Now the task of the two examiners is to elect the undergraduate president.

Xu Jie still looked tepid, and said softly: "I don't know what Li Ge wants, that article can be called the best?" ”

Li Ben already had a prejudice in his heart, and when he heard this, he picked up a copy, presented it to Xu Jie, and said, "Pavilion Elder, please see, this article has the highest demand." ”

Xu Jie took it and flipped through it, and Li Ben was still speechless: "I haven't seen such a good article for many years!" ”

Xu Jie finished reading the three articles, raised his head, and saw that everyone in the room was looking at him, and couldn't help laughing: "What are you all looking at me?" ”

Li Ben said with a smile: "It's easy to come across such a ghostly article, so everyone naturally has to see how the great grandmaster evaluates it." ”

Xu Jie smiled, put down the scroll and shook his head: "According to the humble opinion of the lower officials, let's take a low ranking for this...... I think 300 is just right. ”

"Why?" Li Ben couldn't help but be surprised, the article he recommended was indeed extremely well written, and he used 'Yu Xiuzai' several times, so he wanted to sell it well to Yan Shifan and point it out as Huiyuan...... All along, Xu Jie was like an ornament, giving him an illusion, as if he said that it would count, but now he was really caught off guard by letting Old Man Xu give it to him.

Dumbfounded for a long time, Li Ben whispered: "Even if you don't take Huiyuan in this volume, you can make him the top ten, and you are qualified." Now he is directly beaten into a hundred places and directly buried his future, which is only unconvincing. If it spreads, I'm afraid it will damage the reputation of adults and attract people's voices. ”

Xu Jie smiled and said, "The two holy precepts of the eleventh and seventeenth years of Jiajing, have you forgotten Lord Li?" ”

"How could Xia Guan have thought of such a long-term thing,......" Li Ben said sullenly.

Xu Jie still looked at him calmly, and arched his hand in the direction of Xiyuan: "In the eleventh year of Jiajing, the saint used scientific research articles, and the pure liberal arts body disappeared, and it was decreed that it was forbidden to take the meeting test, the township test to take the difficult words, the words of the strange fetish to sensationalize, all the hook and thorn quirk papers, all the fall!" In the seventeenth year of Jiajing, the saint felt that there were many frauds in the scientific field, and ordered to strictly investigate more than 10 kinds of fraudulent methods, such as collusion between internal and external officials, joint connections, and buying words. ”

He said slowly, Li Ben's sweat came down, he was not a fool, he naturally knew that his little trick was seen through by Xu Jie, and his eyes couldn't help but show a begging look.

Xu Jie didn't even look at him, touched his gray beard, and said with a smile: "The old man is old, what are you doing to pull two unrelated holy decrees together?" Which one does the elder think should be removed? ”

Li Ben knew that Xu Jie's life was a way out, so he kept wiping his sweat and said: "Remove the latter one, and there is no fraud, but you can't take it out and be scary." "Okay." Xu Jie nodded and smiled: "Then this ranking, Li Ge Lao has no opinion, right?" ”

"No opinion, no opinion." Li Ben only blamed himself for being troubled in his heart, so Yan Shifan didn't say that he wanted to take Huiyuan, why did he need to do more?

Only the examiner who won this paper still did not give up, and he felt that he had a clear conscience, and he made a final retort there: "Whose essay dares to say that it must be better than this one?" ”

Xu Jie clicked a few articles under his command and said: "These five articles are all firmly better than him!" ”

Everyone came over, and then looked down, sure enough, the words are really pharaoh, every word is beautiful, and what is more valuable is that it is peaceful and peaceful, and there is something to say, which makes people feel refreshed after reading, and the fatigue accumulated by these days seems to have been swept away, compared with it, the article can only be regarded as good, not excellent.

Everyone is knowledgeable, so someone said softly: "Although these articles have their own merits, they seem to have similarities in style, and they should be from the same family." ”

Xu Jie bowed his head slightly and said, "I don't know which famous teacher taught the apprentice." Then he nodded and said, "Then point out Huiyuan among these five, what do you think?" ”

The examiners had nothing to say and nodded their heads.

"Then let's take a look." After Xu Jie finished speaking, he closed his eyes and went to recuperate.

After a long time, the examiners selected two articles, put them in front of Xu Jie, and said, "These two articles are inseparable, please ask the great master to decide." ”

Xu Jie's attention was taken and he saw that the topic of an article was: 'Those who are good at managing money will be prosperous by their own way!' The other is "The preacher talks about the way of prosperity, which is nothing more than the proper system of the economy." Then he smiled and said: "You guys have a good eye, these two articles are indeed indistinguishable, and it is not too much to choose either one." ”

Everyone knew that this was the right choice, so they asked: "There must always be one or two, and please ask the elder to decide?" ”

Xu Jie's head said: "These two articles, whether in terms of writing, skills, ideas, and thoughts, are impeccable. ”

Everyone nodded one after another, all showing a look of listening, wanting to hear from what angle Xu Ge Lao was from, so they listened to Xu Jie: "Now we have to divide it from Your Majesty's intention to come up with this question." ”

"I came up with this question," Emperor Jiajing said leisurely: "It's just to ask the plan, whoever can solve the problem with the countermeasures is the undergraduate Huiyuan." "After all, it is the emperor who makes the question, and the final interpretation and decision power are still in the hands of the emperor...... Of course, the emperor is very busy, and he will not read every volume, and generally will only pass the current top ten papers.

