Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 212 Unfair Selection of Officials Spreads Resentment Throughout the Land

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened at today's court assembly, except for the usual reports from various departments, with only two things being somewhat unusual.

First, Wang Jun, the military governor of Hexi and governor of Liangzhou, led the chieftains of various tribes in Longyou and Hexi to escort the Tibetan prisoners of war from the Battle of Haixi back to the capital to boast of their achievements. The emperor ordered the Court of State Ceremonial to send officials to Xin'an to welcome Wang Jun and his entourage to the capital.

Secondly, in response to the increasing number of households fleeing disaster-stricken areas in Henan and Hebei, the imperial court issued a special decree: for households that fled after being settled by the agricultural commissioner, their previous preferential treatment of land tax would be revoked, and they would have to pay the annual rent and labor service according to the adult male tax rate. In addition, there were households that fled after being conscripted for labor service.

Previously, the imperial court had implemented a household registration policy, exempting newly registered households in various prefectures from rent and labor service for five years, with only an annual tax of 1,500 coins. This was considered a beneficial policy to encourage migrant workers to return to their hometowns. However, if a household fled again, they would have to pay the rent and labor service for that year, which was a very severe punishment, in order to control population migration.

However, this decree will obviously not have much effect. The reason is simple: if those who have fled again really have money and grain to pay rent and labor service, why would they still flee? Do they just love to travel?

In addition, as the court was about to adjourn, the emperor suddenly spoke again, saying: "I have heard that the provincial examination for the imperial examinations recently encountered a sudden setback, and the officials detained all the candidates at the Censorate for a re-examination. The system of selecting candidates was established by our dynasty to honor the virtuous and recruit talented people, and it must be fair in selecting candidates in order to win the trust of the people."

The Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Qi Huan, submitted a memorial stating that since all the candidates from various prefectures have gathered at the court, if the examinations are not conducted properly, it will cause widespread resentment throughout the land. He further argued that those whose skills are still insufficient and who may not be selected, yet who still possess a strong desire for learning, could be admitted through examinations at the Imperial Academy. This idea is excellent and should be submitted to the relevant authorities.

Upon hearing this, the officials of the Secretariat and the Chancellery were taken aback. They did not recall that Qi Huan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, had recently submitted a sealed document through the provincial authorities, which clearly indicated that he had used other channels.

As for Cui Mian, who was also a Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and had hurriedly changed into his court robes before rushing to court, his expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

Because of his extensive experience, he had even presided over the election of officials last year. After entering the court this time, he took full control of all the affairs of his department, and Qi Huan, who was also a vice minister, did not show any dissatisfaction.

However, he did not expect that Qi Huan would take advantage of his focus on the provincial examination re-examination to submit a memorial, stating that the handling of this provincial examination was inappropriate and proposing to recruit unsuccessful students into the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which was undoubtedly a denial of his work.

After the court session ended, Cui Mian approached Qi Huan and said in a deep voice, "If Vice Minister Qi feels that the selection process was not handled properly, why not file a complaint with the relevant authorities? If the matter still cannot be resolved, it is not too late to report it to the Emperor!"

"You flatter me, Cui Sanqi. Since you returned to the court, everything in the selection department has been revitalized. I only need to assist you and help you accomplish your tasks. If there are any omissions or oversights, I would not dare to disturb you, seeing how hard you are working. Furthermore, since the selection season is coming to an end and it may be too late to make any additions, I am taking the liberty of submitting this memorial."

Upon hearing Cui Mian's accusation, Qi Huan immediately bowed slightly in fear and said, "Now that I have received Cui Sanqi's guidance, I will never dare to commit the same offense again. I will consult with the authorities first and will not dare to report recklessly."

Cui Mian naturally sensed the sarcasm in Qi Huan's words, and his brows furrowed even deeper. However, he still had to review the essays for the re-examination of the imperial examinations, which were currently stored in the Zhongshu Menxia Yamen. He needed to retrieve them from the Ministry of Personnel first, so he immediately turned and left.

