The Bad Guys: Playing the Fake Li Xingyun at the Beginning

If something happens to Zhang Zifan outside, I'm afraid Xu Huan will also lose his power, and the position of Heavenly Master will be transferred from Zhang Xuanling's lineage to other branches.

Of course, because of the halo of the supporting role, he could do whatever he wanted in the original drama, he was just temporarily blinded in one eye.

But this is not in line with common sense. If Xu Huan was not there, he probably wouldn't be able to command so many people in the Tianshi Mansion, and at most he would be a puppet like Su Ming.

But now, Lu Linxuan's pregnancy made Xu Huan change her mind, causing her to place a bet in advance and come to Luoyang in person.

It was no longer possible for Zhang Zifan to escape.

Su Ming glanced at Xu Huan. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were chatting animatedly, so he didn't plan to stay. "Brother Zhang, I still have some memorials to review. My aunt just arrived. You and your family should just have a good time together. I won't disturb you."

"okay."

……

Ganlu Temple.

A golden animal-shaped incense burner stood in the corner, and the curling green smoke formed into clouds and dissipated.

Su Ming was sitting in front of the imperial desk, reviewing memorials. There was already a tall pile of them next to him, and there was a basket of them on the ground that had not been reviewed yet.

This alone is the only thing left after filtering out a lot.

Before he established the authority of the Secretariat, there were actually not many memorials submitted from various places. At that time, the central government of the imperial court had no authority at all.

It would be better to find Prince Jin than to find him as the emperor.

Now, Su Ming is in control of the Secretariat and the Ministry of Rites, and has initially regained the decision-making power. In many cases, matters of the court still require going through procedures.

The Tang Dynasty originally had a sound power structure, but after a hundred years of war, many of these institutions had been abandoned, just like during the Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.

The defenses of Chang'an City included the Jinwu Guards, the Outlaws, the Longwu Imperial Guards, and the Northern and Southern Yamen Armies. It was a mess.

But now, Luoyang has nothing. The city defense has been taken over by Li Siyuan's men, the imperial city is in Su Ming's hands, and the order in the city is mainly maintained by the yamen runners.

Therefore, the market in Luoyang is still very chaotic.

However, Su Ming couldn't do anything about it. If he couldn't control these things completely, it would be easy to be criticized and end up in trouble.

He doesn't rely on this one acre of land. As long as he can ensure the safety of the imperial city, he can play with Li Siyuan slowly. When he has enough strength, Su Ming will naturally ask Li Siyuan and his soldiers to leave, and then he will deal with them drastically.

While Su Ming was reviewing memorials, his thoughts were wandering in the sky.

Suddenly a cold voice sounded, "Master Xu just entered the palace, what did you talk about?"

It turned out that the empress had arrived.

He said without even looking up, "We didn't talk about anything. I just invited her to have a cup of tea and chat about the past. I've only met her a few times, so we're not that familiar with each other."

"Li Cunli has already stopped, and took this opportunity to deal with a lot of pawns and recruit some officials." The empress was wearing a red official robe today, which gave her a different demeanor.

Su Ming smiled faintly, "It doesn't matter. After the imperial examination, these officials will be replaced sooner or later. Let's throw them to Li Siyuan and his men. We don't need to win them over. It's too cheap."

"Someone has already carved the engraving plate for printing the test papers, and the craftsman is locked up in my palace, so it will never be leaked. However, aren't the questions you asked a little too weird?" The empress frowned, with doubts in her beautiful eyes, looking a little cute.

He stood up and took a few steps before speaking, "Well, I changed it this way on purpose. From now on, Confucian classics will no longer be the top priority in the imperial examinations. The Mo Yi Tie Wen will also change from the Analects of Confucius and the University to the works of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Han Feizi, and the Ce Wen will be changed to farming, water conservancy, military affairs, as well as the situation and criminal law."

"Of course, I will not completely deny Confucianism, but in this imperial examination, Confucian questions occupy a lot of space, but the percentage of successful candidates is not very large."

Confucianism is an inseparable part of Han culture, so Su Ming would not abandon it completely. However, what he wanted was not people who studied but people who held official positions.

The imperial treasury was empty, and the military governors of various places had not yet paid their taxes and grain, so he had no money at all to support those clean officials.

In ancient times, officials were divided into the clean and the turbid. The clean officials were prominent and promoted quickly, but these guys did not do any work, or did not do things personally but left everything to their subordinates.

In the Tang Dynasty, "official qualifications" were formed based on factors such as the official rank, years of service, test performance, and family background of the person seeking an official position. The type of official position to be granted and the number of candidates "to be selected" were determined based on the purity of the official qualifications, which was called "distinguishing between the clear and the turbid."

