In the Jingyuan Dynasty, the imperial examination was held every three years, commonly known as Chunwei. The provincial examination was held one year before the general examination, commonly known as Qiuwei or Qiunao.
Three hundred people can be admitted to become tributes in each examination, and then the palace examination will be held. The emperor will personally question the tributes admitted in the examination to determine the first place.
Admissions are divided into three grades. The first grade is awarded the title of "Jinshi and the third grade". The first grade is called the number one scholar, also known as Ding Yuan. The title of "Jinshi origin"; several top three.
This year's Chunwei Bai Jinqing finally won the third place in the first class, which is the third best, in the palace examination, while Hu Yushan entered the second class, and Han Shaoguang and Zheng Yuanxiu entered the third class.
Because Hu Yushan performed well in the re-examination, he is qualified to enter the Imperial College with Bai Jinqing to participate in the history revision. However, it is only in the inspection stage at present, and he will have the opportunity to continue to be promoted based on his performance three years later.
Han Shaoguang and Zheng Yuanxiu were originally only in the top three, but due to poor re-examination results, they were sent to remote places like Wan County to serve as county magistrates and county magistrates. If no one from the court specially promoted them, I'm afraid it will be like that in this life.
That's why Hu Yushan lamented before that the two of them had little chance to become officials in Beijing, because the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, and no one would know even if they did well.
Achievements can only be attributed to the county governor or even the governor above. As a low-level official, there is almost no possibility of promotion.
Fortunately, three of the five of them are officials in Beijing. If there is an opportunity in the future, they may be able to take care of them. Among them, Shao Xi currently has the highest official rank and is at the moment when he is proud of himself in the court.
If the two are successful, Shao Xi will naturally have the opportunity to recommend them in front of the Holy Emperor, and it is very likely that they will be transferred to the capital as officials.
However, this also requires a long process, and there is no such thing as success in one step.
There is a big difference between being an official in the capital and being an official in a local area. It is also a seventh-grade official. If you are an official in the capital, you will be closer to the center of power in the capital and have more opportunities to come into contact with senior officials in the court. There will be more opportunities for promotion, and it is very likely that you will enter the powerful class in the future.
But being a local official is different. The credit for good or bad work belongs to others. You may only be able to hold official positions such as county magistrate or county magistrate for the rest of your life. It is even more difficult to improve your official rank.
It is no wonder that many local officials are corrupt. After all, there are not many opportunities for promotion. It is better to use the power in your hands to collect more wealth in the local area, which can be regarded as finding a balance for yourself to a certain extent.
It has to be said that the lack of smooth channels for official promotion is also an important factor causing local corruption.
When normal channels become narrow, some people will naturally find ways to seek benefits for themselves from another direction.
However, this is not the case for everyone. Cui Qi from Yujiang County and Tao Qingyun from Nanshui County did their best to do their jobs and did not go crazy in the local area because they had no chance to advance to the official rank. Collect money and seek personal benefits.
That's why Shao Xi chose to recommend people like this to Xiao Changyi, hoping that these two people would have the opportunity to better display their talents.
In the same way, if Han Shaoguang and Zheng Yuanxiu can do their best locally, Shao Xi will have the means to transfer them to Kyoto.
Even if you are just a minor official, you will have many opportunities to be promoted in the future.
If Shao Xi wants to establish his own power in the court, he must have some trustworthy people around him, and these people must find ways to place them in important positions.
But the premise is that the two of them have to compete and give themselves room to speak in front of Xiao Changyi.
When Bai Jinqing and Hu Yushan heard that Shao Xi had a way to transfer them back to Kyoto, they were a little surprised and surprised, but then they understood the meaning of Shao Xi's words.
Naturally, the two of them chose not to ask any more questions about something that could only be comprehended and unspeakable, because they believed that Shao Xi said he had a way, so he must have a way to do it.
"Brother Shao, there is no one else around today, so I might as well say something bluntly. In fact, Brother Yushan and I both understand that Brother Yi Shao's temperament is definitely not the kind of person who is willing to be restrained by others in the officialdom and compete for power with others.
"Brother Shao must have his own reasons for becoming an official in the court. I know that my grandfather and my father know more about Brother Shao than I do. I will not ask more questions before they tell me the reasons behind the matter. .
"But I can see that Brother Shao is planning to establish his own force in this court. We don't know which force in the court you want to fight against, but please believe in Brother Shao. When you need it, We, our classmates and friends, will definitely stand behind you.
"This matter cannot be accomplished overnight. When Brother Yushan and I are promoted in the court in three years, we can advance and retreat together with Brother Shao.
"Now everything is just beginning. Please bear with me, Brother Shao, and give us a few years. We will definitely help Brother Shao in the court."
Shao Xi had to admit that Bai Jinqing was indeed a very smart person, although he seemed to take everything indifferently and not care too much.
