Time passed day by day, and three consecutive nine-day annual examinations ended in a goose feather snow.

Shen Yichen still remembers that when he took the Yichou Department examination, it was drizzling outside the Shuntian Gongyuan Courtyard, and it was not only people and things that have changed in the past few years, but even the weather in the season is developing in a worse direction.

If you can test 3,000 questions, it means that there are more than 3,000 answer sheets, plus a few questions, four books and five scriptures, and the number of articles is even higher than 10,000.

It is certainly impossible to rely on the two presidents of the examination to complete the review in just ten days, and the eighteen examiners must first conduct preliminary marking, and then recommend the best articles to the president to rank, and select the five classics and even the most important huiyuan!

Shen Yichen does not need Shen Yichen to participate in the early grading, but this does not mean that he can be free and light. Not to mention the worsening food shortage in the north, just the southern Xinjiang and the northern border are covered with all kinds of war clouds, and we have to think of a solution, otherwise the Ming Empire will sooner or later be dragged down by internal and external troubles.

After returning to the house to relax and rest for a few days, Shen Yichen came to the study to write a letter. The first letter was presented to the emperor, which described in detail that because of the southern expeditionary army to the north of King Qin, the battle of Luchuan ended hastily and the evil was not exhausted, so that at the end of last year, Si Renfa's son Si Lu made a comeback and once again occupied the Ming Mengyang Xuanwei Division.

And Silu also absorbed the water conservancy of the previous wars, reached a secret alliance agreement with the Ava Dynasty of Burma, and eyed the Nandian Xuanfu Division of the Ming Dynasty and the Yunnan Buzheng Division.

As a great unified dynasty, how can others be allowed to snore on the side of the couch?

The Ming Dynasty must not let the feudal states become bigger, and the southern expeditionary army that rushed to the aid of the Beijing division should return to southern Xinjiang as soon as possible to deter the barbarians, and if necessary, carry out another campaign to quell the rebellion!

In addition, allowing the Southern Expeditionary Army to return to the southern garrison, in addition to being able to deter the Luchuan rebels on the surface and pacify them at any time, it will also bring two secret benefits. Z.br>

First, it can weaken the support of Zhu Qizhen of Ming Yingzong in Beijing, you must know that before Anyuan Hou Liupu was transferred from Guangxi to Beijing to take charge of the Shenji Battalion, the Southern Expeditionary Army controlled by Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji was the biggest reliance on the Empress Dowager's wanton interference.

Although Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji did not have an inseparable marriage relationship with the Taishang Emperor family like Anyuan Marquis Liupu, he did not show signs of absolute allegiance to the restoration. But if Jingshi really changes, I believe that the probability of him standing on Zhu Qizhen's side is far higher than his loyalty to Zhu Qiyu.

After all, Zhu Qizhen made Wang Ji knighted as a civil official, creating a precedent in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and this Enlong Zhu Qiyu cannot be compared to it in any way.

Another advantage is that after the Southern Expeditionary Army is transferred out of Beijing, it can also take advantage of the situation to transfer the other Qinwang troops to return to their original station. The departure of more than 100,000 or 200,000 soldiers and horses can greatly alleviate the current food shortage crisis in the north, and there is no need to press the supply line on the fragile Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

If everything goes well and the distribution is reasonable, it can also make the idea of opening a warehouse and releasing grain feasible!

In addition to the recital to the emperor, Shen Yichen's second letter was written with a message of worship, and the object was none other than the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji!

The reason is that there are many benefits brought by the transfer of the Southern Expeditionary Army, Shen Yichen can easily think of it, so it is impossible for Zhu Qiyu, as the emperor, not to know at all, but why didn't he do it?

It's not that I don't want to, but I can't!

The competition between the two emperors has reached a white-hot stage, and whoever controls the military power will become the ultimate victor. The transfer of Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji is equivalent to trying to see the poor dagger, and there is no room for relaxation between the two sides.

Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu is not absolutely sure at present, he can win safely in the case of turning his face, and the word "bet" should not exist in the emperor's dictionary. This is why countless emperors throughout the ages, in the face of the arrogance and arrogance of their ministers, most of them chose to forbear, waiting for the best time to act.

Winning is the result that the Imperial Dictionary must achieve.

