Time passed, in the spring of the eleventh year of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty, the Song army finally raised troops from Youzhou to attack the Liao State in the north, and the banner was to fight for a hundred years and save the world, but it regarded the Liao State as a demon who harmed the world.

In order to win this battle, the Great Song Dynasty mobilized with all the strength of the whole country, and the main elite of the Northern Army and the Western Army alone were 230,000, plus the young and strong soldiers selected from the forbidden army from all over the country, the number of the Northern Expeditionary Army was expanded to nearly 500,000.

There are also more people who transport all kinds of materials and weapons to the north in an endless stream, so that the statement of the Northern Expedition of millions of people mentioned by the Great Song Dynasty in the declaration of war is not too exaggerated.

After the people of the world learned about this number from various channels, they were also very excited, and decided that the Great Song Dynasty would win this battle, after all, today's Liao State is not as good as in the past, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the day is thin, and it is not an exaggeration to linger, so in the face of the all-out Northern Expedition of the Song Dynasty's million-dollar army, it is bound to be defeated, and it is a matter of time before the Liao State is destroyed.

In such a favorable situation, the common people who bought the treasury bonds were naturally even more happy, and many of them began to worry about the war ahead, only calculating how much they would be able to gain from it after the victory of the war.

However, all this is just a topic that the people outside the capital have been talking about recently, and since 13 February, the attention of the people in Bianjing has already been diverted from the war in front of them, and all of them have fallen on the new imperial examination. Yes, this year's Spring Festival finally started in the day of the Northern Expedition of the Great Army, and all the candidates from all over the country gathered in Tokyo, and in the early morning of the same day, they wore uniform clothes and lined up neatly to enter the examination room to participate in the exam that could change their own and even many people's fate.

Although the atmosphere of the Great Song Dynasty has changed greatly because of Sun Tu's various measures, the fashion of culture and education, especially for the people of the capital, is willing to pay attention to and discuss every imperial examination, and is keen to comment on those famous or candidates who have achieved good results during this period.

In several large gambling houses, a lot of handicaps have been opened in the past two days, and the odds of winning the top prize in the examination of famous talents in various places have been released, which has attracted countless gamblers to donate money, and it is really the participation of the whole people and the enjoyment of it.

However, all this looked like it had nothing to do with Cai Qi, a candidate who could only live in a remote Taoist temple in the west of the city, and when he walked into the examination room with the crowd, he looked so inconspicuous. In fact, in his own heart, he didn't have much hope for this exam, after all, in terms of knowledge and articles, he was too far from those candidates who had come out of the cold window for ten years.

In fact, Cai Qi, a candidate from Zhuji County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Jiangnan Road, is not a serious scholar, he is just an ordinary person who was born in a small household and has read books for a while. It was only because of the previous accident in Hangzhou that thousands of Jiangnan candidates were deprived of the qualification for the imperial examination in the next ten years, so people like him were promoted by the dwarf and obtained the qualification to come to Tokyo to participate in the examination.

Of course, this is also Cai Qi's wish all along. It's just that I didn't expect that my wish for many years would really come true today, and he actually came to Tokyo as a lifter and entered the examination room. Even if this period of life in the capital is miserable, he is also willing.

It's just that when he entered the examination room, sat in a separate room, and saw the stack of title papers in his hand, Cai Qi still felt a burst of nervousness and excitement, and only after a while did he settle down, and then carefully looked at the questions on it.

To be honest, with his attainments in poetry and articles, as well as his understanding of the classics of the saints, it is absolutely difficult to make any good articles in such a formal examination, and he has long been prepared to fail to be a jinshi. It's just that when he saw the content of the test questions, he was stunned-

The above did not let him borrow things to compose poems, nor did he borrow classics to explain his perception of some major truths, but two very straightforward topics: one is the theory of the rise and fall of the previous dynasties, and the other is what suggestions are made to the current imperial court and how to strengthen the country and enrich the people.

There is nothing to moan about, there are only the most real, straightforward topics that can only be seen by a person, which makes Cai Qi's spirit suddenly lift. You must know that he is in the county government, although he is only a small scribe in the household, he still has some opinions on the gains and losses of some measures in the imperial court, and he can calmly make a good article.

What surprised him even more was that the test questions were clearly written, and he could use ancient fu to compose, but at the same time, he advocated expressing his views in the most straightforward words. And this is exactly what Cai Qi is good at, because he is not knowledgeable, and he needs to have a clear expression of many official affairs in the yamen, so he really uses daily spoken language to write, and he has long been accustomed to writing essays like this.

