Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 339, Choosing Sides in the Imperial Examination

After the events on the grasslands subsided, March slowly arrived.

With the imperial examinations approaching, foreign envoys came to visit again.

Fang Yong had assumed it would be an envoy from the July Dynasty or the British Empire.

But surprisingly, it was neither.

They are envoys from Siam.

What arrogance of an empire!

Even though he had captured Rama III and had solid evidence of the crimes committed by the British Empire and the July Empire, the two countries acted as if nothing had happened and showed no remorse whatsoever.

This only makes Fang Yong seem too naive.

Indeed, they had done countless more shameless things in their past lives, so why would they care about such a trivial matter?

The envoy from Siam came with two things in mind: first, to apologize for the previous provocation against China, and second, to redeem Siam's national treasure, the Jade Buddha.

Fang Yong was momentarily stunned after hearing this.

Rama III is imprisoned here. Instead of redeeming your own emperor, you want to redeem the Jade Buddha.
Later, after some subtle questioning, the envoy revealed some of the truth.

The information gleaned from the scattered pieces of information is roughly as follows.

After Zhang Yuan captured Rama III, Siam descended into chaos, with various factions fighting amongst themselves.

There are three major forces among them.

One faction, led by the eldest prince, represented the interests of the Siamese nobles, advocating the elimination of war, the restoration of peace, and pressure on China to rescue his father.

This claim was supported by most of the nobles and commoners in Siam, making it the strongest of the three powers, with more troops than the other two combined.

Then the eldest prince died.

The cause of death was simple.

The other two forces are General Hanuman of Siam, the same one who fought against the Prince of Nam An earlier.

After the battle with the Prince of Nan'an ended, this man went into hiding, which prevented Zhang Yuan from capturing him when he attacked the local territory.

After Zhang Yuan left, he, as a commander of the Siamese navy, directly seized a great deal of power and became one of the three major forces.

Fang Yong knew that besides his apparent identity, this guy also had the British Empire as his backer, which was obviously one of the reasons for his rise.

The other one was the fourteenth prince, who defected to the July Empire.

These are the three forces in Siam.

Not long ago, three forces fought a battle. One side had the British Empire as its backer, and the other side had the July Empire as its backer. It was obvious who would win and who would lose.

Ultimately, the eldest prince, harboring dreams of saving the country, was stabbed to death by Hanuk's men with spears.

Then it was time for both sides to share the spoils.

Here, the envoy explained that Siam was a small country with a small population, insufficient to wage war again, so both sides chose peace.

However, Fang Yong speculated that this was the result of a power struggle between the British Empire and the July Empire behind the two.

In conclusion, both sides decided to divide Siam equally.

However, as long as there is distribution, there will naturally be more and less, and it is impossible to be absolutely fair.

At this time, the fourteenth prince used the pretext that Hanuk's men had killed the eldest prince to incite the Siamese people's resentment towards Hanuk.

The people in the Bangkok area, in particular, are staunch supporters of the eldest prince, and with the help of the fourteenth prince, they are vehemently protesting the allocation of Bangkok to Hanuman.

Without Bangkok, what's the point of distinguishing between them?
Hanuk also considered using violence to suppress the people, but it was ineffective because the fourteenth prince's men caused trouble.

In the end, in order to quell public anger, Hanuman had no choice but to send envoys to China to redeem the Jade Buddha.

The Emerald Buddha is a national treasure of Siam. Everyone in Siam is a Buddhist. If the Emerald Buddha can be redeemed, it will greatly enhance Siam's prestige and quell the current public anger in Siam.

When the envoy recounted these events, he mixed truth with falsehood. He not only concealed the fact that Hanuk was backed by the British Empire, but also went to great lengths to embellish the story, smear the fourteenth prince, and expose the July Dynasty behind him to the public.

His purpose was naturally to incite hatred between Fang Yonghe and the July Dynasty in order to achieve his own goals.

However, Fang Yongke wasn't buying it. Hatred was hatred, and business was business.

He wouldn't turn down money.

Didn't the British Empire also secretly betray him?

He is happier and his people are more relaxed when he earns an extra penny.

As for revenge, once he has the strength, he will confront the July Dynasty squarely.

Now, Hanuman's envoy has arrived, and it's estimated that the envoy of the fourteenth prince will arrive soon as well.

Of course, whoever offers the highest price gets it!

Fang Yong temporarily found an excuse to send Hanuok's envoy away.

Tomorrow is the imperial examination.

The imperial examination questions were changed repeatedly, but in the end they were changed back to the original set.

A complete set of eight-legged essay questions, containing no content outside of classical texts.

Fang Yong revised it several times, adding practical knowledge and many subjective questions, but ultimately abandoned it after being persuaded by Wu Yuan and Jia Yucun.

If this were in Huaizhou, given Fang Yong's current standing among the people, he could be changed however he wanted.

But now it's the national spring imperial examination.

Many scholars from Hubei and Hunan provinces came to participate.

This reflects the attitude of the prominent families in those regions towards Fang Yong.

This imperial examination, though called an imperial examination, was in reality a contest of taking sides.

If Fang Yong were to pose some overly unconventional or unorthodox questions, it could very well be interpreted as a bad political signal, prompting widespread rebellion from powerful families.

Although Fang Yong did intend to do so.

But even if I do it, I can't say it out loud!

Didn't that person also unite first and then eliminate later?
Soldiers' lives are precious. They are all Han Chinese. It is better to settle things by issuing a proclamation if possible.

Therefore, Fang Yong chose to compromise temporarily.

The scope of the imperial examinations was not changed.

The chief examiner for the imperial examination was Wu Yuan.

The deputy examiner was Lin Ruhai.

Wu Yuan was responsible for identifying talent and selecting those sent by prominent families.

Fang Yong intended to grant these people an official title, regardless of their actual abilities or lack thereof. At worst, he would stamp their files and place them in less important positions.

The purpose of this was simply to project a friendly attitude and expedite unification.

Lin Ruhai was responsible for screening those who failed the exam, identifying those who were truly talented and had substance, but were rejected because they did not meet the requirements of the eight-legged essay examination.

Fang Yong plans to select a group from these people to study abroad in the British Empire.

In some ways, these people have a much brighter future than those who made the list!

While the imperial examinations were underway, two other people also arrived in the capital.

One is Shen Tu, and the other is Guo Yu.

Guo Yu previously handled government affairs in Jinling. He started as an acting prefect, but after doing a good job, he was gradually promoted to the position of prefect of Jinling.

Although his surname was Guo, he did not seem to follow the Guo family's style. While he may not have been completely incorruptible as an official, he was certainly a good one, managing to develop Nanjing in an orderly manner after the war. It is unknown whether this was a pretense.

Regardless of the circumstances, those who have rendered meritorious service should be rewarded.

Fang Yong summoned him back to the capital this time for a promotion.

As for the other one, Shen Tu... he's in a bit of danger.

(End of this chapter)