Chapter 325 Imperial Examination [Two in One]

"Ah!"

Liang Fuguo sneezed, turned his head to look out the window, and wondered which enemy was talking about him again.

He had no doubt that it was the longing of someone close to him.

nonexistent.

Even within the Liang family, there are actually many people who dislike Liang Fuguo. The reason why they are honest is because they can't beat him. He has never had relatives or friends, only allies. He has come to where he is today by relying on a group of like-minded people.

This journey is like walking on thin ice.

"Sir." A middle-aged swordsman carrying a long sword with a silver sheath walked in from outside the door. He was wearing a long gown and had a solemn face.

Liang Fuguo has two most trusted personal bodyguards. The one carrying a golden sickle is called Golden Sickle, and is responsible for accompanying him in public every day; while the one carrying a silver sword is called Silver Sheath, and is mainly responsible for guarding in secret.

"The Song family sent a message that the autumn imperial examination is approaching, and asked you to hand over this year's Liang family list." Yin Qiao said, "They said... this year's quota can be increased by 20%."

"Oh." Liang Fuguo smiled contemptuously, "Song Zhili, it turns out he is the one behind this."

The imperial examinations in the Yin Dynasty were held every four years, with three rounds of elections in the autumn, winter and spring. There would be different levels in each round, and the number of people elected was also fixed. At that time, the selection of candidates would be from top to bottom.

For thousands of years, there has been a tacit rule among the aristocratic families that a certain number of promotion places will be divided among the aristocratic families first, and this will be decided by the officials in charge of the imperial examinations. The major aristocratic families will divide the remaining places, and then let the remaining students take the exam.

In this way, the major families can retain their positions in the court, and students from the lower classes also have the opportunity to be promoted, but their chances of getting ahead are much more limited.

In the early years, there were examiners who were blinded by greed and divided up 80% of the places among the aristocratic families, so that they would naturally get more rewards.

When Xu Zhan'ao was in charge of the Ministry of Rites, he usually took out 20% to 30% and divided them among the major families. This number was actually a bit small for the major families of the Yin Dynasty. The four major families got one share, and there was nothing left for the rest. They could only send their most important children out.

In fact, given the wealth of the major families, if you let their children take the exam themselves, the number of people who pass would probably be about the same.

Recently, Xu Zhan'ao has been keeping an eye on the situation in the battle to capture the city, and the important task of being the chief examiner of this imperial examination has been taken over by Song Zhili, the right prime minister in charge of the three internal departments.

Liang Fuguo had suspected very early on that Xu Zhan'ao, with his noble personality, would never be able to handle such a matter. The secret affairs of the imperial examinations were most likely led by the right prime minister, and Xu Zhan'ao could only turn a blind eye.

Sure enough, now that Song Zhili was in charge, the share given to the aristocratic families was larger, and this time they would take up half of the quota. The share left for the children of the common people to compete for was much less.

Liang Fuguo replied: "Tell the people of the Song family that we in the Liang family don't have a list this year, let others divide it."

Yin Qiao looked up in surprise, but they just carried out all of Liang Fuguo's orders without any doubts, so they didn't ask any more questions.

In a noble family, there must be someone responsible for every aspect.

The people who are responsible for raising future generations, the people who are responsible for running the business and maintaining expenses, the people who are responsible for doing the dirty and tiring work in secret, and most importantly, the people who hold power in an official position.

If there is no one in the court for one or two generations, then there is a danger of decline. If there is no one in the court for three generations, it basically means the decline of the family.

Therefore, the noble families fought hard to compete for the positions of officials in the imperial court, just to continue the family's public power. The larger the family, the more important it was to have a person who could carry the weight of the family.

For example, the Chen family, one of the four great families in the capital, fell behind the Song, Qi, and Liang families because they did not have a leader standing in the first row of the court. If two or three generations were like this, they would probably be removed from the four great families soon.

If the Liang family does not pay attention to sending their children to the court now, there may not be any difference now that Liang Fuguo is here, but in another 30 years, there will probably be a power vacuum in the court. The decline of big families all started from this.

Yin Qiao has followed Liang Fuguo for many years and naturally understands the importance of this, so she was surprised by his sudden decision.

But the iron rule that these followers have engraved in their minds is that if Lord Zuo Xiang does this, he must have his reasons.

Lord Zuo Xiang cannot be wrong.

The reason I can't understand it is just because I'm stupid.

Before Liang Fuguo left for the Imperial City, Silver Scabbard and Golden Scythe stood together and chatted, and Liang Fuguo also expressed his confusion, "Why do you think this is happening?"

Jin Jian thought for a moment, then immediately smiled mysteriously, "You don't understand? You are still not as good as me in understanding the mind of the Left Prime Minister."

