The New Year is the fifth year of Tai'an, and it is the year of the triennial competition. According to the usual practice, the examination was presided over by the Ministry of Rites, and the emperor appointed one chief examiner and one deputy examiner, and eighteen examiners with the examiner, to select talented people from all over the world.

The candidate for the chief examiner was expected by everyone, and it was Prime Minister Shao An. Since Sun Yi was the last chief examiner, the position of deputy chief examiner this time fell on the head of Peng Yuanping, the secretary of the ministry. As for the eighteen candidates for the same examiner, there are a mixture of various forces in the DPRK and China, a few people from the Ministry of Rites, a few people from the Ministry of Officials, a few people from Dali Temple, and even a few people from Yushitai.

Compared with the power competition between the examiners, the competition among the scholars who flocked to Chang'an City was equally fierce. Each is gearing up, bound to compete in the spring and leap into the dragon gate.

On the ninth day of March, the beginning of spring.

The lifters who went to the examination had been waiting at the gate of the Gongyuan for a long time, some wearing patched robes and some of them were dressed in gorgeous clothes; Some came on foot, and some came by sedan chair. But no matter rich or poor, everyone is here for the exam, and everyone is in a nervous mood at the moment, everyone is talking about it, and the scene is noisy and complicated.

When the time comes, lift the child into the examination room. Queue up at the entrance of the Gongyuan to register your name to verify your identity. Then go in and search the body to check the baggage, in order to prevent entrainment.

I don't know if it's because the people are too bold today, or because of the intensification of the search, this year's entrainment seems to be more than in previous years. As a result, dozens of candidates were expelled from the examination room and their reputations were removed. Watching those people crying and screaming as they were driven out of the gate by the soldiers, Sven swept the floor. This scene brought invisible pressure to the rest of the candidates.

Shao An couldn't sit still when he heard that so many fraudulent candidates had been detected. The soldiers were instructed to continue the strict investigation and to go to the gate of the Gongyuan to see it in person. As a result, as soon as I went, I saw an acquaintance, or an acquaintance who could not have been in the examination room at all.

"That candidate doesn't need to be checked, go and call him over." Shao An spoke to his subordinates, and the man was waiting for a body search, but was invited to the prime minister. It's a pity that when that person saw Shao An's face, his expression changed greatly, and he didn't have the slightest excitement to meet an acquaintance.

Of course, Shao An didn't have any excitement, and he didn't even greet him, and asked in a stern tone: "Do you have a ticket (1)?" ”

“…… Yes. The man hesitated for a moment, and then took out the ticket with a grinding and chirping.

Shao An opened it and saw the words "It's not too late for someone from a certain province and a place to take a ticket to go to the hospital for the examination", and sneered: "This official remembers that your surname is Liu, why did you change your surname to Zhang?" ”

"The next is the surname Zhang." The man pouted, but still refused to admit it. This is reasonable, after all, the punishment for substitute exams is much more severe than entrainment.

"This official's memory is not so bad, you are Liu Ruqing, the son of Liu Yongzhou." Shao An unceremoniously exposed the true face of that person, and then slowed down his tone and said earnestly, "There is no one left and right now, you can tell the truth." Are you taking the test on behalf of others? ”

"It's not." Seeing that it was exposed, Liu Ruqing knew that the struggle was unintentional, and honestly explained, "The name on this is indeed not me, but it is not a substitute test." But because of the case of the father, the three generations were not allowed to take the imperial examination, so they had to make this decision. ”

According to the regulations of this dynasty, after the offender, prostitutes, and excellent lings are not allowed to take the imperial examination. This reason makes sense, and Shao An believed Liu Ruqing's words.

"Who is the name on the ticket?"

"This person is the son of his father's old friend, he has failed many times, and he has no intention of taking the imperial examination, so he gave me his household registration, which can be regarded as giving me a chance." Liu Ruqing's voice gradually deepened, "My lord knows my father's grievances, can I open the net?" ”

Shao An was unmoved, and said indifferently: "It is clearly written in the law, those who are eligible to participate in the imperial examination must be innocent, cannot impersonate, and cannot hide their lives. ”

"Your Excellency, you know in your heart that my father did not collaborate with the enemy. Why can't you be accommodating? ”

"How can the two be confused?" Shao An reprimanded, "If you feel that Liu Yongzhou has been wronged, you can write a letter to complain about your grievances and overturn the case." But until then, after you are still a prisoner, you are not allowed to conduct scientific examinations. ”

"However, Dong Ji is dead." Liu Ruqing said disappointedly. He naturally thought about overturning the case, but without any physical evidence, it was even more difficult to settle his grievances than to ascend to the sky.

