Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 335, the essence is officialdom struggle
"Teacher, there is still half a month to go before the test, should we concentrate on studying?"

In the residence of Liu Jin in the capital of Ming Dynasty, Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan found Liu Jin together, and they were about to try it out, but the two of them were busy going around, and had nothing to prepare for.

As a scholar, I am somewhat ambitious. I am a farmer in the morning, and I go to the Tianzitang in the evening.

It's just that scholars like them have successfully passed the Qiu Wei exam, which makes the two of them have a little more expectation for this year's Chun Wei. As long as they can pass the exam, they will have the opportunity to participate in the palace exam.

To be able to participate in the palace examination, before playing the king, is the highest ideal in the hearts of countless scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

"It's half a month before I can try it?"

When Liu Jin heard this, he was taken aback for a moment. Time passed so quickly. In a blink of an eye, it will be February of the twelfth year of Hongzhi (the Ming Dynasty's examination was in February, and the early Qing Dynasty was also in February, and later it came to the Qianlong Dynasty. changed to March).

"Yes, teacher."

"Haven't you been out lately?"

Huang Jinquan nodded and said, after thinking about it, he asked again.

"Well, I really seldom go out recently, and stay at home with my mother."

Liu Jin touched his nose, opened his eyes and said nonsense, he was indeed busy recently, of course he was not busy with any business, he was busy with his two beauties.

Who will do the business in the first month? Liu Jin, who comes from later generations, habitually regards the first month as a big holiday. How can he not have a good rest, rest, and spend time with his family.

"If there is still half a month left, we really need to seize the time to study hard."

"Well, it's still the old rules. You don't want to go anywhere for half a month. Come to me every day. We will continue to ask each other questions and conduct mock exams."

After thinking about it, Liu Jin also said that these two students of his are dull in aptitude. If they don't give them a small lesson, they won't even pass the provincial exam, let alone the exam.

The provincial examination is just a provincial-level imperial examination. This examination is the imperial examination of the entire Ming Dynasty. Those who come to participate in the examination are all the candidates in the provincial examinations. There is no doubt that all of them are masters, and all of them are full of poems and essays. .

If you want to go to the examination, you can't do it without real materials...Of course, Liu Jin, a fake parallel importer, is excluded. If there is no golden finger, Liu Jin will never be admitted to Juren even if he has read the Four Books and Five Classics all his life.

This is not to belittle the time traveler on purpose, nor is it to elevate the ancients on purpose, but because there are thousands of scholars in the entire Ming Dynasty, and only a few of them can get the honor of juren.

Every three years in the rural examination, the number of candidates in each province is strictly limited. Even in places like Beizhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, the number of candidates in each rural examination is only a little over [-]. And this is what the courtiers have been slowly striving for.

We must know that in the early Ming Dynasty, the number of candidates in a province may only be in double digits, especially in the case of Zhu Yuanzhang, the number of places in many provinces is only [-] or [-].

That is to say, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor relaxed the restrictions, and the quota gradually increased, but generally there are only more than one hundred in a province.

Everyone can imagine that the exam is held every three years, and there are only more than [-] places in each province.

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan immediately laughed happily, and quickly said, "Thank you, Master!"

The last time the two were able to pass the exam, it was thanks to Liu Jin that they took mock exams in advance, conducted a lot of training, and analyzed each other, commented, and discussed how to do better in the exam. Let Liu Jin's blind cat meet a dead mouse and pass the exam questions, so the two of them were admitted to Juren.

Regarding the examination, to be honest, although the two wanted to pass the exam so that they could enter the Hall of Heaven and become disciples of the Son of Heaven, they still knew how much they had.

Taking the exam with the talented scholars of the entire Ming Dynasty, if you want to be admitted to the Jinshi, you can only hope for the master Liu Jin's great method of brushing the questions.

"Go, go, go and explain everything in hand first, and start working on problems behind closed doors the day after tomorrow."

Liu Jin nodded in satisfaction. It feels good to be a teacher. This time, if he can get one of the three Jinshi, it will probably be passed on to the whole Ming Dynasty.

After Huang Jinquan and Tong Yuan left, Liu Jin thought about it and decided to go out for a walk, to have a look at the brilliant talents of this era.

"I don't know if I can meet Tang Bohu~"

For some reason, Liu Jin thought of Tang Bohu all of a sudden. After thinking about it, Tang Bohu was so famous that he always felt that he had never seen him before.

"I'll go~ Cheng Minzheng seems to have been implicated in the theft of the official storehouse last year."

Then, Liu Jin suddenly slapped himself on the head, and only then remembered that Cheng Minzheng seemed to have been arrested not long ago and sent to jail because he was implicated in the case of the theft of the official warehouse last year.

