Chapter 154: Driving in Reverse

Ever since the Kaiyuan era, the actual duties of the Three Departments and Six Ministries system in the Great Tang had begun to "hollow out," with "commissioned assignments" replacing official posts as the executors of actual government affairs. In other words, a Vice Minister of Revenue who did not also hold a post such as "Transport Commissioner" could essentially only sit idly in the Ministry's yamen waiting to get off work.

The manifestation of this situation at the highest levels of the central government was the hollowing out of the authority of the "Ministers of the Six Ministries."

These positions were frequently held concurrently by chancellors, while the daily operations of the Six Ministries were delegated down to the level of vice ministers.

For example, Right Chancellor Li Linfu concurrently served as Minister of Personnel, and Left Chancellor Zhang Shougui concurrently served as Minister of War.

They were supposed to manage the affairs of their corresponding departments, but in practice did not really manage much — the so-called arrangement of "may inquire about department-related matters, but is not responsible for daily operations."

The interchange and maneuvering between "sufficiency" and "necessity" within this arrangement was precisely where the flexibility of high-level government affairs lay.

Whether one bore responsibility or not often did not depend on the matter itself. The character for "official" has two mouths — explicit rules were all meant to be used against people.

And situations like this had already gone from being unspoken rules to "explicit rules" in the political arena.

Therefore, the fact that Li Linfu appeared at the "Minister's Office" where the Minister of Personnel resided, rather than at the "Council Hall" where he usually worked, was in itself a very strange matter well worth scrutinizing!

Sure enough, Fang Chongyong had just walked into the room and not even sat down yet when he heard the amiable-looking Li Linfu say: "This chancellor came today specifically to wait for you."

"This subordinate is overwhelmed by the favor and deeply terrified."

Fang Chongyong said with a crossed-hand salute, his head lowered and his attitude extremely humble, completely unable to figure out what Li Linfu was up to.

But like a night owl entering a house — it never comes for no reason. Li Linfu waiting here specifically for him definitely meant nothing good!

Li Linfu stood up and walked several circles around Fang Chongyong, appearing very satisfied.

He nodded slightly and said: "I have heard that you are already betrothed. Can this engagement still be called off?

Although marriage is a major matter determined by parents' command, this chancellor would still like to hear your opinion."

Eh?

Fang Chongyong was stunned. The Right Chancellor of the Great Tang, in the Minister of Personnel's private office, asking a young man awaiting official appointment whether he wanted to break off an engagement — there was quite a lot of information packed into this!

The angle was extraordinarily tricky!

"Though not yet married, we are in fact living together; childhood sweethearts, with deep affection for one another; in perfect harmony, and parting would harm us both.

This engagement, I fear, cannot be broken. This subordinate has disappointed the Right Chancellor."

Fang Chongyong pressed his hands together, bowed, and said with a salute.

"Mm, truly a fine young man who values loyalty and righteousness."

Li Linfu inexplicably sighed with emotion, then continued:

"But that is fine too — a wife of one's humble origins should not be cast aside. This chancellor has been through it as well, I understand, I understand.

However, taking a concubine would also work; this chancellor does not mind. This chancellor has more than twenty daughters, among whom there are over a dozen daughters of concubines still unwed.

Choosing one of them to be your concubine — what do you say?"

Uh…

Hearing these words, Fang Chongyong was speechless. If he had not met Li Linfu before, he would truly have thought the person before him was an impostor.

However, Young Master Fang could now be considered to have figured out Li Linfu's style of handling affairs.

This man was truly not someone who cared about saving face — he was extremely "pragmatic" in getting things done!

As long as there was even the slightest possibility of profit, this Right Chancellor of the Great Tang would bite down and absolutely not let go!

Besides, Wang Yunxiu was now radiant and stunning, a great beauty with an outstanding bearing.

She just did not have a figure as devilish as Ana Ye's — how could she be called a "wife of humble origins"!

"Sit."

Li Linfu put away his smile and pointed at the cushion in front of Fang Chongyong.

