Zhao Kuan picked up his wine glass and smiled slightly: "It is better to resume the imperial examination sooner rather than later, although the first time is a bit hasty, but it can't be delayed any longer, I suggest that this year's autumn examination in each state can not be held, and then the quota will be allocated to each state, so that the states can directly recommend scholars to come to the capital to participate in the provincial examination next spring, and then from next year, the states will hold the state examination in September, but that is not the matter of the national eunuch, and the Ministry of Rites should be responsible for the implementation." ”

Li Shi sighed: "Next year is the first year of the resumption of the imperial examination, and the Holy Lord has decided to be led by the Guozijian and assisted by the Ministry of Rites, and the capital will resume the grand occasion that has not been seen for many years in March next year, which is very exciting!" ”

Everyone responded and toasted together, and the conversation on the wine table became stronger and more lively.

After taking a while, Li Shi and Guo Song came to the courtyard, Li Shi said to Guo Song: "Today, my father talked about your arrangement, I proposed to my father to change you to a civil and military official, and my father said that you are not qualified enough, and all of a sudden change to a civil and external official will cause dissatisfaction among many ministers in the court, or take your time, starting with the restoration of your general Ning Yuan, what do you think?" ”

Guo Song said with a smile: "Thank Your Highness for your kindness, no matter what official position I am given, I will gladly accept it!" ”

Guo Song's attitude made Li Shi very satisfied, he nodded slightly and said: "Actually, there is a great shortage of talents in the East Palace, my original intention was to keep you in the East Palace as an official, but my father's intention is to let you out, which is a bit regrettable." ”

"Your Royal Highness, being released as an official is actually the request of Weichen himself, Weichen is used to freedom, and he is not used to being constrained by various rules and regulations of the imperial court, and he will feel very aggrieved to be an official in the imperial court."

"It's true, you are too young and lack qualifications, there will definitely be many people who are not used to being an official in the court, and you are comfortable when you go out, I can understand!"

Speaking of this, Li Shi asked with a smile: "Do you have any talented friends who recommend them to Donggong?" ”

Guo Song's heart moved, and he smiled slightly: "Weichen really has someone who wants to recommend it to His Highness!" ”

Li Shi suddenly became interested and said with a smile: "Who do you recommend?" Tell me about it. ”

"Weichen recommends Xue Yun in the Ministry of Rites, this person is upright, outstanding, and a talent that can be used."

Li Shi nodded, "I know this person, he is very principled, and not long ago he wrote to me, asking for strict rules for the imperial examination to prevent serious fraud in the first imperial examination, which is still more insightful, but he should not go past his boss and directly report to me, so it is easy to offend people." ”

Historically, Xue Yun angered the authorities because he liked the book, and now the imperial examination is about to resume, and the Ministry of Rites will become the center of the storm, Guo Song just wants Xue Yun to leave the center of the storm, so as not to be implicated, although the East Palace has no power for the time being, it is a quiet place, far less than the Ministry of Rites has real power, but there is a loss, there is gain, Xue Yun will at least not be degraded, then Xue Tao will not become a prostitute.

To a certain extent, Guo Song still hopes that he can change Xue Tao's fate, and he doesn't want to see such a beautiful woman fall into the dust.

Li Shi wanted to find this opportunity to take a good look at Guo Song, since Guo Song made a request, it happened that there was a shortage of people in the East Palace, so he simply made a favor, he nodded, "I know, I will pay attention to this person." ”

Guo Song took out a small box and handed it to Li Shi, "These are a few good gems, they are the trophies of Weichen's capture of Lu Sigong, I heard that the princess loves to collect gems, this is a little bit of Weichen's heart." ”

Li Shi was a little surprised, "How do you know that the princess likes to collect gems?" ”

Guo Song scratched the back of his head and said: "It was Li An who told me, let me please the princess, and in the future, the princess will blow the wind on the pillow and the like, which will be good for my career." ”

Li Shi immediately laughed, "You are so frank and cute!" Okay, this opportunity to please the princess is left to you, and I will accept the gem. ”

Li Shi was really in a happy mood, Guo Song's straightforwardness was completely different from the hypocrisy of the court officials, he directly told himself that the gem was snatched from Lu Sigong and given to the princess to please her, which made Li Shi feel a rare fresh breath and made him full of interest in Guo Song.

.........

Three days later, Li Yu resumed the official Linchao, and at the same time issued a decree to crown Li Shi, the king of Lu, as the king of Yong, and ordered the Ministry of Rites and Taichang Temple to begin to deploy the ceremony of canonizing the crown prince.

At this time, Lu Sigong was secretly escorted to Beijing, and Li Yu ordered the triage of the three divisions composed of the Yushitai, the Criminal Department and the Dali Temple, and strictly interrogated Lu Sigong's embezzlement of stolen money.

