I

  Chapter 575 572【Bad bones】

  Making Bijiang and Wu Weiye to be shameless officials, hanging out in Susongchang Lake for a long time, traveling around mountains and rivers all day is quite comfortable.

  Accompanied by the interest of mountains and rivers, a group of excellent poems came out, making them more famous.

  Wu Weiye's "Meicun Style" took shape ahead of time. It developed from Bai Juyi's "Changqing Style" and incorporated Li Shangyin's style. It pays attention to rhythm, likes to use allusions, has ups and downs in structure, colorful rhetoric, is mainly narrative, and often responds to and criticizes real problems.

  At the beginning of this year, Wu Weiye wrote a song "Jiangzuo Song", which aroused enthusiastic response in the Jiangnan area.

  The cause was the third clan division triggered by the Quzhou case, and a large number of Jiangnan clans were forcibly split. The imperial court took back the land of these big families without giving any compensation, and forced the children of the big families to move to Henan and Shandong to register and divide the land.

  The imperial court issued an order, and local officials did not dare to neglect it. The specific implementation would inevitably appear rough, which also caused many conflicts and tragedies.

  Wu Weiye's "Jiangzuo Song" describes a love story. A man and a woman from the wrong family, because of mutual admiration, finally made a marriage contract after going through hardships, and got the approval of both parents. The government suddenly wanted to move the clans, and the local officials took the opportunity to occupy the man's family property. The man quarreled with the government, was thrown into prison, and exiled to Taiwan for disobeying the emperor's order.

  The woman escaped from her home and went to Yangzhou, the provincial capital, to complain. The woman returned to Suzhou, but failed to sue. In order to attract attention, she wanted to bump her head to death outside the big court. Fortunately, she was rescued in time, and she did not die, but her family was ashamed, after all, she hadn't been married yet.

  This story was not made up by Wu Weiye, but a real case that actually happened.

  Integrity inspectors began to pay attention to this case when the woman hit the wall and committed suicide. Until Wu Weiye's "Jiangzuo Song" came out, the investigation of the case just ended, and the officials who took the opportunity to seize the property of the rich family were executed, and the officials of the judicial and anti-corruption departments who had their corpses as vegetarian meals were dismissed from their posts.

  It is obvious that the inspectors of the clean government are doing their duty and eliminating harm for the people, but the timing is too coincidental, and the people all attribute this to "Jiangzuo Song".

  Wu Weiye's reputation among the people in the south of the Yangtze River has reached its peak, while the Datong government has become a complete villain.

  Actually, except for the guy who took the opportunity to seize property, the other officials who were dealt with felt wronged. They don't want to come out to take care of things, because they are afraid of delaying the emperor's policy of family separation and migration, and they will be "slapped" when they are traced.

  Wu Weiye couldn't get along in Suzhou anymore, and all the local officials hated him to the bone, so they invited Mao Pijiang to Nanjing to do "Beijing drifting".

   When the two arrived in Nanjing, they were warmly welcomed by celebrities and gentry, and they were invited to participate in literary meetings every now and then.

  Booksellers also like to invite Wu Weiye to write prefaces, and the writing fee is often ten taels or twenty taels.

Emperor Zhao heard about this a little bit, and said something that the female officer couldn't understand: "Wu Meicun, Wu Meicun, "Yuanyuanqu" must be gone. Weeping and crying, the six armies are all plain, and they are angry with the crown. , it’s best not to present this poem.”

   "Great victory, great victory, great victory on the front line!"

  Wu Weiye and Mao Pijiang have been in Nanjing for two months. At this time, they are having a banquet in a restaurant when they suddenly hear the noise of people on the street.

Mao Bijiang pushed open the window on the second floor, and saw a horse galloping past, waving the good news in his hand and shouting: "General Wang Tingchen, led the Datong cavalry out of the fortress, annihilated 20,000 elite Tartars (slightly exaggerated), beheaded the Tartars The false king Hauge captured countless animals, people, war horses, and goods... Generals Xiao Zongxian and Hu Dinggui led their troops to conquer the western part of Liaoning, and won consecutive victories, recovering Jinzhou, Ningyuan, Yizhou, and Shanhaiguan..."

  Wu Weiye was stunned for a moment, then slapped his chopsticks on the table, picked up his wine glass and laughed: "Ning Jin and Shanhaiguan have finally been recovered. Gentlemen, let's drink this cup to the fullest, and wish Master Wang to recover the entire Liaodong!"

  Mao Pijiang was also very happy, turned around and picked up the wine glass and said, "Congratulations to the soldiers who fought **** battles!"

  A group of literati raised their glasses and drank heavily, laughing and laughing endlessly.

  They are all former Ming scholars who have not been officials. They are usually full of complaints and are very disgusted with the Datong court. The imperial examinations have not yet been fully restored, and they have been separated and relocated three times. All these made them call the emperor stupid when they were drunk.

   On the other hand, they admire the emperor's generosity.

   Someone got drunk and scolded the emperor in a restaurant, and the cursing alarmed the street patrol, and he was arrested and detained in a prison pending trial. The judge didn't know how to judge. After reporting layer by layer, Emperor Zhao smiled handsomely: "Don't make a fuss about a few poor drunken words, let's let them go."

  The victories in Hebei, Shaanxi, Liaodong, and Liaoxi made the poor literati even more proud. Open your mouth and shut your mouth and say, our Datong soldiers are getting stronger day by day, and the Tartars are nothing but clowns. Sooner or later, we will be able to restore the territory of the Han and Tang Dynasties!

   "Bang bang bang bang!"

  In the city of Nanjing, there was the sound of crackling firecrackers.

  Especially the trading companies involved in northern business, they have already prepared firecrackers. The more territory the Datong Army regained, the better their business would be. And as immigrants enrich the north, it contains unlimited business opportunities. In recent years, many merchants have become rich because of it.

