Chapter 645 644 Chaos in September of the First Year of Longqing

Chapter 645 644 The first year of Longqing. September. Chaos

Wei Guangde got the news from Emperor Longqing that he was going to be transferred to the Ministry of Rites.

Thinking about the leisure of the Ministry of Rites, Wei Guangde was actually very satisfied.

Although the Ministry of Rites did not have as much money as the Ministry of Personnel and had little power, it was noble and noble, which would be of great benefit to his future promotion.

And after he was transferred to the Ministry of Rites, the first joint examination and palace examination of the Longqing year would be held after the new year. This was a grand ceremony for selecting talents. Maybe Emperor Longqing would really let him be the chief examiner of the joint examination and be a teacher for a group of candidates.

However, just as he was collecting the mistakes and omissions of Xu Jie's students and waiting to take up his new post in the Ministry of Rites, something happened in the Ministry of Rites.

Early in the morning of that day, Wei Guangde entered the Ministry of Personnel as usual, and went to his duty room after the roll call.

Before he had read a few official documents, Lu Bu hurried in and whispered in Wei Guangde's ear: "Master, an urgent memorial from Nanjing has just been sent to Beijing, saying that there was a problem with the Nanzhili provincial examination this year."

"Nanzhili? Didn't the court send Wang Xilie from the Hanlin Academy to be the chief examiner this year? What could go wrong?"

When copying the "Yongle Encyclopedia", Wang Xilie had been working as a branch officer. Wei Guangde had a lot of contact with him and felt that he was a good person.

If there was a problem with the provincial examination, it would most likely be a cheating case in the examination room.

It was the first major examination since Emperor Longqing ascended the throne. The emperor was very concerned. If this happened, it would be difficult for all parties to let go of their faces.

At this time, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little fortunate that he didn't go to the Ministry of Rites now, as he estimated that there was a lot of chaos there.

As Wei Guangde thought, the Minister and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel had gathered in Gaoyi's duty room to discuss.

This matter is not a small matter. We have to think about how to deal with it before we can explain it to the emperor. After all, the cause of the incident is the person in the palace.

It turned out that in the first year of Longqing, during the Nanzhili provincial examination, Emperor Longqing listened to the advice of the censors and made a bold reform, that is, to cancel the "Shan" number for the provincial examination.

The "Shan" number problem has a long history. The cause is because of the Imperial College in the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty.

The students of the Imperial College can directly enter the officialdom after graduation, but the official career prospects are not high. The students who can enter the Imperial College either have a family background or are on the second list of the provincial examination, which is also considered to be some talent.

Naturally, they have great expectations for their future. Even if they enter the Imperial College, it is just for studying. They still hope to become a dignified Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty through the provincial examination, the joint examination, and even the palace examination.

After all, entering the officialdom as a Jinshi is the right way.

Because there are students and tribute students from various provinces in the Shuntian Provincial Examination, they are distinguished by numbers in the examination room, and the number is used to determine the number of each candidate. This is the "Shan" number problem.

It is also because of this policy that the number of students entering the Imperial College has increased significantly since its implementation in the 13th year of Jiajing.

The original purpose of formulating this policy was, of course, to ensure that the tribute students could successfully obtain the quota for the Juren. After all, most of these people were trusted by the emperor. They were rewarded for some merits and could arrange for their family members who did not take the imperial examination to enter the Imperial College directly, thus bypassing the academy examination.

After becoming a student, one naturally had to think about continuing to benefit, so there was a policy of fixed quotas for the Shangzihao.

In this Nanzhili provincial examination, Emperor Longqing abolished the privileges of the Shangzihao and allocated the quotas for the Juren according to the candidates' scores, which naturally affected the number of students in the Imperial College who passed the examination.

In this provincial examination, which was presided over by Wang Xilie, the number of students who passed the Juren was reduced by more than 70% compared with previous years, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the students of the Nanjing Imperial College.

After the list was announced, when examiners Wang Xilie, Sun Ying and others arrived at the National Academy, hundreds of Nanjing Imperial College students who failed the exam were clamoring outside the door, and at the same time, they abused Wang Xilie and other examiners without restraint.

This incident was essentially caused by Emperor Longqing breaking the old rules and not giving preferential treatment to Imperial College students.

However, for these people, they could only vent their anger on the examiners to vent their anger after failing the exam.

This incident had a great impact on Nanjing City that day. Even with the intervention of the imperial censors, the students still gathered together and made a lot of noise before they stopped.

Such a big thing was naturally reported to the capital by Nanjing to see what the emperor meant.

In fact, Emperor Longqing issued an edict with the original intention of admitting high-quality talents to the court.

The court did not reduce the total number of students in Nanzhili because of this. The number of Juren admitted by Nanzhili was still the highest among all provinces in the Ming Dynasty.

But for those who failed the imperial examination, their preferential treatment was gone, so they naturally had to find a place to vent their anger.

If they had known in advance that there was no preferential policy, they would not have traveled thousands of miles to study at the Imperial College in Nanjing.

It is not easy to live in the capital, and it is not easy to live in Nanjing.

