My father is Jiajing

Chapter 102 Where is Heizi's test paper?

Three days later.

The marking of the palace examination was finally completed, and the Minister of Rites Xu Jie presented the ten examination papers with the most "○" on the papers to the emperor.

After these test papers were presented to Emperor Jiajing, he did not actually look at them. Instead, he first looked at the names on the test papers. Finally, based on his personal preferences, he marked "one", "two", and "three" on the three names that he liked more.

Then Emperor Jiajing put the ten test papers aside and told Huang Jin, "Send them back to Xu Jie."

Huang Jin replied softly: "Yes."

Then he gave the ten papers sent by Xu Jie to Xu Jie who was waiting outside.

After Xu Jie received the paper from Huang Jin outside, he bowed respectfully again before leaving Xiyuan.

Emperor Jiajing folded the two jade walnuts in his hands and looked at Huang Jin again, "Where is the little black man's paper?"

After hearing the question from Emperor Jiajing, Huang Jin quickly presented Hai Rui's palace examination paper that he had prepared long ago.

Emperor Jiajing reached out and took it and looked at Hai Rui's paper.

When he saw one "△", two "\", four "丨" and one "×" on Hai Rui's paper, a playful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Emperor Jiajing snorted, "This little black guy doesn't even have a '○'. I really don't know how he passed the test. Look at his handwriting, it's too upright and not smooth enough. No wonder there's no ○. He needs to practice more on official script."

Huang Jin quickly smiled and said, "This shows that the imperial court is very strict in selecting officials."

Emperor Jiajing added: "Wait until I finish reading his article before I speak."

The essays for the palace examination were generally limited to around 2000 words, so Emperor Jiajing read them very quickly.

After Emperor Jiajing finished reading Hai Rui's policy paper, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

Emperor Jiajing added: "This little black guy is quite good. Although his writing is not as flowery as before, it is still meaningful. San'er is also quite good at judging people."

After saying this, Emperor Jiajing picked up the cinnabar imperial pen beside him and wrote "May be admitted into the second class" on Hai Rui's paper.

Then Emperor Jiajing handed the paper to Huang Jin again and said, "Give it back."

Huang Jin took the paper and bowed respectfully to Emperor Jiajing, "Yes."

Just like that, because of Emperor Jiajing's four words, Hai Rui, who was originally going to be at the bottom of the list, was lucky enough to be lifted into the "second class".

On the second day, Emperor Jiajing once again went to the Fengtian Hall and conferred the title of Jinshi on Tang Ruji and others, despite their different backgrounds. The civil and military officials held a celebration ceremony.

The newly crowned number one scholar Tang Ruji immediately led the remaining first-class, second-class and third-class newly crowned scholars to express their gratitude for the emperor's grace.

On the next day, Emperor Jiajing again granted a banquet for Jinshi at the Ministry of Rites according to the usual practice and ordered Duke Yingguo Zhang Rong to host the banquet.

On the next day, the top scorer Tang Ruji was given court robes and a crown and belt, and all the other successful candidates were given banknotes.

The next day, the top scholar Tang Ruji led other Jinshi candidates to present a memorial to express gratitude.

The next day, the number one scholar Tang Ruji led other Jinshi candidates to the temple of their teacher Confucius to perform the ceremony of offering vegetables.

Five days later, Tang Ruji, the first-class champion, was appointed as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy, and Lu Diaoyang, the second-class champion, and Jiang Jinhe, the third-class champion, were appointed as editors. If the remaining second-class and third-class Jinshi wanted to be appointed as officials, they had to take the imperial examination in the Jinshen Hall again. Based on the results of the previous and subsequent examinations, the best ones were selected to enter the Hanlin Academy as Shujishi. This is commonly known as "appointing Hanlin", and the rest were assigned to various departments as chief officials or to serve in other places.

Obviously, Hai Rui was not so lucky this time.

Although Emperor Jiajing could write "can enter the second class" on his paper, but in this "appointment into the Hanlin Academy" examination, with his upright and sufficient literary style, it is obvious that he cannot be selected into the Hanlin Academy.

Therefore, in the end, Hai Rui was assigned to the Ministry of Revenue to observe government affairs, and thus missed the opportunity to enter the Hanlin Academy.

But for Hai Rui, this was already a great fortune.

You should know that in the original historical process, he failed the imperial examinations twice in a row, and finally went to Nanping County, Yanping Prefecture, Fujian Province to become a small teacher.

It was not until the 1558th year of Jiajing () that he was appointed magistrate of Chun'an, where he had the opportunity to display his political talents.

In Chun'an, he saw the "inequality" here: "the rich enjoy three or four hundred acres of production, but the households do not pay a cent of tax, while the poor households do not have a single grain of income, but pay a tax difference of a hundred acres in vain." He decided to re-measure the land and set the tax burden. In this way, the burden on the lower-class people in Chun'an was reduced, and many fleeing households returned to their hometowns.

Such courage was absolutely unique in the official environment at that time, so his actions quickly attracted the attention of Hu Zongxian, the then Governor of Zhejiang.

As a provincial governor, Hu Zongxian was tasked with clearing out the Japanese pirates in the southeast. Naturally, he was well aware of the difficulties faced by the people in the southeast.

So when he found out that there was a special county magistrate under his rule who was so bold in governing and lived a frugal life, wearing a cloth robe, eating coarse grains and brown rice, and letting his old servants grow vegetables for self-sufficiency, he was very happy and even told others the rumor that Hai Rui bought two pounds of meat for his mother's birthday.

This shows that Hai Rui has always been impeccable in terms of local governance and personal character.

This also shaped Hai Rui's upright character and gave him the courage to confront the emperor!

Although Hai Rui's fate had deviated due to Zhu Zaigui's intervention, he had suddenly crossed the status gap that he had never crossed before, and went from a juren to a second-class jinshi.

But as long as he can stick to his original intention, his future achievements and fame will certainly not be inferior to his original historical achievements and fame.

After all, Hai Rui's achievements were due to his character and ability, not achieved by any other means.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui's slight move this time was just icing on the cake and would not change Hai Rui's nature.

Gao Gong watched Hai Rui, who was wearing a green robe and official hat, come out of the Ministry of Revenue. Hai Rui looked at Gao Gong's smile and bowed to him according to etiquette, "Your humble servant greets Master Gao."

Gao Gong smiled and said, "Not bad, you can still stay in the capital. I thought you might be sent out as a county magistrate this time. But what I didn't expect was that you could actually get into the second place."

After hearing Gao Gong's laughter, Hai Rui felt very grateful. He never expected that he could get such a good result as a second-class Jinshi.

Although he failed to enter the Hanlin Academy, he got the opportunity to stay in the Ministry of Revenue to observe government affairs, which was a great fortune for Hai Rui.

Hai Rui said, "I would like to thank Master Gao for his advice. If it weren't for your help, I wouldn't have the opportunity to serve in the capital."

Gao Gong smiled cheerfully, "Okay, don't continue talking here, let's find a place to have a drink to celebrate, you will be considered a Beijing official from now on. But I also want to tell you a well-known secret in advance, so that you can be mentally prepared. The salary of Beijing officials is not paid in a timely manner, so you have to think more about how to survive in the capital first."

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Hai Rui has made it to the shore. Can you give him some monthly tickets to encourage him?

(End of this chapter)