"How unreasonable! How unreasonable! In the enke exam, the words of saints are not tested!"
At the residence of Zhan Tong, the Minister of Civil Affairs, a group of court officials gathered here to demote the current affairs.
A few days ago, they had just signed a letter, asking the emperor to cancel this encore. The reason was that the imperial examination was a major cultural and educational matter in a country. It must not be such a trivial matter. It was just a test of some strange skills and tricks, and then let the dog run away. The generation stands in the court.
Lao Zhu pushed them back on the spot: Do you think we want to find more people to serve as official salaries? It's not like you can't wait for great use, but only one business tax can be collected for a mere one hundred thousand taels. What a shame to the country!
We don’t have anyone available, so what can we do if we don’t open Enke? As for taking the exam on moral articles... what we want is the shopkeeper who can help us calculate business taxes, so what do people who take exams on those things do?
These words immediately shocked the ulterior officials, who were dripping with cold sweat and did not dare to say more. Even though he secretly instigated a few foolish young men to speak out, the emperor unceremoniously struck him with a stick and sent him home.
During the Hongwu period, the civil servants were not as confident as they were later. Those who dared to tease the emperor would take it as an honor to receive the imperial rod. At that time, civil servants were in power, and the eunuchs who carried out executions in the palace did not dare to seriously beat the civil servants to death.
And during the Hongwu period, if you were hit with a court stick, you would really be beaten to death! First of all, those who carried the imperial staff during the Hongwu period were not eunuchs, but the emperor's own soldiers, who were as famous as the Jinyi Guards, the Jinwu Guards, the Yulin Guards, and the Fujun Guards.
These people all have one thing in common: they are all loyal veterans who are loyal to the emperor! As long as the emperor gives the order, they don't care about the world and fight how to fight!
Even if there are a few young ones occasionally, they are mostly nephews and nephews of the Xungui family who first came to the pro-army to gain experience. These people are naturally sworn enemies of their civil servants. It’s good that they haven’t been ruthless in secret. How do you expect them to let go?
Anyway, when those few stupid young men were deposed and returned to their hometowns, none of them was carried out of Yingtian awake.
The emperor had obviously made up his mind. Since the road to Shangshu was impassable, they gathered at Zhan Tong's house and tried to come up with a practical solution. However, their ability is mediocre after all. When it comes to the means of making money, or the tricks they use to tease people's legs or trip people up behind their backs, they have gone through the trials in the Yuanting competition area in the past, and they are extremely capable.
However, the emperor held the power and was restrained by the election. Even though they thought they could brainstorm ideas, after a long discussion, they were still helpless.
"What a pity! In the past, when I was waiting in the court, I was fighting against the Huaixi lineage... Why are we now in such a helpless situation!" Zhan Tong, who was temporarily the leader and commanded all the officials, lamented.
Lu Ben, who was underneath, quickly picked up a tea cup and covered up his weird expression: At that time, it was Liu Bowen, the sincere uncle, who wanted to prevent Huaixi from becoming powerful, so he commanded the officials and named it "Qingliu", so that he could be on the same level as Huaixi. The pulse divides the court to resist the ceremony. You, Zhan Tong, are just a scholar with no ordinary affairs, how can you be helpless?
"I just hate that Mr. Han used a trick to deceive us, so that we can blame His Majesty without telling you. He also took the sub-exam for this scientific examination..."
An official gritted his teeth and said. Everything Li Shanchang did to them has now turned into the sinister intention of "using deceit and calculation to deceive them." After all, Lao Li used to be the leader of the Huaixi lineage, Qingliu's mortal enemy. Being able to use such tactics also fits his image of Li Shanchang as the "first civil servant in the founding of the country".
Not to mention, the book "Requesting the Establishment of a Taxation Department to Collect Commercial Taxes" was presented to His Majesty by Li Shanchang. First, His Majesty was angered by the low commercial tax, and then he followed the trend and presented the "Taxation Book". Finally, in the name of establishing the Taxation Department, he used them as a stepping stone to claim credit from the Holy One.
Poison, too poisonous!
I don't know how many times today, a group of people began to gnash their teeth and criticize Li Shan. He completely forgot that it was because he was too stingy that he only paid one hundred thousand taels in tax and was unwilling to spend more blood. This made Li Shanchang's plan fail and the emperor was furious.
"For the current plan, we can only get out of this difficulty by inciting the scholars and not taking the tax examination." Zhan Tong took a deep breath and seemed to have made up his mind. "After the princes return, they should also call upon us, the Scholars, to rectify their origins."
"We, the disciples of sages, will never admit this favor! We don't take the test on the articles of the sages, but only on the strange skills and tricks. If such people with no talent and virtue can stand on the same level as me in the court, they can be polite and decent. Where is it? Where is the country's dynasty?"
"Anyone who participates in this subject is an enemy of Confucianism! This is not a matter of government affairs, but a matter of our Confucian legal system! All my Confucian disciples need to boycott this subject!"
"Anyone who dares to participate in this subject will be abandoned by heaven and earth! Abandoned by the saints! Their descendants will be reviled for eternity and will never be able to stand up!"
Zhan Tong's face was ferocious, and what he said was ten times more vicious than the most terrifying curse. But the eyes of other court officials present gradually brightened: Yes! If no one dares to take the exam, wouldn’t Enke be considered in name only this time?
Enke can't do it by himself. His Majesty, why don't you blame me for waiting!
As a result, this group of court officials who colluded with each other seemed to be scattered. They went back one after another to call friends, write prophecies, and quote articles. They were bound to completely ruin Enke's reputation this time. Soon, there were voices among the people to discredit this enke: This kind of enke did not respect the saints and sages, was illegal to the ancestors, was testing miraculous skills, and was doing tax collection.
This is not recruiting scholars, it is clearly recruiting cruel officials!
If any friend dares to participate in such an affair, he will be severing ties with us fellow scholars, and will be deeply ashamed of the scholars!
The spread of the words soon became more and more outrageous. Soon, various rumors appeared not only among the scholars, but also among the people: it was said that this exam had offended the gods and hurt Tianhe. Even if he passed the exam, what would happen? He also wanted the whole family to die, and he himself would not survive more than half a year.
What's more, it is said that this exam was a trap deliberately set by Lao Zhu, who wanted to catch all the scum in the world who had no virtue and were greedy for official positions. Once passed the exam, the emperor would immediately change his attitude and follow the example of Qin Shi Huang who burned books and humiliated scholars, burying all the successful scholars alive.
After all, how could any imperial examination have such low requirements and be so easy? Those who can pass the imperial examination are all Wenqu stars in the sky! Since we are choosing literary stars in the sky, how can we set the requirements so low that even rough guys with no fame can sign up.
The rumors became more and more outrageous, and no one showed up at the registration booth in front of the Imperial Academy for several days. There may be one or two literati who were moved by their thoughts when passing by, but were stopped and pulled away by their companions, who were not allowed to do this self-destructive thing.
There are even people who registered a few days ago, but because they have been under great pressure these days because of the fear of people, they come to ask if their registration can be cancelled.
An incident caused a stir in the Ming Dynasty, and it was about to turn into a joke.
The strange thing is that the Yamen Imperial College, who was responsible for this matter, had no reaction at all.
(End of chapter)