"What do you understand?" Silver Scabbard looked at him strangely.

Jin Jian said calmly, "Those quotas are not obtained for free. We have to spend a lot of money every year to exchange them. The Left Prime Minister does not want those imperial examination quotas because he thinks they are not worth it. The young people in the Liang family are all good-for-nothings. What's the use of them entering the court? What's more, the most worthy young people of this generation are already in the court."

"Oh..." Yinqiao suddenly realized, "You mean, that?"

"That's right." Jin Jian nodded slightly, "Lord Zuo Xiang is willing to spend a lot of money to train him."

……

"Ah!"

Liang Yue rubbed his nose again, wondering what was going on recently? It was so hot in Honglu Mountain, how could he still catch a cold?

Yuansheng walked up from the side and said, "Just now another spy discovered the human race. I went over to take a look and saw that it was Qi Yingwu and Chen Xuanjiu. They should have formed an alliance as well."

After all, although Honglu Mountain is large, everyone is rushing into the mountain and they will always run into each other.

Those who have a good relationship will form an alliance to hunt fire beasts together, and those who are not will just nod and turn away. It's all normal. After all, this is a speed race, there is no need to attack competitors. Moreover, the nine people are individuals, and when the two of you fight, the other seven people will benefit.

Therefore, no one in Honglu Mountain targeted each other.

Of course, people like Liang Yue are an exception.

He simply gathered all the fire beasts together so that none of you could hit them, and targeted everyone equally.

However, the number of fire beasts is still too large, and there are still many scattered outside, so he will lead a large army to take the initiative to attack and drive away those geniuses who have entered the mountains.

Monk Yuansheng now admires him very much. He always sighs, why are they both with the same head, but his is bigger and rounder, and his is so easy to use.

Just follow Liang Yue. If he gets first place, I will definitely get second place.

Just sneaking into the mountain like before, I thought I was very smart. In fact, I was not the only one who got in. Everyone wanted to get in, and I might lose my place.

However, Liang Yue not only disguised himself as a fire beast, but also became the leader of the fire beasts and led them to fight guerrilla warfare, making everyone convinced of him.

This kind of personal charm that transcends species truly shocked Monk Yuansheng.

"Okay!" Liang Yue stood up suddenly and said loudly: "Then let's attack again and clear the area of ​​Honglu Mountain!"

"I'll go pass the message." Monk Yuansheng took the initiative to walk out and started howling at the fire beasts that were resting over there.

Liang Yue was indeed inferior to him in this respect. Monk Yuansheng was already able to communicate with the fire beasts relatively smoothly, as if he had a special talent for learning the calls of these beasts. Immediately, the three armies prepared for battle. Liang Yue and Yuansheng led the army of fire beasts and set off along the secret passage in the cave to the back of the target location. There had been spies watching that place for a long time. When they saw the large army coming, they pointed at the location where Chen Xuanjiu and Qi Yingwu were and shouted.

The army of fire beasts immediately rushed forward.

Over there, Chen Xuan was rescuing the two men who were confused. They had fought their way in from outside Honglu Mountain, and after meeting each other, they formed an alliance and moved forward together. But logically, shouldn't the density of the fire beasts be higher the further inward they go?

As they walked further in, they saw fewer and fewer fire beasts. They hadn't gained much so far, so they were inevitably a little anxious. They went deeper and deeper, and were about to reach the depths of the mountain.

As I was exploring forward, I suddenly heard loud footsteps behind me.

Looking back, he found that the fire beasts he had been looking for for half a day were rushing up in groups, all over the mountains.

Both of them had the same thought in their minds.

what?
Encountered regular troops?

The speed of the fire beasts' charge was definitely not slow. The mountains here were like their own backyard. A large group of black and red stone monsters were crushing over, and the scene was indeed quite shocking.

Qi Yingwu and Chen Xuanjiu both chose to retreat at the first moment. Although they came here to hunt the fire beast, the scene before them made them look more like prey, so they naturally had to take a step back.

But there was another ground earthquake behind them, and a large number of fire beasts surrounded them from the other side.

This is obviously well prepared!

Both of them were a little surprised. The fire beasts they encountered before didn't seem to have this kind of intelligence.

There was no way to avoid it now, the two of them flew up into the air at the same time, flying with the wind, trying to climb up the high slope on one side and then release their magical powers. After all, they were different from warriors, and they could come and go freely.

But suddenly, several huge stone figures jumped out from the top of the slope, and several fire beasts simply jumped down from there to stop them from taking off.

Boom boom boom——

The fire beasts jumped off the hard cliff, so naturally nothing would happen to them; at most they would just roll a few times.

