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

These days, the cooperation between the two has become more and more sophisticated, and they trust each other. The empress has given him almost everything without reservation.

The beauty’s kindness is great, and Su Ming is not a heartless person, so how could he remain indifferent?

Chapter 129: Strike first to gain the upper hand

The timing is just right now. If it's too early, they are not familiar with each other. If I act rashly, she will think that I don't know the seriousness of the matter, or that I am trying to take advantage of her.

It's too late. There are three thousand beauties in his harem, and she certainly doesn't want to interfere. No woman is willing to share her man willingly.

Over the past two months, the empress has helped him a lot. She has put in a lot of effort both in dealing with Li Siyuan and rebuilding the Secretariat.

She is not an ordinary woman, let alone a woman from an aristocratic family. She has the whole world in her heart.

More than ten years of life as a prince has turned a girl into a cold-blooded prince. The flashing of swords, the shadows of conspiracy and intrigue have hardened her heart. Therefore, the usual methods of pursuing girls are useless on her.

But while she cares about the world, she also has a girl's dream and hopes to be with the person she loves.

The empress's sharp eyes became gentle, and she asked softly, "Do you really think so?"

Su Ming nodded and put his hands on her shoulders. "Well, I don't want to wrong you. I can't give you a name now, but I hope you can understand my intentions. Let's work together, not only for ourselves, but also for fewer deaths in this world."

Looking at his gentle and peaceful eyes and solemn expression, the empress sighed softly, took his hand from her shoulder, held it with her backhand, and smiled, "Okay, let's work hard together."

Su Ming also spread out his fingers, and the two of them interlocked their fingers, holding them tightly.

For a moment, there was silence and a charming atmosphere filled the hall.

He took the empress in his arms and sat down with her. "You are right. Li Siyuan does have an idea. His move is to retreat in order to advance."

As soon as he said that, the empress understood. She thought to herself, as expected, he was really good. He could see Li Siyuan's thoughts at a glance. She had dealt with Li Siyuan a lot, but she didn't know what he was thinking.

The empress's beautiful eyes flickered, her breath was as sweet as orchid, "That being said, if he gives in in the court, won't it make his subordinates feel disappointed?"

"Han Xin? You're overthinking it." Su Ming smiled faintly, released her hand, and played with it in his palm. Her slender fingers were as scallion white, long, smooth, and well-proportioned.

The empress suppressed her shyness and squeezed out a soft and sweet voice, "Oh?"

"In the court, except for the Minister of the Three Departments Ren Huan and the Privy Councilor An Zhonghui, Li Siyuan didn't care about the other ministers. Even if they lost their positions, he wouldn't even blink an eye."

"Ren Yuan and An Zhonghui are his right-hand men and are both great talents. Even if they leave the court and return to Hedong, they can help him govern Hedong well."

"The remaining officials are just pawns he uses to boost his momentum and raise his voice. He doesn't care how many are lost. His base is not in the court, but in Hedong."

"He supports the imperial examination system and has shown his concessionary attitude to the outside world. Therefore, I cannot target him too much in the future. Otherwise, the governors of various places will surely be alarmed. If they unite and cut off the imperial court's grain transport and money, this small area of ​​Heluo cannot support such a large imperial court."

Hearing this, the corners of the empress's mouth slightly raised, and her cherry-red lips opened and closed, "Are you going to follow the example of Gou Jian, the King of Yue, and sleep on firewood and taste gall?"

Su Ming smiled, not hiding his thoughts, "A gentleman hides his abilities and waits for the right time to act. For me, it is better to be still than to act. First, I will control the surrounding areas of Luoyang, then slowly integrate the power of the court, and slowly extend the power to the old territory of Liang State."

"The people of Liang are naturally hostile to Jin. The two sides have been fighting for decades, and the hatred is not so easy to resolve. This is also the easiest place for me to intervene. When I connect Luoyang and Bianliang, then the whole chess game will be activated."

Unconsciously, the empress raised her head and looked at the excited look on his face. She was actually mesmerized. She slowly leaned her head on Su Ming's chest, feeling his broad and strong chest, and felt inexplicably calm in her heart.

Su Ming held her in his arms, her warmth and softness in his arms, and also remained silent.

At this time, anything you say is redundant.

