The clouds were thick, the wind was biting, and the snow was falling heavily, covering the military camp that served as the test center for the second examination of the martial arts examination. The goose-feather snowflakes were swept by the strong wind, making it difficult for the warriors to open their eyes.
The camp campus was filled with a dense crowd, with more than 40,000 people queuing up. Although the queues were not orderly, when tens of thousands of people gathered together, the momentum was no worse than that of a large army. Cowards, Just facing these phalanxes of tens of thousands of tough warriors would probably be frightening.
Directly north of the school grounds, a huge dot stands in the middle.
The person who served as the master of ceremonies was Wang Shichong, a member of the Ministry of War. In order to make his tall and burly figure look like a jade tree facing the wind and to show that he was more cold-resistant than the samurai, he deliberately wore relatively thin spring clothes, but the face of this "jade tree" was a little blue from the cold. . But no matter how cold the wind and snow were, it could not extinguish Wang Shichong's inner fire. At this time, he was delivering a speech with high enthusiasm and passion in front of tens of thousands of warriors.
First he praised heaven and earth, then praised the late Emperor, and then praised Emperor Daye. He quoted and eloquent throughout the whole process. Not only was his speech unscripted throughout the whole process, but even a snowflake was attracted by him to praise Emperor Daye for a long time. All kinds of gorgeous words emerged one after another. In the end, it all came together in a stream of nonsense that most samurai couldn't understand.
But Wang Shichong didn't care at all. What he wanted was for this colorful speech to be introduced to Daxing City and the imperial palace. It doesn't matter whether these warriors understand it or not. As long as the auspicious time comes, he will talk endlessly.
"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yo..." Just when Wang Shichong was talking and the warriors wanted to scold their mothers, a passionate horn sound suddenly came from the south gate of the military camp.
One after another, one after another, the horn sound was like a storm in the wilderness or thunder in the mountains. Tens of thousands of warriors turned around involuntarily and looked towards the entrance of the camp.
More than five thousand Xuanjia troops were seen walking in a neat square formation along the corridor in the middle. The snowy light shines on the armor and helmet, making the red tassel on the helmet even brighter and more dazzling; the sharp blade reflects the snowy light, emitting a heart-stopping dark light. The military camp, as this army entered, seemed to have turned into a sea of steel. As long as the wind and clouds moved, it would set off huge waves and smash everything in front of it!
No one in the entire army spoke, only the leaves of their armors rattled, appearing silent and solemn. The uniform marching troops gave people a sense of pressure like mountains and seas, as if once they launched an attack, they could destroy all the enemies in front of them.
Tens of thousands of warriors looked shocked and horrified in front of this army, and the timid ones didn't even dare to breathe. It's not that they are timid, it's that this army and this momentum are too terrifying, and everyone feels that their power is too small.
This large army ran over the corridor and headed straight for the high platform. When the knight in front walked past not far away, Qin Qiong and others were surprised to find that the leading general was Yang Ji, who had not been seen for a long time.
Yang Ji rode a tall and magnificent BMW and led the way. He was wearing black armor, holding a horse spear in his hand, and a sword hanging on his waist. The black mane, big cloak, and red tassel on the helmet of the war horse were flying in the wind, making the horse Yang Ji is indescribably leisurely and unrestrained, transcending the world.
Behind him were a thousand cavalrymen wearing captain-level black armor, followed by four thousand Liangzhou infantry armed with spears and weapons.
Yang Ji enjoyed the attention of all the people. He looked at the height of the general standing platform in front of him, put his legs under the horse's belly and said, "Drive!"
The originally lazy black horse under its crotch suddenly neighed and rushed out like a black cloud. It covered dozens of feet in an instant. The momentum and speed of the galloping were frightening.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Wang Shichong, Duan Wenduan and others on the stage saw that Yang Ji's speed was not slowing down, and they all shouted: "Stop, stop..."
Yang Ji turned a deaf ear and suddenly clamped the horse's belly. The black horse accelerated instantly. One person and one horse were like black lightning in the snow. In the blink of an eye, both the man and the horse rushed onto the nine-foot-eight-foot-high mountain with a 'boom'. high tower.
The whole place was completely silent and snow needles could be heard.
Everyone looked at this scene in stunned silence.
