King Yi's visit to the capital really caused a lot of discussion in the court. This King Yi caused such a big trouble when he first arrived in the capital, which naturally led to the impeachment of many censors.
Of course, for most officials, it was just a matter of watching the excitement, because the emperor's attitude left no room for ambiguity this time.
When the memorial to impeach King Yi was handed over, the emperor rejected it with the comment "King Yi has misbehaved and has been punished to meditate in the palace of ten princes".
In the capital, there are always undercurrents, but they are also always calm.
On this day, the sun rose as usual, and the morning dynasty began as scheduled. The elders faced the rising sun and climbed up the stairs to the Wenhua Hall to perform their duets.
However, what is a bit unusual today is that, after months of delay, Du Ning, the minister of Dali Temple, finally submitted a memorial regarding the imperial examination fraud case yesterday.
Of course, it is not accurate to say this. It was not Master Du’s intention that this case has been delayed for so long. The case has been almost investigated for a long time. Xiao Tan, who was scolded for committing suicide in shame and anger, is already alive and well enough to go out for a walk. .
However, whenever Mr. Du wants to report the case, various accidents always happen. Now, the case can no longer be delayed, so Mr. Du simply does not cover up or seek to find out. The opportunity presented itself, and I handed the memorial directly according to the normal procedure.
This time, nothing happened, and the matter involved the cabinet. Therefore, as soon as the memorial was received, the cabinet was sent to the palace. After the emperor read it, he did not say anything more and directly ordered the court to discuss it the next day. .
All the ministers entered the palace, bowed, and then listened to the emperor's words.
"Yesterday, Dali Temple presented a memorial about the fraud case in the palace examination. The national talent promotion ceremony cannot be ignored. We will discuss this matter at court this morning. Mr. Du Si, you are in charge of the trial of this case, so let you speak!"
"I obey the decree!"
Under the gaze of everyone, Du Ning stepped forward steadily, accepted the order with his hands, then turned around and said.
"Dali Temple has accepted His Majesty's mandate to hear the case of fraud in the palace examination. The case has now been concluded. After investigation, it was found that none of the ten examiners in the palace examination were involved with Cheng Zong. It was also found that no questions were leaked or any candidates were involved in the examination in advance. The act of giving and receiving in private..."
As soon as the words fell, there was a lot of discussion below.
In fact, Du Ning's memorial has not been submitted for a long time. Although it was interrupted due to various accidents, more importantly, Du Ning wanted to bypass the cabinet and perform the memorial in public in order to achieve a goal. Unexpected effect.
It's just that now, the matter can't be delayed any longer, so it has to be submitted through normal channels.
But even so, Du Ning compressed the time as much as possible. The memorial was submitted yesterday afternoon. When it arrived at the cabinet, it was immediately sent to the palace. After the emperor read it, he issued a court meeting with only one night in between.
For most of the courtiers, such a short period of time was just the time they had just received the news. However, they did not know exactly what was said in the memorial.
Of course, this does not include the six ministries and seven ministers, as well as the cabinet and other important officials of the court. They each have their own news channels.
One night was enough for them to figure out all the situations and prepare themselves at the same time.
Therefore, a small discussion created a hierarchy among the courtiers. The truly powerful ministers of the court all had a calm look on their face and a calm demeanor.
There was a lot of discussion, indicating that even though he was in the palace, his strength was not enough.
Returning to the facts of the case, although the imperial examination fraud case has been delayed for so long, it has always been a case of great concern to the courtiers.
You know, this case originally took six ministries and seven ministers, plus almost all the important ministers of the cabinet, to re-review and review it. The first ten file readers also received their own punishments. If it hadn't been for Xiao Tan's trouble If there was a suicide drama, this case would not have been put on hold for so long.
However, no matter how long it is left aside, its importance and severity will not diminish.
In the national talent promotion ceremony, under the eyes of the emperor, someone dares to do such a small trick. At the most petty level, it is a private grant, at the most extreme level, it means that the emperor is not taken seriously at all.
Therefore, no matter how long it takes to check, we must check clearly.
However, at the end of the investigation, Dali Temple came to such a conclusion?
The ten document readers have nothing to do with Cheng Zong or even other officials. Are they innocent?
That means that this palace examination is fair and impartial, and there is no evidence of favoritism or malpractice.
In this case, what are you doing that day?
Are you kidding?
You must know that in this imperial examination, the emperor personally overturned the original top ten and re-approved the top three of the new first-class. Moreover, this new first-class was endorsed by a group of important officials of the imperial court.
