The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Chapter 645: September, the first year of Longqing, 644. Chaos

Wei Guangde got the news from Emperor Longqing that he was going to be transferred to the Ministry of Rites.

Thinking about the leisure time of the Ministry of Rites, Wei Guangde was actually very satisfied.

Although the Ministry of Rites is not as rich and powerful as the Ministry of Officials and has less power, it is noble and noble, which will be of great benefit to my future promotion.

Moreover, he was transferred to the Ministry of Etiquette, and the first annual examination and palace examination of the Longqing Year would be held in the next year. This was a ceremony for recruiting talents. Maybe Emperor Longqing would actually ask him to take charge of the examination and be a teacher for a group of candidates.

However, while he was collecting the mistakes of Xu Jie's disciples and waiting to take up his new post in the Ministry of Rites, something happened to the Ministry of Rites.

Early that morning, Wei Guangde entered the staff department as usual, nodded and entered his own room.

Before reading a few official documents, Lu Bu hurried in and whispered in Wei Guangde's ear: "Sir, an urgent notice from Nanjing just came to Beijing, saying that something went wrong in the Nanzhili Township Examination this year."

"Nanzhili? If the imperial court didn't send Wang Xilie from the Hanlin Academy to take the exam this year, what could happen?"

When he first copied "Yongle Dadian", Wang Xilie had been working as a branch officer. Wei Guangde had a lot of contact with him and felt that he was a pretty good person.

If something goes wrong in the provincial examination, it will most likely be a case of fraud in the examination room.

This is the first major exam since Emperor Longqing ascended the throne. The emperor is very concerned about it. If this incident occurs, it will be difficult for all parties to let go.

At this time, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little lucky. Fortunately, he didn't go to the Ministry of Etiquette now. He guessed that things were already going crazy over there.

Just as Wei Guangde thought, the Minister of Civil Affairs and the Vice Minister had already gathered in Gaoyi's room for discussion.

This matter is not trivial, and you have to figure out how to deal with it before you can explain it to the emperor. After all, the cause of the incident is the one in the palace.

It turned out that during the Southern Zhili Township Examination in the first year of Longqing, Emperor Longqing listened to the advice of the official and made a bold reform, that is, to cancel the "ban" name in the township examination.

The problem of dish name has been around for a long time, and the cause was the Imperial College in the northern and southern capitals of the Ming Dynasty.

The students of the Imperial College can directly enter the official position after graduation, but the prospects for official positions are not high. The students who can enter the Imperial College either have family backgrounds, or they are deputy candidates in the provincial examination, and they are considered to be somewhat talented.

Naturally, they had great expectations for their future. Even if they entered the Imperial College, they only wanted to study. They still hoped to pass the provincial examination, the joint examination and even the palace examination to become an upright Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty.

After all, entering officialdom as a Jinshi is the right path.

Since the candidates for the Shuntian Rural Examination included students and supervisors from various provinces, the numbers in the examination rooms were distinguished, and the numbers were used to determine the number of successful candidates. This was the issue of the number of candidates.

It is also because of this policy that since its implementation in the 13th year of Jiajing, the number of students entering the Imperial College has increased significantly.

This policy was originally formulated, of course, mainly so that the imperial examination students could successfully obtain the imperial examination quota. After all, most of these people were close confidants of the emperor. They were rewarded for some merits and could arrange for their family members who had not taken the imperial examination to directly enter the Imperial Academy to bypass the imperial examination. Pass the hospital examination.

After becoming a supervisor, naturally you want to continue to benefit, so there is a policy of fixed quotas for small names.

In the Southern Zhili Provincial Examination, Emperor Longqing canceled the privileges of Pan titles and allocated the number of successful candidates according to their scores, which naturally affected the number of successful candidates in the Imperial College.

In this provincial examination conducted by Wang Xilie, the number of successful supervisory students dropped by more than 70% compared with previous years, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the supervisory students at Nanjing Imperial College.

After the list was announced, when the examiners Wang Xilie, Sun Zheng and others went to the Guoxuewei Confucian Temple, hundreds of people who were born in the Imperial College of Nanjing made a noise outside the door and insulted Wang Xilie and other examiners without restraint.

This incident was actually caused by Emperor Longqing breaking old rules and not giving preferential admission treatment to the Imperial College invigilators.

But for these people, they can only vent their grievances on the examiners to vent their anger after failing.

This incident had a great impact on Nanjing City that day. Even with the intervention of the censor patrolling the city and others, the supervisors still gathered together to make noises for a long time before resting.

For such a big matter, Nanjing naturally reported it to the capital to see what the emperor wanted.

In fact, the purpose of Emperor Longqing's decree was to recruit high-quality talents to the court.

The imperial court did not reduce the total number of students in Nanzhili because of this. The number of candidates admitted to Nanzhili was still the highest among all provinces in the Ming Dynasty.

But for those who failed to pass the examination, their preferential treatment was no longer available, and they naturally had to find a place to vent their anger.

If they had known in advance that there was no such preferential treatment policy, they would not have come all the way to study at the Imperial College in Nanjing.

It is not easy to live in the capital city, and it is also difficult to live in the city of Nanjing.