The emcee Wang Shichong, who was standing in front of the stage and was almost trampled to death, recognized Yang Ji who had turned his horse's head at a glance. He was deeply disturbed by Yang Ji's arrogance. Why did this man get so crazy here? Look at this menacing posture, it’s clear that he’s just here to cause trouble! Looking at the army he brought, although the number was only about five thousand, in a real fight, it was enough to annihilate the tens of thousands of warriors present.
Everyone said that this man was the dandy king of Daxing City, and his behavior was extremely domineering. I thought it was just people spreading rumors, but I didn't expect him to be so unscrupulous. This was the opening ceremony of a martial arts competition!
Saints attach great importance to martial arts and pay close attention to them all the time. Why don't you think about the consequences if you do this? If you fail in a martial arts event that the saint is very concerned about, even if the saint doesn't blame you, won't your conscience feel a little bit painful?
Before Wang Shichong could react, dozens of elite cavalry rushed to the front of the stage. Without waiting for their horses to stop, they dismounted, rushed up to the general stage from the steps on both sides, and pushed down fifteen military officials except Duan Wenzhen. to the ground, and then pushed to the stage and knelt down in front of tens of thousands of warriors.
Yang Ji jumped off his horse, took off his Qilin Sword and walked up to the stage. When he saw fifteen officials kneeling on the ground with their legs trampled on, and their arms pulled back by the soldiers, he swung them without saying a word. The scabbard hit the officials on their left shoulders.
There was a sudden "bang bang bang bang" sound, and the officials felt a heartbreaking pain in their left arms, causing them to scream in pain.
The sudden turn of events caused an exclamation in the square, and then there was silence. Many people covered their mouths and looked at the very violent scene in horror. Some of the children of the aristocratic families who knew Yang Ji and had suffered great losses from Yang Ji immediately expressed their disapproval of Yang Ji. It gives rise to the feeling of looking up at a high mountain.
Look at Yang Ji, who brought thousands of soldiers with him at a disagreement, broke the arms of more than a dozen officials without saying a word in the midst of a grand gathering, and in full view of the public. Look at the state where he only teases young women. People themselves are really very different!
It’s really incomparable!
Wang Shichong, who was heartbroken, suddenly understood something. He looked at Yang Ji in horror. He saw Yang Ji taking out the handwriting given to him by Yang Guang and reading it loudly to tens of thousands of warriors: "Other commanders of the Ministry of War, Wang Shichong, Cui Jun, Li Yan, Murong Jiao, Dugu Lan, Yuan Hongjing, Liu Haoran... deceived the holy listeners, misinterpreted the holy will, practiced corruption for personal gain, enriched their own pockets, deceived superiors and subordinates, and manipulated military affairs. I specially ordered the right-guard general Yang Ji to arrest and bring to justice a group of criminals."
After reading it, he took out a formal letter of appointment: "General Yang Ji of the Right Guard, who has both civil and military skills, is loyal and brave, diligent in his duties, and has shown himself well in the city, is granted the title of Chief Inspector of the Military Examinations and Chief Examiner of the Second Ranking. This is an imperial gift." .”
The ups and downs of the sound spread throughout the audience through the copper pipes and large urns buried in the stage.
Only then did the warriors realize that such a thing was going on, and why Yang Ji was showing off his ferocious power.
Some people are rejoicing, some people are in danger.
Wang Shichong and other officials from the Ministry of War turned pale with fright, and even the pain seemed to have eased a bit.
Yang Ji handed over the handwriting and the letter of appointment to Liuxu, who was pretending to be a soldier. He took a few steps forward and said loudly: "If a country wants to prosper and a family wants to prosper, both talented people are needed. However, the official selection policy that has lasted for hundreds of years has It is controlled by the governors of various states and counties. After the late emperor abolished the Nine-Rank Middle School, he required each state to recommend three talented people to Beijing to participate in the scientific examination. However, these three places were still traded by the governors of various states and counties as interests. This also made many famous people in the world Poets and talented people who are over fifty years old are still unable to hold an official position. Even if they become an official, they can never hope to be an official above the seventh rank. What is the reason? It is because the positions are limited, and the limited positions are controlled by aristocratic families. In his hands, the final candidate list placed on the saint’s desk will always be the children of aristocratic families.”
