Chapter 7: The Dog Day Examination

In the evening, Fan Xian returned to his compound, and after a brief conversation with Wan’er about his meeting with the second prince during the day, he was greeted by another unexpected guest – the visitor was Xin Qimo, a close associate of the crown prince’s eastern palace.

Taking his seat and watching the tea, looking at those names on the slip of paper in his hand, Fan Xian smiled slightly, knowing what the Crown Prince was going to do, but not knowing why the other party had come to see him.

“Why are you showing me this?” Fan Xian held the slip of paper in his hand, shook his head with a bitter smile, and said, “Lord Shaoqing, the matter of the congressional exams is something that my humble servant simply cannot intervene in.”

A few months ago, during the negotiation process with Northern Qi, these two were one of the main envoys and one of the deputy envoys, and the cooperation was extremely tacit, and there was no too much resistance in the character, plus the two were drunk once a few days ago, and now they naturally got acquainted with each other a bit more. Xin Qimo picked up his teacup and took a sip, softly explaining, “You should be clear about what these names are.”

Fan Xian of course clear, the day after tomorrow is the day of the opening of the examination, at this juncture, each house is like a daughter-in-law and horseman general non-stop secret communication, the threshold of the back door is almost trodden on, it is said that the Ministry of Rites big old Guo Youzhi is not tired of it, and do not dare to offend too much of the princes and nobles, so simply asked for a decree, hiding in the palace. The other four with the examination and transfer, but also has been the Ministry of Rites Imperial College as their own mansion, simply do not dare to return to the house.

But according to the energy of the East Palace, if the Crown Prince wants to promote some of the young talent they want to cultivate in this examination, there should be plenty of methods, alone that the president of the examination Guo Youzhi, everyone knows, that is a firm supporter of the East Palace, casually handing a sentence to go, it should not be a problem, how to find themselves.

Seems to notice his doubts, Xin Qi Zu smiled and shook his head, said: “Little Fan Sir talent is great, the world all sigh, but it seems that for the many rules in the capital is not very clear. This dynasty should be the rules of the imperial examinations are in accordance with the practices of the previous dynasty, the changes are not too big, in order to prevent fraud, the students who take the exams of the paper should be recopied, to prevent the handwriting to be recognized, the most critical, but the paste name of this step.”

Xin Qimo continued, “These six names on the paper, are people I have personally seen.” He smiled and said, “People of talent.”

Fan Xian had always thought of himself as a very calm person, but when Xin Qimo left and he sat quietly in his study, looking at the note in his hand, he still felt some hidden anger. The day after tomorrow is the day of the test, and he did not know until today, the original in addition to the president, the door division, the transfer, the test among the officials, he also served as a very troublesome and important role.

Earlier in the conversation, Xin Qishu told him, the court has issued a decree, so that the Imperial College of the fifth grade Fengzheng Fan Xian as the test of the Juzhonglang – Juzhonglang this somewhat odd position, in fact, is fully responsible for the order of the test of the official, the hands of the actual power, the more critical is that after the night after the sealing of the scrolls, in the scrolls before the change of the More importantly, when the night after the sealing of the scrolls, before the correction of the scrolls of the long night, before the Ministry of Rites officials and the Imperial College instructors to copy the scrolls again, the paste name matters, is by Juzhonglang single-handedly responsible for.

Anyone who wanted to play some tricks in this examination, the first thing they had to deal with, was the paste of the names. Even if those students behind the background has bought the Ministry of Rites officials, and even the seat of the division examiner, but if the paste of the name does not first do something, the examiner who read the examination paper can not start.

Originally so many years of the imperial examinations in the past, these fraudulent private business, Qing officials have long been made into a skilled work, the distribution of forces also has some reference to the stereotype, but because this time it is the reputation of Fan Xian, very inexplicably sat in the position of the center, so the parties in the court can not help but be a little uncertain, who do not know what kind of things this little Fan Xian will do.

That’s why the Crown Prince didn’t shy away from letting Xin Qimo come to the Fan Mansion beforehand, thinking that Fan Xian shouldn’t go against his own wishes, and these days, the Crown Prince thought that the Eastern Palace had also given Fan Xian enough rewards, and it was time for Fan Xian to make his attitude clear.

Fan Xian took another look at the six names on the note, smiled, destroyed the note into powder, and then slowly walked back to his bedroom, in his heart for the second prince out of thin air more than a trace of gratitude, if the second prince also came to such a hand, he was caught in the middle, it is really difficult to deal with.

But he still somewhat underestimated the complexity of the matter.

Lin Wan’er sat at the table and looked at him with a smile, then gently knocked on the table, a few sheets of white paper on the edge of her fingers looked chillingly clean. Fan Xian sighed and slapped his forehead, saying, “Don’t tell me that the names of people are written on there.”

Lin Wan’er smiled cheekily and stood up from her stool, walking over to him, taking his arm and praising, “Sangong is really a smart man.”