The Ministry of Rites discussed it for a long time, but there was no solution. The Ministry of Rites could suppress the official document, but the General Affairs Department would send it directly to the cabinet.

Gao Yi took the two ministers to the cabinet. At this time, the cabinet ministers were also discussing the matter in Xu Jie's room.

"Arrest people. Those who make noise must be severely punished. Otherwise, where will the court's face be?"

The Ming Dynasty gave preferential treatment to scholars, but there were also many restrictions, especially when it came to political officials.

The phrase "care about family affairs, state affairs, and everything in the world" that was passed down in later generations would have been the reason for punishment if placed in the early and mid-Ming Dynasty. That is, it was only at the end of the dynasty that no one would care about it, and it was even spread everywhere.

For scholars who have not entered officialdom, the imperial court gives you preferential treatment so that you can study with peace of mind, not just to curse others just because you have some knowledge.

Because scholars know the law and can think, they can often see through the evils of the times.

Four years later, that is, in the fifth year of Longqing's reign, Liu Yuanqing participated in the general examination and wrote a policy review because "the countermeasures were extremely outdated and had shortcomings, and the author did not dare to record them."

It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty was actually quite defensive in its treatment of scholars.

When people from the Ministry of Rites arrived, the cabinet's opinion was almost unified, which was to punish those who took the lead in causing trouble.

"The official document mentioned that Wei Guogong did not send troops to maintain order after the incident and allowed the supervisors to cause trouble."

"Impeach, punish."

Xu Jie interrupted this time very simply.

Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, Wei Guangde's father-in-law, would also like to take this opportunity to strike.

Although Xu Jie knew that if he reported this matter to Xu Pengju, the most he would receive would be an imperial edict or a fine, and there would certainly be no other punishments, Xu Jie still had to do it.

Chen Yiqin, who was below, twitched the corners of his mouth when he heard this but said nothing.

Xu Jie had nothing to do with Wei Guangde, so he had to find ways to rectify it elsewhere.

The salary of Wei Guogong is only a few dollars.

Chen Yiqin did not come forward to speak for the Duke of Wei, so there was really no need to waste his words.

Soon, the vote drafted by Zhang Juzheng was released. "The judicial departments of the two capitals arrested and punished him. The leader, Shen Yingyuan, and several others were dispatched as usual. They offered wine to Lu Tiaoyang, not to mention that they had not been here for a long time. They guarded the Duke of Wei, Xu Pengju, to change the situation and seize the salary." Mi, Siye Jinda took away his salary for two months each with a loose binding, and asked the Holy Judge to supervise the birth of the dish name."

The content of the punishment has been roughly explained before, and Zhang Juzheng naturally drafted a handling method according to the old system. However, as for the source of the matter, which is the issue of "Dan font size", he can only refer it to the Holy Judgment.

This matter was not trivial. After Zhang Juzheng's vote was drawn up, the cabinet sent people directly to the palace. Nanjing was still waiting for Beijing's reply and did not dare to delay for a moment.

In the afternoon, news came from the palace that Emperor Longqing had approved the matter. However, regarding the issue of "Pan's name", Emperor Longqing, perhaps seeing the hidden dangers, chose to take a step back and decreed that "the number of supervisors should remain the same as before."

That is to say, during the next provincial examination, the Nanjing Imperial College students re-enabled the numbering system, and the system of fixed admission quotas was also retained.

Wei Guangde just kept silent when he knew the news. He didn't feel anything about his father-in-law being punished. Mainly because he could see from this incident that the change in the court's policy was too difficult.

Logically speaking, canceling the font size is fair to all candidates, but when it comes to Imperial College students, it causes "unfairness" to some people.

Reform in the Ming Dynasty was really difficult.

Because most people don't like changes and just like to do things the same way, at least they are doing the right thing.

This time the examiner Wang Xilie was right, but the incident in the Nanjing Provincial Examination was still a stain that he could not wash away in his life.

As new battle reports came, in Shanxi, the Anda tribe bundled Xu back after looting Shizhou, Xiaoyi, Pingyao, Taigu, Xizhou and other prefectures and counties.

It happened to be a time of continuous autumn rain, many horses died of illness, and the road was muddy. They all walked back with sticks, horses and baskets, and abandoned much of what they had captured on the road.

As for the Anda tribe, no new battle reports were sent on their way back. It is conceivable that at that time, the Ming army garrisoned in Datong, Taiyuan and other places had no challengers, so the Anda tribe left the Ming realm safely.

The ministers could see it, and so could Emperor Longqing in the palace, but everyone had a tacit understanding and didn't say it out loud.

However, the good news that Wei Guangde didn't want to see was sent to the capital one after another after the An Da troops retreated.

"Don't copy it. I'll throw away all the good news from Shanxi."

Wei Guangde picked up the note on the table and threw it to Lu Bu, shouting sternly.

Perhaps, for some officials, this was nothing more than encountering a lone Tatar in the local area and killing them to gain victory. However, Wei Guangde knew that many of them were killing good people and taking credit for their merits.

After the people of Shanxi suffered from the war, they had to suffer another military disaster.