Last year, the three northern provinces suffered famine due to heavy snowfall, and the case of the theft of official warehouses was widely implicated, and it has not been completely resolved until now.

Cheng Minzheng obviously fits this point. He is now the right servant of the Ministry of Rites. He has grown from a senior member of the second rank to a proper official of the court. Now such an important official was involved in the case of the theft of the official storehouse last year, and was ordered to be beaten by Emperor Hongzhi. Into the prison.

Liu Jin has always paid attention to the case of the theft of the official warehouse, but although Cheng Minzheng is a second-rank official and a big boss like the servant of the sixth department, Liu Jin didn't think of him at all for a while.

Now I think of Tang Bohu, and I think of the case of the imperial examination in Yiwei, the [-]th year of Hongzhi, and then I think of Cheng Minzheng, who is also one of the core figures in this case.

Cheng Minzheng and Tang Bohu are both from Southern Zhili, one is from Huizhou Prefecture and the other is from Suzhou Prefecture. In ancient times, this is definitely a proper hometown.

Generally speaking, in ancient times, when a person was admitted to Beijing for an examination, he would search for a way to see if any of his fellow villagers were officials in the court. If so, he would naturally have to pay a visit.

Xu Jing and Tang Bohu were no exception. After arriving in the capital, they visited their hometown Cheng Minzheng.

Naturally, I can't go empty-handed to visit my hometown, but these scholars in ancient times were very noble, they would not accept ordinary things, and the popular souvenirs of later generations are not useful in this era.

So in order to solve this embarrassing problem, the ancient scholars came up with an excellent coup, that is, to ask their fellow villagers for some ink treasures in the way of juniors.

The main point is that calligraphy is nothing more than for studying and encouraging oneself. This is very in line with the urination of literati, but naturally this calligraphy cannot be bought for nothing, so there is such a thing as a refill fee.

Therefore, in ancient times, when a person came to Beijing to take an exam to visit his fellow countryman who was an official in the dynasty, he would usually ask the other party for some calligraphy or something, and then use it to pay some money for the pen. Daodao things are vividly reflected.

This thing has now become an unwritten rule, and everyone is like this.

There is no way, the salaries that Comrade Zhu set for everyone are really too low, if they count on the little salary from the imperial court, everyone will starve to death.

Of course, this is also a rule that can’t be put on the table, and it’s just like this when it’s okay. No one will break it, because even a cabinet veteran like Liu Jian, the chief assistant of the cabinet, also collects pen fees.

Otherwise, Liu Yu, his fellow trilateral leader, would not have been appreciated by him, and he probably asked Liu Jian for his calligraphy a lot.

But Tang Bohu and Cheng Minzheng in history were unlucky about this matter. Xu Jing and Tang Bohu came to the capital to take the exam. Naturally, they would visit their fellow villagers like everyone else. Relationship, if the two can be admitted to Jinshi, they will be officials in the same dynasty in the future, so they can take care of each other.

This is all human nature, and it has been like this since ancient times. Liu Jian still takes care of his fellow villager Liu Yu, and it is estimated that he may have a relationship with the same clan, after all, they all have the surname Liu.

The two went to visit Cheng Minzheng. Xu Jiang's father had just passed away not long ago, so he took advantage of this matter to ask Cheng Minzheng for a sacrificial oration, and gave several hundred taels of gold as a finishing touch.

Originally, this was a very routine operation. As for the possibility of subtitles being too small, the ancient imperial examinations were very strict. From Cheng Minzheng to the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, there was no need to go over the subtitles for a little money. Besides, Tang Bohu People are proud and arrogant, conceited and full of economics, and it is estimated that they will not cut the problem.

However, Tang Bohu, an arrogant and conceited person, bragged everywhere after the exam that he would definitely be the first in the exam, so he was heard, and Cheng Minzheng's opponents and enemies used this to make a fuss, and impeachment was easy. Song Song overthrew a right servant of the Ministry of Rites. As for Tang Bohu and Xu Jing, they were just victims of the fire at the city gate and the fish in the pond.

Although it was not a problem after the investigation, the matter of Cheng Minzheng's collection of Xu Jing and Tang Bohu's pen fees also broke out, which became a stain on Cheng Minzheng. He died of a carbuncle because of this, and Tang Bohu was also because of this. He was demoted to a petty official.

In fact, in the final analysis, this is not a case at all, but a very common official struggle. Although there are no swords and swords in official struggle, it is even more dangerous.

Now because of Liu Jin's time travel, history has changed dramatically. Cheng Minzheng, who was supposed to be implicated in the case of the vend, was implicated in the theft of the official storehouse last year.

"Does this count as helping Tang Bohu once?"

Thinking about this clearly, Liu Jin also smiled and shook his head slightly.

　What do you think of this case?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)