Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

Ninety-nine percent of people, until things truly reach a certain point, always believe: “It won’t go that far. It really won’t.”

In most people’s eyes, an emperor killing tens of thousands is already extreme. Any more than that, and wouldn’t it be a massacre?

So, Fifth Huanyu and Xu Jingxing exchanged a glance and launched their attack without hesitation.

Xu Jingxing spoke first. Before opening his mouth, he even glanced at Fifth Huanyu, signaling that he wasn’t trying to hide behind him and send him to his death.

“Your Majesty, this humble subject once served as a substitute magistrate in Shaanxi.”

The old emperor observed this man—clearly as nervous as a mouse facing a cat, hands trembling—yet still trying to put on an impassioned front. Seeing this, he simply decided to give him a chance: “Speak.”

Under the sharp gaze, Xu Jingxing’s heart tightened. He gritted his teeth and went all in: “To supply rations for the troops stationed in the Hexi Corridor, the court specifically permitted merchants to purchase rice and transport it to Ganzhou. The court provided payment for both the rice and transportation costs—Your Majesty, some people are using this as an opportunity to swindle court funds.”

The old emperor let out a cold laugh, unsurprised. “Who?”

Xu Jingxing replied, “Officials from various states and counties in Shaanxi have done it—I have done it too! People from the royal households and the imperial sons-in-law’s residences have also done it! Even officials in the capital court…”

[Wow!] Xu Yanmiao exclaimed in astonishment. [No wonder he had to step forward—steal… or rather, cheat? Either way, he took money from the old emperor. He’s just afraid of getting caught.]

Fifth Huanyu suddenly spoke, “Does Your Majesty know why so many candidates pass the Tongsheng Exam?”

Fifth Huanyu continued, “No other reason—money alone.”

Fifth Huanyu said, “A child need not memorize the Four Books and Five Classics; they only need to recite a few model essays, string together two or three hundred characters, and they can pass.”

Fifth Huanyu added, “As long as wealthy families pay enough, even the top scorers can be predetermined.”

With just these two men and these few words, the Prime Minister’s fishing game was immediately pushed to a level even Prime Minister Dou hadn’t foreseen.

One had struck at what the old emperor cared about most—money.

The other had pointed directly at the root of the imperial examination.

The Minister of Rites’ forehead broke out in a cold sweat. “Mad… They’ve all gone mad…”

Are they afraid that not enough people will be buried with them?

Tonight, there is no wind or rain, and the sky is bathed in moonlight.

The old emperor looked at the two people before him. His expression and tone were both calm. “I understand. Speak one by one—Xu Jingxing, you go first.” 𝑅ἁΝỘᛒĘꞩ

Fifth Huanyu bowed and stepped aside.

Xu Jingxing cleared his throat. “The court established a whole anti-fraud system for grain transportation…”

The old emperor waved his hand. “I know that better than you. Just tell me how they cheated.”

Xu Jingxing explained, “Merchants transport grain across the Yellow River, and officials inspect it at the ferry crossing. Once checked, the grain is sealed in bags, with a label indicating the weight and sample. A verification document (kanhe) is then issued to the merchants.”

Xu Jingxing continued, “After that, officials secretly cut off the sealed labels, use sheepskin rafts to smuggle the grain back across the Yellow River, then transport it across again, repeatedly deceiving the system by reusing the labels and verification documents. They can do this as many times as they want. In the end, they present empty bags at the Ganzhou warehouse, using the labels and documents to claim grain prices and transportation fees.”

Xu Yanmiao summarized: [So basically, they never delivered the grain, yet they still managed to fleece the court.]

[And the merchants… I bet aside from real ones, there were also impostors disguised as merchants.]

[This is military grain we’re talking about!]

[Wasn’t someone executed last time for tampering with military rations…? Oh! It was the adopted son of Marquis Yongchang!]

Marquis Yongchang had been sitting quietly, minding his own business, pretending to be a piece of wood so he wouldn’t get involved. But hearing this, he glanced at Xu Yanmiao in despair, wailing internally:

‘Can you just let me go?! I already know I was wrong! I swear I won’t take in so many adopted sons anymore! Can we just not bring this up?!’

