At this time, in the Wuying Hall of the outer court of the Forbidden City, Zhu Zhanji, the crown prince of the Ming Empire, sat on the throne with a cold face, listening to his confidants and important ministers say this extremely important event.

Zhu Zhanji is a gentle man and can trust his subordinates, he is willing to hand over many state affairs to his subordinates to complete, and then give some comments by himself, so that he, the prince, will not bow to everything, and his subordinates can also trust him, and work hard for state affairs, so from April to Nanjing, all government affairs are handled by him, and they are orderly and show the rules.

But today's major event is related to the fortunes of the country, and those civil and military officials can't help, so he has to personally intervene.

Hundreds of civil and military officials from all over Nanjing, honorable ministers and relatives gathered, and after the eunuchs shouted, the hundred officials saluted and stood still.

Although Zhu Zhanji is 28 years old this year, he has been loved by the Yongle Emperor since he was a child, and he has been carefully taught, mental, and majestic, and he is no longer just a 28-year-old young man, on the contrary, he is precocious, and he has already possessed the majesty and mind that an emperor should have, and he is sitting on a high throne at this time, with a slightly immature cheek, revealing a sense of fortitude, and his eyes are full of confidence, which makes people dare not underestimate him。

No one in the civil and military officials looked down on the prince because of his youth, on the contrary, they looked more cautious and the etiquette was more thoughtful, no one was a little snub because of the prince's youth.

Zhu Zhanji condescendingly glanced at the hundreds of large and small official positions standing under his feet, a sense of pride welled up in his heart, he exhaled heavily, and said to the eunuch beside him: "Let's start!"

Your eunuch stepped forward, raised the Buddha dust in his hand, and said in a loud voice: "The deliberations begin!"

The sharp voice echoed in the empty hall for a long time, and the originally silent hall was slightly angry because of the eunuch's words, and many people whispered.

One of the major events that Zhu Zhanji is discussing today is for this year's scientific research case.

The official imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty is divided into three levels: the township examination, the meeting examination, and the palace examination. The township examination is a local examination held by the southern and northern Zhili and the political envoys of each country. The location is in the south, Beijing Mansion, and the residence of the political envoy. Once every three years, it is held every child, Mao, noon, and unitary year, and is also called Xiangfu.

The township test and the first test of the eight strands of the examination. The so-called eight-strand essay is based on the sentences in the Four Books and the Five Classics, and the meaning can only be expounded according to the title. The wording should be in the tone of the ancients, that is, the so-called words of the sages. The format is also dead. The structure has a certain program, the number of words has a certain limit, and the syntax requires duality. Baguwen is also known as system, art, time, art, eight, and four books. The eight-strand essay is an article composed of eight rows of couples, which is generally divided into six paragraphs. Break the topic with the first sentence, continue the topic with two sentences, and then explain why, which is called the origin. The main part of the eight-strand text is four paragraphs: the starting stock, the middle share, the back share, and the bundle strand, each of which has two paragraphs. At the end of the article, a big summary is used, and it is called a big summary, and whether the candidate can go to high school depends on the merits of the eight-strand text.

Since the implementation of the imperial examination in the third year of Hongwu, after continuous improvement, in the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the Ming Taizu set the number of examiners, two examiners and eight examiners. Others will try to promote the transfer of officials, the examination paper officials, the sealing officials, the family record officials, etc., the system is very complete, it can be said that under this perfect system, the imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty is much fairer than the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty.

But how can there be absolute justice in the world, the joint examination of the imperial examination, it is said that people do not distinguish between old and young, land does not distinguish between north and south, it is an equal selection of scholars, in fact, not to mention the distribution of admission ratio according to the province, that is, there are many loopholes in the trial promotion of officials, the officials in charge of the examination papers, the officials who seal the seals, and the officials who record their dependents, etc., and this time the imperial examination case was caused by the imbalance between the north and the south.

Speaking of which, this is not the first time that this kind of case has occurred in the 30 years of Hongwu that shocked the world.

On the fifth day of the third month of the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the capital Nanjing held the ninth imperial examination since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. After the exam, the results will be released on Gongyuan Street. The bustling people were all looking at the list, and someone suddenly questioned loudly in the losing election: "The admitted tribute students are all southerners, and none of the northerners are on the list." ”

Everyone took a closer look, and sure enough, it was so.

Someone in the list thought of the examiner, and shouted loudly in the crowd: "The main and deputy examiners are all southerners, and it is the southerners who suppress the northerners!"

The angry scholars went to the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites to ask for an explanation, but the Ministry of Rites did not care at first, but soon, the streets and alleys of Nanjing were plastered with anonymous leaflets, accusing the chief examiners of selecting only southerners, and there must be hidden secrets. Everyone was dissatisfied, and made trouble in front of the Ministry of Rites, and the incident became more and more intense, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites did not dare to conceal it, so they submitted a notebook to the emperor to state the matter.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew such an examination result, and he was furious in his heart, and at the same time suspected that the three chief examiners from the south had the possibility of favoritism.

