Reborn: The First Rank "Madam"

C124 – Blood Splattered on the Spot

In the royal study, the top thirty of Conference Test papers were placed on Zhan Yuanfeng’s table, and he had flipped through the theories written by the first place several times.

“Good! To use a merchant to battle and a merchant to fight, you truly are unlucky that he dares to write about such a thing.”

Tutor Zeng’s eyelids twitched as he stood up and said loudly, “Your Majesty, this subject thinks that his words are inappropriate. Businessmen are lowly, and they are all cunning people. How can he entrust his life to business?”

Chief Assistant Shang Xianyang stroked his beard, laughed and retorted, “Tutor Zeng misunderstood. What this person wrote is not to entrust the livelihood of Great Yang to the business, but rather to focus on developing the business and improving the position of the business.”

“Hmph, how can a human being be so vulgar? He has entrusted everything to something yellow and white. In the future, I will definitely be a greedy official!”

“Tutor Zeng’s words are wrong. Governance of a country is not against the poetry of scholars. It’s fine as long as you just eat and think. Without these white and yellow things, what do the people eat? Wear what? How do we get the soldiers’ pay?”

Tutor Zeng still wanted to say something, but Zhan Yuanfeng beat him to it: “Great Yang is currently planning to expand the navy, shipbuilding and recruitment are both huge expenses, the Minister of Revenue has already cried with me more than once, I do not care about the position of merchants, as long as Great Yang is getting richer as soon as possible.”

Zhan Yuanfeng was originally curious about Zuo Family, but now that he saw Zuo Shaoqing’s exam paper, he was even more satisfied with him. He wanted to meet this 14 year old youth more and more.

“The battle between Great Yang and Beidi has just ended, and now is a good time for my Great Yang to rest. If I want the treasury to fill up quickly, I will have to rely on those merchants. This is what I intended to do when I removed the restriction on the sea realm.”

“Your Majesty is wise!” Chief Shang’s hands cupped as he praised.

Although Tutor Zeng was unconvinced, but in the end, he did not dare to oppose Zhan Yuanfeng. Although he was a first rank tutor, he did not have any real power, and his weight was not even comparable to Zhan Yuanfeng’s.

“But… Your Majesty, this subject has heard that the Zuo Hui Yuan is only fourteen years old this year. Even if he were talented and virtuous, he would not be able to serve the Imperial Court immediately.”

For a scholar who only knew how to talk on paper, he was unwilling to accept that he had become the top scholar, let alone that he was surnamed Zuo!

That year, Tutor Zeng stood on the right side of the group, so he pulled Zuo Family down and climbed up. Now that the new generation of Zuo Family had made a comeback, no matter how one looked at it, it couldn’t be pleasing to the eye.

Zhan Yuanfeng waved his hand. “It’s still too early to say all of this. After the Hall Competition, I will naturally rank according to Gongsheng’s performance. There’s no need for the Imperial Tutor to worry about this matter.”

It was said that there were many people in the court. Tutor Zeng was the confidant of the late emperor and had served him since before he was the crown prince. In Zhan Yuanfeng’s generation, there was already a gap, and Zhan Yuanfeng could not fully trust him.

Luckily, the Zeng Family younger generation were all incompetent, he did not have to worry about his Zeng Family getting bigger, he only had to wait for Tutor Zeng’s old age and send someone else.

Noticing that Tutor Zeng had turned silent, Shang Chen signaled the Minister of Rites with his eyes. He then replied, “Your majesty, this humble subject thinks that the second and third place students are also worthy of being called senior. They are even more practical than the first place students.”

Zhan Yuanfeng flipped open the second place paper, read through it roughly, and nodded repeatedly, “Indeed, it’s not bad. It’s not easy for a student to understand farming so well.”

He opened the scroll and looked at the name. He felt that it was a bit familiar, so he asked: “Jiung Hengzhou? Where is he from?”

The Minister of Rites followed up, “This person is from Chongyang County, he is Mr Yin’s closed student.”

“Oh?” Zhan Yuanfeng thought of that weird old man and said with a smile, “I wonder if the disciple taught by that old man has the same personality as him.”

The Minister of Rites appropriately praised, “The Emperor will probably be disappointed. This kid is absolutely brilliant and friendly. He’s definitely different from Mister Yin.”

“Then we’ll meet properly in three days and see what kind of person that old man taught.”

Just as the imperial court was waiting for the release of the three great warriors and the common folk of the capital were waiting to see the great warrior and the horse traverse the streets, a shocking piece of news suddenly exploded out of the city and quickly spread throughout the city.

Before the court official could react, a student whose name had been left behind had already sounded the gong outside the yamen and handed over a piece of paper, claiming that this year’s examination was not fair. Someone had learned of the question beforehand and had caused some scholars to fail, while those without talent had become famous instead.