Therefore, just stating the pros and cons to the emperor cannot solve the problem in essence, if you want to really achieve the transfer of the Southern Expeditionary Army, you have to Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji nod and agree, and even take the initiative to evacuate *** from Beijing!

It is difficult to do all this, but Shen Yichen must try, except for him who can persuade Wang Ji in this world, I am afraid there is no second person!

A piece of music, a letter of worship sent out, Shen Yichen seemed to let go of his burden, walked out of the study and returned to the backyard, and accompanied Chen Qingtong to make tea in the courtyard and enjoy the snow.

The boiling tea is filled with steam, rising like a green smoke bird, with the flowers and trees in the courtyard wrapped in silver, calm down and carefully taste, it is indeed a unique taste.

"Husband, it seems like you haven't been so leisurely in a long time."

Chen Qingtong poured a cup of fragrant tea for Shen Yichen, and now her abdomen is slightly bulging, and she will be able to welcome the arrival of a new life in half a year.

"It's just a busy time."

Shen Yichen replied with a smile, the cabinet is equivalent to the absolute core of the Ming Dynasty, and almost everything has to be dealt with. After spending these few days of free time for the examination papers, there will be countless tricky things waiting to be dealt with in the future.

As much power as there is, there is as much responsibility as possible, unless he is quite a mediocre official.

"Husband, sometimes I have imagined that if you were not an elder of the Three Yuan and the First Pavilion, but an ordinary scholar, would we live a better and easier life?"

"If it was just an ordinary scholar, my father-in-law wouldn't have agreed to the marriage back then, where did we come from?"

"It seems to be, but I always feel that you are too tired like this."

Chen Qingtong replied with some distress, in the past, when Shen Yichen went out of town, she didn't know her husband's specific office appearance.

Until now as the elder of the Beijing Official Pavilion, Chen Qingtong knew that Shen Yichen had unfinished official duties, and there were all kinds of open and secret battles in the court, which in a sense was not as comfortable as the rural villagers.

"It's okay, get used to it."

Shen Yichen pretended to reply easily, and then changed the topic and asked, "By the way, Qingtong, how is Grandpa's physical condition recently?"

"It's still the same, the matter of the second son is too big a blow to the grandfather."

Hearing Chen Qingtong's answer, Shen Yichen sighed softly.

If you put aside the identity of the Duke of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yong, as a husband and father, is undoubtedly an extremely failure.

But the problem is that at the end of his life, even Zhu Yong's proudest identity as the Duke of Chengguo was buried in the battle of Harrier Ridge. Zhu Ji's collaboration with the enemy and treason seemed to be the last straw that crushed the camel's camel, completely shattering his spiritual pillar.

Whether he can get through this level depends on Zhu Yong himself.

Just when Shen Yichen was chatting with Chen Qingtong, Canghuotou, who was standing at the gate of the courtyard, walked in and said, "The owner, the eldest prince is here."

Zhu Yi has a habit, that is, he will not discuss business with Shen Yichen in front of the female scroll. When he came to the gate of the courtyard, he didn't come in, but asked Canghuotou to make a special statement, which was equivalent to telling Shen Yichen what he wanted to say.

"You tell the eldest prince, I'll go over."

"Yes."

After the canghuo head receded, Shen Yichen stood up and said to Chen Qingtong a little helplessly: "I want to steal half a day of leisure, but I can't avoid the disturbance of mundane things."

"Lady, you can only lose your companion for your husband."

Hearing Shen Yichen say these witty words, Chen Qingtong replied angrily: "Don't be poor, how can you be an idle person, go."

"Thank you for your understanding."

Shen Yichen smiled and arched his hand, then turned around and walked outside the courtyard, and saw Zhu Yi standing on the covered bridge wearing a brown coat.

"To the north, I'm disturbing your little reunion with your younger siblings."

"It's okay, I don't know what's important for the eldest prince?"

In the face of Shen Yichen's straightforward inquiry, Zhu Yi did not answer directly, but asked seemingly inconsequentially: "Xiangbei, how about the invigilation test in the next few days?"

"It's going well."

"I heard that during your inspection of the Gongyuan, you found some unusual traces, and you suspect that someone has cheated in the imperial examination, but is there such a thing?"

Hearing Zhu Yi ask this, Shen Yichen was really a little surprised.

You must know that Zhu Yi, the eldest son of a noble relative, is the natural first heir to the title, and there is no need to take the road of entering the imperial examination, and it is theoretically pressed

The root has nothing to do with him.

