"I won, I won!" Xiaobai ran all the way home happily.
Not long after the results of the Juren examination were announced, the results of the Xiucai examination the following year also began.
An Jingzhi was naturally on the list, and he passed the imperial examination, even ranking among the top few.
An Zhongyi arranged for the examiners to write his test paper directly for him, and the same examiners were responsible for grading it. If he had not been afraid of it being too conspicuous and his son could hardly read, An Zhongyi might have directly given the first place to his son.
However, he didn't know that he had already become very conspicuous.
With so many eyes on An Jingzhi's special treatment in the imperial examination, it was impossible that the news didn't get out. In the end, he even got into the top five. It's not that no one reported it to the emperor, but the emperor had no time to pay attention.
Because the war had spread to more places, he was so busy every day sending people to quell the rebellion that he had no time to take care of such trivial matters.
Xiaobai ran home happily and found An Jingzhi sitting in the yard eating a popsicle. The weather was very warm and the sun was shining on his body, making him drowsy.
Hearing the hurried footsteps, An Jingzhi squinted his eyes and did not move.
Xiaobai happily rushed to An Jingzhi and said, "Brother Jing! I passed, I passed, I passed, I passed!"
Xiaobai's results were truly achieved through his own efforts. An Jingzhi even specifically told An Zhongyi not to give Xiaobai any special treatment. He just wanted to see how good Xiaobai's learning ability was. Obviously, the other party did not disappoint him.
He had only studied for more than a year, but he had passed the examinations to become a scholar from a student. An Jingzhi had to admire his learning ability. During the exam days, Xiaobai, who always loved eating, even forgot to eat in order to read and write.
An Jingzhi sat up and motioned Xiaobai to sit down, "Congratulations, Xiaobai, from now on you are a man of honor." Poor Xiaobai didn't know that his honor would not last long.
Xiaobai's face was filled with excitement, "Brother Jing, don't worry, I will definitely continue to take the exam!"
An Jingzhi praised him and encouraged him a few words, and Xiaobai couldn't wait to go into the study to continue reading.
An Jingzhi looked at the other person's back and sighed, "Not bad, not bad. Study hard and work for me in the future."
The following year, the scale of the peasant uprising expanded. At this time, the north was a thousand miles of barren land, with corpses everywhere.
An Zhongyi was hurriedly called to the palace by someone sent by the emperor while he was working in the East Factory.
After An Zhongyi greeted the emperor, he noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and he looked exhausted. He was horrified and asked with concern, "Your Majesty, what's wrong with you? Your Majesty, please take care of your health."
"I'm fine, Zhongyi. I just received news that Fuchang, Lishun, Goujian, and Qingping have all been occupied by bandits."
These places all have their own coal mining industries. These thieves seem to be targeting the coal mining industry. They used to earn hundreds of thousands of taels every month, but they hadn't enjoyed it for long before their income was cut off all of a sudden. The emperor was anxious.
An Zhongyi feigned surprise, "How could this be? Are the local garrison soldiers just sitting there doing nothing?!"
In fact, he had known about this for a long time, even earlier than the emperor, but there was nothing he could do. Although he was extremely powerful in Kyoto, the garrisons in various places still obeyed the emperor. Without the emperor's order, he could not command the garrisons in various places.
It’s just a pity that they still have a 10% share in the coal mine.
Even though sales are not as good as before due to the hot weather, we can still sell some. Anyway, the coal mine is not valuable, so we can make a profit by selling it.
The emperor thought that his 10% share was all used for management and recruitment, but in fact he earned more than the emperor thought. The emperor earned hundreds of thousands, while he easily earned 10,000 or 20,000 taels.
"Your Majesty, the local garrison should be reprimanded! How did they do their job? How could the imperial court's tens of thousands of troops allow the thieves to enter the city so easily?!" An Zhongyi said angrily.
This was not what the emperor wanted to hear. The money in the national treasury had already been spent on military expenses in various places, and the recent expenses were all paid from his own private treasury.
It was okay to have the coal mine to help, but now the coal mine’s income has also been cut off.
"It is said that they are bandits called Taiping Sect! I don't know who they are cooperating with, but their armor and weapons are better than those of the imperial court soldiers! They also have a team of cavalry who are good at sudden attacks and charging into battle formations. Damn it! Someone must be colluding with these bandits! Don't let me find out, otherwise I will kill all nine generations of his family!" His coal mines and his silver were all gone!
"Zhongyi, the national treasury is empty, and my private treasury has no source of income. I, I really don't know what to do."
I see. So the reason they called him over was because they wanted money.
If the emperor had asked for it in the past, he would probably have given it to him, but not now. He has a son, and all his money belongs to his son.
An Zhongyi cried poorly, "Your Majesty, coal mining also requires initial investment, and now the mine is occupied by thieves. I don't have much here, and I can only give out 5,000 taels at the moment. My son has quite a bit, and I will shamelessly give him some. The most I can give out is 20,000 taels."
The emperor looked at him with a touched expression, "Good! You are worthy of my loyalty." Twenty-five thousand taels? Good, very good, then don't blame me for being cruel.
An Zhongyi thought he had fooled the other party, but in fact the emperor had already become murderous.
It was as if the world had changed overnight. There were rebellions here and uprisings there. The emperor was robbing Peter to pay Paul. The soldiers were like firefighters. Other rebels were easy to put out, but there was a group of thieves called the Taiping Sect who were extremely difficult to put out. They always liked to launch sneak attacks, and when you sent a large army to suppress them, they suddenly ran away, as slippery as a loach. They were the biggest thief at the moment.
The emperor can now only rely on those generals to help him quell the rebellion, but the more capable generals are all civil servants and relatives who have defected to Prime Minister Song, and naturally belong to Prime Minister Song's party. Now that he has to rely on those generals, he will naturally turn to Prime Minister Song.
Prime Minister Song had a private conversation with him and said that the rebellion could be suppressed and the emperor would not have to pay for the military expenses, as they would raise the money themselves, but they demanded that An Zhongyi be eliminated.
Of course he wouldn't tell the emperor this directly, but that's what he meant.
The emperor originally thought that if An Zhongyi was willing to raise more military funds, he would let him go for the sake of the silver, but he didn't expect that the other party was so ungrateful.
…
"Dad, did you go to the palace today?" An Jingzhi asked An Zhongyi when he saw him walking in a hurry.
An Zhongyi stopped and asked, "What's the matter, my son?"
"What does His Majesty want to see you for?" An Jingzhi asked.
"To raise military pay." An Zhongyi said helplessly.
It was obvious that all the officials in the court were rich, but His Majesty chose to look for him. He had asked around when he came out of the palace, and found out that His Majesty only asked him for money.
An Zhongyi briefly explained the situation and An Jingzhi understood.
It was not in vain that he accepted Su Jiangtao. The other party loved to play. People from all walks of life knew him and he had many sources of information.
According to the information sent by Su Jiangtao, plus An Zhongyi's words, combined with the original owner's memory of the heartless emperor, the other party is likely to take action.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com