The news reached Yuanzai's mansion, and now Ziyuanzai changed from pretending to be sick to being really sick, and the whole Yuan family was shrouded in an uneasy panic.

Wang Jin came to visit Yuan Zai's illness worriedly, and he was also implicated in Lu Sigong's case, before and after he accepted a bribe of no less than 100,000 yuan from Lu Sigong, and said all the good things for Lu Sigong, this time Lu Sigong was arrested on the way back, I don't know if he destroyed the letters he wrote to him in time, once these letters were found, he was finished.

Yuan Zai was lying on the sickbed, listening to Wang Jin begging him to come forward to protect him, Yuan Zai's heart was suddenly full of boredom, he himself was a mud bodhisattva crossing the river, and it was difficult to protect himself, where could he protect Wang Jin?

Yuan Zai said slowly: "The old man is sick like this, where do you still have the energy to ask Lu Sigong about it, it is better to ask for others than for yourself, what should you do?" ”

Wang Jin begged: "Now the subordinates are in turmoil, they can't think of anything, Wang Yuangong made it clear!" ”

Yuan Zai sneered and said: "Lu Sigong will confess all of them sooner or later in order to get rid of the crime, the best way is for you to bribe the jailer to get rid of him in the prison and let him shut up forever, this matter should be arranged sooner rather than later, you will arrange it when you go back, there will be a brave man under the heavy reward, and there will be a jailer who is willing to take over." ”

This is indeed a way, but it is by no means a good way, even a bad idea, Lu Sigong is strictly guarded, where is it so easy to start, once the poisoning fails, Wang Jin will inevitably be guilty of one more degree, Yuan Zai decided to let Wang Jin do this stupid thing in order to protect himself.

Yuan Zai knows Wang Jin very well, although Wang Jin and his brother Wang Wei are both famous for writing poems and essays, but this Wang Jin will make mistakes in major matters and do stupid things, and it is a good way to use him to reduce his crimes.

It rained at night, dripping, with a hint of coolness, a middle-aged man with a food box came to the prison of Dali Temple, and the head of the cell greeted him, and the two said a few words in the dark around the corner, and the head of the cell carried the food box back to the prison.

In a room next to the dungeon, five jailers on duty were gambling and shouting.

The cell boss stepped forward, put the food box on the table, opened the food box, and the bottom was five ingots of gold, each weighing about twenty taels, and all the jailers froze, swallowing spit, looking at the yellow and clear gold.

"One tablet per person, then close your eyes and go to sleep, and you are not allowed to wake up before dawn!"

The jailers all understood what the cell boss meant, but the temptation of gold made it difficult for them to refuse, equivalent to two hundred yuan, and they could only earn it for three years without eating or drinking.

The five jailers reached out and took a gold ingot, then turned and walked away, at least not for the evening.

The cell boss then put a few good dishes and good wine into the food box, and said to himself, "Eat! After eating, Lao Tzu will send you on your way. ”

.........

"What!"

Li Yu, the Son of Heaven, slapped the table heavily and said angrily: "I didn't say that I wanted to kill him, how could he hang himself by hanging himself?" ”

Cui Wen, the servant of the Criminal Department, and Wang Jiahe, the secretary of Dali Temple, were sweating and embarrassed, Wang Jiahe wiped the sweat on his forehead and said: "The cell boss admitted that they drank too much and did not take a good look at Lu Sigong, Lu Sigong tore his clothes into strips of cloth and committed suicide by hanging himself in prison, but whether it was suicide or the illusion caused by being strangled to death is still being investigated, and the minister does not dare to draw conclusions at present." ”

"I don't dare to jump to conclusions, in that case, how dare you say that it was suicide by hanging a beam?"

"This ......" Wang Jiahe was speechless for a while.

Cui Wentuo, the servant of the Criminal Department next to him, hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the suicide of the hanging beam is just an appearance, if we really think that the hanging beam committed suicide, we will not investigate in depth, but we have no evidence yet, but we must report to Your Majesty as soon as possible, so we can only temporarily use the term of suicide by the hanging beam." ”

Li Yu suppressed the anger in his heart for a long time and said: "It's not a question of how he died, but that he shouldn't die, this is a serious dereliction of duty, and Dali Temple should take responsibility." ”

Wang Jiahe didn't dare to say anything, and at this moment, a eunuch said at the door: "Your Majesty, news has come from Dali Temple, the results of the investigation have come out, and some jailers have reported that it was the cell boss Wang Le who strangled Lu Sigong, Wang Le has fled, and all parties are making every effort to arrest this person!" ”

Li Yu said coldly: "Now that the reason is understood, I will give you another chance, find out the real culprit behind the scenes within three days, I will not hold you responsible, if you can't find out, I will ask you!" ”

"Wechen obeys!"