Du Yuan came out of the examination room. He felt that he was too exhausted and a little exhausted.
The test questions were too tricky and he had no experience at all.
You can only follow your own conscience, guess what the questioner is thinking, and try to answer.
Du Yuan didn't have to wait for the results to be released, he knew that his results would not be very good.
It is very likely that you will fail.
Some candidates have relatives who are officials, and they have been influenced by it since they were young.
These people must have a clearer understanding of officialdom than he does.
This recruitment of officials by the Recruitment Hall is an excellent opportunity.
Let him be on the same starting line as the children of wealthy families.
Wait until these people adapt to the rules of the Commander's Office again.
Fully bring out their potential.
This kind of opportunity to reach the sky in one step has nothing to do with him, a boy from a humble family.
Du Yuan lowered his head and walked among the crowd, thinking about what he would do after failing the exam.
After seeing the prosperity of Hanzhong City, he was asked to return to Baoxian County and become a scholar selling calligraphy and painting.
Du Yuan felt unwilling and felt that he could no longer live like this.
Even if you fail the exam, you still have to find a way to stay in Hanzhong City.
He heard the candidates around him discussing, and dozens of candidates simply abandoned the exam.
There was also a candidate who caused a scene in the examination room because he did not take the Confucian classics test, and was immediately arrested by the patrol inspector.
Du Yuan despises these people and clings to their dogma. He still refuses to work hard when he has the opportunity to become an official.
As he was walking on the road, he suddenly heard two candidates whispering.
"We went to worship Zheng Lu as our eldest brother, and Brother Zheng said he had a way to make us officials.
Even if we fail, the Zheng family is very strong in Hanzhong City and can still find us a good job."
After Du Yuan heard this, he was very moved and it would be good to find a backer.
He immediately got close to the two candidates and made an appointment to go together to worship his eldest brother.
Du Yuan came to Zheng Lu's home and found that many people came to pay homage to his eldest brother.
Zheng Lu, in her thirties, looks like a tree in the wind.
Du Yuan and the others toasted Zheng Lu and bowed slightly to acknowledge Zheng Lu as their eldest brother.
When Zheng Lu saw Du Yuan's appearance, he laughed and said:
"You come here because you understand the strength of the Zheng family in Hanzhong.
Don’t worry, if you work with me, you will be able to become officials in the future, our Zheng family has connections within the commander’s office.”
Zheng Lu was blowing nonsense to attract more people to join his group.
The Zheng family is a very common gentry family in Hanzhong.
Other high-ranking families were dealt with by the thieves in yellow, and they became larger families.
This time the imperial office was not held because of their influence.
Dad thought that the governor's office had compromised, but he didn't expect that they would set up a recruiting office again.
From various signs in the Recruitment Hall, we found that the Tongling Mansion was rejecting Confucianism, especially the current mainstream Confucianism, Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism.
Zheng Lu's father asked him to find a way to cause trouble. Only by disrupting the recruitment hall would they have a chance to revitalize Confucianism.
Zheng Lu's father lets him cause trouble as he pleases, but he has the ability to keep him safe.
Zheng Lu also knew that no matter which dynasty, scholars would be treated favorably.
In the Ming Dynasty, he was accustomed to scholars being superior and having a status that transcended the criminal law.
Zheng Lu promised these people to become officials in the future, depending on whether her plan could succeed.
If they can really force the commander-in-chief to compromise, they will definitely get an official position.
Zheng Lu took her new little brother to his family's restaurant for a drink.
During the banquet, he spread many rumors through chatting.
These rumors can shake the position of the commanding office in the hearts of candidates.
"A senior official from the Commander-in-Chief Government went to a brothel and leaked the test questions while drunk.
Only then did a large number of brothel girls take the recruitment examination.
Just look at it, the number of men serving as officials may not be as high as that of women."
"High-ranking officials in the commander's office want to suppress the gentry-born scholars, whether they are from rich or poor families.
We would rather allow disabled people to serve as officials than recruit scholars from gentry background."
"Because many of the gentry-born scholars are keen on the Ming Dynasty, the Governor's Office is not prepared to appoint them as high-ranking officials. They are only prepared to send them to petty officials."
"The relationship between Commander Su He and the Jiaofangsi woman is unclear.
He plans to promote a little girl to become a first- and second-rank official and suppress all the scholars."
"Confucianism will be completely abolished, and later the imperial examination will be cancelled.
The eight-part essay that we studied so hard for ten years is completely useless."