As the saying goes, he who strikes first is the strongest, and he who strikes last will suffer.

His time is running out.

Counting the days, my elder brother-in-law Li Maozhen will soon come out of the Twelve Caves. By then, the Longquan treasure will be opened, and then the curtain will be raised and all the storms will gather.

He must develop "his own people" as quickly as possible and expand his strength, but he cannot reveal his true identity, so he can only go the wife route.

Both the empress and Yelu Zhiwu are invaluable helpers. Their martial arts are both at the great level. The empress also has a brother whose martial arts value is second only to that of the bad commander.

If they were tied on board, then even if the real Li Xingyun showed up and he was deserted by his friends and relatives, he would still be able to use his services.

Moreover, it is not clear what Li Xingyun would think when he returns to the world, but given his temper, he would probably have to be forced by Yuan Tiangang before he would do it!

Maybe it was just the same excuse he made in the beginning, using Ji Ruxue to threaten her.

……

Li Siyuan expressed his support for the emperor to hold the imperial examination in the court. This move represented the concession of the Jin Wang Party. Without their constraints, the preparations for the imperial examination went very smoothly.

In order to take the imperial examination, King Qi submitted a memorial and voluntarily offered his own mansion as the examination venue. This move was highly praised by people from all walks of life.

The King of Jin was not to be outdone and also submitted a memorial.

The Palace of Prince Qi and the Palace of Prince Jin were the two largest palaces in Luoyang, covering a vast area and accommodating thousands of scholars for examinations. At the same time, the imperial court demolished some residential houses and worked overtime to build a large temporary examination hall.

It can be said that everyone in the court is pushing this matter forward.

Soon, it will be the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, when the dragon raises its head. It is a good time to travel, offer sacrifices, and pray.

It is early spring, the sun is warm and the sky is clear.

There was a lot of noise outside the examination hall. Scholars were lined up in a long queue, carrying their examination baskets. Soldiers were guarding the gate, checking the scholars' clothes to see if they had any smuggled items, etc. The check was completed from the morning till the evening.

Although some scholars called it an insult to etiquette and gave up the exam on the spot, most people stayed and waited in line.

The court had already posted an official list with all the exam details very clearly written on it. This was modified by Su Ming according to his memory of the imperial examination system of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The exam began and the soldiers distributed test papers. A quarter of an hour later, the exam officially began.

As time passed, an hour later, the exam was over and the candidates left. The soldiers collected the test papers, sealed them, and sent them to the imperial palace.

No one would feel safe leaving it outside, so the court simply placed the examination room inside the imperial palace and had it guarded day and night by the imperial guards.

For this exam, there would be no copying of the papers and no covering of the names. It was just a preliminary test and the questions were very simple. After screening out a large number of people who could only recognize the words of the sages' articles, the remaining ones were the ones who actually participated in this imperial examination.

Chapter 130 The Imperial Examination in Progress

After the reform of the imperial examination system, the threshold for participating in the examination was lowered a lot, and as a result, the intensity of the work of marking papers increased sharply.

There were more than 10,000 examination papers, and most of the officials of the Secretariat and the Ministry of Personnel were sent out to review the papers. At the same time, King Qi was in control of the overall situation and was responsible for monitoring and reviewing every link to ensure maximum fairness.

There is no absolute fairness in this world. For candidates, the test paper may be rejected if the examiner is in a bad mood, or your handwriting is too ugly or a certain point is not written to his satisfaction.

But this is inevitable and cannot be avoided.

More than one hundred officials of the imperial court reviewed the papers for five days and finally selected three thousand qualified papers. In the process, more than ten thousand people were eliminated.

Of course, the test papers should have been sealed after screening, but Su Ming asked people to pick and choose, and selected nearly two thousand papers. The handwriting on these test papers was not good, but the content of the test papers was acceptable.

These five thousand people will take part in the next examination.

……

Three days later, the court held a second examination. This examination was different from the previous one. If you passed the exam this time, if you did not continue to take the exam, you could participate in the selection of officials of the Ministry of Personnel and be transferred to the local area to serve as a minor official.

Yes, these people cannot be officials and can only serve as clerks.

The drawback of the imperial examination system in the Ming and Qing dynasties was that it screened out people who were capable of becoming officials, but not the lowest-level clerks, which led to a rigid system.

