Li Dongyang is not just the first assistant of the cabinet, but he also has the responsibility of the secretary of the ministry.

The Ministry of Officials is the head of the six departments, and the Ministry of Officials is the head of the hundred officials, and it has the reputation of a heavenly official.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, in addition to Emperor Hongzhi, who is the most powerful, followed by Li Dongyang.

Now that he has issued an order, do the other officials in this hall have any other opinions? This palace examination officially began.

More than a dozen invigilators from the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Rites acted at the same time and distributed the test papers to more than 100 new Gongmen.

Looking at the test paper on the table, Zhou Chen couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

Long before seeing the palace exam, Zhou Chen tried to press several palace exam questions according to the character of the current Hongzhi Emperor.

Generally speaking, the palace examination is an examination for the direct selection of useful talents for the imperial court, so it is not based on the content of the Four Books and Five Classics, but has been changed into a policy theory.

As for what exactly the content of the policy is, it is not known.

However, the current Emperor Hongzhi is a diligent and wise monarch, so Zhou Chen boldly guessed that the strategy of this palace test is in line with the current affairs.

However, in today's world, the most likely current affairs and policies of the imperial court to take the school examination are nothing more than those categories.

For example, the intrusion of border troubles, how to fill the treasury, how to deal with coastal pirates, and so on.

At present, on the test paper in front of Zhou Chen, the test question recorded is a policy theory on managing border troubles, requiring candidates to give practical and good policies for governing the country.

Looking at the test paper questions on the table in front of him, most of the candidates present couldn't help but feel nervous.

For these tribute scholars who are accustomed to quoting scriptures and writing splendid articles according to the Four Books and Five Classics, this kind of policy that is in line with current affairs has never been what they are good at.

Except for a few people, most of the Gongshi frowned and pondered.

Even after they started writing, what they basically wrote was sending a large army to fight and something like that.

As everyone knows, if this side of the trouble can be solved once and for all just by using soldiers, why did Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, conquer the grassland five times in the past, and finally even died on horseback?

Moreover, the grassland is vast and sparsely populated, and even if the imperial court sends hundreds of thousands of troops, it cannot form a real suppression.

At that time, Zhu Qizhen of Ming Yingzong personally led 500,000 elite soldiers to the grassland, but the result was not a tragic end to the Tumubao Incident.

Not only did he lose the throne, but also made the Ming Dynasty's noble military generals group collapse, so that the civil official group completely controlled the situation of the entire court.

It can be seen from this that simply using force to suppress border troubles is not desirable at all.

Zhou Chen lowered his head and meditated for a while, and after thinking about it again and again in his mind, he slowly started to write and answer on the test paper.

Ping Rongce! This is the first sentence written by Zhou Chen, which begins with the question.

The meaning is self-evident, it is a strategy to calm the border troubles of the northern grasslands.

"Border troubles have existed since ancient times, whether it is the Qin Emperor and Han Wu, or the Tang Emperor Mingzu, they are all in the frontier to build a strong city, Chen Chongbing, in order to deter Rong Di outside the Saiwai.

However, the minister thought that it was far safer to use the lives of frontier soldiers as a line of defense than to use the humanity of the people of the world as a line of defense.

The reason why Rong Di knocked on the border was nothing more than to rob the people on the border of our Ming Dynasty, so as to ensure their own survival.

After all, these Rongdi are all nomadic people, and they are not familiar with farming.

If they want food to live, they can only plunder from the people at the border of our Ming Dynasty.

However, who is born with the desire to lick blood on the knife edge and beg for a living? It is impossible for those herdsmen to be willing to fight all day long.

If the imperial court can open a mutual market on the frontier, so that these herdsmen have a way to obtain the food they need to survive, their will to fight will inevitably be greatly reduced.

As long as the imperial court manages the mutual market fairly, and the merchants on the border abide by the rules, and those herdsmen on the grassland are accustomed to a stable life, even if the leaders of the various Rongdi want to invade the frontier of our Ming Dynasty, their soldiers will be dissatisfied and war-weary.

Moreover, there has always been a lack of salt, oil, sugar, and tea on the grassland, and my Ming Dynasty can sell these daily necessities to the grassland by opening a mutual market, so as to exchange for strong horses, cattle and sheep.

The mutual market was opened first, and then the border passes were displayed with elite soldiers, so as to deter those Rongdi tribes.

When the herdsmen on the steppe are accustomed to a stable and peaceful life, I am afraid that even if the leader of their tribe wants to rebel, their herdsmen will not agree. ”

Before he knew it, Zhou Chen had already filled the entire test paper with enthusiasm.

Putting down the brush in his hand with some unsatisfactory intentions, Zhou Chen quietly looked at the candidates on the left and right.

He found that although most of the other candidates had finished answering, the expressions on their faces were not good-looking, and he guess they were not satisfied with their answers.

The temple trial is divided into two sessions, which start in the morning and afternoon.

The first half of the palace test is mainly based on current affairs and policies, and the second half is about poetry and songs.

Similar to the previous Autumn and Spring Examinations, the first of these temple examinations is also particularly important.

What's more, the current Emperor Hongzhi is still a diligent Ming monarch, so he will naturally pay more attention to the current affairs and policy theory in the first half.

As for the next exam that examines poetry and songs, unless the answers are very amazing, so that people can immediately look at it.

Otherwise, this poem and song will not have much impact on the results of the palace examination at all.

After the first half of the exam, the invigilator took the test papers away, and the imperial dining room in the palace served a steaming meal to the candidates.

It is rare to taste the craftsmanship of the imperial kitchen in the palace, but most of the candidates in the palace eat as much as chewing wax.

Obviously, the results of the first half of the palace examination were not very satisfactory to most of the candidates, which made them have no heart to taste this rare palace delicacy at all.

Of course, Zhou Chen himself ate very sweetly.

After lunch and a short break, the second half of the exam began.

At the moment of that exam question, the corners of Zhou Chen's mouth couldn't help but smile.

It seems that Emperor Hongzhi doesn't pay much attention to the poetry and poetry of the palace test at all, and it can even be said that it is very perfunctory.

Because the question of this exam is extremely simple, that is, the topic is about winter things, and you can just write a poem and song.