The Xi'anmenwai Street in the inner city of Daming Mansion was already crowded with people at this time. There were probably no less than 30,000 to 40,000 people gathered there. Looking down from a high place, it was a dark place!
Most of these people are poor people who have fled, their clothes are shabby, they support the elderly and the young, and they look quite miserable. But there are also some scholar-bureaucrats wearing long clothes, wearing various scholar scarves or black gauze hats, standing near Xi'an Gate, with their heads held high and their chests high, looking very energetic.
Standing outside the Xi'an Gate, there were two to three hundred "green robes" in uniform, among them many white-haired old men, either on crutches or supported by their descendants, stood at the front. These white-haired and green-clad junior civil servants were a major feature of the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, and were called "special names" with Jinshi origins. The so-called "special names" are those who have taken the examinations for many years, but failed every time, and the young talents became old men in the examination. The officials saw that they were pitiful, so they gave them a special Jinshi to comfort them.
Of course, there is no comparison between the official career of the special-played Jinshi and the serious Jinshi. The special-played Jinshi is usually dealt with by a ninth-grade sesame official. After serving for a few years, he retires, which is considered to have served as an official. This kind of person is not seen in the court of Kaifeng Mansion. He usually works as a small academic official in the local area. But here in Hebei, the "specially named" Jinshi are basically the representatives of the gentry class.
Because the examination standards of scholars in Hebei, Hedong, and Shaanxi during the Song Dynasty were relatively poor, they were at the bottom of every imperial examination. Moreover, these places are not far from Kaifeng Mansion, which is enough for big landowners who have passed the examination to come to Beijing again and again to take the exam.
Generally, after failing the exam five or six times, you can seek a special title, then go back to control the countryside and become a scholar-official!
In the Song Dynasty, there were no fixed titles for being a scholar or a scholar. In the Song Dynasty, passing the Fajie Examination was regarded as a successful candidate and qualified to take the Huixi Examination. Under normal circumstances, it is not possible to "exempt the exam", so you can only take one general exam after passing the exam. After the exam, you will no longer have the status of a candidate. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, there was no privilege of being exempted from taxes and military service, let alone the so-called scholar... That was just a folk honorific for scholars, not an officially recognized honor.
Therefore, the various preferential treatment given to scholars in the Song Dynasty also started when scholars became officials. In fact, they were preferential treatment for civil servants. Although the specially-named Jinshi had no future in the officialdom, they were members of the noble class of scholar-bureaucrats.
In Hebei, Hedong, and Shaanxi, where there are not many genuine Jinshi, they are even the backbone of the scholar-bureaucrat class! Most of the people who have passed the examinations many times and finally become Jinshi (Special Scholars) are from aristocratic families. Otherwise, it would be impossible to spend decades on the exam, and it is not that easy to pass the local examination. If a student is really from a poor family, it will be difficult to pass the local examination multiple times in a row.
Don’t think that the difficulty of the exam is very low. Students from all over the state are eyeing the places that have passed the exam! Moreover, the Song Dynasty court kept a close eye on the general examinations, making it more difficult to commit fraud, while it kept a looser eye on the local examinations, so there were more tricks in between!
How can a scholar who can pass the imperial examination time and time again and go to Beijing to take the exam again and again think that he is a white-headed man and win some consolation prizes (specially named Jinshi) in the imperial examination? How can he not have wealth and background?
So when Cai Mao stood on the tower of Xi'an Gate and looked down, he felt a little guilty - so many "green robes" and scholars were here. Are they trying to expose to the king his corruption and perversion of the law? But I’m not too greedy!
Zhao Kai also saw the guilty look on Cai Mao's face, and he understood immediately - those people outside are here to sue you, the one who judged Daming Mansion for corruption! Look, so many people are complaining, how greedy are you? I cannot protect you, a corrupt official, and I will personally raid your home later!
"Here comes someone!" Zhao Kai put his hands on his hips and looked gloomy. He had already pretended to be the selfless Zhao Qingtian. "Go and invite all the officials in green robes below to the tower. I want to question you personally!"
"Here!"
"Got the order!"
There was no Wang Dynasty or Ma Han. Huang Wuji and Xiang Ke, the two military attachés who took the order, pressed their sword hilts and went down in a swaggering manner. After a while, more than two hundred officials in green robes were led up to the tower.
