These days of the New Year, all the major official offices of the imperial court are on holiday. Most people go home to enjoy the peace and happiness of the country. Biyu and other people who have furniture in Beijing, needless to say, even Ye Ye and other outsiders have also gone home to visit relatives. Shu Yan was alone, unconcerned, and on duty at Shangshutai as usual. Fortunately, in addition to Xiao Mo this year, there are more Ruan brothers and sisters, and they are not very lonely.

At this time of year, the Treasures Department should be busier than usual, but Sima Yan has eaten less these days, and Xiao Mo is more relaxed. Therefore, she can also find time to run out and stay with Shu Yan for a while.

In the blink of an eye, it is the fifteenth day of the first month, and the holiday is about to end. On this day, Shu Yan just came out of Shangshutai, and when he saw Xiao Mo walking in front, he ran up in a few steps to say hello: "Shangyuan Festival, you are not in the Zhenyu Bureau, but what are you doing in front?" ”

"What's wrong with the Shangyuan Festival? The emperor doesn't eat a little more, what do I have to do? ”

"I was about to ask you, I haven't been to the court for a few days, and I heard that the emperor is not in good health, what happened?"

Speaking of the emperor's body, Xiao Mo's face showed a trace of worry: "I don't know the specifics, it's the matter of the imperial doctor." Anyway, from the perspective of diet, there is no sign of improvement at all, in short, it is not very good. ”

"As long as it's okay, it's fine, now that New Year's Day has just passed, and there is nothing to do in the world, the emperor is dragging his sick body again, and it will be okay to go to court a few days later." Speaking of this, Shu Yan suddenly said to Xiao Mo, "You have taken great pains to raise Your Majesty, I really hope that Your Majesty can reign for a few more years." ”

Xiao Mo couldn't help but smile: "That old pervert, even if he is so weak, still walks around the harem in a sheep cart." He reigns for one more day, but he just pampers one more concubine, what good does it do to Dajin? ”

Shu Yan sighed and said: "Your Majesty has worked hard all his life, although he is greedy for pleasure in his later years, but his prestige is still there, and he is wise and resourceful, and he can control the situation, which is better than that stupid prince...... Much stronger. ”

Speaking of this, Shu Yan turned his head to look around, and made sure that there was no one, so he said with confidence: "Forgive your sins, forgive your sins, fortunately no one heard, otherwise wouldn't it be disrespectful for you and me to say things like 'old pervert' and 'stupid prince'?" ”

The two of them happened to be fine, so they went for a walk together on the street while talking.

The lights are on. Because it is the Shangyuan Festival, the streets of Luoyang City are hung with red lanterns. At this time, the atmosphere of New Year's Day is still warm, coupled with the weather of the Shangyuan Festival, it is more interesting. Everywhere is full of lights, and everyone is a fresh dress. Cars, horses, and pedestrians flow endlessly, and goods are bought and sold endlessly.

Seeing this situation, Xiao Mo couldn't help but sigh: "I can't complain that the envoys of the Quartet worship the Central Plains, there are so many countries to surrender, it turns out that the Great Jin Dynasty is really the world's first-class rich and prosperous place." ”

Shu Yan also smiled happily: "After more than 20 years of peace, the Great Jin Dynasty has really prospered too much. I don't know how far away, but compared to when I was a child, I don't know how much stronger! But—"

Xiao Mo saw Shu Yan suddenly smile, so he asked, "But what?" ”

"Luoyang is where the Jingshi is located, and it does not represent the entire Great Jin. And even Luoyang itself, what the world sees, although it is plastered everywhere, but under the cover of this flashy appearance, how many hardships of the tile households are hidden! ”

"You are worried about the country and the people again, I only see the prosperity everywhere, where is the hardship?" Xiao Mo said while pointing to the scene on the street to refute Shu Yan, "Look at the ermine Qiu Yu that the boy is wearing, I'm afraid it will be worth tens of thousands of dollars, what a spirit; Looking at the car that just turned into this street, it was not only spacious, but also pulled by two horses, which must be fast and comfortable; There were also the two children on the side of the street, who held soufflé cakes in their hands, but did not eat them, and used them as weapons, smashing and playing with each other. ”