But Zhu Yi belongs to the people who go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing, and since he asked it, it must not be as simple as chatting about whether someone cheats. So Shen Yichen nodded and said, "It's true, the eldest prince is really well-informed."

"Xiangbei, if you want to get involved in a big fraud in the imperial examination that shocked the government and the opposition, and use this to maintain the so-called fairness and justice, I advise you to dispel this idea as soon as possible."

"Because you're not fighting against a few officials, it's the whole system and system!"

This is not the first time Shen Yichen has heard persuasion, but compared with Yang Hongze's exhortation, Zhu Yi's words similar to warnings undoubtedly bring strength that is not at the same level.

"Did Uncle Zong ask you to be a lobbyist?"

"He's got it, but it's up to me whether I agree or not."

Zhu Yi's expression instantly became serious, Shen Yichen hadn't realized how big a hole this matter would be. In the early Ming Dynasty, the "North and South Bang Eucalyptus" occurred during the Taizu period, and the heads of people killed were flowing like rivers of blood, but was the result in exchange for fairness?

No! There is a natural gap between the north and the south, and according to the principle of absolute fairness, they should speak on the basis of their grades, rather than the final division of the admission quota.

For the state, in addition to recruiting people for merit, the imperial examination is also the distribution field of national political power. In order to ensure the balance of political status between the southern scholars and the northern scholars, there was the final north-south list system, and fundamentally speaking, the result pursued was not fairness, but stability!

The water is clear, there is no fish, and the imperial examinations of all dynasties are also the distribution field of political forces in the DPRK and China, such as the political division of Jiangxi, a major province of the imperial examination, since ancient times, the style of cultivating and reading heirlooms is at its peak, and over time, there are many officials in Jiangxi and China.

In ancient times, interpersonal relations were based on the township as the hub, and once the officials in a certain region far exceeded the average, then a snowball effect would soon be formed, and more and more officials of the same clan and township would enter the court, so as to completely form a party to control the government.

For example, the Chu Party and the Zhejiang Party in the late Ming Dynasty party struggle, in a sense, were not originally divided into camps according to political concepts, but purely took sides in the region.

Zhu Yi took the "North and South List" as an example, that is, to tell Shen Yichen that the candidates made marks on the answer sheets, not simply favoritism, but also the political compromise reached within the civilian official group, which maintained the balance of power in the court and prevented one from becoming dominant.

Even the emperor actually acquiesced to the existence of this situation, as long as it was not too excessive.

Shen Yichen found this situation, and he could suppress it appropriately, but he couldn't lift the entire table. That's why Zhu Yi responded to be this lobbyist after meeting Hu Hui, and as a brother, he must give a warning!

Hearing Zhu Yi's voice, Shen Yichen stood in place a little stunned, he really didn't expect that a seemingly simple fraud incident in the field would involve so many intricate political power distributions behind it.

Many times, Shen Yichen thinks that he has already adapted to this turbid officialdom, and even in the face of the old foxes in the center, he can fight quite a lot, and he is no longer the stunned young man he was at the beginning.

Now he vaguely realized that he had not really penetrated into the core of the Ming officialdom. Or to put it more bluntly, I haven't touched on the level of cutting the power cake!

"Eldest Prince, what do you want me to do, when nothing has happened?"

"Sometimes people have to adapt to the rules of the game in officialdom, even the emperor."

Zhu Yi replied vigorously, he had already said it very thoroughly, and the consequence of the revelation was another "North-South List", which in essence still changed the soup but did not change the medicine. Or even more cruel, with the current foundation of the new monarch, he may not even give Shen Yichen a chance to uncover the fraud in the imperial examination!

Silence, long silence.

Reason told Shen Yichen that everything Zhu Yi said was true, after all, in retrospect, he had experienced a similar scene.

Yang Hongze and He Pingyan, aren't they the juniors elected by Hu Hu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Wang Zhi, the heavenly official of the Ministry of Officials, to maintain the internal balance of the next generation of civil and official groups?

But in terms of sensibility, it is difficult for Shen Yichen to convince himself to go along with it.

"Three hundred out of 3,000 people are selected to select the Huiyuan and the Five Classics, relying on the high recommendation of the examiner in the 18th room, and the decision-making power of the president of the examination from beginning to life is only limited to the 18-point test paper."