The Ministry of Rites discussed for a long time but could not come up with a good solution. The Ministry of Rites could suppress the official documents, but the Tongzhengsi would send them directly to the cabinet.

Gao Yi took the two assistant ministers to the cabinet, and the cabinet ministers were also discussing this matter in Xu Jie's duty room.

"Catch them, the people who make noise must be severely punished, otherwise where is the face of the court?"

The Ming Dynasty treated scholars preferentially, but there were also many restrictions, especially for students to interfere in politics.

The saying "Family affairs, national affairs, and world affairs are all concerned" that was passed down in later generations would be a reason for punishment if it was placed in the early and middle Ming Dynasty. That is, no one cared about it until the end of the dynasty, and it was even spread everywhere.

For scholars who have not entered the government, the court gives you preferential treatment so that you can study with peace of mind, not so that you can use your knowledge to curse others.

Because scholars can apply laws and think, they can often see through the current problems.

Four years later, that is, in the fifth year of Longqing's reign, Liu Yuanqing participated in the general examination and wrote a policy review because "the countermeasures were extremely outdated and had shortcomings, and the author did not dare to record them."

It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty was actually quite defensive in its treatment of scholars.

When people from the Ministry of Rites arrived, the cabinet's opinion was almost unified, which was to punish those who took the lead in causing trouble.

"The official document mentioned that Wei Guogong did not send troops to maintain order after the incident and allowed the supervisors to cause trouble."

"Impeach, punish."

Xu Jie interrupted this time very simply.

Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, Wei Guangde's father-in-law, would also like to take this opportunity to strike.

Although Xu Jie knew that if he reported this matter to Xu Pengju, the most he would receive would be an imperial edict or a fine, and there would certainly be no other punishments, Xu Jie still had to do this.

Chen Yiqin, who was below, twitched the corners of his mouth when he heard this but said nothing.

Xu Jie had nothing to do with Wei Guangde, so he had to find ways to rectify it elsewhere.

The salary of Wei Guogong is only a few dollars.

Chen Yiqin did not come forward to speak for the Duke of Wei, so there was really no need to waste his words.

Soon, the vote drafted by Zhang Juzheng was released. "The judicial departments of the two capitals arrested and punished him. The leader, Shen Yingyuan, and several others were dispatched as usual. They offered wine to Lu Tiaoyang, not to mention that they had not been here for a long time. They guarded the Duke of Wei, Xu Pengju, to change the situation and seize the salary." Mi, Siye Jinda took away the salary for two months with a loose binding, and asked the Holy Judge to oversee the birth of the dish. "

The content of the punishment has been roughly explained before, and Zhang Juzheng naturally drafted a handling method according to the old system. However, as for the source of the matter, which is the issue of "Dan font size", he can only refer it to the Holy Judgment.

This matter was not trivial. After Zhang Juzheng's vote was drawn up, the cabinet sent people directly to the palace. Nanjing was still waiting for Beijing's reply and did not dare to delay for a moment.

In the afternoon, news came from the palace that Emperor Longqing approved the matter, but in the end, regarding the issue of "Pan's name", perhaps seeing the hidden dangers, Emperor Longqing chose to take a step back and ordered "the number of supervising students should continue as before."

That is to say, during the next provincial examination, the Nanjing Imperial College students re-enabled the numbering system, and the system of fixed admission quotas was also retained.

Wei Guangde just kept silent when he knew the news. He didn't feel anything about his father-in-law being punished. Mainly because he could see from this incident that the change in the court's policy was too difficult.

Logically speaking, canceling the font size is fair to all candidates, but when it comes to Imperial College students, it is "unfair" to some people.

Reform in the Ming Dynasty was really difficult.

Because most people don't like changes and just like to do things the same way, at least they are doing the right thing.

This time the examiner Wang Xilie was right, but the incident in the Nanjing Provincial Examination was still a stain that he could not wash away in his life.

As new battle reports came, in Shanxi, the Anda tribe bundled Xu back after looting Shizhou, Xiaoyi, Pingyao, Taigu, Xizhou and other prefectures and counties.

It happened to be a time of continuous autumn rain, many horses died of illness, and the road was muddy. They all walked back with sticks, horses and baskets, and abandoned much of what they had captured on the road.

As for the Anda tribe, no new battle reports were sent on their way back. It is conceivable that at that time, the Ming army garrisoned in Datong, Taiyuan and other places had no challengers, so the Anda tribe left the Ming realm safely.

The ministers could see it, and so could Emperor Longqing in the palace, but everyone had a tacit understanding and didn't say it out loud.

However, the good news that Wei Guangde didn't want to see was sent to the capital one after another after the An Da troops retreated.

"Don't copy it. I'll throw away all the good news from Shanxi."

Wei Guangde picked up the note on the table and threw it to Lu Bu, shouting sternly.

Perhaps, for some officials, this was nothing more than encountering a lone Tatar in the local area and killing them to gain victory. However, Wei Guangde knew that many of them were killing good people and taking credit for their merits.

After the people of Shanxi suffered from the war, they had to suffer another military disaster.

However, the entire Ming Dynasty Hall was silent. Those who didn't know continued their happy days, while those who knew pretended not to know.