However, he had been vigorously expanding his industry in Daliang City, establishing a network of contacts in the court, and even opening his own school. After all, Bai Jinqing saw that he had long-term plans.
In the eyes of many people, they may think that Shao Xi is just trying to get a lot of wealth, but I believe people like Bai Dinggong, Liu Xingzhai, and Bai Jinqing can see that Shao Xi actually has other intentions.
There are many ways and means for a person who pursues wealth to make money, and Shao Xi is vigorously developing the cultural and education industry. Anyone who understands will understand that Shao Xi is gradually mastering public opinion information channels and talent education resources.
When a person expands his influence in these areas, he definitely wants more than wealth.
But those who know Shao Xi also understand that Shao Xi is by no means the kind of person with extremely ambitious ambitions, and the purpose of doing this is never to become a powerful minister in the court in the future.
When such a person does these things desperately through his own efforts, he has only one purpose, and that is to compete with a certain force in the dynasty.
As for why? Perhaps only Bai Dinggong and Bai Jingnian, the two people who know Shao Xi's true identity, know it best.
Therefore, no matter what Shao Xi does, Bai Dinggong always chooses to fully support him, because he knows that all Shao Xi does is to protect himself, and more importantly, to seek justice for Fengjiazhuang back then.
In the eyes of Bai Dinggong, Shao Xi is by no means a person who is greedy for power and wealth, but a scholar who has the talent to govern the world and can influence the people of the world with his talents and educate all living beings in the world.
Therefore, after Bai Jinqing entered the court as an official, Bai Dinggong repeatedly asked him to try his best to be Shao Xi's help in the future in the court, and to work hand in hand with Shao Xi to gain a foothold in the court.
This is not only for Shao Xi, but also for Bai Jinqing to gain a better foothold in the court in the future.
Bai Dinggong believes that with Shao Xi's ability, if he is willing to join hands with Bai Jinqing, he will definitely become a new generation of national pillars in the Jingyuan Empire.
Although he himself was not an official in the court, all the ministers in the Jingyuan Dynasty had some relationship with him. Although Bai Dinggong could not fully understand the current Jingyuan Dynasty, he was very clear about it.
The many unsatisfactory aspects of the court actually made Bai Dinggong worried. Although he had considerable influence among the officials of the Jingyuan Dynasty, there were some things that he was powerless to do.
To change these status quo, we can only rely on the younger generation like Shao Xi and Bai Jinqing to reverse the atmosphere and change the structure of the court. But how easy is it to do this?
The first thing to do is to allow them to establish a firm foothold in the court, so Bai Dinggong has long asked Bai Jinqing to join forces with Shao Xi in order to jointly build a new order in the court in the future.
Before that, you must form your own force, otherwise young officials who fight alone will have no power to fight back in front of those old foxes who have been in office for many years and are scheming.
Only by supporting each other and working together can Shao Xi, Bai Jinqing and other classmates and friends become a new backbone in the court.
Shao Xi looked at Bai Jinqing and Hu Yushan, with a happy smile on his face.
"No wonder you guys were so supportive of me when I opened the bookstore. It turns out that you already knew what I was planning. In this case, I have a common plan for this matter in the court from now on.
"But right now, you two are peacefully writing history in the Imperial College, and don't reveal any intentions. Now there are many factions in the court, and it won't be long before someone tries to win over you two.
"You don't need to pay attention to it for now. The past few years have been the time for us to hide our capabilities and bide our time. If anything happens, I can just take the lead. I will remove them one by one in the future to share the worries of the Holy One."
Hu Yushan asked with some confusion at this time: "Since ancient times, emperors have liked to use the technique of checks and balances to make the ministers in the court restrain each other. Why did Brother Shao say that in the future, he would eliminate all the forces in the court? Do this? Doesn’t it violate the holy will?”
"What Brother Yushan said is true. The Holy One can indeed use the technique of checks and balances to prevent certain forces in the court from becoming dominant and monopolizing the government. However, if there are many factions in the court, each working on their own affairs and competing with each other, it will be extremely detrimental to the country and the people. .
“What we see now is only the conflict between the six provinces of Shangshu Province, but looking further up, the three provinces of Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province, and Shangshu Province have also been fighting for many years.
"Coupled with the fact that the prince's faction and the prince's faction in the court have been slandering and attacking each other all year round, how could the Holy One not feel worried if things go on like this?
"What a prosperous country needs is a well-organized government and people. The technique of checks and balances is only to avoid the loss of power, but it is not to prevent political orders from being blocked when power is so dispersed like today."
Bai Jinqing nodded in agreement and said, "Brother Shao is right! The current disagreements among the three provinces are all due to the secret rivalry between the left and right prime ministers. The factions in the DPRK have been grudges for a long time. It is indeed not possible to continue like this."
