On April 28, there are still 12 days left before this year's examination list, and more than 10,000 people in Yongchang City are looking forward to it, and they will inevitably get together to talk about the articles of the examination. Those who have done well in the test have a good face and boast to their peers, and those who have done poorly sigh and have luck, and some people who have opened up the relationship smile silently, and they can't help but reveal a few words to show their wisdom......

Anfumen, the secret guard yamen. At the end of the unitary period, the two red lanterns in front of the yamen were lit up, illuminating the front of the steps red, like a monster staring at people with red eyes to choose people to eat. The street in front of the yamen was quiet and silent, and few people had the courage to pass in front of this "ghost gate" at this time.

The sound of the horse's hooves came from far and near, stopping in front of the secret guard's yamen, Huang Xi jumped off the horse with Kang Qianfeng and others, and the secret guard standing in front of the door hurriedly stepped forward to salute the horse. Huang Xi strode inside, his official office was in the second entrance, and Feng Zhong was in the third courtyard. Since the Son of Heaven was seriously ill, Feng Zhong stayed in Yanshan Palace for nearly half of the time, and most of the secret guards were taken care of by Huang Xi.

Since Huang Xi concurrently served as the military intelligence envoy, his authority has become more and more important, and many discerning people know that it is a matter of time before Huang Xi replaces Feng Zhong, especially the case of the Military Intelligence Department suing Jiang Anyi Tongmo, Jiang Anyi cleared the charges, and Huang Xi was only fined for one year.

The candles in the official hall were bright, and someone had already diligently brought tea and stood aside to listen to orders. Huang Xi took a sip of tea unhurriedly, asked a few words about the official affairs in the yamen, waved everyone to retreat, and began to review the official documents presented on the table.

After a pillar of incense, someone flashed in and said goodbye, it was Zhang Xingliang, the deputy commander of the dark guard, who was his cronies in the dark guard mansion. After Huang Xi finished reading the official document in his hand, he put down his pen and asked, "How did you inquire?" ”

Zhang Xingliang said respectfully: "Governor, I have inquired clearly, please take a look." He said and presented a thick spy report.

Huang Xi took it and looked at it, and it remembered the secret of the fraud in the current department. The examiners for this year's examination were circled by the prince, and the report was submitted to the Son of Heaven for approval: the chief examiner, Zuo Cheng Mao Huacheng, the deputy chief examiner, and He Ziying, the deputy chief examiner, were selected from the six departments and nine secretaries and the Guozi Prison. Secretary Cheng Zhuo Chengxun was appointed as the same examiner, he was the son-in-law of the chief examiner Mao Huacheng, and Weng was also the examiner, which was a good story for a while. 、

This imperial examination is the first imperial examination of the prince's prison country, in order to attract talents from all over the world, Shi Chongwei naturally chose his cronies as examiners, Mao Huacheng has long been loyal to the prince, He Ziying is a close minister of the East Palace, and most of the twenty same examiners are also the prince's cronies. The Son of Heaven acquiesced to the prince's behavior, he was ill for a long time, and his illness recurred from time to time, and he had to plan for the prince's future.

According to the usual practice, the magnates in Beijing will occupy 20 places, the examiner will take about 20, and other connections will have 20, and the total will account for about a quarter. This year, in order to win the hearts of the ministers and extend favors, there are more than 30 people secretly set by the Guangdong Palace, but the prince secretly instructed Mao Huacheng that he might as well take 30 or 40 more people than in the past, so that everyone will be happy.

Zhang Xingliang has collected a lot of information, and there are more than 40 names in the spy report, all of which are people who have gone through the door, whose sons and nephews they are, whose doors they walked, and how much silver they spent. Huang Xi swept over, this information could be secretly handed over to King Chu'an, but Huang Xi was not concerned about this at the moment, his eyes fell on the last two pages, these two people took the path of the eunuch Tang Wenzhong.

It was Huang Xi's dangerous fight to trap Jiang Anyi for collaborating with the enemy, and his identity was discovered by Jiang Anyi in the lobby, and the two were destined to be a life-and-death ending. It's a pity that the Huazhou incident made Jiang Anyi acquitted from Dali Temple, and the Son of Heaven appointed Jiang Anyi as the envoy of Huazhou to solve the emergency, and Huang Xi began to plan to plug the loophole of his identity. In addition to Jiang Anyi, the only person who knew that he was Zhang Bojin was Tang Wenzhong, Tang Wenzhong was an insatiable person who used his identity to ask for excess, Huang Xi secretly gritted his teeth, and Tang Wenzhong must not be allowed to live. Tang Wenzhong lives in the inner palace, with more than a dozen little eunuchs around him, pampered and pampered, and the Son of Heaven is close to people, it is too difficult to assassinate him, and the risk is too high.

Huang Xi secretly sent people to investigate Tang Wenzhong's every move, and the opportunity was always given to those who were prepared, and the secret guard found out that Tang Wenzhong's nephew Tang Changfu had a close relationship with the sons. Tang Wenzhong is a native of Fuzhou, five brothers, the family is poor, and his parents can't send the third Tang Wenzhong into the palace, Tang Wenzhong was selected to serve Shi Fangzhen, who was still the prince at the time, in the East Palace, because of his intentions, Shi Fangzhen really liked it, and later Shi Fangzhen became the emperor, Tang Wenzhong became the eunuch in the palace, in charge of the deployment of eunuchs and palace maids in the palace, the procurement and purchase of items, sprinkling and cleaning and other miscellaneous matters.

