Li Shi paced back and forth in the imperial study with his hands in his hands, he was irritable in his heart, on the one hand, he was angry at Wei Gao's defeat, and completely ruined his dream of returning to Chang'an, and on the other hand, once Wei Gao took out his own edict asking him to send troops, the person responsible for the defeat became himself.

Isn't your reputation ruined?

No, this black cauldron must not be carried by himself, and Wei Gao must not be allowed to return to Chengdu.

"What does the privy envoy think Wei Gao should be convicted?" Li Shi asked coldly.

Song Chaofeng had already figured out Li Shi's heart, he was waiting for Li Shi to make up his mind, and when Li Shi opened his mouth to ask himself, he knew that the time was ripe.

"Your Majesty, Wei Gao lightly attacked the enemy, resulting in the annihilation of the whole army, he should bear all the responsibility, and it stands to reason that he should be beheaded in public, but please read that Your Majesty will give him a chance to cut himself for the sake of his meritorious service, and Weichen suggests that he be given a piece of white silk."

Li Shi was silent for a long time and said, "I don't want to know about this matter. ”

"The old slave will definitely take care of it."

Li Shi nodded, turned around and left.

Song Chaofeng immediately wrote a warrant and sent it to Tian Wenxiu quickly.

Three days later, news came from the court that Wei Gao felt deeply guilty and resigned, and had no shame to come to see the Son of Heaven, and hanged himself at the Jianmen Pavilion Station.

Li Shi immediately issued an order, although Wei Gao was directly responsible for the defeat in Guanzhong, but remembering his meritorious service in the war, posthumously presented him as the county prince of Chencang, and buried him with the gift of the county prince, while not implicating his family, and returning his body to his family.

Although Wei Gao's death was full of suspicions, many people suspected that Tian Wenxiu did it halfway, but there was no evidence, so he had to go to his mansion to mourn the dead and scold the eunuchs for bringing disaster to the country.

This fiasco in Guanzhong also made Li Shi completely lose the courage to recapture Chang'an.

.........

Jinshike finally arrived at the day of the list, as soon as the day dawned, Wang Xian, Zhang Benchu and other four people rushed to Jinyang Palace, the list was issued in front of the official office of the Chengshi Hall, there was a row of high list shelves at the gate, and all kinds of announcements were posted here.

The last time was the Ming Jingke list, it used to be crowded with people, and today there are far fewer people on the list, only two or three thousand, after all, there are only 1,700 scholars who took the Jinshi examination in the end.

A total of 100 people are admitted to the Jinshi Department, and basically they will be awarded the nine rank officials, and the nine rank officials have four ranks, the nine grades are upper, the nine grades are lower, the nine grades are lower, and the nine grades are lower.

In addition to supplementing the local state and county officials, there are also various official offices under the Jin Dynasty's palace, which are actually the official offices of the imperial court.

Wang Xian and Li He both played well and played their highest level, but there are many masters in Jinshike, and it is still unknown whether they can make the list.

It is precisely because of hope that the two of them are very nervous, but Zhang Benchu and Zhou Kun are calm, they have self-knowledge, they must go to Guozijian to study.

The four of them hurried to the square of the reception hall, and the list was already crowded with people, and the list had not yet been released, and everyone was waiting anxiously.

At this time, the door opened, out of a group of engaged, Shizi saw an interesting thing at the door, there were soldiers on the ground put a row of five small paper tubes, with a fire fold to ignite a short line on it, the short line sneered and burned, a moment, five small paper tubes exploded at the same time, making a series of loud noises, startling everyone, what is this new thing?

This is the artillery battle, it is currently a strictly controlled military item, tied to the shaft of an arrow and shot into the sky, its military name is called light thunder, it will never appear in the market, and at the moment of celebration, the soldiers of the firearms battalion will generally light a few to cheer up.

The soldiers couldn't care about the artillery battle at the moment, and several people engaged in taking the list and the paste bucket came out.

Several engaged in the ladder, began to paste the list text, red paper and black letters, each large piece of paper has ten names, the words are very large, the first is a first, a first has ten people, the first place is the champion, the second place is the eye, the third place is the flower, the top ten are excellent, and the official is nine products.

Twenty people in the second grade, in the second best, the number of officials from the ninth grade, the number of students admitted to the third grade is the largest, seventy people, for, the award of officials from the ninth rank to the lower rank.

As soon as the first list was posted, an official began to roll call, and his voice was very loud, and he shouted loudly: "The first place in the first class, Lu Jinhuan of Jixian County, Youzhou!" ”

A soldier raised his hand in the air and shouted excitedly, "It's me!" ”

The Lu family was boiling, raised it high, and the official shouted: "Go outside and celebrate!" ”

Everyone carried Lu Jinhuan away and went to the distance to celebrate, and the official continued to shout: "Zheng Wentao, Zhengzhou Xingyang, the second place in the first class!" ”

There was another burst of cheers, and the official shouted again: "Wang Xian, the third place in the first class, Shangdang County, Luzhou!" ”

Wang Xian's eyes were dark, and he almost fainted, happiness came too suddenly, he was actually hit by Tanhua, and he was weakly helped out by Zhang Benchu.