Du Yuan listened to the increasingly outrageous words coming out of Zheng Lu's mouth.
He felt that something was wrong with this person, so after drinking, he secretly went to the patrol inspector to report Zheng Lu.
After Du Yuan came back, he won over some poor people from Zheng Lu's team.
…
Su He received the transcript of the written examination from Wang Zhongce.
There are also test papers for the top few in each yamen.
Wang Zhongce said helplessly: "Commander Su, you asked Wenjun to take the written examination of the Ministry of Health and temporarily offered the position of Minister of Health.
This is not a good idea and will not be good for Commander Su’s reputation.
There are a lot of rumors out there now, and if this matter is announced, the impact will not be good.
In particular, many of the people who assessed Wenjun were still her apprentices.
How could Wenjun fail the exam? This is completely an internal decision."
No one else dared to comment on this matter. Only Wang Zhongce, Wang Wenjun's brother, could comment.
"Don't worry, I have consulted Wenjun and she is very willing to be the Minister of Health.
Only she can do these things. Isn't a major plague about to spread now?
Wenjun's theory of pathogenic bacteria and methods of preventing plague must be promoted as soon as possible.
And the cowpox vaccine she invented saved so many lives.
Who dares to object, let them also come up with a miracle drug like cowpox vaccine.
We have already broken the rules and appointed women as officials, so why not be bolder?"
Wang Zhongce did not refute, these things were the results of Commander Su's research.
But when these achievements are placed on my sister, they create a golden body for her.
Even if the fight in the harem is fierce, my sister will be safe.
If something happens to her, all the people will not agree.
Su He continued to look at the transcript of the written examination in his hand.
He found a lot of talent on this list.
Unexpectedly, this little girl Qu Qingyi was admitted to the Secretariat on her own merit. She ranked last in the written examination.
Su He opened his test paper and found that the lowest score was the budget of the Water Conservancy Department of the Ministry of Industry.
Except for a few that got it right, most of them were full of mistakes.
But looking at the superficial calculation methods on some test papers, one can tell that she doesn't understand mathematics.
But she scored very high on other exam questions and is a very capable girl who is worth training.
The first place in the Three Laws Division is Li Yuanzheng. Su He looks at his test paper.
Judging from the article alone, this is a person who has a righteous heart and hates evil as much as he hates it.
As expected, Wang Wenjun ranks first in the Ministry of Health and is the unofficial Minister of Health.
Su He read the transcript and ordered: "Wang Zhongce, there is nothing wrong with the transcript, so we will announce it according to this ranking."
Wang Zhongce hesitated after hearing this: "Commander Su, more than half of the officials appointed this time are non-traditional Confucian candidates.
There are also many brothel girls among them. Even if most of them sign up for the new yamen of Hanzhong Newspaper Agency, the influence will be very great.
Recently, there have been a lot of rumors fermenting in Hanzhong City, and I'm afraid something bad will happen.
It will affect Shilin’s evaluation of us.”
Su He slapped the table and ordered: "Call Su Yan."
He looked at Wang Zhongce and said: "I looked at the transcript and found that most of the traditional candidates were concentrated in the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Household Affairs.
These two yamen originally had many officials and could only provide few official positions.
Candidates are swarming here, and most of them will definitely be rejected.
Sometimes, choice is more important than hard work.
When they make a choice, they must be responsible for their choice.
We are afraid of the reputation of the gentry because we are killing the gentry.
We will have no reputation.
We need to figure out who are our friends and who are our enemies.
This issue must be clarified.
Anyone who can cause trouble is an enemy.
To deal with the enemy, let the enemy feel our cruelty."
Su Yan walked into the room and asked respectfully: "Commander Su, do you have anything to tell me?"
"Tomorrow you will send capable personnel to maintain order in the recruitment hall.
If there are candidates who want to cause trouble, they must not be merciful and must be dealt with sternly.
Use any means to suppress the matter for me."
Su He ordered in a very stern tone, emphasizing the words "use any means."
Su Yan immediately understood what Su He meant, and he promised: "Don't worry, Commander Su, we will definitely maintain order in the recruiting hall.
If anyone dares to cause trouble, he will be dealt with immediately."
Su Yan took out the information and reported: "Commander Su, someone reported that a person named Zheng Lu kept spreading rumors.
Destroy the reputation of the recruitment hall."
After reading Su He's result information carefully, he ordered:
"Cancel Zheng Lu's results and replace him with Du Yuan who reported the crime.
There are so many candidates, but only Du Yuan came to report. This is a candidate who cares for us.