Shao An chuckled inexplicably: "Dong Ji is not the only one who knows the inside story. ”

"Not Dong Ji alone? You mean ......" Liu Ruqing suddenly looked up at Shao An, her eyes full of extreme surprise.

Shao An nodded, "This official can write a testimony for you, and you can take this to Dali Temple to redress your grievances." But this year's Spring Festival, I'm afraid you're going to miss it. ”

"I understand it below. Zai Xia has never been to the Tribute Academy, let alone to the prison of the Criminal Department. ”

Sure enough, it was a little thorough, Shao An smiled with satisfaction, raised his pen, and wrote the testimony without adding points. Then he told him again, "Remember, you must go to Dali Temple." ”

At that time, Liu Ruqing didn't understand the difference between going to Dali Temple and going to the Criminal Department, but when he understood, it was too late.

Candidates entered the hall and the Gongyuan was blocked. Inform the examiner of the number of cheaters, the number of absentees, etc., and then collect the test questions.

As a rule, the spring exam lasts for nine days, divided into three sessions, each of which is three days. The first test is four books and five classics; The second test is a judgment, a judgment, a five-way judgment, an edict, an edict, and an internal department; Three trials of history, current affairs, and five ways. ②

To put it simply, the first session is based on the Four Books and Five Classics, which aims to test the candidates' mastery and understanding of Confucianism. The second session is to examine the students' ability to distinguish right from wrong and write various official documents. The third session is to examine students' insights on ancient and modern political affairs.

Here, the examiners confirmed that the test papers were correct, and then distributed the test papers, and beat the drums and bells to indicate the official start of the spring season.

The candidates were sitting in the cubicles, anxiously waiting for the examiner to give the questions. After the candidates got the sealed test papers and opened them, all the candidates gasped, and the tense atmosphere in the field reached a high tide.

I saw the first title: Learning and Excellence.

This sentence comes from the "Analects", Zixia said: "If you are excellent, you will learn, and if you are excellent, you will be excellent." ”

The difficulty of this topic lies in the intention, the second is the understanding of "excellent", the third is the understanding of "Shi", and the fourth is the understanding of "learning".

This question not only makes the candidates below scratch their ears and cheeks, but also makes the examiners above puzzled. Throughout the imperial examinations of this dynasty, such controversial sentences are rarely produced. How to solve this problem, I'm afraid only the questioner Shao Anxin has a number.

Although the questions are difficult, the candidates have come all the way to Chang'an, but they are not here to hand in the blank papers, even if they are nonsense, they have to fill the papers. Everyone or Wen Siquan poured down the pen like a god, or the three papers without a donkey digressed for thousands of miles, in short, they all began to pick up the pen and grind.

Shao An slowly inspected the figures of everyone who were struggling to write, listening to the sound of the tip of the pen touching the rice paper, and his thoughts were full of thoughts. However, he did not think back to his imperial examination three years ago, but thought of the farther past, remembering the imperial examination case of the first emperor that Uncle Qin had mentioned to him.

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It was the twentieth year of Yongkang, and during An'er's exile, Uncle Qin told him the inside story about the imperial examination case.

On that day, several more prisoners could not survive the hard labor and escaped and were killed. The chief gathered the crowd and scolded them, telling them to take a good look at the fate of the escapees.

After the chief asked everyone to disband, Uncle Qin shook his head and looked at the corpses lying on the ground, and said to An'er: "It's okay if these people are dead. When you come here, if you can survive it, you will live, and if you can't survive it, you will die. At first glance, they are rich and noble people since childhood, and wherever they can endure this suffering, they will die sooner or later. ”

"You are also a person with fine clothes and fine food, how can you stand it?" An'er asked. Compared to the time when he first came, he gradually came out of his grief, and he was able to say a few words occasionally.

