Due to the good weather, the palace examination was arranged to be held in the Daqing Palace Square, each person put a table in front of them, there was a pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the table, there were no chairs, everyone had to stand for the exam, eight invigilators sat in eight directions, and Yu Shen was responsible for taking two deputy examiners to inspect back and forth in the examination room. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, the exam had not yet begun, and the scholars were patiently waiting for the time to come.

At the beginning of the day, a bell rang in the hall, and Yu Shen hurriedly walked down the steps with a scroll in his hand, and everyone stared at the scroll in his hand, which was today's exam question.

Under the eyes of the eight examiners and many scholars, Yu Shen opened the scroll, and the hearts of all the candidates were suspended, and the questions of the palace examination finally appeared.

Several examiners copied down the questions and showed them in the examination room with signs, and when the questions passed in front of Li Yanqing, Li Yanqing breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and sure enough, he guessed the exam questions.

Fill in a poem, requiring Shuangque to rhyme with 'Yan', the word card is not limited, the subtitle is the Northern Expedition, and the time limit is one hour.

The so-called double que means that there must be an upper que and a lower que, and the rhyme foot is the rhyme of the word "Yan", although there is no limit to the word card, but the title has been limited, that is, the Northern Expedition, in fact, the imperial examination is a kind of political weather vane, and the imperial court will use the imperial examination to show major political intentions.

It's just that the poetry test in the provincial examination is the Northern Expedition, and the topic of the palace examination is still the Northern Expedition, which really surprises many people, and they all vaguely guess that the palace examination topic is also related to the Northern Expedition, however, experienced candidates know that the topic is too easy is not necessarily a good thing, which means that the tide rises and the standard of admission is higher.

Time passed little by little, almost all the candidates did not start writing, they were brewing and thinking, although writing a poem is a breeze for these scholars who have taken the provincial examination, everyone can do it with a wave, even Li Yanqing, who is not good at poetry.

However, only twenty people were admitted to the palace examination, although everyone knew that the results of the palace examination plus the results of the provincial examination were the final results of the imperial examination, but before the ranking was announced, no one knew their ranking in the provincial examination, and everyone thought that they had hope of entering the top 20, so the results of the palace examination were extremely important to them.

Although the words are easy to write, but the words that are not brilliant are equivalent to being eliminated, and every scholar is meditating and racking his brains to come up with his best words.

Three quarters of an hour had passed, and there was still a quarter of an hour left before the end of the temple examination. The bell rang, and the examiner Yu Shen shouted: "There is only a quarter of an hour left, and the scholars who have not started writing can put pen to paper." ”

At this time, Li Yanqing didn't have time to hesitate, he had already conceived two poems, but he was not satisfied, and in desperation, he still had to break through with the help of ancient terms.

He took a deep breath and swept the roll of paper in one go:

"Breaking the Array? Northern Crusade》

Drunk to pick up the lamp to look at the sword, dreaming back to blow the horn company camp. Eight hundred miles of fire, fifty strings turned over the outside sound, and the battlefield was an autumn soldier.

The horse-made Lu was fast, and the bow was like a thunderbolt. But the king of the world, won the name before and after his death. Poor white happens!

.........

The written examination of the palace examination is over, and the scholar can not leave, but sits in the Fengqi Pavilion to drink tea and rest, it is only ten o'clock in the morning, and there will be an interview in a while, but not everyone has the opportunity to interview, only the top ten are interviewed by the Son of Heaven in person to determine the top three.

Immediately, the list of 20 people who were admitted to the palace examination will be announced, the first three names are Jinshi and the first, the fourth to twentieth names are Jinshi origins, and the remaining 566 people are called the Jinshi origins, although they are all called Jinshi, but they are different in the rank of Jinshi.

Then the Ministry of Rites will issue a list outside the imperial city to determine the final ranking of the imperial examination, and at the same time send the admission documents to each state, and each state will send a good news official to the candidate's hometown to report the good news.

At the same time, the Jinshi will ride horses and finally go to Qionglin Yuan by the Jinming Pond to receive a banquet from the Son of Heaven.

In the Fengqi Pavilion, everyone silently sits on the chair to drink tea and rest, and the scholars who want to go to the convenience are led to the toilet by the guards, and the scholars can also visit the Fengqi Pavilion at will, which is actually a place for the envoys of various countries to rest and wait, there is a long corridor, which leads directly to the side hall of the Daqing Palace.

All the scholars were very quiet, and occasionally someone whispered, Li Yanqing and more than fifty Tai scholars sat together, at this time, Zhao Kai came over with a smile, sat down in the empty seat next to Li Yanqing, and said with a smile: "Is Brother Xian very nervous?" ”

"A little bit!"

Li Yanqing smiled bitterly and said: "In this atmosphere, I'm not nervous but I'm a little nervous. ”

"In fact, the top 20 have been set in the provincial examination, and the palace examination is only a fine-tuning of the top 20 rankings, unless the words are written very badly, or the writing is too brilliant, there will be a large ranking adjustment."

