Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty: Please say long live His Majesty

Chapter 546: Can’t Wait Five Days? (First Update)
In Ganlu Palace, Lu Mingyue placed a cup of tea beside Li Chengqian, then bowed quietly and walked out.

Li Chengqian sat on the imperial couch, looking at the list in front of him, and smiled with some satisfaction.

Cui Wenyuan was born into the Cui family of Boling. His father served as the Minister of Rites in the early years of Zhenguan. His mother was from the Lu family of Fanyang, and her ancestors had been high-ranking officials for generations.

Lu Zhaolin, from the Lu family of Fanyang.

Zhang Jianzhi was from the Zhang family of Xiangyang. However, the ancestor of the Zhang family of Xiangyang was Zhang Hua, the prime minister of the Western Jin Dynasty. Zhang Hua was from the Zhang family of Fanyang and was the sixteenth generation grandson of Zhang Liang.

The top three candidates in this imperial examination were all from Hebei noble families.

Li Chengqian put one hand on the list and breathed a sigh of relief.

Lu Zhaolin was a special case. His talent was obvious, and he was a child prodigy. He almost became the son-in-law of the Tang Dynasty twice. This time, Li Chengqian took special care of him, and he became the third place in the imperial examination. No one could say anything.

As for Zhang Jianzhi, he is also a lucky guy.

Zhang Jian became truly famous before Wu Meiniang ascended the throne. But before that, after finally passing the imperial examination, he worked as a military officer in the warehouse of Xu Wang Li Sujie, who was disliked by Wu Zetian. He became a censor at the age of 65, starting his official career and eventually becoming a famous prime minister.

Although he later went through hardships before gaining sufficient knowledge and foundation, his roots were still there and would not be too bad.

This time, he became the runner-up with the support of Su Xu, and he will be appointed to Liaodong later, which is acceptable to all officials in the court.

The troublesome Cui Wenyuan, his articles have a certain literary talent, but not better than Lu Zhaolin, and have a certain local practicality, but not better than Zhang Jianzhi.

Fortunately, the article "On Filial Piety" was written in a brilliant manner.

It can be seen from other test questions that Cui Wenyuan is well-read and particularly proficient in the "Five Classics Commentary", and is full of vigor.

Or to be more precise, this is the foundation of the Cui family of Boling.

……

Li Chengqian looked up calmly.

He deliberately let Tang Jian be the chief examiner of the imperial examination.

Tang Jian's son-in-law Cui Xinggong is now the tutor of Prince Yong, which makes Tang Jian tend to the Cui family of Boling intentionally or unintentionally.

Or perhaps, Tang Jian knew how to figure out the emperor's thoughts.

That is what Li Chengqian was thinking.

In the coming period, in addition to accumulating strength in the court and local areas, the Tang Dynasty also needs the full cooperation of Hebei.

The Cui family of Boling, the Lu family of Fanyang, the Zheng family of Xingyang, which is the family of the emperor's concubine, and the Li family of Zhaojun, who all have the surname Li.

The Hebei families are generally under control.

This time, from the top three to the second place in the imperial examination, all of them are from Hebei. This is enough to make the people of Hebei hope that the court will relax its control over Hebei. In this way, when the Tang Dynasty conquers Goguryeo in the future, the people and aristocratic families of Hebei will do their utmost to cooperate.

Li Chengqian sighed softly.

It is precisely because of this that he cannot allow anyone from the Yang family to disrupt the imperial examination this time.

I hope Yang Shidao can see this.

……

With a loud slap, Yang Shidao slapped the butler hard in the face and roared in a low voice, "Are you crazy? Can't you see how important this imperial examination is to His Majesty?"

"Prince Consort!" Steward Yang Zhong bowed helplessly and said, "Shi Er Lang only started this matter after receiving orders from his family, and he did it very covertly. They only showed up at the banquet."

Yang Shidao slapped his forehead, his face full of regret.

He thought those people were just his nephew's friends, but he didn't expect that they would do such a thing behind his back.

"Shierlang realized something was wrong when he knew that something had happened to the three examiners he had asked for help in the imperial examination. However, he couldn't find out what happened after investigating for a long time. Later, when the imperial examination was over, the people from the five families wanted to look for Shierlang, but he had disappeared. I thought Shierlang had hidden himself, but now half a month has passed and he hasn't come back yet." Yang Zhong was a little anxious.

"Do you think I can find a solution just by leaving the palace?" Yang Shidao glanced at Yang Zhong and sneered softly, "Although this imperial examination is for recruiting talents from all over the country, it is actually also intended to prepare Your Majesty for a future expedition against Goguryeo."

"Ah?" Yang Zhong was bewildered. Yang Shidao sighed helplessly and said, "Cui Wenyuan and Lu Zhaolin, one from the Cui family of Boling, the other from the Lu family of Fanyang. The other, Zhang Jianzhi, is a branch of the Zhang family of Fanyang. It can be said that all three are from Hebei.

