In a waiting hall in the outer corridor of the administrative office, Zhang Yu, dressed in traditional scholar Tianxia clothes, sat there and waited quietly.
He was the only one sitting here in the huge space.
There was a burst of hurried footsteps in the lobby outside, from far to near, and then the door to the waiting room was pushed open, and a young official in his twenties walked in, looked at him, raised his hands and said
: "Zhang Shenzhi, the gentlemen invite you to come into the hall to speak. Please come with me."
Zhang Yu stood up, raised his hand and saluted, saying: "Thank you."
"Don't dare."
The young official said politely, took a step to the side, made way for the door, and said seriously: "Please."
Zhang Yu walked out of the waiting hall, with young officials leading the way.
The Administrative Office is the largest building in the inner city platform, and the interior space is extremely vast. The two walked along the spacious corridor for a short while before stopping in front of a huge courtyard.
The young official said at this time: "Zhang Shenzhi, if you go in here, you will find the outer corridor of the assembly hall. After you accept the public consultation here, go straight forward and you can enter the main assembly hall. It is not convenient for me to enter."
, it stops here.”
Zhang Yu nodded, pushed the door open and walked in. After walking for a while, what appeared in front of him was a gallery corridor, with rows of stepped stone seats on both sides. At this moment, there were scattered seats on it.
There were more than thirty people sitting scattered around, both men and women. Their clothes looked relatively simple and bland, and they were patched in some places, but they were all washed and ironed smoothly.
Many of the people here are young, but many of them have weathered faces. The exposed hands have thick joints and are covered with calluses. The bones of the body are more or less deformed, but the muscles are relatively strong. It can be seen that
Most people here make a living by doing manual labor.
In fact, most of these thirty people are from the lowest level of the Protectorate, but they cannot be underestimated because of their status. To a certain extent, they determine the outcome of today's scholar selection.
Anyone who comes to participate in the selection of scholars will go through three inquiries, government inquiry, academic inquiry and people's inquiry.
If one of the three inquiries fails, then he will not be selected as a scholar.
The "people's inquiry" among the three inquiries is to dialogue with these people from the bottom of the civil society.
These people will try to ask him something, or ask him some questions that they are concerned about, and his answers will determine their senses and judgments about him.
In the past, many scholars who participated in the selection of scholars could easily pass the "Xue Xun" and "Du Xun" tests, but they failed to pass the "Min Xun" test.
There is no other reason than that these people from the bottom have resistance and dislike for them.
In fact, these judgments are often very subjective, so if you are not a person who has a great reputation among the people for a long time, it will be difficult to pass the selection.
And these low-level people are not afraid of offending anyone at all, because they have directly accepted the protection of the Grand Governor from the moment they were selected as interrogators.
If anyone tries to influence them or threaten them, they can directly report it to the capital through a specific channel, and then the governor will come forward to provide justice for them.
But it is impossible to say that everyone here is completely unaffected by certain wishes. But the Protectorate only needs to maintain the most basic fairness. Whether it can pass the test in the end depends on the person who chooses it.
This can be regarded as some kind of test that must be passed.
At this time, Zhang Yu's arrival also triggered whispers among these people.
"Look, look! This is Zhang Shenzhi! He is the one who killed the Ability God at the dock!"
"Is it him? I've been hearing mentions of him in the newspapers recently. It seems that he has done a lot of good things."
"I heard that he saved many people, and also made a large indigenous tribe of 100,000 people in the south put down their weapons and come to learn our Tianxia language while crying. This has greatly enhanced the prestige of our Protectorate!
"
"Some people in the capital are very bad. They often tell lies and deceive others, but not necessarily all of them are true..."
"He's so good-looking."
"Yes, he looks like a good person at first glance."
A middle-aged man with gray hair sitting in the middle frowned. He stood up and said loudly: "Everyone, listen to me."
He seemed to have some prestige among the crowd, and his voice gradually became quieter.
The middle-aged man cupped his hands in front of Zhang Yu and said, "Zhang Shenzhi, can I ask you a few words?"
Zhang Yu raised his hand and returned the salute, saying: "Excuse me, sir."
The middle-aged man looked around and said: "We have heard about your past achievements. If those are true, we would admire them very much, but to be honest, they are too far away from us. Just now...
…”
He pointed in the direction of the assembly hall with his hand, "As for the three young people who passed by just now, they all served in local offices and helped us do a lot of good things. I even saw one of them personally chop wood and light the fire for us.
, fetching water and digging a well, no matter if he was just showing off, at least he did it, but I want to ask, what have you done for us?"
Someone muttered, "Zhang Shenzhi has done great things."
The middle-aged man immediately retorted: "What is a big thing? What is a small thing? Are the things that are placed on us just small things? Aren't we all subjects of the Protectorate?"
