There are a lot of lifters waiting outside the palace gates - no, they should not be called lifters now, they should be called Huiyuan. In the second year of the first year, the number of candidates in this session was slightly smaller, and about 6,000 people participated in the provincial and ministerial examinations. 137 students were admitted to the undergraduate program, and when they completed the palace examination, they should be called "and first" students.

Jinshi is divided into three lists, and there are three people on the first list, which are "champion", "list eye", and "tanhua". These three people are called "Jinshi and Di". There is no limit to the number of people on the second list, which is called "Jinshi origin", and the third list is called "Tongjinshi origin".

Zhao Xing sat on a red chair in the provincial examination-that is, the last place, unless the salted fish turned over, he was the material of the third list, so he was not in a hurry, and walked slowly, which seemed arrogant in front of the group of people who were sincerely afraid. In particular, his retinue Cheng Xia also rode a rare high-headed horse, which made them even more resentful.

"Who is this, a celebrity? So arrogant? Whispers rang out in the room.

"I don't know, I heard the mueinturin just now say that only the red chair has not yet been sat on, and the latest to this is the person who came from the red chair."

Sure enough, it was a red chair, and after Zhao Xing finished reporting, the muere-honoring officer announced that everyone had arrived, and led all the candidates into the palace, acting in a hurry, Cheng Xia was left outside, and Zhao Xing only had time to glance at the other party, and the palace gate swallowed him. The muezzins led the candidates into the main hall and began to guide them to salute an empty chair, while the officials corrected their movements one by one......

Zhao Xing is big. In a group of yellow-skinned, malnourished, and only hard reading and chanting to pass the exam, it is very eye-catching. This person was not humble or arrogant when he saluted, and he didn't tremble with sincerity and fear, so he was taken care of by the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and he was educated up and down several times, and Zhao Xing was still so casual. The muezzin only wanted to expel him from the auditorium, however, an official whispered something in his ear, after which the muezzin simply ignored Zhao Xing.

Soon, Zhao Xing was transferred to the back row of the line, and he watched idly as the group of candidates saluted the empty chair with nothing to do, and wanted to laugh in his stomach. And the muezzin, circling around him. just ignore Zhao Xing. After waiting for a while, an official quietly called the muezzy officer out, and everyone at the scene was standing obediently with their heads bowed, and Zhao Xingdong looked around, looking for Zhou Bangshi's figure.

Zhou Bangyan didn't find it. He occasionally turned his gaze to the palace wall, and suddenly remembered that he had never seen a brick and stone house in any other place, and it was said that the archaeological excavation of Bianliang City had not found that the Bianliang dwellings had a brick and stone structure, but in the record, the palace was obviously a brick and stone structure...... Thinking of this, he turned his gaze to the palace wall. Take a closer look at the brick and wood structures of the Song Dynasty.

The brick and stone structure of the Song Dynasty is rare, and in modern times, except for some dilapidated religious buildings, only Ganzhou still retains the original state of the Song city wall. Song bricks can be seen from it. The existing Song bricks are thick and solid, rectangular, the brick mud is pure gray blue, the fire is high, and the texture is excellent......

didn't wait for Zhao Xing to finish watching. There was a sound of boots behind him. A teenage child walked into the main hall of the Ministry of Rites alone with his hands behind his back. He circled around his back a few times, stood in front of Zhao Xing, who was looking around, and asked with a raised face: "So tall!" Such a majestic man, can also write poems as a fu, why not practice martial arts? ”

If Zhao Xing was a native of the Song Dynasty, he would definitely not dare to move at this moment, maybe he could guess the identity of the boy from his clothes. But he is a historical idiot, and when he saw the crimson robe worn by the other party, he was still wondering: "Didn't you say that Zhao Kuangyin is in a yellow robe, why is this kid running around in the imperial city in a red robe...... Well, if you dare to wander around in the Imperial City, it must be a disciple of the clan - a member of the royal family. ”

The child wears a crown that reaches the sky, the crown is decorated with 24 curly beams, the crown is decorated with Jin Boshan and cicadas, and the jade rhino hairpin is used to guide the hair, and the buckle of the crown belt is a "northern pearl". A cloud dragon pattern purple gauze robe, white yarn in the single, square heart curved collar (the Song Dynasty's square heart curved collar is a circle on the top and below, similar to the decoration of the lock piece, set between the necks to play a pressing role, to prevent the collar from rising, implying the meaning of the sky and the round place), the waist is tied with a large gold and jade belt, the front is tied to cover the knees, and the side is tied with a ribbon.

