At dusk, the exam ended, and the candidates left the venue after handing in their papers, and each returned to his residence to wait for the final result. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because it was the last round of exams, Yang Xingmi personally read the papers this time, and Yang Wu, Gao Mian, and Yin Wengui assisted on the side.

However, after just a cursory look at the candidates' answer sheets, Yang Wu found that the questions in this round of the exam were too big, which seemed to allow candidates to play more freely, but in fact, it made candidates more nerve-wracking.

If you want to govern the newly acquired land in the south, most candidates can think of recuperation, recruiting displaced people, collecting the hearts of local people, etc., but how to do it, these candidates who have no practical experience in government affairs are blinded.

As a result, in order to seek stability as much as possible, most candidates often only put forward those opinions that will never make mistakes in the answer sheet they finally hand in, and then try to write the article more ornately and neatly in the font; Opinions that may be controversial are rarely addressed.

In this way, the quality of the answer sheet handed in in the end was much worse than that of the re-election, like those nerds who only know how to talk loudly, which made Yang Xingmi and others frown.

You must know that these people are extremely pragmatic, and what they need most are those scholars who can work hard, and they are naturally dissatisfied with these examination papers that are good at talking.

Fortunately, not everyone is blindly seeking stability, and there are still some people who have put forward some specific and useful suggestions. For example, Jiang Mengsun mentioned in the answer sheet that although Qian Biao occupied the two Zhejiang, he was actually able to fully control Hangzhou and Yuezhou, and Wuzhou, Muzhou, Chuzhou, Wenzhou and other places were all controlled by the local clans.

Therefore, in order to win the hearts of the local people as soon as possible, it is possible to open a separate "Enke" in the southern states and recruit local talented and learned people to be officials. It's also the quickest way to win the hearts and minds of the local people.

For another example, Wang Taifu mentioned in the answer sheet that local taxes can be reduced, specifically to increase the market price of grain when collecting taxes to reduce the burden on the people, which is similar to the point of view mentioned by Luo Zhixiang at the beginning.

In addition, Song Qiqiu, Xu Rong and others also put forward some opinions, although they are still very superficial, but they are much better than those other candidates.

After seeing these answer sheets, Yang Xingmi and the others loosened their brows, feeling that this imperial examination was not in vain.

In the end, Yang Xingmi personally made a choice and set Jiang Mengsun as the first, Wang Taifu as the second, and Song Qiqiu as the third, and the later rankings were basically the same as the rankings in the second election.

After everything was done, it was already the early morning of the next day, and after Yang Xingmi used the seal, the transcription officer hurriedly filled in the final list, and when everything was ready, all the candidates gathered at the Jiedu Embassy again, waiting for the announcement of the final results.

At the end of the day, with the solemn bell ringing, the candidates who had already lined up neatly outside the palace entered the conference hall one after another.

This is the first time that Huainan has held the imperial examination, so the etiquette system is not perfect, but this imperial examination also means that a large number of talents will join Huainan to serve as officials and eunuchs, or benefit one party, or make meritorious contributions. Therefore, the Jiedu embassy attaches great importance to this imperial examination, and the ceremonies arranged are more grand.

Basically, as long as the high-level officials in Huainan were still in Guangling, they all came to participate, Gao Mian, Yan Keqiu, Yin Wengui and others among the civil officials, Li Shenfu, Zhou Ben, Zhu Jin among the military generals, and even Li Yan, the envoy of the Son of Heaven and who is still in Guangling, also came to attend the ceremony.

By the third o'clock, all the candidates and officials had arrived, and Yang Xingmi and Yang Wu also entered the conference hall and took their seats.

Yin Wengui, as the secretary in charge and the chief examiner of this imperial examination, is responsible for announcing the final list: "Candidates listen to the ......"

Many candidates couldn't help but lift their spirits and looked at the list in Yin Wengui's hand nervously.

“…… Huainan takes scholars, only on talent and learning, regardless of origin. At the end of this scientific examination, the king personally tested and set the rankings of many candidates, giving three Jinshi and the first, and forty-seven Jinshi students, the list is as follows......"

Speaking of this, Yin Wengui paused, looked up at the candidates, and saw that they were all nervous, and then continued to read: "First place, Xunyang Jiang Mengsun!" ”

Jiang Mengsun's mind was blank for a moment, although he was very confident in his academic ability, but he also knew that many of the candidates were not worse than him, so he was still very surprised that he could win the first place in the exam.

He looked up and looked ahead, only to see that Yang Wu was smiling at him, and he couldn't help but feel sure in his heart, and hurried out to thank him.

Then, Yin Wengui's voice kept ringing, "Second place, Shezhou Wangtai Fu!" ”

"Third place, Hongzhou Song Qiqiu!"

……

In general, most of the people who won the Jinshi in the imperial examination this time are still local scholars in Huainan, which is actually normal, after all, most of the foreign scholars still want to wait and see, so except for Song Qiqiu, the foreign scholars are basically not the most talented and learned.

