People who have been in the officialdom for a relatively short time basically have no opinions about Xiaocao. In other words, given her status, even if she is not a princess, it is not their turn to comment. Even if they meet those stubborn people, as long as they have a clear mind, they should know that there is nothing really to blame about Xiaocao. Therefore, those who are now jumping around in secret will not have a low status.
Regardless of whether they had no problem with Xiaocao and it was the inner court that caused the trouble, or whether they always wanted to lower Xiaocao's status for some reason, they were naturally the targets of Wei Tingyu. These people had either been immersed in officialdom for many years, or were princes and were noble in themselves. If these people were to be thoroughly investigated, every one of them would definitely have some problems.
—Even Wenren Taibo was like this, but some of them were regarded as routine operations and were just trivial matters. However, when targeted intentionally, even the smallest problems could be magnified and things without problems could become big problems. The simplest example is that when someone is recommended with a sense of cherishing talent, if something happens to the recommended person, the recommender cannot escape responsibility.
There are so many things to write about among these.
So, is Wei Tingyu fabricating evidence to frame someone? You are overthinking it. It is not true.
The preliminary interrogation of those candidates has produced results. Wei Tingyu sorted out the results and presented them to Emperor Xuanren. However, according to his wishes, he hoped that Emperor Xuanren could give more information and dig deeper into those problematic people. As for those candidates who were merely instigated and participated in this matter, they would be detained for the time being and given some profound lessons.
It was not until Wenren Taibo and others finished examining the papers and ranked the scores of all the candidates that they took out the outstanding essays and presented them to Emperor Xuanren to see if the rankings needed to be adjusted.
At this time, Wenren Taibo still did not know that he had been framed. He carefully reported the results of the examination to Emperor Xuanren and gave impartial comments on what he had learned from the essays of the top 20 students.
Emperor Xuanren did not read those beautiful articles. Instead, he looked at the examination rankings, running his fingertips over each name, especially some of the people who were still imprisoned in Kaiping Wei Prison. Coincidentally, this was the person Wenren Taibo was commenting on. From his words, it was obvious that he was quite optimistic about him. However, he did not know that this person's previous criticism and protest against him was the most intense and the words were the most sharp. It can be said that he belittled Wenren Taibo to be worthless.
There was something subtle in the look Emperor Xuanren gave Wenren Taibo, and several other officials present had similar expressions.
Wenren Taibo lowered his head and did not notice Emperor Xuanren's expression until everyone had finished commenting. Emperor Xuanren had someone pour him a cup of tea, and then began to look down at the articles. He glanced at most of them and passed them, but a few were taken out separately. There were not many, but not few either, a total of six.
Among them, there are the third and seventh ranked, and four ranked from eleventh to twentieth. Coincidentally, the third one was the one that Wenren Taibo was quite optimistic about. It's just that even though the words in the article were restrained as much as possible, there was still a hint of radicalism. After all, he was still a young man, and perhaps he thought he had restrained himself well, but he was still easily seen through. According to Wenren Taibo, he should have the potential to be the top scorer, but it would be better for him to suppress his temper and wait and see in the palace examination. Perhaps their review was biased.
"The ranking will be based on yours, but these six people will be eliminated," Emperor Xuanren asked Eunuch Hong to give a list to Wenren Taibo, "including the above. Anyone who is within the recruitment scope will be eliminated and will not be recruited."
The list was densely packed, at least about 160 or 170 names. What had happened? Why... He was trembling in his heart, "Your Majesty..."
At the instruction of Emperor Xuanren, Eunuch Hong told Wenren Taibo in detail what had happened in the past few days.
Wenren Taibo had a tense face and didn't even know what to say for a moment.
After a long while, he let out a deep breath, and then spoke, "Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty."
If there was even the slightest suspicion, he would be taken out of the Imperial Examination Hall early. Even if he was found innocent in the end, it would have had a certain impact on him. But in the end, he completed everything quietly in the Imperial Examination Hall, and everything was settled when he came out.
