Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 161 The princesses of the Jiajing Dynasty were happy!

Outside the Kunshan County Government Office at this time.

The air was as silent as death.

Because as the bodies of clerks and runners were carried out one after another.

The people outside the county government office were all stunned.

"In fact, the emperor's personal army is not bad, at least better than the local government soldiers. They pay for things and behave in a very disciplined manner."

"It's a pity that such a personal army is being driven away and charged with the crime of undermining military discipline."

Some smart ordinary vendors were expressing their sympathy for the Yongwei Battalion when they saw this scene outside their shops.

This ordinary vendor's name is Zhu Shangde.

Because of this scene, he couldn't help but stand up and watch it intently.

But what was reflected in his eyes was not the fear after seeing so many corpses being carried out, but surprise and joy!
A kind of surprise and joy that made him burst into tears!

Because these clerks and runners who were killed by the emperor's personal army were once people he feared extremely!

All these clerks and runners extorted and blackmailed him, an ordinary vendor who made a living by selling pickles, making him angry but unable to speak out.

otherwise……

He would not express sympathy for the Yongwei Battalion in front of his younger brothers who were buying pickles with him.

And now...

These clerks and yamen runners who had done real evil in the past were killed. Many of them were even his acquaintances who had extorted large amounts of pickles from him without paying. It was rare that they all did not reveal their hideous faces, but lay quietly on the straw mats.

This made Zhu Shangde burst into tears naturally and uncontrollably, and at the same time, his mouth couldn't help but grin and he breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew that the killing of many of the hateful clerks he knew well meant that his business would be much better in the future.

Not only him, but ordinary people in Kunshan were also greatly surprised after seeing this scene. In the end, they could not help but run around telling each other about it out of joy. Some people with well-developed tear glands squatted on the ground and started crying.

"Thank goodness, these damned bastards have finally been taken care of!"

But the ruffians and hooligans who used to rely on these clerks and runners to do evil things were now terrified and uneasy.

Their backing is gone!
How does this allow them to make a living by extortion and getting something for nothing?

The children of officials from aristocratic families were also shocked by this scene.

"Why were so many clerks and runners executed?"

"My uncle from the same clan was killed!"

"Wasn't it the Shenyong Guards who looted the people's property and killed the merchants? How come the ones who died were ours?!"

These children of officials were all very disappointed because of this.

When the student Gu Zhongli saw his grandfather Gu Qing coming out dejectedly, he hurried over to greet him and asked:
"Father, what happened? Why were so many of us in the government killed?"

Gu Qing sighed and said, "Because we underestimated how good this young emperor is at identifying and employing people!"

After hearing this, Gu Zhongli felt even more surprised and puzzled.

He didn't expect that his grandfather would attribute all this to the power of the current emperor.

But Gu Qing did have his own logic when he said this.

The most direct reason why so many clerks and runners were killed was that the emperor gave Zhou Shangwen a secret decree allowing him to act at his own discretion!

The most important thing here is that Zhou Shangwen must be loyal, reliable, flexible, cautious and wise.

As a military general, it was very rare for him to be able to fight against the Nanzhi gentry in Jiangnan, their home turf, without being beaten back in disgrace due to some irrational behavior.

The fact that the emperor chose Zhou Shangwen to come naturally proved that he was good at judging people.

In addition...

The emperor ordered Ye Bushou to come to Jiangsu and Zhejiang in advance to investigate the whereabouts of the pirates who attacked Yuyao, which also proved that the emperor had a clear understanding of the local political ecology.

Therefore, Gu Qing had to admit that he had underestimated the emperor.

Zhu Houcong himself was also grateful for his greatest advantage, which was that he came from later generations and had greater information advantages than people of this era in identifying and employing people and in cognition.

Otherwise, he actually couldn't defeat these old foxes, at least he didn't have the confidence to fight against all the elites in the court. He would only be more cautious in his tests.

Soon after, Zhu Houcong also received a report from the Censorate on the case submitted by the Inspector General Ma Lu, which stated that the Yongwei Camp was accused of robbing civilians of their property and killing merchants.

