Yan Anbang's words were true. Sheng Hong really wanted to see today's results. He finished his training early and then went to the Qixian Hall to wait.
After the work at the Guang'an Palace was over, Li Qiao and Yan Anbang went to the Qiuxian Palace. The remaining ministers had nothing to do and went directly out of the palace and returned to their respective yamen.
"Your Majesty, I have received a total of 430 recommendation documents, and they are all here."
Li Qiao pointed to the two young eunuchs carrying wooden boxes behind him.
After hearing this, Sheng Hong stood up from the chair behind the imperial desk and walked towards the box, with an interested look on his face: "Who have you recommended?"
"Ninety percent of them elected the third prince."
Li Qiao answered truthfully.
Knowing that Sheng Hong would ask this question, the eight of them had already counted them just now.
"So many?" Sheng Hong raised his eyebrows and came to the wooden box. He casually picked up the fold on the top and opened it: "Hey, Brother Huang also got the fold?"
"Yes, Prince Kang is on the hook."
Li Qiao replied respectfully.
King Kang, Sheng Hong's eldest brother, and Sheng Jun's eldest son. After Sheng Hong was established as the prince, King Kang was removed from his official position by Sheng Jun. He concentrated on enjoying his fortune at a young age and did not care about the affairs of the court.
This time, the third prince was able to invite Prince Kang to build momentum for him, which shows that he had put in a lot of effort.
"Brother Huang is interested."
Sheng Hong looked calm. He put down Prince Kang's book in his hand and picked up another one casually: "Huh? Yan Aiqing, Song Aiqing from your etiquette department also recommended Yan'er?"
"If I return to the Holy Spirit, yes, and Mr. Song has sent three letters in a row, emphasizing the importance and necessity of establishing a crown prince."
Yan Anbang also spoke respectfully.
This Lord Song is the official second only to him in the Ministry of Rites, Song Mingda, the Minister of Rites.
The seven cabinet ministers abstained from voting and remained silent, so the six ministers, who were second only to the minister, were very important.
Moreover, Song Mingda also wrote three envelopes and expressed his admiration for the third prince.
"Very good, well-founded."
Sheng Hong had already roughly finished scanning the memorial in his hand. He raised his fingers and tapped the memorial twice: "Yan'er is not only capable, but also popular among the people and officials. This memorial is well written."
Li Qiao: "..."
Yan Anbang: "..."
Sheng Hong put the memorial in his hand back into the wooden box. He turned around and saw that Li Qiao and Yan Anbang were both silent, so he asked directly: "Two beloved princes, which prince did you recommend?"
Yan Anbang explained with a smile just like before: "Your Majesty, these princes are all outstanding. They are like dragons and phoenixes among men. However, a great virtue must live a long life. You must have a long life, so I have no choice in my mind."
Li Qiao also immediately said: "I also feel that Your Majesty is strong and there is no need to appoint a prince at this time."
Sheng Hong was speechless after hearing the two people's nonsense. He pointed directly at Li Qiao: "Li Aiqing, you must have a suitable candidate in mind. Let me tell you, if you recommend him, which prince will you choose?"
"...Is it possible that your prince can be chosen by a minister? However, if you really want a minister to choose, then the minister must choose the seventh prince."
Li Qiao doesn't do Tai Chi anymore.
Everyone knew that he was only close to the seventh prince.
"That's right." Sheng Hong nodded with understanding. He glanced at the wooden box full of books: "But I definitely want to listen to the voices of the officials. Let's do this. Yan'er will be the one to take charge of this interview." examiner."
Although the general examination will be held at the beginning of next month, the examiner for this general examination has not yet been decided.
Now that everyone recommends Lao San, he will naturally give Lao San another chance.
The Ministry of Etiquette has always been responsible for the joint examination and the palace examination. Yan Anbang came to Sheng Hong today about being the examiner of the joint examination.
Now that Sheng Hong has finalized the candidate, he discussed some details with Sheng Hong and then resigned.
Li Qiao, who was silently criticizing the exam papers, also got a job: marking the test papers.
Grading examination papers is a very tiring task. The chief examiner and deputy examiners have to approve tens of thousands of papers within a few days. Apart from Li Qiao, Sheng Hong can't think of anyone else who is more suitable for this task.
The third prince served as the examiner for this examination. As soon as this news came out, the whole court was excited. Although the previous princes had experienced in the six departments, Sheng Hong rarely sent them to do important things outside the yamen.
The chief examiner of the general examination has always been a cabinet bachelor. Now Sheng Hong has asked the third prince to take this position. Does this mean that Sheng Hong is also optimistic about the third prince?
Almost everyone thinks so.
The third prince himself thought so too.
He already knew that most of the civil and military people in the Manchu Dynasty had recommended him. Now that Sheng Hong had complied with the official will and public opinion and asked him to take on this important task, the position of prince had fallen on his head.
As long as he gets this done, the crown prince position will naturally fall from his head into his pocket!
When the third prince was in ecstasy, Li Qiao's little life passed by.
Tao Zhu quickly decorated the branches of the hot pot shop and the Malatang shop, and then openly recruited people in Shengjing.
After the recruitment wooden sign was put up, the applicants almost broke through the threshold of the new shop.