In the concept at that time, those who could serve as honest officials were scholars with clean backgrounds. Therefore, those who served as honest officials had higher status than "non-honest officials" and were often admired by scholars.

The concept of "turbid officials" originated in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. At that time, it mainly referred to some specialized officials, such as medical officials, music officials, clerks, etc., who were often "poor scholars" or "poor people". Turbid officials usually had to do everything themselves and deal with civil affairs. These officials were practical, but unfortunately they were excluded in the officialdom, their efforts were thankless, and their promotion was slow.

Chapter 126 The court wants people who can get things done

Speaking of which, if Huang Chao had not rebelled and destroyed those aristocratic families in Chang'an, and Zhu Wen had not carried out a rampage at Baima Station, killing many upright scholars, the aristocratic families would have been severely damaged and lost their voice.

The current Luoyang court would not be as simple and clear as it is today.

Most of the aristocratic families are fence-sitters and political speculators who are not reliable at all. However, they like to gain power by influencing politics and are not hesitant to fan the flames and stir up the world's affairs.

Su Ming did not deny that there were talented and knowledgeable children among the aristocratic families, and they also maintained the rule of the court to a certain extent.

However, parasites are parasites, and they are harmful. They are literally sucking blood from the imperial court, rather than having the so-called mutualistic symbiosis.

Scraping the bone to cure the poison still has certain merits. This is also a historical necessity and cannot be changed by human will.

However, this division of officials into clear and turbid categories caused endless harm that lasted for thousands of years. The officialdom of the Ming and Qing dynasties was also filled with similar concepts, which led to a rigid system and made it impossible for low-level clerks to be promoted.

"You want to use officials from the Zhuoliu clan?" The empress had been the Queen of Qi for more than ten years and was in charge of several states. She was obviously familiar with the rules of officialdom. As soon as Su Ming said it, she understood.

"Well, the clean officials are just occupying positions and doing nothing. How can the court afford to support idle people? In this imperial examination, I will choose the clean officials, and I will also choose the turbid officials."

"After this exam, I will send the officials of Zhuoliu to the counties around Luoyang, starting with small positions such as county magistrate, county magistrate, county lieutenant, chief clerk, and military assistant of various departments. These are positions in charge of local affairs, which really test the ability of officials."

"As for the Qingliu, it's also easy to deal with. If there is no war this year, I plan to revise a history book of the previous dynasty to prevent the classics from being lost and becoming increasingly difficult to compile later."

"This year is the first year of Hongwu, and the court has to do something. Anyway, I can't control the national treasury. Instead of letting Li Siyuan use the money to support the army, it is better to use it to compile history books. He can't find fault with it."

"In the court, there are many official positions such as the Jixian Hall Book Manager and the Proofreader, and they are all assigned to those upright people. As long as I am in office, these guys will not be able to participate in the affairs of the court and manage people and things."

For scholars, these official positions are the highest-ranking ones among the elite, and others dream of becoming such officials.

It's a pity that this is honey wrapped in poison. Once you hold such an official position, don't expect to be promoted quickly like before. You have to sit on the bench for a few years first.

Once your qualifications are high enough, you will be sent to other places to serve as an official and participate in specific affairs.

If you want to climb all the way to the top, just dream on!

When talking about the history of the Tang Dynasty compiled by the people of the Song Dynasty, we have to complain a few words. The history books they compiled are famous for glorifying the literati of the Tang Dynasty. Many places are written in the style of the Spring and Autumn Period, or the details are omitted to honor the respected people.

However, a huge number of turbid officials were submerged in history, nameless and without surnames, and treated the same as the common people. The so-called history of the Tang Dynasty is the history of those aristocratic families.

Moreover, the reason why the people of the Song Dynasty wrote history in such a distorted way was because of the imperial examination system. Because most of the officials who wrote history in the Song Dynasty came from the imperial examination system, they naturally had a good impression of people who became officials through the imperial examination system, because these were their predecessors.

They did not know the identity and background of these people in advance, but had preconceived ideas, which resulted in many details in Tang history not being able to stand up to scrutiny and being logically inconsistent.

However, Su Ming did this not only to curb the resurgence of the aristocratic families, but also because he was dissatisfied with those upright people. These guys were really no different from the "experts" and "beasts" on the Internet in later generations.

Hearing this, the empress was stunned for a moment, "Is it really okay for you to do this?"

"What's wrong with that? After taking the imperial examination, the court must have my approval for hiring and promoting people. If I don't agree, they can forget about promotion and just stay in the library."

Su Ming had a sly smile on his face. "Maybe one day, it wouldn't be surprising if another Laozi appeared in the Jixian Hall in Luoyang. If a Laozi can appear in a thousand years, there's no reason why there won't be another Laozi a thousand years later, don't you think?"