"To the north, by default, the top three places are acquiesced, and the Chengguo Mansion is willing to donate 30,000 stone rice grains to help you relieve the famine in the north."

Seeing that Shen Yichen didn't reply for a long time, Zhu Yi opened a bargaining chip for the top three in the test, which was a quota, 10,000 stone rice grain!

"Is this the price of the Great Uncle?"

Shen Yichen replied mockingly, whenever he thought of Zhu Yi as simple and righteous, he would show a complex "evil" side.

The answer that could be obtained was once again beyond Shen Yichen's expectations, only to see Zhu Yi shake his head and reply, "No, I gave it."

"Why do you want to do this for the eldest uncle, just because of the father-in-law's in-law relationship?"

"It's not just my in-laws, but I need to use the power of the Great Sect Uncle to attack the lord, so that my father can see the plaque of the Chengguo Mansion and never fall!"

When he said this, Zhu Yi put his hand on the fence of the covered bridge, and he could see the green tendons on the back of his hand bulging, showing the turbulence of his inner emotions.

At this moment, Shen Yichen completely understood the reason why Zhu Yi would discuss with him.

As the eldest son of the inheritance of the family's heavy responsibility, he didn't want his father, who was proud of his life, to see a picture of the family in his later years, and finally died in depression. Only by restoring the title of Duke of Chengguo and successfully attacking the title, and once again supporting the plaque of the Duke of Chengguo, can he be regarded as a filial piety for the son of man!

"30,000 stone rice grain plus the list of powerful people who participated in the price hike of grain, and the eighteen rooms recommended the places except for the five classics, I can regress and compromise."

Politics is an art of compromise, this is what Shen Yichen has said countless times, but he didn't expect it to be fulfilled to himself so soon.

Zhu Yi is right, the imperial examination itself is the distribution of political power, and if he wants to flip the table in his current capacity, the result will definitely not be that the officials will rule the government and be clear, and only the meritocracy.

It's that I, the president of the examination, was taken a decent vacation or overhead, and in addition to being named in my own department, I can no longer participate in any grading and selection process.

"There is no need for a list of powerful people who raise food prices, almost any of the grange shops of the ministers of the Emperor has more or less participated in the hoarding, which has pushed up the price of food in disguise."

"As for the quota of the Five Classics, Huiyuan has to take it out."

"The eldest prince, you know my character, the bottom line is that the Five Classics are not negotiable."

Shen Yichen's tone began to harden, politics is an art of compromise, yes, but it does not mean infinite regression.

The identity of the five classics is meritocracy, at least it can ensure that they can get more attention from the Son of Heaven in the next palace examination process when their identity background is disadvantaged, so as to overcome the influence of the civil official group and take a roundabout route to seek talents for the country.

The ranking jumped out of the Five Classics, and the palace test was not even qualified to sit in the front row of the Fengtian Palace, so how could the Son of Heaven and the paper reader pay attention?

"Okay, I'll do my best."

Zhu Yi nodded, he knew Shen Yichen's temperament, and he had his own persistence and toughness in his bones.

After reaching a compromise with Shen Yichen, when Zhu Yi wanted to turn around and leave, he remembered something, so he said: "To the north, the famine in the north has the factor of hoarding rice and raising the price of grain, but in essence, it is a serious shortage of rice grain."

"Even if you can keep food prices down, you can't conjure food out of thin air to feed the thousands of hungry people."

"You'd better think twice about this."

"Grand Master Xie warns, I have already made a decision on this matter, and I will not back down."

In the face of Shen Yicheng's insistence, Zhu Yi did not continue to persuade him, and only left a sentence: "If you encounter difficulties in disaster relief in the future, you can ask me for help, there should be some surplus grain in the grange under the Chengguo Mansion."

"I will, Master Xie."

Looking at Zhu Yi's departing back, Shen Yichen stood on the covered bridge for a long time without taking a step and returned to his small courtyard, with an indescribable complexity in his heart

Sentiment.

Zhu Yi found himself to have this conversation, not so much to show favor to Hu Hu to get the help of the lord, but more like a brother to warn the stupid and naïve brother.

Officialdom really can't accommodate pure idealists, I have been out of town for too long, I have dealt with too many officers and soldiers in the army, and I haven't played this officialdom game in Beijing for too long.