After hearing this, Lin Yixuan immediately became angry. Her husband didn't know who Fan Pengyi was, but she knew that Fan Pengyi was a second-class Jinshi in the eighth year of Qingyuan, and was born in the Fan family of Minyang. His grandfather Fan Chengzhi was the dean of Mingwei Academy and also the teacher of Meng Jiaping. Meng Jiaping was born in the Meng family in the northwest, which was the mother's family of the sixth prince.
After Fan Pengyi passed the imperial examination, he joined the Hanlin Academy. At that time, he was only an eighth-rank clerk. Three years later, he was promoted two levels to the seventh-rank editor at an extremely fast speed. Six years later, he was appointed as the director of the Imperial College. Nine years later, he was promoted to the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, competing with his grandfather. Ten years later, the Mingwei Academy was involved in a factional incident, and Fan Chengzhi was imprisoned. Fan Pengyi was also implicated. Later, although the Fan family had too high prestige and too many people pleaded for them, the emperor showed leniency and exempted them from the death penalty, and only demoted them to commoners.
But soon after, the Emperor issued another decree, prohibiting the Fan family from taking the imperial examinations for a hundred years. Obviously, the pleas of others angered the Emperor even more, otherwise he would not have killed everyone with one stroke. The Fan family would not be allowed to make a comeback for a hundred years.
However, these are all things for the future. Now that someone is causing trouble for her husband, Lin Yixuan feels like there is an evil fire burning in her heart. The Fan family is a group of old foxes. Although the elders do not take sides, the younger generations are all opportunistic. Fan Pengyi is determined to become a member of the Sixth Prince's party because of Meng Jiaping. It is obvious that today's events must be related to the Sixth Prince.
Lin Yixuan was seething with rage, there was clearly no connection between them, but the Sixth Prince was specifically targeting her husband. Lin Yixuan would not be so self-indulgent as to think that the Sixth Prince was doing this for him, and he quickly thought of a conspiracy in his mind, and quickly thought of a countermeasure. How could he be willing to accept this without retaliating
Of course, she would never tell her husband about these things no matter what. There must be a reason for offending the Sixth Prince for no reason, otherwise it would be bad if it affected the relationship between her and her husband.
Lin Yixuan hid the cold light in his eyes and said with a smile: "Fan Pengyi was born in the Fan family of Minyang, and his grandfather was the dean of Mingwei Academy. You don't have to take him to heart. Mingwei Academy has already aroused the emperor's fear and will be eradicated one day. The current relations in the court are complicated. Qingyang Jushi is famous, and it is not known who he has offended. As long as you can stand firm, there is no need to be afraid of other people's calculations." He was sure that the Sixth Prince would never dare to make any big moves. After all, the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, and the Fourth Prince were all watching covetously from the side.
Lin Yixuan felt contempt in his heart and regretted his previous ignorance. Looking back now, he realized that he was simply blind in his previous life.
Li Yaonan suddenly understood. No wonder Lu Zhian was so perfunctory in his words and didn't want to offend Fan Pengyi. It turned out that the latter had a strong background.
As for the emperor, when he saw Li Yaonan's answer, he was really amazed. Rule of law, he didn't expect that there was someone who advocated rule of law as much as he did. Looking at the other contents, every countermeasure was feasible. The emperor became more and more fascinated and began to calculate in his mind how long it would take to implement the above policy.
The next day, the emperor could not wait any longer and called several ministers to discuss the matter, and just spread out the answer sheet for them to see.
The ministers in the court were shocked and soon started arguing. Except for a few officials who remained neutral, all the other ministers raised objections.
Li Yaonan's name became popular again. Of course, this time, the popularity was only limited to officials who had seen the answer sheet.
The emperor was poured a bucket of cold water. He felt regretful but mostly expressionless. When he heard the ministers' arrangement of the imperial examination rankings, he could not help but sneer in his heart. With a stroke of his pen, except for Chang Hehui, none of the most popular candidates in the capital could make it into the top ten.
Look, Liu Liyang and Ge Honghui are the prince's men, Li Yaozu is the Minister of Rites' man, and Yun Hehua is his good uncle's man. Each of them has a good plan. However, the prince still has to give face. Liu Liyang has the Shandong Liu family behind him, while Chang Hehui's background is not obvious, so compared with the two, Chang Hehui chose the lesser of the two and got the advantage.
As for Li Yaonan, even though he was also from Marquis Jingyang's Mansion, given that the emperor was satisfied with his answer sheet this time and that his score was ranked 38th, the emperor was instead aroused and changed his position with a few strokes.
Three days later, the Imperial Examination Results were announced, and the place where the results were posted was crowded with people.
"The first place is Chang Hehui." Someone shouted loudly. No one was surprised, but when it came to the second place's turn, some people were surprised.
"The second place is Qi Yunshan, who is he?"
"I don't know." Everyone shook their heads in confusion and looked around.
An old man in his fifties stood up, tears streaming down his face, and spoke incoherently: "Old... I am Qi Yunshan."
Everyone looked disappointed. The results of this examination were disappointing to many people. Some of the people who had previously had the highest voices had gloomy faces.
"Who is Zhang Qixian? Why is he ranked third?"
