The imperial examination is a major event related to the credibility of the imperial court, the will of the people, and the stability of the world.

In order to prevent joint fraud between candidates and examiners, after each provincial examination, when collecting the answer sheets, candidates are required to leave thumb prints on both hands in the designated area below their names.

In addition, after the end of the examination, the examiner will not start marking the examination papers immediately, because in order to prevent the examiner from recognizing the candidate's handwriting and cheating, all the obscure examination papers will be renumbered, and then someone else will transcribe the numbered examination papers in the Gongyuan, and the examiner can only see the transcribed examination papers.

At the same time, in order to prevent the examiners from having too much influence on the evaluation of the exam papers due to different personal preferences, each exam paper will be reviewed by multiple examiners.

The whole marking process is divided into two stages: initial reading and re-reading, and the initial reading stage will eliminate the examination papers that are evaluated as "inferior" by multiple marking examiners, and the examination papers that do not meet the evaluation opinions of "inferior" and "excellent" and the examination papers that are evaluated as "medium" and "excellent" will enter the re-reading stage.

In order to avoid the impact of the examination examiner on the initial reading evaluation of the examination paper, the examination paper will be copied again, and the copied examination paper will still have a number, which will be used to prove that the number to which the examination paper belongs will still be pasted.

However, in order to avoid the loss of the examination paper in the marking, each transcribed examination paper has a sequential number in a prominent position, there are 500 copies before the marking, and after the marking is completed, it must also be 500 copies, one can not be more, one can not be less, if there is an accident, no one can clear the suspicion before it is clear, and no one can leave the Gongyuan without the permission of the examiner.

Therefore, the cautious and complicated marking stage after the provincial examination is not much worse than the marking of the college entrance examination in later generations.

After the end of the review, according to the examination subjects each take the top 200 test papers, and then unpack the first reading, review the examination papers one by one, if the gap between the two reviews is too large, then the examiner selects the examiner to review again until an agreement is reached, the top three of each subject are reviewed by the examiner personally, if there is any objection to the established review, then organize more than three examiners to review again until the consensus is reached.

After the results of the first reading and re-reading are confirmed, remove the transcription papers, and then add up the results of three or two answer sheets of different subjects of the same candidate, and preliminarily arrange the rankings, and the top three in the total score will be reviewed by more than five examiners organized by the examiner again.

When the candidate's results are determined, the ranking is arranged, and the candidate's original paper is unsealed in turn, and the same candidate's original paper is checked with the re-reading transcription paper one by one.

After all the candidates have checked their original papers, the information of the candidates from the state capitals sealed in the Jingwu Army garrison in Lanyang County will be sent to the Ministry of Rites and Tribute Institute for checking.

There are two fingerprints on the original paper of the provincial test candidate and the state test answer sheet collected from the state capital, and after careful comparison of the fingerprints, and then compare the handwriting of the provincial test and the state test answer sheet, there is no difference between the two, then the candidate's identity is correct.

If the fingerprints of candidates in the same state capital and the same name are different, or the handwriting of the answer sheets of the state test and the provincial test is different, please ask a special person to identify again to confirm that the two are indeed different, and the candidate's results will be sealed and temporarily removed from the provincial test results, and then someone will be sent to find the candidate himself for verification.

If the candidate's identity is verified, the candidate's provincial test result will be finalized.

After the provincial examination, the whole review and verification of the candidates' identities took a whole month.

After the final results and rankings of the candidates' provincial examinations are determined, the Ministry of Rites will report to Shangshu Province, and the Shangshu Province and the emperor have seen the results and rankings of the provincial examinations, inspected the original papers of the top three candidates, and confirmed that the results and rankings are correct.

On the day of the release of the list of the Tribute Academy of the Ministry of Rites, candidates, students and ordinary people were out of the periphery of the Tribute Academy, and they rushed to the front of the list.

The number of people who were determined to take the palace examination this time was the same as the number of people released by the Gongyuan, both of which were 180 people.

At the beginning of the year, when preparing for the imperial examination, the number of people who were originally expected to take the palace examination was 100, but after the provincial examination, it was found that the results of the candidates in the provincial examination were better than expected at the beginning of the year, and the imperial examination was not held in Bianjing for 40 years, so Shangshu Province, Zhizai and the emperor discussed and increased the number of people in the palace examination to 180.

More than 600 candidates participated in the provincial examination, and nearly 200 people passed the provincial examination and entered the palace examination.

Of course, there were some problems in this provincial examination, such as substitute examinations, state examinations, and provincial examinations, and there were more than 20 cases of attempts to pass the test in confusion, and there were more than 30 cases of entrainment and plagiarism in the examination room, without exception, all of them were disqualified and their results were cancelled.

Through this provincial examination, the imperial court found that there was a big gap between the scores of candidates in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, especially the gap between the north of the Huai River and Jiangnan.

Among the 50 candidates in Jiangnan who passed the state examination of the Ministry of Rites, all passed the provincial examination and entered the palace examination, while only 31 of the hundreds of candidates north of the Huai River passed the provincial examination.

Over the years, the decline of culture and education in the vast area north of the Huai River has shocked people and cannot bear to look at it directly.

Zhao Yan was eager to immediately order the restoration of Bianjing Taixue and the restoration of official schools in various state capitals, but the imperial court lacked money and was not rich, so it was unable to revive culture and education.

Half a month after the release of the Gongyuan, on the first day of the first month of winter, two hundred candidates entered the lecture hall, and the emperor Zhao Yan personally presided over the palace examination.

