Although he had already taken the policy theory test in the college examination and the township examination before, and in the past few days, he has also studied the textbooks and topics on the side of Guozijian, and he has a relatively clear understanding of the theory of countermeasures and history, and there is no problem in writing some ordinary policy theories, but when he saw this topic, he still frowned.

There are many policy questions, candidates can choose one of them to answer, and the first one is to try to talk about the pros and cons of today's salt politics and how to change it.

The question is just a few words, but this topic involves a major event that is almost related to the foundation of the country, even if there is no limited direction, just let the candidates say the pros and cons, but this is still a great test of the candidates' ability.

Let's look at the second question, which is about agricultural taxes, and it is Datang's own agricultural tax, so that candidates can analyze the pros and cons of Datang's current agricultural tax. Nima, is another matter involving national politics, now people in Guizhou and Guangzhou, and even other places know that the tax policy of the Tang Dynasty is simple and crude, there is no messy harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and there is no Dingkou silver, only one kind of agricultural tax is charged, but the tax rate of this agricultural tax is relatively high compared to the previous dynasties, if it is the tax rate of ordinary grain, it is about 20 percent.

If it is some cash crops, the tax ratio is even higher.

In other dynasties, the tax per acre was often only 10 percent, even 5 percent, or even 2 percent.

Therefore, many people outside say that the agricultural tax of the Tang Dynasty was very high, so that the people under the rule of the Tang Dynasty were not able to make a living.

The first question talks about salt politics, the second question talks about agricultural taxes, and the next three questions are also big topics, which make people dizzy, such as which is more important between industry and commerce and agriculture, and how to balance development to make the people rich and the country strong.

Any topic is related to national affairs, and this kind of topic is difficult for senior scholars to analyze and answer in detail, even for those ministers of the DPRK and China, let alone Huang Zhiyuan, a traditional scholar who is dedicated to reading the books of sages and sages.

After examining these questions, Huang Zhiyuan hesitated for a moment and decided to do the topic of agricultural tax, because he himself was born in a peasant family, although he studied all the year round and had never been in the field at all, but what he had seen and heard over the years made him understand the rural tax system of the Ming Dynasty to some extent, and he also deeply felt the agricultural tax system of the Tang Dynasty.

After choosing the topic, he directly wrote a large number of articles, and he couldn't tell whether the writing was good or not.

When he finished this subject, he felt bad all over, but after he looked around, he found that it was not only himself who was depressed, but most of them were like this.

This also proves that in fact, these policy topics in the first imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty sound very simple, but it is actually difficult to achieve something to say.

Some clichés must not be written, these things have been written all over the place, and new ideas must be written.

Decent ones can't be written, because this represents the mean, and it can't make the examiner's eyes shine.

What's more, this kind of policy is to some extent the imperial court's question, so you can't answer blindly, you have to combine it with reality and put forward a practical solution, if you just say a few words casually, it won't work.

After the policy theory is the historical theory, the historical theory, its nature is similar to the policy theory, but it is about ancient problems, for example, the Qin Shang martingale law is strong, and the Song Dynasty Wang Anshi changed the law is dead, please elaborate on it.

Since everyone basically knew before the examination, not to mention that the new dynasty should not only do the Bagu article be good, but also the strategy and historical theory must also be good.

So everyone, like Huang Zhiyuan, attaches great importance to these two games, but judging from everyone's expressions after the exam, it is obvious that few people think they have done well in the exam.

In fact, their answers were really bad, most of these new imperial examination people and a small number of people in the Ming Dynasty era were reviewed, and finally selected one hundred and eighty test papers, and then they discussed the best fifteen of them and handed them over to Li Xuan's side.

Li Xuan has read every one, well, except for the Four Books and Five Classics, he has carefully read the answers to other strategies, historical theories, arithmetic, and miscellaneous studies, and he spent more than half an hour for this.

After reading it, it left him with a basic impression: empty and nothing.

In particular, the topics of policy discussion are basically about the general direction, but there is not much practical thing at all.

The articles are written beautifully, and the level of writing has killed a group of scholars in later generations, even those high-ranking officials of the Tang Dynasty itself, such as Wang Wenhua, who boasted of being the highest Chinese chapter in the cabinet, had to bow their proud heads when they saw these articles.

There's no way, whoever makes the family lift people, don't talk about other abilities, but everyone is a good hand at writing articles.

A person who can write a good article like Baguwen, let him write an ordinary article, it is not too easy.

But the article is well written, and Li Xuan didn't see what he wanted to see at all: to put forward a feasible solution with something to say.

Even if it is impossible to come up with a detailed solution, at least it is necessary to provide a new and feasible idea, but the answers of these students are all sage's words.

Nima, if Confucius was so awesome, would he travel around the world to seek reuse?

Bragging and not having to pay taxes, who wouldn't!

Therefore, after reading the follow-up test papers, Li Xuan was too lazy to personally arrange the detailed rankings of these top-ranked students, and directly pushed this task to the Rite Department, the department in charge of Dengji Enke this time.

