Smiling at the peach blossom fan, peach blossoms smile at the spring breeze

Starting from this person, Hou Fangyu's good luck came to an end, and bad luck came one after another, using one word to describe the life he was about to face: ups and downs ....... Of course, personal fate is closely related to the fate of the family and the fate of the country, and behind Hou Fangyu's bad luck is the unlucky Hou family and the unlucky Ming Dynasty.

Hou was imprisoned on charges of embezzlement of military salaries.

This punishment is more interesting, the evil old society has no officials and is not greedy, that is, in three years, Qingzhi County also has 100,000 snowflakes of silver, and it is not a big deal for a ministerial-level cadre like Hou Sui to use the benefits of his position to get some money, but it is a strange thing to step down because of economic problems, and it is unreasonable for the state to deal with valuable state cadres for some vulgar things. There must be a demon when things go wrong, there must be some story in between.

Behind this case is the replacement of the court's first assistant. We know that Chongzhen ascended the throne at the age of 16, and during his tenure he went through three stages of youth, youth and middle age, died at the age of 33, and died before he was old. This small shortcoming is reflected in the frequent personnel adjustments in personnel appointments, even for the head of the hundred officials, the first assistant is replaced by a towel, and sometimes the term of the first assistant is not beyond the freshness of the lettuce.

Changing the first assistant is a system project, and the first assistant will naturally have to change the cadres below, and the line must be moved from top to bottom. In exchange for this stubble, the cadres below are very tired, and like a certain profession, they have to think about who has changed from above every day, what impact it will have on their future career, and whether they will not be reused or even unemployed in the next step. Some people know that it will be difficult to do the job without a backer, and they will take the initiative to give way to the newcomer after the transfer of the superior, while some people feel aggrieved or unconvinced, and they are unwilling to lose the position they have grabbed after decades of struggle and ability, and they always want to work for a few more years.

Hou Sui belongs to the latter group. In this year, the first assistant of the court was replaced, and it was the opponents of the Donglin Party who came to power, and it was necessary for the Donglin Party to give up some important posts, especially the position of Minister of Finance, which was very important and must be replaced by their cronies. At the same time, Hou Sui, the Minister of Finance, was also the backbone of Donglin, and his dual identity required him to be forced to move his nest. Hou Sui didn't want to move - even if he knew that he had become a live target, he still didn't want to move, he really loved this position too much, he really didn't want to leave, he always felt that he could still save it with a fluke mentality, and he wanted to fight to break the net and not leave, to see what the new team could do to him.

The new Shoufu hates Hou Sui for not knowing the current affairs, since you don't eat and buy and eat, don't blame me for having a bad heart. There were many ways to get rid of Hou Sui, and soon the procuratorate and the public security organs found a large amount of evidence of corruption against Hou Sui, dismissed him from public office and thrown him into prison.

Is Hou Sui wronged? There must be economic problems, the evidence is there, the judicial process is all open, the court will not make it so much that it fabricates evidence out of thin air, and Chongzhen will not allow someone to knock down his finance minister if there is insufficient evidence, from this point of view, Hou Sui deserves it. But after all, it is not suitable for a cadre of Hou Sui's level to be imprisoned due to economic problems, and if such strict law enforcement is really wanted, all the senior cadres at that time are afraid that everyone will be in danger, and the prison will not be able to squeeze so many people. From this point of view, with so many cadres single-handedly attacking Hou Sui, it is indeed impossible to rule out the element of factional struggle.

Hou Fangyu did not fully agree with the above statement, he felt that his father was absolutely wronged, what economic problems, what kind of corruption and perversion of the law, which clearly showed that the remnants of the eunuch party were framing, and it was the interest groups that were seizing power.

However, Hou Sui did not leave the ancestral motto of "descendants are not allowed to enter the dynasty as officials", and Hou Fangyu did not get tired of officialdom because of this, they firmly believe that being an official is always the most convenient and promising life path, which is enough to attract countless outstanding talents to go forward and succeed, officialdom ups and downs are normal, and officials and students who have not been demoted several times are imperfect and have regrets.

If you want to defeat the bad guys, you have to be a bigger official and wield more power than the bad guys. At the age of 21, Hou Fangyu went to Nanjing to participate in the township examination and prepared to enter the military field. As for why he took the exam in Nanjing instead of Beijing, it was the same as before: Hou Fangyu was a Henan hukou.

This township examination is relatively special, it is not only the court's selection of talents for the country, but also a big test for the restoration of the society. This year, many of the children in the Restoration Society grew up and obtained the qualification to take the exam, and there are even a number of well-known members, whose exam results are very worth looking forward to. In particular, through this examination, many members of the Restoration Society will realize the transformation from students to officials, and the Restoration Society will also step from a student group to a power group, and realize the carp jumping over the dragon gate.

No one would worry about Hou Fangyu's test scores. For students at this level, the exam is not a threshold to block the road, but a stage to show their talents, a ladder to achieve their ideals, and the best way to prove their strength. Hou Fangyu also thinks so, he thinks that the palace test is the battlefield that needs to be paid attention to, and the township test is just a small goal that he can easily achieve before he is admitted to the Jinshi and becomes a big official. The examination questions, format, level, word count and other rules may be shackles for others, but for him it is completely a powerful tool to eliminate competitors, he plays these rules very slippery, in which he is as comfortable as a fish in water, and transforms what he has learned and thought in the cold window for decades into words, not only has the accumulation of gorgeous words, the skillful use of words and sentences close to showmanship, the deep understanding and accurate grasp of the classics, but also his own insight into life, life, economy, and management. His test-taking essay is no longer a rigid and numb format essay, nor is it a cold and ruthless official essay, too many of his thoughts and feelings, his knowledge and experience over the years, sorrow and joy, bitterness and sweetness are all integrated into the essay, if it were not for the word limit in the exam, Hou Fangyu could have written it all the time, and the eight-strand essay could be written into sixteen or thirty-two strands.

Hou Fangyu's essay has a very clear and sharp idea: there is no doubt about employing people. Here is an excerpt from the original text: "And the Lord of any number in the Hereafter desires to be poor in his search." The love of the world is false, and the cover cannot be defeated; and the master of the man always allows his solitary wisdom to explore the interim, and if he occasionally gains it, he will be happy with his own use; if he loses it, he will turn to doubt. Stick to the art of self-use, and accumulate the heart of doubtful people, how can there be a credible person in the world?" This passage probably means that the emperor must use people without suspicion, otherwise it will harm the world.

After writing and putting down the pen, it was still early, and the willow wind blew outside the window, and the spring flowers and grass mixed in the wind and the faint fragrance of the earth. Hou Fangyu looked at his classmates who were either meditating or writing hard, thinking back to his passionate and almost perfect test papers, thinking of the surprised eyes of the examiner when he was reading the papers, and thinking of the blockbuster and amazing people when the list was released, and a sense of happiness and a sense of achievement that was superior to others arose: You all tell me, why am I so smart and so different? !

The exam was over, Hou Fangyu's papers were picked out separately and placed on the desk of the leader of the marking team, and a group of people surrounded the papers and didn't know how to grade them.

This volume can be called perfect, the style, structure, vision, discourse, etc., all of which are full of talent, the only thing that is problematic is the idea. Of course, there is nothing wrong with employing people without doubting this point of view, and it is universally applicable, but it is not the correct truth that can be said at any time and place, for example, this point of view should not be mentioned on formal occasions during the Chongzhen period.