The answer sheet after the temple examination is also vague and copied.

Ten days later, the hall examination is over, the candidates' results are confirmed, and the rankings are basically arranged.

However, the top ten rankings have to be determined by the emperor himself.

Five days later, the emperor summoned the top ten candidates recommended by the Ministry of Rites to enter the palace to ask for advice.

After another three days, the final ranking of the temple examination was determined.

On the twenty-fourth day of the winter month, the list was released outside the Donghua Gate.

At the same time, the edict was issued, and the Ministry of Rites hereby raised the name of Wang Tong and the following 180 Jinshi and the first, Jinshi and Jinshi origins.

On the day of the release of the list, the gongs and drums in Bianjing City were noisy, the teahouse and restaurant were fully booked, relatives, friends and classmates said hello to each other, and those who were on the list would have the opportunity to embark on a career and have the opportunity to be ranked as the leader, so happy event, they naturally wanted to celebrate.

The candidates celebrated, the new science and technology scholars celebrated, and the Bianjing court also celebrated.

Zhao Yan was in charge of the dynasty to reward Shi Hao, the official of the Ministry of Rites and the prime minister who successfully presided over the imperial examination, and selected 180 talents for the imperial court in one imperial examination.

Speaking of the rise, Zhao Yan announced on the spot that he would hold another imperial examination next year and select a group of talents for the imperial court!

When Shi Hao and the officials of the Ministry of Rites heard this, they suddenly felt their heads sink.

The manpower, financial and material resources spent on holding an imperial examination are huge, and this year's imperial examination has been busy for nearly a year, and I don't know how many people have been seconded from various ministries and departments, and how many favors have been owed, if it were not for the fact that the imperial examination was personally presided over by Prime Minister Shi Hao, he could coordinate from it, and the officials at all levels of the Ministry of Rites would be exhausted to death, and they would not be able to complete this imperial examination.

With the current situation of the imperial court, it is somewhat difficult and not suitable to come once a year.

Shi Hao, as the prime minister and Zhao Yan's trusted teacher, naturally couldn't let this matter become a foregone conclusion, so he immediately raised an objection euphemistically.

He said that through this year's imperial examination, it was found that the quality of the candidates was not too high, and that there were not many qualified talents who could not be found in the annual examination. If you take the exam once a year, students will be on the road to the exam all year round, and they will not have time to study hard, and no matter how many times they take the exam, it will be difficult to make progress in their studies.

Zhao Yan thought about it for a while, and found that what the teacher said made sense, the decline of culture and education north of the Huai River, if there were not many students who were busy running around for exams every year, there was indeed not much time to sit down quietly to study, if there was no progress in their studies, no matter how many times they took the exam, they would not be able to pass the Jinshi, and in the long run, it would not be beneficial to the imperial court to select materials.

So Zhao Yan retracted his fate, saying that the prime minister was far-sighted, and when the imperial examination would be held again, it would be discussed at that time.

A few days later, the Ministry of Officials organized 180 people who had passed the examination to participate in a half-month collective study, and after the completion of the study, they would be awarded officials one by one, and most of them would be sent to the local area as officials to be trained in the local area.

According to the plan of the imperial court, this group of new science and technology scholars will replace a large number of state and county officials within three to five years, and the officials who have served as officials under the rule of the Jin State will be eliminated one after another, and the officials and new science and technology scholars who have gone north and south from the Huai River will gradually take their place.

Of course, these plans for the old officials of the previous dynasty were only known to the emperor, the deacon, the head of Shangshu Province, the official of the Ministry of Shangshu, the squire and others, and others had no way of knowing.

Just when Bianjing was busy with the provincial examination and the palace examination to select young talents to govern the locality, the Xijin and Dongjin in the north mobilized their swords again after the autumn.

It's just that this war was first provoked and launched by Wan Yanyong.

In May last year, Wan Yan Yong took advantage of the fact that Wan Yan Liang was busy quelling the rebellion of the Mongolian steppe tribes, and advanced all the way from Linhuang Fu and Gyeongju to the west, encroaching on hundreds of miles westward in half a year, and took advantage of the time when Wan Yan Liang had no time to be distracted, and further consolidated the relationship with the northern steppe tribes.

Since the beginning of this year, Wan Yanyong has continued to infiltrate westward, and plans to send troops from Fengsheng Prefecture again, detour through the grassland, and go straight to Datong Mansion!

However, his intentions were seen through by Wan Yan Liang, but he did not back down, but instead invested more troops and sent troops from the north and south at the same time to take Datong Mansion.

Although Wanyan Liang has a large number of troops, the main force is scattered everywhere, some are stationed in Zhending Mansion and Hejian Mansion, some are stationed in Taiyuan Mansion and Pingyang Mansion, and some are stationed in Guanzhong.

Wan Yan Yong's troops galloped all the way on the grassland, and in less than ten days, they had reached within 300 miles of Datong Mansion, and if there was no obstruction, they could go straight to Datong Mansion within three or two days.

The arrogant Wan Yan Liang naturally would not easily let Wan Yan Yong hit under his city gate, so he personally led the 80,000 troops around Datong Mansion to the north to meet Wan Yan Yong.

At the same time, the Jin army of Zhendingfu and Hejian Fu attacked Yanjing, waiting for an opportunity to capture Pingzhou or Fengshengzhou, forcing the defenders of Yanjing to return to Yanjing.