Jiajing Chengming

Zhu Houcong asked the judicial officials to discuss how to deal with Xia Yan.

However, for Lu Bangpeng and Liu Jun's direct disobedience to the emperor's order, Zhu Houcong directly ordered the judicial officials to sentence them to death by beheading.

At the same time, Zhu Houcong also issued an edict that the entire family of the two men be exiled to Donglai, and that they were not allowed to take the imperial examinations for three generations, in order to punish their family tradition of disloyalty!

Their families also cursed Lu Bangpeng and Liu Jun for being selfish and disregarding the lives of their clansmen for the sake of gaining reputation.

But for Lu Bangpeng and Liu Jun, they are not living a happy life, so what does it matter to them whether their tribesmen who suck their blood and live a comfortable life relying on them can live comfortably?
Therefore, the two of them did not care about these things, nor could they empathize with their families. They were still just disappointed that the emperor did not give in because of their determination.

just now……

Lu Bangpeng and Liu Jun only hope that there will be successors who can continue to prevent the expansion of the imperial examination system from happening.

For the two new examiners Wu Hui and Jiang Dianhe.

The choice before them was whether to acknowledge the current emperor's achievements in civil administration and whether to acknowledge that it was the emperor or the literati who had the final say on how many people could be admitted into the imperial examinations.

"Although we have the right not to use expired items, there is really no need for us to put up a pointless resistance."

"After all, even Xia Guixi would rather kill Hanlin than deny the emperor's sole rule and respect the authority of the master. Why should we throw our lives away in vain and implicate our families?"

After being locked up in the Imperial Examination Hall, Jiang Dian began to persuade Wu Hui.

Wu Hui nodded: "You are right. There is no need to put the emperor and father in an unjust position just because the treacherous ministers deceived the emperor to compete with the people for profit!"

"Let's just take 180!"

"There are tens of thousands of candidates. Let alone 180, even if we choose 300, it cannot be said that the workmanship is not good. It is nothing more than selecting a few more outstanding scholars among those scholars whose writing styles you and I are not familiar with."

"Exactly this!"

"This way, we will live up to your majesty's wish to recruit talented people from all walks of life, and we will not abandon the talented people who are willing to serve the country!"

"It will help ease the relationship between the monarch and his subjects."

Jiang Dian followed suit.

In general, for provincial examinations, especially those in the two capitals, the chief examiners often knew the writing styles of many of them, and could make a rough guess, even if there was a system of covering the names of the candidates, because they often came into contact with the children of officials. Most of the candidates admitted were these people.

Now, Zhu Houcong's expansion of the imperial examination system was essentially asking the examiners to fairly select people from unfamiliar contemporary writing styles.

Naturally, most of these people are poor scholars with weak family backgrounds.

After all, only these people's writing styles are unfamiliar to the bureaucrats.

Therefore, this is also the reason why people from the wealthy and luxurious classes were very opposed to the expansion of the imperial examination system.

They just don't want people from the lower class to easily become superior people.

By doing this, Zhu Houcong was openly broadening the channels for class transition and increasing social stability.

Stop gossiping.

Wu Hui and Jiang Dian then actually admitted 180 candidates and also increased the number of places on the secondary list.

The scholars who were admitted as juren were naturally so happy that they burst into tears.

Some people even took the initiative to kowtow towards the Forbidden City to express their gratitude to the emperor.

Because they also know from recent events that it is not easy for them to be admitted, and the emperor really has to make a great determination to allow them to become juren this year.

Those who become rich first and become upper-class officials, just as the saying goes "Those who eat meat are vulgar and unable to plan for the long term", are always stubborn and fiercely unwilling to let those who come later easily reach the same level as them and become rich.

Therefore, the "surrender" of Wu Hui and Jiang Dian, two upright Confucian officials, naturally made such bureaucrats and gentry furious.

When Lu Bangpeng and Liu Jun were being paraded through the streets on their way to the execution ground, they also saw the new list of this year's provincial examination posted on the public notice board on the street.

The two were extremely disappointed.

"Lord Songgao, who has become a cowardly and fawning minister, forcing the admission of 180 candidates to please the emperor? That way we can die with understanding!"

Therefore, when Lu Bangpeng saw that the executioner was Xu Zan, he specifically asked loudly about Xu Zan.

Liu Jun also asked: "That's right, as a clean official, he is so unscrupulous. No wonder the treacherous ministers can easily instigate the emperor to compete with the people for profit!"

"Shut up!"

"Not all Confucian officials are as rebellious and disloyal as you. Even someone like Xia Guixi, who knows the greater good, dares to kill those who are disloyal for the sake of his king and father!"

"When you go to the underworld, you should reflect on yourself and be grateful. Be grateful that the emperor didn't cut you into pieces because you were so stubborn!"

Xu Zan scolded the two men.

The two also understood the meaning of Xu Zan's words, and knew that Xia Yan had actually killed the Confucian officials in order to force the Hanlin Confucian officials to implement the imperial examination expansion order! This forced the Hanlin to cater to the emperor's will.