However, the entire Ming Dynasty Hall was silent. Those who didn't know continued their happy days, while those who knew pretended not to know.

Lu Bu was startled by Wei Guangde's change, and hurriedly bent down to pick up the discarded note on the ground and quickly left the check-in room.

Wei Guangde pulled out a stack of paper from the box next to him. It was an official document that Lu Bu had copied from the Ministry of War and written by Qi Jiguang in the past. What was written on it was the "mandarin duck combined attack method" that he had designed after training.

"Mandarin duck formation? Then let me take this formation to the north and try it out to see if it can withstand the Tatar offensive."

In the past few days, Wei Guangde had read all the information on Qi Jiguang. He had specially reserved this stack of paper to hand it over to Chen Yiqin, who would give it to Emperor Longqing during his interview.

Just yesterday, the Jizhen Beacon Tower warned again, but I don’t know what kind of war it was this time.

At present, the main force of Anda Khan is still in Shanxi and Datong, and it is unlikely that it has moved to Jizhen. Otherwise, Ma Fang of Xuanfu would not have given advance warning.

Outside the Great Wall, except for the threat from the Anda Khan tribe, there are also the Tuman tribe.

As for the Tuman tribe, their strength is definitely not as good as that of the Anda Khan tribe, otherwise they would not accept orders from Anda Khan in name only.

"It's a troubled time, a troubled time."

Perhaps it was because he saw that Emperor Jiajing died and the new emperor's status on the throne was unstable. Border wars continued in March, and Anda Khan boldly went deep into the hinterland of Shanxi to plunder.

Wei Guangde knew that he could no longer allow the Mongols to develop and must strengthen the defense of the border towns as soon as possible. Otherwise, if he allowed them to cause trouble for another two years, his status in the heart of Emperor Longqing would be infinitely reduced.

He was sent to Prince Yu's Mansion by Emperor Jiajing, with the intention of providing military consultation to Emperor Longqing, and with his status, he could mediate the relationship between the emperor and the nobles of Nanjing.

In the afternoon, the news from Ji Town was confirmed. The Tuman tribe invaded Ji Town and looted Changli. The soldiers were approaching Funing, Leting, Lulong and other places.

The Tuman tribe was ruthless, killing, looting, and burning wherever they went, and the capital was shaken.

"The Tatars broke through the wall at Jialingkou and Luohan Cave. I heard from the Ministry of War that they were unstoppable and that places like Funing would be in danger."

Lu Bu was still in front of Wei Guangde reporting the news he had learned from the Ministry of War. Wei Guangde lowered his head and listened without interrupting.

In his mind, he had already found the place name mentioned by Lu Bu in his memory. After all, when he inspected the border defense of Ji Town, he had a superb memory, so he could naturally recall it.

The area where the Tuman tribe attacked this time was east of Jizhen, close to Shanhaiguan, and posed little threat to the capital. The Jizhen army should be able to reach the battlefield in about five days from Santun Camp.

"It's no big deal."

Wei Guangde came to a conclusion after some calculation in his mind.

The field army without strong combat power cannot go out to sweep the Great Wall and is passively defensive everywhere. This is the end.

Zeng Xianzi once thought of forming a chariot battalion consisting of large tanks as the main force for attacking the grassland.

For some reason, Wei Guangde suddenly thought of the chariots he had seen in Baoan Prefecture distributed among various departments of the Ming army.

If the towns of the Ming army could set up a few such chariot battalions and regularly go out hundreds of miles outside the Great Wall to raid, I wonder if they could suppress the Tatars' unscrupulous border rout.

Forget it, let's leave these matters to Qi Jiguang of the Northern Diversion Team to decide.

Wei Guangde was unsure whether the Che Barracks could achieve Zeng Xianzi's idea and defeat the Tatar cavalry head-on.

Qi Jiguang and Wei Guangde are not very confident either.

From the battle reports of Qi Jiguang that we have seen so far, he is good at training infantry to fight in formation. This is the general the army needs most.

But from the beginning to the end, Wei Guangde never saw him use a chariot. After all, the south is not like the north, and there are no chariots available, so Wei Guangde is not sure whether Qi Jiguang can quickly get started and learn how to use the chariot barracks.

After leaving office in the afternoon, Wei Guangde took a car directly to Chen Yiqin's house.

He had already sent someone to deliver a note to Chen Yiqin, and told him to go find him after he dismissed the Yamen.

The difference from the past is that this time Wei Guangde entered Chen's house with a box in his hand.

Coming to the door with something, the concierge of Chen Mansion couldn't help but look at him twice.

Perhaps because Mr. Wei had never brought a gift before, he was a little surprised when he saw it at first.

"Bring this box to Your Majesty tomorrow."

Seeing Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde said straight to the point, and handed the box in his hand to Chen Yiqin.

"What's this?"

Chen Yiqin asked curiously.

"Qi Jiguang reported on his method of training troops. I read it and found it to be quite ingenious. He has great research on battle formations, but I don't know if it is also feasible for large army formations."

Wei Guangde replied.

"Still recommending Qi Jiguang?"

Chen Yiqin asked with a smile.

"I couldn't have found a better person."

Wei Guangde replied.