Chapter 35: The Hate of Subjugation
The next morning, Yang Yuanqing took Danyang Princess Yang Fangxin to Jinyang Palace to meet the young emperor Yang You. Perhaps because she was with Jiang Peihua, the miserable expression on Yang Fangxin's way to Taiyuan was no longer visible at this time and became very energetic. Influenced by Jiang Peihua, her attitude towards Yang Yuanqing was not as cold as before.
Yang Yuanqing rode a horse and followed the carriage, with hundreds of personal guards around him.
"Your Highness, how about a rest last night?"
Yang Yuanqing asked with a smile beside the carriage. He had recovered well. He had only been with his family for one night. The fatigue he had traveled along the way disappeared and was particularly energetic.
Yang Fangxin didn't say anything. After a while, she asked in a low voice: "Mr. Yang, would you let me live in Jinyang Palace?"
Yang Yuanqing felt the uneasiness in her heart, and asked her with a smile: "Are you willing to live in Jinyang Palace yourself? If you want, I can arrange it."
Yang Fangxin refused to say that she wanted to stay in Yang Yuanqing's mansion. She turned around and said, "If my sister also lives in Jinyang Palace, then I would be willing to move to Jinyang Palace. Anyway, I want to be with her."
Yang Yuanqing laughed, "I understand!"
"General Manager Yang..."
In the carriage, Yang Fangxin couldn't help asking: "Bing'er said you are the most tolerant and kind man in the world. Do you think you are?"
"I am her father. To her, of course, the most tolerant and kind man in the world. Don't you also think your father is the best person in the world?"
"Yes!"
Yang Fangxin whispered in the carriage: "My father is the most loving, tolerant and kindest person in the world. No one can compare to him."
After a while of silence, Yang Fangxin whispered again: "Mr. Yang, thank you!"
"What do you thank me?" Yang Yuanqing asked in confusion.
"Thank you for respecting his temple name as Emperor Wu. It is useless to belittle him with words like Yang, Huai, Ai, and Zhou. I heard that the Tang Dynasty demoted him to Emperor Yang and General Manager Yang. I hope you can defeat the Tang Dynasty."
Yang Yuanqing nodded, "Your Highness Princess, you must remember this point. The Tang Dynasty is our enemy, not only my Yang Yuanqing, but also your enemy, the enemy of the Sui Dynasty. Even if you are dissatisfied with me, Yang Yuanqing, you cannot praise the enemy."
"I won't, I will never praise an enemy who defames my father to Emperor Yang."
Jinyang Palace is located outside the North City. You need to go out from the North City. Yang Yuanqing's team turned to Jinyang Street. Jinyang Street is the main road of Taiyuan City, which directly connects the South City Gate and the North City Gate and extends all the way out. The final end is the main gate of Jinyang Palace, Jinyang Gate.
As soon as they arrived at Jinyang Street, they heard a roar of roars like mountains and seas. They saw a crowd of black people coming from the south to the north, which surprised Yang Yuanqing. He waved his hand to stop the team. At this time, he saw clearly that most of them were scholars wearing Confucian robes, not soldiers wearing helmets and armors, which made him feel a little relieved. At first, he thought that the army had entered the city.
Yang Yuanqing's brows frowned. The scholars were wearing banners and waving their arms. It was obvious that they were demonstrating. What happened? He immediately said to a personal soldier: "Go and ask, what happened?"
The personal soldiers urged the horse to run away. Yang Yuanqing ordered his subordinates to speed up and go to Jinyang Palace first.
A small butterfly flapped its wings to cause a storm thousands of miles away. Pei Qingsong, a son of the Pei family, inadvertently leaked the secrets of heaven, causing this uproar. After a night of connection, dozens of Imperial College officials launched a parade and petition for three thousand Imperial College officials.
They held huge banners, "Don't be a clan, be fair!", carrying the statue of Confucius, and the parade on Jinyang Street was constantly attracting scholars from all over the country who came to participate in the imperial examinations to join the parade. After an hour, the parade had reached more than 20,000 people, and the grand occasion was unprecedented, attracting hundreds of thousands of Taiyuan people to watch.
The Jingzhao Prefecture dispatched hundreds of yamen runners to maintain order, and the Jiumen Army was ordered to dispatch 5,000 cavalry to patrol the front, back and left and right of the parade, for fear of causing other serious problems.
"The imperial examination is fair!"
"Don't have a clan!"
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"Personal talent is used to oppose insider information!"
The scholars were excited and shouted, and many people burst into tears. They shouted at the top of their lungs, hoping to take a fair exam and realize their long-cherished wishes throughout their lives.
The team walked towards the north gate. The north gate had been closed. Three thousand crossbowmen stood in five rows. The cold crossbows pointed at the scholars coming towards them. Five hundred cavalrymen on both sides fought with spears, full of murderous aura. After walking through the north gate for a few miles, they were Jinyang Palace, the political center of the Northern Sui Dynasty. The soldiers did not allow them to go out from the north gate.
The team was getting closer and closer, and all the soldiers became more and more nervous. General Ma Shao of the Nine Gate stood at the top of the city, holding the knife tightly, and his palms were sweating. His lips were tense in a line, and his eyes were staring at the parade that was getting closer and closer. At this moment, a soldier suddenly came from outside the North City Gate, "General Ma!"
Ma Shao walked quickly to the other side of the city and leaned forward to look at him. A cavalry appeared at the city, holding a gold medal in his hand, shouting loudly: "The general manager has an order to open the city gate and do not hurt the scholar!"
