The three-year Zhengke temple examination of Sogo was held in the Taihe Hall in April when the wind and sun were beautiful.

This time, a total of 268 tributes participated in the palace examination, and the emperor personally wrote the questions and personally led a group of scholars to read the papers, which was more attentive than the Enke examination last spring.

This year is the third year of his official ascension to the throne, and many officials who have added his favorite officials have been added to the court, and some officials who are old and sick, have been squeezed out of the court by him for different reasons. But this is not enough, he needs more people who are only loyal to him, he wants to completely control the entire court, the whole country, he needs more loyal and excellent new jinshi. The two consecutive years of Enke and Zhengke examinations and palace examinations are the best time for him to recruit talents.

Even the topic of the palace examination, he was very attentive, and selected two famous sayings of the sages from ancient books, and the theme was two words: "Loyal to the King". What is Zhongjun? How to be loyal? How do disloyal people behave? What will happen? How should the people around you deal with those who are not loyal to you?

The emperor's original intention is also very clear, two rebellions in a row, even the emperor himself almost lost his life, of course he will hate those who have rebels. He is trying to win over the hearts of the world's scholars, so that those rebellious and disloyal subordinates and families will lose the hearts of the people, and from then on they will become lost dogs, so that the subjects of the world will be loyal to the king, and no one will ever have a rebellious heart.

The emperor's thoughts are very normal, and the scholars and important ministers of the court who know this topic also understand it very well, and even the tributes in the Taihe Palace, after seeing the topic. Most of them understood the emperor's thoughts and knew how to write this article.

But no one can be sure, there are always people in this world who will be surprised.

The two rebellions have long since passed. And because it mainly happens in the capital and Jiangnan, people in other areas have only heard about it, but have not experienced it personally, so they don't feel it very deeply. The imperial court did not openly tell the people of the whole world where the nobles, officials or any family rebels needed to be judged, and when the emperor first ascended the throne, in order to stabilize the overall situation, he also said that he would only deal with the first evil and not pursue the rest, so he was outside the capital. Most people don't take these two rebellions seriously anymore. To them, King Ying is just a cannon fodder who wants to rebel but fails.

The tributes from these regions were mixed in the circle of scholars after going to Beijing. I went to the Mingzhi Library again, and when I saw the title of the emperor, my first reaction was: Loyalty to the monarch means loyalty to the court. It's not a matter of two gentlemen. Devoted to his duties and loving his people like sons. When he further diverged his thinking, he did not go in the direction of "not doing anything to the two monarchs" that the emperor wanted - this kind of natural thing only needs to be mentioned, and the focus is on the other three points: "loyalty to the court", "dedication to duty", and "love the people like sons".

To put it simply, it is how officials should do their part, share the worries of the king, govern the place, and benefit the people. Of course, honesty and honesty must be mentioned in this. The recent case of the levee is a case in point. Corruption, fraud. is not only sorry for the court, but also harms the people, and in the end, he and his family did not end up well, this is the end of "disloyal to the king". Therefore, those who are officials must be loyal to the king, they must be honest, they must love the people, and they must be responsible...... Otherwise, you can't live with the king's court, your family and relatives, you can't live with the sky, you can't live with the earth, and you're simply a sinner in the world......

When the emperor took his important ministers to read the papers, his mood was really complicated. Of the two hundred and sixty-eight tributes, forty or fifty wrote in this way, and even though the words were different, the meaning was very similar, and most of them used the dam case as an example. Of course, the emperor also attached great importance to the case, but his focus was different from that of these tributes. The tributes were concerned that corrupt officials should be punished, and honesty was the duty of officials, but the emperor paid more attention to the confessions of those prisoners who were arrested, and wanted to know from them who else had been attached to King Ying.

With such an idea, the emperor did not close the case of the embankment for a long time, and all the prisoners were still in prison, except for those who died in the middle, no one was sentenced. The outside world does not know the truth, and there is already a lot of discussion, and Dali Temple, the Criminal Department, and all the people involved in the trial are under great pressure. But the emperor was not satisfied, so they could only hold on. And those prisoners who refused to speak were still very tight-mouthed, although they may not be able to withstand the punishment, but there was a family behind them, and in order to protect the whole clan, they had to keep their mouths shut.

Being executed for corruption and dereliction of duty is not the same as being involved in a major case of rebellion. The former will only sin himself, at most his family will be affected, but if there are relatives, friends and clansmen to help, life can still be lived; The latter is unlucky for the whole clan, and it is really hopeless. Some people have also thought that if they can make a deal with the emperor in exchange for their own lives, it is not impossible, and they can suffer less. But the Emperor had promised not to pursue the rebels, but now that he was going to kill them all, could they risk believing him? The situation is deadlocked.

The emperor was irritable in his heart, and suddenly found that so many people mentioned the embankment case in the palace examination articles of the current Kegongs, and the sensitive nerve in his heart attacked, worried that there would be the hands and feet of King Ying's remnants here, and deliberately borrowed the tributes to test him? He sent someone to investigate, but he didn't expect the spies to report that so many tributes were concerned about the embankment case because they knew that there were two paintings of Nanhui Port hanging in the library, and the people in the library were often discussing the embankment case.

With the reputation and status of the library in the capital now, there is no need to mention that local readers often go there, and readers from other places will definitely have to go and see it when they come to Beijing. Whether it is borrowing books by yourself or communicating with other readers, it is a common thing, and it is inevitable to mention this hot topic during the period, and the two "Nanhui Prosperity Map" and "Nanhui Post-Disaster Map" also impressed those who have seen it. It was not uncommon for the Tributes to bring up the levee case in their essays.