Tang Wenzhong is good at money, gets benefits from the hands of palace maids and eunuchs, deducts silver taels when purchasing, and saves money from others to buy good land for shops, and secretly lends usury, and there are more than 40 shops in Yongchang City for decades, including the Songhe Tower that Huang Xi used to buy his life, as for the field is close to 3,000 hectares, and the gold, silver and jewelry are discussed according to the warehouse and the box.

Of course, so many belongings can't be placed in the palace, it's too eye-catching, Tang Wenzhong has an outer house in the capital, but his treasure is not stored in the outer house given by the Son of Heaven. Tang Wenzhong bought a five-entry mansion in Guangfufang, and succeeded the son of his fifth brother, Tang Changfu, as his stepson and took care of the family business for him. Tang Changfu is not high-profile, and he claims to be the shopkeeper of a teahouse, and the teahouse is not far from his home, and there are not many people in Beijing who know his identity.

Tang Wenzhong lives in the palace, and it is not easy to come out, and someone wants to entrust him with errands, so he transfers through Tang Changfu's teahouse. The insider went to the teahouse to make an incision, and someone introduced the inner room to see Tang Changfu, Tang Changfu opened the price according to the size of the matter, paid half of the deposit first, and bought a pound of tea; The palace came to the teahouse every ten days to get tea, and the news was transferred to Tang Wenzhong through the little eunuch, and when the matter was done, the balance was paid, and the teahouse also did normal business, and there were no flaws on the surface.

Tang Wenzhong has to bring two people in each imperial examination, the Son of Heaven summons the examiner, Tang Wenzhong stands outside the Golden Palace and waits, the examiner goes out of the hall and makes a few cold noises, and he can find a secluded place to report the name and place of the person he carries, so that the examiner can take care of it; If it is a figure like Ma Suizhen and Duan Cizong, he will turn to ask people to give a letter to the same examiner, who would dare not give him face as a priest and eunuch, and maybe when he asks for him in the future, several fellow examiners will be promoted because of him.

Tang Changfu knew that the strange goods could live, and he was not in a hurry to agree, and he waited until March was over, so he selected the two highest bidders, invited him to the teahouse to drink tea, and secretly agreed to give 12,000 taels of silver. The masters who come to the teahouse are rich and powerful people, one of these two is Ai Xin, a native of Duanzhou, whose name is Sanjin, and his family is rich, and his uncle Ai Zonghua is the head of the Ministry of Rites, pointing him to take a shortcut; The other person is Xiang Kaijie, a native of Bazhou, an official family, a scholarly family, his grandfather was the governor of Lou, and his father was the commander of Luoli County, Chenzhou, and he was a famous local family, and they couldn't stop it with ten thousand taels of silver.

The Son of Heaven was seriously ill, and Tang Wenzhong also went to Yanshan Villa to serve, thinking about the imperial examination in his heart, and made a special trip back to the capital in early April. He already knew that this year's examiner was Mao Huacheng from the Son of Heaven, and when he got his name from Tang Changfu, he directly found Mao Huacheng in the next dynasty, and muttered secretly, Mao Huacheng promised to take care of him.

Back at the private house, Tang Changfu ran back and forth to be a filial son, and when he saw his stepfather Tang Wenzhong's depressed expression, he asked with concern: "Dad, is it very hard for you to serve Long Live this time, I see that your face is a little bad." ”

Tang Wenzhong sighed and said, "Son, long live is seriously ill, and I am afraid that my father will not stay in the palace for long." ”

Tang Changfu was shocked, if the son died today and the crown prince ascended the throne, he would definitely not be able to use the old man's hands, and most of his stepfather would not be able to stay in the palace anymore, and if he lost the position of the secretary and eunuch, no one would give face, and he might be sent to guard the imperial tomb and die of old age. Tang Changfu hurriedly said: "Dad, if Banzai is gone, the child will take you home to support you and support you for the elderly." ”

Tang Wenzhong smiled, nodded and said: "Good boy, it's not in vain that my father hurts you, if there is really a good one, I will let my mother go back to my hometown." But we have worked hard all my life, and we can't leave empty-handed, you go and tell those two lifters, Dad has a way to move their rankings in the palace exam forward. ”

After thinking for a moment, Tang Wenzhong said: "When the palace test was ranked second, let them add another 10,000 taels of silver, if they can break into the top ten, add 20,000 taels of silver, if they are unwilling, you let go of the wind, choose those who are willing among those who are successful, and spend 30,000 taels to buy a top ten position, some people are willing." ”

The partition wall has ears, and on the roof of the study house is a famous secret guard. Don't blame Tang Wenzhong for being careless, he and Feng Zhong are both old people in the East Palace, the relationship between the two is normal, but Tang Wenzhong is sure that Feng Zhong will never harm him, he has done a lot of corruption and perversion of the law for so many years, Feng Zhong has never said a bad word about him in front of the Son of Heaven, Liu Weiguo and Lu Mingli are just secretly persuading, as for the Son of Heaven, he may have heard of it, but he will not deal with himself when he reads the old feelings, so Tang Wenzhong has confidence.

"Send more manpower to strictly monitor Tang Changfu, and don't relax." Huang Xi commanded. Zhang Xingliang gave up his hand, Huang Xi waved his hand, Zhang Xingliang took two steps back, turned around and left.

Locking the spy in his hand into the iron cabinet next to him, Huang Xi stroked his smooth chin and groaned, Tang Wenzhong was greedy, and according to his own knowledge, he had collected more than five million taels. The north and west sides of the court were using troops, the treasury was empty, the prince was eager to fill the treasury, and Tang Wenzhong gathered so much wealth to bring about his own destruction.

However, Huang Xi knew that Tang Wenzhong was a person close to the Son of Heaven, and if he wanted to deal with him, he was afraid that the prince would also be jealous, so he had to think of a foolproof plan to make Tang Wenzhong unable to escape.