The Quanzhou Prefecture Examination is about to begin in three days. After receiving the notice, candidates from various counties rushed to the Fucheng. For a moment, the entire Fucheng was full of students wearing Confucian robes, and this thousand-year-old ancient city also added a bit of literary spirit.

That morning, before Sihou arrived, a large group of people came from the northeastern provincial capital. The team was holding yamen runners with signs such as "Silent" and "Avoidance", and in the middle was a long carriage. It was obvious that these were the officials sent by the academicians to supervise the exam.

This time, the team was led by Song Yingkui, the left senator of the Ministry of Education, from the fourth rank local officials, and more than ten provincial capital officials including Zhao Yan, the assistant chief of the Ministry of Education, which shows the importance of the Minister of Education, to this Quanzhou Prefecture Examination.

Quanzhou Prefecture was also ready. The prefect Gu Kejiu took a group of government officials to wait outside the north gate of the city. After receiving Song Yingkui and his group, he led the team into the city and went directly to Chengtian Temple. He arranged for everyone to stay and accompanied these provincial leaders to have a vegetarian meal before saying goodbye.

After noon, Chengtian Temple, which had been lively for a long time, finally returned to peace. Most of the provincial capital officials who were tired all the way were closed and were preparing to take a lunch break.

It was at this moment that a sedan chair suddenly appeared outside the courtyard where Zhao Yan, the assistant of the Censor of the Censorate, was staying. Shortly after he followed the sedan chair and threw a prayer letter in, Zhao Yan appeared at the door and came to greet him in person.

In fact, Zhao Yan had finished washing up and was about to go to bed because he was really tired.

Not only did they catch the road for a whole morning, Quanzhou Prefecture City is more than 400 miles away from Fuzhou Prefecture City. They set off early the morning before yesterday. They were stuck in the carriage for more than two days. It would be fake to say that they were not tired.

However, he had to drag his tired body out to greet him, because the person who came to visit him was Xu Jie, the chief judge of Quanzhou Prefecture.

The magistrate of this government office was responsible for the criminal name and had many official contacts with the Censorate of the Execution Office. Moreover, Xu Jie was still a famous Tanhualang with a bright future. He could not neglect such a person when he visited him.

As soon as he walked to the gate of the house, Xu Jie had already gotten off the sedan chair and stood under the steps with a smile on his face.

He quickly stepped forward and bowed, "Oh, Lord Xu is here, I am in a position to welcome you, I am forgiven my crimes."

Xu Jie also bowed repeatedly and said, "You are polite, Lord Zhao, the official took the liberty to come and disturbed the adult's rest. I hope you can forgive me."

Do you know I'm going to rest and still disturb me, so I can't wait for tomorrow to talk about what's going on?

Zhao Yan didn't know what happened to Xu Jie, because he was not familiar with Xu Jie, and he had never seen each other several times, and the two sides were just nodding.

However, when people were at the door, he couldn't turn it off. He could only say a few words in secret, but on the surface he was polite and said: "Mr. Xu was joking, what kind of officials are? Isn't this apart? Please, please, please, please."

Xu Jie bowed his hands and humbled for a while, then followed him and walked towards the yard.

This time, Quanzhou Prefecture arranged for the inspectors a small courtyard with two entrances, which was not large in size, so soon the two of them arrived at the lobby of the inner courtyard one after another.

Zhao Yan pulled Xu Jie to the right of the main seat and sat down, and ordered the accompanying yamen runners to take Xiangming. Then he said with a little curiosity: "Mr. Xu is coming in a hurry to visit. Is there any major case?"

He said that I am not familiar with you. If it is a business, then hurry up and say, if it is a private matter, then forget it. I am honest and upright, and you have found the wrong person to make a private relationship.

Xu Jie did not speak, but turned to look at the yamen runners at the door of the lobby. The meaning was very obvious. Some words were not enough to be told to outsiders. You should give up the idle people first.

Is there any major case in this situation?

Zhao Yan suspected that he was foxed for a moment, then waved his hand to the outside of the door and said aloud: "You go to the gate of the yard to guard."

When Xu Jie saw the two yamen runners turning and walking out of the inner courtyard, he took out an envelope from his suspicion and said mysteriously: "The official got a secret letter, so please check it out."

Secret letter?

Zhao Yan solemnly took the envelope, looked carefully in his hand, and then pulled out the letter paper inside, looking puzzled.

