Fang Yun and others walked to the round table. The huge round table could seat thirty people. Each chair was the same and had no name label. However, as they followed Fang Yun, everyone was ranked according to their literary rank.
If the literary ranks are the same, they will be ranked according to the order in which they passed the examinations; if they are on the same list of the same year, they will be ranked according to the order in which the results were announced.
When Fang Yun stood next to the chair at the front, four Hanlin stood at the chairs on his left, and the rest of the people followed suit and chose their seats.
Without any guidance from anyone, they can find their own place.
After the thirty Jinshi candidates stood in place, the rest of the guests also found their seats one after another, and no one sat down.
In front of the bright red Jinshi table is the white marble staircase leading to the Fengtian Hall. The entire Fengtian Hall is built on a platform. There is an open space between the staircase and the hall gate.
Incense tables and other rain-praying utensils are placed on the open space of the platform. It is obviously different from the sacrificial ceremonies in holy temples, ancestral temples or mountains and rivers, and is not as grand.
Soon, drums and music sounded, and the empress dowager was seen holding the king and slowly walking out of the Fengtian Hall.
The king was young and unable to pray for rain, so the queen mother had to lead the process. The queen mother could only rule the country from behind a curtain and would cover her face with a veil when praying for rain to avoid violating etiquette.
The Queen Mother walked around the table and stood in front of everyone, and then everyone greeted her.
Afterwards, the Left Vice Minister of Rites presided over the rain-praying ceremony and read out the prayer.
If it was a grand sacrificial ceremony, even the king would first kneel down and worship heaven and earth, but this was not the case for the Early Spring Literary Meeting.
The queen dowager handed the little prince to a palace maid, and then stood in front of the incense table to burn incense and worship the sky. Everyone just bowed their heads but did not kneel down to worship.
After worshipping the sky, jade, cloth and three kinds of animals were presented in turn, followed by wine. Everyone worshipped again, and then ritual music sounded, and people were ordered to dance. Finally, wine was offered again, and the rain prayer ended.
However, an embarrassing thing happened. After the rain prayer was over, no rain fell from the sky.
Although this was a common occurrence, everyone present felt a little uncomfortable. Even though the Queen Mother was wearing a mask, they all noticed that she seemed a little unhappy.
According to tradition, the Minister of Culture would come out at this time and pray for rain again with sad words, but secretly he would use the power of the holy temple to bring rain.
An unexpected event occurred.
Ao Huang muttered softly: "It's just raining, there's no point in praying." After saying that, he shook his waist and his body suddenly swelled to the height of a five-story building and soared up.
Everyone only felt a golden light rising into the sky, and then heard thunder, followed by dark clouds, and saw a golden dragon shadow rolling in the clouds.
When Fang Yun saw that Ao Huang was going to flood the imperial city, he hurriedly whispered, "Ao Huang, make the rain a little lighter!"
"Click..."
A bright flash of lightning flashed across the sky, covering almost the entire city, and the deafening sound of thunder rolled in all directions.
A drizzle of rain fell, covering the capital city.
The Minister of Rites said hurriedly: "The Queen Mother prayed for rain, and the real dragon came to help. She is truly a saintly person. May God bless Jingguo!"
Everyone immediately shouted: "God bless Jingguo!"
Many people breathed a sigh of relief. It was much better to let a real dragon make clouds and rain than to mobilize the talents of the holy temple to cheat. At least it could be recorded in history books and boasted about. Other countries could not enjoy the treatment of a real dragon making rain.
Fang Yun secretly glanced at the Queen Mother on the stage and felt that her attitude had improved a lot.
Afterwards, the palace was shielded from the drizzle to prevent people from holding the literary meeting in the rain.
The palace maids cleared the incense table and other utensils, and when the empress dowager took her seat, everyone else followed suit.
After praying for rain, the Minister of Rites personally stepped forward and took the imperial edict, reading out the great contributions of the thirty people, praising them, and especially praising Fang Yun. Finally, he read out the rewards, and everyone was promoted one level, their titles were promoted, and each person was rewarded with a Jinshi Wenbao, as well as houses, fields, gold, silver and other treasures.
