Top Scholar

Chapter 448 The Sheep Knight

Time flies, and it was already the sixth day of the second month. Three days before the imperial examination, the emperor appointed Wang Ao, the Junior Tutor and Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, Minister of Revenue, and Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall, as the chief examiner of the imperial examination, and Liang Chu, the Minister of Personnel and Academician of the Hanlin Academy, who was in charge of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, as the deputy examiner, in charge of all matters related to the examination.

At the same time, fourteen examiners were appointed, including ten Hanlin officials such as Zhan Ruoshui, a compiler of the Hanlin Academy, and four officials such as Wang Chengyu, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Personnel.

Two other officials were appointed to oversee the project, namely Zhang Chan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Fei Hong, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

The two examiners were appointed as censors.

In addition to the inner curtain official, there were four officials in charge of receiving the scrolls, ten officials in charge of sealing the scrolls, and five officials in charge of managing the scrolls, all of whom were members of the Hanlin Academy or officials in charge of supervising secretaries.

Five patrol officers were appointed, including Gao Delin, the General Who Guards the State and the Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The three officials in charge of printing the documents were Xu Chun, the secretary of the Department of Ceremonies of the Ministry of Rites, who led a group of assistant secretaries and principal clerks to fill the positions.

The supply officers were six, with the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and the Director of the Department of Fine Food and Food of the Ministry of Rites leading their respective subordinates.

It can be said that the best and brightest were sent out, which shows the importance of the imperial examination!
After receiving the imperial decree, all the examiners, both inside and outside the palace, gathered in front of the Meridian Gate to express their gratitude.

As is customary, the emperor would receive them warmly, offer words of encouragement, and wish them success in completing this glorious and arduous task.

However, considering that Emperor Zhengde had not appeared since the New Year's Day court ceremony, no one expected to see his face, so they all thought it was just a formality of kowtowing.

But if they could guess the reaction, it wouldn't be the Zhengde Emperor. Wang Aoliang and others waited outside the Meridian Gate for half an hour before a eunuch came out and said in a drawn-out voice, "The Emperor has decreed that all the examiners from the Leopard Chamber be summoned to an audience."

"Your Majesty, we respectfully take our leave... Ah?" The officials inside and outside the curtains nearly fell to the ground, exclaiming incredulously, "The Emperor wants to see us?!"

Some people even looked up at the sky, trying to see which side the sun was rising from.

"Eunuch Zhang, is His Majesty playing another joke on us?" Wang Ao felt a chill run down his spine. What could he do? He'd been stuck with such a reckless and unreliable devil.
He had learned a painful lesson. Last winter, just after a heavy snowfall, a eunuch suddenly came to the Wenyuan Pavilion to deliver an imperial edict, saying that the emperor summoned all the Grand Secretaries.

The four Grand Secretaries, who had not seen the Emperor for several months, were very excited upon hearing the news and immediately dressed themselves in preparation for an audience.

Originally, Li Dongyang and Jiao Fang were granted the privilege of riding in sedan chairs in the Forbidden City, but the eunuch said that the Emperor ordered them to go on foot.

The four of them didn't think much of it. They decided to go. They had finally managed to see the Emperor, so they had to go even if it meant going through fire and water.

So the four of them braved the biting wind and trudged through the remaining snow, following the little eunuch into the Zuoshun Gate, and after a few turns, they arrived at a secluded alley.

The narrow passage was only five feet wide, with palace walls about ten feet high on both sides. This made Li Dongyang, who was familiar with the palace layout, wonder: "Eunuch Zhang, this is not the way to Qianqing Palace. Where will the Emperor meet us?"

"Your Majesty, I'll meet you all right here." Zhang Lin smiled sinisterly.

The four elders then heard a loud bang as the door slammed shut behind them!
"What the hell?!" Jiao Fang was furious.

"Don't worry, it's a good thing." Zhang Lin said, standing in a corner and whistling at the same time.

The palace gates swung open, and a flock of sheep rushed out amidst the bleating of sheep.