The gate building in the inner city of Daming Mansion is very tall and wide, with horses racing on it, and it is big enough for more than two hundred officials in green robes to line up and salute.
Zhao Kai, on the other hand, was wearing a robe with a round collar and narrow sleeves, a fur-trimmed cloak, and a sword hanging from his belt. He sat on an armchair in a grand manner. When he saw that the officials in green robes had all saluted, he asked in a deep voice: "Are you here to file a lawsuit? Who should you file a lawsuit against?"
Complaint?
The more than two hundred people in green robes were all stunned - they were here to petition, not to complain. Although the two are not much different...
Seeing that the people below were silent, Zhao Kai became more convinced that they were here to sue Cai Mao, so he glanced at the corrupt official with a pale face and said in a deep voice: "The lonely king is selfless. No matter who you sue, I will enforce the law impartially. There will never be any favoritism!”
Really?
I don’t believe these two hundred men in green robes... If they are suing the emperor now, then the person they are suing seems to be the Marshal of Hebei Soldiers and Horses, King Yun Zhao Kai himself!
"Who are you suing? So you're all silent?" Seeing that they were speechless, Zhao Kai was already a little impatient.
At this moment, four relatively young officials in green robes had plucked up the courage to step out of the crowd.
Zhao Kai took a look and saw an acquaintance, "Hey, aren't you Zhang Deyuan? Why are you here in Daming Mansion? Did you know that this king is the Marshal of Hebei, so you came to serve?"
It turned out that it was Zhang Jun, Chen Dong, Hu Yin, and Deng Su who stood up... It was the four of them who organized today's big petition.
However, because Zhao Kai's time in Daming Mansion was still short, and his main energy was on reorganizing the army, he did not interfere in the situation, let alone sent out all the former marriage officers he brought as spies, so he did not know how many of them there were. Patriots from Kaifeng Prefecture are inciting public opinion in Daming Prefecture to oppose the peace negotiation.
In addition, Zhao Kai and Zhang Jun have known each other for a long time. Both of them were Jinshi in the eighth year of Zhenghe's reign, and they were both about the same age. Therefore, they had already made friends with him in the eighth year of Zhenghe, but after Zhang Jun knew Zhao Kai's identity, in order to avoid suspicion (making friends with princes is a taboo for ministers), he alienated Zhao Kai.
"Your Majesty, my minister Zhang Jun is an official of the Kaifeng Expeditionary Envoy Department. He came to Daming Mansion to prepare military supplies."
What? Come to Daimyo to buy military rations? Zhao Kaixin said: Since the Yellow River flows northward, there have been floods every now and then. How can there be any surplus grain for Kaifeng?
When Zhao Kai was in a daze, Chen Dong was already holding the petition document in his hand and took a step forward.
"Your Majesty Chen Dong, who is also an official of the Expeditionary Envoys Division, came with Zhang Deyuan..." Chen Dong took a breath, "My ministers, together with the elders, gentry, and local officials from Daming Mansion, came to Xi'an Gate today. Besides, it’s to petition the king!”
"Petition?" Zhao Kai glanced at Cai Mao and saw that this guy was wiping his sweat. He thought to himself: I have wronged you. It turns out you are a good official. But why are you wiping your sweat? It's not hot...
Zhao Kai withdrew his gaze, looked at the people in front of him and asked, "What are you asking for?"
"We would like to ask the king not to negotiate peace with the gold thieves but to concentrate on fighting against the gold thieves!" Chen Dong said loudly.
Deng Su and Hu Yin on the side also shouted in unison: "We are willing to live and die with Damingfu City together with your Majesty! Please your Majesty, please insist on the idea of peace and the heart of resisting Jin!"
After the two of them finished shouting, the more than two hundred green-robed officials behind them also shouted: "We are willing to live and die with Damingfu City together with your Majesty! Please, Your Majesty, be absolutely willing to discuss peace and be firm in your resistance to gold!"
Zhao Kai was of course overjoyed when he heard this, nodded repeatedly and said: "Okay, you are indeed the sons of the Wei family (your name is the residence of the Jiedushi of Wei Bo Town, so it is also called the Wei family). The lonely king Zhun'er and others have invited us, and we will go there tomorrow. Let me go out of the city to fight against the thieves!"