If you tamper with this, you will not only offend His Majesty, but also the Cui family of Boling, the Lu family of Fanyang, and the Zhang family of Fanyang. If His Majesty wants to take action against my Hongnong Yang family, these families will all help."

At the end of his speech, Yang Shidao couldn't help but grit his teeth.

It was only after the entire list of imperial examination candidates came out that he realized the mystery behind it.

I didn't expect that someone would be so stupid as to offend the emperor at this time, and he was his nephew.

"Ah!" Yang Zhong hadn't expected the situation to be so serious. He quickly said, "Son-in-law, there's a solution. Your Majesty is such an important member of the Hedong clan, so the Guanzhong clan must be dissatisfied..."

Yang Shidao looked at Yang Zhong as if he were a fool. When he saw him stop talking, he said, "In the Goguryeo War, the main force will still be the people from Guanzhong. The people from Hebei are just providing them with food and logistics. Sending them one or two champions is nothing. The key is to let the people from Hebei serve them."

"What about Shi Erlang?" Yang Zhong was a little hesitant to think about it.

"Or, he was captured by those five families." Yang Shidao shook his head and said, "This is unlikely. Those five families don't dare to touch the legitimate son of the Hongnong Yang family. So, it's either the Guanzhong family or your Majesty. The former is easy to deal with. If he falls into the hands of your Majesty, you'd better pray that he keeps his mouth shut, otherwise..."

"Prince Consort, please save Twelve Lang!" Yang Zhong couldn't help but kneel down and whispered, "Over the years, many of the family's affairs in Chang'an have been handled by Twelve Lang."

Yang Shidao is a simple person and has never cared about these things, but many things in the Yang family need people to do, and Yang Sijing is doing these things right now.

Although Yang Shidao didn't know how many despicable schemes were involved, he was bound to be implicated.

"Let the family send someone." Yang Shidao shook his head slightly and said bitterly, "If nothing unexpected happens, the Princess's residence should be surrounded by His Majesty's spies by now. We can't do anything but ask the family to send someone to Chang'an. And they shouldn't contact us and should find someone themselves. If they find someone and rescue him, that would be the best. If they can't, let him shut up himself."

"Prince consort?" Yang Zhong looked at Master Yang in disbelief.

"Which is more important, the family or the individual?" Yang Shidao closed his eyes slightly and murmured, "Even if Fourth Brother knew about this, I'm afraid he would have the same attitude."

"Prince Consort!" Yang Zhong's eyes were a little frightened for a moment.

"As long as Twelve Lang keeps his mouth shut, His Majesty won't pursue this matter." Yang Shidao shook his head and said, "After all, this is His Majesty's first imperial examination since the late Emperor's passing. He won't be tainted by the slightest stain. So, even if His Majesty is about to erupt in anger, it will be over other things... I don't know what the consequences of what Twelve Lang did behind my back will be, but my family knows, and they don't want these things to be seen by His Majesty."

Yang Zhong finally recovered somewhat and said, "Yes!"

"I should be able to stay in the position of Minister of Personnel for a while longer, so hurry up and find someone." Yang Shidao waved his hand.

Yang Zhong bowed and said, "Yes!"

Watching Yang Zhong leave, a sneer flashed in Yang Shidao's eyes.

Although Yang Zhong was his housekeeper, he actually listened to his family the most. Of course, this was also related to the fact that Yang Shidao didn't care.

He only hoped that Yang Sijing would not go too far in some things, otherwise, if the emperor really wanted to deal with the Hongnong Yang family, the Hongnong Yang family would not be able to easily get out of the emperor's dissatisfaction for ten years.

Yang Shidao sat down on the short couch. Now he couldn't take care of others. He needed to pay attention to himself, and his eyes were full of worry.

How long would the emperor tolerate him, the Minister of Personnel? One month, two months, or...

……

Five days later.

The first day of March is the new moon.

In the entire Chang'an City, under the watchful eyes of all civil and military officials above the ninth rank, Cui Wenyuan, Zhang Jianzhi and Lu Zhaolin, the three newly crowned top scorers, second and third place in the imperial examinations, bowed and left the Taiji Hall after being received by the emperor.

From this moment on, the imperial examination in the second year of Yongwei in the Tang Dynasty came to an end.

The remaining part of the Ministry of Personnel Examination does not fall within the scope of the imperial examination.

Yang Shidao breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, a cold voice suddenly came from behind him: "Your Majesty, I, the Imperial Censor Huangfu De, impeach the Minister of Personnel Yang Shidao for attempting to cheat in the imperial examination."

Yang Shidao turned around suddenly.

Can't wait five days?
(End of this chapter)