All thirty Jinshi were very happy.
Many people were thinking in their minds that Fang Yun had been promoted to a higher rank, and with his previous merits, after the palace examination, if he entered the official career, he would at least be a minister of one of the six ministries, or maybe even directly become a prime minister. This would simply subvert the officialdom of the Ten Kingdoms. Anyone who dared to compete with him for promotion would be better off killing himself.
There were thirty relatives of Jinshi at the banquet, and they were all very excited. From now on, these Jinshi almost had a golden medal of immunity from death. They had made such great contributions to the Jing State, and as long as they did not make any mistakes, they would surely be promoted step by step. Even if they made a small mistake, no one dared to target them too much.
If these people devote themselves to politics and the military, in twenty years at most, Jing Kingdom will be ruled by them.
Promotion in the officialdom of the Ten Kingdoms requires not only faction but also real achievements.
Allowing Jing State to surpass the ten states and take first place is a top-notch achievement, greater than the achievements in education, pacifying the people, enriching the people, and military strategy.
Even if the king grows up in the future, he will not dare to demote these people at will, otherwise those censors will dare to make bloody remonstrations in the Golden Palace.
The people from the Left Prime Minister's party and the King Kang's party sighed secretly. Among the thirty Jinshi, only three were from the two parties, and the rest had no close relationship with the two parties.
The official positions of the newly-crowned Jinshi have not yet been determined, but the other Jinshi all have official positions. At least more than half of them will take this opportunity to be promoted. Whether they are civil officials or military officers, they will definitely have great real power.
It was legitimate for several Hanlin scholars to directly become governors of a state or military commanders of a state.
There are limited official positions in Jing State. If these people have real power, the power of the Left Prime Minister and King Kang’s party will inevitably be weakened.
What's more, now the left prime minister Liu Shan is keeping a low profile and it is impossible for him to compete with the Jinshi or Hanlin who have made great contributions for the official position. The only thing he can do is to let Ji Zhibai and other three occupy the best official positions.
However, Ji Zhibai is very talented. For the sake of his future, he will definitely go to the Holy Academy for further studies for at least two years after just finishing the palace examination. It is impossible for him to hold real power, which has resulted in the Zuo Xiang and his party gaining very little benefit in the near future.
After seeing through all this, the people from both the Zuo Xiang and King Kang's parties felt somewhat depressed.
After the reward, wine and food were served.
Fang Yun sat together with the other twenty-nine people. The thirty people first toasted the Queen Mother and the King, then toasted the other guests, and finally drank with each other. They drank three cups in total before starting to eat.
He Ludong ate a few bites, put down his chopsticks, and sighed: "Thinking back to the past few days, I narrowly escaped death, it seems like a lifetime ago."
"Yes, I have been fighting against the monsters for more than ten years, but the battle in the hunting grounds was definitely the most dangerous one! How can a group of scholars fight against the semi-saint clones? There is no hope of coming back alive."
"Hehe, just thinking about those idiots in the Lei family makes every 36,000 pores of my body feel uncomfortable."
Ji Zhibai sighed, "Thanks to Fang Xusheng, we were saved and my literary talent was achieved. Come, let's toast to Fang Xusheng."
Everyone raised their glasses hastily.
Fang Yun picked up the wine glass with a smile, clinked it with everyone else's, and drank it all in one gulp.
Qiao Juze smiled and said, "How about it, are you ready for today's poem? Don't blame me for not reminding you before. According to convention, the first poem of the Early Spring Literary Festival should not only be about spring, but also about rain."
"This will definitely not be a problem for Fang Xusheng." Ji Zhibai said.
"Have you prepared it a long time ago?" Ma Chaoming beside him sipped the wine.
"No, I just thought of it today, but I already have a draft in mind, so it shouldn't be a problem." Fang Yun said.
"That's good. I said that a mere early spring literary gathering would not be a problem for Fang Xusheng."
Ji Zhibai lowered his voice and said, "But don't take it lightly. If you don't pay attention and just write an ordinary poem, I'm afraid someone will try to stand out. Even if it's just a temporary improvement, they will publicize it and brag about it privately." (To be continued...)