Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1093: Changes in the Imperial Examination
At the same time, Yingtian Prefecture.

The weather in the north may still be a little cold, but in the south, it is already spring.

In the imperial garden of the imperial city, the willow trees had completely sprouted new branches, and the branches rustled in the breeze. A swallow picked up a few dead leaves from the ground, flapped its wings and flew to the eaves of the Jinshen Palace, chirping and building a new nest.

"Where did this swallow come from? How could it be so ignorant?" The eunuch on duty at the Jinshen Palace was named Fu'an, an old eunuch from the Eastern Palace whom Zhu Biao had been accustomed to using. Seeing the bird chirping noisily under the eaves, he immediately became anxious.

"The Emperor is about to leave the court... What if Yan'er asks the Emperor to handle state affairs?"

"Quick, quick, bring us a ladder, and we'll quickly destroy this swallow's nest."

After Zhu Biao left court every day, he would review memorials in the Jinshen Hall as a rule. Fu'an was afraid that the swallow would disturb Zhu Biao's mind, so he hurriedly asked someone to bring a ladder.

But before the eunuch he ordered had left, a figure in a scarlet robe came in, surrounded by guards.

"Haha, Fukudaban, there's no need to seize this swallow's nest."

"This palace has been...quite deserted lately. Having these swallows accompany me...accompany me in handling state affairs is a real pleasure."

Zhu Biao looked up at the swallows under the eaves and smiled warmly.

In the blink of an eye, he had been on the throne for several months, and his father had already arrived in Xi'an Prefecture.

And I... seemed not to have gotten used to the position of emperor. Even the once bustling palace now seemed a lot quieter.

Zhu Biao looked at the swallow's nest under the eaves and felt emotional.

Zhu Biao had given his order, and Fu'an naturally agreed. He led Zhu Biao into the Jinshen Palace, and Zhu Biao strode to the back of the imperial desk, still sitting in the second seat as he did when he was the crown prince, and then waved his sleeves and said, "Present all the memorials submitted by the cabinet."

"Yes." Fu'an bowed. Then he asked someone to carry in the mountain of memorials, which took four eunuchs to finish.

"Why are there so many memorials today?" Zhu Biao frowned.

"Well, I don't know. But most of them seem to be memorials submitted from the Censorate." Fu'an replied.

In order to ensure that the emperor could effectively control all officials, the impeachment memorials from the Censorate did not need to be screened by the cabinet. Zhu Biao nodded to indicate that he understood, then rubbed his face, picked up the memorial, and started his day's work.

In fact, for him, there was essentially no difference in the content of his work before and after he ascended the throne. He still had to review endless state affairs and review endless memorials.

It was just that before this, my father had been standing behind me, and all the decisions I made were always reviewed by my father.

Now, the empire is completely in his hands. If he is not careful, he may end up in trouble.

Therefore, Zhu Biao hardly dared to slack off every day, and always handled these complicated state affairs with trepidation and treading on thin ice.

Fortunately, he was used to being the regent prince after all. When Zhu Yuanzhang handed over the country to him, he had almost built the Ming Dynasty into an iron barrel, so although these memorials seemed numerous, most of them were actually nothing serious.

Zhu Biao held the red brush in one hand and wrote the word "approved" on the memorials from time to time, and his speed was not slow.

"Your Majesty." Not long after, Fu'an came in again quietly and reported carefully, "Lord Song Zhongsong wants to see you."

"Hmm?" Zhu Biao raised his head. "Song Zhong?"

"Your Majesty, you once instructed that if Lord Song asked to see me, I must inform him at any time..." Fu'an said with some trepidation.

"Yes, I remember." Zhu Biao nodded and waved to Fu'an, who understood and walked backwards out of the hall. Not long after, he led a tall military officer in.

When the military officer saw Zhu Biao, he immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am Song Zhong."

"Stand up." Zhu Biao held one hand up, and put down the memorial he was reading with the other hand. He asked solemnly, "How is the matter going?"

