Even a dog wouldn't be a good enough official to be a Tiantong official.

It didn't snow in February, but the examiner's grievances were as bad as Dou'e's.

The prince looked at his father, then took ten eggs and put them in front of his father's eyes.

This action shocked the old emperor: "Ten eggs? Don't you want me, your father, to eat anything else?"

The prince smiled faintly: "I still need a few more tombs, so you can peel a few more eggs, father."

The old emperor understood. Glancing at him, he said unhappily, "No more peeling!"

The prince dragged his chair and sat closer to his father, grinning, "Dad, why don't you peel them? I thought about it, ten eggs might not be enough, let's have ten more."

The old emperor glared at him, and if he wasn't sitting there, he might have wanted to kick him, "Enough is enough."

The prince immediately shut up and stopped teasing his father. Anyway, he had achieved his goal - his father was willing to let go of the ten poor chief and deputy examiners.

But the examiners themselves didn't know yet.

In a certain residential area, He Bi, the Minister of Rites, who was the chief examiner of one of the five joint examinations, touched his red nose tip and felt helpless: "I'm afraid His Majesty is furious right now. I don't know if we can escape this disaster."

The deputy examiner of his joint examination was a member of the Hanlin Academy. At this moment, he couldn't help but start to defend himself: "That person's behavior is really hard to guard against. He must have sat in his own room, and there would be no difference even if his appearance was compared with the registered household registration. When the papers were handed in, the soldiers collected them and sent them directly to cover the names, so the examiners were not allowed to peek. Even if we want to be vigilant, we can't do anything without the rice!" The

Minister of Rites glanced at him, as if wondering "how can there be such a naive person".

"You have a point." The Minister of Rites smiled and said, "But Your Majesty, this is the court, not a charity. If you can't do it, Your Majesty will naturally find someone who can do it."

The Imperial Academy attendant was stunned, as if he was still dissatisfied.

The Minister of Rites smiled again: "If one day Daxia goes to war with another country, and the enemy uses new tactics to defeat our army, and our army commander returns with the remnants of the defeated army, and then says to Your Majesty: Your Majesty, I really didn't expect the enemy to use such an unpredictable tactic, and I have no way to be vigilant even if I want to be vigilant - what do you think Your Majesty's reaction will be? Smile and say: I'm fine, my dear minister, I've done my best?"

"This... I..."

The Imperial Academy attendant took out a sweat towel from his sleeve and wiped the sweat off his face awkwardly.

The Minister of Rites: "We are examiners, and ensuring the fairness of the imperial examination is one of our responsibilities. If we don't discover that the examinee is taking the exam for someone else, we are derelict in our duty.

We absolutely cannot attribute the blame to the examinee's superb cheating skills and we are not at fault." Regardless of whether these ministers agree or not, His Majesty certainly does not agree with this.

The Hanlin Academy attendant's eyes became nervous: "Then...what should we do?"

His Majesty may not chop them off, but he may let them retire and return home!

He still cherishes the black gauze hat on his head.

Seeing that the Minister of Rites looked thoughtful, the Hanlin Academy attendant sweated even more and dared not speak again. He held his breath and waited for the Minister of Rites to think of a solution.

"The only solution now is to go find the prince." The Minister of Rites said slowly, "Please ask the prince to come out and protect us. Even if His Majesty does not agree with the prince's words, at least he will listen to them."

The Hanlin Academy attendant made up his mind, "I'll go to the East Palace now..."

The Minister of Rites: "How will you go? If Xiao Bai Ze sees it, the moment he finds out someone is cheating, the Hanlin Academy attendant outside the examination room will have a sudden idea and go to the East Palace to ask the prince for help?"

"Then..."

"Wait. Wait until the list is posted and the examiners can contact the outside world. Xu Yanmiao will report the caught cheaters to His Majesty. Only then can we take action."

*

But Xu Yanmiao can take action when the candidate is about to hand in the paper.

Before this, he would go down to inspect the examination room at regular intervals, with no rules at all. Sometimes he would go to the "Tian" section, sometimes he would go to the "Di" section, seemingly just doing whatever he wanted.

The candidate number 20 in the Tian section was concentrating on answering the questions from beginning to end, without even looking at him.

On the contrary, the candidate who asked someone to take the exam for him took out the cloth bag at least seven or eight times and ate ginger slices seven or eight times.

[With this kind of mentality, he still asked someone to take the exam for him.]

Xu Yanmiao complained, and the examiners on the Zhigong Building took advantage of the fact that he was not upstairs now, and nodded in agreement openly.

After writing, the candidate who took the exam for him did not rush to sign. He looked at the sky, and then waited patiently. He raised his hand only when five or six candidates applied to hand in their papers.

Xu Yanmiao appeared in front of him at this time and said to the soldier in charge of his cell: "Take the man away."

Gao He was also a "Tian" grade. He handed in his paper early and was sleeping in his cell to conserve his energy for the next exam. Hearing the noise, he got up silently, staring at this side with burning eyes. He

even took out a steamed bun seriously, pretending that he was eating.

Not only him, his cousin almost stuck his head out of the cell, and the northwest wind cut his face like a knife, but he didn't retract his head.

Xu Yanmiao swept his eyes. Wow, many eyes are secretly looking this way.

In order not to affect other candidates, the soldiers rolled up the draft on the table and stuffed it into the candidate's mouth when they arrested him, then held his arm tightly and dragged him away. After being dragged to the Zhigong Building and released, the candidate pulled out the draft from his mouth and said in a stern tone: "Examiners, may I ask what I have done wrong?"

