After the emperor's wedding, the imperial examination that students all over the world were looking forward to finally came.

Zhao Zhen hurriedly spent his honey week with his wife in the royal garden, and then rushed back to preside over the ceremony.

Because Zhao Zhen had previously ordered the relaxation of restrictions on participating in scientific expeditions, the number of references this time skyrocketed by nearly three times. The number of reference personnel was nearly 4,000, which was the largest number of participants in the imperial examination in history, and of course, the most competitive one.

In view of the large number of people this time, the original tribute academy used for the examination could not fit it, so the royal academy was requisitioned as the examination room, so there was an arrangement for the royal academy to have a holiday in advance. One of the only two forbidden armies left in the capital has also become the main force for the invigilation and even the maintenance of order, and the commander of the Tianwu Army, Yang Zhixin, received the holy decree and blocked the Royal Academy early, and thoroughly searched all corners of the Royal Academy, arranged all the manpower, and waited for the imperial examination to begin.

The imperial examination is just two words, but the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty was not simple, and there were many examination subjects. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, before the arrival of Zhao Zhen, the imperial examination basically inherited the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and it was still the two major systems of regular science and system science. "Standing Branch", like relying on civil servants now, the imperial court must announce the outline, content, time and specific procedures in advance. However, because of Zhao Zhen's agitation, only the specific time of the imperial examination was announced, and there were no detailed regulations on other outlines and contents, which made many reference students panic.

According to the previous practice, in addition to the Jinshi department, there are also various subjects, including the Nine Classics, the Five Classics, the Kaiyuan Ceremony, the Three History, the Three Rites, the Three Transmissions, the Ming Classics, the Ming Law, the Ming Characters and other subjects. The so-called "Nine Classics" are the nine Confucian classics set by the Tang Dynasty; The "Five Classics" are the five Confucian classics determined in the Western Han Dynasty; "Three History" refers to the "Historical Records", the two "Han Books" and the "Three Kingdoms"; The "Three Rites" refer to the "Zhou Li", "Rites" and "Book of Rites" in the Thirteen Classics; "Three Legends" refers to "Zuo Chuan", "Ram Biography" and "Liang Biography"; "Ming Jing" refers to the unified examination of all scriptures; "Ming Fa" is a law exam; "Ming Zi" is a character study test.

It can be seen that the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty still covered a wide range, and the talents who could excel in such examinations were indeed remarkable, and history has proved that these people have made great achievements. However, the imperial examination also has its biggest flaw, which is also limited by its historical background, in the era when the culture is not developed enough and is still in ignorance in general, the world can only rely on and learn from the experience of predecessors, but it is difficult to innovate. Therefore, the main part of the imperial examination is basically a collection of works by predecessors and sages since history.

However, due to some historical reasons, among all the categories of the imperial examination, only Jinshike had the greatest impact. Because, these people who passed the Jinshi examination basically became big officials, leaving a deep impression on future generations. The other minor subjects are much worse, and even if they are admitted, they are just a petty official in the end. This is so, in the image of later generations, the imperial examination is almost equivalent to the Jinshi department.

After Zhao Zhen arrived in the Northern Song Dynasty, he had a simple understanding of the rules of the imperial examination system, and he also knew that there were so many ways in the imperial examination, and he didn't want to be as easy as he thought in the past.

In fact, the reason why he wanted to include his new learning in the imperial examination, even at the risk of the world's condemnation, was in the final analysis because he wanted to borrow the influence of the imperial examination.

Otherwise, Zhao Zhen can use the "loopholes" of the imperial examination system to select the talents he needs. As mentioned earlier, the imperial examination actually includes "system subjects", which are small-scale examinations presided over by the emperor himself. Although the scope of the examination is not large, the qualifications of the candidates are very broad, and both incumbent officials and ordinary people in the mountains and villages can be recommended by important officials in the court and central government to take the examination. Those who have already passed the Jinshi can also take the exam.

It can be seen that if Zhao Zhen wants to play alone without bringing those old stubborns in the court to play together, those individuals will not affect the rhythm of Zhao Zhen's play at all except for yelling all day long.

A complete imperial examination can be roughly divided into two steps, first the emperor appoints the examiner to be in charge of the audition, and the general ranking order is discharged. After that, the emperor asked some questions according to his own ideas, and by the way, the final ranking was determined. It is also worth mentioning that in the previous imperial examinations, all the test papers were not confused when they were reviewed, which means that if your baby is unlucky, or has a bad reputation, or even looks bad, it may be known by the examiner, and then you will not be admitted. Therefore, even in the Song Dynasty, it was an era of eating with face!

Seeing that the imperial examination was about to begin, the list of examiners that Zhao Zhen had been hiding was finally announced, which should have been done a year ago, but Zhao Zhen deliberately kept it unresolved. Without him, it's just that he still didn't think about some issues clearly at that time. Don't look at the small things that are just a matter of examiner appointment, but they have a big impact. Because the examiner is not only responsible for formulating the questions, but also responsible for changing the questions, the power is so important that the appointment of the examiner means a kind of policy orientation of the emperor. Even at some point, all the students will visit the examiner in advance, which is the process of brushing their faces, to put it mildly, maybe the examiner will cross out some unpleasant ones from the list at this time.

Everyone finally waited for the emperor to announce the list of examiners, and they were all excited to pay a visit in order to make a good impression. It's a pity that they all pounced, and these examiners were all invited by the emperor to the Royal Academy, and they were burying their heads in the questions, and they couldn't leave the examination room until the end of the exam.