‘And if you have to mention it, can you at least use his actual name instead of constantly calling him “Marquis Yongchang’s adopted son”?!’

‘Do you not even know his name?! Fine, I’ll tell you! His full name, his courtesy name—I’ll even tell you that when he played house as a kid, he liked calling himself the “Invincible General of the Universe!”‘

Under the sympathetic gazes of those around him, Marquis Yongchang, who was as burly as a brown bear, tried to shrink himself deeper into his chair.

The old emperor had no interest in Marquis Yongchang’s suffering. Sitting back behind the table, he propped his chin on his hands. “Tell me, who is involved?”

Xu Jingxing spilled everything like pouring beans from a bamboo tube—he knew all the details because he was a reserve county magistrate for Xi’an in Ganzhou!

The old emperor had only one response: “Investigate!”

The Jinyiwei commander held a register, noting down each name. If Xu Yanmiao voiced any suspicions internally about whether someone was involved, he marked them with a circle or a cross accordingly.

After finishing this matter, the old emperor turned to Fifth Huanyu. “And what’s this about the Tongzi Examination?”

Fifth Huanyu had already prepared his response. “Does Your Majesty remember the Eight-Legged Essay?”

The old emperor gave a faint “Mm.”

That was an issue from the mid-to-late period of the previous dynasty.

The imperial examination system had been in place for a thousand years, evolving from a crude mechanism to a well-developed one, fully opening the path for social mobility. However, after so many years, the exam topics had largely been exhausted.

—After all, the Four Books and Five Classics contained only so much content. Over a thousand years, every single word had been tested repeatedly.

In this situation, in order to catch the examiners’ attention when answering questions, examinees began frantically chasing after uniqueness in their citations.

From historical texts to the Six Classics, from Buddhist scriptures to Daoist canons—some even went to the extreme of outright inventing a quote and attributing it to some well-known figure… Of course, this was only possible for those who read widely. The majority, however, had only ever studied the Four Books and Five Classics from childhood, ignoring everything else because “it won’t be on the exam.”

By the mid-to-late period of the previous dynasty, scholarly families had already developed a structured study plan:

Before the age of eight, children would read The Character Lessons on Human Nature and Principles. After turning eight, they started with The Elementary Learning, followed by The Great Learning, then The Analects, Mencius, The Doctrine of the Mean, and The Corrected Edition of the Classic of Filial Piety. Next came The Book of Changes, The Book of Documents, The Book of Poetry, The Book of Rites, The Rites of Zhou, The Spring and Autumn Annals, and the Three Commentaries

As long as one followed this system and memorized everything, there was no need to fear the exams.

—Except for those who were naturally bad at studying.

But this examination system led to a serious problem…

Fifth Huanyu explained, “Since Emperor Wen of the previous dynasty, the Eight-Legged Essay format has flourished. Examinees don’t study The Three Comprehensive Histories or The Four General Histories—they don’t even know which dynasty Liangzu or Chuzong belonged to.”

—In a parallel world, this would be like students not recognizing the founders of the Han or Tang dynasties.

Xu Yanmiao: [Oh! I get it. ‘This part won’t be on the test, so we’re skipping it.’]

Fifth Huanyu continued, “Moreover, essays must be filled with allusions and idioms—the rarer, the better. If one can use obscure words, they must never use common ones. If one can write in ancient script, they must not use colloquial characters. If one can say 豭豝 (archaic terms for male and female pigs), they must never use 公豬母豬 (common terms for male and female pigs).”

Xu Yanmiao: [Ah, I see! Like how when writing an English essay, you should use ‘advanced vocabulary’ and complex sentence structures!]

As he spoke, Fifth Huanyu casually wrote down a line: 蠖略蕤綏，漓虖幓纚.

The old emperor asked, “What does that mean?”@@novelbin@@

Fifth Huanyu replied, “It describes the grandeur of the emperor’s carriage and the beauty of its decorations.”

Xu Yanmiao: [Is this a subtle jab at the emperor’s peasant background, implying he wouldn’t recognize obscure characters?]

The old emperor: “…”

Gao Tiezhu, expressionless, gave his judgment:“Utter nonsense.”