The child asked innocently, Zhao Xing saw the other party's pink face, and saw a little mud splashed on the robe, he squatted down gently, patted the child's head first, interrupted the curious baby's question, and then carefully dusted off the mud on the other party's robe, and said with concern: "The road is muddy, the road is slippery in the cold, walk carefully, look, mud!" ”

After Zhao Xing squatted down, his mind was all on the child, and he didn't notice that the candidates around him were trembling, especially when he stroked the child's head, one or two candidates actually fainted to the ground, and the child held his hands behind his back and gestured straight behind him.

The kid saw Zhao Xing squatting down, still taller than himself, he also calmly touched Zhao Xing's shoulder, and asked curiously: "If you don't learn martial arts, why are you so tall?" ”

Zhao Xing was amused by this childlike remark, he continued to squat, joking: "People say that standing high on the ground and looking far away." I tried my best to grow so tall just to see far. ”

The child nodded and asked, "Then what did you see?" ”

The Song people worship Buddha, and this child seems to be playing Zen with Zhao Xing, also known as "playing Jifeng". Zhao Xing also went down with his mouth, and he opened his mouth: "I ......"

After a pause, he continued: "The fog ahead is too big for me to see clearly. ”

Zhao Xing was going to say: he saw the death of the country; saw the partisanship; Seeing the suffering of the people and so on, he used these heavy topics as a warning, but he thought about it, his current identity, it was a bit inappropriate to say this. Immediately, he wanted to change to say some interesting things, but he couldn't think of them for a while, so he simply slurred.

Fortunately, his words sounded mysterious and mysterious, like a Zen machine. The child nodded with sophistication, put his hands behind his back, and left without saying a word.

As soon as the child went out, the candidates in the courtyard fell down, as if they had held their breath for too long just now, and their weak bodies couldn't hold on. The officials of the Ministry of Rites, who arrived later, did not rebuke this phenomenon. They explained a few words to the candidates with a pleasant face, and hurriedly ended the etiquette training.

"That's it, I haven't learned to kowtow yet, didn't I say that I have to kneel three times and bow nine times when I see the emperor?" Zhao Xing wondered in his heart, he just wanted to talk to the muezzin, but he didn't expect the muezzin to see him, and pointed to the door with a respectful attitude and a resolute tone: "Go out." ”

"Fortunately, this sentence is not preceded by the word roll." Zhao Xing walked out of the main hall of the Ministry of Rites in wonder, several eunuchs blocked the sight of the first person like a meat screen, and hurriedly led everyone to the outside of the palace, Zhao Xing followed the flow of people out of the palace gate, on the way he found that the palace guards suddenly became stricter, and met Tong Guan on the way - that guy also said that he was a friend, and he didn't get in front of him. Standing in the distance, he squeezed his eyes at Zhao Xing.

Zhao Xing faintly felt that the problem might be with the child, he walked to the door of Donghua, there were many forbidden troops at the door, and a big eunuch was guarding the door with a knife. Seeing Zhao Xing coming, he waved at him majestically. The people around the big eunuch introduced loudly: "The commander of the front of the palace, the chief lieutenant Feng Shining has something to ask, and the son will come up by name." ”

"Zhao Xing, a member of Huangzhou, has seen a big official", Zhao Xing replied.

Taiwei Feng looked at Zhao Xing, nodded with satisfaction, raised his sharp voice, and instructed meaningfully: "Let's guess your name is Zhao Xing." Zhang Yong said that you are rare...... Go back, and wait for you later. ”

Out of the imperial city, Zhao Xing saw that the forbidden army had suddenly increased around him, and he was thoughtful. Suddenly. He felt that he had found the answer, so he turned over and got on his horse, ignoring Cheng Xia's shouting behind him, and galloped towards his home.

Zhao Xing was in a hurry to come back, and Cheng Azhu originally wanted to learn from the appearance of those widows. Make a welcoming ceremony. Unexpectedly, Zhao Xing hurriedly broke in. At that time, Cheng Azhu was chatting with Mrs. Wang, Chaoyun, and Chen Yiyi. Seeing Zhao Xing coming in, he hurriedly stood up to greet him, but Zhao Xing nodded sloppily and immediately asked Mrs. Wang: "Where is the teacher?" ”

"Shortly after the court this morning, the eunuchs in the palace came to summon and asked the courtiers to enter the palace regardless of whether they were on duty or not—he rushed into the palace, you are panicking, what's wrong?" Mrs. Wang replied.