"Your Majesty, it's all done." Song Zhong's voice was light, but what he said was extremely bloody. "There are seven families involved in this matter, most of them are big families in Jiangzuo. I have wiped them all out."

"In total, more than 30 million taels of silver, more than 10 million taels of gold, and countless fields, houses, and banknotes were confiscated, all of which are included in this memorial."

"I am afraid that Your Majesty will have to wait for a long time, so I am going ahead with a fast horse. These seven prisoners are being escorted by my brothers in the Imperial Guards, and they will arrive in the capital soon."

Zhu Biao waved his hand, and Fu'an understood. He took the memorial that Song Zhong was holding in both hands and put it on Zhu Biao's desk.

Zhu Biao opened it and took a few glances. His eyes showed a cold look, and he snorted coldly, "These traitors have rich family backgrounds."

"I will never tolerate anyone who dares to plot to assassinate my father... Song Zhong, you must continue to investigate this matter. No matter who is involved, you must investigate them to the end."

"Yes." Song Zhong bowed.

He is the next commander of the Jinyiwei trained by Zhu Yuanzhang. Now that Jiang Lin brings a part of the Jinyiwei to accompany Zhu Yuanzhang, Song Zhong has actually grasped most of the power of the Jinyiwei.

Song Zhong was full of energy when he encountered such a major case just after he came to power.

Zhu Biao looked grim as he looked at the seven families involved in the case. As Zhu Su had guessed before, the seven families involved in the case of colluding with the Japanese to assassinate Zhu were basically the aristocratic families in Jiangnan during the pre-Yuan Dynasty.

There are many, and there are even old scholars in their families, some of whom even served as retired officials in the court in their early years.

Just because the current situation of the world is not to their liking, they want to assassinate the emperor.

Of course, most of these people are proficient in political tactics and do things very well. They even hired Japanese ronin to do the work, leaving no obvious evidence.

Many of the extra memorials submitted today were also sent in by these people through various channels in an attempt to exonerate and plead with Zhu Biao.

After all, the new emperor Zhu Biao was famous for his benevolence. In addition, the evidence was not very sufficient, so the officials in the court who were involved with these people dared to try to plead with Zhu Biao.

If it were Lao Zhu, would they dare to speak?

"...After all, I am too kind." Zhu Biao murmured.

Zhu Biao knew why these people wanted to assassinate Zhu, and he also knew why these officials would intercede for him.

The Ming Dynasty is now in the midst of a great change that has not happened in a thousand years. Since it is a change, it is natural that some people will be eliminated by the tide of the times. They are unwilling to keep up with the times, but want to keep their old interests, so they have to take risks and do such treasonous things.

These people are undoubtedly the dregs of the times, and they are not needed for the Ming Dynasty to move towards a better future. And those officials who intercede for them may not necessarily want to hinder the progress of the Ming Dynasty, but at least they are also a group of people who miss the old system and regulations.

Zhu Biao silently memorized the names of those who submitted the memorials in his mind, his eyes cold.

Zhu Biao is not a merciful ruler who only cares about the status quo...

If anyone dares to harm the interests of the Ming Dynasty, he doesn't mind being a "tyrant" in the eyes of some people.

"If there is nothing else, Your Majesty, I will take my leave first."

The aura that just emerged from Zhu Biao made even this man with blood on his hands shudder.

He couldn't help but think of the retired emperor who was far away in Xi'an, and didn't understand why the kind and gentle Emperor Yiwen gave him such a feeling at that moment.

In short, this feeling made Song Zhong feel uneasy and terrified. Seeing Zhu Biao continue to review the memorials, Song Zhong bravely said:

"Well, go ahead." Zhu Biao said. He put down the memorial in his hand and began to read the next one.

Song Zhong bowed again, stood up and was about to leave Jinshen Hall when Zhu Biao suddenly called him.

"and many more."

"…Does the Jinyiwei have any news about the imperial examination in Beijing?"

Zhu Biao asked.

Song Zhong was stunned, and turned around in fear and said, "Reply, Your Majesty."