Fan Xian laughed bitterly, “Originally, I thought that we could recuperate in Kyoto before going to Northern Qi, who knew ……” He finally couldn’t help but curse in a low voice, “Who asked me to be this Jiuzhonglang! ”

“My father, your father.” Lin Wan’er looked at him bitterly, “Although this position is not as important as the transfer, it is in a key position. According to the practice in previous years, this set of students will be entered into the dynasty as an official after the examination, and in the future, when they see your face, they will also have to shout a teacher, which is really a very ……”

Fan Xian did not have the good sense to say: “Our two not very close to the father is not some too enthusiastic? I’m only seventeen, could it be that in the future, in the court, I’ll let a set of middle-aged Hanlin pedantic bachelors salute me when they see me?”

Lin Wan’er swept away her worries and said with a smile, “Now you are too famous in the capital, and this time, some people have even elected you to be the seat master, if you are not too young to be dismissed by the palace, you may become the youngest seat master in the world in the past few hundred years.”

Fan Xian said, “Not a good thing, and now I regret that part of the temple where I went crazy with alcohol.” However, there is never any regret medicine in the world to eat, he took a closer look at the note handed over by his wife, and found that some of the names on it were still familiar, all of them were more famous scholars in the capital, and some of those whom he had contacted before did indeed have some talent, and seeing that, Fan Xian’s heart settled down a little bit.

“Since I’m the Jiuzhonglang, they’re still coming to the mansion so blatantly?” Fan Xian sighed, “This note is the proof of their guilt for fraud, and sending it to me makes them a little too bold.”

“It’s all old rules.” Lin Wan Er has lived in the palace for a long time, naturally knows these things, explained: “In previous years, although the resident in the center of the Lang belongs to the key, but the job supply is too low, so all parties do not attach much importance to it, anyway, if the palace which want to cultivate their own a few beloved, that resident in the center of the Lang had to pretend to be invisible, where to dare to talk too much. Just this year it is the turn of the minister to serve in this position, those who are afraid of your means of background, but do not understand your temperament, so it will be like treating the president of the general officer, to greet you in advance, to show courtesy, but also to show respect. Of course, those officials who think they can’t flatter you will, of course, still go through the door of the seat master according to the old rules and won’t dare to harass you.”

“In that case, it seems that I just need to follow the rules of previous years.” Fan Xian frowned slightly, he really hadn’t thought that Qing’s officialdom had been corrupted to such an extent, and when he thought of those students who were toiling away in the suburban book schools, he couldn’t help but still feel a little uncomfortable in his heart.

“Do what you want.” Lin Wan’er was not an ordinary person and said softly, “Even if one of these people’s faces is not sold, who would dare to do anything to you, Mr. Xiang?”

Fan Xian laughed bitterly, thinking that you are the county princess, of course you are not afraid of anyone, although the background behind yourself is not small, but your crown prince brother is going to take advantage of this matter to see himself take a stand. He turned to ask: “Who sent these names?” The note was actually only three, not as many as he thought.

Lin Wan’er smiled shyly with some embarrassment and said, “Actually, it’s all sort of something I caused.”

Fan Xian said, “How so?”

Lin Wan Er answered, “Today, I went to the palace, and went to Ning Cai Ren’s palace, you know that when I was a child, I always played around her. This is a pile.” She then said with a worried frown, “As for the other two notes, one was sent by father to Mr. Yuan, while the other was sent by old Lord Qin of the Privy Council.”

Fan Xian shook his head, Ning Cairen naturally represented the great prince who was still far away in the west on the border, since Lord Chancellor had sent himself to the position of Curator, there was certainly no reason not to make use of his own son-in-law, but that old Lord Qin of the Privy Council, although he had never met him before, he knew that he was a veteran of the three dynasties, and was a super powerful figure in the military, and how could he come to insert himself into the Civilian Science and Technology Cadetry without cultivating a few generals in an honest manner? How do you also come to insert a foot in the civilian imperial examination?

“Forget it, it’s all trivial, since the whole country is a crow, I naturally won’t try to impersonate a dandilion.” Fan Xian said indifferently, destroying all of these notes, gently wrapping his wife’s shoulders around him, and walking towards the former residence.

On the ninth day of February, the day of the Great Competition, the readers of the State of Qing are going to sell what they have learned in ten years of hard work to the imperial family, and as to whether the imperial family will buy or not, it depends on these exams. Those who wore long shirts were like swimming fish, either fearfully or excitedly going to the place of the big test: the examination center of the Ministry of Rites and the Second Yamen, and it looked as if they were trying their best to get into a narrow fish trap.

Fan Xian had already met with the president, Guo Shangshu, the two seat masters, and the two coordinators on the first night, and the ministers were a bit nervous about arranging all the procedures, so that on the second day, they would exercise their respective duties.

A master’s chair rested at the side of the main door, surrounded by government servants and officials sent by the Supervisory Yuan as a rule. Fan Xian sat comfortably in the middle of the crowd on the eunuch’s chair and watched coldly as the students walked by in front of him.

The students walked past him, young and old alike, and all bowed respectfully; those who knew Fan Xian honored his reputation, and those who didn’t, honored his position. At the door, the tiger and wolf officials around Fan Xian had long since opened the curtains and began to search the students one by one, strictly preventing them from bringing prohibited items inside.

Fan Xian sipped a mouthful of tea and looked at these hard-pressed students carrying bedding and toilet bowls for food, like the long laborers in the village, and couldn’t help but shake his head, but suddenly saw that one of the students who had been examined was preparing to enter the courtyard, and with a roll of his eyes, he shouted, “Wait!”