When Minister Pang saw the Prince Regent reviewing the papers, he dared not even breathe.
Why was he angry? Was he dissatisfied with the 300 test papers? But there are many talented candidates who can speak eloquently. Could it be that the Regent is illiterate and can't understand...
Xiao Fu glared at Minister Pang and asked, "Are these three hundred red papers the result of your hard work day and night?"
"In reply to Your Majesty, after the exam was over on August 9th, the test papers were sent to the Ministry of Rites to be copied by the transcriber. After the two papers in black and red were verified to be correct, they were distributed to the examiners in each room for marking. There were also marks in blue pen on them... I reviewed about 70 papers every day, starting from the hour of Mao and ending at the hour of Chou. In ten days, I reviewed a total of 855 papers! The same was true for the six deputy examiners." Minister Pang described the timeline in great detail.
Xiao Fu was too lazy to listen to all this, his voice was as cold as a knife: "Did you cheat for personal gain? Did you select people who shouldn't have been selected, and make people who should have been selected fail?"
Minister Pang's heart trembled, and his shoulders shook as well. He knew that it was most likely the Censor-in-Chief who impeached him. This was bad news! He immediately explained: "Your humble servant, I have absolutely no favoritism in selecting candidates! Although your humble servant has relatives who participated in the examination, after the examination papers were sealed and transcribed, even their fathers could not recognize them. Your humble servant has absolutely no favoritism in selecting candidates!"
The late emperor once said that he would promote talented people regardless of their relationship with him. Four years ago, the son of Lord Xu took part in the imperial examination. The deputy assistant minister, who had a close relationship with Lord Xu, served as the chief examiner, and the questions for the palace examination were submitted by Lord Xu. Originally, Lord Xu took the initiative to avoid suspicion, but Emperor Wentai said, "Ah, my dear minister, we should not avoid relatives when promoting talents. Should talented people be buried just because they are from aristocratic families?"
When Minister Pang thought of this, he kowtowed to the Regent and shouted, "Your Majesty, please be wise!"
"Ming Cha, Ming Cha you fucking bastard." Xiao Fu slapped the ivory pen holder at Shang Shu Pang's face. Shang Shu's head was broken on the spot, and blood flowed down his scalp. He was shaking like a sieve and didn't dare to make a sound.
The eunuch standing next to Xiao Fu also looked pained.
Xiao Fu was furious: "Get out and kneel! Your crime will be retrial later. I am not the late emperor. You are really partial! Watch out for your head, Liang Hong!"
Minister Pang was terrified and crawled out, covering his head. The eunuch held a whisk in both hands and bowed to the regent: "Your servant is here."
"Summon all the deputy examiners to the palace. Where is Commander Han of the Imperial Guard?"
The previous Commander Huang is a thing of the past. Not long after Emperor Wentai's death, Commander Huang was sent to guard the imperial tomb and disappeared.
Although the new commander Han is a capable person, Xiao Fu intends to suppress the arrogance of the Jinyiwei and rarely uses this group of lackeys.
Commander Han was summoned here, and Xiao Fu sent him to the Ministry of Rites: "Bring all the red-brush and black-brush original scrolls and send them to my desk. Do not let anyone handle them during this period, and do not let the officials of the Ministry of Rites have the opportunity to tamper with them."
Xiao Fu still couldn't calm down.
He stood up and paced back and forth: "The imperial examination is the only chance for poor students to enter the government, and how many knowledgeable people have been wiped out by these dogs and slaves!"
Liang Hong was a little puzzled by his angry look. Since Minister Pang was suspected of favoritism, he should investigate the matter thoroughly and conduct a re-examination to verify it.
Reviewing more than 5,000 failed papers is a huge project.
It is not often that the Regent values scholars so much.
But the Regent ordered a re-examination. He selected a group of old men he liked from the Hanlin Academy and summoned more than a dozen civil servants to the Six Departments Gallery at the same time. Xiao Fu personally watched them review the rejected papers.
The scholars of the Hanlin Academy have been reading books and articles for their entire lives, so they can mark the papers quickly. With the Regent watching nearby, they dare not be careless at all.
