……

In the Ming Dynasty, the palace examination is the highest level of the imperial examination, although it is not as important as the examination a few days ago, only to determine the final ranking, and there is no problem of zài being deposed, but for the world's scholars, it is a very grand literary event, the champions of each palace examination, the list of eyes, and the flowers will also be famous in the world in the shortest possible time, and are sought after by countless people in the world.

The palace examination only tests the current policy, and the policy questions are issued in the Taihe Palace. During this period, the emperor would personally ask the tributes at the court.

After the end of the palace examination, the next day to read the papers, the emperor and the invigilators will be according to the candidates' table, divided into three grades, the first class only three people, the well-known champions, the list of eyes, Tanhua, and then the second class of a number of people, the name of "the birth of the Jinshi", the number of the third class, the name of the "birth of the same Jinshi", and on the third day of the list.

Then, on the day of the release of the list, the emperor will hold a ceremony in the Taihe Palace, announcing the results of the palace examination, and the first three of them will be ordained immediately after the palace examination. Other Jinshi, according to the ranking of the palace examination and the court examination, were respectively awarded the official positions of Jishi, director, doctor of Zhongshu, pusher, governor, and county.

However, Zhao Junchen attaches great importance to the palace examination, not because this is a grand ceremony for scholars, but because he cares about the final palace examination rankings of those "Zhao Party Reserve Army"!

Although there is no problem of failing in the palace examination, as long as they are promoted in the examination, the candidates can become officials, and after becoming officials, their own family background, backers, and the ability to deal with people are the key to determining their official path, but the influence of the palace examination ranking should not be underestimated.

To give the most practical example, the current first assistant of the DPRK and the Central People's Republic of China, Zhou Shangjing. It was the champion of the palace examination appointed by Emperor Xiaozhen forty-one years ago, and it was still three yuan and first. The literary name is all over the world, although the Qingliu people in the court and the central government shout all day long that Zhou Shangjing is a big corrupt official and a traitor. But when it comes to learning, there are few people who can compare with it; The other pavilion elder Cheng Yuandao was born as the champion of the palace examination during the Chongzhen period, and the remaining two pavilion elders Huang Yourong and Shen Changmao were slightly worse in terms of background, but they were also from the previous dynasty's Bangyan and Tanhua respectively.

Further along, Cui Mian, the old man of the former cabinet, was the champion of the palace test during the Chongzhen period, and the old Wen Guanliang of the former cabinet was born in the three years of Deqing.

Even if we don't talk about these elders, let's just say that these scholars and scholars who hold great power in the court and China today are all extraordinary in the imperial examination. Zhao Junchen himself is a champion from a background, not to mention, Zuo Lanshan, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, is the fifth of the second-class jinshi in the 12th year of Deqing; Song Qiwen, the secretary of the ministry, is the leader of Deqing for thirteen years; Zhang Bochong, the new secretary of the Criminal Department, who is about to take office, is the fourth in the second class in the seventh year of Deqing; Lin Wei, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was born in the third place in the second class in the fourth year of Deqing......

Relatively speaking, Wang Shou, the secretary of the military department, has the lowest fame, and his palace examination score is only the twenty-eighth in the second class, but he is also from a noble background, with a hereditary title, and his family has been trusted by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty for generations. Now Emperor Deqing has put him in charge of important positions in the military department, but he can't talk to ordinary people.

Not to mention the scholars who are highly learned.

Counting further down, the squires of the six departments, the temple secretaries of the five temples, and the imperial envoys of the Metropolitan Inspectorate. One counts as one, except for a few noble origins, their imperial examination results. There is no one below the second fifteenth!

In this way, we can see the importance of the ranking of the imperial examination. The final score of the palace examination directly affects the starting point of an official, the speed of promotion, and the upper limit of official positions.

To take the simplest example, two officials who have also achieved outstanding political achievements. When the officials promote their official positions, if they put aside other considerations, they will definitely give priority to the official who ranks high in the imperial examination. And if a candidate only achieves the second grade, or even the third grade, in the palace examination, then unless he has a very strong holy grace, luck and background, the rank of about three or four grades is the limit of his life.

If the reason, it can only be said that this is an era in which scholars control the right to speak, and many times even the imperial power does not dare to fight, and the upper and lower officials in the court are all from the imperial examination, in such an environment, only by achieving outstanding results in the imperial examination can they win the respect of the upper and lower officials, and after holding important positions, they can also convince the world.

In this way, Zhao Junchen is naturally very concerned about the final palace examination rankings of those candidates who have taken refuge in him, which is closely related to the follow-up development of the Zhao Party faction in the DPRK, and it is the first step for Zhao Junchen to accumulate his own heritage in the DPRK.

This time, among the tributes on the apricot list, there are more than 20 people belonging to Zhao Junchen, Zhao Junchen also needs to take the opportunity of the palace test to inspect it, to see who is worthy of his own cultivation, if any of these people can be ranked first, or secondary, Zhao Junchen will naturally focus on cultivating resources next, as for those who are behind the second or even the top three, Zhao Junchen can only give them some leftovers to eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zhao Junchen's various considerations do not need to be mentioned for the time being, but it is said that on the third day after Cui Yu moved into the Zhao Mansion, the palace test finally began.

On this day, Zhao Junchen, like all the ministers, did not dare to be late, came to the noon gate early, and then arrived in the Taihe Palace, waiting for the arrival of Emperor Deqing.

When Emperor Deqing arrived, he first asked the ministers a few words, and after learning that all the tributes had arrived, and there were no other important matters in the court, he announced the start of the palace examination.

Then, under the attention of the ministers, the tributes entered the Taihe Palace, and successively went through the rituals such as roll call, scattering, praising and worshipping, and then with the tributes to the students, the palace examination also officially began.

The etiquette of the palace test was actually quite boring, and Zhao Junchen did not watch the ceremony seriously, but just carefully observed the tribute students in front of him.

Among these tribute students, there are five people who Zhao Junchen cares about the most.

The first person is naturally the "Jiangnan Genius" Zhao Shancai, the former prince and master He Ming's closed disciple, Zhao Junchen knows this person's ability and mind, but unfortunately he can't accept it after repeated temptations, he finally decided to assist the prince, which made Zhao Junchen deeply regretful, this time Zhao Junchen also wanted to see what kind of results he could achieve.

The second person is Zhou Suwen, the grandson of Shoufu Zhou Shangjing, who has long been known as a "prodigy", and is deeply loved by Zhou Shangjing, and is still the first place in the undergraduate examination, so it is not easy to match him.

The third person is Zeng Wei, the youngest son of Zeng Congrong, the political envoy of Sichuan, among the candidates who took refuge in Zhao Junchen, Zhao Junchen is the most optimistic about him, not only good at learning, but also quite scheming about the city, knowing how to advance and retreat, Zhao Junchen has already decided to reuse it in the future, and Zeng Wei did not live up to Zhao Junchen's high hopes, the undergraduate will try to take the third place, this time the palace test will not be too bad.

The fourth person is naturally Liu Zimin, Zhao Junchen pays attention to him not because he is optimistic, but because he is more familiar with him. However, for the sake of him doing a lot of things for Zhao Junchen these days, Zhao Junchen also hopes that he can achieve a good result.

As for the fifth person, it is Li Chunchen, who has only had a relationship with Zhao Junchen!

…………

PS: Well, chapter two! Something happened around me and it took a lot of time, so this chapter doesn't have enough words, it's just an excessive chapter! (To be continued......)