Chapter 79 Recognizing Relatives
"I am deeply grateful to Uncle Li for his great kindness. My parents in heaven will also thank you."
Tang Xinuan suddenly knelt down in front of Li Ce.
Her parents were wrongfully convicted and murdered, and she thought that no one in the world remembered them anymore.
But Li Ce not only remembered them, he also secretly found evidence to prove their innocence, waiting for the descendants of the Tang family to come and find it.
How could Tang Xinuan not be grateful for this kindness?
She prostrated herself on the ground, kowtowing and sobbing uncontrollably.
Li Ce hurriedly helped the man up, saying, "This is unacceptable. Given my relationship with your father, it is only right that I do this."
Furthermore, as the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, it is my duty to treat every case fairly and impartially.
Tang Xinuan understood that he was responsible for the cases during his term of office, but when his family was convicted, he was not yet the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
"Uncle Li, if you ever need anything in the future, Nuannuan will repay you with her life."
“What nonsense are you talking about, girl?” Li Ce helped her sit down. “Back then, I took a liking to you because of your intelligence. I dreamed of having a daughter like you, but unfortunately your aunt was not good enough and gave birth to three sons.”
If possible, I would be happier than anything if you called me "godfather."
Tang Xinuan, the daughter of a disgraced official, how dare she aspire to marry the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review?
She glanced at Erlang first, and saw that Erlang nodded at her.
She bowed again, saying, "Godfather, please accept my bow."
Li Ce happily accepted this generous gift.
“Good child, from today onwards, I am your godfather, and you are my goddaughter, Li Ce.”
Suddenly having such a lovely daughter made Li Ce happier than if he had been promoted. "Who said I, Li Ce, wasn't destined to have a daughter? Here she is!"
"After I finish my errands, Nuannuan will come back with me so your godmother can be happy. She wants a daughter even more than I do."
Zhou Chuanxing instinctively stopped him, "Lord Li, you're going a bit too far."
They just adopted a daughter and now they want to take her away.
The key point is that he just heard Li Ce say that the two families had intended to form a marriage alliance years ago.
Li Ce's three sons are all bachelors.
This kind of thinking must be nipped in the bud.
Li Ce smiled and said, "If Your Highness has time, why not come to my humble abode for a cup of tea? I happen to have some newly harvested Longjing tea this year, and it tastes quite good."
It was already quite difficult for Zhou Chuanxing to find time to come to Dali Temple, let alone have time to drink tea.
"Let's do it another day. I'll definitely bring Nuannuan to visit my family another day."
After discussing the family reunion, the conversation returned to the case.
Now that there is evidence, Tang Xinuan has stepped forward to request the Dali Temple to retry the treason case from back then. With the Regent Prince in charge, the Tang family will soon be exonerated.
Li Ce, however, still had doubts.
"It's easy to convict Grand Tutor Wang, but killing him would be very difficult."
Tang Xinuan was anxious because she saw that her family was likely to be exonerated and she heard that Grand Tutor Wang could not be executed.
"Why?"
Li Ce: "If I remember correctly, Grand Tutor Wang has a death-exemption token bestowed by the late emperor."
Tang Xinuan couldn't understand, "Was the late emperor a wise and virtuous ruler, or did he only reign for a day...?"
Out of consideration for Erlang, she did not point out Zhou Chuanxing's father, the emperor.
Zhou Chuanxing naturally understood, "The imperial pardon was given to me by my father?"
Li Ce nodded, "Back then, various vassal kings raised troops and the capital fell. The late emperor was able to stand out among many forces, which must have been extraordinary."
Afterwards, the current emperor ascended the throne and reigned peacefully for fourteen years. The prince should know the untold stories behind this better than we do.”
Zhou Chuanxing was only ten years old at the time.
The rebel army stormed the city, and the capital was in chaos. He was so focused on escaping that he paid no attention to matters of state.
Besides, he's young, so no one would tell him these things.
Li Ce continued, "Your Majesty, I only remember that when Your Majesty ascended the throne, you immediately made a daughter of the Wang family your empress. However, the empress died early, and the current empress is the third daughter of Grand Tutor Wang."
Unfortunately, neither the late empress nor the current empress has given birth to a son.
Otherwise, the Wang family's position would be even more unshakeable.
Zhou Chuanxing will definitely side with Tang Xinuan without any principles.
Moreover, Tang Xinuan is on the side of principle.