"No", Zhao Xing's face was full of disbelief: "What a big deal - isn't it just a slap on someone's head, why is there such a big fuss?" ”

Mrs. Wang teased: "What? After leaving people, he has not yet been awarded an official, so he began to care about the affairs of the court, and I have never seen you like this in the past. ”

Cheng Azhu looked at him with concern, and stepped forward to help Zhao Xing straighten his hair messed up by running. Chen Yiyi didn't grab this job, she hurriedly reached out and took the horsewhip in Zhao Xing's hand.

Zhao Xing's expression was amused and helpless: "I may have caused a big disaster...... I touched the head of a child in the palace, and that child may be a member of the clan. ”

Madame Wang sneered, and when she had laughed enough, she asked again, "What kind of clothes does the child wear, and what crown does he wear?" ”

Zhao Xing described the child's clothing in detail, especially mentioning the child's hat: "The hat is very special, with 24 beams around it, and the hat is decorated with pearls and jade ......."

The room was full of laughter, and Cheng Azhu had just finished laughing, and looked at Mrs. Wang with a melancholy expression. Madame Wang stopped laughing and said, "That kind of hat is called Tongtian Crown—Tongtian, who do you guess will wear this kind of hat?" ”

Zhao Xing had already vaguely guessed the truth, otherwise he wouldn't have said "I made a big disaster", but he still refused to admit his mistake: "But he is wearing a red robe, emperor, shouldn't he wear a yellow robe." ”

"Who said that officials should wear yellow robes...... In vain, you are still a big cloth merchant, dyeing cloth all day long, and you can't even tell the difference between court clothes and crown clothes, let me ask you, what color clothes are worn by the officials of the Ministry of Rites present? ”

"Like...... High-ranking highland officials wore vermilion purple, low-ranking officials wore green robes, and we wore white robes (white bodies) that day," Zhao Xing replied as he thought.

"This dynasty is still hot, and the crown clothes and court clothes are ...... with vermilion as the most valuable", Mrs. Wang said meaningfully: "Isn't there a poem that says: The Son of Heaven is heroic, and the article teaches Ercao, everything is inferior, only reading is high...... The Zhu Ziyi of the Manchu Dynasty are all scholars......"

"Then ......" Zhao Xing opened his mouth to ask-"So, who did the yellow robe?" Didn't Zhao Kuangyin be added to the yellow robe by his subordinates in Chen Qiaoyi, and then became the emperor? ”

But he opened his mouth, thinking that these words were too taboo, and quickly swallowed the next words back.

After a turn of thought, Zhao Xing already understood, it turned out. Zhao Kuangyin's "yellow robe" was not done by the Song Dynasty.

The people of the Song Dynasty thought that they had inherited the virtues of fire, and "gold, wood, water, fire, and earth" was an important part of Confucian theory, and it believed that the change of dynasty was the "cycle of five virtues", including the death of the country and the invasion of foreign races, which was also a kind of "cycle of five virtues" - this was the most firm worldview of the ancients.

Since the Song Dynasty was still hot, the clothing was of course expensive vermilion purple - the Ming Dynasty advocated Tude, and the clothing was yellow as the most expensive. Therefore, the yellow robe should be made by the Ming Dynasty!

"I was confused by the yellow robe for a lifetime ......", Zhao Xing figured out this question. He immediately understood his situation, and couldn't help but exclaim: "I actually touched the emperor's head, and patted him on the shoulder and told him to walk carefully-when I left the palace, the forbidden army was dispatched, and the imperial city seemed to be under martial law......"

Mrs. Wang laughed even louder: "I rule the world with scholars, and you are not the only one who has patted the emperor on the shoulder, as for this, do you send additional guards in the palace for this purpose?" If you were to be punished for your sins, I wouldn't have let you out of the palace at all...... It's not you, when my family officials were called away, the officials said it was for the Qingtang Rebellion"

The Qingtang Rebellion, the Qingtang Dynasty was in chaos. War again? Zhao Xing's heart sank.

