperial examinations, these fraudulent and private transactions, Qingguo officials have already made skilled jobs, and the distribution of forces from all parties also has some formulas for reference, but because this time it is the famous Fan Xian, who is very inexplicably sitting in the position of the middle lang, so the parties in the DPRK and China are inevitably a little uncertain. No one knows what kind of thing this little Fan Shixian will do.

Therefore, the prince did not shy away from letting Xin Qiwu come to Fan's mansion in advance, he thought that Fan Xian should not go against his will, and these days, the prince thinks that the East Palace has also given Fan Xian enough rewards, and it is time for Fan Xian to show his attitude.

Fan Xian glanced at the names of the six people on the note again, smiled, destroyed the note into powder, and then slowly walked back to his bedroom, feeling a little more grateful to the second prince Pingkong, if the second prince also came to such a hand, it would be really difficult to deal with it by himself.

But he still somewhat underestimated the complexity of the situation.

Lin Wan'er sat at the table and looked at him with a smile, and then knocked lightly on the table, and the few pieces of white paper next to her fingers looked clean and chilling. Fan Xian sighed, patted his forehead and said, "Don't tell me, it's a person's name written on it." ”

Lin Wan'er grinned, stood up from the stool, walked to his side, took his arm, and praised: "Xianggong is really a smart person. ”

Fan Xian smiled bitterly: "I thought that before going to Northern Qi, we could recuperate in Kyoto, who ......knows" He finally couldn't help but curse in a low voice: "Who asked me to be this middleman!"

"My father, your father. Lin Wan'er looked at him bitterly, "Although this position is not up to the next level, it is at the critical level." According to the practice in previous years, this one will enter the court as an official after the examination, and when I see you in the future, I will also call out the teacher, which is really ......."

Fan Xian said angrily: "Aren't our two fathers who are not very close to each other a little too enthusiastic? I'm only seventeen, can I let a middle-aged Hanlin pedantic bachelor salute me in the future?"

Lin Wan'er swept away the gloom, and said with a smile: "Now that you are too famous in the capital, this time someone even nominated you to be the seat teacher, if you were not too young and were rejected by the palace, you might become the youngest test master in the world in hundreds of years." ”

Fan Xian said: "It's not a good thing, now I regret the drunken madness in the palace." But there is never any regret medicine in the world to take, he took a closer look at the note handed over by his wife, and found that some of the names on it are still more familiar, they are all more famous students in Beijing, some of the people he has been in contact with, and they do have some talents, seeing this, Fan Xian's heart is a little more settled.

"Since I'm in the middle of the house, they still come to the mansion so blatantly?" Fan Xian sighed: "This note is the evidence of their fraud, and when it is sent to me, their courage is too great." ”

"It's all the old rules. Lin Wan'er has lived in the palace for a long time, so she naturally knows these things, and explained: "Although Juzhonglang in previous years was a key chong, but the job supply was too low, so all parties didn't pay much attention to it, anyway, if anyone in the palace wanted to cultivate a few of his henchmen, then Juzhonglang had to pretend not to see it, where did he dare to say more." It's just that this year, it's the turn of the prime minister to take up this position, but those people are afraid of your means and background, but they don't understand your temperament, so they will come to greet you like a president, show politeness, and show respect. Of course, those officials who think they can't stand up to you will still follow the old routine and don't dare to harass you. ”

"In this case, I just need to do what I did as I did in the past. Fan Xian frowned slightly, he really didn't expect that Qingguo's officialdom had been corrupted to such an extent, and when he thought of those students who were working hard in the suburbs, he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable.

"You can do whatever you want. Lin Wan'er was not an ordinary person, and said softly: "Even if these people's faces are not sold, who would dare to do anything to you?"

Fan Xian smiled bitterly, thinking that you are the county lord, of course no one is afraid, although the background behind him is not small, but your prince brother wants to take advantage of this matter to see his own statement. He asked instead, "Who sent these names?" There were only three notes, not as many as he had imagined.

Lin Wan'er smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "Actually, it's all something I provoked?"

Fan Xian said: "How do you say it?"

Lin Wan'er responded: "I entered the palace today and went to sit in the palace of Ning Cairen, you know that I have always played by her side when I was a child." It's a tsubaki. She then frowned and said, "As for the other two pieces of paper, one was sent by my father to Mr. Yuan, and the other was sent by the Privy Council. ”

Fan Xian shook his head, Ning Cairen's representative is naturally the eldest prince who is still far away in the west, since the prime minister sent himself to the position of Zhonglang, there is absolutely no reason not to use his son-in-law, but the old Lord Qin of the Privy Council, although he has never met, knows that he is a veteran of the Three Dynasties, a super powerful figure in the military, and he does not honestly cultivate a few generals, how can he come to Wenchen to intervene in the imperial examination.

"Forget it, it's all a trivial matter, since the whole country is full of crows, I naturally won't pretend to be a red-crowned crane. Fan Xian said lightly, destroyed all these notes, gently grabbed his wife's shoulders, and walked towards the front house.

――――――

On the ninth day of the first month of February, the day of Dabi, the scholars of Qingguo will sell all the things they have learned in the cold window for ten years to the emperor's family. Like fish swimming, the scholars in long robes walked to the place of the big test: the Second Examination Institute of the Ministry of Rites, and looked like they were desperately drilling into a small fish basket.

Fan Xian had already met with the president Guo Shangshu, the two ministers, and the two promotions, and the ministers were a little nervous to arrange the procedures, and the next day they performed their duties separately.

A Taishi chair rested on the side of the gate, and beside him were the yamen officials and the officials sent by the Supervision Yuan. Fan Xian'an sat quietly on the Taishi chair in the middle of the crowd, watching these students walk in front of him with cold eyes.

In front of the students, whether they are old or young, they are all respectful, people who know Fan Xian, respect his reputation, and those who don't know Fan Xian, respect his position. At the door, the tiger and wolf officials beside Fan Xian had already opened the curtain and began to search their bodies one by one to prevent students from bringing prohibited items into the room.

Fan Xian took a sip of tea, looked at these hard-working students who were carrying bedding and eating on the toilet, like a village worker, and couldn't help but shake his head, and suddenly saw a student who had been checked was preparing to be admitted to the hospital, rolled his eyes, and shouted, "Wait!"