After Cui Mian left, Zhang Shuo came up from behind and pointed at Qi Huan from afar, saying with a smile, "Is this the way to get along with the chief?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Huan bowed and said, "Chief Magistrate Song is stationed in Xijing. I and Cui are both assistant magistrates, assisting each other in accomplishing our tasks. Since we are paid this salary, how can we simply cater to his every whim?"

Hearing Qi Huan's answer, Zhang Shuo's smile became even more cheerful. He originally had no enmity with Cui Mian. On the contrary, when he was in charge of the Secretariat, he demoted Lu Congyuan and made Cui Mian his deputy. However, due to their incompatible personalities, they found it difficult to work together.

Now, Cui Mian, who considers himself a seasoned manager, was abducted by Qi Huan from behind, which gave Zhang Shuo, who was watching from the sidelines, an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

He chatted with Qi Huan for a few more minutes, and then said, "Minister Qi, please tell the Duke of Bohai that if my son truly passes the imperial examination this time, we will hold a banquet at home to honor you, and reserve a seat for you. We hope you can come soon."

Qi Huan was able to submit memorials to the emperor without going through the Secretariat and Chancellery, naturally thanks to Gao Lishi's connections. Gao Lishi's introduction of this suggestion drew the emperor's attention to the twists and turns in the provincial examination process and allowed him to express his stance in court, which undoubtedly provided invaluable assistance.

While Zhang Yue and Gao Lishi had a close relationship, it was far from being a tight-knit alliance of interests, and Zhang Yue would not actively seek his help. After all, he had been in the court for so many years, and it would be a disgrace for him to have to ask Gao Lishi for help when his family members were being harassed by the selection officials.

Gao Lishi's willingness to offer help was likely partly to exaggerate his influence in the outer court, and partly as a way of repaying Zhang Dai for his repeated assistance.

Putting aside everything else, during this period, the eunuchs caused Wang Maozhong a lot of trouble. Without the opportunity created for them by Zhang Dai, the eunuchs simply wouldn't have been able to do it.

Not to mention Zhang Shuo's cheerful return to Jixian Academy, Cui Mian, who had just been sarcastic to his colleague Qi Huan in court, encountered another setback.

When he arrived at the Secretariat, he saw Prime Minister Li Yuanhong and Du Xian discussing matters with Secretariat Drafter Yao Yi, Attendant Censor Wu Gong, and Censor-in-Chief Song Yao. He first greeted the Prime Minister and then said, "This re-examination of miscellaneous essays was greatly assisted by the two provinces. I dare not trouble myself with further matters. I will first take the students' examination papers back to my office for review and strive to present the results to you, Prime Minister, as soon as possible." The imperial examination was the responsibility of the Ministry of Personnel. Although the two provinces sent officials to supervise the examination, it was ultimately Cui Mian who presided over it. It was reasonable for him to take the examination papers back to the Ministry of Personnel for review, given the division of responsibilities among the various departments.

But after hearing what Cui Mian said, Li Yuanhong did not answer immediately, but only gave Song Yao a look.

Upon seeing this, Song Yao immediately understood and stood up, saying, "It is probably inappropriate for Cui Sanqi to make this request. The Secretariat and the Chancellery are in charge of all matters of state. Now that they have taken charge, they should continue to lead the way. How can they delegate the task to the relevant authorities when the task is only half completed?"

Moreover, the Emperor has instructed the court today that this matter no longer falls solely on the shoulders of the relevant officials; it requires the involvement of the Imperial Academy. Therefore, it should remain under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat-Chancellery, with Cui Sanqi serving concurrently there.

Upon hearing this, Cui Mian's expression immediately changed, and he then said with displeasure, "Although the Secretariat and the Chancellery are in charge of the affairs of the court, there are countless matters that must be divided among the relevant officials. This is why each department has its own duties. If all matters, big and small, are handled by them, then all the officials will be eating their salaries in vain. What will become of them?"

