On March 17th, the third 'Jiangnan Tobacco Cup' Spring Chuiwan Invitational Tournament was held at Qili Village beside Wengshan Lake in the bright spring sunshine.

As the name suggests, this event has been held for three years.

The first competition was initiated by Zhao Liben, the former vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, in the spring of the sixth year of the Longqing reign. It was well-organized, well-serviced, and offered generous prizes. As soon as it was launched, it was warmly welcomed. At the unanimous request of all participants, the competition was continued.

Later, the influence of the game grew, and princes and ministers in the capital all flocked to it. Zhao Liben then established the Beijing Strike Ball Association and was elected as the first president.

The old man can open the Hai Tian Sheng Yan, so he can naturally be the president of the golf club. Oh, and he is also the president of the Yangzhou Jockey Club and the chairman of the Jinling Mahjong Association... So those Qinhuai prostitutes have to stand aside, and the number one socialite in the Ming Dynasty must be the 73-year-old Zhao Liben!

To imagine that Mr. Zhao holds multiple positions and does everything well, status, expertise, hobbies, energy and money are all essential.

Zhao Liben had all of these qualities, so he was born to be a master of this sport. After establishing the Beijing Foot-Strike Ball Association, Zhao Liben optimized the way the ball was played, and combined decades of experience to develop detailed rules. From score calculation to club numbering, dress code, and so on, all were clearly defined. This immediately raised the standard of this sport.

Today, the Beijing Bu Association has developed four events: Spring Invitational, Spring Championship, Autumn Invitational and Autumn Championship.

As the opening tournament of the year, the Spring Invitational Tournament is mainly used to test the condition of the stadium after being closed for a winter and to warm up for the subsequent championship. Therefore, the scale of the tournament is relatively small and only some members are invited to participate.

Today was the Sixtieth-grade competition, and there were only a dozen members participating. Including their companions and caddies, there were only about a hundred people scattered on the green grass field.

But the contestants were all very important. In addition to Zhao Liben, there were also Zhang Han, the Minister of Personnel, Zhao Jin, the Left Vice Minister of Personnel, Wan Shihe, the Minister of Rites, Guo Chaobin, the Left Vice Minister of Revenue, etc. All of them were senior officials in office or retired.

And they have one thing in common, they are all from Nanzhi and Zhejiang. The so-called Jiangnan Gang is supported by these big guys.

The big guys are all old and can't stand the stimulation of the Hai Tian Sheng Yan, but Chui Wan does not require much activity, and it can 'relieve their mind, nourish their blood, and make their spirits happy', so they all like it very much and their skills are also good.

However, when the big guys get together, playing ball is one thing, but more importantly, they share what they have and coordinate their steps. Because the topic they are talking about is quite sensitive, they let their own children accompany them and don't let the people below get close.

Even Young Master Zhao, the real core of the Jiangnan Gang, carried a golf club bag on his grandfather's back and followed a group of old men, admiring their heroic swings of "lying the club down, inserting flowers at an angle, turning back and rolling up the curtain", and listening to their casual chat.

"I heard that Grand Marshal is leaving?" Guo Chaobin asked the Heavenly Official Zhang Han while swinging his club to hit the ball.

"Well, last month Lin Jingyang impeached Zhu Butang for being stubborn. This is the second time someone has impeached him this year. Zhu Butang knows clearly that he is not liked by that person." Zhang Han said without hesitation.

"Now that Old Zhu has left, the only old minister who can fight against that old minister is Old Ge." Wan Shihe sighed helplessly, "I don't think this is a good thing for us."

As he said this, he turned to Zhao Hao, who was sorting out his golf clubs, and said, "Young Master, you should persuade your father-in-law that the court is so big that one family cannot dominate alone."

"In fact, Jiayue doesn't have much resentment towards capable officials like Zhu Butang." Zhao Hao could only smile bitterly and said, "It's mainly because Zhu Butang has offended Wu Qingbo several times..."

"So that's how it is." Everyone suddenly realized.

Wuqingbo Li Wei was the emperor's grandfather, and was notoriously greedy and stupid. He was born a bricklayer, and now that his daughter was the empress dowager, he felt that all the projects of the court had to be contracted to him.

In addition, Concubine Li also favored her family, so many projects fell on Li Wei and his son. Even the construction of the Shou Palace for the retired emperor was given to Wu Qingbo.

But the father and son only cared about making money, so why would they build an imperial mausoleum? The Ministry of Works still had to do the construction. The budget was already tight, and if they were allowed to embezzle a large chunk, there would simply not be enough. Zhu Heng argued with reason and even made a scene at the court meeting, forcing Prime Minister Zhang to give the Li father and son another lucrative job - to produce military uniforms for the Ministry of War, separating them from Zhu Heng, and finally put the matter to rest.

But Wu Qingbo still felt that he had lost face, so he pretended to be sick at home and asked the countess to go to the palace to tell her daughter that she was going to be mad at Zhu Heng. The Queen Mother Li was now very arrogant and told Zhang Xianggong that she didn't want to see anyone with the surname Zhu anymore.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng wished there were as few of these stinking stones as possible, so he asked Zeng Shengwu to arrange for someone to impeach Zhu Heng.

After figuring out the whole story, the ministers could not help but sigh. Now the "Prime Minister - Queen Mother - Feng Bao" iron triangle controls everything. The court recommendation is a mere formality, the court meeting is no longer held, and only the insignificant court interrogation remains. The power and status of the ministers have plummeted, and they are really not as good as when Gao Gong was in power.