After both were seated, Li Linfu set aside his amiable smile and said with a calm expression: "This chancellor is hosting a family banquet tonight. You will attend. After the banquet, this chancellor has an important matter to ask you about. Is there any problem?"

"This subordinate official obeys."

Fang Chongyong said with a crossed-hand salute, adding not a single word of superfluous talk.

Li Linfu nodded in satisfaction, tapped the desk, and said: "Just leave your official credentials here. This chancellor still has many matters to attend to and cannot chat with you. Go ahead."

Seeing that Fang Chongyong had not moved, he asked in puzzlement: "Do you have some other matter?"

"To reply to the Right Chancellor, I wish to study after resigning from office, and then take the imperial examination. I wonder if it is still in time to register now?"

Fang Chongyong asked cautiously.

Hearing this, even Li Linfu, who always kept his emotions hidden, was struck with a face full of shock and astonishment by this adorably foolish question from someone who had already reached the rank of fourth-grade border prefect!

Any son of an official family, even a six- or seven-year-old child, would probably not ask such an ignorant question.

Those with channels to obtain office directly would not ask; those without such channels would have been studying assiduously from the age of understanding onward, preparing to fight their way through every hurdle to pass the jinshi examination — so how could they possibly not even understand the basic rules of the imperial examinations?

"Are you saying that you wish to resign from the post of prefect, and then take the imperial examination — is that right?"

Li Linfu thought it over. After a moment, he spread out a large sheet of paper, took up his brush, and wrote a letter of introduction. He then folded it and handed it to Fang Chongyong, saying:

"Registering for the imperial examination now is certainly too late. The jinshi examination will begin right after His Majesty's birthday.

This chancellor has heard that you previously failed to enter the College of Letters and for some unknown reason withdrew, so you now lack even the qualification to register.

But this matter is easy to resolve.

Take this letter to the Minister of Rites; he will find a way to get you into the National Academy.

After you enter the National Academy, go directly to the Chancellor of the National Academy to complete your graduation procedures and obtain the qualification to participate in the imperial examination. Do not complicate matters unnecessarily."

Just like that, so casually?

Seeing Li Linfu speak of it so lightly, it was clear he did not take the imperial examination seriously at all. Fang Chongyong took the letter of introduction whose ink was not even dry, greatly shaken in his heart!

So true power and nobility could complete the entire process from enrollment in the National Academy to graduation in a single day, and obtain the qualification for the imperial examination.

But ordinary humble families first had to study at a local school and obtain the school's recommendation to participate in the prefectural examination. Each year for the imperial examination, a prefecture, depending on its grade, would produce two to four student quotas. After the prefectural examination, those recommended would participate in the imperial examination held in Chang'an and other places.

Note that this was merely the qualification to take the exam!

Those who graduated from the National Academy automatically received the qualification to take the imperial examination — this in itself was a form of extreme inequality and regional discrimination.

Institutions such as the College of Letters and the College of Letters Expansion not only allowed their graduates to directly participate in the jinshi examination, but the Son of Heaven would also frequently open "special examinations" specifically to select talent from among these graduates.

It was similar to Fang Chongyong's previous life — one radish per hole, targeted enrollment. Of course, these people's official career prospects still could not match those of the jinshi examination.

But compared to the true power and nobility, these people were all mere juniors!

True power and nobility only needed one day to complete the process, or even had no need at all to study at institutions like the National Academy!

What was even stranger was that Li Linfu did not even ask Fang Chongyong why he would abandon a perfectly good fourth-rank official position to turn back and take the imperial examination!

Fang Chongyong felt that this was perhaps the extraordinary quality of the Tang Right Chancellor.

Having obtained what he wanted, Fang Chongyong handed his official credentials to Li Linfu, bowed respectfully in thanks, and departed.

Watching his retreating figure, Li Linfu wore a mysterious smile, examined this set of official credentials over and over, then placed it in the corresponding cabinet for filing.

These trivial tasks should not have been handled by him personally; it was unclear why he had sent away the Ministry of Personnel officials on duty and come here himself to handle this "minor matter."