The students in the capital, whether they have confidence or lack of confidence, are adjusting their state in order to meet the challenges of life in the best state. Only, there were three guys who got together and hung their heads and lamented. These three people are Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo and Han Qi. The reason why this is the case is completely because this examiner is making trouble, because the chief examiner of the imperial examination this time is none other than Fu Bi's father-in-law, Yan Shu, the prime minister of the dynasty. According to the usual practice, in order to avoid suspicion, Fu Bi could not participate in this imperial examination, so he was very depressed, and his two brothers were comforting him.

Speaking of this examiner, Zhao Zhen appointed a total of four examiners this time, in addition to Yan Shu as the chief examiner, there are also Li Di, Kong Daofu and Fan Zhongyan as deputy examiners. Not to mention, most people don't understand the configuration of this examiner. Let Yan Shu be the chief examiner, everyone thinks it's nothing, and it is very suitable for the prime minister to do this job, but these three deputy examiners are worth scrutinizing.

Li Di, the word retro, the ancestor was from Zhao County, and later moved to Puzhou. In the second year of Zhenzong Jingde, he was the first to be a jinshi, and he was sentenced. If there is no arrival of Zhao Zhen, he will be the prime minister twice, a veritable old qualification, the key is that he also wrote a letter to oppose the emperor's "messing around" a few years ago. Besides, this Kong Daofu, there should be no one who doesn't know him if he reads the book of sages, as a descendant of the Confucian ancestor Confucius Sage, he was also the core force that rebelled with the emperor back then, but he was recruited by the emperor to the capital and didn't make much trouble, but he didn't expect to be mixed up with the position of deputy examiner now.

So, can many students interpret it like this: The emperor has been tamed by these capable people, and he has begun to follow the holy learning of the saints again, and he will no longer make any new learning?

If you think so, then you are very wrong, don't you see that there is a deputy examiner named Fan Zhongyan!

Who is Fan Zhongyan? If the Song Dynasty also had freedom of speech, many people would have said that he was the number one dog leg of the saint today, and he was also the main leader of Xinxue.

From this point of view, the students' hearts must be worried!

The four examiners who were in the storm of public opinion did not have the experience of paying attention to the outside discussion at the moment, and they were thinking hard about how to produce an exam paper that satisfied the emperor. They were thinking and writing at the same time, flipped through the mountains of books in front of them from time to time, but Zhao Zhen was very leisurely holding a cup of tea, wandering beside them, looking east and west, and from time to time making a little sound to show his sense of existence.

Zhao Zhen borrowed from his own way of playing the college entrance examination at that time, and asked the four examiners to come up with a set of questions, and he randomly selected the questions from them to form the final exam paper. The four examiners finally completed the order given by the saint when they were about to collapse, and put their heavy test papers in front of Zhao Zhen one by one.

Zhao Zhen looked at the four of them with a smile: "Everyone, love Qingxin!" Come, let's try the good tea I brewed myself! ”

When Xiao Shunzi heard this, he immediately gave the four examiners a cup and sent it to them.

"Thank you for the emperor's gift!" The four examiners were also polite, thanked them, and took the teacup and tasted it carefully.

Zhao Zhen carefully read all the four-point test papers, and nodded with satisfaction, sure enough, he was a person who swam out of the sea of books, and I didn't understand many things. Whatever, it's not me to take the exam anyway, and I don't need me to revise the papers, so if you can't read it, you can't read it!

"I also know that several Aiqing have been working hard these days, but the imperial examination is very important to me, and I must not slack off! In the next few days, I have to worry about you Aiqing, so let's have a good rest today! ”

"Thank you, Emperor! Thanks to the emperor's trust, the ministers should do their best to select the pillars of our dynasty! Yan Shu took the lead in making a statement.

"Yan Xiang's spirit is commendable! I am very pleased! By the way, I remember that Aiqing has a good son-in-law, it seems to be called Fu Bi! I heard that he is only eight years old, will he also come to participate in the imperial examination this time? ”

Yan Shu thought that the emperor was testing himself, so he hurriedly denied it: "Go back to the emperor!" Although the minister could participate in the imperial examination, because the minister was the main examiner, according to the rules of the past dynasties, in order to avoid suspicion, he did not participate in the imperial examination. ”

"Oh...... And what's going on? Zhao Zhen looked at the other people again, and saw that they all nodded at him, which made him have to frown, he didn't know when the next imperial examination would be held, and he couldn't delay the talent because of this!

Zhao Zhen briefly understood the reason for this rule with them, and after a little thought, he took it into account: "I thought of a way, I decided to adopt the vague name system for the imperial examination this year and even in the future, so that not only can make the imperial examination more fair, but also allow you Aiqing to avoid the trouble of suspicion, if you have suitable relatives, you can come to participate in the imperial examination." ”

"Your Majesty, what is the name system?" Yan Shu asked.

"The name obfuscation system, as the name suggests, means that the names of all candidates have to be pasted, and even when you mark the papers, you don't know who made the test papers in your hands. In this way, no one will say that you are cheating! When I return, I will issue a decree and announce it to the world! ”

"Wait a minute...... Fan Zhongyan hurriedly stopped Zhao Zhen and said, "Your Majesty, you said to paste your name, but there is still handwriting!" ”

"Your Majesty, Master Fan is right, even if the minister's son-in-law pastes his name, the minister can still recognize his handwriting, and the minister implores the emperor to take back his life!" Yan Shu also hurriedly persuaded that he didn't want to be teased by all the students in the world because of this, so he didn't have to mess up.

Zhao Zhen put on a confident look, and said to several examiners easily: "This is not a thing!" I have my own clever plan, you Aiqing can preside over the exam with peace of mind, and I will handle the rest! ”

Not long after Zhao Zhen returned to the palace, an urgent announcement was posted in several places where the students gathered, and at the same time, many officials of Kaifeng Mansion beat gongs and read them loudly on the street, and there were many candidates rushing to take the exam in front of and behind them......