The four elders were completely stunned. Li Dongyang, Jiao Fang, and Yang Tinghe quickly scrambled to the wall to avoid them. Wang Ao was very nearsighted and had a slow reaction time. By the time he realized what was rushing towards him, it was too late to dodge, and he was surrounded by the flock of sheep.

A damned black sheep crawled between his legs, but its head was covered by his cloak, and it carried the skinny Wang Ao as they ran through the passageway.

The comical scene of Grand Secretary Wang riding a sheep backwards elicited bursts of laughter from the palace walls.

"Haha, this is so funny!"

The Grand Secretaries looked up at the sound and saw Zhu Houzhao laughing heartily on the high palace wall.

"Your Majesty, be careful!" Li Dongyang, Jiao Fang, and Yang Tinghe shouted urgently, "Get down quickly, it's dangerous up there!"

"Damn eunuch, how could he let the Emperor climb so high?"

"Oh oh oh oh..." Only Wang Ao was still riding the sheep backwards, completely ignoring Zhu Houzhao.

"Don't worry about me, take care of yourselves first." Zhu Houzhao wiped away his tears and smiled, "You Grand Secretaries have worked hard. I don't have much to reward you with, so I'll just give you a few Tongzhou sheep from Shaanxi as a tonic! Mutton goes best with snowy days!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty..." the Grand Secretaries hurriedly expressed their gratitude.

"Don't rush to express your gratitude." Zhu Houzhao raised his hand and said excitedly, "But you have to catch these sheep yourselves. You can get as many as you catch as you want!"

"Oh oh oh oh..." Wang Ao rode the big black sheep backwards and rushed back.

“Look, Grand Secretary Wang has already caught one,” Zhu Houzhao urged the other three, “Why are you all being so polite?”

Seeing their hesitant expressions and reluctance to act, Zhu Houzhao chuckled and said, "At least one for each of you! If you don't catch one, I won't open the door!"

"Sigh..." The three scholars sighed resignedly and had no choice but to roll up their sleeves and prepare to catch the sheep.

The black sheep that Wang Ao was riding was probably the lead sheep, and the flock followed it, running back and forth among the sheep. Before long, it passed in front of the Grand Scholars. Seizing the opportunity, the three of them simultaneously reached out and each grabbed at one of the sheep.

Who knew that these sheep, though seemingly docile, were actually quite agile, darting away at the slightest touch and even shoving people with their horns.

Both Li Dongyang and Jiao Fang, elderly men in their sixties and seventies, missed their target. Only Yang Tinghe, who was in his prime, managed to grab a sheep by the neck. Just as he was about to pull it into his arms, the sheep suddenly shook its head, causing him to stumble and almost fall to the ground to be trampled by the flock.

Fortunately, he was quite agile and used both his hands and feet to retreat back to the wall, narrowly avoiding the sheep's hoof.

We'll just have to wait until next time...

"Ahhhhh..." Wang Ao returned with his flock of sheep.

This time, Jiao Fang spotted a lamb and pounced on it, only to be knocked headfirst into the rump by the mother sheep...

"Ouch!" Jiao Fang fell flat on her face and it took her a long time to recover.

"Your Majesty, we are too old to arrest you!" Li Dongyang had no choice but to beg for mercy against the palace wall. "We would rather not receive any reward, please let us go."

"No, no!" Zhu Houzhao was in high spirits and refused to back down. He continued with his twisted logic: "The ancients said: 'The prime minister is the shepherd.' If you can't even catch a sheep, how can you govern China?"

The three scholars were utterly helpless, crying out to heaven and earth in vain. Knowing they couldn't catch the sheep and were truly doomed, they had no choice but to temporarily put aside their grudges, help each other, and work together to catch the sheep!

"Yo yo yo yo..." Wang Ao led the flock of sheep over again.

This time, the Grand Secretaries didn't rush to act. Instead, they waited until the sheep were almost past before Li Dongyang shouted, "Now!"