"Lord Li, how about I find a way to steal the pardon? Then Grand Tutor Wang will have no protection and will have no choice but to accept his punishment."
Li Ce stroked his beard, lost in thought and remained silent.
So far, stealing the get-out-of-jail-free card is the best solution.
After all, the current emperor is only ill, not dead.
Even as regent, Zhou Chuanxing could not possibly control everything.
"Your Highness, we await news from you."
The Grand Tutor's mansion was heavily guarded, and the "golden token of immunity" was a life-saving item; how could anyone find it so easily?
Zhou Chuanxing instructed Tang Xinuan not to act rashly, lest she alert the enemy.
He then sent men to secretly infiltrate the Grand Tutor's mansion to try and steal the plaque.
It was the day the students were to make their appearance.
Zhou Chuanxing focused all his thoughts and energy on selecting talent, and had no time to pay attention to the young girl.
Of course, he also assigned tasks to the little girl.
The math test questions were all created by the little girl, and now that it's time to grade the papers, she's leading the process, assigning grades to four levels: excellent, good, average, and poor.
More than two thousand students participated in the provincial examination this year.
That means there are two thousand exam papers that need to be graded.
Mathematics is the easiest subject to grade, since you can tell at a glance whether the answer is right or wrong.
The essays on classical texts and policy proposals are the most difficult to grade.
It not only places extremely high demands on the knowledge and abilities of the reviewers.
It will be a huge test of his character.
The Great Zhou Dynasty had not held an imperial examination for more than ten years, and Zhou Chuanxing was already prepared for the drawbacks of this.
One reason for the temporary addition of mathematics was that the imperial court genuinely lacked mathematical talent.
Another very important reason is to prevent candidates and examiners from cheating.
After all, as long as the exam papers are not leaked, there is no way to cheat in mathematics.
After half a month of continuous grading day and night, all the exam papers have been basically graded.
Zhou Chuanxing instructed his men to compile statistics.
Those who receive a failing grade in all four subjects will be eliminated.
Provide them with some compensation for travel expenses so they can return home as soon as possible.
If all four subjects are rated A, he will ask about each one individually.
This was equivalent to the palace examination that followed the provincial examination in the past.
As for the other candidates, they all waited for additional tests, which was the usual spring imperial examination.
This imperial examination did not rank candidates, so there were no top scholars, second-place scholars, or third-place scholars; instead, it was divided into three classes: first, second, and third.
One hundred students are selected from the first tier, one hundred from the second tier, and two hundred from the third tier.
The imperial court was in dire need of talented individuals, and Zhou Chuanxing was eager to find them.
After the Left Chancellor was killed, Grand Tutor Wang was placed under house arrest, and the Right Chancellor resigned, half of the court was left empty.
The officials in Jiangnan were seconded from other places.
If no one fills the gap, I'm afraid no one will be able to carry out the government orders.
Therefore, all three top-ranked players were retained.
Another 300 students were selected as second-class candidates, and the imperial court provided them with monthly subsidies as encouragement, hoping they would return to their hometowns to continue their studies and strive to pass the next imperial examination.
The students who were not among the top 600 received subsidies based on the distance they traveled, with the hope that they would return home soon to continue their studies, help their families with farming, or find other ways to make a living.
Since the left and right prime ministers were dealt with, the national treasury is full and the court is no longer short of money.
Although the amount of silver distributed to these students was not much, the imperial court had done its best. These students were grateful for Zhou Chuanxing's actions and praised his heroic deeds to everyone they met on their way home.
In recent years, the imperial court has been plagued by war, and Zhou Chuanxing has been leading troops in battle. All the people know of his military achievements, and through this imperial examination, they have also discovered his talent in civil administration, and they are all grateful to him.
The overcast sky seemed to have been ripped open, and soon a large patch of sunlight would shine through.
It is found throughout Kyushu.
Although there was no ranking in this imperial examination, Zhou Chuanxing had a clear understanding of the results.
He personally inquired about each of the top 300 candidates.
The time may be long or short, but he has done his best in every one of them.
He could recognize the talent of some students at a glance, so he didn't need to waste time and gave them a score directly.
Some students are not good at speaking, so he needs to put in more effort and spend more time on them.
People like Li Zhengyan and Chen Yu, he didn't even exchange five words with them before deciding to give them important positions and dismissing them.
These people thought they had done something wrong and offended the regent, and that they were sure to fail the exam.
Unexpectedly, when the results came out, they all achieved top marks.