"The children of aristocratic families in the past dynasties have become officials through aristocratic examinations, self-recommendations, recommendations, hereditary inheritance, favors, etc. However, the vast number of poor scholars and ordinary people have great ambitions and amazing talents, but they have no way to enter the officialdom. When a good opportunity is given to show what has been learned in one's mind, countless sages and geniuses become inactive, and eventually become unknown and rot with the grass and trees. This is true for literati, and samurai are no exception."
"In view of this, the saint held a martial arts competition based on talent and merit, and recruited warriors from all over the world to gather in the capital to raise generals by force. As long as you are a person with real ability, you will be given fame regardless of your origin."
Others may not understand Yang Guang's pride, but Yang Ji knows it very well.
This man is simply a man who is extremely proud! Even if the things he did had good intentions and benefited the whole world, he never said it or even bothered to explain to anyone the reasons and painstaking efforts for doing so.
He is a staunch supporter of movable type printing and the promotion of low-quality books, and a staunch opponent of the book ban. His purpose is to enable everyone in the world to read and use books to change the fate of poor families and ordinary people. After the Sui Dynasty, talents were diversified and the barriers of the aristocratic families' monopoly on officialdom were broken.
Martial arts was a weapon he used to dilute the Guanlong nobles, but generally speaking, this was a long-term project, so the people who benefited the most were the civilian warriors who could immediately join the official ranks. However, due to the manipulation of Wang Shichong and others, this good thing gradually turned sour.
If he, Yang Ji, had not discovered the loophole in the B list and allowed the situation to develop, these tens of thousands of warriors who had come all the way would definitely feel that Yang Guang was fooling them, and then they would feel that Yang Guang's world was as dark as ink. dynasty.
If Yang Guang did this and did not say it, not only is it equivalent to not doing it, but it is even more chilling than not doing it.
In Yang Ji's view, Yang Guang's shortcomings are not conducive to being an emperor who commands the world!
Look at Li Er, he is very good at hype.
He compromised with the Yushi Yanguan on small matters, and the Yushi Yanguan was satisfied, so he advocated hard for him, which earned him the reputation of being "good at accepting advice"; but for many big things, Li Erzhao did it right, but because of the Yushi Yanguan, Shi Yanguan stood on his side and helped him manage his reputation, so even if he did many extravagant and lustful things, he was not blackmailed.
What Yang Ji said so much was actually explaining on behalf of Yang Guang, letting these warriors understand that although Yang Guang was the emperor, he also needed to fight against the noble families and compromise with the civil and military officials. He was not able to keep his word and keep his word. . At the same time, it also instilled a concept into this group of people: the emperor and everyone are of the same group, and everyone's common enemy in the country is the high-ranking official of the family who hinders "people from making full use of their talents", and the local county magistrate who controls the right to recommend.
The reason why Yang Ji waited until today to appear was because the anger value of the poor warriors was still not full, and the various performances in the military camp, as well as the previous rumors, had already aroused the anger in everyone's hearts to the extreme, and he came out to turn off the fire at this time. Works better than ever. If we miss today, the martial arts competition will be officially held according to the plan of Wang Shichong and others. It will be useless to extinguish it then.
Having said this, Yang Ji looked at the side of the poor warriors and continued: "This is an unprecedented great initiative, and it is also unprecedented good news for you poor children. But when the saint decided to hold the martial arts competition, he was opposed by the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. Objection. Why did the civil and military officials of the Manchu dynasty object? It was because once the vast number of outstanding men and women entered the officialdom, they would impact the official positions occupied by aristocratic families for generations. Once there were more outstanding people and lower-level officials, those who were at the top but were The very mediocre family officials were naturally eliminated one by one."
"Such a situation is obviously not what the aristocratic families and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty want to see. Therefore, in order to safeguard their own interests, they have opposed the martial arts competition. When the saint allowed their children to sign up to participate, they were afraid that their children would not be able to compete with the majority. The poor warriors of the family, so they strongly requested the saint to select all the eight hundred places from their family. The saint naturally refused, so they took on the high airs and said that the children of the noble family disdain to associate with the poor warriors and disdain to work with the poor warriors. Competition, that’s why we have the first, second and second rankings of the martial arts examinations.”
