Ten days ago, Li Li pretended to be a scholar who went to Taiyuan for reference, passed through Guanzhong and entered Hedong, and when he returned, he was the same, turning into a scholar who went to Chengdu to participate in the imperial examination.

He carried complete supporting materials and traveled all the way through the state without being harassed.

After passing Jiexiu County, Li Li slowly calmed down, and he regretted it a little in his heart, he didn't even see Guo Song's face, he didn't know anything about Guo Song's attitude, maybe it was Pan Liao who deliberately took revenge on himself, and he didn't report it to Guo Song at all.

Although he regretted it a little, Li Li didn't want to go back, he couldn't afford to lose this face, and he found enough reasons for himself, from Pan Liao's attitude towards himself, you can know that Guo Song had no sincerity at all, so he avoided himself and rejected the request of the Son of Heaven with practical actions.

On this morning, Li Li arrived at Pujin Pass, and several soldiers stopped him, "Who are you?" ”

Li Li gave his entourage a look, and the entourage immediately took out a letter of recommendation from the Luzhou government and handed it to the soldiers, "This is the proof of my son-in-law, he went to Chengdu to participate in the imperial examination!" ”

Scholars participating in the imperial examination were basically not blocked, this was the consensus reached by the various feudal towns, and merchants, scholars, and warriors could be unimpeded.

The first lieutenant looked at the recommendation and waved his hand, "Let's go!" ”

Li Li urged the horse into Pujin Pass, there is a small market in Pujin Pass, there are several taverns and grocery stores, you can rest in it, you can also buy dry food and water hyacinths and the like, from the other end of Pujin Pass, you will enter the Guanzhong.

At this time, a peasant stepped forward, he pointed to Li Li's back, and said to the lieutenant in Puzhou dialect: "That person seems to be a spy, I heard him on the road that he came from Taiyuan, not Luzhou." ”

The lieutenant was suddenly excited, and he immediately shouted: "Catch the scholar just now!" ”

Dozens of soldiers chased towards the city, Li Li was chased by the soldiers as soon as he entered the city, they rushed up, pressed several of Li Li's entourage down, and pulled Li Li off the horse, a soldier took out the gold medal of the Son of Heaven from his arms, and immediately shouted, "Captain, he has the gold medal of the Southern Tang Dynasty!" ”

The captain was surprised and delighted, there was a gold medal in the Southern Tang Dynasty, this is a big fish! When he was about to be promoted and rich, he shouted, "Tie them up and take them away." ”

Li Li was frightened in his heart, and shouted urgently: "I am the Tang Imperial Family, I am the imperial nephew of the Son of Heaven, you can't be so rude!" ”

The captain stepped forward and slapped Li Li in the eye, and the captain pretended to be frightened and said: "I actually beat the Tang Dynasty, did I commit a capital crime?" ”

The soldiers also shouted: "If you want to kill your head, run away!" ”

Everyone laughed and dragged Li Li towards the Guancheng Military Office.

The two 'peasants' who exposed Li Li had already hidden in the crowd, and seeing Li Li being arrested, they quickly turned around and returned.

........

That night, under the torture and coercion of the Qin army, Li Li, who was so frightened that he was not possessed, confessed everything, revealing the plan of Li Shi, the son of heaven, and what happened to Taiyuan word for word.

At the same time, he leaked one of the most important information, the Son of Heaven Li Shi had appointed Wei Gao as the generalissimo of the expedition to the north, led 50,000 troops into Hanzhong, and would cooperate with Guo Song's army to seize Chang'an.

The Pujin guard will immediately report to Qiu Jingzhong, the commander of Tongguan, Qiu Jingzhong realized that the problem was serious, and early the next morning, sent a pigeon letter to Zhu Jinqing, the king of Qi who stayed in Xijing, Zhu Jinqing was the righteous son of Zhu Zhu, and was named the king of Qi and left behind in Xijing, and led an army of 30,000 to guard Guanzhong.

Zhu Jinqing replied to Qiu Jingzhong on the same day, ordering him to immediately escort Li Li to Luoyang.

At the same time, Zhu Jinqing ordered Qiu Jingzhong to send Li Li's detailed confession to Luoyang in an expedited manner of 800 miles.

The palace of Luoyang is called Taichu Palace, originally built by Emperor Yang of Sui, in order to fight the nobles of Guanlong, Yang Guang and Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty successively moved the capital to Luoyang, and built the Luoyang Palace to be extremely grand and prosperous, but the Luoyang Palace was seriously damaged in the Anshi Rebellion, and only the remaining palace was less than half of the original.

After a few months of repairs, barely able to live, Zhu Jun has moved into the Taichu Palace and placed hundreds of civil and military officials.

Although the capital was moved, Zhu Jun has been paying attention to the situation in Guanzhong in the past few months, and he still has a large amount of grain and grass materials that have not been transported out of Guanzhong, so he is afraid that Guo Song will rebel again and lead the army to invade Guanzhong.

That night, Zhu Jun had just fallen asleep when a eunuch woke him up, "Your Majesty, Liu Junshi said that there is an urgent matter to report." ”

Zhu Jun was startled, sat up suddenly, and said repeatedly: "Announce him to wait in the outer hall!" ”

He put on his clothes indiscriminately, and walked quickly to the outer hall, at this time Liu Sigu came to report that Zhu Zhu was most worried that Guo Song's army had entered Guanzhong.

