Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 264 The Nine-Rank System for Officials: The highest ranks have no poor families, the lowest ranks have no noble families.

—The Hundred-Step Flying Sword [Divine Firmament Five Thunder Sword]!
The bright purple sword light subsided slightly, and Lu Yunchen, standing in the rain, held his sword to You Zhende's neck, forcing him back into the study.

Although this Ghost God Jealousy had a sickly appearance, he was tall and imposing, with a domineering aura, just like a majestic Thunder God official who was in charge of all kinds of demons and monsters.

You Zhen finally realized that the people who came were not privately retaliating, but that a serious matter had really happened. He saw clearly what the people looked like and that even his loud screams had failed to attract any servants.

My heart and liver began to tremble, and my body shook like a leaf.

In fact, the official permit bestowed by the God of the State had already sealed off the courtyard from the inside and outside.

Even if there were thunder and lightning in the courtyard, no one outside the courtyard, separated by just one wall, would be able to detect anything amiss.

“You Zhende, you’re in big trouble now. The White Scale Guards are on orders to arrest you, and anyone who dares to resist will have their entire family executed by slow slicing.”

As soon as Lu Yunchen finished speaking, a phantom image of an imperial seal heavily pressed down on You Zhende's head, dispelling the official aura emanating from his body.

Several officials and soldiers behind him transformed into temple soldiers and ghost soldiers [Five Thunder Soldiers], and stepped forward to knock off his official hat and strip him of his official robes based on his rank.

This fourth-rank governor of Minzhou completely lost all his official airs.

This is the downside of officials in a dynasty: when they are in power, they are arrogant and domineering, but once they lose power, they are beaten like dogs in the water. They don't just fall from the top of the mountain to the bottom, but fall directly into hell.

You Zhen was completely baffled as to why his flawless plan had been exposed. His face turned ashen, as if he had seen a ghost, and he lost all his strength, slowly collapsing to the ground.

He knew the entire You family was finished!

In the study, Wang Cheng's Five Dragon Scale Soldiers bound You Shuangxiong tightly, and a [Bone-Piercing, Tendon-Locking, Nail-Ding Divine Talisman] was affixed to his forehead, sealing off all possibilities of resistance.

With a flick of his wrist, he put away the money.

With the blessing of the supreme economic power of the [Water Balance Commandant], this treasure of a prefecture is no less powerful than the treasure of a state.

Although it can only be used on one person once a day, if you can get someone to call you "brother" three times in a row, you will no longer be limited to the brief control of three breaths, but will be able to solidify the effect.

At the very least, he has to be at the level of "Brother Gongming" in Black Whirlwind's mind.

"Unfortunately, it is ineffective against targets of higher legal status."

Wang Cheng and Lu Yunchen surrounded the You family uncle and nephew, each taking out their bamboo slips, piecing together Sang Hongyang's three questions, and revealing their recording beads to conduct an on-the-spot interrogation.

The Emperor's personal gift, the "Three Questions of Sang Hongyang," was specifically designed to restrain gentry and Confucian scholars. It could directly address people's hearts, and no matter whether you were "keep your mouth shut" or "remain silent," you could not resist the questions, let alone lie about the talisman or the talisman.

"Tell me the time, place, and personnel of the Japanese pirates who landed in Chichidan!"

A quarter of an hour later.

Wang Cheng and Lu Yunchen both looked unpleasant.

"You mean you selected three targets for Amakusa Shiro and arranged for an inside agent to secretly bring some of Kirishidan's ninjas into the city?"

Even you yourself don't know their whereabouts after entering the city, or which city they will ultimately choose to attack.

As they expected, in order to drag Hu Ruzhen down with him, You Zhende chose to target important cities with great influence.

The city of Rongcheng, where we stand, is the administrative center of Minzhou. Most of the government offices of the prefectural officials were located here, so its importance goes without saying.
Quanzhou Port, once the world's largest port, remains an important economic center.

The third is Meizhou City in Xinghua Prefecture. If Meizhou County is taken out of the picture, it is the best in Minzhou in terms of education and culture, producing the most talents in the imperial examinations, and there are a lot of officials in the court who come from Meizhou.

More famous than her cultural and educational background is that the Heavenly Princess was a native of Meizhou Bay during her lifetime, and her ancestral temple, the Heavenly Princess Palace, is also located in Meizhou.

Politics, economics, culture, religion—none of them were neglected.

Wang Cheng suspected that if Yuegang, now an international trade center, hadn't already driven out the big ship captains of the Qingliu gentry faction, it would definitely have been on the shortlist of candidates from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

You Zhen's face was blank. Under the pressure of Sang Hongyang's three questions, he told the whole plan in detail:
"It's not just about the three major cities; it's also about gaining the trust of the Kiritan leader, Amakusa Shiro, and proving that we are sincerely cooperating."

In addition to arranging my trusted confidants and fake Japanese agents in these places, I also sent Amakusa Shiro a defense map of all the major coastal prefectures and counties in Minzhou before Qi Hu took over as deputy commander-in-chief.

In other words, while the Japanese pirates were launching a major attack on one side, they might also have multiple flanking forces launching feint attacks on different cities, thus spreading their influence in all directions around Minzhou.

At Guishan Publishing House, we only care about the results, not the process.

