Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 48 Someone is protecting me
After bidding farewell to Zhao Yan, Lu Beigu returned to Qingyang Palace.

It was afternoon, and scattered sunlight filtered through the verdant branches of the ancient cypresses.

The stone lanterns beside the road stood silently, and the copper bells hanging from the eaves were occasionally tapped by the wind, making ethereal sounds.

The entire Qingyang Palace seemed exceptionally quiet.

"Why are there so few people?"

As they walked, Lu Beigu felt a little puzzled.

A few days ago, there were much more people in Qingyang Palace than now. Now it suddenly became quiet, making him feel like Lin Chong entering the White Tiger Hall.

However, it seems that nothing happened in the palace.

The lingering smoke from the incense burner in front of the Sanqing Hall curled around the carved eaves and then quietly dissipated.

The cushions under the corridor were neatly arranged, and occasionally a Taoist priest with fluttering sleeves would walk past the end of the corridor.

Full of doubts, Lu Beigu returned to the room where the pilgrims were staying, but found that the four officers who were usually restrained by Li Pan and dared not go out at will were nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, Li Pan was in the room.

"Come in."

After knocking on the half-open door, Lu Beigu entered Li Pan's room.

"Your Majesty." Lu Beigu closed the door.

"Have you finished your studies with Zhao Yunshi?"

Li Pan was sitting cross-legged on a cushion, flipping through a Taoist book leisurely, and asked without raising his head.

"Yes."

"sit down."

Only after Lu Beigu sat down did Li Pan raise his head.

"It seems like I've gained a lot from this trip to Chengdu."

Unable to figure out what Li Pan was up to, Lu Beigu could only say, "Thanks to Envoy Zhao Yun's guidance these past few days, my poetry has improved significantly."

"Ah."

Li Pan's face showed an unconcealable smile, and he said: "If nothing goes wrong, after a while, I will no longer be the magistrate of Hejiang."

Lu Beigu was slightly stunned, then he reacted. Is Li Pan going to be promoted?

"Congratulations, Lord Ling!"

"However," Lu Beigu asked, "I wonder where your lord has been promoted?"

"Luzhou Magistrate."

"I wasn't born a Jinshi, so my career path was difficult," Li Pan said. "I spent years wandering around in the selection office before finally reaching the position of county magistrate. I was transferred three times, and I achieved the highest marks in all three examinations. Only then did I have this opportunity to be promoted to magistrate. As for the position of assistant magistrate, it was out of my reach."

In the local administrative system of the Song Dynasty, the chief official at the state level was the prefect, and the subordinate officials were mainly the Tongpan, the Panguan, and the Tuiguan.

The Tongpan and Panguan here are theoretically deputies to the prefect.

However, the Tongpan had the function of supervising the prefect and officials in the counties within the prefecture, and had great power. The judge had smaller power, no supervisory power, only administrative power, and was responsible for assisting the prefect in handling government affairs.

If a county magistrate wants to move up, he will generally be promoted to the position of judge if he performs well in the assessment. Unless he is a Jinshi (a scholar-official) with outstanding political achievements and extensive experience, and has the support of the prime minister in the government hall, it is possible for him to be promoted directly from county magistrate to judge, bypassing the judge.

However, the judge does have one advantage, which is that the process is faster.

The appointment of Tongpan must be approved by the Zhongshu Menxia and then approved by the emperor, while the appointment of judge only needs to go through the Ministry of Personnel, which is responsible for selecting those who are to be promoted to judge and confirming their qualifications and examination results.

Whether it was a judge or a magistrate, both required the approval of the prefect, as well as the approval of the transport commissioner and the judicial commissioner. Li Pan's visit to Chengdu was to connect with the latter two. Because they were both located in the Sichuan Basin, Zizhou Road and Yizhou Road were artificially separated, and the relationships between them were inherently complex. Li Pan already had a few connections, and Zhang Fangping recommended him to the two important figures in Zizhou Road, so his promotion was a natural progression.

"Your Excellency has a good government, and the appointment of a judge is but a matter of a day or two."

Lu Beigu complimented.

"Hahahaha, you can talk."

