Chapter 181 180 Officialdom
After the imperial examination, Wei Guangde and the others rarely had a period of leisure.
For those who are interested in becoming a Jinshi in the Hanlin Academy, this period of time is naturally on pins and needles. But for most people, who would have cared more if they had known that they would just run with them.
But soon, Wei Guangde was shocked by a major event, which made Wei Guangde feel for the first time that being a Beijing official was not so easy. One moment, he was dressed in bright clothes, and the next moment, he was naked.
This matter also relates to the fact that during the February examination, Li Mo, the Minister of Civil Affairs, wrote a question for the examination, which included "The Han Dynasty conquered the barbarians, but wasted at home; the Tang Dynasty attacked Huai and Cai, but his career was not finished." In one word, Li Mo was framed by Zhao Wenhua, the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and Li Mo was impeached by Shangshu for defaming the court and improper employment.
Because Li Mo was an elegant and talented man, he was proud of his spirit and did not attach himself to Yan Song. However, he was shallow in nature and relied on favors and authority. Therefore, he lacked political allies, especially since Emperor Jiajing was already displeased. Naturally, he would not Some people spoke up for him because they admired him as a person.
Li Mo was dismissed from office and imprisoned, and soon died mysteriously in prison.
But of course the matter is not over yet. If someone is arrested, they must give an explanation. Because Li Mo was the Minister of Rites, Emperor Jiajing ordered Wang Yongbin, the Minister of Rites, to hear the case.
Under normal circumstances, the emperor has obviously believed the words of impeachment, and Li Mo is dead, so naturally he will not have any scruples anymore, and he should be doing things for the emperor's wishes.
However, Wang Yongbin, who was arranged by Emperor Jiajing, was also a stubborn person. He believed that Li Mo was not guilty and insisted on not handling the case according to the instructions of the emperor and the cabinet.
After Emperor Jiajing lost his patience, he directly changed Wang Yongbin's position as Minister of Libu to Nanjing's Minister of Libu, and promoted Wu Shan, the left minister of the Libu, to replace Wang Yongbin.
Originally, this personnel adjustment had been planned for a long time, but changing Wang Yongbin's appointment from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Rites in Beijing to the appointment of the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel in Nanjing was already humiliating him.
The Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is known as the Heavenly Official and controls the promotion of officials. He is definitely more popular than the Ministry of Rites. However, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites is more noble and closer to the position of the cabinet. Therefore, most officials who have the opportunity to challenge the cabinet throne are eager for this position.
But Nanjing Sixth Division is not that good at it.
He was originally able to serve as the first person under the cabinet, but now he was thrown into Nanjing.
Wei Guangde was still in disbelief when he heard the news.
Thinking about how they went to the Rites Yamen to meet the eldest uncle after being praised by Yujie half a month ago, they never imagined that the old man would encounter such a disaster.
In the final analysis, Li Mo offended Yan Song and Zhao Wenhua, and Zhao Wenhua took action to bring Li Mo down. Wang Yongbin, who was fair in dealing with things, was unwilling to frame his colleagues. As a result, he lost points with Emperor Jiajing and got himself involved.
Everyone is spreading the rumor that it was actually Yan Song who made the move, but it was just the fake Zhao Wenhua.
Well, anyway, just put the shit basin on Yan Song's head, and that will be the clear flow, although there is no trace of Yan Song's action in the whole thing.
However, it is true that Li Mo repeatedly contradicted and conflicted with Yan Song on issues of understanding, and it is unknown whether he really had his tacit approval.
Before he entered officialdom, the Li Mo case taught Wei Guangde a good lesson.
But at this time, Wei Guangde was really feeling worried in his room, looking at the letters sent from home.
The letter was naturally a letter from home from Jiujiang, and was brought up by businessmen traveling to and from the capital.
The content at the front of the letter made Wei Guangde smile. Dad and the others already knew that he had passed the National Examination. When he wrote the letter, they didn't know his results in the Imperial Examination, but he had already earned face for his parents.
The following content made Wei Guangde scratch his head a little, and it was a good thing to give him more money, but his family planned not to hand over the money to him, but to help him purchase fields, and his eldest brother also wanted to purchase fields. What the hell is this in your own name?
Wei Guangde planned to find an opportunity to report the matter of "splitting a small family into his own family". He would wait until he was appointed an official and had a suitable reason to do so. Reporting this matter to the police without any reason would not work.
However, looking at the family letter in his hand, Wei Guangde felt a little embarrassed.
To put it bluntly, it means to transfer the money that the common people should pay to the landlords, and let the landlords pay this part of the tax.
Those with more land should pay more, and those with less land should pay less.
Even though he became an official and had an official status, he could escape the tax in the name of "tax exemption" and fall on other landlords, but what about the future?
If your son or grandson is not qualified for the imperial examination, you will have to pay more taxes on these fields.
