"Your Majesty has arrived!"

Duke Cheng, who had been dozing off in a chair, jumped up upon hearing the voice and rushed out to greet the emperor with a radiant look on his face.

Zhang Juzheng and Yang Bo also hurriedly followed.

"Your Majesty, did you remember the wrong date?"

Wang Ting and Mao Kai, two leaders of the Xu Party, looked at each other and thought that this was a coincidence. How come His Majesty came right after Lord Xu lay down?

The two old people didn't have time to think about it and hurried out to welcome them.

Emperor Longqing was seen dressed in scarlet banquet robes and a black gauze Yishan hat, and he got off the imperial carriage with a beaming smile, supported by Teng Xiang and Feng Bao.

"My dear ministers, please stand up." Longqing smiled and gave Duke Cheng a virtual hand. Zhu Xizhong then stood up nimbly and bent down to help Chen Hong support the emperor.

"I and the other lords are doing our duty with all our heart. How dare we disturb your majesty?"

"Hey, old man. After all, this is my first big exam." Emperor Longqing said with a smile, "It's not right for me, the chief examiner, to just sit back and do nothing."

As he spoke, he pretended to look around.

"Hey, where's the Prime Minister?"

"Your Majesty." Zhang Xianggong smoothed his silky long beard and replied coolly, "The Prime Minister feels unwell and will rest in bed today. Someone has been sent to inform him."

"Really? Is it okay?" Emperor Longqing asked with a worried look on his face.

"It shouldn't be a serious matter. Just lie down for a while and come over when you can get out of bed." Zhang Juzheng took the opportunity to introduce the patient's condition to hint to the emperor.

Longqing really understood what he meant, and said to Teng Xiang: "Take the imperial physician to visit Yuanfu on my behalf, and tell him that it is my order, asking Yuanfu to stay in bed and rest for two days. I will take care of everything here, so he doesn't need to worry."

Dun Dun added, "And Xu Fan, tell him to put down his current tasks and take good care of his old father in the next two days."

"Yes." Eunuch Teng responded and went to convey the order.

"Okay everyone, now that the Prime Minister is not here, we have to work harder." The emperor clapped his hands and walked into the Wenhua Hall first.

"Your Majesty is so energetic!" Duke Cheng immediately offered his daily dose of flattery. "This batch of candidates is so lucky."

"Oh, haha, it's just my job." Emperor Longqing was in a good mood. He flexed his arms and showed a gesture of doing a great job.

All the bigwigs looked at each other and then at Mr. Zhang, hoping that the second-in-command of the Xu Party would come up with some advice.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Juzheng just spread his hands and followed him into the hall.

"What does spreading your hands mean?"

Wang Ting looked at Mao Kai, Mao Kai looked at Lei Li, and Lei Li looked at Ma Sen. These four ministers were all trusted aides promoted by Lord Xu, known as the Four Vajras of the Xu Party. Seeing that the deputy leader did not give any instructions, they were all a little confused at the moment.

"It just happens as it should." Yang Bo seemed to be gloating. He patted Wang Zongxian on the shoulder and followed him in.

~~

In the Golden Palace, the emperor took his throne.

The eleven examiners were all confused and stood there at a loss as to what to do.

The routine they were familiar with was to determine most of the rankings first, and then leave a dozen or so papers for reading... and these dozen or so papers must include the top ten in the imperial examination.

When the sealing officer finishes sealing and packing the test papers, he will deliberately put the papers of the top ten candidates at the end of each bundle, so the examiners can find them without looking at their names.

For example, the first place winner must be placed at the end of the "癸" character bundle; the tenth place winner must be placed at the end of the "甲" character bundle...

The examiners will pick out these ten people and put a few lucky ones aside.

The emperor will arrive at the Wenhua Hall at noon tomorrow, and the examiner will read the papers in front of him, and the top ten will be decided.

Now the emperor has arrived a day in advance, what should the procedure be?

Emperor Longqing was a little happy, because in the past he had always been fooled by this group of big guys, but this time he finally fooled them.

