Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 123 Jiangnan is passive? Lying in peace

Personnel appointments have always been one of the most sensitive issues in officialdom.

What's more, the scope this time is very large.

There was a public notice outside Chengtian Gate, on which were written the official positions and names of the people to be appointed.

No one is looking around here, everyone remembers it.

The gatekeeper of the Ministry of Public Administration could only watch as people were constantly delivering memorials to the newly-established outer study of the Silijian, which was located opposite the gatekeeper of the Jinyiwei Office. In comparison, the Ministry of Public Administration was much quieter.

When the eunuchs from the outer study carried stacks of memorials to the Forbidden City, they had to first pass through the corridor between the Left Military Governor's Office and the Right Military Governor's Office on the right to reach Tianjie. The three ministries of Li, Hunli, Rites and the Ministry of Clan Affairs opposite the four ministries of left, right, center and front could all see them heading north.

In the Six Ministries Corridor, which is closer to the Forbidden City, the censors of the six ministries can naturally see more clearly.

The study in the Imperial Household Department in the Forbidden City was very busy, and the imperial study in the Qianqing Palace where Liu Ruoyu worked was even busier.

Each memorial was eventually sorted out into pieces of information.

In order to meet the emperor's needs for such analysis and statistics, the Imperial Household Department had already produced special woodblocks. The large paper with lines was printed more and more, and then bound into volumes.

Entering through a small door on the west side of the West Warm Pavilion is the storage room in the Qianqing Palace where these books are stored.

When he arrived in front of Zhu Changluo, he looked at the documents on the desk, then took out a red pen and circled some names.

Shen Li, Zhu Geng, Ye Xianggao, Li Sancai, Guo Zhengyu, Li Tingji, Fang Congzhe, Gu Tianjun...

A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: The public announcement will only last seven days. How will the officials in Nanjing react when they learn of the result?
The journey is long, and they are not at the center, so they cannot express their opinions in time, so they will naturally have to stick together more closely later.

Zhu Changluo then took the red pen and said to Tian Yi, "Bring me the cabinet's report on the by-election and re-appointment of officials in the two capitals."

A moment later, two words were written on it: Aim.

It’s only the first day of the announcement, but the emperor has approved it, it just won’t be sent out for the time being.

This time, they were just allowed to stir up trouble in the court, and the more distinct the factions were, the better.

In the cabinet, Shen Yikuan and Shen Shixing looked at Wang Xijue and said, "This time, he is bound to be a little overbearing. Brother Yuan Yu, you still need me to speak up for you."

Wang Xijue didn't take it seriously: "At most, I'll go to the capital for inspection next year."

"It's inevitable."

Shen Shixing sighed.

Those who are dissatisfied with this by-election and appointment will naturally not obstruct the Beijing inspection next year.

In the face of dissatisfaction among the ministers, the cabinet took the initiative to propose a Beijing inspection next year, with the intention of further consolidating the newly increased cabinet power.

The imperial examination was a battlefield, a time to purge the other side’s cronies and impeach the other side.

This year is the time to look for the other party's mistakes, omissions, stains and evidence.

Officials in the court were already agitated by this sudden "pre-appointment announcement", and candidates for the imperial examination who were not yet qualified to serve in the court were also uneasy.

There are three examinations, on the 9th, 12th and 15th of the first lunar month.

As dusk approached, the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall opened again.

Wei Yunzhong, Cheng Qinan and Meng Xikong met again and breathed a sigh of relief.

"How?" Wei Yunzhong asked.

"How can I say that?" Cheng Qinan looked back at the Imperial Examination Hall where he had spent so many days. "Let's wait until the 28th to announce the results."

Their fate was decided by the chief examiner and other examiners of the imperial examination.

Nowadays, there are two examiners in charge of the imperial examination, usually a cabinet minister and a Hanlin Academy scholar, or two vice ministers of the six ministries.

The chief examiners of this examination were Shen Yikuan and Gu Tianjun, the editor of the Hanlin Academy. Gu Tianjun was not very famous before, but his family had a famous person: Gu Dingchen, who served as the chief minister of the cabinet during the Jiajing period.

He is the grandson of Gu Dingchen.

In addition to the chief examiner, there are several co-examiners who are responsible for marking the papers.

