Questioning.

The test is the vision, insight, talent, and writing of the Jinshi. In addition, in terms of text, it is also important to grasp the importance of the proposal. To put it simply, it is necessary to be able to figure out the holy will, and the article needs to be profound and thorough, but it must not say too heavy words, otherwise it will become a tragedy - Wang Anshi, who is now standing in front of His Majesty, is a ready-made negative teaching material:

Wang Anshi participated in the imperial examination in the second year of the Qing calendar, and wrote the words "''son and friend' on the examination paper of the palace examination. A twenty-two-year-old young man actually wrote the sentence that Zhou Gong taught King Zhou Cheng into the test paper, to teach Emperor Renzong, who had been the Son of Heaven for 20 years. Naturally, there will be no good results. Emperor Renzong personally stroked it, and the champion in his hand flew away, and only got the fourth place.

With the lessons of the past, later scholars have learned not to commit such stupid things again. The Son of Heaven allows you to speak freely, but you can't be serious and straightforward. I want to spray the emperor's face and make a straight name, and it's not too late to wait until I get the title of Jinshi.

Han Gang naturally wouldn't commit it. Seeing the exam questions this time, he was completely relieved.

The previous speculation on the questions of the temple examination was not wrong in the general direction, and it was grasped very accurately. And the mind of the Son of Heaven, through Wang Shao and Wang Yan, the two important ministers and close ministers, Han Gang already has a deep understanding. The response to this is clearly adequate and complete.

After the end of the ritual examination, in order to prepare for the palace examination, Han Gang had already written eight mock essays, and made different aspects of the expected possible situation. One of them coincides with the title of this time, and the others also have words and phrases that can be used for reference and borrowing. What Han Gang had to do was to write it down silently and revise it slightly.

Han Gang was confident in his writing with a vibrating pen, and on the scratch paper, lines of ink-drenched small words appeared in a blink of an eye.

It's a rare situation to write so smoothly on weekdays. It is an article that has been prepared for a long time, and it has been revised many times by his own family, and after Wang Shao's revision, it will naturally not be half a hindrance in writing. But even if it went so well, Han Gang had no idea of competing for the top few.

There are countless smart people in the world, and there are more than 400 people in the Jiying Hall who can be killed from millions of scholars, and there are many people with long-term vision. Han Gang knew very well that it was not only he who could guess the questions of this exam. At least one-tenth of the four hundred and eight could have deduced the same answer in advance. At least Ye Tao, Wang Anguo or Wang Yan will not forget to mention it to him.

But Han Gang was very relieved, as long as he was careful not to bring out the name of the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, there would be no danger of failure. Jinshi has already arrived in his hands, just a ranking, why should he diligently.

Zhao Ji walked slowly in the hall, with only Wang Anshi and Li Shunju following behind.

When he saw the Son of Heaven coming, when the Gongsheng in the exam wanted to get up and salute, he would be stopped by Zhao Ji. He came to see the candidates for the exam, not to disturb the exam.

Zhao Ji's eyes swept over the papers, as long as there were words and sentences on them, Zhao Ji would stop a little and write down the name of this candidate.

From front to back, and from back to front, in the gap between the front and back of the examination table, the Son of Heaven and the Prime Minister paced silently.

Zhao Ji stopped again, Gongsheng, who was working hard to write in front of him, was very young, but the part of the article he wrote well could make the Son of Heaven stop for him. Zhao Ji watched behind him for a long time, and regardless of anything else, he liked the colorful words alone.

Pay attention to your place of origin and name.

Longquan Ye Tao.

Zhao Ji silently read it twice, and he wrote it down.

Start over. Zhao Ji walked back two more rows, but among the dozens of candidates, there was no one who made his eyes shine like Ye Tao, but he still stopped. It's not for the individual candidates who just passed.

Just to the left of Zhao Ji, there was a tribute student, kneeling straight on the futon. His eyes were focused on the pen and paper, his shoulders were open and his back was straight, and his body shape and temperament looked different from other scholars.

Zhao Ji looked back at his prime minister, Wang Anshi understood what he meant, nodded in response, and said softly, "It's Han Gang." ”

This is Han Gang!

Although he was kneeling, his figure and bearing still stood out from the crowd in the surrounding circle of scholars. When viewed from the side and back, you can only see broad shoulders, a straight nose, and a test paper spread out on the table.

With a majestic figure and upright calligraphy, Han Gang, who is sitting on the Jiying Palace, is indeed a civil and military appearance in Zhao Ji's eyes.

Regarding Han Gang's image, Zhao Ji nodded with satisfaction. Looking at the courtiers he has been longing to see, he is walking the dragon and snake without distractions.

Han Gang dragged on in the tribute courtyard until the last of the year before handing over the papers, and Zhao Ji also heard about it. understands that Han Gang is not a genius who writes poems in seven steps and writes like a river, but a scholar who likes to think carefully and think twice. Now it is so smooth to write, when inspiration came. Zhao Ji has also experienced such a time when literary thoughts are surging, and if he is disturbed at this time, most of the broken thoughts will not be able to continue.