Lu Bu was startled by Wei Guangde's change, and hurriedly bent down to pick up the discarded note on the ground and quickly left the check-in room.

Wei Guangde pulled out a stack of paper from the box next to him. It was an official document that Lu Bu had copied from the Ministry of War and written by Qi Jiguang in the past. What was written on it was the "mandarin duck combined attack method" that he had designed after training.

"Mandarin duck formation? Then let me take this formation to the north and try it out to see if it can withstand the Tatar offensive."

In the past few days, Wei Guangde had read all the information on Qi Jiguang. He had specially reserved this stack of paper to hand it over to Chen Yiqin, who would give it to Emperor Longqing during his interview.

Just yesterday, the Jizhen Beacon Tower warned again, but I don’t know what kind of war it was this time.

At present, the main force of Anda Khan is still in Shanxi and Datong, and it is unlikely that it has moved to Jizhen. Otherwise, Ma Fang of Xuanfu would not have given advance warning.

Outside the Great Wall, except for the threat from the Anda Khan tribe, there are also the Tuman tribe.

As for the Tuman tribe, their strength is definitely not as good as that of the Anda Khan tribe, otherwise they would not accept orders from Anda Khan in name only.

"It's a troubled time, a troubled time."

Perhaps it was because he saw that Emperor Jiajing died and the new emperor's status on the throne was unstable. Border wars continued in March, and Anda Khan boldly went deep into the hinterland of Shanxi to plunder.

Wei Guangde knew that he could no longer allow the Mongols to develop and must strengthen the defense of the border towns as soon as possible. Otherwise, if he allowed them to cause trouble for another two years, his status in Emperor Longqing's heart would be infinitely reduced.

He was sent to Prince Yu's Mansion by Emperor Jiajing, with the intention of providing military consultation to Emperor Longqing, and with his status, he could mediate the relationship between the emperor and the nobles of Nanjing.

In the afternoon, the news from Ji Town was confirmed. The Tuman tribe invaded Ji Town and looted Changli. The soldiers were approaching Funing, Leting, Lulong and other places.

The Tuman tribe was ruthless, killing, looting, and burning wherever they went, and the capital was shaken.

"The Tatars broke through the wall at Jialingkou and Luohan Cave. I heard from the Ministry of War that they were unstoppable and that places like Funing would be in danger."

Lu Bu was still in front of Wei Guangde reporting the news he had learned from the Ministry of War. Wei Guangde lowered his head and listened without interrupting.

In his mind, he had already found the place name mentioned by Lu Bu in his memory. After all, when he inspected the border defense of Ji Town, he had a superb memory, so he could naturally recall it.

The area where the Tuman tribe attacked this time was east of Jizhen, close to Shanhaiguan, and posed little threat to the capital. The Jizhen army should be able to reach the battlefield in about five days from Santun Camp.

"It's no big deal."

Wei Guangde came to a conclusion after some calculation in his mind.

The field army without strong combat power cannot go out to sweep the Great Wall and is passively defensive everywhere. This is the end.

Zeng Xianzi once thought of forming a chariot battalion composed of large tanks as the main force in attacking the grassland.

For some reason, Wei Guangde suddenly thought of the chariots he had seen in Baoan Prefecture and distributed among various departments of the Ming army.

If the towns of the Ming army could set up a few such chariot battalions and regularly go out hundreds of miles outside the Great Wall to raid, I wonder if they could suppress the Tatars' unscrupulous border rout.

Forget it, let's leave these matters to Qi Jiguang of the Northern Diversion Team to decide.

Wei Guangde was unsure whether the Che Barracks could achieve Zeng Xianzi's idea and defeat the Tatar cavalry head-on.

Qi Jiguang and Wei Guangde are not very confident either.

From the battle reports of Qi Jiguang seen so far, he is good at training infantry to fight in formation. This is the general the army needs most.

But from the beginning to the end, Wei Guangde never saw him use a chariot. After all, the south is not like the north, and there are no chariots available, so Wei Guangde is not sure whether Qi Jiguang can quickly get started and learn how to use the chariot barracks.

After leaving the office in the afternoon, Wei Guangde took a car directly to Chen Yiqin's house.

He had already sent someone to deliver a note to Chen Yiqin, telling him to go and find him after he dismissed the Yamen.

The difference from the past is that this time Wei Guangde entered Chen's house with a box in his hand.

Coming to the door with something, the concierge of the Chen Mansion couldn't help but look at him twice.

Perhaps because Mr. Wei had never brought a gift before, he was a little surprised when he saw it at first.

"Bring this box to Your Majesty tomorrow."

Seeing Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde said straight to the point, and handed the box in his hand to Chen Yiqin.

"What's this?"

Chen Yiqin asked curiously.

"Qi Jiguang reported on his method of training troops. I read it and found it to be quite ingenious. He has great research on battle formations, but I don't know if it is also feasible for large army formations."

Wei Guangde replied.

"Still recommending Qi Jiguang?"

Chen Yiqin asked with a smile.

"I couldn't have found a better person."

Wei Guangde replied.