"This is impossible. How could I not know how much Zhang Qixian weighs?" Someone immediately objected.
"Do you think the results of this imperial examination are not up to par?"
"How could that be?" The man shook his head hurriedly. He didn't dare to admit what he said.
The fourth place is Shen Hongzhi, another unknown person.
"The fifth place is Li Yaonan, a lay Buddhist from Qingyang." Finally seeing a familiar name, someone exclaimed loudly.
Some people even shouted in surprise, "How could Yun Hehua be ranked seventeenth
"Yes, Ge Hongming is also in the thirteenth place."
"Hush! Keep your voice down. I heard that the results of this examination were decided by the emperor himself."
Everyone was silent, except Chang Hehui and Li Yaonan. The top ten in this examination were all dark horses that emerged midway. These successful candidates were overjoyed, it was like a blessing from heaven. Even Li Mingzhang got sixth place.
If this imperial examination had not been personally selected by the emperor, others would have found it unbelievable that Zhang Qixian could get third place. Even some of his good friends thought it was a fantasy. However, he had passed.
Zhang Qixian laughed loudly. Although he looked very proud, his mouth was tightly shut. He knew very well what to say and what not to say.
Li Yaonan couldn't tell what he felt in his heart. He always felt a little disappointed because he had thought he would have done better in the exam.
Zhang Qixian finally defeated his cousin and was grinning from ear to ear, looking extremely proud.
The more Lin Yixuan looked at him, the more he disliked him. So, Zhang Qixian suddenly realized that he had been very unlucky recently. He would lose money when he went out, fall down when he walked, and even find stones in his food. What kind of unlucky god had he encountered? He must go to the temple to pray someday.
Lin Yixuan sneered, not bothering to care about his third cousin's suicide. Her husband's results were both expected and unexpected. According to his understanding, the emperor would definitely like her husband's answers, but those strategies, although good, touched the interests of many people, and the ministers' opposition was inevitable. If merchants paid taxes, who would pay tribute to officials
People travel thousands of miles to become officials just for money. Don't tell them that they are honest and incorruptible. How many of them are truly good officials
But no matter what, it was a happy event that her husband passed the imperial examination. Lin's mother was so happy that she held a banquet that day and naturally invited all her family members. Li Youxin and Li Youyan also came to congratulate her.
Li Yaonan looked indifferent, he quickly figured out the cause and effect. He did not understand the rules of the ancients deeply enough, so he made the mistake. He would do better next time. And now it is not without benefits. He ranked fifth, which must have caught the emperor's eye. Otherwise, judging by the ministers in the court, no matter how well he wrote, his score would only be ranked outside the top 20.
Li Yaonan's guess was correct, but he still overestimated the tolerance of the court officials. Without the emperor's imperial edict, he would probably only be ranked 38th, let alone 20th place. In this case, he would be out of the first place. The ranking of the palace examination not only depends on the emperor's favor, but also on the total of the provincial and metropolitan examinations. If you are above 30th, then it is impossible to enter the first place. Now is good, he still has a chance.
Li Yaonan suddenly discovered that he was really destined to be with the numbers thirteen and fifth. During the boy's examination, he ranked thirteenth in the county examination, fifth in the prefectural examination, and third in the academy examination.
Last year in the provincial examination, he also ranked 13th, and now he is fifth in the metropolitan examination. I wonder how much he will get in the palace examination.
At the farewell banquet for teachers the next day, Li Yaonan performed quite well. Compared with the most popular candidates, although he did not perform very well in the exam, the gap was not that big, and there was less gossip outside. On the contrary, Ge Honghui, Yun Hehua, Liu Liyang and others were laughed at. This was probably the feeling of falling from the clouds.
Yun Hehua was so angry that his nose was crooked, but Liu Liyang was very well-mannered and even nodded in greeting when he saw Li Yaonan.
Li Yaozu didn't look very good. He only got 23rd place in this examination. Although Madam Li and Ma Yulian were very happy, his father-in-law and his wife were not happy either. They had higher expectations of him. Now that his dreams were shattered, he was naturally unhappy. Li Yaozu clenched his fists and secretly made up his mind that he must work hard in the palace examination. Even if he couldn't get the first place, he would at least strive for the second place.
Fan Pengyi ranked 18th this time, and Lu Zhi was ranked even further back, only 35th.
"Brother Li." Lu Zhian greeted him with a smile. This was the first time they met since that day in the teahouse.
Li Yaonan smiled back and said, "Brother Lu." Then he turned around and talked to his friend.
Lu Zhian seemed a little disappointed, but he made the choice himself, so who could he blame now
Li Mingzhang walked over with a smug look on his face and winked at Li Yaonan: "What's going on? Are you having a conflict?"
Li Yaonan smiled faintly: "We are not on the same path, so how can there be any contradictions?"
Seeing that he was unwilling to talk more, Li Mingzhang smiled and brushed aside the subject, asking, "Don't you want to see Brother Zhou? When do you plan to go?"
Li Yaonan thought for a moment. He had really forgotten about this matter, so he said, "After the palace examination, I won't be able to spare the time in the next few days."
Li Mingzhang nodded, and after the two made an agreement, they went their separate ways.
Li Yaonan thought this was a good idea as the relationship was neither too close nor too distant.