   "Plum Village is well-known all over the world, it is better for Mei Village to take the lead. Let's jointly invite His Majesty to resume the imperial examination." Shi Kecheng put down his glass and said.

  Shi Kecheng is Shi Kefa's cousin, who surrendered to Li Zicheng in Kaifeng's hometown, and then surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in Kaifeng. When the Datong army besieged Shangqiu, this guy fled to Shangqiu again, trying to join Emperor Zhao, but too many rebels failed, so he hid in the mountains halfway and survived.

   As for Shangshu’s request to resume the imperial examination, it would come once a year, and Zhao Han was too lazy to bother.

  Wu Weiye shook his head and said: "Your Majesty has his own arrangements for the resumption of the imperial examination. It is useless for me to say more."

"Meicun's words are wrong," Mao Bijiang said. "Ming Taizu also abolished the imperial examination, but if he didn't use the imperial examination to select officials, there must be many problems. Ming Taizu also realized this, so he ordered the restoration of the imperial examination. Now there are corruption everywhere. The fraudulent case has been exposed, and if things go on like this, the current emperor will also think about restoring the imperial examination. I wait for the scholars, and insist on going to the sparse every year, which is also a step for His Majesty to restore the imperial examination."

   "Well said, we should persevere!" Tian Younian praised.

  This Tian Younian has the same name as the cabinet minister Tian Younian who retired this year. But this field is not that field.

  The Tian Younian in front of him is from Anhui, and he was the fifth Jinshi in the 13th year of Chongzhen in history. He and his younger brother Tian Fengnian specialize in studying Mao's poems, and they are also considered one of the founders of the Qing Dynasty's textual research school.

Wu Weiye shook his head and said: "Ming Taizu abolished the imperial examinations and wanted to recruit talents from the Imperial Academy. How can the small Imperial Academy recruit talents from all over the world? Today, Your Majesty has established primary schools, middle schools and universities. He has also opened up a system for selecting officials at all levels. , If you pass the registration examination, you can become a reserve official. Reserve officials do not spend half a year in politics with their salaries. Being able to govern, sweeping away the mediocrity of officials in the late Ming Dynasty."

"Otherwise," Mao Bijiang said, "if this method is used for a long time, and officials are selected regardless of their origin, there will inevitably be many disadvantages. The officials of a county, who can pass the exam, and who can't, have already practiced fraud. There are a large number of mediocre officials in the city. This year, the inspectors of the clean government found a major case in Rugao. There was a former Ming scholar who was the head of Rugao County's official department. In the past two years, 30% of Rugao officials passed the exam. They are his relatives and friends. Some people don’t even know a few big characters, and they only passed the exam because he secretly changed the answer sheet. All civil servants in a county are like this, so what about the whole world?”

   "Indeed, the disadvantages have been revealed, and it is imperative to restore the imperial examination!" Shi Kecheng clapped his hands.

   "Papa clap!"

  Suddenly someone knocked on the door, and it was very hasty.

  The door opened, and Xu Lianggong rushed in: "Everyone, something serious happened!"

  Xu Lianggong is Xu Xiake's nephew, who died this year in history, and the slaves rebelled and killed him. This guy has long been separated and relocated, and his new home address is in Shandong. He thought Shandong was too poor after the war, so he took his wife and children to do "Beijing drifting" in Nanjing for a long time.

   "Why are you so flustered?" Wu Weiye asked.

Xu Lianggong spread out a piece of paper, the ink was still wet: "I copied a copy of the notice that was posted today, and the imperial court re-set the ranks of officials. Officials continued from the previous Ming Dynasty, and they were still at the ninth rank and eighteenth rank, while the officials were changed. There are six grades and twelve grades. The officials in the town are the lowest from the sixth grade. When it comes to the county government, the chiefs of each department are the third grade officials."

   This is nothing, the civil servants of Ming Dynasty also have ranks.

  Everyone looked at the notice, gradually showing shock, because it faintly revealed information about the imperial examination.

  Perhaps because of serious cheating in the selection of officials in various places, the Datong court made stricter regulations.

  Preparatory official examination must be held with a primary school diploma. In other words, those who do not have a primary school graduation certificate will not even be qualified to be reserve officials in the future. At the same time, officials from the third class can work in the county. The third-class officials and above, that is, the county government section chief and above, must abide by the principle of reassignment from other places.

   There are also regulations that those who hold a high school graduation certificate and take the preparatory official examination can be directly designated as a third-class official when they become a full-time official, or directly serve as a junior official at the end of the ninth rank.

   "Alas," Wu Weiye sighed, "Your Majesty's intentions are undoubtedly revealed in this notice. Even if the imperial examination is resumed in the future, I am afraid that we must have a university diploma. Our fame in the former Ming Dynasty will definitely not count."

   "Your Majesty is confused!" Mao Bijiang couldn't help blurting out.

  No one stopped it. It doesn't matter if you scold the emperor in private, and the government won't care if they know about it.

  Shi Kecheng stood up suddenly: "Let me go, I will return to Henan tomorrow."

   "I wish you all the best in your official career!" Everyone said with hands clasped.

  The notice stated that in Henan, Shandong, Sichuan and other places, due to the incomplete construction of primary schools, the previous method of selecting officials was temporarily used.

  Shi Kecheng used to disdain being an official, but now he wants to go home quickly. Before he gets stuck, he will be an official first. If there is any hesitation, you won't even be an official in the future!

   More than one person has this kind of thinking, and even the children of the big families in the south applied to immigrate to the north on their own initiative, because they wanted to go to the north to be an official.

   A group of scumbags, toasting and not eating fine wine!

  (end of this chapter)