"I just returned to the capital, and I have not yet verified the files of the Jinyiwei in the capital in recent days."

"Well, I was negligent." Zhu Biao said, his expression still warm. Song Zhong felt as if he had been pardoned. Zhu Biao said: "In this case, you should send someone to find out."

"I want to know all the rumors in the market after the announcement of the results of this year's exam, and the source of the rumors."

In his hand was a memorial from the Censorate impeaching the current imperial examiner Liu Sanwu… He had just ascended the throne, and in addition to conferring titles on meritorious officials, another major thing he did was to hold a special imperial examination, ordering all candidates in the world to come to Yingtian to take the exam.

In fact, the imperial court was going to hold an imperial examination in the 30th year of Hongwu. However, An Nanfang had recovered at that time, and the court was in a mess. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang had the intention of passing on the throne, so he wanted the next candidate to take the imperial examination under Zhu Biao.

In this way, these candidates were blessed by Zhu Biao and would certainly be more loyal to Emperor Yiwen.

For these reasons, the imperial court announced that the imperial examination in the 30th year of Hongwu would be postponed. When Zhu Biao ascended the throne, the imperial examination would be announced in the form of an imperial examination.

The results of the Entry Examination were released a few days ago, and quite a few talented people were selected.

But just as the results of the special examination were announced, someone came to accuse the examiner Liu Sanwu of cheating... This matter forced Zhu Biao to pay deep attention.

Song Zhong nodded in agreement and after leaving the Jinshen Hall, he ran out of the palace.

Outside the palace gate, several captains in royal uniform who were waiting for him were stunned when they saw sweat on his forehead from running.

One of them shouted, "Boss, what's going on? What happened? Why are you so anxious?"

Song Zhongchu had just come to power and was eager to show himself. When Zhu Biao asked him a question, he couldn't answer it. How could he not be anxious?
The two lieutenants did not follow him out of the capital. So as soon as he got on the carriage, he immediately asked, "Do you two know what messages have been sent in the capital recently?"

"Just now, His Majesty asked me about the imperial examination. I just arrived in the capital, but I didn't know..."

"Do you have any idea?"

"Imperial examination?" The two Jinyiwei lieutenants looked at each other, and one of them said, "If there is anything unusual about this imperial examination, it is that all the candidates selected are from the north."

"It is said that a few southern scholars were very dissatisfied and complained..."

"That's all?" Song Zhong frowned, thought for a moment, and shook his head, "That's all. It won't alarm His Majesty."

"Notify the Pacification Office and send out some personnel to investigate thoroughly..."

Before he could finish his words, he suddenly heard the sound of dense horse hooves coming from outside the car.

Although there were occasionally some dandies riding horses in the capital, the intensive horse-riding sounds were obviously not the work of ordinary dandies. Song Zhong hurriedly lifted the curtain of the carriage and saw that behind him were several cavalrymen from the Five Cities Military Department, waving whips to drive away the people as they galloped through the streets.

"Hey! Who's over there!" Song Zhong got out of the carriage and shouted while standing on the shaft.

The cavalrymen of the Wucheng Bingma Division saw the flag of the Jinyiwei on the carriage and knew that this was a senior official of the Jinyiwei, so they sent one of their horses over. When they saw Song Zhong, they quickly dismounted and greeted him, saying, "I didn't know you were here, please forgive me..."

"Your Excellency, have you just left the palace to see the Emperor? We have important matters to attend to and cannot all come to pay our respects. I hope you will forgive me..."

"No problem." Song Zhong waved his hand. The Jinyiwei and Wucheng Bingmasi were stationed in the capital, and they often had to deal with each other. He didn't want to be polite with this person. "You rode your horses in the city and left in a hurry, but what big thing happened in the city?"

"Something big has indeed happened..." said the cavalryman from the Five Cities Military Department.

"Two groups of scholars are arguing in Fuleyuan, and it's quite a big scene."

"It is said that blood has been seen."

(End of this chapter)