Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 598 Yang Tinghe's "Liang Cishu Moment"

What does it mean for a ruler and his ministers to be in harmony?
A harmonious relationship between ruler and minister means that you win your part and I win mine.

Everyone has a bright future.

Yang Tinghe, without suspecting anything, directly tore open the seal on the exam paper and then symbolically read aloud, "First place in the first class of this undergraduate program, the top scholar, Tang Gao."

Zhu Houzhao's smile widened.

As the Grand Secretary, Yang Tinghe naturally had no time to pay attention to gossip and was completely unaware of any problems with this candidate.

His name was neither taboo nor difficult to pronounce, making him seem like a suitable candidate for the top scholar.

Yang Tinghe then opened the second exam paper and said, "Second place in the first class of undergraduate studies, runner-up, Huang Chu."

Seeing that the result had been confirmed once again, Zhu Houzhao smiled again. He even wanted to be cheeky and make a bet with Yang Tinghe on whether the third-ranked scholar was named Cai Ang.

However, after the failure of Liu Jin's reforms, Zhu Houzhao realized that he was no longer the reckless youth he once was.

Soon, Yang Tinghe opened the third exam paper and said, "Third place in the first class of undergraduate studies, the third-ranked scholar, Cai Ang."

Zhu Houzhao's smile vanished, and he calmly nodded, looking at the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial on his left. "Have you all remembered it?"

The eunuchs from the Directorate of Ceremonial, led by Lu Yin, all said, "We've got it."

Fearing it might seem abrupt, Zhu Houzhao turned to Qian Ning, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and gave him an additional instruction: "This is a major event for the court. It must not be circulated outside before the imperial edict is posted."

Qian Ning thought to himself, what do these literary musings have to do with me?
He quickly replied, "Your subject obeys."

After meeting with Zhu Houzhao, Yang Tinghe returned to the Wenhua Hall where everyone had been reviewing the papers together.

He placed the three already unsealed and graded documents beside him, and handed the remaining unsealed documents to the sealing official Jia Yong, saying, "Distribute them."

These papers are now ready for the normal grading process.

Jia Yong respectfully took the exam paper and handed it to the examiners for cross-examination.

When everyone received a test paper that had been personally reviewed by the Grand Secretary, they naturally and sensibly circled it together.

Even his old political rival, Yang Yiqing, was no exception.

Fight without breaking apart.

Given Yang Yiqing's reading comprehension level, he glanced at the test paper a few times and chuckled.

However, he had no son and nothing to exchange for, so he felt that by giving this gift, Yang Ting and Bai had gotten a good deal.

Then, on a sudden thought, he remembered his beloved student, Wu Wending.

Wu Wending was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the twelfth year of the Hongzhi reign. He was a man of exceptional intelligence and a talent for writing.

That's not all; he also has two other specialties: he is good at composing couplets and he is skilled in horsemanship and archery.

If Yang Yiqing had a historical perspective, he would have realized that this was the chosen enemy that Heaven had prepared for Prince Ning!
He can compose couplets and is skilled in archery and horsemanship. How can you, Prince Ning, possibly win?
Later, when Wang Shouren quelled the rebellion of Prince Ning, Wu Wending, the local official, was ranked first in terms of military merit.

Previously, Wu Wending had successfully become a fifth-rank Tongzhi in Chengdu Prefecture, Sichuan. With a slight promotion, he could become a prefect.

Later, due to the unjust case fabricated by Liu Jin, Wu Wending was dismissed from his post and reduced to a commoner.

After Liu Jin's downfall, Wu Wending was reinstated as the Assistant Magistrate of Jiaxing, and it has been some time since then.

Yang Yiqing was thinking, shouldn't I also find an opportunity to move up a rank?

At this moment, the list of successful candidates had not yet been filled out, and the papers for the top-ranked candidates were all in Yang Tinghe's hands.

Whether to avoid suspicion or to prevent Yang Tinghe from overthinking, everyone tacitly avoided mentioning the three exam papers.

Yang Tinghe wanted to discuss the matter with everyone first and reach a simple consensus.

However, considering that Zhu Houzhao had specifically instructed Qian Ning not to leak the information, and feeling that he had the Emperor's trust, it would be somewhat dishonest to reveal the list.

Yang Tinghe immediately abandoned the idea.

Therefore, after the group of students hastily drew up the results, officials from the Ministry of Rites were tasked with compiling the statistics.

Because of time constraints, the drawings were done freely, and the same paper often received vastly different evaluations.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites dared not act on their own initiative and quietly came to consult Wang Hua, the Minister of Rites who was present.

Wang Hua's smile remained unchanged as he chatted with his colleagues while listening to the whispers among his underlings.