If Zheng Lu dares to organize candidates to cause trouble tomorrow, she will be shot to death."
Su He called Wu Donglin again to discuss how to punish the candidates who caused trouble if there were any candidates.
Wu Donglin listened to Su He’s punishment opinions.
"Commander Su, isn't this too heavy?"
"Based on this, they still think that they are scholars of the Ming Dynasty. We do not give preferential treatment to candidates who break the law."
Su He didn't care about the troublemaking candidates at all.
Those who make the list will definitely not make trouble. This is the group that Su He needs to win over.
Those who fail the rankings are not suitable for the leadership system.
They wanted to rely on the special qualities of scholars just like in the Ming Dynasty.
It is simply a delusion to influence the government's policy.
…
June 22nd.
Outside the recruitment hall, candidates taking the written examination were waiting quietly outside.
They are waiting for the recruitment hall to open the recruitment list.
Those who top the written examination have a much higher chance of becoming a high official than others.
Just after Chen hour, the door of the recruiting hall opened.
The examiner took a stack of transcripts and posted them on the wall outside the recruitment hall.
He said to many candidates: "Those who are on the list, come to me to get the interview notice.
Come for the interview according to the time and place on the notice.
Those who did not make the list, please study hard and take the imperial examination next year or come to the Talent Recruitment Center again."
When many candidates saw the examiner leaving, they immediately rushed forward and looked for their names on the list.
Su Yan was afraid of a stampede accident and stopped the candidates who wanted to step forward.
Arrange inspections and let a few candidates in at a time and ask them to copy the list on the wall and take it out.
After they finished copying the list, they let in another batch of candidates.
The list quickly spread.
When Shi Xi saw his name on the list, he happily hugged Li Yuanzheng.
"Brother Li, I was admitted to the Grain Reserve Bureau and ranked third.
When I enter the Grain Reserve Bureau this time, I will be awarded the rank of ninth grade official.
No matter how small an official is, he is still an official, and the road to promotion is smooth.
To become a minor official, you still have to go through the important hurdle of being an official."
Li Yuanzheng looked at Shi Xi's excitement.
If people with physical disabilities like them can become officials, it is really thanks to Commander Su.
"By the way, Brother Li, this is your name, and you are in high school.
Ranking first in the Three Laws Division, you will definitely get a higher official position.
I heard that there is no chief official in the Metropolitan Procuratorate yet, so Brother Li has a good chance."
Li Yuanzheng was also very happy when he saw his name ranked first in the Sanfa Division.
He looked at the other people next to him and listened to his suggestion, taking the exam for people from the unpopular yamen.
They are all on the list, and at last they can become a minor official.
If you are a junior official in the governor's office, you can hope to become a high official if you do well.
Those who signed up for the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Personnel were all unsuccessful and could not compete with others.
Some people kept wiping their tears and saying things they regretted.
Li Yuanzheng had no choice. He and the successful candidates lined up to receive the interview notice.
Adjust your mentality and prepare for the interview. This is the best step in becoming an official. You can't make any mistakes.
…
Qu Qingyi saw that she won first place in Secretariat.
She jumped up excitedly.
"Sisters, I will protect you from now on."
The sisters also laughed happily.
They know very well that there are seven rank officials in front of the prime minister.
Secretaries in the Secretariat do not have a high official position, but they are closest to the center of power and have great implicit power.
The girls looked at Qu Qingyi and sincerely blessed her.
Qu Qingyi is the youngest among them, but the most assertive one.
Now that they have entered the power center of the Commander's Office, they can be considered as people with a strong backing and are not afraid of being bullied by others.
They followed Qu Qingyi's suggestion and signed up for the Ministry of Health.
In this yamen, according to the number of successful candidates listed on the list, the number of women is second only to the Ministry of Education.
…
Liu Xin looked at the list. She, who was just eavesdropping on the private school teacher's class, had really passed the exam.
The ranking is not high, but at least I can be a primary school teacher and my salary can support my family.
She saw that the Ministry of Education recruited the largest number of teachers, accounting for half of the total candidates, and also recruited the largest number of women of any government office.
Most of these sisters applied to the Ministry of Education to become primary school teachers, and none of them failed.
Almost any literate person who wants to be a primary school teacher can get on the list.
…
Lingyin took her sisters and looked at the list they had just copied.
She ranked first in Hanzhong Newspaper Club. She found that Hanzhong Newspaper Club had very few candidates who signed up.
Most of them are her sisters.
