No matter how well the tribute performs in the palace examination, as the palace examination examiner, he cannot praise or praise, and Cheng Minzheng's actions in the Ministry of Rites are a lesson from the past.

If you say too much, you will lose, and many things can be discussed on the facts, and some words will reach the ears of others, and it is difficult to guarantee that they will not make people think of whether there is a private thing to teach and receive.

Moreover, Xie Qian and Li Dongyang, as members of the Cabinet Auxiliary Political University, are not suitable to make an intuitive evaluation of the candidates' papers, which is why Li Dongyang especially promoted Wang Shouren, but did not reveal it to others.

Now Xie Qian admires that among the top ten tributes in the Ministry of Rites, one of them writes the scroll spicy, and with Xie Qian's status and talent, he is really very emotional in his heart to make such an evaluation.

Li Dongyang was curious, and took the scroll over to look at it.

Oh, that's really good!

"This should be...... Fengxi's? ”

Li Dongyang muttered, but he was still unsure.

Li Dongyang has long heard of Feng Xi's literary talents, but Feng Xi is not very outstanding in the Ministry of Rites examination, mainly because he did not answer the "Four Sons Attainments" exam question, just from the four books and five scriptures, Feng Xi has the potential to be the champion, so even if Feng Xi did not answer the "Four Sons Attainments" question correctly, he still ranked fourth among all the tributes, second only to Shen Xi, Lun Wenxu and Sun Xu.

As the chief examiner of this year's Ministry of Rites examination, after seeing the top ten examination papers of the Ministry of Rites, he thinks that he will soon be able to sit down and know whose article is whom.

It's like Lun Wenxu, Liu Long and Wang Shouren, even if they are famous, he knows who is who. But because of the appearance of this article. On the contrary, Li Dongyang's heart was confused, mainly because there were a few people left, who were particularly difficult to judge, one Sun Xu, one Shen Xi, and one Feng Xi.

Of these three, Li Dongyang can't tell who is who's at all.

What's more, when Li Dongyang was in Beizhen Fusi, he asked Shen Xi and Sun Xumo to write the papers of the Ministry of Rites Examination, and they had seen the handwriting of the two of them, but when they arrived at the palace examination, none of the top ten papers had the same handwriting as the handwriting of Shen Xi and Sun Xu that he had seen that day.

Everyone's words are basically stereotyped. It is impossible for a candidate to have such a big change in the font in just a few days, if one of them has a different font, Li Dongyang can accept it, but the words of these two people have changed, which will inevitably make him speculate, will the palace exam also involve the matter of substitute exams?

Shen Xi and Sun Xu were one Huiyuan and the other third in the Ministry of Rites examination, which belonged to everyone, and they would still be listed in the first three when they entered the palace. If you want to find someone to take the test, the difficulty is also a little bigger, which is obviously the rhythm of sending your head into the guillotine! But if you say that there is no substitute test, the handwriting is different from before. There is also an explanation, that is, the sealing official reversed the volume when he was confused, and regarded the volume that would try to be later as Shen Xi and Sun Xu. It's in the top 10.

This possibility is also not very likely, because Li Dongyang cannot judge the master's three volumes, from the arguments, arguments, writing, and so on. All of them are of the highest quality, and they are all of the best talents.

After Li Dongyang read it, he handed the three volumes to Liu Jian and said, "Ge Lao, please take a look." ”

The three of them are all cabinet scholars, but Liu Jian is the first assistant after all, and his status is the most respected, and even Li Dongyang does not dare to slack off in the slightest. Liu Jian took the three-point volume, read one article, nodded with satisfaction, read the second one, still nodded, and when it came to the third article, his head nodded more diligently.

"Who's?" Liu Jian asked Li Dongyang with a sideways look.

Li Dongyang groaned slightly: "If it is expected to be good, it should be the rolls of Shen Xi, Sun Xu and Feng Xi." ”

Liu Jian thought for a while and said, "These three people may be the pillars of the country in the future, but ...... Binzhi, who wrote this? ”

Li Dongyang turned his head to see that the one Liu Jian asked was the article that Xie Qian had just evaluated as spicy, he frowned and thought about it, and finally shook his head.