Lu Bangpeng could not help but get angry: "Confucian officials should only die at the hands of Your Majesty. How can Xia Yan be qualified to kill us!" "Damn it! He is so arrogant! Xia Yan is the one who should be cut into pieces!"

"Even if His Majesty will be known as cruel and brutal because of this, it is not his place to stop it!"

Liu Jun also started talking, and said to Lu Bangpeng, who was still breathing heavily, with hatred:

"We died in vain!"

"Unless the emperor kills Xia Yan, but the emperor cannot kill Xia Yan. Killing Xia Yan would be against the righteousness of the saints! In this case, public opinion cannot accept it. Public opinion can only admit that we deserve to die!"

"hateful!"

"Xia Guixi! What kind of loyal minister and filial son is he pretending to be!"

"Is he worthy?!"

As a result, Lu Bangpeng's breathing became heavier and his face became more and more pale, and finally he stiffened his neck and shouted loudly.

Xu Zan ignored the two men and ordered them to be beheaded in the city when the time came.

The two men continued to struggle even when their heads were pressed on the stool.

Lu Bangpeng even continued to curse Xia Yan incoherently:

"We are willing to die, but Xia Yan is pretending to be a hero. What kind of hero is he pretending to be? He is the only loyal, good, and wise minister, and we are the traitors who disobey the emperor's order?"

"We are doing this for the sake of the gentry and the power of scholars!"

At this moment, Liu Jun suddenly became afraid because he knew that his death was worthless, so he shouted loudly:

"Please spare my life! Your Majesty, I am willing to make up for it. I am willing to make up for it!"

"The fact that 180 people were admitted as replacements is not enough to count as filling in the numbers. There are tens of thousands of scholars, let alone 180, even if 300 or 500 were admitted, it would not be considered filling in the numbers. I am lying with my eyes open. I am arrogant and disrespectful of the facts. I rely on my status as a Confucian official in the Imperial Academy and want to force Your Majesty to admit defeat. I am wrong. Please give me another chance. For my considerable talent and knowledge, please spare my life!"

Click!

After the machete fell, neither of them spoke again.

……

……

Zhu Houcong also learned about the murder of the two men and the circumstances under which they took place soon after.

In response, Zhu Houcong just sneered: "You brought this upon yourself!"

In Zhu Houcong's view, these people really brought it upon themselves. They were the type who voluntarily stretched out their necks for him to chop off, and then jumped around and said, "Chop me if you have the guts."

For example, Zhu Houcong never thought of reforming the grain policy so hastily.

However, it was also because these wealthy and luxurious families were really unwilling to cooperate with the country's overall situation that forced Zhu Houcong to take strong measures.

If these wealthy and luxurious families had asked their wealthy businessmen to cooperate with Yan Song from the beginning and prevent the grain prices in the border towns from rising too high, the court would have been able to successfully complete the task of strengthening border defenses, and they themselves would still be able to make more money due to the rising grain prices, and the profits from the grain trade in the border towns would still belong to them.

Zhu Houcong would not rush to reform the grain policy and then adjust the distribution system, which would offend the wealthy families in the world.

But these vested interests are indeed short-sighted and have truly become slaves to money. They only want to take the last sip of poison and have never thought of stopping.

Therefore, they were not satisfied and wanted the court to allow them to earn more money, and at the same time, they wanted the people they disliked to get out of the power circle.

This forced people like Zhu Houcong and Yan Song to take responsibility.

The same applies to the expansion of the imperial examination this time.

They knew very well that most people in the world needed the emperor to broaden the channels for them to cross classes, and they even knew that the emperor was playing an open conspiracy, but they chose to go against the emperor who had already won over most people in the world, in an attempt to defend the position of scholars' power in the imperial examination, a major national policy, at all costs.

It can be said that greed blinded his mind, or it can be said that power blinded his mind. For the sake of the status of scholar-official Quan, he really dared to learn from the civil servants who would dare to resist even at the risk of being beaten to death.

However, the increasing centralization of power among monarchs was an inevitable trend as the gentry class grew larger and larger.

Therefore, it is useless for these people to insist.

Zhu Houcong even felt a little pity for them.

Zhu Houcong also asked Yang Yiqing about Xia Yan's crime that day: "How does the court plan to convict Xia Yan?"

"After discussing with the three judicial officials, I want to ask Your Majesty, can you forgive Xia Yan's crime on the surface because of the Spring and Autumn Judgment? The judicial officials decided to just dismiss him from his post! But secretly, let Xia Yan commit suicide in prison. This way, we can achieve both goals. It will not violate the righteousness of the saints, let the law be under the etiquette, and will not violate the public opinion of the world."

Yang Yiqing replied.

Zhu Houcong's face darkened after hearing this: "How can this be considered a win-win situation? Does the public want Xia Yan to die? Who represented the public opinion, and made the public opinion inconsistent with the righteousness of the saints? The Northern Pacification Office has to take the blame. How can a third-rank official, the head of the Hanlin Academy, not be executed and die in the imperial prison?! Should my Northern Pacification Office do the dirty work for this contradictory public opinion?" (End of this chapter)