After Zhang Dingguo accepted the reward, the Emperor specially gave him a feast.
However, it was not just Zhang Dingguo alone. Instead, they were hosting a banquet together with some of the high-ranking generals in the military to invite all fifteen people from this year's Martial Arts High School.
Although the performance of the other 14 martial arts scholars was not as dazzling as Zhang Dingguo, the martial arts scholar, he had still managed to break through the encirclement from thousands of people. He had to be more or less courteous and rewarded with an official position.
However, in terms of the actual situation of the banquet, there was still only Zhang Dingguo, the main character. The other fourteen martial scholars could only be willing to serve as a foil.
During the banquet, these fourteen martial scholars were casually arranged to serve as captains and dismissed.
Judging from Wu Zetian's attitude, unless these martial scholars had extraordinary abilities and rare opportunities, they might not have any achievements in their lifetime.
And to be honest, the process of this martial arts examination was a little casual and unreasonable.
If Zhang Dingguo had the chance to preside over the martial arts examination in the future, he would definitely change the examination items and rules.
However, this Martial Arts Examination had already ended. The problem of how to reform it would be left for the next Martial Arts Examination!
After the banquet ended, Zhang Dingguo was personally sent by the Emperor to the residence that had just been bestowed to him.
Although the residence was not very big, its location was not bad. It was located in the center of the high-ranking officials 'residential area. If not for the fact that Wu Zetian had gotten rid of officials loyal to Li Tang every few years, Zhang Dingguo might have had to find such a big house in the suburbs even in Luoyang.
When Zhang Dingguo attended the banquet, Wu Zetian had already arranged for people to clean the house and buy furniture.
After knowing that Zhang Dingguo had only brought one attendant with him, he even left behind an old butler, a servant, and four maidservants.
This old butler had worked for some high-ranking official's family before, but it was obvious that he was a professional. He was very familiar with all kinds of knowledge about the imperial court. Under the old butler's midnight tutoring, Zhang Dingguo felt that he could already handle most of the problems in the officialdom.
The servant was the old butler's son. He looked like an honest man and was quite capable.
As for the four maidservants, it was obvious that they had been carefully selected. They were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls in their prime. Moreover, both their figures and looks were top-notch. From this point, it could be seen how much Wu Zetian favored Zhang Dingguo!
Even though it was obvious that Wu Zetian was trying to buy people's hearts, Zhang Dingguo was still feeling very happy.
The only thing that worried Zhang Dingguo was whether there were spies sent by the internal guards among these people.
Although Zhang Dingguo would not be idle and do some plots to oppose Wu and restore the Tang Dynasty, it would still make people feel uncomfortable if there were spies lurking around.
However, it was better not to delve too deeply into this matter. After all, it was rare for him to be muddle-headed…
It was already very late when he heard the old butler explain some things to take note of in the officialdom.
However, Zhang Dingguo still planned to write a letter before he went to bed to tell his family in his hometown that he had become the martial arts champion, so that his family could be happy too...
The night passed without a word. The next day, before dawn, Zhang Dingguo was woken up by the old butler.
It couldn't be helped. Although today wasn't the first and fifteenth day, an official without real power like him, even a fourth-grade official, was not qualified to participate in the morning court. However, he still needed to go to the prison guard to check the time!
It was almost five to seven o'clock in the modern world, and they had to go to work so early. It could be seen that officials in ancient times also had difficulties!
The guard of the prison, also known as the guard of the left and right prison, belongs to the 16 guards of the south yamen.
However, the left and right guards were similar to the left and right Thousand Bull Guards. They were all in charge of the Emperor's safety and the security of the Imperial City. They were four virtual guards. Unlike the other 12 guards, who led the entire country's soldiers from afar, each guard had 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers.
Moreover, the guards and the Thousand Bull Guards usually only managed one to two thousand people. Although they were all elites selected from the Twelve Guards, their daily workload was not much, so they gradually stopped dividing them into two groups.
On Zhang Dingguo's first day of work at the gatehouse, he had to pay his respects to the boss of the gatehouse, a middle-aged man with the surname Wu, who was a Rank-2 gatehouse general. That's right, in the Tang Dynasty, the position of a general was above that of a great general.
However, during the period of the Zhou Dynasty, most people could only be promoted to the third rank. Even a famous official like Di Renjie could not be promoted to the second rank when he was alive. Only the relatives of the emperor could be promoted to the second rank and above.
In other words, only those with the surname Wu and some surviving Grandmasters with the surname Li could become Rank-2 and above officials.
However, most of the second-grade and above official positions were retirement positions with no real power. They were all used to settle the royal family.
Of course, whether or not they had real power in actual operation still depended on the emperor's wishes.
This General Wu was obviously a method used by Wu Zetian to control the guards and then control the military power in his hands.
The process of paying respects at the pier was considered smooth. Although this general was a little arrogant and domineering, his attitude towards Zhang Dingguo was still alright. He probably did not make things difficult for Zhang Dingguo because he was interested in the emperor.
However, the Emperor did not give any specific instructions on how to arrange for Zhang Dingguo, the middle general of the security guards.
As such, the general could only give Zhang Dingguo an office to sit in. As for the specific work, he would wait until he asked the emperor for instructions!
However, as a lieutenant general below Rank-4, Zhang Dingguo could still choose a few personal guards to hold up the front first.
After three days of selection, Zhang Dingguo had selected seven personal guards from the three thousand elite soldiers. He didn't expect these personal guards to have high martial arts skills. After all, with his martial arts skills, he didn't really need the protection of others. However, he had to be smart. He definitely couldn't be as brawny and simple-minded as Da Niu!
In addition, he also used his identity to get Li Daniu to become a guard of the prison and become his personal guard.
In this way, Zhang Dingguo had eight personal guards. When he had nothing to do, he could study the Big Dipper Formation together...
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