Because of this trial report, as well as the signatures of confessions from local civilian representatives, it was enough to convince the world that the Yongwei Battalion did not do anything wrong in Nanzhi.

Zhu Houcong was naturally very happy about this.

he knows……

This means that if in the future some local gentry use the excuse that the military discipline of the emperor's personal army is poor and harasses the local area, he can use this incident as an excuse to force the local gentry to be cautious about the poor discipline of the emperor's personal army.

In order to better guide the people and understand the details of this matter.

Zhu Houcong also asked the Yumin Daily to report this incident in a special topic.

The article explains in detail how the rumors and slanders about the corruption in military discipline in the Yongwei Camp emerged, the reasons and motives of these Nanzhi nobles in doing so, and how this is related to the current new policy.

After all, most young scholars and common people don’t know the real reason behind this.

Zhu Houcong needed to enlighten them to prevent them from being exploited and instigated.

Wait until the first day of September in the first year of Jiajing.

The results of the Beizhi provincial examination began to be announced in the first year of the Jiajing reign.

There is a fixed number of admission quotas for the provincial examinations in each province and in the northern and southern Zhili regions.

It is generally determined by the quality of each province's literary style, the size of its population, and the severity of its capitation tax.

Generally, large provinces admit several hundred students, medium provinces admit over a hundred, and the third seventy to eighty; small provinces admit forty to fifty.

Beizhili is a large province, so the number of admitted juren is now 135.

Zhu Houcong ordered to select 100 people from the second list.

The scholars were naturally very happy when they saw that they had passed the exam.

Many people, like Fan Jin, were so excited that they became mentally ill.

But those who didn’t win will naturally be very disappointed.

Including this time, the scholars who had already been on the second list twice were naturally even more unwilling to accept this.

As Beizhi was a province with a large number of candidates for the provincial examinations, there were naturally many scholars who passed the second place list twice or above.

These people also deeply realized how difficult this road was, and could not help but sigh that it was too difficult to stand out. The Juren Jia Shiyuan was one of them.

But he was not too disappointed, but came to the Ming Dynasty Practical School to register.

Because the imperial court has issued an edict.

Children of military personnel who passed the provincial examination as deputy list once, and students who passed the provincial examination as deputy list twice, could all register for the Daming Practical Politics School, and then obtain the title of Juren after graduation.

Jia Shiyuan didn't want to take the provincial examination again.

After all, he is over forty.

and so……

He then enrolled at the Ming Dynasty Practical School.

There were many scholars like Jia Shiyuan who failed the Beizhi provincial examination and registered at the Ming Dynasty Practical School.

Because there were many children of the Northern Zhili Army, and many of them were on the second list twice.

Therefore, these scholars were very grateful to the emperor for giving them an alternative way to become officials.

Originally, because of the existence of "Yumin Newspaper" and "Wenbao", scholars like Jia Shiyuan understood through these two types of newspapers why the emperor chose to recognize Xiaozong as his uncle, why the emperor built an outer city in the capital, and why he sent the emperor's own army to Nanzhi.

Now that Zhu Houcong has given these failed scholars new grace, they will naturally be more willing to believe that everything the emperor does is indeed for the prosperity of the country and the happiness and well-being of the people.

Therefore, when Jia Shiyuan was on his way to the Ming Dynasty Practical School and saw the large-scale outer city, he felt a sense of pride and a more ardent respect for the emperor.

He firmly believed that the emperor spent huge sums of money to build the outer city so that the people who had newly moved to the capital could be better protected when there might be traitors colluding with foreign invaders to invade.

to this end.

Jia Shiyuan could not help but bow to the Forbidden City from afar, his eyes filled with tears.

He really wanted to see with his own eyes in the future the loving king and father who cared about the people and ordinary scholars like him who had been repeatedly neglected!

Shen Xueli was luckier than him.

Because as a candidate for the imperial son-in-law who has passed layers of screening and only has one step left, he is about to enter the palace and receive a banquet from the inner court.

When the time comes, he will meet the emperor.

This was the most exciting moment for Shen Xueli.

