On August 18, the first session of the provincial examination of the Ministry of Rites, the examination strategy was unprecedented. In addition to the nearly 20,000 lifters who went to the examination from all over the country, Bianjing City was empty of thousands of people, outside the provincial examination room, and commented on the heads and feet of the lifters who entered one after another, which became an important triennial festival for the people of Bianjing.

Before leaving, Chen Dong and others had already informed the news that Kaifeng Prefecture would arrest people on the day of the provincial examination, and although most of the scholars of the Science Society were deeply frightened, they still believed in the ancestral family law of "not sinnering people with words", and in addition to more than 200 people who gave up the imperial examination and returned to their hometowns ahead of schedule, more than 1,900 people went to the examination as usual. Zhang Bing and Deng Su are also among them.

In order to highlight the solemnity of the ceremony, before entering the answer sheet, the examiner first led the children to worship the holy Confucius, accompanied by Yanzi, Zengzi, Zisi and Yasheng Mencius. After paying homage to the Confucian saints, they will pay homage to the emperor, and the examiner will read the edict on behalf of the emperor to encourage the people who go to the examination. Every time they visited the shrine, the people who watched the excitement outside the venue gave earth-shaking cheers, as if the way of Confucius and Mencius was widely spread in every inch of the Great Song Dynasty, protecting and nourishing her people.

Zhang Bing'an sat in his seat, his heart was like an ancient well, and after calming down, he looked up at the title presented by the officials of the Ministry of Rites: "Obey the law of the country and not the party", frowned slightly, and replied: "The law of the three generations, the way of heaven and the favor of the lower body, labor must be returned to the top, and profit must be left behind, and the world is salty, so the law is not secret and governed, the people are not punished and safe, and the soldiers are all serving the public and not the party......""...... The original law could not be hidden, and the sage took it and made an appointment with the people,...... "He sometimes pondered, sometimes wrote hard, and after about an hour, he exhaled a long breath, stood up, and raised his hand to let the officials of the Ministry of Rites come and collect the scroll.

Before he reached the door, several members of the Science Society were pushing and shoving with the officials, and someone shouted, "I can't wait for the book to say things, and I haven't violated the law of the country!" The people outside erupted into bursts of commotion, many people secretly said that they did not wait in vain, and watched a lot of excitement, and there were many exchanges and discussions, "There is collusion between the southeast and the anti-thief, and it is for Fang Devil to come to Beijing to go undercover," "Nonsense, let me tell you, this is the public revelation case some time ago," "Hmph, Taishi Cai, how can Father-in-law Tong be offended," "Beat you bastard, a person like a lackey." Several onlookers argued and grabbed each other, and the scene was chaotic.

The two Kaifeng Mansion officials had already walked up to Zhang Bing and wanted to grab his arm, but Zhang Bing's face sank, his sleeves shook, and he drank: "Let go, what kind of system!" He naturally had a sense of power on him, which made the two officials stunned for a moment, and thought it was the official of the yamen, but when he looked closely, he was really wearing the robe of an ordinary Confucian student, and he was not wearing official clothes, so he hesitated to step forward again.

He was full of anger when he shouted, and he was so shocked that several officials and people around him looked at him. Zhang Bing didn't have anything to do, straightened his clothes, turned around and bowed respectfully to the statue of the saint of Confucius and Mencius, and said secretly in his heart, the disciple entered school at the age of three, and sought the way of the sage for 20 years, sacrificing his life for righteousness, and today he will never receive the teachings of the saint.

He bowed three times with a solemn expression, and then stood up, looked at the two officials and said, "Let's go." Walking towards the Kaifeng Mansion Prison, tens of thousands of people around the outside applauded loudly, and even more people were shouting loudly, and the few people who were struggling and arguing also seemed to have an understanding, imitating Zhang Bing's appearance, turned around and said goodbye to Master Confucius and Mencius, and followed behind Zhang Bing, several tolerances looked at each other, since the lifters went to prison calmly, the tolerance was also happy to be less, and a few people followed behind with iron rulers and chains, saving a dignity.

In this big prison, in addition to Chen Dong, Zhao Xingde and other more than 200 people escaped in advance, the Kaifeng Mansion locked up nearly 2,000 people from the Science Society who took the exam, and the news spread like wildfire all over the river, and there was an uproar everywhere, and the scholars were filled with righteous indignation, thinking that the party of the Han Dynasty had reappeared in recent times, and the people of the Liao State were quick to take the case, hoping that the Song Dynasty would be as chaotic as possible.

The Xia caravan stayed in Luoyang for three days, and in addition to buying some goods, new merchants also came in one after another. On August 22, Zhao Xingde learned the news in Luoyang, and he was silent for a long time, but fortunately Li Ruoxue was there to persuade him, so he was a little relieved. Li Ruoxue's grandfather had a garden in Luoyang, and many relatives lived here, but at this time, because of elopement, he could not come to visit, although he was a little sad, but because he was worried that Zhao Xingde would suffer from the science society, he was depressed, forced his face to laugh, and deliberately dragged him around the street.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Luoyang has been war-torn for a long time, but after entering the Song Dynasty, it has been repaired many times, and it has been recuperated for a hundred years, and now it is full of vitality, although it is not as prosperous as Tokyo, but it is not as noisy as Tokyo, it is more suitable for people to settle down and live, and the scenery around Luoyang is also better than Bianjing, hundreds of miles of plains outside the city are fertile, and you can see the green mountains everywhere such as Songshan Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, etc., many officials repair their mansions in Luoyang, build pavilions, plant grass and trees.