"You, you only see the bright side, but you don't find the dark side." Shu Yan pointed to the scenes that Xiao Mo just said and said, "Of course, the clothes worth tens of thousands of dollars are warm and spirited to wear, but the charcoal seller at the feet of that son, on such a cold day, is still wearing a tattered clothes, and his hands and face are frozen purple; The two-horse carriage is naturally very comfortable, but you look at the two brothers walking on the left side of the road, taking turns carrying their sick mother, it seems that the road is not close, and they dare not stop when they are out of breath, they must be very anxious. Not to mention the carriage, if there was even one donkey in his family, why did the brothers work so hard? And the two rich boys, of course, used it to spoil it because they were tired of eating it, but when they threw it out......"

"Well, you're right." Xiao Mo interrupted Shu Yan's words, because she saw that behind the two rich children, there were several poor children in tattered clothes, waiting to grab the soufflé cake that fell on the ground. "It's me who is too superficial and doesn't have a comprehensive perspective."

"It's not that you're too superficial, it's that your life experiences are different. You were born in the Chief's House, and you grew up worry-free; As for me, I came from a cloth family, and I have been planning for my livelihood since I was a child, and I know the lives of the people at the bottom very well. ”

"Maybe, although I have been wandering the rivers and lakes for so long, I have always been for the purpose of amusement and have never cared about people's livelihood. But why are there still so many poor people in this prosperous age? ”

"For the common people, the prosperity is just a few less hungry, and the poor are still poor. At any time, everywhere, there will be a distinction between rich and poor, but the size of the gap is just the size of the gap. ”

Xiao Mo was very impressed by Shu Yan's profound words: "Then Brother Shu, with your current net worth, what level is it today?" ”

Shu Yan smiled: "My annual income is only 400 stones; The food order is higher than Shang Shulang's rank, and the price is also a little higher, but it is also half a catty and eight taels, which is not enough for the expenses of the children of the wealthy family for three days. However, it is more than enough to be below than the top, and it is still much stronger than ordinary people. If the wealth of the people of the world is also divided by borrowing the hierarchy of the Nine Grades of Officials, let's count it as the fourth class. ”

"Well, I'm afraid it's more than that. Don't forget, we've just made a small fortune. ”

"You're talking about the 200,000 yuan rewarded by the emperor, right? I forgot. ”

"That's the equivalent of three years of your salary, which is a lot. How are you going to spend this money? ”

"I'm used to receiving a fixed amount of money every month, and my monthly expenses are nothing more than firewood, rice, oil, salt, etc., nothing else, and all of a sudden the extra money is like a chicken rib, dispensable."

"How can anyone in the world say that money is like chicken ribs? If you don't need it yourself, even if you give it away. ”

"yes, why don't we give it away?"

"Huh?" Xiao Mo was surprised, "You just came, do you really want to give away the money?" Who do you want to give it to? ”

"Give it to those in need. For example, the charcoal sellers, the sons of sick women, the poor children, and the poor people I met last year who let their children starve and exchanged their milk for money. ”

Xiao Mo likes to do new things the most, and after listening to Shu Yan's words, he readily agreed: "Okay, who is afraid of whom." You and I will go back and get the money now, and each of us will give him 100,000 yuan first. ”

"How do you want to scatter?"

"Most of the people in the inner city are high-ranking officials and nobles, and most of the people in the outer city are ordinary people, so of course they have to go to the outer city to disperse. As for how to scatter the method, I scatter mine, you scatter yours, each has nothing to do. ”

"Here you go again." Shu Yan knew that Xiao Mo's head was alive, and he might already have an idea in his heart, but he didn't tell himself, "At this Yuanzheng Conference, you proposed to use eight dishes to match my eight music and dances, each with eight tones. At first, I thought it was ridiculous, I was often worried about you, and I felt uncertain about you, so I inquired about you a few times, but you refused to reveal it at all, and I didn't expect you to have so many ghost ideas in the end. ”

Xiao Mo said, "You just say, how does my food match your music?" ”

"Of course it's wonderful, even the emperor said, 'seamless'. Not only the genus of the eight sounds, but even the music of the four yi and the collection of sentences of the last Jade Leaf Pavilion, your food is impeccablely matched. ”

"That's good, I said it a long time ago, I'm serious and dedicated to 'food and music'. The reason why I didn't reveal it to you in advance is to give you a surprise. Speaking of this, she smiled slyly again, "This time is no exception, you just wait to reap the surprise." ”

Xiao Mo still didn't explain how to distribute the money. Shu Yan had no choice but to let him go, go back and take out 100,000 yuan, divide it into several parts, and secretly disperse it without leaving a word.

