It has been ten days since the end of the imperial examination, and five days ago, the examination institute posted a list of palace examination notices, notifying 3,000 candidates to participate in the palace examination.

Yesterday morning. The Ming Law Department, the Ming Calculation Department and the Ming Character Department have been released, and Xue Qing High School Ming Law Department is second place, which really makes Guo Jincheng envious, and at the same time worried about himself.

At the beginning, Guo Jincheng didn't care much about whether he could pass the exam, he just wanted to give it a try, but when Xue Qing passed the exam, his mentality also changed, and he began to suffer from gains and losses, eager to be admitted by himself, but afraid that he would not be able to pass the exam.

He wanted to ask his father several times, but in the end he restrained himself, and his father clearly told him that he would not interfere, nor would he pass it, and whether he could be admitted or not was his own ability.

Before dawn, Guo Jincheng got up early, and as soon as he finished washing, Bai Juyi smiled and said, "Have you cleaned up?" ”

"It's almost, but don't be in such a hurry, it's said that the list won't be released until noon!"

"It's impossible to release the list at noon, it should be morning, let's eat something and leave."

"Two, breakfast is coming!"

Xue Qing walked in with a smile with a food box, he was admitted to the Ming Law Department, he was in a good mood, he was willing to do errands in the past two days, and his relationship with Bai Juyi also improved.

"Soy milk and ghee cakes, its ghee cakes are good, with a layer of meat sauce in them, which is very delicious."

Soybean milk is packed in a gourd, plugged tightly with a wooden stopper, as long as it is not tipped over, it will generally not leak, the bottom of the gourd has the logo of each store, generally bet five cents, and you can get the money back when you go back, of course, this is just the practice of small street shops, high-end stores are with fine-necked porcelain bottles, and then the same is plugged with wooden stoppers.

Xue Qing saw that the two of them were nervous, so he smiled and persuaded: "Don't worry about the two of you, you have both taken the palace exam, are you afraid that you won't be able to pass the exam?" ”

Bai Juyi ate the cake in his mouth, and said vaguely: "There are three thousand people participating in the palace examination!" Only thirty people can be recruited, and it is equally difficult to pass the exam. ”

Xue Qing smacked his lips and said, "Actually, I don't think there is any need for the imperial court to take the palace test again!" Now that the provincial test has been passed, isn't it okay to rank according to the results of the provincial exam? And so much more. ”

"Wrong!"

Guo Jincheng corrected him unceremoniously, "The examination in the examination institute can only be called the Ministry of Rites test, and then the Ministry of Rites test and the palace test can be called the provincial test, besides, the level of the candidates cannot be seen only by one test, and the test must be taken twice, which not only prevents cheating, but also can see the true level of the candidates, which is more reasonable." ”

Xue Qing saw that the time was not early, so he said impatiently: "Eat quickly!" I'll just say it, but you're rambling for a long time! ”

The three of them quickly finished breakfast, cleaned up and set off.

Today is the day of the list, since last year, the list system has been reformed, no longer send people to the inns in Chang'an to report the good news, changed to the Jinju Institute to notify the local government of the family, and the local government will send people to report the good news to each family, and the candidates in the capital will go to see the list.

The list was released on the square of the examination institute, and it was not yet dawn, and thousands of people had gathered here, and every scholar was worried in his heart, not knowing if he could pass the exam?

Of course, if you don't even have the opportunity to participate in the palace exam, then don't expect to be admitted to the Jinshi, but today is also the time for the admission list of Taixue and Guozi Xuefa.

Taixue will admit 2,500 people, and Guozixue will admit 500 people, this kind of list is jokingly called the copper and iron list, ranking below the gold list of Jinshi and the silver list of Ming Jing and Ming Law.

At this time, in the political hall of Daming Palace, Guo Song and Zhong Xiangguo conducted the final audit, mainly to review the top ten, and then the top three were determined by King Jin.

In fact, the level of the top ten is about the same, and most of the top three are determined from a political point of view, after all, everyone in the world is paying attention, sometimes to balance the family, and sometimes to balance the region.

Guo Song looked at the list in a daze, he never thought that his son could be admitted to the top five, before, his son also participated in the palace examination, probably because of the nervousness, the performance was not ideal, only won the eleventh place in the palace examination, but he played extremely well in the Ministry of Rites examination, won the second place in the Ministry of Rites examination, and finally ranked fifth.

Guo Song wants to set him as the top three, in fact, it is completely fine, but this is too obvious, Guo Song sighed secretly in his heart, and said to everyone: "The first place is set as Suzhou Shen Kai, everyone has no opinion!" ”

Shen Kai is the Wuxing Shen family, a famous family in the south of the Yangtze River, this time Shen Kai took the first place in the Ministry of Rites exam, and the palace exam was not ideal, so he only won the fifth place, ranking second comprehensively.

Everyone understood His Highness's intentions, and they still wanted to further encircle the Jiangnan Shi clan, so everyone did not oppose and unanimously agreed.

"The second place is set as Jiang Yao, a scholar from Jianzhou, do you have different opinions?"