Being an examiner is a tough job, but it is not necessarily useless. After all, if you recognize the handwriting or the hints in it, you can do something about it.

The co-examiners are all nominated by the Ministry of Rites. The current rule is to select only those who have ranked high in the Hanlin Academy and Beijing officials that year, and exclude "instructors" who serve in local officials such as the Imperial College.

They did not have to appear on stage that night because all the test papers had to be copied under their names, checked and submitted to the collection office after being verified, and then given to their fellow examinees for marking.

But they have to go to the Imperial Examination Hall first to prepare for the closed examination that will begin tomorrow.

That night, in the courtyard of the Liushang Bureau of the Gongzheng Division, the results of the first round of eliminations were also determined.

After ten miles in Shanxi, there were suddenly only four people left.

This result made the others feel more at ease: although it seemed that they could cut in line and stand in the front when the Empress Dowager and the Concubine Dowager summoned them before, it now seemed that it was no big deal.

The candidates in the capital were eagerly waiting. Fan Yuanzhu, as a businessman who had just arrived in Huai'an, visited Meng Chuanfei's house one by one, while the private message channel specially built by some important officials in Nanjing was running at full speed.

The public notice outside Chengtian Gate was too important. It was too late to respond to it, but the news had to be transmitted to Nanjing as soon as possible.

There is a banquet at the residence of the Minister of War tonight, and the newly appointed Governor of Liaodong and the Generalissimo are both in attendance.

This seemed to break the rules, but the Grand Marshal did not seem to be afraid of the Emperor finding out, nor was he afraid of being impeached by the censors afterwards.

At the canal section of Yangzhou Prefecture, the grain ships from Jiangxi and Huguang have already arrived and are queuing up to cross the Huai River.

The hospitality Li Sancai enjoyed at the inn did not violate the rules in the inn's accounts, but the lawyer he brought with him still conjured up a table of wine and food for him from somewhere.

"Has the Jiangnan canal boat not crossed the Yangtze River yet?"

"This is the news."

Li Sancai tasted the wine and ate the food: "Please take the trouble to go to Yangzhou Chaoguan with my name card and let them pass the order. All other civilian ships are temporarily delayed, and more boatmen are arranged to pull the grain boats through the lock, so that the grain boats can go first. The grain is the most important thing, and there are several checkpoints ahead, so there is no need to check it strictly here. Letting them delay the time to cross the Huai River is not a public and loyal act."

"Yes."

The Yangtze River was flowing in the night. In the city of Nanjing in the south, Nanjing Minister of Finance Zhang Yi looked over the petition he had written again.

The additional 200,000 taels of gold and silver were to be given to the emperor, so of course they had to be transported to Beijing.

But the transport capacity of the Caohe River is there. Should we still transport 4 million dan of grain? Should we still transport more than 200,000 dan of white grain?
If both are to be taken into account, the solution is to have the relatively wealthy prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River stagger the time of shipping the grain, and transport the land tax in silver by civilian means, and then let the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, which is responsible for collecting their land tax, take care of it.

After all, after the grain transport troops transported the grain every year, they had to carry out annual maintenance of the grain ships to ensure the transportation of grain in the next year.

The Ministry of Revenue in Beijing directly distributed the newly added troops to various prefectures and counties. Did it take into account the difficulties in transporting grain by river?

Although two hundred thousand taels of silver would not require many ships to load, but now the prefectures and counties sent there are distributed across the provinces, how should the various grain transport chiefs arrange their arrangements?

Transporting silver is relatively easy. If it is unevenly distributed, what will happen if the grain transport troops cause trouble?
"Present it tomorrow morning."

Zhang Yi finished reading it and felt there was no problem.

Most of the court officials, whether the three cabinet ministers or other officials, would agree with such a solution.

They were fighting for power in Beijing, and it was you in Nanjing who were secretly profiting for them.

If they can't do this, what will their fellow gentry think of them?
At the home of Jiangdu Censor Geng Dingli, he looked quietly towards the southeast in the yard, then went into the room and fell asleep peacefully.

If anything happens, the doorman will wake up the butler, and the butler will wake himself up.

Nanjing should be a place where you can rest in peace.

(End of this chapter)