After the Shangyuan Festival, all government offices resumed normal work. At the beginning of the new year, the country and the people are safe, there is no emergency military situation, earthquake and flood, etc., but there is a major event related to the career of all officials, that is, performance appraisal.

According to the record of "Shangshu", in the era of Yao Shunyu, there was a saying that "three years of performance appraisal, three exams of dethroned and bright". That is, the official performance is examined every three years, and after three inspections, the official's promotion and promotion are decided. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods, the world for the public became the world for the private, and politically it was often the Shiqing Shilu, and the performance appraisal was basically useless. It was not until after the Qin Dynasty that the county system was implemented, especially after the Han Dynasty's inspection system, that the performance evaluation of officials gradually regained itself.

However, later generations felt that although it was a good thing to decide the promotion or demotion of officials based on their political achievements, nine years had passed after the three examinations, which was too long. Those with excellent talents and virtues will not be promoted until nine years; In the same way, it is really inappropriate for those with low ability to sit firmly in the official position for nine years. As a result, later rulers tended to conduct annual evaluations, and were deposed every three or six years.

At the time of the Jin Dynasty, in addition to the performance appraisal of officials carried out by the chief of the official office, there was also an additional layer, that is, the evaluation of the central government. In other words, every official has to go through a double evaluation by his boss and the central official of his hometown.

Shu Yan, as Shang Shulang from Ruyin County, Yuzhou, naturally has to go through the evaluation of Shang Shuling Wei Qian and Ruyin Zhongzheng Shihui, and Yuzhou Dazhong Zheng Jia Gong. Since joining Shang Shulang, Shu Yan has been diligent in his work, never making a mistake, and his writing is excellent and fair, so Wei Yan has rated him every time.

The secretary system originally had its own chief secretary supervisor and secretary order, but since Sima Yan merged the secretary system into the Zhongshu system, Biyu's political performance as a secretary Lang was evaluated by the chief secretary of the Zhongshu system. After Xun Miao's death, the new Zhongshu supervisor was Wang Yan of the Langya Wang clan. Wang Yan was originally Biyu's distant uncle, and because Biyu was famous at this year's Yuanzheng Conference, Wang Yan paid more attention to this nephew. However, after some investigation, it was found that Biyu had not made any political achievements over the years, and it was really difficult to give praise. But seeing the performance appraisal results given to him by Xun Miao before, he was among the best every year. So he thought: According to his political achievements, although he has no bad deeds, he also has no reputation for size. At most, he was rated average, but since he used to be among the best, and this year he has the reputation of the Yuanzheng Conference, and I continue to rate him as excellent, so I guess others will have no objections. As a result, although he changed to a new boss, Biyu's performance in the system was still excellent.

After the evaluation within the respective system, the next step is the Zhongzheng evaluation. Before entering the office, the Ministry of Officials had conducted a strategy test for these candidates for filial piety, Xiucai and Tai students. And the evaluation of the incumbent officials of the Zhongzheng system must first go through a strategic test. The difference is that at that time, the content of the Five Classics of Confucianism was examined, and now the current scribes are mainly examined to the level of writing documents and notes of the imperial court and the grasp of current political countermeasures.

Of course, the examination is mainly aimed at middle and low-level officials, and high-ranking officials such as the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries do not come to participate. On the day of the test, Shu Yan, Biyu and other scribes gathered in the ministry. The number of questions in the strategy test is not large, and it is often only three current political countermeasures. That is, the new situation and new problems that are currently emerging in various fields of the imperial court.

Some people died, but not completely......