Zhang Benchu punched him in the shoulder socket, and said excitedly: "You kid actually passed the Tanhua exam, you will cover me in the future, and I will rely on you to make a fortune." ”

Wang Xian sat on the ground, covered his face and cried bitterly, he has been famous in Chengdu for two consecutive years, but he didn't expect to be admitted to Tanhua in Taiyuan, which made him sad and happy.

At this time, Li He was also helped out by Zhou Kun, and Zhang Benchu asked urgently: "Lao Li was also admitted?" ”

Zhou Kun nodded, "Ninth place in the second grade!" ”

"Oops! Celebrate today, let's go! Let's go to Sanjin Restaurant. ”

At this time, a few soldiers walked up, hugged their fists and said, "Which of these sons has passed the exam?" ”

Wang Xian stood up and said, "I am the third in the first class, and this is the ninth in the second class." ”

"Please come with me, today you will wear red and praise the street, His Royal Highness the King of Jin will invite the scholars to a banquet in Jinyang Palace, you will have a private party tomorrow!"

Wang Xian, Li and the two followed the soldiers to the steps of Jinyang Palace Square, the other top ten Jinshi are here, the first place Lu Jinhuan is beaming, the level of the top ten is actually about the same, Lu Jinhuan is because the current political issues of the Ming Jingke played extremely well, won the appreciation of Guo Song, and was set as the first place.

Most of the top ten are children of famous families, the second Zheng Wentao is the son of the Zheng family in Xingyang, the fourth Cui Yu is from Qinghe County, Hebei, Qinghe Cui's family, as well as the Pei family and the Wei family's children, but there are also three ordinary children in the top ten, Shangdang County Wang Xian is an ordinary landlord family, but he has a little relationship with the Taiyuan Xue family, he once studied in the Xue family, and because of the death of his grandfather, he stopped school and returned to his hometown, barely half of the Xue family's protégé.

At this time, a hundred jinshi arrived, Meng Jiao counted the number of people, and then led everyone to the side of the Temple of Literature to pay homage to Confucius, which was a must do in the imperial examinations of all dynasties.

Then go to the shower and change clothes, put on red and hang colors to prepare for the street.

Amid the earth-shattering drum music, the procession of Kuajie set off, and hundreds of soldiers surrounded the new Kejinshi on high-headed horses, walking on several streets in Taiyuan, and the streets were full of people watching the excitement.

However, compared with the Song Dynasty and the Ming and Qing dynasties, the enthusiasm of the people in the Tang Dynasty was still a little worse, after all, ten years ago it was still useless to study, or everything was inferior, only the practice of martial arts was high, and the people of the Tang Dynasty were more enthusiastic about welcoming the triumphant return.

After all, Taiyuan also has a population of nearly one million, and there are many pedestrians on the street, but almost all of them have the mentality of watching the excitement, and there is no fanatical worship in later generations.

Nearly an hour after Kua Street, everyone returned to Jinyang Palace, and at this time, the square in front of Jinyang Palace was full of tables and chairs.

At this time, the high-legged seat has begun to become popular, and the brocade chair of the Guo Song official room and the circle chair for resting at home have long been imitated by civil and military officials.

The high-legged seat is indeed more comfortable than kneeling, the low-class society has long begun, and the middle and upper class society has gradually accepted it under the influence of Guo Song and Hexi officials, and even sitting on the brocade chair has become a status symbol.

Compared with the formal brocade chair, the comfortable circle chair is more popular with the general public, and today it is a circle chair.

The scholars sat down one by one, and then Yan Shuo got up and said, "I am Yan Shuo in the Shilang of the Shibu, and I will preside over tonight's banquet......"

The jinshi below were talking in a low voice, "Why is Lang Zhong, not Lang Lang coming out?" Someone asked in a low voice.

"Stupid, Taiyuan's Shibu Shilang is equivalent to the Ministry of Rites, and this Yan Shilang is the son of Yan Xiangguo."

Yan Shuo continued: "Please this year's chief examiner, we, Elder Li Ge, will say a few words to you. ”

Immediately applause was enthusiastic, everyone knew that this Li Ge Lao was Xiangguo Li Mi, although he did not hold an official position, but his status was respected, and even the chief examiner in Chengdu was not as old as him.

Li Mi stood up and said with a smile: "I am Li Mi, born and entered the WTO, this time His Royal Highness the King of Mengjin looks high, I served as the Taiyuan imperial examination, I served as the chief examiner in the thirteenth year of the Great Calendar and the second year of Jianzhong, frankly speaking, the level of the Jinshi is obviously higher than before, the fundamental reason is that His Royal Highness the King of Jin advocated fairness and justice, meritocracy, 73,000 scholars gathered in Taiyuan, you are from the more than 70,000 people, equivalent to 700 people admitted to one person, the competition is fierce, it can be imagined, some people say, Jinshi is the protégé of the chief examiner, I don't agree, the imperial examination was not set up by me, and you are not working for me, you are the protégé of His Royal Highness King Jin. ”

In the warm applause, Guo Song stood up, raised his glass and smiled: "First drink a glass of wine to moisten your throat, and then we will continue to talk." ”

Everyone laughed and toasted together.