Once an excellent failed paper was found, it would be handed over to Liang Hong, who would pass it to the Regent for another review.
It took the Hanlin academician five full days to search the rejected papers, and Xiao Fu did not go anywhere during that time.
The old scholar from the Hanlin Academy finally picked out fifty or sixty papers that could be considered excellent, and Xiao Fu naturally saw Lin Zikui's article among them.
The old scholar praised: "As for the other test papers, it may be because the examiner did not like the individual's answering style, or the content in the latter part of the test paper was well written, but the beginning was not impressive enough, or the examiner was careless, but this one... I can't understand how it could be rejected. There are traces of blue pen marking on it, which shows that it has been marked by the examiner." He was referring to Lin Zikui's test paper, which only had a number but no name on it.
The old scholar said: "This man knows astronomy and geography, and his literary accomplishment is so profound that even I sigh. I guess... I guess it must be due to negligence that he left it out. Other than that, I can't think of any other reason."
Xiao Fu asked Eunuch Liang to summon the examiners of the joint examination. These examiners had been summoned to the palace a few days ago and were still under strict guard in the palace and were not allowed to go out.
The examiners were unable to communicate with each other and no one knew what had gone wrong. Some of them examined themselves and found that they had not committed any fraud for personal gain. Only Minister Pang lost his appetite and often touched his neck, as his life was hanging by a thread.
Wen Shengli couldn't sleep either. He thought there must be something wrong with the marking, and he had added a mark. But that mark was so inconspicuous, it couldn't be that serious... When he entered the palace, he also saw other examiners, which meant that the problem might not be with him.
He was in a daze for who knows how many days, and finally the door of the room opened.
The guards in flying fish uniforms hiding in the shadows stood outside the door and said to him coldly, "Grandmaster, the prince has summoned you."
Just when Wen Shengli thought that he could finally meet the other examiners and discuss the situation with them, he found that he was being interrogated alone. Beside him, besides the Jinyiwei and eunuchs, there was only the regent who sat in the upper seat, wearing a luxurious dragon robe and looking down at him.
In the court, the handsome face of the Regent was often so handsome that people dared not look at him closely. It was said that he hated civil servants and Confucian scholars. The court was short of people, and Wen Shengli had just been promoted from the Minister of the Imperial College to the Grand Secretary. When the papers were reviewed, it was not his turn.
It was the Regent himself who said, "Don't have all the examiners be old men. Choose two of each, old and young."
Then it was his turn to mark the papers.
There were no lights around, and the light shone dimly on Xiao Fu. There was almost no light on his face, only some on his shoulders and the sides of his hair.
"Raise your head." Xiao Fu said in a calm voice.
Hearing the voice, Wen Shengli raised his head slightly with trembling hands, only to find that the regent who was in the bright and sunny court now looked like a devil.
"I bow to the Lord Regent. May the Lord Regent live a thousand years and a thousand thousand years!"
"Tell me clearly the whole story of your corruption and abuse of power. If you tell a lie, you will be frying in oil."
Wen Shengli was shocked. Could it be that Minister Pang had said all that and still put the blame on him? How can this be possible! He hurriedly said, "I am innocent! I saw with my own eyes that the Minister colluded with his subordinates and personally reviewed his own son's examination paper, and ordered me to mark it with a blue pen!"
Minister Pang insisted that he had never been partial to anyone, and Wen Shengli told him everything in one breath.
Xiao Fu said: "What else?"
The voice was as cold and eerie as that of Yama, making people tremble with fear.
"And... and..." Wen Shengli didn't know whether he should say it or not. The thing he added was insignificant and was also left out of the book. He thought it was nothing, so he shook his head and said, "No more. Except for being forced by the authority of the Shangshu, I have never done anything else that I shouldn't have done."
Xiao Fu: "Didn't you do anything about the missing scroll? Master Pang has said it all. If you don't say anything, then it won't be a matter of getting into the oil pan."