If this is nonsense, then where should the emperor's face be put, and where should the six ministers and seven ministers be put?
Thanks to Du Ning, who had been in the court for so many years, he dared to say such offending words. Suddenly, many ministers in the palace looked at Du Ning with a little weird look.
Of course, this does not include the many important ministers who learned the news through various channels. They know very well that this is just the beginning.
Sure enough, right after him, Du Ning continued to speak.
"Therefore, this case of the imperial examination has nothing to do with the various actions involved in the imperial examination. It is a political struggle to use the imperial examination to fight for power and gain for one's own selfish interests!"
As soon as he said this, the expressions of many people in the palace changed. Du Ning, who was standing in the palace, could even feel that there were several eyes behind him, silently staring at him.
At the same time, the ministers who were talking about each other became quiet after hearing these words. However, they looked at Du Siqing with a more thoughtful look.
Some smart people have begun to realize the taste gradually.
Sure enough, how can there be any fool in this court?
What's more, this memorial from Dali Temple was brewed for several months, and it was not submitted on the fly. How could there be such a big flaw?
There must be something wrong with the imperial examination!
Otherwise, it would be a slap in the emperor's face. However, where this problem lies is worthy of discussion.
Ordinary people's thinking will always feel that there is collusion between internal and external parties, and private exchanges. The most typical method is that the examiner is involved with a certain examiner, or accepts bribes and practices favoritism in the palace examination.
But Du Ning denied this possibility right away. It wasn't that he was stupid, on the contrary, he wanted to minimize the impact.
You know, this investigation is different from previous imperial examination fraud cases.
The most typical imperial examination case in the Ming Dynasty should be regarded as the North and South Ranking Case during the Hongwu Period. In that major case, countless courtiers were implicated. The biggest reason was actually that the court was being held hostage.
Below is the turbulent public opinion among the candidates. Above is Emperor Taizu's strict order to stop publishing the results and solve the case within a time limit. No matter what, this case must be explained to all parties.
Therefore, even if the officials who graded the papers at that time were not interested in favoritism, they must be held responsible for such a big incident.
But this time it was different. Although the emperor was furious and the government and the public were shocked by the palace examination case, it was limited to the court and did not affect the people.
After re-grading, the yellow list was released as scheduled, and no one who took the exam raised any objections to the results. Even the selected Jinshi are now in the ministry and temple supervision. It is said that Some of those who have performed well, such as Wang Yue who was ranked second in the rankings and Yu Zijun who was ranked top of the list, have received excellent reviews and have been sent to the Ministry of Personnel to consider ending their official duties early and being awarded officials.
Under such circumstances, if we want to try this case, we must first ensure that these criminals are not affected.
After the list was submitted by the examiner, it was rejected for re-examination. There was fraud in the imperial court's talent promotion ceremony, which is already very embarrassing.
It would be a huge joke if it were finally found out that a certain scholar was colluding with the ministers of the DPRK to recover the Jinshi origin that had been given.
Therefore, Du Ning's move was not to calm the situation, but to control the matter within the court.
This also shows from another perspective that Du Siqing does not intend to let this matter go lightly.
Controlling the case within the court, in fact, means that within the court, this case will turn upside down.
Of course, there is no need to guess at this point. It is very obvious from Du Ning's last sentence.
A political struggle to use the palace examination to fight for power and gain one's own selfish interests?
The weight of this accusation is no less than that of being linked to Juzi!
It can even be said that it is even worse...
Suddenly, the ministers who knew something about the inside story couldn't help but cast their eyes on Jiang Yuan, Zhang Min, Zhu Jian and other people in the cabinet who participated in the reading of the volume.
This case has been hotly debated for such a long time. The ministers who participated in the reading were one minister from each of the six ministries, plus three of their cabinet ministers and Xiao Tan, who was still awaiting investigation.
The ones who were really causing trouble were actually Xiao Tan and a few people in the cabinet. The other group of ministers were considered pure trouble.
Now that Xiao Tan is away, if nothing else happens, Du Ning's spearhead will be aimed at them, or at one of them.
However, these few people were able to keep their composure. At this moment, there was still no wave on their faces, as if Du Ning was not talking about them.
Logically speaking, at this time, a flattering official should come out to rebuke Dali Temple for making groundless accusations. However, perhaps because this case was too shocking, no one came out to answer Du Siqing's remarks.
