Therefore, several court officials took the information and compared it, and sure enough, they guessed correctly.

What surprised these corrupt officials of the Ministry of Rites even more was that the three champions were all about twenty years old, and the three Tanhua were only eighteen years old, without exception.

These officials were amazed when they took the results, they really couldn't figure out how the officials could distinguish the age of the candidates while reviewing these examination papers?

You must know that more than 90,000 candidates have participated in the temple examination. At the beginning, when the examination was held, the number of candidates had reached and exceeded 100,000, and it took them nearly a month to complete all the examination papers for this reason!

Not counting the little officials who copied the exam papers, they were even more fortunate.

In fact, the reason why Zhao Xu was able to complete the examination papers of the first two days in the first two nights,

The ultimate secret is the age of the candidates.

The results of the examination were actually obtained by Zhao Xu and Zhang Shangying through black-box operations.

In the examination, Zhang Shangying, with the assistance of the Imperial City Division, eliminated those individual students who were indiscriminate, as well as those who were too old, as long as they were over forty years old.

Whenever it is found that the students who come to the state capital and county are indiscriminate, the Ministry of Rites, together with the three institutes of imperial history, immediately sent people to the place to investigate whether the education level of the students in the place is not high overall, or whether there is a fraud case during the college examination.

If the overall culture of the place is not high, the imperial court will send some people with a relatively high level of education to serve as local cultural officials such as teachings and literature, in order to improve the overall cultural level of the local area.

However, if there is really a case of fraud, then we must severely punish them, find out how big the officials are, and immediately dismiss the big officials. This time, Zhao Xu was very determined to punish the case of fraud in the imperial examination. The reason why he sent the Imperial City Division to investigate secretly was that he was afraid that the imperial history who was sent out would also collude with the local officials for various reasons.

If the soldiers really found out that such a thing happened to the imperial history who went to investigate, then the imperial history would be imprisoned for life, and the son would also be implicated. The official who recommended the Imperial History, as well as the chief officer of the Third Imperial Academy, will be punished with a fine. If there are three such incidents in the imperial history sent by one of the courts, the chief officer of that court will be immediately dismissed.

This article, Zhao Xu asked Liang Shicheng to convey this request to the Imperial City Division in front of Cai Jing, of course, all the officials who find out about such incidents will also be rewarded accordingly.

In front of Cai Jing, he wanted to warn him, because he was the supreme director of the Yushi Observatory.

For this reason, after Cai Jing went back, he immediately summoned the chief officials of the three courts together and said directly what the officials had said in front of him.

Among them, although it is not said that if there is a problem in the three courtyards of the Imperial History Tower, what kind of punishment will he receive as a Zhongcheng in the Imperial History. But Cai Jing knew that if there were more than three imperial historians in each of the three courtyards of the Imperial History Tower, he would naturally not be able to take on the imperial history. If he doesn't take the initiative to resign, Zhao Xu will give him even more embarrassment.

It is precisely for this reason that the Imperial History of the Third Academy of the Imperial History Observatory and the Imperial City Division, who are about to be sent out, are both riveted and must do a good job in this errand.

Of course, if the candidates over the age of forty really have real talent to learn, Zhao Xu will not leave them a chance, and the system that will start later will accept these old literati with a high level of education as if they were in the court.

Erudite Hongzi is not a Manchu initiative, nor is it Zhao Xu's personal initiative, as early as the Tang Xuanzong Kaiyuan period has opened this subject, but in the Great Song Dynasty is indeed the first time.

Of course, this is still from Cai Dao's suggestion, but Zhao Xu himself refuses to admit it.

After that, Zhao Xu will be like the Tang Dynasty, and he will develop the system of science and technology, and no longer only pay attention to the Jinshi department as before.

With 30,000 test takers every night, I feel dizzy just holding the test papers.

In fact, at the time of the examination, Zhao Xu had already sent someone to record the list and detailed information of the students who passed the examination, and reviewed it with his actual situation. After all, this is the Great Song Dynasty, not the later generations, and the Great Song Dynasty does not have such a strict household registration system, so if candidates want to tamper with their age, it should not be too difficult.

Therefore, the examination papers of the palace examination must first pass the age level, and after that, there are actually not many examination papers left.

Of course, if someone is really born old and is brushed off because of this, he can only be blamed for his bad luck.

However, a student who is not more than forty years old can grow into fifty or sixty years old, and such a person may not live too long.

For this reason, Zhang Shangying personally took out the results of the investigation and went to Zhao Xu for verification. Zhao Xu didn't hide it, and confessed the matter to his Ministry of Rites, and the reason he used was Cai Dao's original words.

Although Zhang Shangying agreed with Zhao Xu's statement in his heart, he still couldn't agree with this one-size-fits-all approach, so he admonished Zhao Xu: "Your Majesty, what you said is indeed reasonable, but this is very unfair to those scholars who have always been stumbling on the imperial examination, especially those who are twenty-five to forty years old. ”

"Zhang Aiqing, that's why I will hand over the examination papers of the palace examination to you for review! After all, there are too many exam papers, and it is inevitable that I will have some omissions, if there are really great talents in those exam papers that have been brushed down, your officials from the Ministry of Rites can present them to me, and of course I will not let go of such talents!

By the way, Zhang Aiqing, in fact, these older students, I didn't really give up on them completely. Later, I will have to take more people than before! In the future, there is no need to be recommended by the minister, and it is really necessary to restore the system of the Han and Tang dynasties. For example, this year, I will first set up three courses: the Virtuous and Virtuous Fangzheng Course, the Outspoken Extreme Advice Course, and the Erudite Macro Dictionary Course. Zhang Aiqing, what do you think? ”

Zhang Shangying suddenly realized, it turned out to be this reason!

The system, also known as the system, began in the Han Dynasty and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, but later, it was abolished by Tang Wenzong.

The Song Dynasty and Tang Dynasty did not restore the system system, but the ministers could be recommended, and the emperor was personally responsible for the examination, so in the Great Song Dynasty, the system was called a special department. The famous Fu Bi, who is as famous as Han Qi, is not from the Jinshi Branch, but from the Special Branch.

As a supplement to the tribute system, it was basically controlled by ministers in the Great Song Dynasty, which was of course not in the interests of the imperial power.