Enraged, Lu Yunchen kicked him to the ground and shouted:
"You, an inside man, betrayed millions of soldiers and civilians in Minzhou so completely! You have no conscience at all!"

Wang Cheng also shook his head.

Regardless of whether supernatural powers or extraordinary abilities exist in this world, the ruling class can only rely on two forces to maintain its rule: its own base of support among the people and external forces.

For example, the Great Zhao Dynasty had autonomy and belonged to the former category; the Japanese soldiers of the Outer Five Banners under Wang Cheng who had penetrated deep into the occupied areas were all puppets and belonged to the latter category.

Now, You Zhende and his group are showing some of the latter tendencies, harboring bandits to enhance their own importance and betraying the country by relying on foreign powers.

Worse still, this wasn't their invention; wealthy merchants and gentry in the Northwest had already secretly started this business with the backing of powerful nomadic tribes, making a fortune. They dared not delay and immediately relayed this urgent intelligence to Hu Ruzhen and his team, who were anxiously waiting, so they could make immediate strategic adjustments.

The following questions, however, were unrelated to the military and political affairs of Minzhou, but were even more important.

"Tell us all the information about Kameyama Publishing House."

Who are the core members? Who is the leader of the organization? And what were the details of the assassination of past emperors? You should know what His Majesty wants to know.

This is the issue that the ruler of the state is most concerned about. If this task is not handled well, no matter how well the Japanese pirates are dealt with, it will still be a failure.

You Zhen's face was already deathly pale.

Upon hearing this question, a strange smile appeared on his face:

"Heh, even the emperor knows fear now?"

It's a pity that the Kameyama Bookstore on the surface may be suppressed and disappear, but the Kameyama Bookstore in the shadows will always exist.

Do you want to know who the main members are?

I don't know, not even whether Xu Ge Lao, the so-called leader of the Qingliu faction, is a true core member.

But I know that if I die, the You family will be wiped out, and the next core member might…

His eyes darted around, first staring at Lu Yunchen, then at Wang Cheng, as if he had thought of something funny, and he couldn't help but let out a strange, cackling laugh:

"It could be your White Scale Guard Lu family, or it could be your Moon Harbor Wang family!"

It could also be any prominent family, wealthy merchant, or other aristocratic clan besides royalty.

The ruler of the state calls himself "I am alone and I am widowed," but in reality, he is truly at odds with the entire world, hahaha!

Then, in a frenzied tone, he revealed a shocking secret.

Wang Cheng and Lu Yunchen felt their palms sweating just listening to it.

The waters of Guishan Bookstore were deeper than they had imagined.

The Kameyama Bookstore, which is out in the open, is indeed not the core entity.

Or rather, the core of their secret society never refers to any specific individual or group, but rather to an entire group that can be updated and replaced at any time.

Historical records indicate that after Cao Wei usurped the Han throne, it seized the divine power of Emperor Shi Huang and began to implement the Nine-Rank System for selecting officials, also known as the Nine-Rank Official System.

Inheriting the recommendation system of the Han Dynasty and paving the way for the imperial examination system of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the civil service examination system held an important place in history as one of the three major systems for selecting officials in China's feudal empire.

Even after nearly five hundred years, it became an indelible secondary law under the Twenty-Four Seasonal Laws.

The content is also very simple; essentially, it's a system for selecting officials based on evaluation by the "Zhongzheng Guan" (a high-ranking official in charge of evaluation). It mainly consists of three aspects:

First, family background: This refers to one's family origin and background, including the qualifications, official positions, and ranks of one's father and grandfather. This information is called family history or family lineage.

Second, conduct: This is a general evaluation of an individual's character and abilities, equivalent to a moral assessment.

Third, product grade determination: that is, determining the product grade.

In reality, the rank was determined by family background. Those from poor families could only be ranked in the lower rank, no matter how high their conduct was rated; while those from wealthy families could be ranked in the upper rank even if their conduct was poor.

Thus came the famous saying: "The highest ranks have no poor families, and the lowest ranks have no noble families."

Under this system of "Nine-Rank Officials," official positions and court officials can be passed down through generations of descendants and their successors, much like the rulers of the state!

However, due to dynastic changes, the imperial examination system eventually replaced the Nine-Rank System.

Now only twenty-four positions of "Zhongzheng Guan" remain, which can be passed down from generation to generation, each corresponding to one of the twenty-four solar terms.

Anyone who obtains the corresponding official position can immediately gain a legal rank. Even a useless person can become a powerful official in the divine way, or even be favored by the officials and enter the court to serve as an official.

Even more terrifying is that as long as the gentry and wealthy families, who are part of the ruling class, do not disappear, this "Nine-Rank System" will exist forever and will automatically replenish the twenty-four positions at any time.

If the twenty-four "Central Committee Officials" promote their subordinates again, things will soon return to normal.

Therefore, the emperor, being all alone, could never eliminate the real "Turtle Mountain Academy"!
Upon hearing this, Wang Cheng and Lu Yunchen were stunned.

"Is Guishan Bookstore actually a natural law, a human phenomenon of this world???"

You Zhende was still laughing:

"Now, do you still dare to tell the Emperor the truth? You two are prepared to be rebels from the Guishan Book Society?"

(End of this chapter)