"Fang Chongyong truly is a fascinating person — it was not for nothing that I spent ten days thinking up this combination of official titles.

Not wanting to be an official, yet turning back to take the imperial examination — this matter must be discussed with His Holiness.

The son of Fang Quanzhong, the son-in-law of Wang Zhongsi, former Inspector of Shazhou, Inspector of Ganzhou, Military Advisor of the Liangzhou Prefectural Office, with actual performance evaluations all rated superior-superior for five consecutive years. If a former official like this failed the imperial examination, would the examination not be a child's game?"

Li Linfu said to himself, then fell into deep thought.

Many things did not seem like much at first, but the more he thought about them, the more something felt off.

In fact, this farce that Fang Chongyong was pulling, in Li Linfu's view, was not frivolous at all — rather, it carried extremely serious political significance. The Tang Right Chancellor felt that perhaps this young and ambitious Young Master Fang simply had not realized the gravity of the problem.

If Fang Chongyong had done it deliberately, then this person was absolutely harboring unfathomable motives — his very heart would be deserving of execution!

Although it was proclaimed beautifully to the outside world, the imperial examination system was primarily introduced not to select talent, but to urge the children of official families to strive upward, give them competitive pressure, and provide a difficult path for scholars who had no opportunity to become officials through family background or whose families had fallen into decline.

Creating a "catfish effect."

Since that was the case, regardless of the actual situation, at the very least when promoting it externally, the content of the imperial examination had to possess the most basic credibility, to prove that "only by passing the imperial examination does one qualify to be an official" — and if you failed the examination and were not given an official post, it was because your "ability" was insufficient!

In fact, officials of imperial examination scholar origins like Zhang Jiuling fundamentally believed: all those who serve as officials should be able to pass the imperial examination, for only thus could the injustice brought about by the superiority or inferiority of family background be eliminated.

Therefore, the ability to pass the imperial examination was, to a certain extent, the ability to be an official!

This was no longer merely an opinion — it was an explicit rule that the majority of court officials acknowledged, or dared not speak against even if they did not acknowledge it!

Whether in the central court or in the localities, it had received the broadest acceptance. The disdain that imperial examination scholars held for officials of hereditary privilege origins stemmed precisely from this!

Yet now the situation had changed. In the original normal rules, there had appeared a reckless "big fool"! A big idiot who "drove in the wrong direction"!

If someone who had served as an official for four or five years, whose performance evaluations and official reputation were even quite outstanding, who far surpassed most officials of the same rank, and who would moreover receive a promotion during rotation.

This fool suddenly lost his mind and no longer wanted to be an official, but instead wanted to come back and take the imperial examination — and in the end, failed to pass!

Would that not prove that in fact, even if a certain person could not pass the imperial examination, they might very well still possess the ability to be an official?

Even this person who failed the imperial examination might possibly become a truly outstanding official!

Then this counterexample would pierce that layer of window paper that many children of official families — especially those of hereditary privilege backgrounds — privately cursed behind its back: in fact, the content of the imperial examination had absolutely nothing to do with the ability to be an official!

Those who passed could in no way demonstrate that they had the ability to be an official; and those who truly had the ability to be an official might not necessarily be able to pass!

Therefore, the court's imperial examination system was simply nonsense — excluding true talent and selecting nothing but useless people who only knew how to take exams — it should have been abolished long ago!

At that point, the imperial examination's public credibility would be completely destroyed!

This was a serious consequence that even the court's central authority could not bear.

A textbook case of someone using a single point to break the entire facade!

Many times, once the window paper was pierced, that was when quantitative change produced qualitative change. By comparison, whether Fang Chongyong could actually pass the jinshi examination — this minor matter — became utterly insignificant.

The jinshi examination admitted an average of twenty-seven people per year. Would adding one more person to make up the numbers be a big problem?

Not a big problem at all!

Li Linfu was very clear that the current Li Longji simply wanted to enjoy life peacefully and had no desire to reform the imperial examination system. As long as the old system still functioned without major incidents, this sage of Chang'an did not want to stir things up!