The empress's defense was immediately broken, and she smiled brightly, "You are so evil, if those scholars knew, they would definitely hate you to death."

"There's nothing I can do. What the court wants now are people who can get things done. As for those who don't, this is all I can do." Su Ming spread his hands, looking helpless.

"Okay, when do you plan to hold the imperial examination?"

Su Ming had already prepared something in his mind, and he said seriously, "In the past two months, the Ministry of Personnel has been counting the scholars who have taken the imperial examinations. I have also sent people to monitor them. All the previous restrictions have been lifted. No matter whether you are from a famous family, a poor family, or a commoner, or the descendant of a criminal, as long as you can write and recite the Analects, you can take the imperial examinations."

"There are a lot of people taking the imperial examination this time. According to the current list, there are almost 10,000 people. It would be enough to admit a few hundred of them."

"If more people come, we won't have enough manpower."

At this point, the two looked at each other, feeling helpless. They still didn't have many people they could use.

……

While Su Ming was establishing a relationship with the Tianshi Mansion and preparing for the imperial examination, Li Siyuan was also not idle.

After reflecting on his mistakes in seclusion in the Prince of Jin's mansion for half a month, he arranged for the Tongwenguan to hide underground and re-establish its base, while at the same time he let his men contact the scholars in Luoyang who were going to take part in the imperial examinations.

For this imperial examination, there were more than ten thousand scholars coming from all over the world. With so many scholars gathered together, they held poetry and literary gatherings every now and then.

Various poems were sung in literary gatherings and then circulated in the marketplace. Although literati looked down on each other, the level of their poems was visible and tangible.

Once a good poem spreads, it is enough to shock the whole city and attract countless fans.

You can doubt the moral level of people today, but you cannot doubt their level of appreciation of poetry. In the Tang Dynasty, even common people could sing a few poems.

That’s right, just sing.

In ancient times, poems written by literati could be sung on the spot.

In this way, with the help of some people, many talented people emerged in Luoyang City in just a few months.

All of these talented people are favorites for the imperial examinations.

Li Siyuan was targeting these people. If they passed the imperial examination, he would recruit them under his command in advance. Even if they did not pass, he could keep these literati under his command and cheer for him.

There are few people in the world who dare to refuse Li Siyuan.

Therefore, he easily won over most people.

Of course, Li Siyuan did not let his subordinates falsify the test questions or commit fraud for personal gain. Given his pride, he would naturally disdain to do so. Moreover, if there were any mistakes, it would also damage his reputation.

Up to now, Li Siyuan is still very good in the eyes of people all over the world and has an excellent reputation.

This is also one of the reasons why Su Ming did not kill him immediately. His reputation was too good and he could not be killed. If he was killed, his own reputation would be ruined.

Chapter 127 Brother, are you scared?

Although Li Siyuan was so unbearable in the original drama, it was mainly because they were in different positions and their identities were naturally opposed, regardless of right or wrong.

Just because Li Xingyun is the protagonist, he deserves to die. If he had not exposed his ambitions at the beginning and confronted the protagonists, but had been cautious in his words and actions, who knows, Li Xingyun might have really abdicated the throne to him later.

Except for Li Xingyun and his men, the soldiers and the common people didn't care about what Li Siyuan did. They didn't care about the emperor or the Longquan treasure. As long as their safety could be guaranteed and they wouldn't rob, they would support him wholeheartedly.

In Hedong, Li Siyuan really won the hearts of the people.

In the center of the martial arts training ground of Prince Jin's mansion, Li Siyuan put his hands behind his back and said with a smile, "Seventh Brother, you have worked hard recently."

"Brother, we are all brothers. There is no question of hardship or not. If it weren't for you, I would have died long ago." Li Cunzhi, who was wearing a scholar's shirt, had a serious expression on his face and did not dare to take any credit.

Suddenly, Li Siyuan said something out of nowhere, "Tomorrow when I go to court, I will petition the court to start the imperial examination to select talents for the country."

"Brother, are you finally going to fight back?" A hint of surprise flashed in Li Cunzhi's eyes.

"No, this is not a counterattack. At most, it can be regarded as a small support for him. Doesn't that guy want to hold an imperial examination? I just want to help him."

"Perhaps he originally had a month to prepare, but I suddenly submitted a memorial to push for this matter, shortening the period. If something goes wrong by then, the court will be to blame, and he will have to bear the brunt of the consequences."

"On the contrary, I can go with the flow and gain a good reputation. Why not?"

Li Siyuan did not gain nothing from closing his door to visitors for half a month. He has always been a rational and thoughtful person.

He has suffered a lot since the emperor ascended the throne. After reflection, he came to the conclusion that he should not confront the emperor head-on, nor should he stop him from doing things.