This made Du Ning obviously feel a little depressed. However, he was also a man who had been in officialdom for a long time, so this kind of scene certainly wouldn't trouble him.
After a short pause, after everyone digested the news, Du Ning immediately turned around and cupped his hands.
"Your Majesty, there was a serious exchange of interests during this imperial examination."
"Xiao Tan, a Hanlin scholar who read the examination paper, confessed that the reason why Cheng Zong's examination paper was presented to the imperial court among the top ten was because of the suggestion of the cabinet minister Jiang Yuan. In exchange, in addition to Cheng Zong's examination paper, Among the ten examination papers submitted to the emperor, three were read by Xiao Hao."
"In addition, Xiao Tan admitted that he worked in tandem with Jiang Yuan, Zhang Min, Zhu Jian and others to privately determine the test paper standards. Although there are talented people, those who do not meet the standards discussed by them will be placed in the second class. Among the first and third grade readers, although the other examiners did not participate in the collusion, they were unfair in marking the examination papers after receiving hints from Xiao Tan and others during the break."
"Because of this, the results of the two reviews are very different. This is not due to lack of talent and mistakes in judgment, as Jiang Yuan and others defended in the palace, but due to a ceremony mixed with exchange of interests, using the imperial court to recruit talents. A transaction for personal gain of a tool.”
"Your Majesty clearly knows that when selecting officials, the imperial court attaches the utmost importance to justice. Xiao Tan, Jiang Yuan, Zhang Min, Zhu Jian and others, for their own selfish interests, neglected their duties and regarded the imperial ceremony as a personal favor. This is the first crime."
"Unifying the grading standards without authorization, judging the talents of the world based on one's own likes and dislikes, and selecting talents unfairly, causing talented people to fall into the second or third place, and untalented people to steal the top spot, which loses the prestige of the palace examination and makes it impossible to achieve the purpose of dividing the palace examination papers. It should have a role and betray the trust of all the people in the world. This is the second crime."
"Your Majesty, with his sage wisdom, discerned injustice and discovered the fraud in the palace examination. He reprimanded you in court. However, the emperor was in front of you, and a few people used clever words and tricks to deceive you. They tried to shirk the blame and failed to live up to the holy grace. This is the third crime."
"Although the other record-reading officials did not participate in the exchange of interests, they failed to perform their duties faithfully, colluded with a few people, and could not be fair in selecting talents for the country. They should also be guilty of the same crime!"
"Therefore, Dali Temple has impeached the ten people who read the papers for the palace trial. Your Majesty, please punish them severely, so as to show that the court's talent promotion ceremony is clean and upright, and to clarify the official administration!"
Du Ning had obviously prepared these words for a long time and almost finished them in one go without any pause. His words were impressive and had the demeanor of a minister of the country.
At the same time, after listening to these words, a burst of discussion suddenly broke out in the court.
A group of ministers had long expected that Dali Temple had been holding it back for so long and was definitely not planning to handle it lightly. However, what they did not expect was that Duning would play such a big role this time.
You know, if what Du Ning said is true, then Xiao Tan, Jiang Yuan, Zhang Min, and Zhu Jian will definitely not be able to keep their official titles.
It is considered a favor of the emperor to return to one's hometown in a dignified manner.
As for the other group of file readers, although their careers will not be terminated, they can be regarded as carrying a big stain. They will definitely be demoted and transferred.
What surprised them was that Du Ning actually had such courage.
Xiao Fan would not say anything else. Once the imperial examination case comes out, he will definitely bear the main responsibility no matter what, and the cabinet will certainly not be able to escape its involvement.
However, even from Du Ning's description, anyone with a discerning eye can tell that the main person who controls him is actually Jiang Yuan.
After all, he was the one who stood up for Cheng Zong. As for Zhang Min and Zhu Jian, maybe they had some private deals, but they shouldn't be the main characters.
Therefore, according to normal thinking, Du Ning should use Xiao Tan's power to deal with Jiang Yuan with all his strength, trying to pin the main blame on him and let him go home completely.
A Hanlin bachelor and a cabinet minister are enough to take responsibility for this imperial examination. As for the others, handling them lightly is the best way.
However, who could have imagined that Duning would overturn the entire ship with one stroke.
There was originally an accusation made by Xiao Tan, and it shouldn't be a problem for them to work together to unseat Jiang Yuan. However, Du Ning dragged everyone into this muddy water, so the direction of things may be difficult to predict...
(End of chapter)
