The exam was going on for two hours, and it was already noon, and Zhao Ziliang and the others were chatting while eating and drinking. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"By the way, after the results of this scientific examination are announced, when will the selection of the officials be conducted?" Zhao Ziliang asked while eating the food.

Li replied: "Generally, after the list is announced, the candidates who are on the list and the first place go to the official department to participate in the selection test three days later!" ”

The candidates who participated in the scientific examination have the qualifications to be officials after winning the jinshi, but whether they can directly become officials also need to participate in the selection examination of the official department, and the content of the selection test is mainly four aspects: body, speech, writing, and judgment. First test the book and judgment, that is, to test the degree of neat writing and literacy of the text, and then try to speak and speak, that is, to observe whether the appearance is correct and the speech is clear.

If the selection examination of the ministry does not pass, you cannot be an official directly, and you can only be an adjutant and auxiliary officer for the official. There is also a way to become an official bureaucrat as an adjutant, and if you are trusted and recommended by the chief, you can also become a full-fledged official.

Zhao Ziliang said: "In the future, the selection examination of the Ministry of Officials should increase the content, to examine the students' loyalty to Datang, to judge the candidates' personality characteristics, the ability to behave in the world, and the ability to communicate with others!" ”

Yuan Zai said: "The regent's proposal is agreed by the ministers, if a candidate only knows how to read the dead book and is not good at interacting with people and lacks communication with people, this is a closed-door operation, how can such a person let his subordinates carry out his decision, and how can he communicate with the people?" ”

On the second day of the exam, the Ming Jing Department will start the oral examination, and the questions of the oral examination are very simple, which is also because the admission scores of the Ming Jing Department are relatively low, and the reason for the large number of admissions, the Ming Jing Department is the same as the correspondence course of later generations, it is also a diploma, which is stronger than high school graduation, but it is not very favored by the upper echelons of society.

Zhao Ziliang, an examiner, the crown prince Li Shi, the prime minister Yuan Zai, and the Ministry of Rites Shangshu Li Kui each opened a single room to conduct oral examinations for candidates who took the Ming Jing examination. Because the Ming Jing Department is easy to pass the examination, but it is generally not valued by the imperial court, it is difficult to become a big official, while the Jinshi Department is valued by the imperial court and is easy to be a big official. Most of the ancient literati were pretentious, so there were not many people who took the Ming Jing exam, and many people took the Jinshi exam, but it was not easy to get in.

This is not to say that there are no talents among the candidates who take the examination of the Ming Economics, but even if they have the ability and talent to learn, the high-level officials themselves despise their diplomas, and they are naturally prejudiced, and if they are not promoted, no matter how strong your ability is, it will be useless.

In the oral examination the next day, Zhao Ziliang took more than 30 candidates in a row, although his questions were simple, but none of the answers satisfied him, but the answers of these people were also decent, there were no major problems, and he still gave them high scores.

"Student Xiahou Shen meets the examiner!" A young man in his thirties walked in and saluted Zhao Ziliang.

Zhao Ziliang was in charge of the oral examination room, which was different from that of the crown prince Li Shi, Yuan Zai and Li Kui, and he had a stool prepared here for the candidates to sit in.

Zhao Ziliang looked at him, stretched out his hand and waved the bench: "Sit!" ”

"Huh?" Obviously, this candidate named Xiahou Zhen really didn't expect the examiner to let him sit and answer the questions, he had already participated in more than one scientific examination, and there had never been such a situation before. But he quickly reacted: "Thank you, sir! ”

Waiting for Xiahou to sit down, Zhao Ziliang asked casually, "How old is this year?" ”

Xia Houxian was a little nervous and replied, "The student has one in Chinese New Year's Eve this year!" ”

"Thirty-one? In the words of the market, the thirty-year-old has not been admitted to the Ming Jing Department is already very old, and the fifty-year-old has not yet been admitted to the Jinshi is still very young, you obviously belong to a very old category, hehe! Okay, don't be nervous, let's get started, the first question: Li Zhongchen you know, right? The court is not kind to him, why should he rebel? ”

Xiahou Xun was not nervous at this time, his thinking was very clear, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Li Zhongchen was a general of An Lushan at the beginning, and after An Lushan's rebellion, he killed An Lushan's subordinate minister Lu Zhizhi, and supported Liu Zhengchen as a festival envoy, and he was a soldier and horse envoy. From this point, it can be seen that Li Zhongchen is not a very loyal person, he is good at speculation. At the same time, after he killed Lu Zhizhi, he supported Liu Zhengchen as the envoy of the festival, and the envoy of the festival was a feudal official of the imperial court, and only the emperor could appoint him, was he a small general who could support it if he wanted to? From this point, it can be seen that Li Zhongchen is actually not very respectful and loyal to the imperial court. Since he was able to betray An Lushan, he could naturally betray the imperial court, and the difference was only in the amount of interests. The Anshi Rebellion pacified the disaster, the generals in various places supported the army and respected themselves, the rebellions occurred repeatedly, the imperial treasury was empty, and the encirclement and suppression were not effective, Li Zhongchen had long seen the weakness of the imperial court, and he knew that with the current strength of the imperial court, it was already a little stretched to deter other feudal towns and maintain the stability of the imperial court, and it was very difficult to eliminate him. Therefore, after the emperor decided to cut the domain, he decisively launched a rebellion, because the reduction of the domain touched his vital interests! ”