Zhao Xing didn't know that from this year on, the Great Song Dynasty fell into continuous wars again, and the heavy wartime economy coupled with corrupt officials and party strife finally dragged down the Song Dynasty.

The cause of the Qingtang Rebellion was still "the return of land". When Zhao Xing rushed to the Great Yue Kingdom, he had seen the Great Yue Kingdom cheering for the regaining of the five northern provinces, and soon after that, the Great Song Dynasty continued to adhere to the idea of "subduing people with virtue". He returned the strategic points captured in the previous wars and the five border provinces to the Western Xia to show that he was "morally noble".

Sima Guang's idea was advocated by Confucianism for thousands of years - "not to hear about foreign enemies".

Dayue was also governed by Confucianism, and they were given the land back. Feeling this benevolence, he took in the fugitive emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty a few years later, and buried him after his death, and set up the "Tomb of the Flying Dragon Emperor" to worship, but the Western Xia people could not realize the "benevolence" of the Great Song Dynasty.

July 1086. The Western Xia Emperor died as usual. Qianshun is the emperor, only 3 years old. It is jointly assisted by his mother Liang and his uncle Liang Yiqi. In order to stabilize the regime, he immediately launched a war of aggression, and in the following 13 years, the Western Xia launched more than 50 large and small wars against the Song Dynasty, some of which amounted to more than six or seven times in a year. The fuse of this long war was the "Qingtang Rebellion".

It is difficult to explain in the simplest terms the chaotic "Qingtang Rebellion", and the beginning of the war can be deduced to the Tang Dynasty......

Zhao Xing only remembers: after the founding of the Western Xia, the Song army in order to attack the Western Xia, efforts to win over the "Qingtang regime" in Xining, and the fruitful results, the land Silk Road reopened, the Roman plate armor into the Central Plains, known as the "Qingtang armor", followed by the introduction of advanced iron smelting methods, a smooth trade route.

When Wang Anshi was in power, he sent Wang Shao to take advantage of the Qingtang Dynasty to have a dispute over inheritance rights, and took part of the territory of the Qingtang Dynasty to the rule of the Great Song Dynasty, which was "Wang Shaofu Five Provinces". However, this work ended in a hurry, the relationship between the local soil and the king was not straightened out, and the local administration had not yet been established and stabilized, but only a symbolic occupation, so Wang Shao was hastily recalled.

As a result, the hornet's nest was stabbed, but the Great Song Dynasty did not wear protective clothes - Qingtang changed from a stable ally to a rebel and a hostile enemy.

In the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the Song army and the army of the Qing and Tang Dynasty had a war in Tabaicheng, and the Song army was defeated. Since then, the Qingtang general Guozhuang Qingyijie (one work: Ghost Chapter Qingyijie) was proud and constantly sent troops to plunder the Song Dynasty. And the Song army surrendered when it came, and Dong Yu, the leader of the Qingtang tribe who fought when the Song army left, not only recovered the land that belonged to his own clan after the battle of Baicheng, but also sent troops to annex the countries of the Western Regions, and its power gradually became stronger.

After that, the Qing and Tang Dynasty Ete Linggu ascended the throne and wrote a letter to Liang Yikui, the prime minister of the Western Xia dictatorship, and the two sides agreed to launch an attack on the Song Dynasty at the same time. At the beginning of this month, Guozhuang Qingyijie led the army to launch an attack on Taozhou, capturing Zhao Yuzhong, Bao Cheng, Bao Shun and other leaders of the Guishun Song Dynasty, and also killed thousands of other Qingtang leaders in the Song Dynasty, including Jing Humu, and then garrisoned Changjiashan to build Taozhou City......

Not long after Zhao Xing entered the palace, the war report of the "Qingtang Rebellion" reached the palace, and the palace was suddenly in chaos, and the courtiers finally tasted the bitter fruit of "encouraging aggression", but they did not think that this was the fault of Confucian theory, and the Manchu Dynasty was in a mess to find the person responsible.

Zhezong Zhao Xu is still young, in other words, most of the time, he is just an ornament. When the ministers in the court quarrel, they may glance at the pen and ink on the desk, but they will never bother to look at Zhezong. The bored Zhezong took a few cronies and eunuchs for a walk in the palace, walked and walked, and walked to the main hall where the new science and technology jinshi practiced etiquette......

Then, there was an incident of being touched by Zhao Xing!