In the blink of an eye, the February examination period arrived, and more than 3,500 candidates from all over the country gathered in Gongyuan.
The current emperor Zhu Youtang attaches great importance to this talent selection ceremony, and appointed his teacher when he was the prince, contemporary Wenzong Cheng Minzheng, and Wenyuan Pavilion scholar Li Dongyang to take the exam.
When the three exams were over, most of the candidates who left the Gongyuan looked bad, and some even cried and criticized them with hatred.
It turned out that the policy questions in this examination were too difficult and too difficult. Many of the test takers were confused and even turned in blank papers. When they heard that this question was asked by the examiner Cheng Minzheng, everyone was dissatisfied and complained. .
Unconsciously, Cheng Minzheng became the target of public criticism.
Hu Renren was at home, but he also heard about this incident, and specially sent someone to invite Li Xunhuan to ask about the relevant situation.
Li Xunhuan said with some doubts: "This matter is indeed a bit strange. Although the test questions asked by Mr. Cheng are a bit difficult, there are still more difficult questions in previous years. This year alone, there is such a raging public sentiment, it seems... There’s someone pushing behind it.”
Hu Yuan pondered for a moment and then asked: "Xunhuan, have you ever seen Tang Yin after the exam? Is he still doing what Pindao said before, thanking guests behind closed doors to avoid disaster?"
Li Xunhuan hesitated for a moment and said with some shame: "Before the examination, Brother Bohu followed the Taoist priest's instructions and lived in seclusion to study, and never interacted with anyone. But after the examination, one of his close friends, Jiangyin Juren Xu After being invited many times, Brother Bohu could not refuse it blindly, so he went out to socialize once, and he invited me to accompany him. Because he was worried that the Taoist priest would be offended, Brother Bohu once told me not to tell the Taoist priest about this matter."
Hu Long sighed: "Who will blame the poor Taoist? It's just a pity that he doesn't listen to the poor Taoist. I'm afraid that the hard work of ten years of hard work will be wasted!"
Li Xunhuan asked in astonishment: "Why did the Taoist Master say this?"
Hu Long asked: "Did he ever get drunk and utter arrogant words at a banquet?"
Li Xunhuan became more and more astonished: "How could the Taoist master know this? Brother Bohu may have felt that the test questions were difficult for others, but for him they were easy to come by. He felt that he was more sure of passing the test, so he said something like 'today' A joke about winning the top spot in the academic field."
Hu Yuan shook his head and said: "I have never introduced Tang Yin to Your Majesty before because I couldn't believe his frivolous temperament. This time the test questions can't stump him, how can it stump you Li Xunhuan or Wang Shouren? Why don't you two say this? Wild talk. His joke is not serious, it just puts the handle into the hands of those who want to use it as a weapon to criticize others."
Li Xunhuan was already extremely intelligent, and he was a child of a noble family, so he had a deep understanding of the court affairs. After hearing this, he immediately connected these several things and said with a change of expression: "Those people want to attack Mr. Cheng Minzheng?"
Hu Long sneered and said: "Cheng Minzheng was your Majesty's teacher when he was the crown prince. His reputation, virtue, and knowledge are all respected in the country. In addition, with his achievements in presiding over this scientific examination, it is just around the corner to join the cabinet and worship him. How can those people be willing to tolerate it?" A person who loves Your Majesty joins the cabinet and shares his authority?"
Li Xunhuan asked eagerly: "This matter has not happened yet. Is there still room for recovery?"
Hu Tuo said: "Since the other party has created such a momentum, it is an arrow on the string and has to be fired. As long as a spark is thrown to completely ignite the anger of the more than three thousand people, even His Majesty will not be able to suppress this matter. We can All we can do is try to convey the matter to His Majesty through His Highness, so that the palace can make some preparations in advance."
When Li Xunhuan hurried out, the expression on Hu Long's face suddenly returned to calm.
He took out the jasper gourd from his sleeve, opened the lid, raised his head, and took a sip of the wine stored in it which became increasingly fragrant after aging. He thought with a smile: "This time the emperor has truly understood the arrogance of those people, and his ambition should be even stronger." Be firm, and there will be no intention of softening the situation!”