This is the most satisfactory answer for Zhao Ziliang among all the candidates in the oral examination, and he nodded with satisfaction, "That's a good answer!" The second question is, on the eve of the Anshi Rebellion, why are there more and more displaced people? ”

Xiahou Xun said bluntly: "This is because of the serious land annexation and natural and man-made disasters, the big families, princes and nobles colluded with the government officials, openly robbed and secretly seized, and annexed the fields of free farmers, after more than 100 years of development in our dynasty, the fields of free farmers were swallowed up more and more by the big clans and nobles, so the landless peasants could only be tenants of the big families, so that most of the fields in the country were concentrated in the hands of a few people, and the taxes received by the imperial court became less and less. It has caused a large number of displaced people! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded secretly and asked the third question: "In recent years, why has the treasury always been empty?" ”

Xiahou thought for a while and said: "There are several main reasons: first, the continuous war has caused the production to stop in many war-torn places, and since the production has stopped, the taxes will naturally not be collected; Second, the imperial court used troops to fight successive wars, which required huge military expenditures, and how could the national treasury, which was not full in the first place, be able to bear it? Third, the imperial court was not only responsible for the military expenses of the army under the control of the imperial court, but also sent military expenses to the various feudal towns in order to appease them; However, the taxes collected by the feudal towns were withheld by themselves and never paid. That is to say, the imperial court is supporting all the armies of the country with taxes that can only control the regions; Fourth, corrupt officials and corrupt officials in various places are greedy for taxes and falsely report losses under various excuses! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded: "Okay, that's a good answer, you go back first!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

After Xiahou left, Zhao Ziliang gave a high score and wrote down his name at the same time. This is a talent, a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the current situation, a person with a sense of the overall situation, this person thinks clearly, speaks clearly, and behaves decently, and should be able to take on some important responsibilities after some tempering.

In the oral examination on the third day, Zhao Ziliang found another talented candidate, this person is called Miao Fa, this person has another opinion on his exam questions, and it also opens up a broader vision for Zhao Ziliang.

After the three-day scientific examination, Zhao Ziliang and several deputy examiners began to mark the papers, although there were many fewer candidates this time than in the past, but Zhao Ziliang and others still took two days to mark the papers.

On October 22, the results of the scientific examination finally came out, and in the morning, officials from the Ministry of Rites came out with the list to post it, and hundreds of candidates crowded under the list to see if there was their own name.

Some of the candidates danced, some were ecstatic, some smiled slightly, and some of the candidates who did not pass were overshadowed, some were heartbroken, and some were beating their chests.

Regent's Palace.

Zhao Ziliang looked at the list of candidates on the list handed over by Li Kuo and asked, "These people are the names of the candidates on the list?" ”

Li replied, "Yes! The ministers have checked the exam papers one by one several times, and there are no mistakes, so they are registered! ”

After the end of the scientific examination, Zhao Ziliang personally participated in the marking of the papers, so he was very familiar with some of the examination papers that were relatively good, and he had read in detail the policy articles of several candidates who were ranked in the first few terms.

Seeing that Han Hong, Lu Lun, Qian Qi, Geng Xiang and others were among the best, Zhao Ziliang said with a smile: "It seems that these people who participated in the second scientific expedition are still very confident in their talents, you see, their names are in the forefront!" ”

Li Kui said: "Yes, in addition, the two candidates who were late, Lu Lun and Sikong Shu, also did well in the exam, one ranked second and one ranked seventh. and the vulgar Taoist Ji Zhongfu took the fifth place in the exam, which is a good result. ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded and said, "Yuan Zai still has the wisdom to know people!" ”

In addition to the above people, there are also Li Duan and Cui Dong in the forefront, and the Ming Jingke is in the forefront of Xiahou Shen and Miao Fa.

There were more than 480 people who took the examination in the Jinshi Section, but there were 32 people on the list, and only more than 60 people took the examination in the Ming Classics Section, and there were 16 people on the list.

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while, and instructed Du Fu, who was standing aside: "Go and pass the word to Li Xian, the secretary of the ministry, and let him come immediately!" ”

"Yes!" Du Fu agreed, turned around and sent someone to deliver a message to Li Xian, and Li Yu immediately said goodbye and left.

Soon, Li Xian came to the Regent's Palace, he is the third son of Li Yi, the king of Xin'an, and he is also sixty years old this year.

"Li Hyeon's visit to the regent!"

Zhao Ziliang raised his hand and said: "Liang Guogong is exempt from courtesy, come here, take a seat!" ”

The guards brought a chair, and Li Xian sat down after saluting.

Zhao Ziliang said: "Liang Guogong is a clan, back then King Zun Xin'an had a lot of support for this king, this king still dare not forget, now you and I are ministers in the same court, or for the sake of the court, for the sake of the people of the world!" ”

Li Xian didn't know what Zhao Ziliang meant, and said: "The regent must have something to tell the old minister when he called him over, please speak up if the regent has any orders, as long as it is beneficial to the court and the world, the old minister will naturally not be disagreed!" ”

Although Li Xian is a clan, but his life experience is extremely rich and bumpy, although he is now the Ministry of Rites, but also the prime minister, he has served as a multi-state governor in his life, twice served as Jiangling, many times as Jing Zhaoyin, five times on the throne, six times the official worship of the book, seven times as a special ambassador. He has held important positions and has made many meritorious achievements in office.