Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 113 Your great county magistrate is about to return to Fuliang
Xia Lin’s reputation is now spreading across all platforms, but he is eager to return home, because in more than a month, the emperor will be going on a southern tour.

What does the emperor's southern tour have to do with a small county magistrate like you? Could it be that you, a county magistrate, have any connection with the emperor?

The person who said this probably doesn't understand, but if you just think about how difficult it is for a county magistrate to get promoted, you will understand the mystery.

The first is the term of office. In today's terms, term of office varies from place to place. The term of office of a county magistrate in the heart of the Central Plains is generally five years, three years in some places, three years in remote areas, and two or two and a half years in areas with malaria and Miao border areas.

Secondly, officials who have been harshly criticized, exiled, or had their salaries fined are not allowed to be promoted or enhanced.

The third is to compete with other county magistrates who meet the promotion requirements during the same period. Even if their political achievements and other aspects are qualified, they still have to surpass others in all aspects of scoring.

Given the difficulty of upgrading, it would take Xia Lin at least five years to complete the promotion. For example, he did complete some extra tasks this year, but who knows if he can compete with other county magistrates when his salary is due? What's more, he is obviously not a court official. If he is promoted again, he will have to be promoted to a provincial official, that is, a fifth-rank governor.

To jump from the seventh rank to the fifth rank, one must wait for 15 years just to gain experience. During these years, one must exceed the task every year without being criticized or punished. This is extremely difficult in the world. Unless one is an official in the court and then sent out or demoted, it is simply a daydream to want to be promoted from a county magistrate to a governor...

But there is a saying that everything depends on human effort, and the emperor's southern tour is this opportunity. What Xia Lin needs to do now is to take out the largest workshop for some rest, and then wait for His Majesty to come and take him for a stroll. As long as he says "this can be used by the emperor", everything will be done.

This is considered a very niche way of promotion, because when something is promoted to be used by the emperor, the Chief Craftsman of the Capital will send an official to supervise its construction.

The chief craftsman of the Craftsmanship Supervisor was usually a third-rank or fourth-rank official. In the Wei Dynasty, the Minister of Works often replaced him, and he was also called the Craftsman Temple. Usually, a proper imperial construction unit would send a Craftsman Temple Secretary as the supervisor, and the Temple Secretary was a sixth-rank official.

Generally, they are under the jurisdiction of the prefecture. If the prefecture is not convenient to manage them, they will be under the jurisdiction of the county. Then the problem comes. A county-level temple secretary can't be higher than the county magistrate who supervises him, right? And there is no history of demotion and relocation, so the only way is to upgrade the county!
It was promoted from a seventh-rank county to a fifth-rank county. Although it is basically certain that it is from the fifth rank, let’s just ask whether it is the fifth rank.

As the county magistrate of this county, his rank will naturally be promoted as the county's status improves. He will naturally be promoted from a seventh-rank county magistrate to a fifth-rank county magistrate. This operation is very common.

The fifth rank is a watershed for officials, because if you go one step further you have to participate in the grand court meetings, but at the same time, the power of the fifth rank is essentially not much different from that of the seventh rank, it’s just that the name sounds better.

It is said that the ancient people were just unproductive and not stupid. They had their own flexible employment plan and did not have to worry about these old scoundrels.

But this is very important to Xia Lin, because the army of a fifth-rank county can reach 3,000 to 5,000 people, of which 1,500 can be equipped with armor, which means that he has truly entered the upper class.

What he cares about is not the rank, but this thing, military power. Three to five thousand people may not be many and may not even attract anyone's attention, but Xia Lin does not intend to let them use cold weapons.

And just seven days before Xia Lin returned to his loyal Fuliang County, the results of the ghostwriting examination were announced.

Countless students from Jiangnan Dao gathered in front of the list of Hongdu Prefecture, watching the lists being posted one by one. Those who made it to the top were excited, while those who didn’t were dejected.

Although this exam is not a formal exam, if you fail to pass it, you will not be eligible to participate in next year's spring exam. It can be considered an early selection.

As expected, among all the academies in Jiangnan Road, Yuzhang Academy and Ehu Academy are naturally the most eye-catching. Unsurprisingly, all the members passed. Compared with other scattered academies, the lists under these two academies are particularly long.

"Wow, there are 43 people from Yuzhang Academy and 38 people from Ehu Academy."

"Yuzhang Academy got 43 points out of 43, but Ehu Academy didn't."

"Open your dog eyes and look, there are 38 people here, all of them are qualified!"

There were many people having heated discussions below the list, and at this moment a young man in gorgeous clothes pushed through the crowd and rushed out angrily. He led his men directly to the provincial school office.

The people in the academic office were not surprised to see such an aggressive person, because they had seen countless such incompetent and angry trash from this morning till now. It was nothing more than questioning the fairness of the matter. Especially since both academies in the state were on the list, it was indeed difficult to be convincing if it was put outside.

But there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s just excellent and he answers the questions well. What can you do?
"This is cheating! How can there be a college that can get all the students in? You are obviously favoring students from our state!" The young man said angrily: "I will report this to my godfather!"

"Excuse me, student, who is your godfather?" The school administrator smiled and replied, "This exam is supervised by the prince himself, so how can you cheat? If you can't explain it, you will be punished."