Not only do the workers from Mr. Li's family have high wages, but they are also half of the Li family. Not only can they be favored by Mr. Li, but they also have a big backer. Such a good thing, if you miss it, you will regret it for the rest of your life!
There were too many applicants. When Tao Zhu finally selected a candidate, the interview began on the other side.
This is a big event. Mansheng Jingdu is paying attention to it, and Tao Zhu is also paying attention, but his focus is different.
The people in the north of the city were all petty officials and rich people, not far or close to Gongyuan. If the wealthy people didn't want to live in an inn, they would usually rent a house in the north of the city.
As a result, there were more people in the north of the city.
The more people there are, the better the business will be.
It is a pity that these people's stay in Shengjing was too short.
That night, he sat under the lamp and read his account books. Thanks to these candidates, the profits of several of his shops have increased by 10% in the past two months.
Don't underestimate this 10%. His shop is doing well, and even if it makes a 10% profit, it will be more than 10,000 taels in the past two months.
If you include the royal dessert shop, potato flour shop, etc.'s share, the profit will be even more considerable.
"This kind of good thing only happens once every three years." Tao Zhu looked at Li Qiao aside: "Before these people came to Beijing, I really didn't know that these people could bring us such high profits."
Li Qiao and Tao Zhu were crowded on a chair. He held Tao Zhu's waist with one hand and put his other hand on the table to support his head and look at the account book in front of him.
Hearing Tao Zhu's words, he smiled: "There are tens of thousands of people in Juzi alone. If you add in the family members that Juzi brings, there will be at least 40,000 to 50,000 people."
"And half of them are from well-off families. Not all of them are like Meng Yue, who always refuses to accept gifts of money, land, and other property from others."
"So many rich people came here all of a sudden. Not only our shop, but also many shops in Shengjing City made a lot of money."
Just like the Royal Dessert Shop, this is a new shop that appeared after a trial three years ago. Most foreigners have only heard of the name of the Royal Dessert Shop, but have never tasted it.
After entering Beijing this time, these people all went to the Royal Dessert Shop to spend money. On the one hand, they wanted to taste the snacks inside, and on the other hand, they wanted to take advantage of his good fortune as the number one scholar.
The Royal Dessert Shop is not only a new shop, but also the key to his ability to win the top prize. Who wouldn't want to go there to try and get good luck?
Thinking of this, Li Qiao sighed: "Many people were dissatisfied with me in the last exam. Now three years have passed, and this time's exam has convinced me as the number one scholar."
"Because time has proven that small snack shops can indeed make a lot of money. Moreover, you and them are no longer in a competitive relationship."
Tao Zhu looked at Li Qiao, his eyes sparkling.
The dissatisfaction I had in the past was all suppressed by this man's terrifying ability to make money.
Who left the treasury empty?
The Holy Spirit values money, and this man showed up just right.
"You're right. It's not a competitive relationship, so there's no hostility." Li Qiao smiled and hugged the person next to him tightly: "I don't know what problems the Lord will have this time."
"I guess it has something to do with the treasury. Didn't Your Majesty ask you to find ways to continue to replenish the treasury? It shows that Your Majesty is still short of money."
Tao Zhu guessed.
"Probably." Thinking of his own experience of being picked up by Sheng Hong because he couldn't come up with a good idea to replenish the national treasury, Li Qiao immediately sympathized with the candidates of this year.
This question is difficult.
"No matter what the problem is, I just hope that the canal will be repaired soon."
Tao Zhu changed the topic. Anyway, the test questions had nothing to do with Li Qiao. He was more concerned about his own money now, which would determine how many people he could help in the future.
"After the canal is repaired, many ships will dock in Weiqing County every day. If we open a shop there, our monthly profit should be half of Shengjing's, right?"
He was a little unsure.
Because Weiqing County is only a medium-sized terminal, the daily passenger flow is hard to say.
When Li Qiao mentioned the canal, he couldn't help but think of cement again.
If the cement could be produced, Tao Zhu would no longer have to go through the ledger with the nearest competitor every day.
Don't be reckless when it comes to cement. Li Qiao patiently chose a house in the east of the city with Tao Zhu.
The days are passing by so fast and the trial will be over soon.
Li Qiao entered the Gongyuan to prepare for marking.
He was not the examiner, and he was originally not qualified to mark papers, but Sheng Hong knew that he was suitable for this job and sent him to Gongyuan to support several examiners.
After entering the Gongyuan, the scorers cannot step out of the Gongyuan until the test papers have been approved.
In addition to the third prince, there were also several deputy examiners who were grading the papers together.
Tens of thousands of papers have to be approved within a few days. This is a hard job. Not only do the eyes have to come into contact with a large amount of words every second, but the brain also has to quickly analyze the content of these words.
At the end of the first morning, Li Qiao felt that his eyes were dazzled.
Why are there three candidates whose essays are almost the same?
Chapter 169 Three identical test papers for the sake of fairness
Dasheng's examination marking system is very strict.
After the exam, a special person would first anonymize all the test papers and then send them to a room in the Gongyuan specifically used for transcription. Many scholars with outstanding calligraphy worked overtime to transcribe tens of thousands of test papers into new papers.
After transcribing, there is another level of reading.
At this level, the Ministry of Rites still hired a large number of scholars to proofread the original volume and the transcribed version. If there was any discrepancy, it would be sent back to the scholar responsible for the transcription to make a new copy.