Although Li Linfu was cursed behind his back as "jealous of the worthy and envious of the capable," in reality, he was one of the few heavyweights among court officials who emphasized "governing the state by law."

The reason he wrote a "letter of introduction" for Fang Chongyong was not because he was accustomed to breaking the rules.

Quite the opposite — Li Linfu's determination to help Fang Chongyong pass the jinshi examination was not breaking the rules, but rather to salvage the precarious "legitimacy of the imperial examination" that was about to be torn to shreds by Young Master Fang!

"Did he do it deliberately, or... was it an unintentional mistake?"

Li Linfu sat at the desk in the Ministry of Personnel office, suddenly unable to gauge what Fang Chongyong was truly thinking.

He too was someone accustomed to "troublesome subjects harming His Majesty."

This Tang Right Chancellor, for a moment, actually forgot to leave, making the people outside waiting for official selection utterly afraid to come in!

The line of people waiting outside the Ministry of Personnel for official selection grew longer and longer, and these people could not help but noisily complain, momentarily causing chaos outside the Department of State Affairs office.

……

North of Xingqing Palace stood a small tower serving as a "fixed sentry post." Standing atop it, the northern half of Yongjia Ward was visible at a glance (the other half had become part of Xingqing Palace).

On this day, having had a good sleep and in an excellent mood thanks to the enormous wealth seized from the Xing clan's household, the Tang Emperor Li Longji stood idly atop the small tower, gazing afar at the scenery.

Suddenly, he spotted a familiar figure, so he turned and asked Gao Lishi, "Lishi, is that not the Mayor of Jingzhao, Zheng Shuqing?"

What kind of person Old Zheng was, Brother Ji knew very well — bestowing the label "dog official" upon him was perfectly fitting, universally acknowledged by court and public alike.

Although the Mayor of Jingzhao managed the trivial affairs of Chang'an, since he was a dog official, he certainly would not be diligent in governance. So Zheng Shuqing crossing more than half of Chang'an to come to Yongjia Ward seemed rather strange.

"He has an ox cart following behind him — could he be bringing gifts?"

Gao Lishi took a look and also found it peculiar. He saw Zheng Shuqing first knock on the gate, then be led inside by a servant — it was precisely Fang Youde's old residence.

"He is going to see Fang Quanzhong."

Gao Lishi said calmly.

"Eh? Where is Quanzhong right now again?"

Li Longji slapped his forehead. He seemed to remember that he had sent Fang Youde far away, but could not recall where.

The Tang domain spanned far more than ten thousand li — where could officials not be placed?

"He is serving as the Lingnan Area Commander."

Gao Lishi reminded him softly.

Oh oh oh, my birthday is coming soon. Go tell Ge nu to issue an edict, summon Fang Quan Zhong to Chang'an to celebrate my birthday.

It's been years since we last met; I really miss him.

Li Longji sighed and said. As one grows older, one often recalls events from long ago. Li Longji recently recalled many events from before his ascension, and many of the old acquaintances from those days are now gone.

Clothes are better when new; people are better when old; that's just the way it is.

Many, I'll go take care of it right away.

Gao Lishi received the order and was about to leave, but Li Longji grabbed his sleeve.

In that residence, it should be Fang Quan Zhong's son, Fang Chongyong, who has returned.

Send someone to quietly investigate: what connection does Zheng Shuqing have with Fang Chongyong? What gift did he send, and why did he send it—what is the purpose?

Once you find out, just report it to me; whatever you do, don't let them know I'm investigating them.

Hearing this, Gao Lishi blinked slightly, clasped his hands in salute, and asked: "Your Majesty, officials giving gifts is quite common..."

I just want to know how capable Fang Quan Zhong's son is; there's no other meaning.

Li Longji waved his hand calmly to explain.

To have a third-rank Prefect of Jingzhao send a gift must indicate extraordinary talent. Ji ge now really wants to know what that talent is.

Tickets, tickets!

(End of chapter)