Xu Yanmiao directly picked up the paper on which he had already filled in his name and asked calmly: "Your name is Jiang Han?"

The candidate lowered his eyes and said calmly: "Yes."

Xu Yanmiao: "Bring Jiang Han's 'registration'."

When each candidate registered, the Ministry of Rites would use words to describe the candidate's appearance. For example, "Male X, six feet five inches tall, nineteen years old, black."

- Includes gender, height, age, and skin color.

If there is a special place, such as a black mole on the left eyebrow, they will say "there is a mole on the left eyebrow".

The substitute candidate watched the soldier turn around and go downstairs, and suddenly sighed in frustration: "Although it is said that as long as no one knows, you must not do it, but, it has been fifteen years, and I thought I could keep it a secret forever..."

...

[Done! Caught! ]

Outside the Gongyuan, the rulers and ministers of Daxia, who could only know the situation from Xu Yanmiao's inner voice, seemed to be waiting calmly, but in fact, they were extremely nervous.

They couldn't wait to know why the judge would rather take the exam for someone else for fifteen years than become an official.

Was he too ugly and afraid that he would fail the palace examination?

Or was he arrogant and wanted to show off his talent to show that he could pass every examination with ease? Or

did he offend some high-ranking official and knew that he would definitely fail, so he just used this to make money?

If it was the last one, I'm afraid there would be another turmoil in the court.

[No, I'm so curious, I want to ask him why he keeps taking the exam for someone else.]

Here it comes!

The attention of the rulers and ministers of Daxia was focused at once.

After a moment, Xu Yanmiao's inner voice was heard.

[Ah, oh——]

The old emperor looked in the direction of the tribute court, and used his fingers to rub the "eggshell tomb" on the table, making a crackling sound, to vent his curiosity that had nowhere to go -

how did Xu Yanmiao make such a strange sound?

"Crackling——"

What on earth did he hear!

"Crackling——"

The prince glanced at the broken "clothes and hats tomb" and showed an expression that he couldn't bear to look at it.

[No wonder he has always been unwilling to be an official, it turns out that he was dissatisfied with the low salary given by the old emperor. ]

"Oh! That's his loss."

The old emperor was not angry at all, but spoke leisurely, with his hands clasped into a bowl and placed on his lower abdomen, his expression was very calm, and there was even a hint of pride and complacency at the corners of his mouth.

"I gave officials in the court a raise two or three years ago! Although I didn't raise their salaries, I gave them meat! Second-rank officials were given 20 sheep a month! Third-rank officials were given 12 sheep a month! Fourth-rank and fifth-rank officials were given nine sheep a month!"

"In addition to meat, salt, tea, paper, and cloth were all given! If he had been an official honestly fifteen years ago, he might have been a sixth-rank or seventh-rank official in the court now! Humph! Short-sighted - Prince, what's that expression on your face?"

The prince lowered his head to eat eggs.

Princess Xiangyang mercilessly exposed: "Dad! You have to endure fifteen years of being an official, and then you can get more rice, flour and meat..."

[An official of Tiantong is not even a dog. ]

The old emperor:?

Princess Xiangyang was stunned for a moment: "That's not what I said."

[This person is quite bold. Are you throwing in the towel? Anyway, I didn't expect to be let off, so I just said whatever I wanted to say. It was so funny that the Minister of War turned green. Who is he calling a dog? 】

【Eh? It seems like I'm also an official for the old emperor? 】

【Then... woof? 】

The old emperor was furious: "You woofed a fart!"

The prince was almost choked to death by the eggs, and vaguely saw his grandmother. "Grandma" smiled kindly and helped him pat the eggs out.

"Cough cough cough——"

A small piece of egg white rolled onto the table, and the prince lay there like an eggplant hit by frost. Then he heard Xu Yanmiao muttering to himself: "I don't know how much you can earn from this kind of job that doesn't open for three years and makes money for three years after opening. Let me ask. 】

【Wow! 】

【Ten thousand taels per time, guaranteed to pass, otherwise I'll refund the money. 】

【That is indeed higher than the salary of a county magistrate, who earns only 10 guan a month. 】

Xu Yanmiao did not say what was in her mind, but the candidate who took the exam for her still expressed his thoughts.

"After passing the exam and becoming a local official, I still have to endure the anger of my superiors." He said sincerely: "If you want to be a good official, you have to compete with local tyrants. If you become a corrupt official, you have to worry about your head all the time. No matter what kind of official you are, you have to handle the relationship with your colleagues and your superiors. Even if you are honest, you may be affected by party struggles and suffer unexpected disasters. Relatively speaking, I take the imperial examination every three years and get ten thousand taels of silver each time. It is enough for me to live comfortably for three years, and I can also store extra silver, and I don’t have to worry about being caught for corruption."

[Ah this...]

The Minister of War whispered: "Ten thousand taels of silver, how can I live comfortably for more than three years..."

"By the way." Candidate: "I am a judge and have a good reputation. Local officials will not deliberately oppress me."

Xu Yanmiao: "..."

[Actually. If it weren't for the fact that this is a crime and it's unfair to the person who 'failed to get a good score', this special job would really attract salted fish. It only takes ten days of hard work every three years. ]

[Damn. My heart is beating. ]

The Minister of War didn't know the difference between true affection and empty talk. When he heard this, he looked at Xu Yanmiao in horror.