Chapter 592 0587 [The Crown Prince Also Makes the Decision on the Palace Examination]

Chuigong Hall.

Zhu Guoxiang handed over an official document: "Most of the prefectures and counties in Guangdong have been settled by edict. However, several prefectures and counties were occupied by the peasant army. Li Bao sent troops to Guangzhou to stabilize the situation and found that the chief officials in Guangdong should all be killed. He could not make the decision, so he wrote a petition to the court for instructions."

Zhu Ming had received Li Bao's letter a long time ago. He pretended to read the official document and said, "Take them back to Beijing and then kill them, so as not to frighten local officials."

The situation in Guangdong is particularly funny and extremely corrupt.

First, Zheng Liang, the transport envoy, returned to Beijing to report on his work. He was reported for corruption and abuse of power, and embezzlement under the guise of the Flower and Stone Gang.

At that time, Song Huizong had not yet fled Tokyo. When he heard that his Flower and Stone Gang was embezzled, he immediately arrested Zheng Liang and interrogated him in prison.

Who knew that Zheng Liang died in the Dali Temple the day after he was imprisoned.

Song Huizong was furious and sent the censor Chen Shu to Guangzhou to investigate - Zheng Liang had been an official in Guangdong for a long time, so he simply settled down in Guangzhou.

At this time, the Jin soldiers went south, Zhu Ming went north, and Song Huizong was scared and ran away.

Censor Chen Shu was ordered to investigate the case. Taking advantage of the chaos in the country, he confiscated the property of Zheng Liang, who died mysteriously, and embezzled hundreds of thousands of strings of his property.

Then, Chen Shu also died in Guangzhou!

Guangdong Transport Envoy Yin Zhongchen and Deputy Envoy Xu Geng jointly swallowed up the huge sum of money.

Transport Judge Ren Xiaokai did not get much benefit. When Li Bao divided his troops to occupy Guangzhou, he reported Yin Zhongchen and Xu Geng for killing people, embezzling stolen money, bullying the people, and exploiting merchants.

Li Bao sent someone to inquire casually and found that Ren Xiaokai was not a good guy either.

The officialdom of the entire Guangdong Province was rotten. Not only did it make the farmers extremely poor, but even the gentry and merchants cried out that it was difficult to live. Only those temples were still very comfortable.

Hearing that Li Bao occupied Fujian, Guangdong officials surrendered one after another, and wanted to continue to live freely in the new Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The corruption in Guangdong is more serious than in other places. Although the local officials there have contributed to the surrender of the city, I plan to not use any of them and dismiss them all and send them back to their hometowns. Those who are notorious will even have their homes confiscated and beheaded!"

"Okay, anyway, the territory has been occupied almost, and there is no need to consider any negative impact." Zhu Ming supports this approach.

In traditional concepts, the father and son are ungrateful.

Those Guangdong officials surrendered their territory to join the new dynasty. It would be fine if they did not get rewarded for their merits, but they were all dismissed from office, and even the notorious ones were executed.

The reason why the officialdom in Guangdong is so rotten is that the emperor is far away, the officials are playing rotten, and there is oil and water to be squeezed.

Take Xu Geng, the deputy envoy of transportation, for example. After being transferred to Guangnan, this guy thought that he was demoted in disguise and had no official career pursuits in the second half of his life, so he began to exploit and make money crazily.

While Xu Geng was embezzling, he also wrote a poem to complain: "It is right and wrong to put the southern wilderness, and the true nature is taken from the time before birth. The water in the front stream flows day and night, and the owner upstairs is unaware."

Directly in the poem, Guangdong is called "Southern Wilderness".

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Even if all the officials are dismissed, they must be replaced in batches to avoid any chaos in the middle."

Zhu Ming said: "This version of Zhejiang Province is too big, and we still have to prevent separatist rebellion. Since Fujian is almost pacified, Wenzhou and Chuzhou (Lishui) should be placed under the jurisdiction of Fujian."

"That's fine," Zhu Guoxiang said, "In the future, some of Zhejiang's surplus finances will be used to transfer to Fujian."