The development of the matter was as Hu Long expected, and soon the Hu Ke reported to Zhonghua Chang, impeaching Cheng Minzheng, who was responsible for the proposition and the examiner, for leaking the examination questions in advance to Xu Jing, the son of Jiangyin, and Tang Yin, the son of Suzhou.
When the news spread, the candidates who were waiting for the results to be released were in an uproar, and everyone demanded that the court thoroughly investigate Cheng Minzheng's fraud.
Zhu Youtang got the news from Hu Yuan one step earlier and was still able to hold his ground.
He successively sent several groups of people to interrogate Cheng Minzheng, Xu Jing, Tang Yin and others who had been detained, and published the results of "no evidence" several times, but he was still unable to appease the fierce public opinion. Even some officials in the DPRK and central government wrote letters one after another. They objected to closing the case in this way on the grounds that it was "difficult to overcome public expectations".
In the end, the case even reached the imperial court, where Zhu Youtang personally tried and made the decision.
The final result was that each side suffered a heavy blow. On one side, Cheng Minzheng, who was at the center of the storm, was forced to retire, and Xu Jing and Tang Yin were both dismissed from their posts. On the other side, Hua Chang, who started the storm, was laid off and transferred to Nanjing. The chief register of Taipu Temple.
Covered in the haze that has not yet cleared up after this chaos, more than 300 tributes who were selected for the general examination entered the palace and went to Fengtian Hall to participate in the palace examination.
After the examination paper was read by the readers, the top three were sorted out and submitted to Zhu Youtang for inspection. Zhu Youtang broke the practice of rarely changing the established rankings in previous years and appointed Wang Shouren, who was ranked sixth in the top two, as the number one scholar. , Lun Wenxu, who was originally ranked first in the first class, was changed to second place, and Li Xunhuan, who was originally ranked third in the first class, is still ranked third. As for the original second place in the first class, it is said that he has a teacher-student relationship with a certain important minister in the court. Yuan Xue fell into the second-tier list.
On the day when the results were released, some were laughing and some were sad, and the most miserable among them was Tang Yin, who had been released from prison and had no place to stay, so he took refuge in Li Xunhuan's home.
Thinking that he came here with great ambitions, but because of a false accusation, he lost the qualification to take the exam, and even lost his status as a scholar and became a subordinate. Especially when he learned that Wang Shouren and Li Xunhuan both went to high school, he was really frustrated at the moment. die.
Just when he was complaining about himself in the backyard and drowning his sorrows with wine, Hu Long came in with his two apprentices, A Fei and Zhu Houzhao.
Tang Yin immediately blushed. If he didn't have nowhere to go, he would have used Qinggong to escape immediately.
Hu Long shook his head and laughed, walked to sit opposite him.
Behind him, Zhu Houzhao grabbed the wine bottle on the table before A Fei could. He poured a glass of wine into another empty cup and offered it to his master without any airs of a Ming Dynasty prince.
Hu Long and Tang Yin had a drink together and asked, "Does Bohu feel that he has been wronged this time?"
Tang Yin raised his glass and motioned to Zhu Houzhao, who was still holding the jug, to pour wine for him. At this time, he still only knew that this young man "Zhu Shou" who had met once before was Hu Long's new disciple. He smiled bitterly and said, "Although this time It’s because he suffered the same fate as Chiyu, but he also acted laxly and was caught by others, so how can he still have the right to blame others?”
Seeing that his words came from the bottom of his heart, Hu Long said leisurely: "You have forgotten the words Pindao sent you before. If Pindao sends you another message today, you can still hear it. , take it to heart?”
Tang Yin's eyes suddenly lit up, he stood up quickly, raised his hands in greeting, and said, "If Taoist Master is willing to teach you, I will definitely listen to you and keep it in your heart!"
Hu Long said slowly: "If you are still aspiring to fame, there will be another opportunity in the future, but this opportunity requires you to spend ten years of loneliness and poverty to wait. I wonder if you have such patience?"