Ma Shao suddenly let go of his heart, and he quickly walked back to the other side. He saw that the parade had already entered a hundred steps. He immediately ordered loudly: "Retreat the troops and open the city!"
The crossbowmen and cavalry retreated one after another, the north city gate slowly opened, and tens of thousands of soldiers walked through the city gate and headed towards the Jinyang Palace.
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In Ziwei Pavilion, Jinyang Palace, Yang Yuanqing was urgently discussing the massive parade in Taiyuan City with five prime ministers. Pei Qingsong was not wrong in what he said in the restaurant. Yang Yuanqing really wanted to use the opportunity of this autumn trial to win over the Hebei gentry, so as to make political preparations for the Hebei Battle to be launched next spring. Absolute fairness is impossible, but fairness can only be a certain extent.
As early as two months ago, when Wang Xu proposed the imperial examination proposal, the five prime ministers and Yang Yuanqing of Ziwei Pavilion reached a compromise and allocated the quota for this imperial examination according to the ratio of 334, namely the gentry outside Hedong, the gentry and fair admission quota.
But the scholars' supremacy and demand for fairness made the compromises they reached face new challenges, and the five prime ministers were silent. At this time, Du Ruhui, who had just rushed back last night, sighed and said, "The scholars' desire for justice is understandable. After all, this is the first imperial examination in the Northern Sui Dynasty. In order to establish a reputation, I suggest that you simply let go completely, promise fair imperial examinations, and respond to the demands of the scholars."
Pei Ju shook his head, "If it was a prosperous era, fair imperial examinations could be implemented, but now it is not. I have also met the children sent by the Boling Cui family and the Fanyang Lu family to participate in the imperial examination these days. The Boling Cui family sent five people, two legitimate three illegitimate three illegitimate ones. The Fanyang Lu family sent six people. The three legitimate three illegitimate three illegitimate ones. I found that they sent not the best children, such as Cui Hongsheng's three grandsons Qiyuan, Qidong and Qibai, and I have never heard of the children sent by the Fanyang Lu family.
This shows that the Hebei gentry is still relatively cautious. I can understand their prudence. They are also afraid that they will be punished by Dou Jiande too high-profile, but if they really follow the Du Xiangguo's idea and take the fair exam, what will be the result? I can say that no children of Hebei gentry can pass the exam. After all, the Hedong gentry is doing their best. The consequences will be very serious. The Hebei gentry will think that we will not give face. So we still have to allocate quotas, just depending on the allocation method."
Although Wang Xu and Pei Ju have always fought openly and secretly, he has a similar position to Pei Ju in the matter of imperial examinations, and he is even more extreme. He firmly opposes imperial examinations. He advocates the selection of scholars of the ninth rank, and all the quotas are distributed to each county, and the chief officials of each county recommend outstanding children. In this way, the children of Wang students must occupy at least 20% of the quotas, and promoting the imperial examinations will undoubtedly infringe on his interests.
"I support Pei Xiangguo's opinion. I suggested this imperial examination. In fact, my initial plan was to implement a compromise imperial examination system. Combining the election and examination, each county can select multiple people. For example, based on the population of each county, it is recommended to range from 20 to 50 people, and then the imperial examinations are conducted among the people elected by each county. This is actually a method implemented during the Kaihuang period, and I think it is easier to be accepted."
"I oppose the King's plan!"
The person who spoke was Cui Junsu, who was from the Cui family in Qinghe. Although Cui family in Qinghe was also a genius who firmly opposed the imperial examinations, Cui Junsu was relatively open-minded because he had been with Yang Yuanqing for many years. He advocated that he should give a chance to poor children, so he was an enlightened faction who strongly advocated the imperial examinations.
"I think the Prime Minister is right. Even if it is a fair exam, it is actually a prestigious family. In the past few years, the imperial examinations in Fengzhou were not participated, so many poor families were admitted. However, this year's imperial examinations were extraordinary. Hebei's famous geniuses basically participated, and there were very few places to give poor families. If the plan of Pei Xiangguo was based on Pei's plan, most of them were reserved for the children of famous families, and the remaining ones were fair exams, it would be even more unfair to poor families. It would be a blessing to be able to pass one or two exams. Maybe even one of them could not pass, and the people in the world would doubt the fairness of our imperial examinations, so they would simply let go and judge everything according to real talents and real knowledge. What do you think?"
Everyone turned to Yang Yuanqing. Yang Yuanqing stood in front of the window and looked silently in the distance. From here, you can clearly see the gate of Jinyang Palace. In front of the gate of Jinyang Palace, tens of thousands of scholars had arrived. They sat quietly on the grass at the gate, keeping quiet, and seeking fairness in a silent language.
The huge banner is still standing in the air, "Don't have a clan, be fair." These big words are particularly dazzling.
Two hundred admissions can be directly admitted to the government. This is a round cake with great temptation. Everyone wants to give themselves a little more, but there are only so many cakes. Some people will increase, and some people will decrease. So no matter how they divide, there will always be opinions.
But no matter how you have any opinions, the final plan must be finalized by him, Yang Yuanqing.
Yang Yuanqing sighed. He had to consider the interests of the Hebei gentry, or the interests of the Wei family in Jingzhao, Shen family in Wuxing and other prominent families in other regions.
After a long silence, Yang Yuanqing finally made the final conclusion. He slowly said: "Of the 200 places, thirty places will be left for me to decide. The remaining 170 places will be all generated by the exam and will be fairly hired. As for the examiner, I recommend Li Gang to serve."
Chapter completed!