On March 13th, everyone left the customs.

On the second day, the successful candidates rushed to the Ministry of Rites to gather and listen to the doctor of the Ministry of Rites explain to them the procedures for the palace examination the next day.

The palace examination is held in the Forbidden Palace and is presided over by the emperor himself. Any mistake would be considered a crime of disrespect in front of the king!

At the same time, officials from the Honglu Temple had already set up the "Planning Papers" in the east room of the Huangji Hall; while the Guanglu Temple had neatly placed 403 examination tables in the east and west wings outside the hall.

In addition, the Jinyiwei set up the imperial procession in front of the Golden Palace, the Jinyiwei set up the Zhonghe Shao music under the eaves of the Golden Palace, and the Danchi Da music under the north corridor of the Huangji Gate.

~~

The chief minister of Wenyuan Pavilion is on duty in the room.

After an afternoon of discussion, the young cabinet minister and Zhang Juzheng drafted four policy essay topics.

Although the palace examination questions should be prepared by the emperor himself, since the Zhengde period, the cabinet would basically draft four or five questions first and then send one to the emperor for his approval.

Because Li Chunfang had served as the chief examiner of the imperial examination, Chen Yiqin needed to recuse himself, so this year's examination questions were handled by Lord Xu and Prime Minister Zhang.

Of course, as usual, Lord Xu's work was taken over by the young Lord.

The old Prime Minister will be 65 next year. He had a headache picking out sentences and quoting from classics, but finally he got it done after going through all the necessary procedures.

"Not bad." Xu Jie carefully looked over the questions they had drawn up again and took off his tortoise-shell glasses. "Send these four questions to the Qianqing Palace."

"Yes, Master." Zhang Juzheng put the book into his sleeve and was about to bow and leave when he heard the report from the secretary outside:

"Your Excellency, the eunuch Teng from the Imperial Household Department is here."

"Oh, you're welcome." Xu Jie frowned slightly.

The Imperial Household Department was specifically used to check and balance the Cabinet. The Imperial Household Department usually read the memorials sent by the Ministry of Public Administration first for the emperor, picked out the important parts and told the emperor, and then sent them to the Cabinet for approval.

After all, the cabinet was nominally the emperor's secretariat, not the real prime minister.

The Grand Secretaries could not directly approve the memorials, but could only write the approval drafted for the emperor on a small piece of paper called a "ticket". Then they would stick the ticket inside the memorial and send it back to the Silijian.

After the emperor had read it and found no problem, the eunuch who held the pen would copy it with a red brush, which was called "reviewing in red". Finally, the eunuch who held the seal would use the seal to formally form the emperor's will.

Therefore, the relationship between the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department was very delicate.

During the Jiajing reign, both the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department vied to curry favor with the emperor. The Grand Secretaries were no different from eunuchs except for their beards, so the relationship between the two sides was naturally very harmonious.

But during the reign of Emperor Longqing, the cabinet changed its style. In order to reshape its image, Lord Xu began to distance himself from the emperor and often protected the censors who attacked the eunuchs.

Teng Xiang, the official in charge of the imperial seal, naturally had a lot of complaints about Lord Xu.

Xu Ge Lao knew that the old eunuch had often said bad things about him in front of the emperor. But now he was too disdainful to put down his airs and curry favor with the eunuchs.

As a result, the two sides have had no contact with each other for the past year.

Teng Xiang's sudden visit today naturally gave Lord Xu a lot of thought.

After a while, Eunuch Teng, dressed in a bright red python robe and a steel fork hat, came in, saluted Xu Jie with his arms crossed, and said nothing more.

"Prince, the Emperor Wansheng has issued an order that he will personally set the questions for tomorrow's palace examination."

"Oh?" Xu Jie was stunned and said, "This matter has always been handled by the cabinet..."

"You have already said that I am doing it for you. Your Majesty said that the ministers have worked very hard, so you don't need to worry about it this time."

Teng Xiang stopped talking and said goodbye quickly: "Nothing else, I'm going back to the Palace of Heavenly Purity."

"Uncle, send Eunuch Teng off." The official in charge of the Imperial Household Department is called the 'Prime Minister' and can compete with the Prime Minister when he is powerful. Although Teng Xiang is not very useful, Lord Xu cannot afford to lose his manners.

When Zhang Juzheng sent Teng Xiang out, Xu Fan immediately whispered, "Father, something is not right."

"What's wrong?" Xu Jie looked at the red glow outside, and suddenly a sentence "The sunset is so beautiful" popped up in his mind.

"This is because they are afraid that we will pass on the test questions."

The veins on Xu Fan's forehead were throbbing. He had already promised at least a dozen companies. When he got back, he would tell them the four questions posed by the cabinet.

The emperor suddenly did this. Has he ever considered where the young minister's face would be?

"Who have you promised again?" It is true that no one knows a son better than his father.

"No one. What's the point of talking about this now?" Xu Fan suppressed his annoyance, wondering why this year's competition was going so badly.

"If you don't tell me, how can I know who to choose?" Xu Jie said softly.

"Oh?" Xu Fan was overjoyed when he heard that. His father had always been very careful about his reputation and would not get involved in anything.

He tried his best to deal with all these messy things.

Now that my father is willing to help, what else is there to take the exam?

Although my father was nominally only the chief examiner, according to the rules, he was the one who determined all the rankings except the top ten.

Even the top ten were actually chosen by Lord Xu, and the emperor merely ranked them.

"Since father is willing to help, it will be much easier." Xu Fan said happily: "My son is a Mifeng official. I will look at their papers tomorrow and tell you in detail tonight."

"Yeah." Xu Jie nodded, and suddenly whispered: "It's up to you to do me a favor... I guess I won't be able to help in the next competition even if I want to."

"Ah?" Xu Fan was stunned after hearing this. After a while, he said, "Father really wants to retire at the peak of his career?"

Obviously, this is not the first time that the father and son have discussed this topic.

"Leave as soon as possible. You are so annoying if you don't know when to advance or retreat." Xu Jie laughed at himself and said, "Don't you see that Eunuch Teng's face is full of your Majesty's impatience with your father?"

"So what? My father is a senior official who is in charge of the country and has the support of all the officials. If the emperor replaces my father, who will rule the country for him?"

Of course Xu Fan didn't want to see this scene, because that would also be the moment he lost power.

"You have to retire eventually. Waiting until Lord Yan is over 80 and still clings to his post is just a joke."

Xu Jie shook his head and said unmoved: "I will talk to His Majesty later and tell him not to worry. In two years at most, when he has learned how to be an emperor, it will be time for me, an old minister who has been appointed as his guardian, to retire and return home."

"..." Xu Fan breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. There was no need to waste time talking about something that would happen in two years. Maybe the old man would change his mind in a year or two.

He picked up the four test questions on the table, took a look at them, crumpled them up and threw them into the wastebasket.

~~

On the other side, Zhang Juzheng sent Teng Xiang out of Wenyuan Pavilion.

Before getting on the sedan chair, Eunuch Teng suddenly gave him a look.

Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly and watched his sedan chair disappear into the twilight.

In fact, Teng Xiang did not need to add unnecessary details. Seeing him coming, Zhang Juzheng knew that Emperor Longqing had listened to his advice - to use tomorrow's palace examination to gather a group of fresh blood who were willing to safeguard the imperial power!

But obviously, this is contrary to Lord Xu's interests.

Therefore, Your Majesty will compete with the Prime Minister in tomorrow's palace examination.

Zhang Xianggong gently stroked his long, silky beard, wondering what tricks His Majesty would come up with...

Thinking about it, I’m a little looking forward to it.

ps. Chapter 1, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~