In addition, scholars from other places who come to take the exam, often because of the news barrier, know late about the Huainan imperial examination, such as mathematics and law, and naturally have little preparation, and it is normal for them to fail the local scholars in the end.

However, there were several Jiangxi scholars who had passed the test, but except for Song Qiqiu, the rest of the people performed much worse.

After the final results were announced, Yang Xingmi held a grand banquet in the Jiedu Embassy to entertain these new scholars; When the banquet is over, the next thing is the most glorious activity of the new scholars in this imperial examination: parade of officials.

Although Guangling is the place where the Huainan Festival envoy governs, the people here did not expect to see this grand occasion one day, and it was very lively for a while. Many people gathered around the streets to watch these new recruits.

Sitting on horseback, looking at the people of Guangling who welcomed them on the side of the street, Song Qiqiu still had some disbelief in his heart, there was a saying in the Tang Dynasty, called "Thirty old Ming Jing, fifty young Jinshi", which means that many of the Jinshi in the examination are people in their fifties, and he, who is only seventeen years old this year, actually won the Jinshi, and he is the third, which makes him feel like he is in a dream.

Fortunately, after all, he was born in a family of eunuchs, and after getting through the initial excitement, he gradually calmed down and began to think about what Yang Xingmi, the king of Wu, had said to them at the banquet before.

This time in the imperial examination, according to Yang Xingmi's plan, these new Jinshi originally had to start from the most basic level of the Jiupin officials, but considering that now that the south is preliminary, there is an urgent need for talents to govern, so in order to cultivate talents as soon as possible, those who are from Jinshi will be arranged to serve as county commanders in the local area.

As for him, Wang Taifu and Jiang Mengsun, as the top three in this imperial examination, they will be specially trained, and they will first stay by the side of the prince Yang Wu as a clerk to experience and gain knowledge, and then be sent to the local government to take up posts.

As a result, Wang Taifu wanted to return to his hometown directly because his mother was old and needed support, and Yang Xingmi felt his filial piety, so he appointed him as the county magistrate of Xiuning County, Shezhou. In this way, the three places to serve as secretaries by Yang Wu's side were vacant, and they were finally replaced by Xu Rong, the fourth.

In other words, he Song Qiqiu was going to serve as a clerk next to Yang Wu, thinking of this young man who had great prestige in both Guangling and Hongzhou, Song Qiqiu couldn't help but start looking forward to it.

A few days later, the various celebrations were basically over, and the Jinshi who had been conferred official releases were about to take up their posts.

Since then, Huainan's first imperial examination has come to an end, and the focus of Yang Wu and others has once again shifted to how to eliminate Qian Biao as soon as possible.

During the period of the imperial examination in Huainan, all kinds of information from Hangzhou also came in a steady stream, and how to take Hangzhou as soon as possible has gradually become a problem that Huainan needs to think about carefully.

The situation in Hangzhou is somewhat different from the various cities conquered by the Huainan army before.

The first point is that the city is stronger, and from the perspective of the cities occupied by Huainan today, even the cities of Shouzhou and Xuanzhou cannot be compared with Hangzhou.

The second point is that the morale of the army and the people is stable, Qian Biao has ruled in Hangzhou for many years, and has a lot of kindness to local officials and people, and under his personal leadership, the defenders of Hangzhou basically have no possibility of surrendering on their own initiative.

The third point is that the reserves in the city are sufficient, and after Qian Biao transforms a part of the vacant land into arable land for cultivation, it will take longer to break through the city in the form of siege warfare, and it will inevitably take no other accidents.

As for the last point, the defenders in the city have a lot of defensive experience, especially after Cao Gui, a famous defender, was left in Hangzhou by Qian Biao, and he made further adjustments to Hangzhou's defense, making Hangzhou more difficult to break down than before.

Coupled with the hundreds of Suzhou guns on the city wall, Hangzhou can be said to have no shortcomings in all aspects, and it is indeed difficult to break through in a period of time.

So for today's situation, Yang Wu can't help but think of Zhang Shicheng in history.

Zhang Shicheng, who is also a salt dealer, is also a confidant of Zhu Yuanzhang, who is based in Jianghuai. After so many years of war, Qian Biao is now trapped in Hangzhou, but it is difficult to overcome for various reasons.

In the process of fighting with Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng continued to retreat and his power declined, but because he was benevolent and could win the hearts of the local army and the people, he defended himself according to Suzhou Jiancheng and refused to surrender. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Suzhou with an army of 200,000, and finally had to adopt a long-term siege, and after a ten-month siege, it was finally eliminated.

Now Huainan has less than 200,000 troops, and there are still Zhu Quanzhong, Ma Yin and other feudal towns on the outside, can it be said that in the end, a large army can only be launched for a long-term siege?

Thinking of this, Yang Wu couldn't help but feel a headache: "It would be great if I could persuade him to surrender!" In history, the Wu Yue Kingdom established by Qian Biao has always been orthodox to the Central Plains Dynasty, and it finally ended with Qian Hong's return to the Song Dynasty. Is there any hope, then, in persuading him to surrender? ”