He sat down in the outer hall, and a guard led Liu Sigu over, and Liu Sigu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, there is an urgent express report from Guanzhong!" ”

Zhu Zhu's heart hung in the air, and he asked nervously: "But the Guo Song army has entered the Guanzhong?" ”

"It's not!"

Zhu Jun's heart hanging in the air suddenly fell to the ground, for him, as long as it was not the Hedong army that entered the pass, nothing else mattered.

"What's that?" The tension in Zhu Jun's tone disappeared.

"Your Majesty, it has something to do with Chengdu, the Pujin Pass garrison captured the secret envoy sent to Taiyuan by Li Shi, who is Li Bai, the king of Jiangling County, and got a lot of important information from him."

Speaking of this, Liu Sigu submitted an expedited report, "This is Li Li's confession, which has just been delivered, and he feels that there are several very important pieces of information in it, so he alarmed His Majesty at night." ”

Zhu Jun waved his hand, "Such important information, not to mention alarming, the military advisor does not have to be guilty." ”

He took the information and read it carefully, the content of it made him quite interested, Li Li was actually treated coldly in Taiyuan, Guo Song did not see him, he was taken aback when he saw the back, Wei Gao led an army of 50,000 troops into Hanzhong, obviously to conquer Guanzhong in the north.

"The military advisor will interpret this confession for me, why didn't Guo Song see Li Li?"

Liu Sigu smiled slightly: "This is what he said before his humble position, for Guo Song, Li Shi's threat is far more than ours, he guards against Li Shi is better than us, he does not send troops to Guanzhong, not to keep any promises, but he doesn't want to make a wedding dress for Li Shi, Li Shi wants to recapture Guanzhong, he can take it himself, the Jin army will not participate, he does not meet Li Li, it is to express this attitude." ”

Zhu Jun walked a few steps with his hands in his hand, then turned back and asked, "If Guo Song doesn't send troops, will Wei Gao's army go north?" ”

Liu Sigu said with a smile: "Wei Gao will not go north easily, but Li Shi will, as long as we create an illusion that we can easily seize Chang'an for him, Li Shi will definitely be impatient to urge Wei Gao to go north." ”

Although Liu Sigu suffered several big losses at the hands of Guo Song, he seemed very relaxed when dealing with Li Shi of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and he had already seen through Li Shi's incompetence.

Zhu Jun thought for a while and said: "The King of Qi is brave and good at fighting, but his mind is not flexible enough, I want to ask the military division to go to Guanzhong to sit in the town, and the military division will be under full command." ”

Liu Sigu hurriedly bowed down and said, "Weichen is willing to serve Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Zhu was overjoyed, and hurriedly handed over the gold medal for commanding the army to Liu Sigu, and the next morning, Liu Sigu led 20,000 troops south to Shangluo Road to support the battle in Guanzhong.

.........

On the fifth day of the first month of March, the imperial examinations in Chengdu and Taiyuan were held at the same time, only 1,900 scholars in Chengdu participated in the imperial examinations, and 20 people were admitted, but 73,000 scholars from all over the world came to participate in the imperial examinations in Taiyuan, and a total of 700 people were admitted, of which 500 were admitted to the Ming Classics Department, 200 people were admitted to the Jinshi Section, and 1,000 people were admitted to the Guozixue Examination.

The Ming Jing Department is mainly to admit scribes, including court clerks and local government clerks, at this point, the Ming Jing Department is more like the civil service examination of later generations, and it is difficult to enter the Shi Section, and those who are admitted can get the nine grade officials.

Guozixue, which mainly trains military Chinese officers and local government professors, is a different education system from the imperial examination, and after studying in Guozixue for five years, after passing the examination, they will be sent to various military and state official schools, and enjoy the same treatment as Ming Jingke.

Before dawn, Zhang Benchu and Wang Xian, who lived in Gaosheng Inn, went out to catch the exam, and they went out with three other Hebei scholars, a total of five people.

They hired an ox cart to go to the Gongyuan, and inside the ox cart, Zhang Benchu said with a smile: "The rules this time are different from before, in the past, the advanced science and the Ming Jing were taken separately, and this time it was a joint examination, which was to first take the Ming Jing subject, and then enter the Shi subject, that is to say, if you want to refer to the Jin Shi subject, you must be admitted to the Ming Jing subject, I can't figure out why you want to do this?" ”

"Actually, it's very simple, it is necessary to have a qualification, in the past, I needed to be recommended by the local township, but this time I didn't, I only read a copy of "Analects", I said I wanted to be admitted to the Shike, is it possible? But how to tell, there is no way to sign up, so use the Ming Jing Department as a qualification test, if you want to be an official, at least you must have more knowledge than a scribe! “

"That's right, in the Ming Classics Examination, the scribes are already in hand, and I definitely want to try the Jinshi Department again."

After a short time, the ox cart arrived at the Tribute Courtyard, only to see that the square in front of the gate of the Tribute Courtyard was crowded with people and lined up in a long line.