Xu Jie, who entered the palace to report the winning list, and Li Ben stood in the hall and listened to the hadith.

Emperor Jiajing picked up the ink scroll that was going to take the first two, and first read the "Messenger on the Way of Yuguo" and couldn't help but admire: "Good calligraphy!" Elegant as a fairy, it seems to be better than the old Yan Pavilion! Yan Song is recognized as the first calligrapher in the past 20 years, and the weight of this evaluation can be imagined.

Xu Jie and Li Ben hurriedly said: "Your Majesty has excellent vision, this person is worthy of calligraphy." ”

"But what I seek is a virtuous minister, not a calligrapher." Jiajing smiled faintly: "I still have to read the article." "Then I read the article 'Good Financial Managers', this word is the most beautiful pavilion, and it is also impeccable, but compared to that one, it is a little less immortal, and it is indeed a little worse.

Looking at its contents, the former 'preacher on the way of enriching the country' and starting with proper governance, emphasizing 'eliminating redundant personnel' and 'cutting expenditures', that is, 'reducing expenditures', while the latter focuses on the method of attaching equal importance to open source and reducing expenditure, and comprehensively generating wealth.

Needless to say, both methods are ways to solve the problem, but the former is more orthodox, the latter is more radical, and if it is just an ordinary time, the former is naturally more in line with the 'golden mean' way of selecting officials in the imperial court, and is a better candidate. However, after more than 170 years of development in the Ming Dynasty, many problems have accumulated and it is difficult to return...... At least for Emperor Jiajing, who hated trouble, he was reluctant to touch those minefields, such as the methods mentioned by the former, such as 'cutting the expenses of the vassal king', 'cutting redundant officials', and 'eliminating palace people', which would not cause an uproar? Guys who don't cause a bunch of crying like headless flies around them?

In the final analysis, it was Emperor Jiajing's selfish thoughts that were at work...... He just wants to make as little trouble as possible, let the country get by, let himself have money and leisure to cultivate, as long as I can fool around when I am alive, what does it matter if the flood is monstrous after death?

Therefore, although Emperor Jiajing admired the calligraphy of this article, he only glanced at it twice, and then focused on the second article...... When you see it, 'it is a gentleman's wealth and there is a way, and there is no need to lose it to benefit from it, and if the system is appropriate, it will be rich in the country. "It means that there is no need to harm the interests of the people below, and there are ways to make the country rich! These words were so right that Emperor Jiajing's spirits were lifted, and he couldn't help but sit up straight, and he was afraid that he would read the wrong word, so he stretched out his hand.

Huang Jin hurriedly put the reading glasses away, and Emperor Jiajing took the glasses, and when he saw the highlights, he said loudly: "Then what? Covering the world has the benefits of nature, farmland and forests, mountains and oceans, all of which are the territory of my Ming Dynasty and the foundation of our ancestors. Guheng sees its shortcomings! Reading this, the emperor couldn't help but say: "Yes, in the past, we always stared at the fields to plan, but the Ming Dynasty only had so much arable land, but we had to feed more and more people, and we had to bear the burden of fighting in all directions, and we were already overwhelmed, so we should really think of other ways." ”

The two scholars resigned: "Your Majesty is wise. ”

"The foundation of the peasant country is to support the people; The end of the merchant country is also a rich country. Those who have a country are like trees, and it is a fallacy to put the cart before the horse, but there is no end to the tree, and it is not glorious. ”

"The minister is not talented, try to give an example, Songjiang cotton, Suzhou and Hangzhou silk, Jiangxi porcelain, Fujian tea, known as the Western Francois people coveted, taste thousands of gold to seek it, if the reopening of the city, the sea road is smooth, I Ming thousands of miles of sea frontier, can make tens of millions of dollars."

"At that time, with infinite wealth, for limited use, it is the following often to give and the upper to the constant, although the country has a major event, year or disaster, and three or nine years of savings, it is advisable and not scarce!"

Gently taking off his glasses, Emperor Jiajing muttered: "That's right, it's not right to abandon the basics and chase the end, but if you lose the country's way of making money, you will have to fall to the point where you are today." Saying that, he clicked on this volume and said: "Xu Ge Lao took this as Huiyuan, which is indeed a high opinion." ”

Xu Jie hurriedly thanked him......

(To be continued)