It was Zhang Juzheng who had the decision-making power and immediately ordered Zhu Dashou to start reading the papers to the emperor.

Zhu Dashou quickly picked up the fourth-place exam paper to test his skills, and began to recite it in a rhythmic manner in front of the emperor.

Emperor Longqing patiently listened to the 3,000-word policy paper and looked at the clepsydra in the corner of the palace. Almost quarter of an hour had passed.

He thought to himself that no wonder the examiner only prepared twelve copies. It was dark by the time he finished listening, and having more copies would be useless.

"What is your Majesty's opinion?" Zhang Juzheng asked.

Looking at Master Zhang's cool eyes, Emperor Longqing seemed to be back to the conversation between the emperor and his ministers that day.

~~

That day in the East Warm Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Longqing held Master Zhang's hand and cried:

"Now, no matter what I say or do, there are people who find fault with me. It's not just one or two people, but a whole group of people."

"Every time I express my opinion at a court meeting, someone will jump out and say that my ideas are immature and incomplete. Then another group of people will echo me, citing classics to prove how naive my ideas are and what unimaginable consequences they will lead to."

Then I heard Emperor Longqing complaining:

"I am also the emperor, I have to save face. Every time I open my mouth, I get embarrassed and lose face. After you say this a few times, who would be willing to speak again?"

"I thought to myself, okay, I'll shut up and you guys will do what you want, right? But within a month, they said I had an intellectual disability. They made me look like an idiot."

"I was so angry that I wanted to punish a few censors to vent my anger, but I was stopped by Lord Xu. Master Zhang, if it were you, would you be willing to attend the court?"

"So I just hid in the palace, out of sight, out of mind..."

Zhang Juzheng listened calmly, thinking if it were me, I would have done what your father did and beat them until they couldn't take care of themselves.

As an outsider, he naturally understood that what the civil servants were doing was to intimidate the new emperor.

When the previous emperor, Emperor Jiajing, first ascended the throne, he suffered a much worse fate than Emperor Longqing.

Because Jiajing was a vassal king who succeeded to the throne, soon after he ascended the throne, a group of civil officials led by the chief minister Yang Tinghe demanded that the emperor change his parents according to the old rules of succession in the Han and Song dynasties, and recognize Emperor Chenghua and Empress Dowager Zhang as his parents. Jiajing refused to do so, so the two sides started a long and fierce battle over who was Jiajing's father and whether Jiajing's biological father could be given the title of emperor.

When the struggle was at its most intense, Young Cabinet Minister Yang Shen led 240 court officials to kneel and cry in front of Zuoshun Gate to protest.

Yang Dacai also raised his arms and shouted out a famous saying:

"The country has nurtured scholars for 150 years, and today is the day to die for justice!"

He threatened everyone, "If anyone does not fight hard, we will attack him together!"

The result was the "Crying Gate Incident" that shocked the world.

Jiajing sent the eunuchs in charge of household affairs out of the palace to persuade them in vain, so he had no choice but to order the Jinyiwei to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys and arrest eight of them and put them in prison.

As a result, Yang Shen and his ministers banged on the door and cried loudly, and their cries were heard directly in the three main halls and reached the Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Jiajing was furious and directly sent out 500 big men...generals to have all officials below the fourth rank beaten with sticks in court. Afterwards, he sent the leaders such as Yang Shen into exile, and gradually suppressed the arrogance of the civil servants.

But Zhang Juzheng could not persuade Emperor Longqing that it would be the end of him if he fought.

He knew very well that it was a blessing for the officials and the people to have a benevolent and forgiving ruler. Once the emperor let out the devil in his heart, the situation would be out of control.

So Zhang Juzheng suggested to Emperor Longqing:

"These censors are too annoying, so let's replace them with some who are willing to listen to your majesty."

~~

"No, first of all, this article is not good, let's just take a low one."

With Master Zhang's encouraging gaze, Emperor Longqing finally mustered up the courage to say the most emperor-like words since he ascended the throne:

"Secondly, reading the scroll is too slow. Bring it to me for my personal review."

ps. First update, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~