In fact, even if he was affected, Wenren Taibo would not be affected. This is how it is in the officialdom. If you block someone else's way, they will try every means to pull you down. This is normal. Wenren Taibo realized this very early, especially after he took over as the Minister of Rites. Therefore, he was cautious in doing things. Before the examination, he did not contact any candidates. He also had stricter rules for his family members, not giving them the opportunity to take advantage of loopholes. However, the result was still...
Fortunately, the emperor has never been confused.
What really made Wenren Taibo furious was that those people actually involved his daughter. Xuan'er had done so much and worked so hard, and had never done anything wrong, but someone still caused trouble!
"When the results are announced, post them according to the original list, cross out the names of those who were eliminated, and add a list of those who were added at the end. Those who caused trouble will be posted at the same time, and those who did not pass the exam but can be added but were eliminated will also be marked off." Emperor Xuanren ordered in a calm voice.
Emperor Xuanren played a more ruthless move this time. Not only did he want the candidates themselves to know how stupid they were, he also wanted everyone to know it. He wanted everyone to point fingers at them, and also let their relatives and friends blame them, feel disappointed, sigh, and even resent them.
Those who have strong tolerance will learn profound lessons from this incident and will be more cautious in the future. They will think more and score points when encountering things. Of course, they may also go to the other extreme, that is, not taking the lead in everything, acting like a turtle, and shrinking in the back. Those who have poor tolerance may collapse directly and never recover.
However, no matter what the outcome is, this matter and their future life are their own choices.
Wenren Taibo looked down at the list. He had a good memory. With a quick glance, he saw at least 30 or 40 candidates on the list of admitted students. In fact, there must be more. Even if he was implicated, he felt a little sad. "Your Majesty, these are just the candidates who participated in the riot. Apart from these, are there any other punishments?"
Needless to say, the "whistleblower" will definitely have a bad end. As for the instigator who jumped around at the beginning, it would be fine if he had not contacted the person behind the scenes. If he had contacted, he would be treated the same. The rest would lose their fame and officialdom, and it would also affect their descendants' imperial examinations.
What about those who simply participated in the riot
"Next year's regular science examinations are prohibited."
In other words, if you want to take the imperial examination again, you have to wait another four years. If it is those who did not pass the exam, or even have no hope for a long time, or even for the rest of their lives, then it is fine, but for those who have passed the exam...
Emperor Xuanren's punishment could be said to be quite merciful, only four years.
Of course, four years is a period of time that is neither long nor short. If nothing happens, it may be smooth, just like daily life, day after day passing by. But if something big happens, then four years may bring about earth-shaking changes. Not stepping into it may be a blessing or a great regret, no one can tell.
But one thing is certain, those who passed the exam but were eliminated, and those who had the opportunity to be admitted again, also missed it. Four years later, the former may not be able to pass the exam again, and for the latter, the missed opportunity may even be their only chance.
You can imagine the regret and annoyance in his heart.
When the results were about to be announced, Wei Tingyu brought the news to Kaiping Prison, "The results will be announced in a few days. You should not have been imprisoned for an unknown period of time. I guess you are looking forward to today with anxiety and despair, right?"
The candidate in the cell looked at Wei Tingyu, not knowing what to say.
"The imperial edict hasn't come out yet, but you're lucky to know it in advance." Wei Tingyu raised the booklet in his hand, and then without further ado, he read out the names of the prisoners in order of rank: third, seventh, eleventh, twelfth, seventeenth, twentieth...
Although they were on the list and ranked well, no one looked excited or happy. Instead, they became more anxious and even had a hint of hope.
After Wei Tingyu finished reading, he didn't give them a quick death. Instead, he looked at the third place in the examination and said, "Minister Wenren was very optimistic about you and was very frank in front of the emperor. But at that time, he didn't know how you slandered him during the examination at the Imperial Academy. He thought he had found a good talent, but in fact, all his excitement was in vain."