For him, at this moment, all the regrets and resentments of the past have been swept away.

At this moment, he was completely immersed in the happiness of meeting the emperor at a banquet in the inner court.

Huang Jin was in charge of leading the eunuchs to supervise the re-election of the son-in-law this time.

The Internal Affairs Bureau did not dare to have any other thoughts.

Therefore, the princes-in-law selected were all young talents. Although their temperaments were different, some were tall and strong, while others were gentle and elegant, but they were all polite and humble, and they were all loyal and respectful to the royal family.

Therefore, not only Shen Xueli, but other candidates for the prince consort were also feeling uneasy at this time.

And Shen Xueli's is even more obvious.

"The Empress Dowager Zhaosheng has arrived!"

"Empress Dowager Zhangsheng has arrived!"

"Empress Zhuangsu has arrived!"

"Your Majesty is here!"

When the eunuch's voice came, he felt as if he was nailed to the spot and his heart was in turmoil.

In March of the first year of the Jiajing reign, Zhu Houcong had promoted Empress Dowager Zhang to the title of Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, and Empress Dowager Jiang to the title of Empress Dowager Zhangsheng. However, Empress Xia was still titled according to the title she had given to Zhengde, that is, Empress Zhuangsu, to distinguish her from the empress he would appoint in the future.

Not long after.

Shen Xueli saw Zhu Houcong entering the hall.

This made him feel like he was bathing in the sun.

To him, Zhu Houcong who entered the hall was really like a rising red sun!

People admire!

Let him feel that its appearance will bring vitality to the earth!

Especially those eyes that were as bright and mysterious as the vast starry sky, when they looked down at Shen Xueli, it reminded him that this emperor had saved hundreds of thousands of refugees just ten days after he ascended the throne, rectified the salt tax and opened the special examination just one year later, and now he had begun to face up to the huge flaws of the Yellow Book system and frankly acknowledged the major financial problems of the country.

How could Shen Xueli not admit that the emperor before him would be like the rising sun, sweeping away all the darkness he had seen before?
Therefore, Shen Xueli knelt down reverently with other candidates for the title of prince consort.

His eyes were filled with tears again.

Because the emperor whom he had long admired really appeared before him, and he was finally able to pay his respects to the emperor.

Those who didn’t know would think that he wanted to marry the king and father rather than the princess.

but……

As for Shen Xueli, he now firmly believed that since the emperor was so kind and sincere, wise and diligent, he was worthy of being the holy ruler who truly opened up the world of rejuvenation! As the emperor's sister, the princess must also be virtuous, dignified, beautiful, generous, and elegant.

If I could become a prince consort, it would only be because of the great blessings of my ancestors that I could have this luck. I should be grateful and be worthy of the great favor the royal family has bestowed upon me, Princess Shang.

The thought of this.

He actually looked forward to becoming a princess consort more and more, and secretly swore that if he could become a princess consort, he would protect the princess wholeheartedly for her entire life!
In this era of great peace and prosperity when the world is full of vitality because of a wise ruler and is about to be revived, be a royal relative who is virtuous both inside and outside!

When it comes to choosing a husband, the princesses of the Jiajing dynasty were happy.

Because the emperor did not take the matter lightly, and because the majesty of the imperial power to which they depended had not diminished in the face of the power of the scholars, their princes-in-law would not be of bad character and appearance, and would not be used as sacrifices.

Princess Yongfu, accompanied by Princess Yongchun, was ordered to quietly come to the back hall of the banquet to make the selection in person.

So, she looked at Shen Xueli and the others through a beaded curtain.

She looked cold at first.

Because her previous expectations of getting married had already been greatly reduced due to the twists and turns in the first selection of a prince consort, which made her less eager for a new life, and she wished she could stay with her mother forever.

But when she saw Shen Xueli, she finally smiled happily again.

"Sister, do you like him?"

Yongchun boldly pointed at Shen Xueli among the many young men sitting upright, and asked in a low voice about Princess Yongfu.

Princess Yongfu also blushed, which was rare for her.

(End of this chapter)