Liu Jian couldn't help but smile: "Even Binzhi, you don't know who did it, it's really strange, strange...... Just give it to someone else to read. ”

In fact, for the cabinet scholars, there is no need to write comments on the palace examination papers, the quality is just a circle and a fork, after the palace examination results are announced, there is no prosecution system, even if the results are biased, the candidates must admit it.

What's more, the top ten in the palace examination are ranked by the emperor himself, and if they think the article is good, they just submit it to the emperor and hand it over to the emperor for decision, they don't need to know who is behind the article.

After a day of grading, the papers were re-summarized into the hands of the three cabinet scholars, and the two hundred and two examination papers of the second class have been selected, and these two hundred and two people will be the top three in this palace examination, and they will be given "the same Jinshi background", as for the papers that are included in the second class, they will also be re-selected by the cabinet scholars to see if there are any particularly excellent papers that can be supplemented into the top ten submitted to the Son of Heaven.

The result was no.

The papers of the top ten candidates in the palace examination of this year's Ministry of Rites will be submitted to the Son of Heaven without any accidents, and all of them will be selected.

In other words, the champion will only be produced among these ten people.

In Li Dongyang's view, the most likely to be selected by the emperor as the champion, ranked from the results of the Ministry of Rites, are Shen Xi, Lun Wenxu, Sun Xu, Feng Xi, Liu Long and Wang Shouren.

Regarding the articles of Lun Wenxu, Feng Xi and Wang Shouren, Li Dongyang has basically judged which one it is and knows it in his heart, but he can't identify the articles of Shen Xi, Sun Xu and Feng Xi.

In the end, all fourteen examiners got together for a small meeting to discuss, and Bai Ang, the secretary of the Criminal Department, suddenly said: "This Shen Xi is not simple, can it still be listed in the top ten after the palace examination?" ”

Obviously, Bai Ang was angry that when he was discussing in front of the palace two days ago, his proposal for "Rectification of Law and Discipline" was rejected by Ma Wensheng and others.

In fact, the biggest problem in this matter comes from the fact that Huiyuan Shen Xi may be involved in the Ministry of Rites.

However, judging from the final results of the palace examination, although I don't know which paper is Shen Xi's, at least, Shen Xi has the strength to enter the top ten of the palace examination, although Shen Xi's top ten is almost "guaranteed", rather than being selected from all the palace examination articles.

Ma Wensheng said: "It's useless to say more, it's better to submit the top ten exam papers to Your Majesty earlier." Your Majesty is please. ”

……

……

On March 16, the busy day of marking papers finally came to an end, because the time was late, although the top ten papers would be presented to the Son of Heaven, but the final results would not be released that day.

Early in the morning of March 17, all 14 of the palace examiners went to the Huagai Hall to face the Son of Heaven.

Although nominally, the ranking of the top ten in the palace examination is the final decision of the Son of Heaven, but when the Son of Heaven decides, he will also refer to the intention of the examiner of the palace examination. Especially Zhu Youzhi likes to give advice, and at the same time there is a group of capable and promising monarchs under him.

In the Huagai Palace, Zhu Youzhu picked up the ten exam papers and said: "I reviewed these ten exam papers overnight last night, and I was deeply touched, and today I will draw up a candidate for the first class with Zhongqing......

The answer sheet of the palace examination in Zhu Youji's hand was nominally the method of the Son of Heaven that he inquired about with the scholars, and it belonged to the question. Even if Zhu Youzhu feels unsatisfactory after reading these ten articles, he must say that he is "deeply touched". It is to show the king's tolerant heart of humility and acceptance.

But in fact, Zhu Youzhu has already listed the ranking of five to tenth, and the final specific thing to discuss is the ranking of the top three people in the first class and the first place in the second class.

"I still have something to say."

Just when the ministers thought that Zhu Youzhu was going to say who the Son of Heaven was willing to be the champion. Zhu Youzhu suddenly diverted the topic, and the hall examination examiners listened with bated breath, "After this palace examination, I am determined not to select Shu Jishi......