“Exactly, exactly!” Another person, equally uneducated, waved the flag enthusiastically: “Why can’t they just praise in simple terms that even an old farmer can understand? What’s the point of showing off?!”

In his heart, Gao Tiezhu nodded furiously.

Many high-ranking officials who had once fought their way up from the bottom also nodded internally in agreement.

Back when they were waging war, just deciphering the challenge letters from the Xiangyang rebels had been a nightmare. The letters were full of rare characters like 鬯、爨、鱻、麤、鑿、篪、黼、巇、袠、囮、茝…—they had to look up each one individually, and the process was pure suffering.

Even when they sought scholars for help, many of them stuttered while reading and didn’t recognize half the words either.

[Thank goodness that as an examiner for this year’s imperial exams, I didn’t come across too many obscure characters while reviewing papers. Otherwise, it would’ve been embarrassing.]

The Prime Minister and the Six Ministries’ Ministers exchanged smiles.

The old emperor coughed, stroked his beard, and smugly asked, “Then why is it that our dynasty has none of these issues?”

Fifth Huanyu immediately saw that His Majesty was fishing for praise… The thing was, setting things right and eradicating that trend of convoluted, obscure writing was indeed thanks to these country-bred officials.

“Naturally, it is because of Your Majesty, the Prime Minister, and the esteemed Ministers…”

Fifth Huanyu continued, “The banning of the Eight-Legged Essay, the prohibition of scholars from flaunting literary flair in official memorials, and the strict rejection of essays with obscure wording in the imperial examination.”

Just how plain did writing need to be?

In the fifth year of Tiantong, when the Great Xia dynasty held its first imperial examination, the Prime Minister personally supervised the exam. One examinee wrote as his opening line: ‘Heaven and earth grind, all things sprout, the sage emerges.’ He was immediately dismissed for using strange, obscure phrasing.

The old emperor not only upheld the decision but also commented: “When you learn to write ‘In the beginning, heaven and earth separated, all things grew, and the sage was born,’ then you may take the exam again.”

This became the official writing standard in the Great Xia bureaucracy—anything more complicated than this would lead to impeachment.

—Of course, this also made it easier for commoners to understand government policies.

—Incidentally, three years later, that same examinee returned. He had even changed his name from Liu Rui (琟, an uncommon character) to Liu Yu (玉, a simple and common character). His writing had also become exceptionally clear and straightforward. That year, he became the top scorer in the examination.

After citing this example, Fifth Huanyu heard the old emperor go, “Oh? You certainly have a keen memory, recalling something from so long ago.”

Fifth Huanyu simply smiled and accepted the compliment.

However, the divine beast was already exposing his secret.

[HAHAHAHAHAHA!]

[Because he was one of the examinees in that very exam!]

[After hearing about Liu Yu’s case, he stayed up all night copying his own essay, revising it over and over to check which words and phrases sounded archaic or obscure. He lost so much sleep over it that he eventually decided to skip the palace examination altogether, took his rank as a provincial graduate, and went straight to serve as a magistrate in Lishui County.]

[Luckily, it was still early in the dynasty, and there were many vacant positions, so they could directly assign officials from the exam rankings.]

[…Wait?]

Xu Yanmiao suddenly had a thought:

[Come to think of it, isn’t it always like this? Whenever there’s a vacancy in the bureaucracy, they just throw in an imperial examination graduate to fill the spot. So… if they execute a lot of officials, they can just do the same, right?]

[If one batch of examinees isn’t enough, they could always hold a special examination?]

[So… the old emperor doesn’t fear executing too many people at all?!]

The old emperor chuckled.

Well, of course.

Besides, he could always hold off on executing them, keeping some officials shackled in place to work until the next batch of replacements was ready.

As for whether these officials would cause trouble—well, you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your wife and children, would you…?

[Hiss—]

[Better lie low for now!]

The old emperor: “???”

Seeing Xu Yanmiao once again slump onto the table, arms crossed with his face buried in them—a now-familiar action—the emperor could no longer hold back,

“Xu Yanmiao! Get over here!”

What are you afraid of?! You’re a favored minister! Act like one!