Wang Hua was a veteran scholar of the Hanlin Academy. Before becoming the Minister of Rites, he had participated in such matters as a Hanlin Academician.

After listening to the whole thing, he calmly said to his subordinates, "We are the Ministry of Rites. We only care about the correctness of the procedures. Don't concern yourselves with things that have nothing to do with us."

So the officials went down and began to quickly tally the scores for each paper.

After another round of casual conversation, the people in charge finally finalized the rankings for the second and third place teams.

The papers that Yang Tinghe brought back were naturally those of the top few in the second class, who would later be considered for selection as probationary scholars.

As for the others, they were also arranged in order of their comparison scores.

After that, the yellow list was filled out as usual.

According to procedure, the yellow list should be opened and filled in public at tomorrow's announcement ceremony, but as the saying goes, "Get on the bus quickly, there's no time to explain."

To ensure the smooth running of the ceremony, the names of the second and third class members must be filled in in advance. This way, when the ceremony is held tomorrow, only the names of the first class members will be opened in public and then filled in on the yellow list.

Afterwards, the officials of the Imperial Seal Office affixed their seals, and the yellow list was immediately produced.

If you find this program a little hard to understand, just remember these six words.

—Pre-made food, just heat it up.

The three words "heat it up" are full of profound meaning, and they have a legal principle that can convince people all over the world.

Those ordinary candidates probably never imagined that before their papers were even graded, the first-class spots were already being decided.

And this most unconvincing ranking, just like the first time, will be solemnly unsealed again in front of the whole world.

So when you're confused because something seems absurd, stop and think about it.

Is it possible that absurdity is the mainstream of this world?
Once the yellow list was filled out, it was like the lottery results were announced, and the big shots all habitually stepped forward to offer their opinions.

Whose son is this? Whose son is that?

Huh? I've never heard of this before.

Basically, the career path of many successful candidates in the imperial examinations was determined in this short period of time after they began observing the government.

Among these bigwigs watching, Li Shishi was the one with the strongest ulterior motive.

Unlike others who picked and chose familiar names, Li Shishi started by looking at the top-ranked students from the second-tier list, one by one.

The palace examination was a single-selection process, with no elimination of lower-ranking candidates. Even the top three scholars had a fast track to the Censorate, so there was little suspense.

Li Shishi was looking for the three names that Pei Yuan had repeatedly boasted about to him.

After reviewing the second-class papers, Li Shishi found none of them.

At this moment, his heart was already slightly stirred. As he looked at the top three, Li Shishi's mood became inexplicably tense and anxious.

By the end, Li Shishi no longer paid close attention to the details; his gaze swept across each line.

After reading the list of the top three, he even subconsciously went back and looked at a few more lines.

No!

Since the names of those three people are not here, it means...

Li Shishi subconsciously wanted to look at the three papers that Yang Tinghe had placed on his desk.

But the closer it got to this point, the more he avoided looking in that direction.

Other ministers may not have noticed some of the rumors circulating in the city these past two days.

However, Li Shishi was different.

He had a unique dual identity; he was both the Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, who received all kinds of reports.

He was also an important intelligence chief for the Ning Prince in the capital.

He understood better than anyone else what those three exam papers meant.

Rumors are circulating that three candidates colluded with corrupt officials in the Imperial Guard to secure their places in the imperial examination.

Some people even claimed that the treacherous Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) gave them three green bamboo slips, promising them the highest rank in the imperial examinations, and even arranged their positions on the slips in their hands.

There is also solid evidence from several other candidates who traveled with those three people at the time.

Li Shishi didn't know how much of the story was true and how much was false, but if this rumor were combined with the few examination papers that Grand Secretary Yang had on hand, the power would be unimaginable.

If, by chance, the rankings of these three individuals match the rumors circulating before the exam, this highly respected Grand Secretary of the Cabinet might just face his "Liang Cishu moment"!

It should be noted that Liang Chu, the former second-in-command of the cabinet, was once highly respected and had many protégés.

As a result, Liang Cishu's indiscriminate killing in his hometown directly ruined Liang Chu's reputation and made him infamous.

Even Liang Chu's own followers turned against him and switched sides.

If the "Liang Cishu case" touched a nerve about the big fish eating the small fish, the upcoming imperial examination corruption case is challenging the career advancement channels for local powerful figures.

"Okay, okay..."

Li Shishi muttered to himself.

He seemed to see the three exam papers suddenly turn into three snakes, leaping up from the table and biting Yang Tinghe tightly.

It wasn't until someone spoke loudly to him that Li Shishi realized he had been lost in thought for quite some time.