The Prefecture Overseer did not want to care about this. In the past examinations, there had been students who had failed the examinations. They all felt that they were outstanding students, and that they should have been in high school.

There was no other way about it. The students felt like they had nothing they could do. The Prefecture Overseer had beaten him twenty times in accordance with the old calendar before sending him flying.

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, this stubborn student dragged the wound on his butt and rushed out of the Imperial City. He hit his head on the city wall, causing blood to splash out; fortunately, he was saved by the Imperial Physician who arrived in time to save his life.

There was no way Zhan Yuanfeng of the Imperial City would not know of such a huge incident that had occurred at the Imperial City gates. By the time he had called for the examiners to interrogate him in detail, the news had already spread throughout the capital.

In this way, the originally restless capital immediately became a hornet’s nest. All sorts of speculations and rumors spread like wildfire.

Many of the officials who had failed to get on the list immediately stood up and gathered outside the imperial city to beg His Majesty to investigate the truth.

The cheating case that they were making right now was like giving every single student a chance to hope that they would fail. They hoped that this was true, and then, maybe Conference Test could be redone, and they would still have a chance. Maybe, the next time they would be the ones to succeed in the competition.

Moreover, they all boasted that they were rich in school and that their reputation was ruined because someone had known about the exam questions beforehand. How could such an unfair test be accepted by the public?

As a result, all the students on the rankings became suspicious. When Zuo Shaoqing received the news, the capital had already become a stormy city, and it was bustling with noise and excitement.

“Fraud?” Zuo Shaoqing frowned in thought. He was sure that there was no cheating at this time in his previous life. How come everything was fine before, but now there was trouble?

Speaking of the exam questions, he was definitely the one who cheated. However, this cheating was something he brought along with him after his rebirth. It had nothing to do with anyone else, so no one would be able to find out even if they wanted to.

After thinking about it, he felt relieved.

“Master, you have to be careful. Since you’ve been hit by a Association Yuan at the age of 14, you’ve definitely become a thorn in the eyes of others. Who knows, maybe you’re the one being targeted.” Luo Xiaoliu analyzed wisely.

Zuo Shaoqing knocked on his head, “Where did you get that from? Your master is usually a modest person and has never had conflicts with others. There are only a few people he knows in school, so why would he come after me?”

Luo Xiaoliu scratched his head and mumbled, “It’s hard to predict the human heart. You’ve been the target of jealousy.”

Before Zuo Yunwen’s excitement could get past this news, he was splashed with cold water. He slammed the table and hatefully said: “Which heartless person is making this up? The examiners were famous for their righteousness. They didn’t even open their doors before the exam, so how could they cheat? Where did this question come from?”

Seeing that Zuo Shaoqing was about to reach a stalemate, it was very likely that no one would be able to benefit from this incident.

Zhan Yuanfeng, with a dark face, sat on the dragon throne on the throne in the middle of the court and calmly asked, “Investigate! Investigate carefully for me! Whether it’s a scam or someone deliberately spreading rumors, This Emperor will definitely punish them harshly!”

This was the first time Zhan Yuanfeng had taken the Imperial Examinations after he had ascended to the top. Needless to say, Zhan Yuanfeng was waiting for this batch of talented people to be used for him. He didn’t expect that someone would actually dare to pick his hair off a tiger.

The capital’s governor was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat. If he knew that student had dared to use his head to hit the wall, he would definitely not easily knock him out.

If this matter were to be investigated, he, as the Prefecture Overseer, would be guilty of dereliction of his duty.

As expected, in the next moment, Zhan Yuanfeng handed the case over to Ministry of Justice. This year’s main examiner and examiners were all under house arrest for the time being, and before the matter was settled, the Conference Test Ranking had been scrapped, and the Hall Competition had been postponed.

The Minister of Rites prostrated himself on the ground and said weakly, “Your Majesty, this humble subject feels that the boasting of a person who failed to qualify as a High Scholar isn’t enough to prove his innocence.”

“Didn’t we ask the Ministry of Justice to check it out?” Zhan Yuanfeng looked down at the people kneeling below: “Or should we… You have something on your mind?”

The Minister of Rites shouted and broke out in a cold sweat. He heard Zhan Yuanfeng use a cold tone and said, “There are hundreds of scholars kneeling outside the Imperial City. Do you think you alone can force them to retreat?”

“This humble official knows his crimes, Your Majesty, please calm your anger!” Zhan Yuanfeng was rarely angry. Regardless of whether it was the prince or after he ascended the throne, he would always smile. Although he had dealt with a few of the sinners, he still resorted to the gentlest of methods.

Thus, everyone had forgotten that, after all, an emperor was still an emperor.

Just when everyone held their breath and didn’t dare to make a sound, an attendant hurriedly walked in and knelt down. “Your majesty, that student has already awoken.”