Jiang Yao is the third in the Ministry of Rites Examination, the first in the Palace Examination, and the first in the overall ranking, it stands to reason that he should be the champion, but Guo Song moved him backwards, in fact, it is already good, and he is not set as a list because he is a Bashu scholar, but because he was born poor, Guo Song needs to set an example for a poor disciple to show the fairness of the imperial examination.

Everyone did not object, and at this time, Du Gu Qiu smiled and said: "The third Tanhua will be given to Xue Jin!" After all, he is the second in the Ministry of Rites exam, and he is only fifteen years old, it is normal for the palace exam to be a little nervous, it is rare to have such an excellent prodigy. ”

Only Dugu Qiu in Xiangguo knew that Xue Jin was Guo Jincheng, and everyone else was hidden.

At this time, Guo Song sighed and said: "I really don't hide it from you, this Xue Jin is Shizi Jincheng, it's very difficult for me to do it!" ”

The political hall was in an uproar, and no one expected that the young prodigy who had caused a lot of controversy because of an Anxi countermeasure article two days ago turned out to be the son of the world.

The reason why he didn't play well was because when he wrote about Anxi Military Town, he omitted Broken Leaf Military Town, and later remembered to add it later, but when he added it, he wrote that Broken Leaf City was close to Atami, and it was written that Broken Leaf City was north of Yibohai, a missing supplement, and a common sense error, which led to him not entering the top ten of the palace examination in the end, but his clear thinking was greatly appreciated by everyone, especially when he proposed the establishment of a fifty-mile post station system, which was amazing.

Pan Liao said with a smile: "Don't avoid relatives, Weichen thinks it's a good thing to let the prince explore the flowers, after all, the strength is here, so people have nothing to say." ”

Du You also said to Guo Song: "Your Highness, the prince can have such an achievement, this is also the result of the careful cultivation of his master Li Ge Lao, even if we don't consider the son of the world, we have to give Li Ge Lao an explanation." ”

Zhang Beiyi also persuaded: "Please believe in the vision of the ministers in the political hall, everyone has a rational judgment, knows what to do, what not to do, and will never cater to His Highness, since everyone agrees that the prince can be ranked high, it means that the prince is well deserved." On the contrary, depriving him of the status he deserves because he is the prince of the world is an injustice to the prince of the world and a violation of the principle of fairness of the imperial examination system. ”

Guo Song still felt that it was inappropriate, after all, he didn't do well in the palace exam, which is a fact.

But everyone was bent on making the prince rank on the top, and when they saw that King Jin was hesitant to make a decision, they bowed down together, "Please think twice, Your Highness!" ”

.........

The sky has been bright, the square in front of the examination institute has gathered one or two hundred thousand people, crowds of people, dense scholars, although there are many people, but it does not seem crowded, mainly there are ten lists, the north list is released Jinshi list, the other nine lists are released Taixue and Guozixue copper and iron lists, so that the crowd is effectively diverted, and there are only five or six thousand people below the Jinshi list.

This time, as last year, 120 people were admitted, of which 100 were ranked according to their grades, while the next 20 were somewhat taken care of, which is also a common practice.

Among them, the first three are called Jinshi and the first, the fourth to the twentieth are called the Jinshi origin, and then the twenty-first to the latter are called the Tongjinshi origin.

Of course, everyone is called Jinshi, and there is no need to distinguish it so clearly, but in fact, when the officials consider awarding officials, it is different.

The first place is awarded to the seventh rank of the officer, the second and third place is awarded to the eighth rank of the officer, the fourth to the twentieth place is the rank of the eighth rank of the officer, and then the twenty-first to the last rank is awarded to the ninth rank of the official.

Don't look at the difference of only half a level, but half a level means a term of office, and must also be assessed at the top level, if it is the assessment of the middle and lower level, then don't think about the promotion, this delay is a gap of ten years, and after middle age, they will understand that in the competition in the officialdom, the most feared is the age gap.

The scholars looked at each other, at this time, there was a drum sound in the examination hall, and the crowd began to stir, at this time, the gate of the examination hall slowly opened, and out of ten teams, each team was ten people, two soldiers in front opened the way, five soldiers followed behind, and in the middle were three officials, one carrying a ladder to carry paste, one holding a gold list, and the other was assisting.

Ten teams walked towards the ten ranking points, the crowd dodged one after another, and one of the teams came to the departure point in the north direction, where the Jinshi list was released, the largest number of people, and the scholars were also the most eager.

The officials set up a ladder, the first official climbed up, brushed the paste on the wooden board, and another official handed him a roll of the list, the first list of Jinshi is eighty-five to one hundred and twenty, that is, the last thirty-five, the list is pasted with a wooden card, black characters on a red background, gold dust is also transferred in the ink, each name is golden, this is called the title of the gold list, the name is the name of the state plus the name of the county and the name, so that basically there will be no scholars with the same name and surname,

The crowd began to get excited, surging desperately upward, and seven soldiers with ash sticks in their hands stopped the surging soldiers.