Although he is still young, Wei Guangde is accustomed to thinking about problems in the long term.
He reached for the tea cup and found that the tea was already cold. He was about to call Zhang Ji to come in and add more water, but then he remembered that Zhang Ji had gone to see the courtyard of Beijing City with the owner of the guild hall today, so he had to give up.
Wei Guangde folded the letter from home and put it into an envelope, then put it into his suitcase before getting up and going out.
At this time, the city of Jiujiang was once again filled with music and firecrackers.
But this is what it should be. After all, there are two tribute scholars in Jiujiang City this time, which means that two people have passed the imperial examination.
When the postman sent the results of the imperial examination to the magistrate's office, the current Jiujiang magistrate frowned when he saw it.
Last time, the results of the general examination came out. According to normal circumstances, the Lao family must have become rich. After all, Lao Kan ranked very high, and if nothing else happened, he would be a second-class Jinshi, so he chose to go to the Lao family to congratulate him.
Well, the results of this palace examination did turn around a lot. Wei Guangde, who was at the bottom of the rankings before, actually made a huge comeback and rushed directly to the first place in the second class and became Chuanlu.
The two top two, the prefect of Jiujiang, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The announcement outside was ready, the people from Dehua County Government had also arrived, and the prefect went out to arrange the manpower for this announcement.
Naturally, he wanted to go out to deliver the good news in person, but it was completely different from the last time he delivered the good news. This time, the prefect would definitely go to Wei Qianhu's house to congratulate him.
As for Laokan, just go to the magistrate of Dehua County.
After receiving the notification from the Jiujiang magistrate's office, Wu Zhankui and Zhang Shigui were also frightened. This ranking was so weird.
They did not doubt the authenticity of the good news. Could it be that some link in the yamen had made a mistake? There was no mistake in this matter.
All the officials of the Jiujiang Guard came out of the Wei Command and sent the Si Yamen to the Wei family to congratulate them. They also asked for a cup of wedding wine and went to the Wei family with the officials and servants from the prefect's Yamen.
Just after the results of the palace examination were announced in the yamen, a few people with quick legs and feet rushed to the Wei family and the Lao family like crazy. They were vying to report the good news, in order to earn some money for the good news.
At this time, the street where the Wei family was located was still the same as usual. There were two servants standing outside the gate of the Wei family. One was Uncle Lin who had been guarding the door, and there was a young man following him.
Obviously, the Wei family has been prepared for a long time and is waiting for the day when the news of the palace examination comes.
There were three groups of people who came to Wei's house to report the news. At this time, more than ten people were running out of breath. They didn't make any sound with the gongs, drums and suonas. They just ran forward to see who could run faster.
Although they are not from the same group, they all got the news from the yamen. You can't beat the other two groups for reporting and go grab the wedding money yourself.
One-on-two may not be beneficial. Maybe if you start a fight with one team, the other team will run away first.
The three groups all thought so and wanted to speed up and run ahead, but the speeds of the three groups were about the same.
There was no way, the leaders of the three groups negotiated while running, and soon reached an agreement to share the wedding money equally. After all, there was someone behind everyone.
In the past few sessions, Jiujiang Prefecture did not try to get good news, so those who specialized in the newspaper business did not care much anymore, thinking that it might be the same this time, and they would try to get nothing.
Well, I didn’t expect that four people passed the examination this time, and there were two in Jiujiang Prefecture, but this made several Yamen officials who had access to the good news very upset.
Naturally, they had arranged their manpower early and were waiting for the news of the success of today's imperial examination, and there was a scene of three people vying to report the good news to the Wei family.
As they approached the door, the three groups consciously slowed down and, while breathing evenly, began to play and play to make the atmosphere more festive.
Uncle Lin, the concierge, had already noticed a dozen people running over there. When he was approaching here, he suddenly slowed down, started beating, and wanted to enter the gate. This was naturally impossible.
However, they ignored the obstruction from the concierge, Uncle Lin, and the three leaders of the three groups jumped to the door and shouted: "Congratulations to your young master Wei Guangde for ranking first in the second class of the high school in the palace examination, and being listed in the yellow class in the Beijing News."
The three groups kept shouting at the gate. In fact, after they shouted the first shout, Uncle Lin hesitated to push them away. After confirming with the second shout that he heard correctly, he ran into the house to announce the good news to Wei Qianhu. went.
Wei Meng was sitting in the lobby, still discussing the matter of buying land. He also heard the little noise outside, so he thought it was someone getting a wife and didn't pay much attention to it.
After confirming the purchase of land, the Wei family naturally arranged for people to find sellers who were interested in selling the land.
Needless to say, I was lucky this time. I found sellers of two pieces of land, but the fields were not big. One piece of land was more than ten acres, and the other piece of land was more than thirty acres.
The concierge, Uncle Lin, ran in and said, "Master, Master, the second young master ranked first in the second class in the imperial examination."