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But after thinking about it, he criticized on the fold: "The southerners all occupy the yellow list, and the crowd is excited, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites will read the test papers again." The implication of this instruction is obvious, that is: some northern candidates must also be admitted. In order to appease the dissatisfaction of the northern sons and win their support, so as to facilitate the consolidation of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the chief examiner Liu Sanwu into the palace for questioning. The eighty-five-year-old was an upright but stubborn man. He replied to Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "The list will be tested, and the north will make a big uproar, and the ministers already know everything." Ranchen only ranked the articles according to their merits when they were grading, and he didn't know whether the admission was accurate, and where the people ...... "He told Zhu Yuanzhang about the serious and fair process of grading the papers, and told Zhu Yuanzhang that under the influence of the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the literary foundation of the northern Juzi was far inferior to that of the south.

For this statement, Zhu Yuanzhang also agreed very much, helplessly, the world's scholars were in a fuss, in order to appease the northern scholars, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted Liu Sanwu to pull out a few northern scholars, in order to encourage the hearts of the northerners!"

Who knew that Liu Sanwu was a tough bone, and said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Ministers can only take the quality of the test paper as the standard for the country, not the southerners and northerners." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little displeased, but he didn't have a good seizure, so he just continued to persuade: "In my opinion, I might as well choose a few of the northerners to calm people's hearts and calm down the anger."

Liu Sanwu held on to the "dead reason" and said: "The ranking of the examination has been decided, and the elected person is worthy of his name and cannot be replaced." ”

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became angry and said: "Mr. insisted on not changing, I thought there must be personal disadvantages in it." Liu Sanwu was not convinced, and asked another member to re-examine the test papers. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and immediately removed Liu Sanwu from his post, and appointed Zhang Xin of the Hanlin Academy to preside over the review of all the test papers.

It is said that when the matter came to this point, these old scholars should have heard some holy will, but these old scholars not only did not hear the holy will, but insisted on going their own way.

After Zhang Xin ordered the re-volume, Zhu Yuanzhang personally went to the Fengtian Temple and summoned hundreds of civil and military officials and the deposed Liu Sanwu to listen to the results of the re-volume.

Since the result of this time is related to the stability of the scholars in the north and south, Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to it, afraid that Zhang Xin and others will not understand his hard work, so he took the lead in announcing: "The undergraduate will try to win the southerners...... However, the candidates can only be judged by the article, which is the standard of the scholars...... We must demand justice in order to serve the world."

At this time, everyone heard the emperor's meaning, but Zhang Xin, who was ordered to review, did not understand the holy will, and first presented a few of the evaluated test papers of the northern lifter to Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "In accordance with the will of Long live, I have carefully reviewed, and pay special attention to the test papers of the northern lifter. After speaking, he presented a stack of test papers from the south to the election, adding: "The minister compared a few test papers with the test papers in the previous list, only to find that there is a huge difference between the scores of candidates from the north and the south. The last one of the top of the list is also far higher than the best among the northern students, long live the words, the opening of the department should be based on the article to determine the merits, the ministers and other deep body long live the meaning, the selected personnel should be based on the previous list, the northern lifter had to fall off the list. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect this result, not only did Zhu Yuanzhang not expect it, but even the civil and military officials did not expect that the result would be the same after Zhang Xin's review, Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that he would dare to ignore his intentions, and dare to speak for the deposed minister in front of the civil and military officials, and he was so angry that he didn't say anything for a long time. After a pause, he sneered and said, "Zhang Aiqing is really good at acting! Just when you reviewed the test paper, I had already received a secret report, and Liu Sanwu colluded with you to coax the lonely family. ”

Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang's reprimand, Zhang Xin defended: "Since the order to examine the file, the minister and all the officials who read the file have not had any contact with the outside world, and the inside and outside of the Gongyuan are heavily protected.

Zhu Yuanzhang was annoyed and ashamed, and roared angrily: "The officials of the Hanlin Academy protect each other, and they do not take justice as their heart, but protect each other. The Criminal Department arrested Zhang Xin, Liu Sanwu and others and took them to prison and strictly questioned them. The results of Zhang Xin's re-reading are invalid, and I will personally review them to make a decision and retire from the dynasty!"

Liu Sanwu, Zhang Xin and others did not understand the holy will, but the Criminal Department heard the emperor's words clearly, and how could they not know in their hearts, since the test paper of the scholar was correct, then it must be the examiner who was wrong, so the Criminal Department strictly interrogated Liu Sanwu, Zhang Xin and others overnight.

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