Transfer, that is, fiscal transfer.

Fujian is too poor and Zhejiang is too rich, so they should help each other.

A few words from the father and son determined the ecology of the southeast, and Wenzhou and Chuzhou will belong to Fujian Province in the future.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the sky, stood up and said: "It's about time."

The two walked south together and soon came to Daqing Hall.

"The Emperor has arrived!"

"The Crown Prince has arrived!"

The palace examination of the Northern Song Dynasty was held in the Jiying Hall.

Now it has been changed to the Daqing Hall, which is more spacious, open and bright!

The scholars who were already sitting there waiting for the exam were all surprised when they heard the shouts.

The palace examination should be presided over by the emperor, why did the crown prince come with him?

But Zhu Guoxiang sat down and wrote a line of words, and the palace examination questions were finished.

The guard brought it to the hall and read the questions: "The system says: Discuss the gains and losses of the old Song Dynasty's governance. Please write it clearly in the article, don't be vague or careless, I will read it in person!"

The candidates all raised their heads and looked at the emperor in astonishment. Isn't this palace examination question too direct?

Most of the candidates were stunned and wanted to scratch their heads anxiously.

This thing looks simple, but it is actually very difficult to write.

First, you have to determine a core idea, then discuss it around it, and quote classics, otherwise the article will not be exciting.

Second, you have to write about the gains and losses of the old Song Dynasty, but it is difficult to control the degree.

Finally, you have to be familiar with the overall situation of the old Song Dynasty and have something to say.

Li Dong and Hu Quan, who had studied Zhu Ming's article carefully, started writing almost at the same time: "I replied: I heard that the Book of History says that the people are the foundation of the country, and the country will be peaceful if the foundation is solid..."

The wording and sentence structure are slightly different, but the main idea of ​​their essays is the same at the beginning.

Halfway through, differences began to appear.

Li Dong mainly expounded on the "immorality" of the old Song Dynasty, while Hu Quan tended to discuss the "loss of merit" of the old Song Dynasty.

Zhu Ming sat in the Daqing Hall reading for three hours, and suddenly got up and started to walk around, checking the candidates' essays back and forth.

Just like the invigilator walking around, putting the candidates under great pressure.

Finally, Zhu Ming stayed beside Li Dong and even picked up a page of draft that had been written.

After reading, he gently put it back.

The second stop was next to Hu Quan.

After taking a rough look at the papers of the two, Zhu Ming liked Hu Quan's essay more.

Suddenly, Zhu Ming stopped next to another candidate.

"My answer: At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the nine states were in turmoil... When the Zhao Song Dynasty was first established, the people were tired of war, and the world was happy with civil governance..."

This candidate first wrote about how the Zhao Song Dynasty was established and how it governed the country to be prosperous.

Then he wrote about the three redundant issues and the gains and losses of Wang Anshi's reform.

Finally, he used a lot of space to angrily denounce Song Huizong for cruelly harming the people and scolded this tyrant for not repenting even when he arrived in Hangzhou.

Zhu Ming glanced at his place of origin and name, and suddenly smiled.

Qiantang, Zhang Jiucheng.

This Zhejiang candidate was severely harmed by Song Huizong, and he criticized it without concealment and hearty.

Zhang Jiucheng's ancestral home was Kaifeng, and his ancestors moved to Qiantang. His family was not rich to begin with, and he was repeatedly tossed by the Huashi Gang. By the time he was eighteen, he was so poor that he gave up the imperial examination and went to work as a tutor for rich families.

After making some money, Zhang Jiucheng went to Beijing to study, and during that time he also got a copy of "Dao Yong Ce".

When his money ran out, Zhang Jiucheng returned to Qiantang and continued to teach. The year before the great scholar Yang Shi died of illness, he accepted Zhang Jiucheng as his disciple, but he mainly relied on self-study.

In addition to self-study and teaching, Zhang Jiucheng insisted on studying Buddhism in the rest of his time.