He turned his head again and looked at Zhang Yu, "Zhang Shenzhi, what do you think?"
Zhang Yu nodded and agreed: "The foundation of the Protectorate lies in the three million people within the territory. Since ancient times, civil affairs have never been a trivial matter."
"Right, even Zhang Shenzhi admits that this is no small matter."
The middle-aged strong man looked around, as if he had won a battle, and his momentum became even higher. He looked at Zhang Yu again, stared at him and said: "Then Zhang Shenzhi, what have you done, can you tell me?"
Zhang Yuwei thought for a while and said: "I have never been a local official like the previous ones, but I have written many articles in newspapers, and I believe I have helped a lot of people in the Protectorate."
The middle-aged man frowned and said, "Write an article?" He shook his head and said, "Zhang Shenzhi, we can't understand articles, so what does that have to do with us?"
Zhang Yu said in a calm voice: "The words and expressions in the articles I write are relatively simple, and anyone who is literate can understand them. Moreover, most of the things I write are related to people's livelihood. I think you all have read them before.
.”
The middle-aged man was a little confused and said: "Zhang Shenzhi, why do you think that we have all read your article?"
Zhang Yu stretched out his hand and signaled to the servant waiting on one side. The latter immediately understood and handed over a piece of paper and pen. He held the pen in his hand and brushed down a few words on the white paper, and then
He put down his pen, looked up at the person sitting on the seat, and said: "The usual pen name for articles written by the emperor is 'Tao Sheng'. There have been many published in newspapers before, and the latest one is about Xia Li."
"What?"
The middle-aged man was shocked. He looked at him with big eyes and said, "You, you...are you Tao Sheng?"
There was a burst of exclamation in the seats, and many people stood up involuntarily, looking at him excitedly and somewhat disbelievingly.
Many of them are engaged in weaving, mining, port handling and other work. The day after day work has caused serious physical damage. However, since Tao Sheng's article about Xia Li appeared,
Not only were the pains of many people relieved, but they also gradually regained their health.
After the Xia Li and the breathing method were announced, it is no exaggeration to say that it benefited thousands of people in the Protectorate, and among them, they were the ones who benefited the most. Therefore, I am very grateful to Tao Sheng for spreading this set of etiquette.
But they didn't know who Tao Sheng was.
In their imagination, they thought it might be an elder with profound knowledge, but they never expected that this young scholar would be standing in front of them.
At this time, the servant brought up a piece of paper and showed it to everyone.
There are four characters written on it. The upper part is the word "Xia Li", which is larger, and the lower part is the word "Tao Sheng", which is slightly smaller. Both the strokes and the meaning of the writing, as well as the turning points and sudden changes, are consistent with the newspaper.
The fonts at both ends of the header are exactly the same.
At this point, no one can believe it anymore.
The middle-aged man suddenly showed a look of shame on his face. He looked at Zhang Yu, opened his mouth, but said nothing. In the end, he just straightened his body, put his hands together, and performed a standard ancient Xia ceremony.
The people sitting on the seats also stood up one after another, and everyone saluted him sincerely using the Xia etiquette they learned from newspapers or from friends and relatives.
Zhang Yuze stood there, raised his sleeves, put his hands together, and saluted seriously.
Then he put down his hands, walked through the corridor under the gaze of everyone, and walked towards the big meeting hall at the end.
When the guards guarding the bottom of the porch saw him coming, there was a hint of respect in their eyes. Originally, they would not open the door until someone came, but the two of them took a step ahead and guarded themselves.
He opened the door and nodded seriously to his colleagues behind him.
Then, when the guards in the first-level corridor saw them like this, they looked at each other, turned around, and pushed the two heavy doors inwards.
In the great meeting hall, someone had already reported upward from the side corridor, saying that the last elected candidate had passed through the outer corridor and was now heading to the main hall. At the same time, he also presented the words he had just recorded to Kuang,
The remaining two elders took a look.
Everyone at the table nodded. This is the last person to be elected. When this person comes, there should be a result.
At this moment, there was a dull sound from the door of the Great Hall, and then it slowly opened inwards.
Yang Ying's eyes lit up and she said happily: "Sir is here!"
On the edge of the assembly hall near the door, three young men with tall and straight postures were sitting there. They were elected scholars from the three academies. At this moment, the three of them unconsciously straightened their bodies and headed towards the door.
He looked around, preparing to take a serious look at his opponent.
As the door opened, everyone on the table, including the Tianxia scholars, the officials of the capital, and the captain An Youting, all turned their eyes and looked over.
Behind the gate, there are several long corridors extending to the far end. You can vaguely see a young man wearing Tianxia clothes, who seems to be shrouded in the jade light, walking calmly, walking freely.
