The sun set and the sun rose, and the day passed.

In Linqu County, it is noon, and the sun is shining.

In a low-walled compound in the eastern part of the city, the blue brick houses are scattered and arranged into several courtyards. In the backyard room, a man in plain clothes is sitting at a pine table in the main hall drinking tea, and a little man in a dark coat is serving in the back.

The man's face was thin, and the beard under his chin was carefully combed, and his face should be over forty years. He rubbed a teacup in his right hand, the tea in the cup had been drunk, and he didn't let the little guy pour any more tea, but frowned and thought for a while.

"Miss is there?" After a while, the man asked slowly.

"Master, you forgot, since yesterday, the city gate has been forbidden for all kinds of people to enter and exit, and if you want to enter and exit the city gate, you must have the approval of Lord Daru Huachi in the county. Miss was still thinking about going out of the city with the son and miss of the Kong family to see the Miaoxiang Temple in Xishan yesterday, because she didn't make the trip, and she was still a little unhappy today! The little guy stepped forward and replied.

"Oh, I forgot about it, there's new news in the city?"

"I haven't heard of it, but today there are hundreds of servants in the city, and the officials have asked them to carry stones and trees to the city wall, and a younger brother has also been summoned. Both gates are now guarded by soldiers, and some of the houses near the gates have been emptied, and officers and soldiers are stationed there. Since yesterday, vegetable vendors and woodcutters outside the city have not been allowed to enter the city, and only a dozen or so officials can purchase them with permission to go out of the city to buy, and the price of rice and vegetables in the city has doubled. The little guy talked a lot, and the man pulled out a few sentences after a question.

"Alas, natural and man-made disasters are full of chaos, pity my people, and there are many hardships." The man sighed.

"Where is Miss now?"

"In the morning, I went to the market with the son of the Kong family and the Miss Kong family, and I haven't turned around yet."

"Well, tell Madame that lunch will be delayed and served when they come back."

"Yes, the little one will go and tell the lady and the mate." After the little guy agreed, he went out.

The man's surname is Tian, the name is Lie, and he has run a school in the city for many years. Because Tian Lie has a straightforward temperament and strict teaching and moral education, his disciples are loyal and kind, and he is quite famous in the city.

Tian Lie has a straight temperament, although he has a strong belly, he doesn't like the red eyes of the county's Daru flowers, so the county's teaching duties cannot fall on Tian Lie at all. The county Yin Xie Lin admired Tian Lie's personality and talent very much, and secretly lamented that the pearl was covered in the dust in the market, and he could not serve the imperial court, and he was widely taught to be a good talent.

Tian Lie has a wife and a beloved daughter Tian Xin in his family, because the family still has some inheritance, and the family is still prosperous. Tian Lie has been a scholar since he was a child, although he has no fame, but he is a family heirloom, and the style of books is strong. The year before last, several big families in the city came to propose, but the couple was not very satisfied with the object of the proposal, and the matter has been dragged on.

Two days ago, the brothers and sisters of the Kong family returned to Qufu by car, because the brothers and sisters of the Kong family are familiar with their daughters, so they turned to Linqu, and after meeting, the two daughters whispered endlessly, the brother of the Kong family is named Kong Ying, and the younger sister is named Kong Yue. The brothers and sisters of the Kong family are side branches of the Kong family, generations of scholars, and they are also the right ones with themselves, Tian Lie asked Mrs. privately, Mrs. didn't say anything, but the Kong family is far away on Jining Road, and the two places are five hundred miles away, Mrs. is really reluctant to let her beloved daughter be so far away from her, and Tian Xin doesn't seem to have any special affection for Kong Ying. Tian Lie and his wife also thought about letting it go for the time being.

After the brothers and sisters of the Confucius family arrived in Linqu, they talked with Tian Xin very happily, often read books and papers together, and wrote poems, so they delayed for two days, and wanted to set off for a few days to return, but suddenly there was a large number of rogues who were going to attack the city, and then the city gate was banned, and only the people who purchased them were allowed to purchase daily necessities outside the city, and they also had to have the official government to sign the documents to enter and exit. Since the night before, the people in the city have been panicking, and many wealthy people want to leave the city with their families to join relatives, but they are finally stopped, and the city has a curfew at night, and the government has also begun to recruit servants to work in the city.