However, Qi Yingwu and the other two were nearly hit by the fire beast above their heads. Fortunately, Qi Yingwu cast a spell in mid-air, and the two of them moved in the air and finally arrived at the high slope.

Then we saw two strange fire beasts on the top of the slope. They were obviously humans in disguise. Two big men carrying a pile of stones rushed over and kicked each of them.

After several twists and turns, the two had just landed on the ground and were caught off guard and were quickly bullied.

Chen Xuanjiu urgently summoned a golden body statue and met the fists and kicks of the two men with his palms.

The two were naturally Liang Yue and Yuan Sheng. They didn't want to take action themselves, as that would definitely expose their identities. However, Qigong practitioners were much more flexible than warriors, and it was more difficult for the fire beast to deal with them than with Yan Shenbing and his men. If the two leaders didn't take action, it would be difficult for them to win.

They had no choice but to ambush here themselves.

Although the golden body was solid, he had raised it in a hurry, and Liang Yue and the other two were gathering their strength to attack.

In addition to the innate chaotic energy, Liang Yue's kick also contained the power of the Thunder Tribulation Dharma Body and a trace of the Fire Jade power he had just absorbed. He was obviously a warrior, but when he kicked, there was thunder and fire on the ground, which looked very cool.

boom--

The kick was so powerful that it directly shattered Chen Xuanji's golden giant palm and fell in front of the two men.

"Liang Yue!" The two people on the opposite side exclaimed in unison, "It's you!"

When they saw the outrageous operation of impersonating a fire beast and commanding the three armies, the first person they thought of was Liang Yue, and the result did not disappoint them.

"I'm sorry, both of you." Liang Yue smiled and pushed with both hands.

Bang bang!

Qi Yingwu drew a talisman in the air and quickly raised several characters to block in front of him. But Liang Yue didn't intend to attack them, he just wanted to push them down.

This move was also like thunder and fire from heaven and earth. It collided with Qi Yingwu's characters and exploded with a loud bang. The huge recoil force instantly sent the two Qi Refiners flying.

As Qi Refiners, they were already at a disadvantage since they were accidentally approached by two warriors. Now they were just pushed back, which was not bad. If it was a life-and-death battle, Liang Yue would never give them a chance to distance themselves.

With two plops, the two men fell down the hillside.

There were a bunch of fire beasts gathered here, and they were already howling in anxiety because they failed to catch them just now. Now the two of them fell into the pile of fire beasts, how could they be any better?
Suddenly there was a rumbling sound of fire beasts colliding with each other, and it seemed that everyone wished that all the fire beasts would press down and pile up into a small hill.

The beating lasted for a quarter of an hour before Chen Xuanjiu and Qi Yingwu used their magical powers to clear a path and escaped in a panic with bruises all over their bodies.

A group of fire beasts cheered in the back to celebrate another great victory.

Liang Yue climbed to a high place, pointed at the dead fire beasts nearby, and waved his hand.

In fact, fire beasts have never had the concept of life and death. They originally had a cluster of Xuanyang Fire as the foundation of their lives. If they just merged with a few stones, the so-called "death" would just turn into Xuanyang Fire again.

Escaping and dodging are just life instincts, and you won't feel sad even if your companions die.

However, Liang Yue's formal mourning for the dead every time made the fire beasts feel something different, and they became more fearless in battle.

When everyone bowed in silence, the two small gourds rose up quietly again and collected the Xuan Yang Fire.

After the ceremony, Liang Yue asked again: "Does your Jilei Temple have any formations that can be trained without martial arts foundation? Now that our identities have been exposed, I'm afraid Qi Yingwu and the others will join forces to deal with us. If it's just the two of us, I'm afraid we can't stop so many people."

"Yes, there is..." Monk Yuansheng looked at Liang Yue blankly, "But do you still plan to train these fire beasts?"

In his opinion, as long as he can't stop you from running, that's it. Anyway, the two of them have been far ahead for a while.

If these fire beasts can really be trained into a regular army, the ecology of Honglu Mountain will be completely changed in the future.

If that group of fire-eating beasts encountered an army of fire beasts that were not afraid of death and had formations, wouldn’t they be beaten into pieces?
Liang Yue resolutely said: "Since they support me, then I must be worthy of everyone and restore the glory of the fire beasts. It is my duty!"

Monk Yuansheng was increasingly unable to guess what he was trying to do. Anyway, he was certain that what he said about reshaping was definitely nonsense. With Monk Yuansheng's current wisdom, he could only determine that he had another purpose, but it was not enough to guess what that purpose was.

These fire beasts are a group of spiritual creatures derived from the Xuanyang Fire. Their survival here is no different from that of mayflies. Before you came, they didn't even have a sense of group.

How much glory do they have?

　Good morning.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)