Without much hesitation, Cai Qi chose the second topic, analyzed and explained some of the inadequacies of the Great Song Dynasty from his perspective as a low-level official, and put forward some suggestions of his own. Maybe these things may not really be accepted by the imperial court, and he may not even be able to be admitted to the Jinshi, but there is such a thing that allows him to speak freely in the most familiar way, and there must be high-ranking officials in the court and the central government, which is enough to make him feel excited.

In this way, Cai Qi worked hard to write in the examination room, from morning to night, and wrote nearly 10,000 words before he stopped writing and rubbing his wrists, only to feel a burst of happiness in his heart. At this moment, there was not much time left before the final handing in the papers, and he had no time to check more, so he could only hand in the test papers, and then he didn't want anything else, so he went back to his residence.

Five days later, when Cai Qi went to the imperial city to check his results with apprehension, a small errand officer of the Ministry of Rites went to the Taoist temple where he stayed first, and spread the good news that he had passed the examination and would take the final palace examination on the second day of the first month of March this year.

And when he saw that his name was indeed on the announced emperor list, Cai Qi couldn't believe his eyes. He, a small county scribe with mediocre knowledge and didn't even read all those classic books, actually passed the Jinshi examination?

Although he can't be called a jinshi now, he has to pass another temple test to confirm his identity. But everyone knows that today's palace examination is no longer as a group of candidates who will be deposed as they were at the beginning, but all candidates who participate in the palace examination can obtain the title of Jinshi or Tongjinshi, and then the broad road of officialdom will also be opened for them.

Such a good news really made Cai Qi feel dizzy and unreal, even if a few days passed, he still felt that he was in a dream.

It wasn't until the day came, when he entered the palace with dozens of equally excited candidates, sat in front of the brand-new cases, and saw the solemn Zhu Zi officials standing on the left and right, and the heroic and imposing man at the top, that he was sure that his own place was indeed about to become the Jinshi that countless scholars dreamed of and couldn't ask for.

And this man who appeared in front of everyone is naturally the person in power in the real sense of the Great Song Dynasty today, King Yue, Taishi and Taiwei Sun Tu. Even if he just glanced at him from afar, Cai Qi felt a burst of shock, as if the person standing in front of him was not a person, but an ancient divine sword that was unsheathed and bloomed with brilliance, an ancient god that could be worshiped by countless people.

It wasn't until Sun Tu slowly opened his mouth that he collected his attention and listened carefully. After all, the next exam is the most important, which will be related to what kind of results he can get in this palace exam.

"Today, because His Majesty is in poor health, I ordered that this official will invigilate the exam on his behalf." Sun Tu's first sentence made the faces of everyone present change slightly, but neither the officials nor the candidates dared to raise objections at this moment.

Since the establishment of the imperial examination in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the last pass of the palace examination has always been conducted by the Son of Heaven, which is not only to reflect the importance that the emperor attaches to the candidates and this examination system, but also to allow the emperor to understand the character and ability of these future courtiers earlier, and to bring the relationship between the monarch and the minister closer.

It can be said that no matter whether the emperors of each dynasty were wise or mediocre, no matter how busy they were at that time, as long as it was the time of the palace examination, there was no failure to appear. Even if it is Zhao Ji himself, in the past few decades, he has not failed even one of more than ten palace tests.

But this year, he disappeared because of "ill", and was replaced by Sun Tu, the captain? What does this mean, in fact, many people have vaguely guessed in their hearts. The emperor has really become a puppet, and what Sun Tu is doing now is to take away all these superficial powers from his hands one by one.

So what will he do if he goes down? No one dared to think of the answer to this question, and at the same time they did not dare to oppose him, Li Gang's fate is still fresh in people's memories, so all the officials can only be silent.

Sun Tu's gaze only swept lightly over those silent officials, and then he said: "Today's palace exam, I don't test poetry and songs, and I don't write any splendid articles. There is only one question in this exam, that is, to use your own views to discuss the changes in my Great Song Dynasty in the past century, and how this Northern Expedition to Liao is different from the previous ones, and what are the odds.

"You don't have to worry too much about what is lacking, as long as you can say something and make sense, Your Majesty will choose it, and if you can say something more profound, or if you can make everything in my Great Song Dynasty go further, this official promises you, and you can be promoted exceptionally. No matter what your current status is, you can go straight to the important yamen such as the Six Ministries! ”

This sentence alone made the candidates react in many different ways......