Tian Lie wanted to take his family out of the city to Yidu, but he was also stopped. In the past two days, Tian Lie arranged for his subordinates to go to the streets and alleys in the morning and evening every day to inquire about the movement, except for knowing that the government had stepped up the deployment of defending the city and asking Yidu for help, there was no other news. Thinking that if the Liukou attacked the city on a large scale, once the city fell, the consequences would be unimaginable, and his heart was anxious to burn the five internal organs, but now he has no way at all. The beloved daughter is young, often at home, and has no experience of the cruelty of the troubled times, and at this time she is still in the mood to play around with her friends, and Tian Lie is also helpless.

Most of the children who studied today did not come to the school, and now many residents in the city are panicked, and they have no intention of sending their children to the school, Tian Lie just arranged for a few children to review the Three Character Sutra a few times, and preached a few Analects and monks, and then left school. He had something on his mind, so Tian Lie sat in the hall, drinking tea while suppressing some irritability.

After sitting for a while, finally a few young people laughed outside the hall, as the footsteps approached, two young and handsome girls took the lead and entered the hall, a red shirt, a blue shirt, the red-shirted girl came in as she spoke, raised her eyes and saw Tian Lie who was sitting under the plaque in the middle hall, grabbed two steps, held Tian Lie's hand, and called in a coquettish voice: "Daddy, Xin'er is back, has Daddy ever had any experience in reading and teaching today?" Seeing that the tea cup had bottomed out, he picked up the teapot and poured it half full for his father.

Tian Lie was in an irritable mood, and he wanted to reprimand his beloved daughter in this chaotic situation, but first, in front of outsiders, it was not good to be strict, and secondly, his daughter was well-behaved and likable.

"Now that there are rumors of the Rogue, don't stay out longer. Besides, if you are a girl's family, you should ask the sister of the Kong family for advice, it is rare for the brothers and sisters of the Kong family to come here, the opportunity is rare, learn more poetry, and pay attention to the female workers and the German side is the first priority. ”

"I've seen Shibo." Kong Ying and Kong Yue followed behind and stepped forward to salute respectfully. The father of the brother and sister and Tian Lie have been friends for many years, and the two families have been friends for many years.

Tian Lie said gently: "You have come here to visit, you don't want to happen to be a bandit, if you encounter an accident because of this, the old man will be ashamed of your father!" Yesterday I went to the county government to meet with the county lord Yin, and asked for permission for the two of you to go out of the city and go south, but the county lord Yin replied that this was determined by the county Daru Huachi, and he was also unable to, that the Mongolian official and beggar have always despised the Han people, and I went to his house to visit him but he was not allowed to enter, and now I have to grieve the two of you to stay here for a few more days. I hope that God will favor the people of the city and not cause swords and axes to happen. ”

"Uncle Shi has been troubled by this matter, and Han Sheng is grateful!" Kong Ying, Zi Hansheng, with another salute.

"It doesn't matter, you are my juniors, and I have been friends with your father for many years, and the two families are not separated from each other. Now that the court is dim and chaos is frequent, we scholars really have empty thoughts of helping the world, but there is no cure for chaos, sigh, sigh! ”

"Uncle Shi doesn't have to worry, he is not in his position and does not seek his politics. The Yuan court has always ignored my Han family, and even the imperial examination has been banned for many years, and it was only in the first year of Yanyou that it began to open the academy, but according to the court customization, Mongolian people and Semu people can easily take half of the quota, and thousands of students of my Han family have studied hard, and in the end, only half of them can enter the court every session. What's more, the Mongolians and Semu people only take two exams, but the Han and Nanmen have to take three exams; The complexity and depth of the test questions are also very different, if this is unfair, what can be said! Even if he was lucky enough to pass the palace examination, when the imperial court was appointed, he was always heavy on the Han Dynasty, and this kind of imperial examination was really ridiculous in the eyes of Han Sheng. My father repeatedly persuaded the boy to participate in last year's examination, but the boy was stubborn and didn't like fame, so he didn't participate, and his father still hates it. ”

