Zichen Hall is the innermost of the three palaces in Taiming Palace, and it is the place where His Majesty and his close courtiers discuss politics on weekdays, but every time the palace is tested, it is used as a place for the palace test.

At this time, it was still early, and the five hundred scholars and scholars who had passed the examination were also arranged by the dozen officials and officials at this time, and they lined up relatively neatly, waiting for the roll call to begin.

The palace examination is different from the general examination, only one day of trying, early morning admission, sunset handing in papers, and only trying to make a strategy.

Xu Mingyuan, Bai Molou and the others stood in the middle, casually glanced at the people around them, and saw a few familiar faces.

Zheng Zhi stood in the corner on the side, and when he saw Xu Mingyuan, he also smiled at him. At the age of Zheng Zhi who is only fifteen years old, it is very rare to be able to pass the examination, and if he can be on the list above this palace examination, even if the ranking is not high, it is enough to be called a prodigy.

And that Wang Ziqi was standing behind Wen Hua at this time, looking at Xu Mingyuan a little dodgy, even if Wen Hua was in front of him, he had no confidence.

Wenhua is in good spirits, Hengguo Gong has been quite hot recently, so that Wenhua's status among the sons of Chang'an is rising, and the few people standing next to him at this time are quite famous sons and talents in Chang'an City.

Wen Hua glanced at Xu Mingyuan coldly, a sneer flashed at the corner of his mouth, and he turned his head directly to look at him.

Yan Hao didn't come here, it's not that he doesn't want to come, it's just that with the little pen and ink in his stomach, except for doing some tricks to tease good families and robbing people's wives and daughters, he can't do any splendid articles.

The Duke of Fengle County was knighted, but Yan Hao was not affected much.

But this matter is not over here, since Yan Hao is now just the son of a county prince, then Xu Mingyuan will naturally help them avenge the revenge of the innocent women who died in the lake in the county mansion over the years.

With the evidence that Yuntai Si has in his hands now, it is enough for him to die several times, and those bones buried in the garden of Yan Mansion are the most famous blow.

Xu Mingyuan won the first place in the examination, and at this time, many people already recognized him, and looked at him with different eyes, some envious and some provocative.

Everyone who can stand here is the best among the world's scholars, although Xu Mingyuan won the Huiyuan, but there are many people who are not convinced.

The etiquette of the palace examination was quite cumbersome, before entering the imperial city, all the beings had already searched their bodies, and soon after everyone lined up, there were three officials in purple official robes who came to preside.

Fang Tingyan on the side also whispered to Xu Mingyuan, the one in the middle was Huang Zongrui, the waiter of the Yellow Gate, the one on the left was Shi Huairen, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the one on the right was Wen Quan, a bachelor of Hanlin.

After going through the roll call, scattering papers, salutes and other etiquette, all the beings entered the Zichen Hall under the guidance of the small officials, and Huang Zongrui, the waiter of the Yellow Gate, announced the issuance of the policy questions, and after the test papers were in hand, Emperor Yan came to the Zichen Hall in person, ascended to the main throne, and announced the official start of the palace examination.

The palace examination is based on His Majesty as the main examiner, that is to say, the middle jinshi is the protégé of the Son of Heaven, and all the students are seated according to the previous arrangement, and after getting the policy questions, they also begin to study ink writing.

The Zichen Hall was very wide, and the five hundred low tables were neatly arranged, and it was not crowded, and Xu Mingyuan was sitting in the corner, and several people around him were unknown people.

Xu Mingyuan first flipped through the strategy questions on the test paper, there were three questions in total, and after a cursory look, he began to study the ink, while silently thinking about how to write in his heart.

For Xu Mingyuan, the question is undoubtedly what he is best at, he has read a lot of books, and has traveled so many places, there are absolutely few things that can compare with him in terms of knowledge alone.

This temple test only tests three strategies, which is definitely a good thing for him.

Emperor Yan sat high in the hall, looking at the beings in the hall, with a slight smile on his face, and from time to time he said a few words to the three purple-robed officials beside him, pointing at the scholars in the hall, as if he was judging.

Dawan Tianzi sat in the hall, all beings were a little nervous, and some people even accidentally knocked over the inkstone and stained the rolling paper.

Fortunately, Emperor Yan did not blame, and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites asked him to change a new roll of paper and signaled him to continue answering the question.

Xu Mingyuan glanced at the middle-aged scholar with a flushed face, shook his head with a smile, dipped his pen in the inkstone, and then wrote on the inscription paper the five characters of the theory of rejecting the north's westward advance.

The question paper is framed with rice paper, which is extremely elegant, and the question paper is framed with rice paper, which is extremely elegant, with a straight red line, and 24 characters per line.

Different from the township examination and the general examination, the test paper on the palace examination does not need to be copied by a special person, and after the name is blurred, it is read by the eight ministers who mark the papers, and finally the top ten test papers are submitted to His Majesty, who will hand-pick the ranking.

This also means that whether the candidate's words are good-looking or not becomes very important, if there is no good word, it is a splendid article, and it will be discounted because of the word.

Xu Mingyuan is not worried about this, his handwriting has also been practiced hard since childhood, and he is also the leader of a hundred schools, and he has also received the guidance of several famous calligraphers in Dawan, even if it is Fang Tingyan and others, he is confident to compare with them.

The first question is very broad, that is, what are the suggestions for the current external situation of Dawan, which mentions the situation of Beili, Tubo and Nanzhao around Dawan.

If you want to stand out among these 500 people, you can't get the champion just by talking about some generalities, so Xu Mingyuan also relied on his understanding of Tubo and Beili to put forward the strategy of rejecting the north's westward expansion.

The Beili grassland is too vast, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and it is a nomadic people, if Dawan rushes north, even if he can take all the land in the south of Beili, he can't take those tribes who disappear as soon as they enter the grassland.

Moreover, there are few cities on the grassland, even if Dawan has the territory, if he wants to defend it, the price he needs to pay is not at all from these grasslands.

Moreover, in recent years, under the rule of Yelu Yi, Beili has become more and more powerful, strong and strong, and has the posture of going south to fight with Dawan.

However, in recent years, Tubo has been in constant civil strife, and the fighting between various tribes has made it almost impossible for Tubo to compete with Dawan. If Nanzhao will not get in the way, as long as Dawan unites with Nanzhao, it is not difficult to go west, even if it can't be said that Tubo is completely eaten, it can also make the status of the four towns of Anxi more solid.

After Emperor Yan sat for half an hour, he set up a frame and left, and then the three officials invigilated the exam.

Many of the students in the field breathed a sigh of relief, and it seemed that the writing was a lot smoother.

Xu Mingyuan didn't feel much about this, although he had never entered the Taiming Palace, but he had already seen Emperor Yan once in the hunting ground, and he was praised a few words for the assassination. (To be continued.) )