When Lingyin saw this, she felt relieved.
The people who will work with her in the future will still be these sisters.
She no longer has to worry about not getting along with others in the officialdom.
Lingyin looked at the situation of other sisters. Among those who applied for the Ministry of Health, no one failed.
There were several sisters, registration secretaries and other yamen, but all failed.
Lingyin was glad for her choice.
There are many sisters who failed the exam and are more talented than those who passed the exam for the Ministry of Health.
…
"Brother Du, I am the eighteenth member of the Ministry of Industry.
I would be satisfied if I could pass the exam. I asked about the Department of Water Resources and there were only three people who passed the exam.
In this interview, I can be a ninth-grade official for the last time."
Gu Ping'an looked happy and informed Du Yuan of the good news.
They praised very few candidates from the county, and their fellow villagers were also a powerful force in the official circles.
At least there will be a way to ask for help in the future.
"Brother Gu, I am also on the list. We are happy together."
Du Yuan smiled, and he felt that the gloom in his heart was swept away.
He was ranked fifty-third in the civil service department. He didn't expect that he would get on the list despite his poor performance.
He had seen the vacancies in the civil service department before.
Not counting high-ranking officials, there are more than 60 vacancies for seventh-rank and lower officials.
With his performance, he is at least an eighth- or ninth-grade official.
He jumped from a private school teacher and a scholar who made a living by selling calligraphy and painting to an official.
Du Yuan felt that his life had been greatly improved.
Zheng Lu took the list and checked her name repeatedly.
He didn't even find his name. How is this possible?
He compared the articles with his subordinates and found that his own was obviously better than Du Yuan's.
Du Yuandu passed the exam. This is the imperial examination, so there must be some shady secret.
Zheng Lu smiled happily when she saw Du Yuan holding the list.
Anger suddenly surged in his heart, and he shouted arrogantly: "Du Yuan, come here."
Du Yuan was frightened when he heard Zheng Lu's voice.
He was about to lower his shoulders and walk over.
Look at the list in your hand.
Du Yuan thought to himself that his identity was completely different now and he didn't need to curry favor with these people.
He puffed up his chest and replied with a strong voice for the first time:
"What are you shouting for? Do you know my current identity?
In a few days, I will be an official in the Ministry of Personnel, representing the authority of the Commander-in-Chief and Commander-in-Chief Su.
I'm not your bitch.
If you dare to interfere with my exam, I will immediately call the inspector and put you in jail."
Du Yuan shouted to the others around Zheng Lu: "I won the list, he didn't, and he will have a better future with me."
There are several candidates who failed the exam and usually have a good relationship with Du Yuan.
After hearing Du Yuan's words, they quietly left Zheng Lu's team.
Zheng Lu wanted to get angry, but she saw Du Yuan and his men running towards a patrolling team.
He suppressed the anger in his heart. Now there were not enough people to cause trouble.
Zheng Lu carefully observed the identities of the candidates on the list.
He and his younger brother studied together, and he really saw some clues.
He found that most of the candidates on the list were from poor families.
They are all the children of small landowners, and it is already very difficult to support them in reading and literacy.
There is no way to stay out of work to support their education.
These children from poor families will find a job to support themselves.
Most of them are private school teachers and accountants.
They, the children of the gentry, have a huge amount of money in their families, which can support them to study outside their jobs.
I usually visit brothels and hold poetry gatherings to build my reputation.
Most of these gentry children failed the exam.
Zheng Lu immediately made contact. Even though they were not familiar with each other, they had all participated in poetry gatherings together.
In a short period of time, he gathered many famous gentry disciples.
Zheng Lu began to encourage these people.
“We failed this time not because of poor quality.
It's entirely because the governor's office is unfair.
The article I wrote was very clever and did not hit the list.
One of my former subordinates wrote rubbish articles, but he got on the list.
We didn't pass the exam, it's not because our skills are not good, it's because the examiners at the Talent Recruitment Center deliberately suppressed us scholars.
We are scholars and scholars, but those are just mud-legged people.
There has been cheating in the exams at the Governor's Office, and justice has been lost, and we want to seek justice."
Zheng Lu prepared Du Yuan and his article in advance.
The level of these two articles can be seen at a glance.
The candidates present were immediately convinced by Zheng Lu
"Brother Wang is right, our level is definitely better than those people.
They usually don’t dare to participate in poetry gatherings for fear of leaking the details.”
"What's the use of talking about this? There was obviously fraud on the part of the examiner in this recruitment examination.
what should we do?