"Everything is inferior, only the reading is high, learning literature and martial arts, and selling it to the emperor's family. If you can be named on the gold list, you can not only learn to be useful, show the idea of serving the country and governing the country, but also comfort your ancestors and glorify the hall. Studying and entering the profession is the right path for my generation. Don't miss yourself for what you can do. ”

"The kid was taught." Kong Ying knew that Tian Lie had always had the idea of studying and entering the office, which was incompatible with his disdain to participate in the examination. It's just that the Yuan court has not paid attention to the imperial examination for a long time since Kublai Khan, and it has become a common way to enter the body from an official.

In fact, whether to continue the Tang and Song imperial examinations, the high-level of the Yuan court has had many heated debates since entering the Central Plains, and by the time of Kublai Khan, the mainstream believed that these Confucian scholars were not familiar with popular affairs and were good at writing and poetry. Empty talk misleads the country, and the death of the Jin and Song dynasties is proof that Yuan Shizu completely rejected the imperial examination system. Therefore, after the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, some Confucian scholars often cried out: Those who misunderstand the world with academics are all scholars of the imperial examination. Confucianism has no way to explain itself!

Later, the drawbacks of officials becoming officials became more and more apparent, and the call for reopening the imperial examination became increasingly high. It was not until the second year of Emperor Renzong's reign (1313) that the minister of Zhongshu Province suggested that the imperial examination system should be restored, and put forward an opinion, believing that scripture and cifu were two different things. The scriptures are about self-cultivation, Qi family, governing the country and leveling the world, and the word endowment is the text of the poetry class. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, because of the use of people to specialize in words, the cart is turned upside down, so it is suggested that the law and poems should not be used, and the scriptures should be stopped. The scriptures are based on the four books and five classics, mainly annotated by Cheng Zi and Zhu Han'an. After Emperor Yuan adopted it, an examination was held the following year. In the future, the examination will be held every three years, and it will be divided into three levels: the township examination, the meeting examination, and the palace examination.

The people of the time summed up: The imperial examination of the Yuan Dynasty was "advocated in the grass, in the Yuan, discussed in the great virtue, frustrated in the mud, and began in Yanyou".

There are 17 township test centers across the country, and 300 qualified candidates are selected from the candidates to take the metropolitan examination. The general examination is scheduled to be held in February of the following year, and the subjects are the same as those of the township examination. A total of 100 people were admitted to the examination, including 25 Mongolians, Semu, Han Chinese, and Nanren. When they arrived at the palace test, the students were no longer dethroned, but they were set high and low with their countermeasures, and the rankings were redetermined, with the Mongols and Semu people on the right list. With Han people and southerners as the left list, the roll call was announced.

In the last 50 years of the Yuan Dynasty, there were more than 1,200 scholars in the imperial examinations (including those who were selected in the Guozi Supervisor Examination), accounting for 4% of the total number of civil officials in the corresponding period at that time. In proportion, it is only one-tenth of that of the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the Yuan Dynasty was the first to set Cheng Zhu Lixue as the standard for examining scholars, and it has been maintained for nearly 600 years since then.

Kong Ying was reluctant to enter the office, first, after the Mongol court occupied China, although the Han rule of law was adopted, but in order to protect the status of the Mongols, the Yuan court not only called the Chinese Mongols, but also implemented the Mongols, Muslims (including the Western Regions and the Western Xia people), Han people (the Han people in the original north), and the southern people (the Han people south of the Yangtze River Basin) and other four kinds of people were treated differently. Kong Ying only felt pathetic and lamentable. It's just that the idea of his father and Tian Lie has always been the supremacy of Confucianism, and they have entered the imperial examination, hoping that their sons and nephews can leap into the dragon gate and glorify their ancestors. Especially after the imperial court opened a branch to recruit scholars, the two were even more enthusiastic.