As he looked, his face gradually showed anger. Although the person who wrote the letter did not sign, his intention was to frame him, slander him for accepting bribes from the Yang family of Hui'an, and to open a door of convenience for Yang Cong.

It's really outrageous!

He hurriedly finished reading the letter, and couldn't help but snorted angrily: "Who is it? How dare you be so bold?"

Xu Jie quickly introduced: "This person may not be known to you, but his father may have heard of it. The person who wrote the letter was Chen Wenjie, the son of Chen Jiude, the censor of the Censorate. "

Zhao Yan said with a little disgust: "Is it a child of the Chen family in Longxi?"

Xu Jie nodded slowly and said, "That's right."

When Zhao Yan heard this, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

He naturally knew that he had angrily criticized these people for their illegal activities.

However, he just cursed for a few words.

This maritime businessman is not a joke. The forces in the court are extremely terrifying, and they are not something that officials of his level can shake.

He is upright, but it does not mean that he is a young man who knows nothing. He knows that he will not defeat others and will seek death if he wants to die. He is not so stupid.

Why did Chen, Longxi, frame him? Is it because he complained a few times?

The wealthy maritime merchants have not been so rampant yet. They are the assistants of the Censorate. If they fail to frame them, they will be in trouble.

He looked at the secret letter again, and then slowly said, "Mr. Xu, this secret letter was really written by Chen Jiude's son? Are you sure they dare to inflict the stolen officials?"

Sure enough, just a secret letter from Zhao Yan could not believe the old Xingming, who had been an official for many years.

Xu Jie sighed with a false intention: "Of course, I hope this is not true, but yesterday, Xia Guan received a secret report that the people from the Chen family in Longxi had arrived and lived in Chengtian Temple. Moreover, they had taken the five hundred taels of silver from Yang Yun."

"Yeah!" Zhao Yan's expression changed slightly when he heard this. Even though he had been an official for more than ten years, he had already reached the fifth-rank official. He was a little scared when facing a wealthy maritime merchant family like the Chen family in Longxi. He was not afraid of anything. According to his temperament, he would have done something to deal with others long ago.

What should I do if such a terrifying force in the maritime business family wants to deal with it?

At this time, he felt lonely and helpless in his heart. He had no background or backstage. The reason why he had today was mainly because he was a Jinshi from the second grade and was the head of the Ministry of Justice at the sixth grade. Moreover, he was fair, honest, diligent, and famously honest, and was a famous honest official. He was promoted to the high position of the fifth grade.

He had no way to resist such terrifying forces as maritime merchants!

Seeing his expression, Xu Jie couldn't help but feel proud.

Now the contest between him and Chen from Longxi has officially begun, and he is worried that no one will help him promote it.

He didn't want to be an unknown hero. He hoped that the officials of the court could know that at least those officials who were disliked by the wealthy maritime merchants could know that he had a fight with the Chen family of Longxi, the wealthy maritime merchants, and even won.

Zhao Yan is a clean and upright official, quite famous, and is a good sound tube.

Of course, it would be even better if such a promising local official could be brought into his own camp.

Thinking of this, he pretended to be concerned and said, "Mr. Zhao, what's wrong with you?"

Zhao Yan couldn't help but shook his head and sighed, "Oh, it's really a disaster. When I first arrived in the southeast, I didn't understand the situation here, so I was really arrogant."

Xu Jie pretended to be righteous and said: "What arrogance is not arrogant? What the maritime merchants do is contrary to the laws of the court. Lord Zhao is upright and honest. He is really a role model for us. His subordinates really admire him. As for the Chen family in Longxi, they can't be lawless, right?"

When Zhao Yan heard this, his eyes lit up. This Xu Jie was not an ordinary person. Their Yangming lineage was comparable to a wealthy family of maritime merchants. Otherwise, it would be as easy as he would have confronted the chief assistant Zhang Fujing in person, but it would have been "delegated to Quanzhou Prefecture" as "at the same level".

At this time, he no longer cared about the suspicion of forming cliques and making private interests. Whether to form cliques or not or not is no longer important. The most important thing is to escape this disaster.

Thinking of this, he solemnly bowed: "Mr. Xu, thank you."

This means that he is going to move closer to Xu Jie or to the Yangming lineage behind Xu Jie.

Upon hearing this, Xu Jie nodded solemnly and said, "It's easy to say, as long as we work together, we can always overcome difficulties together."
Chapter completed!