"Punish? My godfather is the current Grand Tutor Feng!"

The man from the school office looked at him with disdain. He slammed the file, which had been taken out more than a dozen times, on the table and said, "Please check it yourself and see why all the students from those two academies were on the list."

He lowered his head and began to look through the test papers. After reading for a while, his whole body began to tremble uncontrollably. At this time, the person in the school office laughed and said, "My lord, since your godfather is Grand Tutor Feng, why didn't the Grand Tutor recommend you as a filial and honest official?" "You! You~"

He threw the test paper on the table, turned around and ran out. Soon he led people to the places where the various academies were staying. The first people he met were the students of Ehu Academy. They were walking out happily. He came up and grabbed Zhu Qi, one of the four senior brothers of Ehu Academy, and shouted: "Do you dare to compete with me? "

This sudden madness made everyone in the academy stunned for a moment, but Zhu Qi, who was grabbed, was calm. He smiled and said, "Brother, please let go first, we have something to talk about."

"Talk? There's nothing to talk about! You are just a bunch of cheaters. How can you talk to cheaters? I will kill you!"

This man looked like a madman. He took out a sharp knife from somewhere and started slashing randomly. Many people in the Ehu Academy were injured by him and the scene became chaotic for a while.

Although the man was later subdued by the people from the academy and taken away by the yamen runners who arrived, seven people were injured in Ehu Academy, two of whom were seriously injured.

At this time, people from other academies and students who took the exam on their own also rushed over and rushed the injured to the hospital, but one person still died due to excessive blood loss.

This incident itself was just a disturbance caused by some dissatisfied students who failed the exam. This kind of thing happens every year, but this one resulted in a loss of life and it happened at the well-known Ehu Academy.

Later, I heard that the murderer was a student from Xiaoxiang named Hou Changjing. His family was related to the Pingzhou Hou family. His father was a student of Feng Qi, the Grand Tutor of the current dynasty. He could be considered a fellow student of Your Majesty. He also worshipped Feng Qi as his godfather, so he could be considered a descendant of a famous family.

His father Hou Lin was the Minister of Rites, which was considered a high-ranking official.

Everyone is actually very curious about why someone from such a prominent family would go crazy to this extent over a small exam. In fact, it all started with his father Hou Lin. Hou Lin was indeed a good official, with outstanding abilities and was fair and honest. He also had high requirements for his children. However, Hou Changjing was mediocre in ability and really did not live up to his father's expectations.

Given his family background, he didn't need to take any ghostwriting test with these common people, but Hou Lin wouldn't let him take any shortcuts, so he had to work hard on his own.

The high pressure from his father and the expectations from his family drove the young man crazy. He could not believe that he had failed in such a small ghostwriting test, and it was even more difficult for him to believe that all the students from the two academies had made the list.

His mentality had exploded, and he didn't even think at the time. He just thought that those who cheated deserved to die, so this tragedy happened.

After learning about this situation, Lao Guo was sweating profusely. Logically speaking, it should be a life for a life, but this person was involved in too many cases. Killing him directly would be disastrous. Moreover, such a thing happened at the critical moment of His Majesty's southern tour, and he really had no way to explain it.

"I wanted to just kill him with a knife, but it's too much trouble."

Old Guo was sitting in his room worrying and complaining to his staff, when his subordinates came to report: "Master Guo, something bad has happened. All the students of Jiangnan Road have come to the government office to demand that the murderer be punished!"

"Oh... why are they here again?" Old Guo was overwhelmed when he heard about the students making trouble: "Don't they have anything else to do?"

"My Lord, they are shouting that it is only right that a man should be killed for his life."

"All right, all right." Lao Guo took out his seal and said, "Kill, kill, kill. Kill them tomorrow morning. Anyone who kills someone in the street will be executed immediately."

Just as the seal was about to be pressed, the staff member next to him rushed up and hugged Lao Guo's hand: "Sir, you can't kill him... You can't kill him! This boy is involved in many cases. We need to report to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple and ask them to send people to investigate. Whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with us. The Grand Tutor and the Lord of Rites have nothing to do with us. Sir, you are not in the army now, you still have to be more careful. It is not easy to deal with matters involving human lives casually."

"What's the logic? He can kill people at will, but I can't do anything with him at will?"

"Sir... that's true, but this matter is somewhat helpless. According to the laws of the Wei Dynasty, this murder case should have been submitted to the Dali Temple and then reviewed by the Ministry of Justice. The prefecture only needs to collect evidence."

Lao Guo pointed outside and said, "Listen, the voices of the students outside."

At this time, the staff member's eyes turned and said, "I heard that the deceased was from Ehu Academy. Why don't we wait for Xia Daosheng to come back before making a decision? Isn't he coming back soon?"

"No, you are such a shameless person. Why did you think of letting me take the blame when something like this happened? How can I lead the troops if this gets out?"

"I'm not asking Xia Daosheng to take over, but letting him handle it. You have to know that he is also a young man with hot tempers. As long as he does things legally and reasonably, even if the court puts pressure on you, it will be easier for you to explain. You won't be accused of not giving face to the Grand Tutor and Lord Hou. What's more, you have always had a good personal relationship with the Hou family, so it's not good to kill his nephew openly."

"Damn, you scholars are so dirty."

(End of this chapter)