Perhaps because he was too disappointed with reality, Zhang Jiucheng had some world-weariness and believed that this world was an illusion - this gentleman was the true ancestor of the School of Mind, and was the first to propose the idea of ​​"mind is reason".

After Song Huizong fled to Hangzhou, he caused prices there to soar, and there were endless taxes and levies. Zhang Jiucheng had to support his family, and his salary was not enough to support his expenses, so he could only sell his land one after another, wishing that Song Huizong would die sooner.

Li Bao captured Hangzhou and quickly quelled the chaos, which Zhang Jiucheng praised highly.

He got a quota for a Juren through Yang Shi's old friend, and then borrowed money to go to Beijing for the imperial examination.

This old man was very poor at this time, living in a shabby house in the suburbs. It took two hours to walk to the city for the exam.

At noon, the eunuchs and guards brought food and quietly placed it on the examinee's table.

There was also a large bucket of soup outside. The examinee could leave his seat to get soup, or he could go to the toilet with the escort of the guards.

Zhang Jiucheng, who had not eaten fine grains for half a month, wolfed down the meat bun with chopsticks.

It was so cool!

Zhu Ming glanced at Zhang Jiucheng's cloth clothes, which were actually patched with several patches.

It can only prove one thing, that this person is very stubborn and has a strong self-esteem.

Otherwise, with his status as a tribute scholar, many people would send money without asking for it personally.

After Zhang Jiucheng passed the Ministry of Rites test, he must have refused countless people's help!

Zhu Ming continued to walk back and forth in the examination room and found that most of the well-written articles came from the three southern provinces, and some came from the Lianghuai area.

As for the scholars in Sichuan and Kaifeng, the best ones had already become officials and did not need to participate in the imperial examination. For example, Yu Yunwen was directly promoted by Zhu Ming and went to the grassland to be an envoy.

Most of the Sichuan candidates who ranked in the top ten in the Ministry of Rites were second-rate, mainly relying on mathematics and physics to get points, but now they were immediately exposed when they wrote the essays for the palace examination.

It took the examiners three days to rank the three hundred and fifty answer sheets.

First place, Li Dong. Second place, Hu Quan. Third place, Zhang Jiucheng.

Zhu Guoxiang read the top ten and said to Xiao Chu, Hu Anguo, Huang Shang and others: "The third place's essay is too scattered, and half of it is scolding Zhao Ji. I know what you are thinking, and you don't have to do this again in the future."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Everyone bowed hurriedly.

Zhu Guoxiang said to his son: "You come to re-rank."

Zhu Ming was not polite and re-ranked all the top ten.

First place, Hu Quan, from Jiangxi.

Second place, Yang Ji, from Sichuan.

Third place, Li Dong, from Fujian

Fourth place, Li Gongmao, from Jiangxi.

Fifth place: Wang Dabao, from Guangdong.

Sixth place, Li Yi, from Huainan.

…

Tenth place, Zhang Jiucheng, from Zhejiang.

Yang Ji, a Sichuan scholar who was selected as the runner-up, was born in the Yang family in Shuzhong. His brother worked with Zhu Guoxiang for two years.

He was influenced by his brother and understood the thoughts of the emperor and the prince. Although the writing style of the policy essay was not very good, the content was very solid, which was considered to be to Zhu Ming's taste.

"Please take a look, Your Majesty." Zhu Ming handed the paper back.

Zhu Guoxiang took the answer sheet and was too lazy to even look at it. He ordered: "Write the yellow list according to the prince's ranking."

"As ordered!"

The ministers were extremely shocked. The ranking of the palace examination was actually decided by the prince.

After writing the yellow list, everyone left the palace one after another.

Hu Anguo invited Xiao Chu to his carriage and whispered, "As a minister, I shouldn't discuss the monarch and the crown prince. But today's court is really worrying. The military power is in the hands of the prince. What if one day... One or two years is fine, but your majesty is healthy, what about ten or twenty years later?"

"Who cares about that far away?" Xiao Chu smiled, "Brother, don't you understand? Everything is based on the prince. Your majesty's move today may mean that he has the intention to abdicate."