"The matter is not as serious as Cui Sanqi makes it out to be. For example, after the Fengshan ceremony last year, there were many things to deal with, so the selection of officials under the Ten-Tier System was established as a temporary measure. Cui Sanqi was also involved in this matter and was considered to have acted expediently. This time, the provincial examination is a re-examination, which is already unusual. Naturally, there should be some compromises. Cui Sanqi should also be aware of this situation!"

Upon hearing Cui Mian's words, which seemed to imply that the prime minister was seizing power, Du Xian immediately frowned and said...

Perhaps Cui Mian's insistence is not without reason, and related matters should naturally be handled by the relevant departments. But the problem is, didn't you break the rules first?
In politics, there are always precedents and precedents. If you break this rule, you have to think about whether you will suffer similar backlash in the future.

Last year, when the Ministry of Personnel was selected for its tenth round of civil service examinations, where did you place the head of the Ministry of Personnel? Now that you are in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, you have changed your story. This double standard is excessive.

Hearing the anger rising in Du Xian's voice, Li Yuanhong, as Cui Mian's recommender, couldn't bear to see the two sides arguing in the Secretariat-Chancellery. So he spoke up, saying, "What you say, Prime Minister Du, makes sense. The current setbacks in the provincial examinations have already caused widespread unrest. It is especially important to release the results quickly to stabilize public sentiment. The selection of talented individuals to be sent to the Imperial Academy should also be carried out at the same time; otherwise, it will be too late to catch up with those who have left the country."

His mindset differed from Du Xian's. The reason he wanted to leave the matter to be handled by the Zhongshu Menxia was because the Emperor was already clearly somewhat dissatisfied with it. If Cui Mian's subsequent handling was not fair and appropriate, it would certainly further displease the Emperor.

The current deliberation and handling of this matter under the auspices of the Secretariat and the Chancellery is also intended to reach a fair and convincing solution, at least one that would deter people from easily questioning it.

Seeing that both prime ministers had made such statements, Cui Mian knew that continuing to insist would not yield any results, so he could only acquiesce.

Originally, he intended to use this opportunity to clean up the personnel of the selection department and rectify the rules, but he did not expect that the matter would be directly detained by the Secretariat and the Chancellery. With the prime minister personally intervening, the situation would definitely no longer be under his control, and he, the original chief official, was directly sidelined.

Because the sages were very concerned about this matter, they dared not delay any longer.

While the two prime ministers had other more important government affairs to attend to, the four examiners were directly sent to the side hall of the clerk's office in the back hall to immediately begin reviewing the examination papers.

There were forty-seven candidates participating in the Censorate's re-examination this time. Apart from the one who was directly eliminated for throwing an inkstone at Cui Mian, there were forty-six candidates left, with a total of ninety-two essays. The task of reviewing them was not too heavy.

Originally, only the Assistant Minister of Personnel was responsible for grading the exam papers and deciding whether to accept or reject candidates. However, now there are four examiners involved in grading the papers, and each of them holds a prominent official position. It would be bad to ignore the opinions of any of them.

Therefore, the four people reviewed the papers separately and expressed their opinions on whether the paper should be accepted. If the paper passed with a majority of votes, it would pass naturally. However, if the votes were exactly equal, then further discussion would be necessary.

This arrangement undoubtedly made Cui Mian even more frustrated. He originally thought that he had been usurped by the prime minister, but now it seems that his counterparts are only the prime minister's subordinates and a censor-in-chief who is only a fifth-rank official. Among these people, he only has a quarter of the voting rights.

Regardless of Cui Mian's mood, after reviewing the papers, the final selection of those who passed the test was finalized.

After deducting those who did not finish the questions and those whose articles were obviously hastily written and full of omissions, the remaining candidates underwent a high-standard selection process, and only thirteen people were finally chosen to pass. Zhang Dai's name was naturally among them.

Once the list is finalized, the next step is to submit it to the prime minister to determine the final rankings.

(End of this chapter)