Especially in the recruitment examination, the examiners didn't even test the eight-part essay. They didn't even test the Confucian classics.
This is serious fraud."
Many scholars expressed their dissatisfaction with this exam.
They do not think that their own skills are not good, but because the commander-in-chief is unfair and the examiners are cheating.
Zheng Lu saw that the atmosphere was building up, and she immediately encouraged: "We must not compromise, we must lead the government to severely punish the cheating examiners.
They are discriminating against us gentry children and our Confucian students.
They even let women become officials, but they are not willing to give us official positions.
Our resistance this time is to preserve the name of the religion.
The principles of ruler, minister, father, son, husband and wife are consistent, which is the foundation of famous religion.
We can't let them mess up the routine.
If the program is not chaotic, no one will dare to cheat.
Tsuna is in chaos, and our official positions can only be taken away by cripples and women."
Zheng Lu gathered some failed candidates. They first stood outside the entrance of the recruitment hall, shouting slogans of protecting reputation and severely punishing cheating examiners.
Seeing that no one paid attention to them, some candidates had already received the interview notice and entered the recruitment center for interviews.
Zheng Lu knew that just shouting slogans would not change anything.
“Protect the reputation of education and severely punish cheating examiners.
If not me, everyone, follow me."
Zheng Lu took the lead and rushed forward, followed by more than a hundred scholars behind him.
Zheng Lu was not worried at all that something would happen if she did this.
At most, they would only get a few words of reprimand. For the sake of reputation, the Ming court would not take action against candidates.
What's more, the rebels haven't yet established a firm foothold.
They need the support of their own scholars even more.
In the southeastern region, which had the most scholars in the Ming Dynasty, dozens of scholars could beat to death the imperial eunuchs sent by the emperor.
Block the implementation of all court policies that are not beneficial to the local gentry.
In most cases, no one will die.
Even if he died due to this incident, his family and descendants would still enjoy the glory.
The probability of the children of his family passing the imperial examination is far higher than that of other families.
Zheng Lu has already calculated the pros and cons.
Taking the lead in attacking the recruitment hall this time is really like the North-South Ranking Incident in the Hongwu Year.
Let the commander-in-chief change the list of winners.
He will gain great benefits and even become the leader of a party.
Even if it didn't succeed, it was because of this incident.
These scholars will also unite closely around him to form a powerful force.
What's more, there is his father's guarantee.
He will not show up for anything, he will just wait for the matter to be completed and enjoy the huge benefits.
Zheng Lu led her people to directly block the door of the recruitment hall, intercept the successful candidates, and prevent them from entering the recruitment hall for interviews.
They also snatched the interview notices from candidates and tore them up directly.
Some candidates protected their interview notices and were beaten by Zheng Lu and others.
"Baomingjiao opposes women becoming officials. The relationship between monarch, minister, father, son and husband must never be messed up."
Su Yan saw an abnormal gathering of candidates outside the recruitment center.
He asked the inspectors to get ready, load their muskets with gunpowder, and prepare a large amount of chili pepper water.
He saw that the candidates were not behaving too violently, and he did not take any action.
When they saw that Zheng Lu had led people to block the door, robbed and beat others.
Su Yan led the patrol, raised their muskets, and immediately surrounded Zheng Lu and the others.
"Squat down and raise your hands."
Zheng Lu watched the inspector raise his musket, and he was not worried at all.
These petty officials don't dare to do anything to them.
"Rush over and kill these blue dogs."
Zheng Lu took the lead and rushed over.
Su Yan pulled the trigger, and from a few meters away, the musket was very accurate and hit Zheng Lu directly in the chest.
Zheng Lu looked at the big hole in her chest and felt that her life was disappearing.
"You actually, really dare to shoot."
The other scholars were stunned when they saw Zheng Lu being shot to death.
I didn't expect that causing trouble would actually be life-threatening.
No one dared to resist and was directly controlled by the patrol.
Wu Donglin, the minister of Dali Temple, rushed over quickly and followed Su He's advice.
Judge these people for their actions.
"The organizer Zheng Lu was directly shot dead.
Five generations of his family have been on the black list.
Those who are on the black list are not allowed to take the imperial examination or participate in the recruitment examination, and they are not allowed to be awarded a title.
Other candidates who participated in the riots were sentenced to ten years of forced labor and were put on the black list."
After Wu Donglin announced the verdict, the inspection immediately suppressed these candidates.
Outside the gate of the recruitment hall, order was restored.