"Haha." Uncle Qin smiled bitterly, "Brocade clothes and jade food? That's what kind of brocade clothes and jade food, it's simply murderous clothes and harmful food. ”

An Er listened quietly, looked up at Uncle Qin for a long time, and asked, "Why did Uncle Qin commit a crime?" ”

"Because, party fighting!" Uncle Qin shook his head and sighed, "Do you know the imperial examination case more than ten years ago?" ”

Shao An heard King An talk about this, so he replied, "Yes." The imperial examination case occurred in the early days of the current Shengshang's succession, in order to sweep away the atmosphere of collusion between officials and scholars and accepting protégés from their masters. ”

"Superficial! That's just the rhetoric of the victors, but it's not for the sake of party fighting. The more Uncle Qin spoke, the more excited he became, and he slammed his fist on the wall, "Do you know that there have been countless murders in the imperial examination case, which shocked the government and the opposition." ”

An'er pursed her lips and said disapprerovingly: "But I heard that the person who committed the crime accepted bribes from candidates and cheated in the imperial examination, and he deserved it." ”

"Officialdom is all like this, how many people are not greedy? Even if you are as innocent as water when you enter the office, how many people can clean it when you go to the big dye shop of officialdom? Uncle Qin pointed to a few criminals who were working in the distance, "Look at those individuals, they are also officials." They were either corrupt or corrupt, and they were sent here. ”

An'er frowned, she didn't expect the water in the officialdom to be so deep.

Uncle Qin continued: "There will be fraud in every scientific expedition, do you know why this time it is so widely implicated? ”

An'er thought for a while, "Someone wants to exclude dissidents and fight against dissidents?" ”

Uncle Qin was a little surprised by An'er's answer, "I didn't expect you to be so young that you would say it in one word." At that time, the emperor had not been on the throne for a few years, and the foundation was unstable, and the old ministers of the court and China formed a party and controlled the authority. So the emperor borrowed the hand of Liao Hongxuan's old thief and got rid of the old ministers in the name of the imperial examination case. ”

An Er was silent, although he had never seen the current saint, but from the words of King An and King Jin, he had already felt his skill and ability. Just look at the current battle for succession in the court, the crown prince and the king of Jin are fighting endlessly, but the saint is high, watching his two sons coldly, fighting to the death.

"After getting rid of the old ministers, the emperor is still suspicious, afraid that someone will form a party again." Uncle Qin stretched out three fingers, "Now there are three ways for the party, one is from the same country, the second is from the protégé, and the third is from the same year." ”

An'er tilted her head and thought: "My fellow countryman was born destined, and he was destined to be in the same year. Only protégés are artificially selected. ”

"Yes. The emperor was bent on stopping the party strife, so he banned protégés. This is the ultimate goal of the imperial examination case. ”

An'er sighed, thinking that the emperor had first ascended the throne, was diligent in government and loved the people, and worked hard to govern the country. But now he is greedy for pleasure, allowing the prince and the king of Jin to form a party, and even using party disputes to manipulate the government and seize power. It turns out that power is really a maddening poison that can make people unrecognizable.

Thinking of this, An'er resisted officialdom even more in her heart. And he didn't guess at that time that one day he would go to the scientific examination for his brother, become an official, and fight in the most difficult place in the world.

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The questions of the last two games are decent, not easy or difficult. Nine days later, the three trials were completed, and everything went smoothly. All the candidates left the room after answering, and it was the turn of the examiners to start grading.

In order to prevent cheating, the test paper must be transcribed before being handed over to the examiner for review. When the test paper is fed into the inner curtain. The chief examiner, Shao An, said to all the fellow examiners: "Everyone, let's draw lots." More than a dozen fellow examiners took turns to draw lots, and when they got a few, they took away the pile of papers.

After everyone got the papers, they sat quietly in their seats, waiting for the examiner to solve the question, that is, to clarify the answers and scoring criteria. And the answer they are most looking forward to is naturally the first exam question, to see how Shao An justifies himself.

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(1) Ticket: equivalent to the admission ticket.

(2) The content of the examination imitates the imperial examination.