Of course, the Ministry of Rites will not be arbitrary, but will discuss with the bigwigs of the various ministries of the cabinet, and finally arrange the detailed rankings, and quickly post the imperial list in the palace.

Although Li Xuan was very dissatisfied with the level of this group of scholars, he still had to do enough work, after all, this imperial examination was originally a political propaganda campaign, and Li Xuan never expected to be able to obtain real talents from it.

Although the level of these students is not good, it is enough to be a middle and low-level official, at least they can recognize words, can read and write, and as an official, you can read and write, and you don't need to have any extraordinary talents.

So on the day of the release of the list, a large group of students were crowded to see the list, but many people still couldn't squeeze in, so they could only listen to the people in front of them singing the list.

The people who sang the list started from the one hundred and eighty, but Huang Zhiyuan, who was on the periphery of the crowd, still couldn't hear his name after hearing more than eighty in a row.

Xu Hanshi, a friend who came to watch the list with him, was also looking forward to it, because until now, Xu Hanshi's name has not been read.

However, it didn't take long for Huang Zhiyuan to hear a voice: "Forty-eight, Master Huang Zhiyuan of Xunzhou Mansion!" ”

After hearing this, Huang Zhiyuan's heart suddenly beat so fast that he even stopped breathing, and there was only one thought left in his mind: hit, hit!

Holding his breath, he even turned red, and it would take a long time for him to react!

At the same time, he also heard the congratulations of his friend Xu Hanshi: "Congratulations to Brother Huang High School!" ”

Huang Zhiyuan took a few deep breaths in a row, and soon returned to normal, although there was obvious joy on his face, but he no longer had the sluggish look he had just now.

Immediately said: "Rejoice and rejoice, and Brother Xu's name should be pronounced later!" ”

It's a pity that until the emperor finished singing, Xu Hanshi's name still didn't appear, and then the two of them didn't give up, and after the crowd dispersed a little, they squeezed up to see it in person, and the one hundred and eighty names were seen over and over again, but in the end they still couldn't find Xu Hanshi's name.

At this time, Xu Hanshi's face was not very good-looking, and Huang Zhiyuan didn't know what to say, this comfort does not need to be comforted, everyone is a decent scholar, how can a gentleman's friendship be as nagging as a woman.

Immediately, Xu Hanshi said: "Let's go, today we won't get drunk and won't return, celebrate Brother Huang High School!" ”

Huang Zhiyuan immediately nodded slightly and said: "Okay, Brother Xu doesn't have to care too much, there will be a spring exam next year, and it will be ...... all the time" Before he finished speaking, he saw him pause, and then he pointed to a red list next to the emperor list and said, "Look, what's on it?" Brother Xu, what is your name? ”

When Xu Hanshi heard this, he looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, there was a red list next to the big imperial list, but the red list was slightly smaller, and there were only fifteen names on it, and there were a few lines of big characters.

After taking two steps forward and looking at it, I saw that it was written: The Holy Lord is sympathetic to the difficulties of all the scholars in studying, and is eager to serve the country, and specially selects fifteen erudite talents, gives tribute, and is allowed to participate in the palace examination!

Erudite? Bestow tributes and can take the temple exam? Is this equivalent to saying that you have passed the exam? But how many names are there?

Xu Hanshi, who is on the list, can't figure it out himself!

Not to mention them, even the officials of the Ministry of Rites themselves can't figure it out, because according to the standard procedure, this time Dengji Enke will take 180 soldiers.

These 180 tributes will participate in the subsequent palace examination, according to tradition, the palace examination will generally not be unsuccessful, belongs to everyone has a share, but will be divided into detailed rankings, that is, the first, second, and third. They are given to the Jinshi and the first, the Jinshi origin, and the same Jinshi origin.

But Li Xuan was quite dissatisfied after reading the test papers of the first fifteen, and then directly asked people to find the test papers of the losers, and then check them in person, but what he saw was not a strategy or anything like that, because everyone had seen it in the past, and the reason why the losers were not selected was indeed because of their lack of knowledge.

So Li Xuan looked at the two subjects of arithmetic and miscellaneous, and after taking a look at it like this, he found that this ancient literati was also biased, and among the scum who wrote on the strategy, several arithmetic and miscellaneous studies were not bad.

In line with the basic principle that a talent will not let go, he specially added fifteen people, of course, in order to respect the tradition and etiquette, he still does not add them to the new branch of the 180-person Jinshi department, and the follow-up palace examination will not let them participate in the ranking of the 180-person palace examination, and even the questions of the palace examination will be different from others, and their examination is called the liberal subject examination, which is completely different from the Jinshi department.

Then Li Xuan planned to give them another title: Erudite Jinshi, referred to as 'Doctor', for the time being, because of the small number of people, there is no distinction between first, second, and third, and the middle ones are all awarded the six-grade officials, and the number of people in the future is more, and the Jinshi Department is directly divided into one, two, and three grades, and the officials are compared to the Jinshi Branch.