Uncle Lin rushed into the hall without warning. Wei Meng raised his eyebrows at first, and then his face turned red when he heard what he said clearly.
"The newspaper is right outside the door."
Seeing Wei Meng's performance, Uncle Lin said hurriedly.
He didn't know anything about the imperial examination, but after Wei Guangde passed the imperial examination, he asked someone to find out what happened in the imperial examination and the imperial examination, and what happened in the rankings, so now he knows what the newspaper said. The first place is indeed a bit illusory.
"Go out and have a look."
When Wei Meng came out, the three newspapermen were still shouting congratulations in hoarse voices. Many passers-by had already surrounded the gate of the Wei family.
Everyone knows that the second son of the Wei family is taking the imperial examination in the capital. The good news was announced at the Yamen last time. At this moment, many onlookers are still talking about what kind of official is the number one in the second class.
"Are you the newspaper from the Yamen?"
Wei Meng looked at them and said.
"Congratulations to Mr. Wei Guangde of your mansion for ranking first in the second grade of high school in the imperial examination, and being listed in the first grade of yellow in the Beijing News."
When the three of them saw Wei Meng coming out, they all bowed in tacit agreement and shouted in unison.
Wei Meng grinned and said, "First place in the second class, you are sure."
The words he said with a smile, but the military man carried a strong murderous intention.
This is a scam, right? This is what Wei Meng was thinking about at the moment, he was the one who extorted money from him.
His tone was unkind, and the four soldiers who followed him also had unkind expressions on their faces, staring at the dozen or so people announcing the good news.
The three leaders saw something bad and did not dare to express their anger. One of them was smarter and said quickly: "Report to Mr. Wei, the news is absolutely true. We are all in this business."
He pointed at the onlookers around him and said, "We all work in Jiujiang City, and they all know us. How dare we report the news about the imperial examination?"
When he said this, many passers-by knew them and knew that they were the ones who announced the good news in the past college and rural examinations, and they all nodded to Wei Meng.
"Really won the first place in the second class?"
Wei Meng still didn't believe it and asked fiercely.
"Mr. Wei, Mr. Wei Qianhu, I don't dare to say nonsense. It's true. It's absolutely true."
The newspaper man said hurriedly, almost swearing to the sky.
"Come here, bring out the plate and reward me."
Wei Meng was excited, and before entering the door, he ordered Uncle Lin again, "As I said before, reward them with money, and give me the two plates of wedding money."
After saying that, he entered the gate without looking back, and went to the backyard to tell his wife that the second child had earned face this time. He was ranked first in the second class, and he was going to be a Beijing official.
We can't use all the money to buy land near Jiujiang. We have to take some money to the capital and let our son buy property there.
Wei Meng came in, and the three groups of people who announced the good news happily took five ingots and twelve taels of silver ingots, and then two more soldiers each held a dustpan in their hands, which was filled with bright yellow copper coins.
"Spread the happy money, the host will be very happy, spread the happy money"
While shouting loudly, he suddenly raised the dustpan in his hand and threw the copper coins in it into the air. Then it fell to the ground and rolled around.
The passers-by and the newspapers outside were all ecstatically bending over to grab the coins scattered on the ground. At this time, on the street, whether they were old people or children, men or women, they were all doing the same thing. Action, that is, bending down to pick up the lucky money.
Not long after Wei Meng passed the news to the back, he heard gongs and drums beating outside the door again and immediately asked his servants to open the middle door and welcome people in. This time it must be someone from the Yamen who came to deliver the good news.
The wedding money that had been scattered earlier had been snatched away by the onlookers, but most of the people did not disperse and gathered in the street, smiling happily as they watched the Wei family celebrate.
On both sides of the gate, Uncle Lin commanded several soldiers who had already hung up firecrackers. Wei Meng came out and saw his colleagues and the prefect. Wei Meng was only slightly surprised, but he didn't think much about it. His son had passed the second-level exam. First place.
With the sound of firecrackers, everyone walked into the door, and the prefect of Jiujiang began to read the good news loudly to Wei Meng and others.
"Good news - in the 35th year of Jiajing's reign, the Bingchen Academy held a test to test the world's tributes. Wei Guangde ranked first in the second class, and was awarded the title of Jinshi."
After reading the good news, the official who came to announce the good news neatly shouted: "Congratulations to Wei Guangde, Mr. Wei, for passing the high school, and being listed in the Beijing News for the first time."
The good news is just a notification, and there is no such thing as "the emperor is destined to be carried by heaven". It just informs who and what in your family has passed the exam and that's it.
Father Wei took the yellow note from the prefect's hand with both hands. The note was not big, but there were two dragons printed on both sides. The big words "Victory News" on the far right still made him cry with joy. There were other customs and defense seals on it. He didn't even have the intention to look at it, he just stared at the five big words "No. 1 in the Second Class A".