The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 195

February 29.

Zhang Zhou rushed out from Xishan in a hurry, but he still had to go back under Xiao Jing's repeated urging.

He didn't enter the palace either, so he went directly to the entrance of the Gongyuan. Xiao Jing temporarily found a courtyard here, as if it was his meeting room. Guo Ang, the governor of Sizhen, and Zheng Sui, who was in charge of Qianhu in Dongchang, were also there.

There are only two chairs, the Huanghuali armchair, except for Xiao Jing who can sit, the other one is for Zhang Zhou, even Mou Bin has to stand and listen after the two of them sit down.

"Eunuch Xiao, what an urgent matter, do you have to tell me?"

Zhang Zhou thought to himself, you are making a big battle, I don't know, I thought you were going to interrogate me together.

Xiao Jing sighed: "Mr. Zhang, this is not about to open the seal to fill in the list. His Majesty has ordered Neilian to give a summary report before that. He also specifically stated that he would listen to your opinion. Our family has no choice but to Someone can invite you back quickly. Have you worked hard all the way?"

Zhang Zhou smiled.

It was not too far to come back from Xishan, but the journey was exhausting and did not stop.

"As for the matter of the inner curtain, what opinions can I get involved as a candidate?" Zhang Zhou didn't think it was a good thing for the emperor to let him participate in it.

But there are some things that seem to require him to come forward.

Whether to protect Cheng Minzheng, Tang Yin and Xu Jing?How to protect?How can I not be deeply involved, but still complete the change of history?

It all takes skill.

Xiao Jing took out several recent detailed dossiers about Cheng Minzheng's inscription, and handed them to Zhang Zhou to read. While Zhang Zhou was flipping through them, he also explained in words: "What you said earlier, give Cheng Xueshi a reminder." , It is true that someone was sent, but he refused to write a single word on the confession. He was afraid that if he was given a chance, he would not know how to grasp it."

Zhang Zhou didn't take his eyes off the dossiers, and said with a light smile: "An old-fashioned pedant, who was wronged by others and returned the questions twice, no matter how many reminders are given to him, he doesn't want to admit any mistakes of his own."

"what?"

Xiao Jing looked at Zhang Zhou in surprise.

Since you can already guess Cheng Minzheng's toughness, why do you still ask someone to remind him?

"Eunuch Xiao don't need to be surprised. He is angry now and feels that he has been greatly wronged. He will figure it out after a few days, or even after he is arrested in Beizhen Fusi." Zhang Zhou said.

Xiao Jing smiled wryly: "This means that if he refuses to admit his fault, then torture him for his crime?"

Zhang Zhou shook his head without explaining too much.

The character of literati is very strong, but it also coexists with the weakness of literati. Even if it involves matters of national righteousness, there are not a few literati who bow their knees. What's more, Zhang Zhou's reminder to Cheng Minzheng is true. Cheng Minzheng will gradually Those who feel afraid and want to get out of the sea of ​​suffering as soon as possible.

It roughly means that the pressure on Cheng Minzheng is not enough now, and Cheng Minzheng feels that he can carry it.

"Our family is going to enter the inner curtain soon. If you have any reminders, please let me know."

Xiao Jing now regards Zhang Zhou as his staff and military advisor.

In fact, even if the emperor didn't say it, Xiao Jing would still do it. Don't look at Dongchang's experience in dealing with other things, but there is no precedent for the fraud in the imperial examination.

"Eunuch Xiao, is it inappropriate for you to enter the inner curtain and ask my opinion first?"

"It doesn't matter, this matter will not be known to outsiders, just the few present here, and it is not for you to interfere with the examination of the inner curtain. You only need to give a little opinion, and our family thought it was just an insider. If you ask questions about the curtain, you can just keep an eye on it, but you only know after you go in...the situation inside is very complicated...it's hard to say."

Xiao Jing looked troubled.

Zhang Zhou knew what Xiao Jing was embarrassing.

The inner curtain officials inside, headed by Li Dongyang, and a bunch of eloquent officials and Hanlin below, are all masters who can speak eloquently and refuse to admit defeat. Now even if the emperor wants to check the inner curtain question, he didn't break Li Dongyang. The prestige of the group, and the Hongzhi period was the period when the power of civil servants was almost at its peak, Xiao Jing, as a layman, was involved in such a professional matter as the examination paper marking, of course he felt powerless.

to be honest.

Xiao Jing needs a professional "consultant".

But who in the government and the opposition, who understands the imperial examinations, dares to raise some opinions casually to disturb the affairs of the inner curtain?Do you still want to hang out in the civil service circle in the future?

Both the emperor and Xiao Jing could see that the only person who could break the monopoly of civil officials on the imperial examinations and offer some valuable opinions was Zhang Zhou who was born in Confucianism but dared to jump out of the comfortable circle of Confucianism.

"Oh, since Mr. Xiao is willing to listen to what he has to say, then just say something casually, and don't break the rules of the inner curtain examination paper."

"Please speak! Except Commander Mou, the rest of the people can wait in the yard first..."

……

……

Xiao Jing became much more confident after Zhang Zhou's face-to-face instructions, and this time he directly brought Mou Bin and other Jin Yiwei into the inner curtain.

Li Dongyang was still waiting for the news of Kai Mifeng. When he saw Xiao Jing brought Jin Yiwei in, he immediately felt that there might be a big problem. After all, Xiao Jing had been very low-key in the past few times. It looks like he has to abide by the rules, but now, Xiao Jing doesn't seem to want to bear it anymore.