After the Rites will be examined. This is not the first time Zhu Youji has raised this matter, but it was not formal before, and this time it is a note from the Son of Heaven. The king's will is unquestionable.

Among the fourteen palace examination examiners, most of them had no opinion on this, but Li Jie, Wang Wei and Jiao Fang, three Hanlin scholars, had some opinions on this.

The traditional rules, after the palace examination, to re-assess from the Jinshi, the selection of twenty Shu Ji Shi to supplement the Hanlin Academy, although the Shu Ji Shi is no rank, but this is a great honor, because the Ming Dynasty cabinet must be out of the rules of the Hanlin Academy, this time do not select the Shu Jishi, that means that in addition to the top three can enter the Hanlin Academy, this session of the Jin Shi do not want to enter the cabinet in the future, cut off the hope of most of the Jinshi in this session.

But the Son of Heaven has already said in the form of a note, and he didn't even give the minister a chance to discuss, even if Li Jie and the others felt that it was inappropriate, they didn't dare to raise any objections.

After saying this, Zhu Youzhu picked up the four papers that had not been ranked: "How the palace test is the first grade, it depends on the will of the secretaries." ”

Liu Jian, as the first assistant minister of the cabinet, was the first to get four exam papers, opened them and looked at them, not beyond imagination at all, only one of them can be identified as Lun Wenxu, and the remaining three are Shen Xi, Sun Xu and Feng Xi, who he discussed with Li Dongyang and Xie Qian who could not distinguish their identities.

Interestingly, the top three in the first class and the first place in the second class will be produced among these four people.

Although the first place in the second class seems to be extremely glorious, because Shu Jishi is not selected in this year's Jinshi, the difference of one place is equivalent to a very different career in the future.

is like Wang Shouren, no matter how great his attainments are and how much he has contributed to the imperial court, he has never been able to enter the cabinet for the rest of his life because he is a jinshi of Hongzhi for 12 years.

After Liu Jian saw it, it was Li Dongyang and Xie Qian's turn.

When Li Dongyang saw the four exam papers, he sighed in his heart, Wang Shouren, whom he admired the most, was not listed. Now that the emperor has said that he will not select Shu Jishi this time, it means that Wang Shouren, to whom he belongs, will not inherit his mantle and become a cabinet auxiliary scholar in this life.

Waiting for the hall to test the examiners, they read all four papers, in fact, everyone has a rough idea in their hearts.

Among these four articles, the only one that knows who wrote it was Lun Wenxu, but in fact, the quality of Lun Wenxu's articles is the last among the four. But the remaining three people besides him have some "shortcomings" other than articles.

Shen Xi is too young, Sun Xu is too arrogant, and Feng Xi has a leg disease.

In the Ming Dynasty, as the leader in the imperial examination, the champion also had to play the role of an exemplary scholar in the world, which was equivalent to the spokesperson of the imperial examination, if this spokesperson was a lame and crippled, it would disgrace the imperial court.

Originally, Feng Xi's shortcomings were not shortcomings, but under this principle, Feng Xi was the most unlikely of the four to be listed as the champion, and at most was listed on the list.

**********

PS: Chapter 1!

When the Son of Heaven woke up in the morning, his right shoulder was painful, and this chapter was coded under extremely difficult conditions! After tapping a chapter, his arm hurt so much that he didn't look like his own, and the five fingers of his right hand were numb.

If this continues, the Son of Heaven is very worried that his right arm will be abolished, so he makes a difficult decision here: from today to next Friday, the Son of Heaven will maintain two basic changes every day, and then add one more chapter for all book friends, and if the results of the day are good, the Son of Heaven will break out another chapter, that is, the pattern of three chapters and one chapter!

For the time being, it is planned to rest for six days, and if his body improves, the Son of Heaven will continue to resume the outbreak...... The concept of the Son of Heaven is that life will not stop, and the outbreak will not be extinguished, and we will encourage you together! (To be continued.) )