After the "palace examination" was completed, Chen Yu organized all the students who had passed the imperial examination but had not received recommendation documents in their hometowns to go to the temple to erect a longevity tablet for Han Xi.
Li Zhengyan was from the capital, and he had a letter of recommendation. Upon hearing about these people's ideas, he even proposed to go along with them.
“Brother Li, you don’t need to do that. None of us received recommendation documents. It was she who took us to see the Regent, which gave us the opportunity to enter the examination hall and become officials. She is like a second parent to us.”
Li Zhengyan had his own reasons: "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have gotten a good grade in mathematics, so how could I have been ranked first?"
Li Zhengyan's explanation was reasonable, and other students who had heard Han Xi's lectures wanted to go with him after hearing it.
More than two hundred people quickly gathered.
Upon receiving the news, Zhou Chuanxing summoned Li Zhengyan to the Xiaoqinzheng Hall for questioning.
Li Zhengyan reported the facts clearly.
In Zhou Chuanxing's mind, Li Zhengyan should be at least a second or third place scholar, even if he wasn't the top scholar.
I admire his talent, but I just can't bring myself to like him.
Because he was the son of Li Ce, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
If the Tang family hadn't met with this misfortune, the two of them would probably have been married long ago.
Such an outstanding young man, the girl will definitely like him.
The thought of this possibility made Zhou Chuanxing feel a tightness in his chest.
These past two days, after the imperial examinations ended, Li Ce has invited the young lady to visit the Li family several times.
However, he dismissed them all with excuses.
Regardless of the circumstances, Li Ce helped the Tang family gather all the evidence, making him a benefactor to the Tang family.
The young girl couldn't possibly refuse to associate with the Li family.
We'll have to meet sooner or later.
After finishing their business, Zhou Chuanxing unexpectedly became concerned about Li Zhengyan's marriage.
If he already has someone he loves, that would be best; if not...
He's going to have to play matchmaker.
Li Zhengyan has been busy studying these past few years and hasn't thought about marriage yet.
Zhou Chuanxing couldn't help but think of his younger sister.
He originally favored Wei Minzhao, but this person was selfish and lacked a sense of the big picture, making him unsuitable for important tasks.
Although the position of Minister of the Court of Judicial Review is relatively low, Li Zhengyan is intelligent and a promising young man.
My younger sister is feeling a little wronged for now, but in the future, her life will definitely be happier than if she had married into the Wei family.
"Since Zhengyan is not engaged, then I will take care of things for your parents."
Go back and tell Lord Li that I will be visiting his residence tomorrow to seek his guidance, and ask him to prepare plenty of good tea.
Li Zhengyan had heard his father mention the Tang family before, and he also knew that his father had adopted a daughter who was a girl from the Tang family.
My father likes it very much.
In his earlier years, his father often mentioned that the Tang family girl was intelligent and he always regretted not being able to bring her back to the Li family to raise.
This time, after adopting a daughter, he specially asked his mother to prepare a bedroom for Miss Tang as her boudoir.
Unfortunately, he has never met him.
"Zheng Yan will be ready to welcome Your Majesty."
Tang Xinuan had always wanted to visit the Li family, but she had been busy grading papers and hadn't had the time.
I've had some free time these past few days, but Erlang hasn't said a word.
She was worried that going to the Li family alone would cause them trouble.
Liu Chenggang's entire family was wiped out, and she didn't want the Empress to turn her anger towards the Li family.
She was overjoyed when Erlang told her that they would be going to the Li family tomorrow.
"Erlang, I'll go prepare the gift."
Zhou Chuanxing hurriedly grabbed the man and solemnly instructed him: "Lord Li has three sons, two of whom are of marriageable age. You are grateful to Lord Li and can help arrange their marriages, but you must not think of yourself in the process."
Tang Xinuan blinked and suddenly understood why Erlang didn't want her to go to the Li family.
Are you afraid I'll fall for another man?
Zhou Chuanxing did indeed have this concern.
Li Ce's search for evidence for the Tang family is an immense favor.
The young girl has little experience in social etiquette; it would be troublesome if she didn't know how to express her gratitude and thought of offering herself in return.
"Of course, I still have no official status, how can I not worry?"
Tang Xinuan poked his chest with her fair fingers, "Once these students can help you with the workload, you won't be so busy anymore. Then we'll prepare for the wedding."
Before, no one stood up for me, but now I have godparents who can make the decision for me. We're no longer just secretly pledging our lives to each other.
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