Yang Tinghe had already taken off his cloak and was holding it in his hand. Upon hearing the sound, he immediately covered the last sheep's head with it!

Jiao Fang, on the other side, also rushed forward, grabbed the other end of the cloak, and stopped the sheep.

Seeing that the sheep was more agile than expected, it turned around and tried to turn back, but the Prime Minister pounced on it like a hungry tiger and pressed down on it solidly.

One point!
~~
Wang Ao couldn't even remember how many times he rode the sheep back and forth; in the end, he exhausted the strong, big black sheep to the point of collapse on the ground.

The three colleagues also used all their skills and worked together to catch two more sheep before they were finally done.

Wang Ao didn't know about others, but ever since then, whenever he heard the words "His Majesty summons him," he couldn't help but feel a dull pain in his groin.

Seeing Wang Ao's expression change, Zhang Lin chuckled and quickly reassured him, "Don't worry, sir, you definitely won't need to ride the sheep today."

“You can’t ride anything else either!” Wang Ao’s face turned red.

“This is truly important business.” Zhang Lin then suppressed his smile, flicked his whisk, and said, “Please, gentlemen, do not keep the Emperor waiting.”

"Sigh..." Wang Ao had no choice but to lead the group out of Xihua Gate with a heavy heart and go to the Leopard Chamber to pay his respects.

Fortunately, this time there were no pigs, horses, cattle, or sheep. There was only a cute, furry, black-and-white creature sitting at Emperor Zhengde's feet playing rattan ball.

Wang Ao breathed a sigh of relief; the child was too small to ride it...

After Ruyi paid her respects, Zhengde, while teasing the panda, addressed the examiners, saying, "You are all ministers with a reputation for integrity and high learning, so the important task of this first imperial examination of Zhengde is entrusted to you. You must not take it lightly and must do your best to conduct a good examination for me."

"Your Majesty, rest assured, we will certainly take strict precautions while on the front lines and carefully select talented individuals while on the front lines. We will be cautious and impartial, and only seek out truly talented people, so as to receive Your Majesty's favor and repay even the slightest bit of your kindness!" Wang Ao replied solemnly.

Liang Chu and the others echoed, "How could we not be of one mind!"

"Well said, Sheep Knight," Zhengde said with a smile. "I hope you can keep your word and not say one thing to my face and another behind my back."

"How dare we, your humble servants?" Wang Ao pretended not to hear the emperor's form of address and continued, "If there is any injustice, it will incur the wrath of both gods and men!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang, I trust you completely," Zhengde said calmly. "It's just that I've heard some unpleasant rumors from the Western Depot... such as the rankings being predetermined, the southern scholars being ostracized, and people even paying large sums of money to curry favor. All of this is very unpleasant."

The examiners reacted in various ways upon hearing this; some were shocked, some were excited, and some were filled with apprehension.

"This is the first time I've held an imperial examination since my ascension to the throne. You all better be careful!" He stopped teasing the panda, his voice deepening.
"I may be young, but I'm not easily fooled. After the exams begin, I will personally go to the examination hall to see if there's anything fishy going on!"

As he spoke, Zhengde stood up, his sharp gaze sweeping over the assembled officials, and sternly warned:
"Gentlemen, think about your own reputations. If I find out, strip you of your official robes, and parade you outside the Meridian Gate, how humiliating would that be?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, we will remember Your Majesty's teachings!" Wang Ao hurriedly led his men in a respectful reply: "We will humbly obey Your Majesty's will, and be vigilant day and night. If there are spirits and gods in the netherworld, who will deceive us? If there are public opinions in the open, how can we escape them?"

"Alright, a loud drum doesn't need a heavy hammer. That's enough for now." Zhu Houzhao waved his hand, then resumed his playful manner, saying, "Go, my knight."

"..." Wang Ao's lips twitched. This matter was not going to be resolved, was it?
P.S. Today is my grandfather's 70th birthday, and we had a huge feast. I was so busy that I didn't start writing until almost dark. So the next chapter will be a while later.

(End of this chapter)