Zhao Ji didn't want to disturb Han Gang's words, so he was only about to take two looks, and then planned to leave. But when my eyes fell on the test paper, I couldn't step away. I stood there for a long time, looked at the completed part twice from beginning to end, and then slowly nodded again, turned back and whispered to Wang Anshi: "It's really good." ”

Wang Anshi also saw Han Gang's article in the back, but he shook his head: "The text still needs to be pondered." ”

The speed of the palace examination is a little faster than that of the Ministry of Rites, no matter what, no one dares to let the Son of Heaven wait until after the third watch.

This temple test started early and ended early.

By the afternoon, the Son of Heaven had already turned back to the apse to rest, and the last candidate finally handed in his test papers.

Next, it's time for correction.

The group of examiners of Zhigongju headed by Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing did not appear in the palace examination, but Zhao Ji appointed another group of officials to serve as examiners - detailed officials, arrangement officials, and sealing officials.

The system of the temple examination is almost the same as that of the Ministry of Rites, with only slight differences.

After the examiner submits the paper, it will be handed over to the arranger first, and the name and place of origin at the front of the paper will be removed, and the font size and number will be arranged instead. Then he gave the seal official and commanded the scribes of the three museums to copy and compare. Next, it will be handed over to the examiner for further processing, and after it is sealed again, it will be handed over to the re-examiner for further determination. After the finalization is completed, the most detailed decision will be handed over to the official to open the seal to compare the similarities and differences between the examiner and the review. After the detailed official determines the next ranking, the transcript of the test paper is returned to the arranger, and the name of the place of origin is revealed, which corresponds to the font size in this volume, and the determined ranking is presented to the Son of Heaven.

- At this point, it's basically a copy of the Ministry of Rites test, much the same. But then it was different, because the results of the judgment had to be reviewed by the Son of Heaven. This incident will change the ranking of the Jinshi at the bottom.

When it was almost nightfall, Zhao Ji gave wine and food to the candidates who were waiting for the results in the hall. Listening to the voice of gratitude in the front hall, the list of today's Jinshi rankings, together with the original test papers of the candidates, was presented in front of Zhao Ji.

Yu Zhong, Zhu Fu, Shao Gang.

These three are the top three selected by the examiners.

Zhao Ji found out the test papers of the three people, and the text and content were outstanding, and there was no problem with this order.

Next, Zhao Ji looked at the list behind him, and saw twenty or thirty people all the time, and he didn't see the names of the two people he just paid attention to. deliberately looked for Ye Tao, but he was placed in the fifty-sixth place, belonging to the third class. Looking at Han Gang again, it was even worse, but it was the third hundred and eighty-fourth, ranking fifth, almost the last.

Seeing that Gongsheng, who he fancied, was put in such a way, Zhao Ji only felt that his eyes were insulted, and his heart became a little more unhappy.

asked Li Shun to hold up a stack of 400 papers and find out the exam papers of the two, and Zhao Ji looked at them attentively.

Ye Tao's article is very good. Zhao Wei stopped for a long time because of this. It's just that now it seems that the connotation does seem a little hollow, and it doesn't say much about real things. So being placed in the third class is not the examiner's fault. But Zhao Ji read the article on the test paper twice, and felt that he still liked it very much, so he directly erased the 'fifty-six' on the corner of the test paper with a red pen, rewrote a 'nine', and mentioned it to the top ten.

Compared with Ye Tao, Han Gang's situation is just the opposite. The literary style can only be regarded as Zhongping-but it is still stronger than the historical theory written by Han Gang, who came specially from Zhao Ji the day before yesterday, in the Ministry of Rites Examination - but every paragraph, every sentence, and even every word is tightly related to the topic.

In the past few years since the implementation of the new law, the pros and cons of governance, especially the discussion and evaluation of the implementation of the new law in Shaanxi, can be said to hit the nail on the head. It is closely linked to the war against the party and Tibet. No Gongsheng from Shaanxi can have such a profound handwriting as Han Gang. None of the candidates from other regions can speak as clearly as Han Gang about the local situation they know.

Zhao Ji understood that Han Gang was different from other candidates after all. He has participated in the Hengshan Raiders, participated in the Xianyang Rebellion, and experienced all the hardships and hardships on the side of the Hehuang River from beginning to end, and is the privy deputy envoy Wang Shao, the most important assistant on the Xihe Road. The abundance of experience is unparalleled in the world at his age.

The angle of standing is different, the perspective of things is different, and the experience of acting is also different. Zhao Ji looked at Han Gang's scroll, and felt that it was completely different from the words of other scholars, where is the exam paper, it is clearly a piece of music from the important ministers in the border areas of Shaanxi.

Plain and intuitive, let the Son of Heaven see the shortcomings in governance, and at the same time give advice that makes it easy for the court to make corresponding solutions.

This kind of recital can only be written by a famous minister who is proficient in political affairs.

Zhao Ji also likes to read the concerts of famous ministers in the old days on weekdays, and Han Gang's strategy this time, compared to those famous ministers, is only lacking in words.

That's why Han Gang's ranking was rated so low. The style similar to the scantata is too special to be liked by the examiners. But Zhao Ji is different, and his position will not be the same as that of the examiners.

They didn't like Han Gang's question, but Zhao Ji liked it very much.

Therefore, Han Gang's three hundred and eighty-four can only be filled by Murong Wu, who is one in the front.