"He, he actually said it?" Wen Shengli had been hungry for several days and was not conscious to begin with. Now he looked even more desperate and had to explain everything clearly. "Among the candidates for this joint examination, there is a genius with a wonderful essay. The Minister was afraid that this person would take away his son's glory, so he ordered me to find a way to get him out of the exam. I reviewed the exam papers and found a loophole, so I added some marks. I added a little to the red pen and a little to the black pen. But I... I didn't do it voluntarily at all! If it weren't for the Minister's connivance and permission, how could I have access to the original papers of the candidates stored in the Ministry of Rites under strict supervision! How could I have such courage? Even if you lend me ten guts, I wouldn't dare to do it!"
Xiao Fu slowly closed his eyes and took a breath.
"Have him sign his name and seal his name, and then drag him out and chop him up."
Wen Shengli was shaking all over, in disbelief: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I am innocent, innocent, Minister Pang ordered me to do this!"
There were so many cases of corruption among officials in the previous dynasty, and the most serious one was just dismissal from office. Wen Shengli thought that his case was not serious. At most, if the matter was exposed, he would be demoted one level and transferred to another post. If he succeeded, he would be promoted to the Minister of Rites, which would be a great thing.
But there has never been a precedent of beheading for fraud!
Xiao Fu interrogated them one by one.
One examiner swore to heaven that he had never been partial to anyone. When asked about the failed paper, he was impressed by Lin Zikui's paper and said, "The characters '宇' and '文' are connected, and there is an extra dot on the top of the character '宇', which violates the taboo."
Xiao Fu asked: "What taboo is violated?"
“This…” The examiner had to say that he was trying to guess the emperor’s intention, fearing that this word would offend the emperor.
"Because of this one word, you can make such an excellent paper fail to be selected. Very good, very good!" Xiao Fu had a reason to hate pedantic Confucian scholars. He detained all the relevant people and awaited their fate. He ordered the Jinyiwei to go to Pang Mansion to bring Pang Xiang, and had him re-examined by the Hanlin academician. It turned out that Pang Xiang was indeed a fool with a little knowledge in his mind.
But only a little.
The next morning, Eunuch Liang announced the decree in court, severely punishing the examiners who cheated in the imperial examination!
There were seven deputy examiners and one chief examiner. The chief examiner Pang Zhuo was immediately taken to the Dali Temple and beheaded at noon. The head of his co-examiner Wen Shengli had already been chopped off. All the deputy examiners were demoted and transferred to other posts.
Upon hearing the imperial edict, Lord Xiao almost fainted in the court!
Wen Shengli, his son-in-law, how dare he help Pang Zhuo cheat in the imperial examination!
As a result, the cabinet became a complete empty shell, and the civil servants of the Daye court were either killed or transferred elsewhere. Only a group of old and weak scholars are left standing firmly in the Fengtian Hall. Please think twice, Regent.
"The prime minister and the chief minister have resigned one after another. Now there are only these few officials left in the cabinet. My Lord, you cannot send such talented people to other posts!"
Xiao Fu left with a wave of his sleeves: "No need to discuss further! The king has made up his mind!"
With the order from the Regent, the officials of the Ministry of Rites dared not slack off, let alone make any tampering. They had to check the red scrolls with the black scrolls, and only when they were identical could they remove the names and fill in the list.
On the first day of September, the weather is clear and cool. The results of the Imperial Examination were announced and students gathered.
Mo Liu had been waiting for news at the Imperial Examination Hall every day for the past few days. When he heard that the results were about to be announced, he quickly ran back to the villa two streets away and said, "Sir, the results are out! The results of the imperial examination are out!"
My wife hasn't been home for a long time.
Lin Zikui has been reading and studying at home recently. In this month, he has only seen Zhao Ling twice and spent the night with him once.
He probably couldn't wear his summer clothes anymore, so he was packing up his clothes and sorting out his autumn clothes when he suddenly heard Mo Liu's voice. He stood up immediately and asked, "Is the result announced?"
"Let him go! Let him go! There are too many people, I can't see clearly, so I came back to call you!"
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