Not all the scholars who took part in the imperial examinations came from wealthy families. There were also those who came from poor lower-class families. Although they could not make a lot of money by working as a minor official in the court, it was enough to support their families.

A penny stumps a heroic man.

In today's world, nothing is impossible. Scholars and descendants of sages still have to bow their heads when faced with life and death.

After the list was posted, turmoil broke out again in Luoyang City. Scholars immediately denounced the unfairness of the imperial examination and cursed the court. Little did they know that if Su Ming had not reformed the imperial examination, they would not even have the opportunity to take the exam.

It’s just like company interviews in later generations. If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, you can’t even submit your resume. Without this stepping stone, what’s the use of having strong abilities?

Not everyone can meet someone who appreciates him/herself.

The court paid no attention to these remarks and prepared for the next exam in an orderly manner.

……

More than 10,000 candidates were eliminated in the last exam, which greatly reduced the pressure on the court.

The second exam was not as rough as the first one. After the soldiers collected the test papers, they were moved to another place, where special clerks copied the test papers and covered the names.

If someone else has copied it, those with poor handwriting will no longer be screened out, thus alleviating the disadvantages of poor children.

Only after all this was done did the papers begin to be graded. This time, the pressure on the examiners was greatly reduced. It only took three days to review all the papers and screen out one thousand papers.

Candidates who passed this level of examination could be called scholars. Above scholars were called juren, and above juren were called jinshi. This was completely changed in accordance with the system of later generations.

The imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty was so crude that it was not worth watching at all. It was almost a nine-rank system disguised as an imperial examination system, and it was filled with the remnants of feudal aristocracy, which was really disgusting.

After the list of candidates was announced, the scholars had all kinds of expressions, including joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. But even if they failed, they had no complaints. At most they shed tears in pain and ended the exam sadly.

At this point, anyone with a little common sense would naturally not openly question the admission list. Otherwise, if they angered the imperial court and were charged with the crime of being banned from taking the imperial examinations forever, that would be terrible.

……

After the exam, the Luoyang government sent people to distribute scholar's clothing and money and food to these scholars, and also sent people to register their names and places of origin and record them in a book. There were not many things, only one hundred coins and ten kilograms of coarse rice.

The imperial court is also suffering now, with insufficient money and grain. Naturally, it cannot spend a large amount of money and grain every year to support scholars like the Ming and Qing dynasties. Moreover, Su Ming also feels that the scholars supported in that way may not be very loyal to the court.

Dorgon had just entered the capital and held the imperial examination soon. Didn't they go to take the examination eagerly? They even shaved their pigtails into a golden rat tail and licked it so hard.

Of course, there is only so much money and grain at present, and it will definitely change in the future, but the amount will not be much.

These money and grain were not originally intended for the children of aristocratic families, but were used to reward scholars from poor families and win the hearts of the people.

In the past, there was no such measure in the imperial examinations of the imperial court.

Now, we have it.

……

Half a month later, the court held the third examination.

This exam was more rigorous, and the exam location was not in a temporary exam hall, but in the imperial city. The Luoyang Imperial City was built very large, and a mere 1,000 candidates only needed to be divided into several large halls.

The exam lasted for two hours, and the questions became more difficult from easy to difficult. Just as Su Ming and the empress had said before, he directly divided the questions into two volumes. Confucian classics and historical essays were divided into one volume, and arithmetic, water conservancy, farming, military affairs, and criminal law were divided into one volume.

Speaking of the imperial examination, many people probably don't know that the imperial examinations in the Ming and Qing dynasties stipulated the scope of the test questions, so scholars only read those books and studied them carefully, which led to most people not reading history books at all.

It's too voluminous. Who has the heart to read history books?

As the examinations went on, the imperial court gradually became familiar with the imperial examination process and became adept at it.

This time, the test paper was also covered with names first, then someone copied it, and finally the examiner reviewed it.

Three days later, a new list of successful candidates came out.

The imperial court also issued a reward and posted a list. With the status of juren, these scholars could apply for some minor official positions in the imperial court.

These miscellaneous minor officials have greater power than petty clerks and are in charge of more things. They gradually change from laborers to laborers, but they are still unable to be in charge of important departments.

……