Chapter 212: Chapter 212
He sighed, picked up the second exam paper, and upon seeing the neat and elegant handwriting on it, his mood improved a bit. The handwriting was truly excellent! It was powerful enough to penetrate the paper; being able to write the style of the Imperial Academy so well is certainly rare!
Upon closer inspection, the handwriting seemed very familiar! Prefect Jiang calmed down, ready to carefully examine the essay. No matter how good the handwriting, if the essay wasn’t well written, it couldn’t be passed. Cheating in the imperial examination, once uncovered, would result in the heinous crime of having one’s family utterly destroyed!
"Sir! These are the exam papers we selected, please take another look!" Prefect Jiang was about to read the exam paper but was interrupted by three subordinates.
"Hmm! Put it aside for now, I’ll look at it later!" Prefect Jiang still had three exam papers in his hand, and looking at the stack in front of him, a wave of irritation welled up in his heart!
The subordinates exchanged glances. The official did not speak, so they couldn’t go down to rest. They could only return to their seats and sit, and if they couldn’t bear it, they leaned against the chair to nap.
Prefect Jiang picked up the paper from before and started reading it. Just one look, and he was immediately invigorated, then restrained his excitement and read the three essay topics carefully again, and afterwards shouted "Good!"
"Excellent! This is indeed about practical matters for the country and the people; these three essays are written well!"
"Sir! Did you find a good article?" Vice Magistrate Wang and the others were startled by Prefect Jiang’s exclamation and, seeing his pleased expression, it seemed he indeed found a good article.
"Vice Magistrate Wang! Come and take a look; this candidate’s essay has quite an insight into agricultural affairs! Especially the strategies for managing water disasters, I think we could try implementing them. Hmm! I will write a memorandum to submit to the court, and bring this candidate’s proposal to the attention of the emperor. We should first conduct an experiment, and if it proves effective, it can certainly be promoted."
"Sir, while this student’s essays are indeed excellent, if you submit the memorandum and it doesn’t reach the emperor, wouldn’t that waste your effort? Moreover, what about Chief Minister Xia now?" Vice Magistrate Wang saw Prefect Jiang full of energy but had to dampen his enthusiasm.
All those present were confidants of Prefect Jiang, and upon seeing this, they also sighed! If the memorandum could be submitted to the emperor, it would benefit both the dynasty and the people. The Dayan Dynasty had only been founded a few decades ago, and previously, there was a civil strife in the former dynasty, coupled with natural disasters and the barbarians at the border occasionally causing trouble, leading to an empty National Treasury. The claims of peace and prosperity were all but a façade!
Internally, crises loomed large, but the Holy Emperor was now over fifty and his health declined daily. The officials could imagine that the coming succession could lead to fierce power struggles, and the court’s officials had already split into several factions. Everyone was eager to covertly take a stance but dared not do so openly!
He always wanted to be a Pure Minister, yet found himself stuck in one position for nine years. Prefect Jiang closed his eyes. Must he choose a faction to make progress? Prefect Jiang certainly wanted to move up, and now cared less about being a Pure Minister and more about which faction to ally with!
He thought of his wife, Yu Family, and felt a bit discontent. Looking at the exam paper in his hand, it eventually turned into a sigh! What is discontent if not to bow one’s head?
"If it is to be written, then naturally it must be presented to the Holy Emperor!" Prefect Jiang picked up the remaining exam papers to have a look, finding nothing particularly outstanding.
Vice Magistrate Wang and the others exchanged glances and saw joy in each other’s eyes. The official finally came to his senses; affairs of the heart should not prevail. They had followed the official for many years, and if he were to be promoted this time, wouldn’t they also rise in rank? Indeed, their hardships seemed about to pay off.
Prefect Jiang piled the exam papers selected by Vice Magistrate Wang on the desk, there were about a hundred papers, from which fifty needed to be selected. These fifty candidates would become child students!
Prefect Jiang and the others reviewed through the better part of the night, finally finishing the examination of the papers. Even the papers that Vice Magistrate Wang had disqualified, Prefect Jiang gave a rough glance just in case Vice Magistrate Wang might have made a mistake and delayed some candidate!
Arranging the ranking of the exam papers, the next step was to remove the anonymizing bands on the papers, then transcribe the names onto the long desk!
These tasks were done by the subordinates. Prefect Jiang picked up the brush soaked in ink, ready to write the memorandum. He copied Gu Chengyu’s essays into the memorandum, though of course it couldn’t be a word-for-word copy; it required some rephrasing.
Prefect Jiang also clarified in the memorandum that it was the candidate who authored the essays; he was not the type to take credit for others’ achievements, not out of disdain. Furthermore, Gu Chengyu was the child of someone he knew.
When everything was done, it was already midnight. Prefect Jiang suddenly remembered that the people he had sent to Fengding Prefecture had not returned with any news.
"Have the men sent to Fengding Prefecture returned yet?"
"Reporting to Sir! Not yet, they should return within these two days!" Vice Magistrate Wang believed that handling the mountain bandits would also count as a significant political achievement.
Initially, those few insisted on not admitting they were mountain bandits, claiming hard they were mere robbers, but the government officer found knives in their luggage! They had concealed the knives in a basket when they entered the inn, usually hiding the knives in the inn.
This time, they came out because their leader ordered them to march into Jingyuan Prefecture ahead of time to find a mountain in Jingyuan to expand their influence. Naturally, just their few abilities couldn’t achieve that; they needed to receive others here, waiting for the order when the leader arrived! Yet they didn’t know how to contact the leader, as the leader had only said that the person would come to find them, but after waiting for three or four days, no one came!
This group arrived two days earlier than Gu Chengyu’s group and accidentally saw Gu Chengyu’s subordinates going out to buy a shop. They assumed Gu Chengyu had money and decided to take advantage of the situation! After all, sneaky deeds were their norm, but little did they know, this time they kicked a steel plate!
All this was revealed after severe torture! Only, they didn’t know the name or previous occupation of their leader, other than his superb martial arts and secretive nature, bringing with him a group of highly skilled men. Previously, they only dared to rob small groups of travelers, but since the leader arrived, they dared even to rob large merchant caravans, and the leader didn’t even bother with small ones.
Prefect Jiang felt the situation was particularly urgent as the large merchant caravans leaving Jingyuan and passing through Fengding Prefecture had met with disaster multiple times, not only being robbed of silver but also losing lives, being extremely ruthless.
Yet those six insisted they were just low-level bandits, not daring to kill, which Prefect Jiang found questionable.
Prefect Jiang thought the matter was not simple, with the leader’s mysterious origins, cautious behavior, and excellent martial skills—being very ruthless! He feared the people he sent, even with help from Fengding Prefecture, might not capture the leader, and the fact that Manager Niu had loudly escorted people back two days ago, the one meant to assist them had likely already learned that they were captured!
It was Gu Chengyu who captured these people, and he was already involved. Coupled with this memorandum, Prefect Jiang felt he should meet this Gu Chengyu.