"However, even if the saints are divided into two rankings, A and B, the aristocratic families are particularly dissatisfied. They used Wang Shichong and others who were familiar with the law and were good at picking out words to draw up an examination regulations full of loopholes. It is precisely because the regulations said that only those above the fifth rank are allowed Officials’ children took the A-list test, but there were no restrictions on the B-list. A large number of children from aristocratic families and officials poured into the B-list. At the same time, because there was no one in riding, sword dancing, spear dancing, weapons of choice, and military skills. There are unified standards, so during the examination process, they plan to give high scores to the children of the aristocratic families and low scores to the warriors of the poor families, and eventually sell all four hundred places to the children of the aristocratic families."
At this point, Yang Ji's voice changed, and the helplessness was gone, replaced by a sense of excitement: "Fortunately, the saint discovered that there was a problem with the B list and knew that someone was manipulating the martial arts, so he asked me to take over. Chief examiner and chief inspector. And all the children of aristocratic families, eunuchs, and pretenders who have signed up will be kicked out of the second list, and no one will be allowed to participate in the exam."
"The new examiners are the thousand lieutenants from the frontier army in the audience. They are all generals who are good at fighting in hundreds of battles. They neither know you nor know your names. They only have your numbers in their hands. So. They will only give points based on whether your routines and moves are suitable or not, and will not help someone cheat. And you must also remember your number, because the examiner reads your number, not your name."
"And the next test items will be reduced to five items: foot shooting, mounted shooting, riding, sword dancing, and dancing with your own weapons. Foot shooting and riding shooting are real results and cannot be faked. And the last three items, It is difficult to have a unified standard, and it would be unfair if one person scores. Therefore, seven examiners score each assessment, minus the highest score and the lowest score. The sum of the scores of the other five examiners is the final score of a candidate. "
To avoid trouble, Yang Ji also skipped the step of dividing the total score by five and continued: "The people responsible for statistics are officials from the Ministry of Punishment, Yushitai, and Dali Temple. They also don't know you or your names. , after each test item is completed and the total results are available, the Ministry of War will announce everyone’s results.”
Many people couldn't help but burst into tears when they heard this.
Yes, how much hard work and sweat did they put in to wait for such an opportunity? The pain is nothing but the difficulty is that there is no way to achieve success in learning and pay back. So after finally hearing that the capital promoted generals by force and merited their talents, I ran to the capital with a little hope, ecstatically.
However, the result they heard was that the second list spots were also taken by the famous family members in advance. This not only made them feel cold, but also disappointed with the court. They all complained in their hearts that the emperor who was in the center had fooled them.
The hard work pays off!
The Saint finally noticed the problem with the second list and sent someone to serve as the examiner again. The new examiner and the new scoring method are undoubtedly countless times fairer than before.
Some warriors were so excited that they shouted, "Long live the Emperor, the Holy Ming, the Saint!" Others simply knelt down facing the palace and smashed their foreheads into the mud-filled square.
When Yang Ji saw this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that this public relations crisis was a success.
But after what he did, Wang Shichong and others could only be blamed for manipulating the martial arts. However, Yu Wenshu behind the scenes lost the opportunity to control because of his premature sabotage, which also prevented him from getting the evidence to convict Yu Wenshu. The evidence is there.
However, he knows that smart politicians usually link personal interests with national interests, making people realize that supporting this politician is equivalent to supporting themselves. Only politicians who understand mutual benefit can make a country prosperous and strong and be loved by all people.
If he harmed the national interests for his own selfish interests and allowed the martial arts competition to become a notorious "grand event", not to mention what would happen to the Sui Dynasty, the civil and military personnel under him would feel that he was too selfish, and they would turn away from morality and distance themselves. Escape somewhere else.
As for the cunning Yu Wenshu, Yang Ji was not afraid of not having a chance to deal with him because of the existence of two domineering sons.
After the warriors calmed down from their excitement, Yang Ji looked at the uproar, commotion and protest of the children of the aristocratic families, waved his hands heavily, and said loudly: "Soldiers, get rid of all the children of the aristocratic families and eunuchs who are fishing in troubled waters. .Those who dare to resist will be killed without mercy!"
"Here!" Thousands of Liangzhou soldiers responded with a roar, raising their weapons and slowly pushing towards the direction of Shijiazi.