"Eunuch Xiao, Commander Mou, who are you two?"

Li Dongyang glanced at the Jinyiwei behind the two of them, meaning that they are not here to arrest people, right?

Cheng Minzheng has already gone out, does Dongchang still suspect that there is Cheng Minzheng's accomplice here?

Xiao Jing smiled and said: "Our family is only following the emperor's order to supervise Kai Mifeng. By the way, Mr. Li Ge, Zhu Juan's re-inspection is over, did you find any problems?"

Li Dongyang waved his hand, and Liu Chun, the Hanlin Xiuzhuan who was the same examiner, walked over holding a wooden tray. There were four stacks of papers in it, arranged horizontally.

"This is?" Xiao Jing looked over.

Li Dongyang said: "During the re-examination of Zhu Juan, four questionable papers were found, three of which were selected as Gongsheng students in the examination list, and one was not selected, but because it conformed to Xiao Gonggong's questionable The premise is specially picked out together.”

"Oh."

Xiao Jing nodded, thinking to himself.

Still, Mr. Zhang was right, Li Binzhi is still very independent in his work.

It's all right?

Xiao Jing asked: "Then Mr. Li Ge, what is the standard for judging whether these papers are suspicious?"

Li Dongyang respectfully said: "The examination questions proposed by Cheng Minzheng mainly focus on the topics of the Five Classics, and then re-examine the Five Classics articles in each file, involving general principles and general concepts, to see if there are traces of chiseling. More than three people who are the same The examiner thinks there are reasons worthy of discussion, so he submits it, and I will select these four from the dozen or so examination papers, and specially take them to discuss with Mr. Xiao."

This involves very professional issues.

After all, Xiao Jing has never been the chief examiner, so he doesn't know what the rules of Nei Lian's questions are, and he doesn't even know the content of each of the three exams.

This is also the reason why he feels overwhelmed.

How can a layman take care of other people's professional affairs, how to preside over this case?

Xiao Jing smiled and said: "Our family doesn't understand very well. When it comes to doubting the questions, it means knowing the test questions in advance. It should be a well-written article, or an article that shouldn't be written by him in his capacity. .right?"

"No." Li Dongyang explained earnestly, "If there are inscriptions, most of the inscriptions were not created at one time, and there must be traces of long-term deletion and consideration, which are the work of chiseling. Some allusions are also appointed too neatly. It is that there will be some people who have different understandings of the meaning of the scriptures, and there are many mixed elements in it."

Xiao Jing seemed to understand something, and said with a smile: "It means that if you know the exam questions in advance, you will definitely not write this article by yourself, and you will find different people to refer to it, but different people write it. The article must be messy, coupled with obvious traces of scrutiny and deliberation, will it be considered suspicious?"

"Yes." Li Dongyang nodded.

Xiao Jing said: "Then if the candidates involved in the case are not among these, can they be cleared of suspicion?"

Li Dongyang looked at Xiao Jing with a frown, shook his head and said, "You can't say that."

Xiao Jing laughed again: "If the person involved in the case is among them, it can almost be determined that there is something wrong with him?"

Li Dongyang doesn't like to answer this kind of direct affirmative or negative questions. Civil officials talk about moderation, everything can be discussed, and people and things can't be generalized... To put it bluntly, civil officials like to be a shit stick, this is what literati carry in their bones thing.

He is not like the admiral of the East Factory like Xiao Jing, who likes to draw conclusions about right and wrong, guilt or innocence.

"If it is among them, then the suspicion is greater." Li Dongyang said.

"So, let's open Mifeng."

Xiao Jing didn't talk nonsense anymore, and asked someone to get the ink scroll directly.

Moreover, it had to be unsealed under the supervision of Jin Yiwei, and then the names of the examination papers were compared.

……

……

Four to five thousand examination papers must be prepared at once, and detailed comparisons must be carried out, which is not a small amount of work.

But the Inner Curtain Officer not only has the examiner, but also the subordinate officials sent by the Shuntian Mansion who are responsible for helping. But even if there is someone to help, it will take at least two hours to complete all the test paper comparisons.

This time, it is not enough to just select the three 400 people who are selected. Together with the papers of all candidates, they must be compared with Zhujuan and Mojuan, and some will be selected as "sub-lists". Entering the Guozijian as a tribute, some will be given teaching positions, such as the official positions of the Guozijian Xuezheng that Zhu Youtang arranged for Zhang Zhou before, and these people will not be deprived of their qualifications to participate in the future examinations.

But if it is to raise tribute and release officials directly as the place of appointment, then these people will basically miss the test in the future.

"Old Li Ge, what did Eunuch Xiao mean earlier? It sounds like His Majesty has no intention of embarrassing the candidates in this field, so why did you have to make such a big fight?"

Liu Chun went with Li Dongyang to meet Xiao Jing and Mou Bin.

While Kai Mifeng was waiting, the two went to the examination room first, and Liu Chun couldn't help asking Li Dongyang for his opinion.

Li Dongyang seemed to be less interested and said: "It's over early, it's time to go back and take a rest. I can't afford to torment!"

Others want to target Cheng Minzheng, but Li Dongyang is not interested in it.

He just wanted to calm things down, go back to be his old man as soon as possible, and return to a normal life.

(End of this chapter)