Luoyang people's clothes and clothes are more gorgeous and vivid than Bianjing, Chengdu Shu brocade, Gusu Song brocade, Jinling Yun brocade, Gaochang velvet, Chang'an white stack, gathered here. Taking advantage of the spare time of these two days, Li Ruoxue bought a few changes of clothes, and when she came out of the house, she didn't bring any clothes except for the half-worn Luo shirt and cloak on her body. After staying in Luoyang for three days, the caravan set off again and headed for Hangu Pass.

On August 25, Yelu Dashi, who led the army to garrison Gaoyang Pass, also got the news. He called his own soldiers to call Tong Guan to come, during this time, Tong Guan wrote a document to descend to Liao, not only scolded the emperor of the Song State to the end, but also revealed many unknown privacy of Zhao You himself, those things Yelu Dashi couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth when he thought about it, in addition, he also promised to cede the three towns of Hebei Zhending, Hejian, Dingzhou, and Zhongshan to Liao. In short, as long as Yelu Dashi handed over the surrender letter in his hand to the emperor of the Song State, Tong Guan would definitely not escape death.

A ray of sunlight penetrated through the west window, shining on Yelu Dashi's desk, he picked up a book and flipped through it, it was the Western philosopher Yali Sidda's "Governing the World", which mentioned many ways to govern the country, Yelu Dashi was deeply interesting, therefore, he also found the "Obsession Country" of this Yazi's teacher Borotu to look through, and found that the views of the master and apprentice were many contradictory, and he felt even more interesting. "I love my teacher, and I love the truth even more. It's really as simple as our Khitans. Not as hypocritical as the Han Chinese. Yelu Dashi thought with a smile.

"Brother Tie, I always feel that the system of the citizens' assembly of the Hiroshi Kingdom and the system of the Council of Elders of the Liluo Kingdom seem to have been born for us Khitans." Yelu Dashi lazily said to his subordinate Yelu Tiege, "The Khitans originally belonged to tribes, and the leaders of the various tribes had endless disputes, so it is good to use this patriarchal parliament system to restrain them." ”

Yelu Tiege doesn't like to read very much, but he knows that Yelu Dashi is a rare bright-eyed figure among the Khitan people, and he believes in his words, and he also knows that Yelu Dashi constantly promotes his influence among the young people of the Khitan nobles, and wants to use the Council of Elders to limit the power of the current faint monarch Yelu Yanxi, lest he give orders indiscriminately and kill the heroes of the Khitan people at will. Yelu Tiege also knew that many young people believed in Yelu Dashi and were willing to die for him, including Yelu Tiege himself.

But Yelu Tiege didn't like the citizens' assembly, and he said in a rough voice: "Can that lowly man, inferior people, and fools all participate in the citizens' assembly and decide on national affairs?" ”

Yelu Dashi shook his head and sighed regretfully: "Han'er is mostly a slave, even if it is Hiro and Li, it is impossible for a slave to participate in the citizens' assembly. As for the Council of Elders, you can leave a few places for the leaders of Youyan Han'er and the lower people, so that they can calm their hearts and do things for us Khitans. He paused for a moment and continued, "I said that this system seems to have been created by nature for us Khitans, we Khitans have few people and are simple-minded, and now it seems that it is not like the Southern Dynasty people who have many mouths, many ideas, and endless disputes, but it is a good thing." We had slaves to work, and the clansmen could spend a lot of time studying military affairs, unlike the Southern Dynasties who had to be busy with their livelihoods all day long. ”

He said with interest: "Do you know why the Northern Jurchens are always silent? They are still in the tribal elder council system, there are military affairs, the elders sit together to discuss, each person put a handful of dust in front of them, their mouths are discussed, their hands are drawn on the dust to record, and finally after they have a plan, they wipe off the dust in front of them, and everyone is happy and convinced, and they work together to fight. And our army in Tokyo Province is only ordered to go out, and even the generals who command the troops are not necessarily willing to go out. Isn't it already clear who will win and who will lose? Yelu Dashi's gray eyes seemed to be flickering with sparks, "If we want to revive the power of my Khitan River, subdue the barbarians in the east, and merge the Song and Xia in the west, we must innovate, at least limit the perverse actions of the faint monarch, and restore the system of my Khitan Elder Council." ”

Brother Yelu Tie seemed to be infected by his emotions, although he didn't understand too much the significance of Yelu Dashi's decision to reopen the Council of Elders, he also felt excited, and bowed down and said in a deep voice: "Brother Tie is willing to die for the adult!" The iron armor clanged, and Jerodishi smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

At this moment, the timid Tong Guan was brought up, and Yelu Dashi suddenly withdrew the smile on his face, and turned to a deep voice with an unfathomable expression: "Tong Guan, your luck is good, you can go back so soon." ”

"Really?" Tong Guan couldn't believe his ears, but he didn't dare to hesitate at all, and knelt down with great gratitude: "The slave thanks the master for not killing." When he stood up, he caught a glimpse of the book of the Western Regions in Yelu Dashi's hand, and secretly disdainful in his heart: "This Diyi leader is also really pitiful, my Great Song Dynasty forbade the flow of books out of the plug, and he was hungry, and even the messy things were grasped in his hands like treasures. ”