"What about the interview?" Next to him, Wu Bangchang stepped forward and asked with a smile.

"The interview is set for the top three, in this case, good appearance and good temperament will have an advantage."

The bachelors next to him all gathered around and asked, "What will happen to this year's award?" How much is the difference between the Jinshi origin and the Jinshi background? ”

Zhao Kai smiled slightly: "Actually, it's just that the top three have a little advantage, this kind of thing, not so much to look at the ranking, but to look at luck, like the last champion Qin Hui, and finally was awarded the professor of Mizhou, although it is also a kind of official, but it is not an official appointed by the ministry, how do you say this luck?" ”

Everyone nodded one after another, and everyone knew that officials were divided into officials and non-officials, which was just like the administrative establishment and career establishment of later generations, although they were all iron rice bowls, but in fact there was a big difference.

The scholars all wanted to be officials appointed by the Ministry of Officials, stay in the imperial court and enter the temples of the ministries, and go to the local area to be officials in the county, this is the goal they pursued, no one wanted to go to the state school to teach, that was reserved for the Tai students.

"And what official position can we get?"

"So I said it depends on luck, if you are lucky, even if you are from the same jinshi, you can also serve as the chief county lieutenant in the county, and if you are unlucky, it would be good to go to the state to study, and some jinshi will have to wait patiently for a few years, this kind of thing is not without precedent."

All Jinshi are smart people, although Zhao Kai keeps talking about luck, in fact, everyone understands that it is not luck, but the backstage relationship.

Everyone fell silent and began to worry about their future.

At this time, the sound of hurried footsteps sounded from outside the gate, and the scholars stood up one after another, only to see the deputy chief examiner Liu Ling walking in quickly, he coughed heavily, and said to everyone: "I am called ten people below, please follow me if you hear the name!" ”

There was an uproar in the lobby, this is the top ten came out, everyone didn't expect it to be so soon, and there was a result in only half an hour.

"Is this the top ten?" A gentleman asked in a whisper.

"Exactly!"

Liu Ling took out a list and read it aloud: "Zhang Hua of Fuzhou Min County, Wang Zhihe of Hefei County of Luzhou, Jin Yan of Jiangning County, Jiangning Prefecture, Wang Ang of Jiangdu County of Yangzhou, Wang Kai of Kaifeng County, Kaifeng Prefecture, Jia Correction of Kaifeng County, Kaifeng Prefecture, Cao Xun of Kaifeng County, Xiangzhou Tangyin County, Zhou Yuan of Yangqu County, Taiyuan Prefecture, Lin Hongtai of Yang'an County, Jianzhou..... Please come with me! ”

Li Yanqing's brain is 'buzzing! With a bang, he actually had his own name, which means that he has been in the top ten in the provincial examination, and the thing he was most worried about did not happen, and the poem with a little emotion was really recognized by the examiner.

Zhou Chun lightly bumped Li Yanqing with his elbow and gave him a thumbs up, and Li Yanqing nodded lightly.

At this time, Liu Ling said in a loud voice: "Please let the above ten people come with me!" ”

In an envious gaze, ten scholars came out of the crowd and followed Liu Ling along the corridor towards the direction of Daqing Palace.

The interview was held in the side hall of Daqing Palace, everyone was waiting in a room outside, Liu Ling said to everyone: "The following is the interview by the Son of Heaven in person, you are the protégés of the Son of Heaven, just meet each other with the gift of the protégé, no need to make a big salute, the distance is about a zhang in front of His Majesty, when the time comes, there will be a palace attendant Yushi to guide you, don't look up at the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven let you look up and look up again, answer the question to be concise, don't talk at length, answer honestly, do you understand?" ”

Everyone saluted together, "Understood! ”

"Very good, please feel free to sit down and wait, and the names will be called in turn later, let me say first, the order of the names has nothing to do with the final ranking, just the order of the state capitals, don't worry about anything."

Everyone sat down one after another, and the ten scholars were a little impatiently excited, no matter what, they all entered the top ten, at least they were born as second-class jinshi.

At this time, Zhao Kai lowered his voice and said to Li Yanqing: "I'm really a little nervous!" ”

"Are you worried that you won't get the champion?"

"It's not! I'm afraid that they will really shoehorn the champion into me, and I know in my heart that I shouldn't be in the top ten. ”

Li Yanqing smiled: "What will you have in your heart?" Who do you know other than me? ”

"I don't know anyone!"

"That's fine, you don't know they learned. How can you be sure that you are inferior to others? ”

"I'm just a feeling!"

Li Yanqing shook his head, "You're thinking too much." ”

At this time, a eunuch shouted at the door: "Please Fuzhou Zhang Hua enter the palace for an interview!" ”