As soon as the emperor heard that this was the reason, he knew that he was thinking too much. It's okay for other families, but knowing that the owner of the library, Jiannanhou Mansion, will never collude with King Ying's anti-party. Without the ancestors of the Zhao family, he may not even be able to save his life, let alone ascend the throne as the emperor. Anyone in the world can rebel. It is impossible for the Zhao family alone.

The ancestral home of the Zhao family is Fengxian, next to Nanhui, and it was also attacked by the tide last year. The Zhao family is also good. The county duchess Zhang and the eldest girl Zhao Xiu of Jiannanhou Mansion were both involved in disaster relief, and Zhao Wei also participated in the trial of the embankment case, so it is not surprising that the Zhao family paid special attention to the case. His family used this to educate the students who came to the library to be honest and honest and to be responsible and love the people. It is also the proper meaning. The emperor didn't want to complain about anything, but he was still interested in the two paintings, and specially ordered his inner servants to go to Jiannanhou's mansion. asked Zhao Wei to send the painting into the palace for him to take a look at.

Zhao Wei did so. The emperor admired the two paintings in the Qianqing Palace, was amazed, and asked Zhao Wei: "Who made this painting?" I'm afraid that the payment of this 'Knowing Hall' can't be signed by an irrelevant person, right? ”

Zhao Wei replied with some embarrassment: "Don't dare to hide the saint." These two paintings were made by Weichen's sister herself. It's just a boudoir danqing. It's not easy for outsiders to know, so they signed this 'Mingzhitang' money. Sister Weichen also translated some foreign books, and the things that were included in the library were all named after this. ”

The emperor was very surprised: "I have also seen your sister's paintings at the Queen Mother, and I only thought she was quite aura at that time, but I never thought that she could paint such a painting!" "Translating foreign books is even more difficult. But this is for the emperor. It's not a great skill. The level of the translator in the DPRK is not high. It's just that Zhao Xiu, the daughter of a boudoir, can have such a ability, which is very rare.

The emperor admired the two paintings a few more words. Let Zhao Wei take it back. Although the painting is rare, the technique is not very good, and it does not meet the standard of the palace collection, but the sense of authenticity is shocking. The emperor had also been to Nanhui, and he felt a little uncomfortable after seeing the paintings, so he didn't look at them anymore.

After figuring out the truth, the emperor let go of his suspicions and became troubled by the results of the palace examination. Many of the articles of the Gongshi who mentioned the case were very good, and he was an excellent person, and he could not give up. But these articles are a bit off-topic for him. Some scholars believe that people who deviate from the topic should not be ranked too high. The problem is that those who do not deviate from the topic, the tributes who devote themselves to the theme of "loyalty to the monarch", and the articles are not the best, and even the overall level is inferior to those who deviate from the topic, and some people's articles are suspected of patting the emperor's ass. In the eyes of some scholars and important ministers who have obvious tempers, this kind of person lacks character and cannot become a great tool. So even if the emperor reads these people's articles very well, it is not easy to directly express his feelings.

Finally, Li Guangdi, a highly respected bachelor, said to the emperor: "People who deviate from the topic" can't actually say that they really deviate from the topic, and what they write is also the right principle of loyalty to the monarch, as long as the article is good, the monarch should be evaluated fairly, and should not act too much on personal likes and dislikes.

The emperor also understood that it was difficult for him to speak openly with his little caution, so he adopted Li Guangdi's opinion, and the article was well written, even if the embankment case was mentioned, it was still among the best. It's cool to shoot him on the back, as long as the article is insufficient, he can only rank in the back.

In mid-April, the results of the temple examination came out. On the gold list, there are more than 30 tributes who mention the embankment case and often go in and out of the Mingzhi Library, and one of them is still a second-class passenger. Yijia Dalang High School ranked 67th in the second grade, Wu Gongshi was the 129th, and Zhao Kun actually sat in the penultimate place in the second grade, and unexpectedly did not fall into the ranks of the same jinshi.

In the Jiannan Hou Mansion, the Zhao clan people in Beijing once again gathered to celebrate Zhao Kun. At the same time, because so many tributes who paid attention to the embankment case had achieved good results, and occasionally talked about their own palace examination articles on the occasion of their celebrations, the embankment case was inevitably brought up again.

These jinshi and fellow jinshi only felt that the emperor approved of their article, so they must also agree with their ideas. It is really unremarkable that the prisoners in the dam case have been tried for so long, and no result has been reached, and no main culprit has been executed! What are the Criminal Department and Dali Temple doing? Is there something shady? It's really a corpse vegetarian meal! The six departments of the imperial court are corrupt and incompetent, and they need upright people like them to be upright and clean!

Even the new scholars, who had not paid much attention to the dam case, were infected by the same year and became interested in their proposals.

The new scholars were young and vigorous, and it was the time when the spring breeze was proud, and they were full of loyalty and patriotism, and there was nowhere to vent their patriotic hearts, so they sincerely wrote to the emperor in various ways. They said that they wanted to share the emperor's worries, asked the emperor to deal with the prisoners in the embankment case, and participated in the criminal department and Dali Temple to procrastinate and derelict their duties......

The officials of the Criminal Department and Dali Temple were about to cry, and the emperor's mood was even more complicated. He began to wonder if he had shot himself in the foot. (To be continued......)