kvmb Chapter 757 All in Vain
Chapter 757 All in Vain
This time, Wei Zijie was neither confused nor hesitant about failing the exam. He knew in his heart that while there was Li Mingyuan in Yuezhou, there was no one like him in the capital. His chances of passing the exam were zero!
The reason I participated in this imperial examination was only out of a last shred of hope.
So after failing the exam, Wei Zijie wasn't too disappointed and packed his bags to return to his hometown.
After returning to his hometown and waiting for another six months without receiving the official appointment notice, Wei Zijie finally gave up his last hope and chose to leave home to find work to supplement his family's income.
Perhaps it was Wei Zijie's knowledge that impressed the local magistrate, who then favored him and made him his advisor.
From then on, Wei Zijie's family's living standards improved significantly. His parents farmed the land, and Wei Zijie worked as a secretary for the county magistrate, earning a considerable income for that era. As a result, the family's life became better and better.
However... whenever Wei Zijie lay in bed late at night, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
His dream was always to govern a region, not to be a clerk who could only advise the county magistrate.
Fortunately, Wei Zijie was a pragmatic person. Even though he disliked the job of a secretary, he still did his job conscientiously to help the county magistrate handle the affairs of the county and managed everything in an orderly manner.
During this period, Wei Zijie also learned a lot of knowledge that cannot be learned from books, and learned how to govern a region and how to be a good official.
And so, Wei Zijie served as a secretary for three years. Three years later, the county magistrate was promoted, and Wei Zijie followed the magistrate to the prefectural city. He gained a broader perspective and a wider vision, and became more and more adept at handling government affairs.
It was at this time that Wei Zijie realized how hard life was for the people of Xia.
More than 70% of the land in the prefecture was in the hands of landlords and powerful families, while ordinary people, who made up more than 90% of the population, owned less than 30% of the land. Moreover, they were required to pay taxes, corvée labor, conscription, and so on to the imperial court.
It is undoubtedly unreasonable that ordinary people, who own the least land, have to bear the greatest burden.
Wei Zijie had considered changing this situation, but when he brought it up with his benefactor, who was now the prefect, his expression changed drastically. He reminded Wei Zijie in a cryptic tone, "Zijie, I know you care about the people, but these powerful families are not something we can shake. You must never mention this matter again."
At this moment, Wei Zijie finally understood that the prefect, or rather most of the officials, were not unaware of this matter; they were simply powerless to change it, or rather... dared not touch the interests of the landlords and powerful families.
Even his benefactor, Liu Xi, who was a prefect, changed his expression drastically and looked panicked when talking about this matter, which shows how powerful the landlords and tycoons were.
This made Wei Zijie admire Li Mingyuan even more. While all the officials feared landlords and powerful families like tigers, Prefect Li Mingyuan was able to consistently implement his principles and carry out policies to curb the power of landlords and powerful families. It was hard to imagine how much pressure Li Mingyuan was under.
Thinking of Li Mingyuan, Wei Zijie couldn't help but recall the kind old man he had met outside the examination hall.
After returning home from his shift, he couldn't help but write a letter, detailing the various situations he had discovered in the county and attempting to discuss them with Li Mingyuan. He also sent the letter to the prefectural city.
Wei Zijie thought the letter would be lost forever, but to his surprise, he received a reply from Li Mingyuan not long after.
In the letter, Li Mingyuan agreed with Wei Zijie's various views and told Wei Zijie that he had been working to change the situation. He also asked Wei Zijie for his suggestions.
Seeing that Li Mingyuan valued him so much, Wei Zijie was invigorated and frequently corresponded with Li Mingyuan to discuss various policies to suppress and weaken landlords and powerful families and improve people's livelihoods.
In the years that followed, the two corresponded more and more frequently.
However, this period of good fortune did not last long. Three years later, Li Mingyuan was transferred to the capital, while Wei Zijie continued to serve as the prefect's advisor.
The distance between the county seat and the capital was extremely far, so the two naturally corresponded less and less.
However, this did not diminish Wei Zijie's admiration for Li Mingyuan in the slightest.
He had witnessed Li Mingyuan's achievements firsthand. During the years Li Mingyuan served as the prefect of Yuezhou, the lives of the people had indeed improved, which was an undeniable fact that could not be faked.
When Wei Zijie heard that when Li Mingyuan left the city, many of the city's residents spontaneously went out of the city to see him off, which made Wei Zijie both envious and happy.
He envied Li Mingyuan because, as a scholar, he also longed to be loved by the people like Li Mingyuan.
He was happy because he had always regarded Li Mingyuan as his mentor, and he felt honored that his mentor was so beloved by the people.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'll never be able to become an official like my mentor and be loved and respected by the people.
Wei Zijie chuckled self-deprecatingly and continued to bury himself in the endless stream of government affairs, occasionally corresponding with Li Mingyuan to discuss various strategies for governing the country.
In Wei Zijie's imagination, his mentor, who was going to Beijing, would surely achieve great things and make the country a better place.
Indeed, this was the case when my mentor first arrived in the capital. He was immediately summoned by the emperor and entrusted with important responsibilities.
After that, his mentor reformed the imperial examination system and formulated various benevolent policies that benefited the people and weakened powerful clans.
However... his mentor's benevolent policies did not go smoothly. There were countless opponents in the imperial court, and local officials were outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant, unwilling to implement his mentor's policies at all...
However, this did not deter Li Mingyuan. On the contrary, he became even more determined to push forward with the policy, even at the cost of offending all the powerful families.
However, the power of the aristocratic families was still too great. Whether in the local or central government, they had a large number of their members holding important positions. Faced with such a huge opposition force, if Li Mingyuan had not had the full support of the emperor, he would probably have been torn to pieces long ago.
Even with the emperor's support, Li Mingyuan's policies were still extremely difficult to implement, and could only be described as extremely challenging. He could only rely on cultivating and promoting students from poor families to fight against these powerful clans.
In his letter, Li Mingyuan told Wei Zijie that given enough time, he would surely be able to change the country and bring a better life to its people.
Unfortunately, time was not on Li Mingyuan's side.
With the passing of the late emperor and the ascension of the new emperor, Li Mingyuan's years of hard work vanished in an instant.
The new emperor, who was put on the throne by powerful families, was naturally subject to their control. The first thing the new emperor did after taking the throne was to dismiss Li Mingyuan from his position as prime minister!