Li Pan was in high spirits and spoke directly, "As the saying goes, 'give me a papaya, and I'll give you a jade pendant in return.' Your strategy was crucial to Zhang Xianggong's appreciation of me this time. Let me be frank with you. My qualifications and test scores are all met. If the Ministry of Personnel's selection goes well, I can look after you as the magistrate of Luzhou."

This is almost a matter of course. After all, the recommender and the recommended person are one and the same. If they fail, they will naturally bear the risks on their own. But now that they have succeeded, there is no reason for them to go their separate ways.

The main reason for Li Pan's promotion was, of course, that he had passed the "Three Appointments and Six Examinations" and had sufficient qualifications and courses. According to the procedure, it was his turn to be promoted. However, the secondary reason was also the support of a noble person. How did this support come about? Naturally, it was because Li Pan recommended Lu Beigu, and the strategy proposed by Lu Beigu could solve the economic difficulties currently facing the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, as a person with a keen eye for talent, Li Pan was recommended by Zhang Fangping to the two big figures in Zizhou Road. Although he deserved it, he could not help but be grateful for Lu Beigu's contribution.

Seeing that Lu Beigu wanted to say something, he waved his hand: "The so-called care is not something that violates the fairness of the exam."

The most prominent feature of the Song Dynasty's imperial examinations was fairness.

Although the judge was the chief examiner of the provincial examination, he was not in charge of setting the questions and did not know what the specific questions were. He was only responsible for presiding over the examination and supervising the grading.

As for the papers themselves, they were first "sealed" and then "transcribed". When all the papers were being reviewed, the handwriting was exactly the same, and it was impossible to make any marks.

It was precisely because of this excessive fairness that the chief examiner Ouyang Xiu thought that Su Shi's paper belonged to his disciple Zeng Gong, so he moved Su Shi's ranking down.
"What I mean is that the provincial exam is held every three years. I may not still be in Luzhou in three years, but I can guarantee you this time that as long as you pass the exam, no one will dare to block your chance of passing the exam. I can ensure that you will pass the exam and go to the Ministry of Rites to take the provincial exam."

"But let me be frank. If your grades aren't good enough and you fail the exam, then no one can help you. After all, the difficulty of the state exam is vastly different from the county exam. With such fierce competition, whether you can pass it depends entirely on yourself."

Before, Li Pan only gave him a letter of guarantee for relocation, and did not explicitly say that he would definitely write a letter of guarantee for his release.

Moreover, even if the county magistrate is willing to write a guarantee letter for your release, he will not decide on the allocation of the release quota. The release quota is decided by the state.

But now after the trip to Chengdu, Li Pan was promoted to the magistrate of Luzhou, and naturally he had the power to participate in deciding the allocation of the quota.

Li Pan returned the favor by directly putting the matter out in the open.

The Jie'e score is the most important hurdle for students who want to take the Jinshi exam.

Just look at Zhou Mingyuan's experience and you will know that his family is so rich, and he must know many officials in the state. However, although he passed the state exam three years ago, he just couldn't get the qualification.

For Lu Beigu, having this condition is of course the best. After all, no one wants to pass the exam only to end up with nothing.

As for the state exam, if it's just a fair competition, he's certainly not afraid!

“Students understand.”

Lu Beigu said, "I am deeply grateful for your care. I dare not ask for anything else."

"Well, go back and prepare for the exam. The county exam is only a little over a month away. If you can't even pass the county exam, how can you expect to pass the state exam?"

Li Pan was about to get up and see the guest off, probably because he had something else to do.

"By the way, this is for you."

He took out a jade pendant from his waist and handed it to Lu Beigu: "If you have any personal matters on weekdays, no matter where you are, you can come to me. As long as it is not too difficult, I can help you solve it."

Lu Beigu bowed and took it. The jade pendant was of good quality and felt heavy in his palm.

"Okay, go out and walk around by yourselves this afternoon. It's almost Buddha Bathing Festival, so I'll let them out too."

After leaving Li Pan's room, Lu Beigu put the jade pendant away.

If you can avoid using this thing, then don't use it. After all, Li Pan is not a turtle in a wishing well that can fulfill wishes infinitely. Using it once will cost him a favor, and it is normal for Li Pan to ignore him after using it a few times.

"But it feels so good to have someone protecting you!"

(End of this chapter)