After Xu Jie hardened his head and finished expounding his opinion, he lowered his head nervously, not daring to look directly into Jiajing's eyes.

After that, everyone only felt a palpitating pressure rushing over their faces, and even breathing became difficult.

Perhaps because he was too afraid, Xu Jie's body had begun to tremble uncontrollably, and large beads of sweat kept rolling down his forehead.

The entire cabinet was silent, and no one dared to make a sound.

I don't know how long time has passed, but I saw Jiajing take his eyes off Xu Jie's body, sneered, and said to himself.

"Hmph, this is obviously an excuse for you to prevaricate, where are there so many unheard of things in this world?"

When Jiajing said this, the conversation changed, paused for a moment, and continued.

"At the beginning, His Royal Highness Taizu, in order to deal with that group of corrupt ministers who were cheating and cheating, didn't he also use the punishment of peeling the skin and filling the grass?"

"I sometimes wonder if I have been so merciful to you that you would dare to disobey my orders!"

When Jiajing's words fell, everyone suddenly felt a chill, and the whole person was shrouded in endless fear, they could hear that Jiajing was not joking with them!

Immediately, everyone knelt on the ground in unison, kept kowtowing on the ground, and asked Jiajing for sin.

"Please forgive your majesty!"

Seeing this, Jiajing watched coldly for a long time before he spoke out unhurriedly.

"Well, get up!"

Seeing Jiajing speak, everyone's faces suddenly showed expressions of the rest of their lives, and they immediately got up from the ground and said in unison.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!"

After everyone got up from the ground one after another, there was still lingering fear on their faces, and they waited for Jiajing's orders with trepidation.

At this moment, Jiajing's ancient sound sounded in everyone's ears.

"Have you figured it out?"

As soon as Jiajing's words fell, Yan Song stood up without thinking and responded.

"Your Majesty, I've figured it out!"

Seeing this, Jiajing nodded imperceptibly, and immediately commanded.

"Well, since you've all figured it out, let's talk about what you think on this matter!"

Seeing that things were back to the beginning, everyone's faces couldn't help but show a little embarrassment.

If you don't follow Jiajing's intentions, I'm afraid you will die now, and if you express your support for this matter, then you will definitely be infamous through the ages and spurned by future generations of scholars!

There is a way to choose the lesser of two evils, and after a little hesitation, everyone made up their minds.

"That's it, after I die, no matter what the flood is, let's take care of the present first!"

At this moment, I saw Yan Shifan, who had been silent from the beginning, stand up and report to Jiajingyu.

"Your Majesty, Weichen has a play!"

Seeing this, a look of surprise suddenly appeared on Jiajing's face, and he immediately waved his hand quite casually, signaling Yan Shifan to continue.

After getting Jiajing's permission, Yan Shifan suppressed all the chaotic thoughts in his heart, and after sorting out his words, he faced everyone and said in a deep voice.

"Since Your Majesty has said before, as long as the clans and nobles who have not passed the imperial examination and entered the official career, they must set up an insurmountable barrier on their heads to limit the official positions they can hold!"

"And those clans and nobles who participated in the imperial examination and successfully obtained the ranking, there is no restriction!"

Wei Chen felt that holding an exam for the clan and nobles alone did not mean that they would have to seize the quota of scholars in the world!

"The imperial examinations, as well as the examinations for the clan and the nobles, can be carried out side by side, and officials who have both ability and political integrity and serve the imperial court loyally can be selected from them!"

When Jiajing heard Yan Shifan's words, a look of relief couldn't help but appear on his face, nodded and spoke.

"Well, yes, keep talking!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

As soon as Jiajing's words fell, Yan Shifan followed closely.

After this, I saw Yan Shifan gather his mind, turn his gaze to Jiajing, and continue to add.

"Weichen thinks that in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, when holding an examination for the clan and the nobles, it should be customary for the Ministry of Rites to come forward and organize the examination."

"And this part of the clans and nobles who have passed the examination, in order to exercise their ability, they should all be delegated to the grassroots level, the civil officials should start from the county and assist the county magistrate in managing the county government, and the military attache should start from the inspection and be promoted according to their merits!"

"In addition to the part of the duties that must be fulfilled on a daily basis, the officials should set additional goals for them, and conduct regular assessments, but the assessment is not enough, there are punishments, and there are rewards for completing the goals."

"Once every six months, if you can't do it three times, you will go to your official position, so that you can reduce the occurrence of prevarication and delay as much as possible!"

After listening to Yan Shifan's words, Jiajing's heart suddenly became clear, in the final analysis, Yan Shifan's words can be summed up in three words.

"Examination method (note: limited to clans and nobles)."

Seeing this, Yan Song's face was full of worry, he was worried that this set of methods against the clan and nobles proposed by Yan Shifan would eventually be applied to themselves.

Yan Song originally thought that after listening to these measures proposed by Yan Shifan, Jiajing would be eager to apply them to all the bureaucrats, and just as he was about to admonish him, Jiajing's voice sounded in everyone's ears.

"Well, Yan Shifan, you have done a good job in this matter, I am very pleased!"

"When the time comes, let's do it according to the method you said!"

When Yan Shifan heard this, a look of panic suddenly appeared on his face, and he subconsciously said humbly.

"Where, all this should be attributed to His Majesty's wise leadership, Wechen just made some small suggestions!"

After Yan Shifan finished speaking, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but have a hint of triumph that the conspiracy had succeeded, in his opinion, Jiajing did not understand the deep meaning, and then no matter what, it will be the civil officials who will firmly occupy the initiative!

And Zhang Juzheng on the side, is far from being as calm as it seems on the surface, as early as when Yan Shifan mentioned that he wanted to assess those clans and nobles, Zhang Juzheng was keenly aware that if this method is used to supervise hundreds of officials and promote it to the whole country, it will definitely have an excellent effect!

In order to keep the black gauze hat on their heads, the officials will definitely try their best to make their political achievements look good, so that they can remove those officials who are vegetarian and eat fish and meat from the official ranks of the Ming Dynasty!

In this way, we can achieve the goal of clarifying the rule of officials, reducing unjust prisons, and strengthening the central government's control over the localities.

Zhang Juzheng had an inexplicable confidence in Jiajing, because he knew that the emperor must have seen the feasibility of extending this measure to hundreds of officials!

Just as he was looking forward to it in his heart, Jiajing would speak and promote this measure to Baiguan, but Jiajing did not take any further action.

"What does Your Majesty mean exactly, and why don't you take this opportunity to spread this initiative to the whole country?"

Zhang Juzheng glanced at Jiajing quietly, thinking so in his heart.

(End of chapter)