He quickly made a few excuses, then said he was a little tired and took his leave.

On the way back in the sedan chair, Li Shishi pondered silently.

This imperial examination cheating scandal is clearly going to cause quite a stir.

As the most important censorial department of the Ming Dynasty, the Censorate was clearly in the eye of the storm.

So, knowing about this conspiracy, what choice would be in one's best interest?

Did he stand up for Yang Tinghe and gain the favor of this powerful and influential prime minister?
This might be somewhat beneficial to the Ning Kingdom, but even if I didn't do it, Yang Tinghe was actively trying to get closer to the Ning Kingdom.

Moreover, what Brother Pei said earlier was correct. If Yang Tinghe completely surrendered to the Ning Kingdom, then within the Ning Kingdom's camp, he himself would be the one standing in front of Yang Tinghe.

A weakened Yang Tinghe would obviously be more in Li Shishi's interest.

Similarly, launching a fierce attack on Yang Tinghe by the Censorate is not a good idea.

Many of the censors in the Censorate were Yang Tinghe's cronies. If I had jumped out at that time, not only would I not have been able to inflict a fatal blow on Yang Tinghe, but Yang Tinghe might have launched a counterattack and driven me to Nanjing.

Liang Chu was besieged so fiercely back then, but now he's doing just fine as the second-in-command.

So what should I do?

Li Shishi pondered silently, and the images of two people appeared in his mind.

One was Xiao Chong, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, and the other was Bian Xian, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief.

These two men had previously served as governors in local areas. Later, the Bazhou army attacked the Kong family, the Duke of Yansheng in Shandong. In a panic, the Kong family wrote a letter to their son-in-law, Li Dongyang, to complain.

Li Dongyang wanted to protect his daughter, so he ordered his henchman, Minister of War He Jian, to handle the matter quickly.

He Jian then introduced what could be described as harsh wartime laws, forcing local officials in Shandong to defend the city to the death and arresting and punishing Bian Xian, the governor of Shandong, who was also implicated in a similar situation, Xiao Chong, the prefect of Baoding.

Unexpectedly, before the matter could be settled, Li Dongyang left the court.

Not long after, the "Great Deliberation on Merits" incident broke out. Because it involved the determination of merits and demerits, Bi Zhenlu, the eunuch in charge of Shandong, wrote a letter to plead for the two men and promoted the retrial of the "Bian Xian and Xiao Chong case".

The final result was that He Jian fell from power, and Bian Xian and Xiao Chong returned to the Censorate as Right Vice Censors-in-Chief.

Xiao Chong was a fellow villager of Yang Tinghe, and Bian Xian was a student of Yang Yiqing.

These two guys were like two knives stuck in the Censorate, making Li Shishi feel constantly uneasy.

Li Shishi thought to himself and slowly smiled inside the sedan chair, “I’m getting old, it’s time to give the young people a chance to shine.”

Leaving aside Li Shishi's claim of illness at home, Yan Song, also known as Yan Hanlin, who wanted to play basketball—or rather, couldn't stay—was already waiting at the entrance of Zhihua Temple.

Although Pei Yuan let slip that Yan Song should wait for him tonight, Yan Song had been having a really tough time these past two days.

One moment he was agonizing over whether he would end up growing old alone in his hometown in Jiangxi, and the next he was debating whether to step into the Wenyuan Pavilion with his left or right leg first.

Therefore, although Pei Yuan told him to come see him the next evening, Yan Song still rushed over in the middle of the afternoon and stood guard at the entrance of Zhihua Temple.

Pei Yuan had previously asked someone to politely decline Tang Gao and his two companions' offer because he was afraid of being seen and thus diverting the focus of the carefully planned drama.

He himself still sits in the temple every day.

In the afternoon, Pei Yuan heard that Yan Song was requesting an audience outside, but he ignored him.

It wasn't until dusk that Pei Yuan, surrounded by Chen Xinjian and his entourage, left Zhihua Temple.

Yan Song showed no resentment on his face, and still smiled obsequiously, "Commander, have I arrived at the right time?"

Pei Yuan stood on the steps, looking at Yan Song and said in a cryptic tone, "You've come at just the right time."

Yan Song reacted quickly, his heart skipping a beat.

He had originally intended to let Pei Yuan know that he had arrived early, hoping to curry favor with Pei Yuan with this small act of respect.

But after hearing Pei Yuan's words, Yan Song realized that such respect was exactly what he was supposed to do.

That's why Pei Yuan gave the evaluation "just the right time".

Yan Song chuckled awkwardly, no longer daring to play his cunning tricks.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan didn't make things difficult for him and said directly, "Let's go, come with me to see someone."

(End of this chapter)