"Hey, you are biased. Mr. Zhang at least regards our Jiangnan Gang as an ally." Zhao Liben said at the right time: "If you all think that you can't survive, how can others survive?"

"Haha, that's true..." Zhang Han and Wan Shihe couldn't help but nod their heads. The two of them were able to become the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of Rites thanks to the father-in-law and son-in-law relationship between Young Master Zhao and Prime Minister Zhang.

"And after Zhu Shinan left, Prime Minister Zhang intended for Shangfu to take over as Grand Marshal. This way, we will have three of the six ministers. We should be content." Zhao Liben said calmly as he walked towards the corner.

Shangfu is the pen name of Guo Chaobin, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He brought up this topic because he wanted to find out if there was any inside information. Hearing this, he was pleasantly surprised and said, "I thought Pan would be reinstated."

"Zhu Shinan did recommend Lao Pan, but he has an even worse temper. It would be better to continue using Zhu Shinan." Zhao Liben chuckled and reached out to take the Victory cigar offered by Guo Chaobin.

Zhao Jin quickly lit the cigarette for his uncle. Zhao Liben took a deep puff of the cigarette and said intoxicatedly, "Great..."

Unlike Zhang Juzheng, he was not fond of trying new things, so he just chose cigars. Black, thick and long, this was the man's choice!

Amid the smoke, Zhao Liben said to the crowd, "But don't be too optimistic. Zhang Xianggong is good to us, but the people he really trusts are those from Huguang, so you will inevitably have to give way to them in the future, so don't think too much about it when the time comes. Our interests are in the south - Jiangnan, Lingnan and Nanyang, and the rest of the places need to cooperate with Zhang Xianggong."

"We don't really care. We are all over 60 years old. We will have to give up our positions in a few years." Wan Shihe sighed, "But the people behind us may not feel comfortable."

"That can't be helped. This is someone's luck." Zhao Liben walked to the ball, handed the cigar to Zhao Hao, pulled out a club from the club bag, aimed and swung, hitting the ball steadily into the hole. He raised his eyebrows amid the cheers of the crowd and said arrogantly, "In another ten years, the luck will be ours."

"That's true." All the ministers nodded happily. They were no longer sleepy when this was mentioned.

With the continued efforts of Jiangnan Education Group, the future belongs to the Jiangnan Gang. Even a blind person can see it now.

Although the results of the imperial examination will not be announced until tomorrow, many of these senior officials in the ministries and departments are examiners of the palace examination, so they naturally already know the rankings of this year's examination.

Among the top ten, the top scholar Jiao Hong was a native of Jiangning County, Yingtian Prefecture, and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

The second place winner, Sun Jigao, was from Wuxi, Changzhou, and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

The second place winner, Yu Menglin, was from Jiangning and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

Wang Yingxuan, a native of Cixi, Zhejiang, graduated from Yufeng Academy.

The fifth place is Zhi Keda, a native of Kunshan, Suzhou, and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

The sixth place is Zhou Xixian, a native of Putian, Fujian, registered in Beijing, and graduated from Xiangshan Academy.

The seventh place is Wang Pan, a native of Shanyin, Shaoxing, and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

Eighth place, Huiyuan Sunkuang, from Yuyao, Shaoxing, Yufeng Academy.

Ninth place, Shen Jing, from Wujiang, Suzhou, Yufeng Academy.

Tenth place, Gu Xiancheng, from Wuxi, Yufeng Academy...

It was not until the 21st place that a Jinshi outside the field of science appeared.

Among the final 73 second-class Jinshi graduates, sixty were from the science field.

In fact, in the last competition, the science department also took the top three places and more than 80% of the second place. This caused a great uproar at the time.

At that time, Gao Gelao was in office and was shocked. In addition, Zhao Haogang hated him, so he ordered the officials to investigate whether there was any fraud. The Censorate, together with the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Rites, found all the palace examinations, joint examinations, provincial examinations, and even the examination papers of all the candidates for the science gates and compared them one by one. The investigation lasted for a whole year, and the more they investigated, the more convinced they were. Finally, the Ministry of Rites, under pressure, concluded that there was no fraud, but that the teaching level and the level of the candidates were too high!

Gao Gelao couldn't impose any restrictions, because the imperial examination was divided into southern, northern and central volumes, and admissions were divided by region. There was no reason to artificially restrict the palace examination. All he could say was that when selecting the next imperial examination, he would try to give preference to candidates from other regions.

But before the next class started, he was dismissed...

The reputation of science as a surefire way to win the imperial examination spread through this survey. The fact that scholars all over the world flocked to it was largely due to this survey.

So no one was surprised by the results of the science competition. Now it is normal for them to do well in the exam, and it is abnormal if they do not do well.

The big guys can fully look forward to what a spectacular scene it will be when these scientific disciples grow up in ten years.

"I'm going to congratulate you tomorrow!" Mr. Zhong said to Master Zhao, the leader of the Science Sect, with a smile, "Ten years from now, Master Zhao will have many students all over the world and in the court!"

"Forget it, forget it. I will leave Beijing early tomorrow morning." Mr. Zhao waved his hand and said with a smile: "Don't pursue false reputation and suffer real disaster."

"Is that so..." Everyone nodded in understanding. For the next while, Zhao Hao was indeed not suitable to stay in Beijing, otherwise he would definitely become the focus of everyone's attention.

Inevitably, someone will ask, who will be chosen in the competition, the disciple of the emperor or the disciple of Zhao?

So it’s better to stay away...