In the White Mansion, Bai Jingtao was sitting in the study, with a book of "Book of Han. Food and Husbandry" on his left hand. There was also a stack of rice paper beside the book. He put his pen on the inkstone and scrawled half of it on the paper.
Five steps away from him, a veteran soldier was kneeling. He was carefully taking out a bamboo tube from his arms and handing it over with both hands.
"Master, I have a letter from Yanyun."
Bai Jingtao took the bamboo tube and first checked that the seal's seal was not damaged. Then he opened the lid and took out the letter paper inside.
He has appointed Sun An to take over Yanyun Second Prefecture. This letter must be the work report written by Sun Anda after he arrived.
Sure enough, apart from the basic introduction to the current situation of Yanyun and Yunzhou at the beginning of the letter, it was the main content. The first article made Bai Jingtao alert.
Maowu is dead!
Maowu is his personal follower, and a personal follower. Officially, almost no one dares to touch him. Moreover, Maowu is very skilled. If he is well prepared, even three or five gangsters are no match for him.
He focused his attention on the handwriting, "The death of Mao Wu is suspected to be the work of barbarians. Unfortunately, there is no evidence, so we can only monitor it for the time being and let my subordinates take their time to figure it out."
Barbarian?
How come there are barbarians in Yunzhou?
But Bai Jingtao was relieved. Since he was a barbarian, it meant that it had nothing to do with the forces in the court and it should be just an accident.
But the second piece of news that followed made Bai Jingtao fall into trouble again.
"There is also Zhao Cheng, a scholar from Liuxi Village, who has passed the county examination and won the title of Chief Examination. The government examination will be held in one month. With the qualifications of the Chief of Case, even if he does not get Jieyuan, he will not fail the exam. He can easily get the status of Gongsheng."
"In order to prevent him from entering the officialdom, the only way to stop him is to set up obstacles in the government examination. Therefore, my subordinates need the young master to take action to put pressure on Yunzhou..."
Bai Jingtao sighed, interfering in the imperial examination was not a trivial matter, but it had to be done.
Bai Jingtao made the decision to prevent Zhao Cheng from entering the officialdom after returning to Beijing.
Bai Jingtao knew everything about Zhou Rushuang because of his official cooperation.
She bought a seriously ill and dying libertine from a neighboring village and married him through the official media agency. The libertine was indeed as unworthy as the rumors said, and Bai Jingtao was even defrauded of sixty taels of silver.
But it happened that Zhou Rushuang was completely devoted to this prodigal. Although for some unknown reason, the two did not have sex and kept themselves private, Bai Jingtao discovered that Zhou Rushuang was still extremely obsessed with this Zhao Cheng.
Originally, he thought that the daughter of King Lu grew up in the countryside and had not seen much of the world. A village libertine was a bit handsome and charmed the princess. When he went to Beijing and met various princes and princes, he was better than that Zhao. There are too many outstanding people, so the princess must be able to let go of this casual relationship.
Unexpectedly, after arriving in Beijing, Zhou Rushuang would still be obsessed with playing the flute whenever she had time. The music was melodious. Bai Jingtao asked if it was Zhao Cheng who taught her. Obviously, Zhao Cheng was still the only one in her heart.
Later, Bai Jingtao took Zhou Rushuang to meet Bai Dongjiang and told her the life and death of her father, King Lu, letting her know that she was the daughter of King Lu, and her real name was Tantai Wushuang.
Bai Jingtao thought that with such a disparity in status, the princess was superior, and Zhao Cheng was just a rogue, so he should have nothing to worry about, right?
But Zhou Rushuang was as stubborn as ever and focused on Zhao Cheng.
For Bai Jingtao, he knew very well what the prodigal in that village was like. In order to get into his lap, he lied and lied that there was an ancient stone tablet in their village, and thus defrauded him of sixty taels of silver.
If the princess's future identity was known to her, would she not be allowed to pursue her to the capital in order to become a dragon and a phoenix? If the other party has no merit, he can be sent away casually. For the sake of the princess, his life will not be harmed.
But if this Zhao Cheng really achieved fame and even entered the imperial court, it would be different.
You must know that Bai Dongjiang just went to Lin Ruoquan's house for the sake of the princess's future identity. It won't be long before the princess will reappear as Li Zuoxiang's daughter.
Once Zhao Cheng gains fame, he will probably get entangled with him, which will have a great impact on Bai Jingtao's plan and even Bai Dongjiang's plan.
"How about... kill him?" Bai Jingtao frowned slightly and put his forehead on his hand, thinking about whether to solve this problem forever.
But when he thought of the decisive words the princess had said to him, he backed down again.
When he took the princess and left Qinghe County, Bai Jingtao thought about sending someone to get rid of Zhao Cheng once and for all.
But unexpectedly, the princess understood his thoughts and threatened her life: "If one day, Zhao Lang is in danger and dies, I will commit suicide immediately and follow Zhao Lang under the underworld."
Bai Jingtao still remembers the princess's decisive eyes and indifferent tone when she said these words. He believes that she can definitely do it.
For the safety of the princess, it is better to do less than to do more, so Bai Jingtao gave up the idea of killing Zhao Cheng.
But when he saw the news that Zhao Cheng passed the county examination in the letter today, Bai Jingtao couldn't help but feel murderous.
Because he has been in contact with Zhao Cheng, he is not considered a scholar at all, but can only be regarded as a rogue. How can such a person be the head of the case? Are all the examiners blind?
The county examination was chaired by Shen Yuan, a scholar of Yunzhou Confucianism, and served as the examiner. If nothing else happened, Shen Yuan would still be the examiner for the next government examination.
So Bai Jingtao can almost predict what will happen when the government test results are released. That Zhao Cheng must be in the top ten, no! Must be one of the top three!
boom! Bai Jingtao punched the table with his fist, causing the inkstone to jump. The pen on the inkstone rolled onto the paper, blackening the writing.
"These corrupt officials!"
Bai Jingtao can be 100% sure that Shen Yuan must have accepted a bribe, otherwise how could he possibly name that scoundrel as the head of the case?
He remembered that Shen was originally an assistant teacher of Guozi, but for some unknown reason, he was demoted to Yunzhou to study Confucian classics.
Guozi's assistant teacher is from the sixth grade, while Shangzhou Classics is from the seventh grade, Zhongzhou Classics is from the seventh grade, which is two or three levels behind.
"Haha..." Bai Jingtao clenched his fist and sneered. If he wasn't a corrupt official, how could he be demoted? He had just presided over the county examination, but a gangster was the one responsible for the case. Isn't it a joke in the world?
"Forget it! There is no need to go to great lengths to deal with this kind of person, because he is just a ball of mud and cannot hold up the wall!"
"As long as I send a few more selfless invigilators to inspect the exam papers, the prodigal will definitely be exposed!"
Bai Jingtao slowly loosened his clenched fist, revealing the letter paper that had been crumpled into a ball in his palm, and placed it on the candlelight to burn it to ashes.
"Speaking of being selfless..." Bai Jingtao smiled slightly: "There are few people who are more prosperous than Fei Su in this dynasty!"
