On March 15 of the first year of Jiajing, the palace examination.

Three hundred and eighty-three tributes entered the Forbidden City under the guidance of officials of the Ministry of Rites.

The majestic halls filled the hearts of these scholars who had been studying the books of the sages for more than ten years or even decades.

Chao for Tian Shelang, twilight to the Tianzi Hall, this is the lifelong pursuit of every scholar's dream, today they came to the center of the power of the Ming Empire, full of passion for serving the country almost filled the chest of every tribute.

Becoming a tribute, their two feet are equivalent to stepping into the officialdom, because according to the customary rules, the palace test will not eliminate the fame of the tribute, and the palace test is to put it bluntly, the ranking is determined!

It doesn't matter if you don't do well in the palace exam, it's a big deal to become a fellow jinshi, but it has come to this point, who can be willing to let them become a fellow jinshi?

The tributes have dreams, in order to become a real Jinshi, they are from Jinshi, not from the same Jinshi, and even everyone wants to enter the first class, become a tanhua, a list or even a champion, and only by entering the first class can they ensure that they can enter the Hanlin Academy, otherwise even if the second class is ranked high, it may not be much safer.

At this moment, there are already three hundred and eighty-three examination tables in the Fengtian Palace, and each examination table is equipped with pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

Different from the examination, all the things of the candidates need to be brought by themselves, and they must go through a strict examination, but the palace examination is not required, and even as long as you have a kind, you can bring the cheat sheet into the hall openly, and you have to take out the cheat sheet under the noses of the emperor and the ministers who are invigilating the examination in the palace.

Unless it's crazy.

The seven elders of the cabinet, the six departments and the nine secretaries, and the bachelors of Hanlin, representing the highest-level masters of the Ming Dynasty today, stood on both sides of the main hall, looking at the tributes who were rushing in, especially those who were obviously only in their twenties, and there was an unspeakable envy in their eyes.

They have indeed reached the pinnacle of civil officials, but they are already dying, and these tributes have not yet entered the officialdom, but they are young and high-spirited, and among this group of tributes, they are destined to appear in the end as big men as they are in the court.

Youth is an advantage, youth is capital!

"Your Majesty has arrived."

All the ministers lowered their heads slightly, and some of the more daring tributes, who were still looking around at first, immediately bowed their heads when they saw this posture, and they were eager to shrink their heads into their clothes.

"The ministers pay a visit to our emperor Sheng'an." Yang Tinghe led the bow to greet him, bowed and bowed very much, and only knelt on specific occasions or special things.

However, the tribute students did not have this treatment, before they came to participate in the palace examination, the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette gave them a good etiquette lesson, and when they met the face of the sky, the rudeness may be a trivial matter, but if it is considered a big disrespect, they will be deprived of their fame at the lightest, and they may be imprisoned for punishment if it is serious!

"The students knock on my emperor, my emperor Saint." All the tributes knelt down and bowed to the shrine.

As a tribute student, he is already a reserve official, so naturally he can't call himself a grass citizen, but they haven't been an official yet, and of course they can't be called a minister, the reason why they are called students is because they came to participate in the palace examination, at least nominally they are already considered protégés of the Son of Heaven.

Of course, whether it is the emperor himself, the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, or the tribute himself, they will not really care about the protégé of the Son of Heaven.

"Let's be flat." Zhu Houwei raised his hand

Ren Xing walked to the front of the imperial steps and said loudly: "Today's palace exam, the question of your tributes is about the pros and cons of the world!"

There are a wide range of common policy questions, and similar questions have been examined more than once in history, but the problems faced by different times cannot be the same, so it is completely impossible to copy the answers of predecessors.

As for the ministers present, they were also very indifferent, as if the Son of Heaven would feel strange if he didn't come up with such a topic.

Today, Zizi's determination to reform is undisguised, and he does not have the intention of letting Wang Anshi charge into battle like Song Shenzong, but likes to do everything himself.

This means to control all the reform affairs in the palm of his hand, and it is also to declare his determination to reform to the Manchu ministers!

Now not only the cabinet, but also the ministers who are qualified to be in the court know the emperor's determination.

What Confucianism hates most is reform, whether it is for the sake of Taoism or the ancestral system, or for their own interests, they can accept small-scale changes, but they really can't accept large-scale changes.

Because although Confucianism will adapt to the times, it will also take a long time to make corresponding changes.

Therefore, they can only obstruct the reform and constantly find ways to hinder it, and the struggle between the new party and the old party in the pre-Song Dynasty is the ultimate embodiment of the reform struggle.

But now the ministers of the Jiajing Dynasty can see it, it's useless!

If a Wang Anshi is supported today, then the Manchu Dynasty will also divide factions, and factions will evolve into party struggles.

The entire court will be plunged into an endless struggle, not to mention the reform, and the normal operation of government affairs will be seriously affected!

Although party struggle is a struggle between ministers to attack each other for power and profit, it is also a means of struggle to limit imperial power after letting the emperor play balance.

Confucianism has been played for thousands of years, and this method has long been played perfectly.

But no, the emperor did not push a representative figure out to fight with the courtiers, but took the trouble to go out of the ring himself.

The emperor reduced the huge reform measures into zero, such as letting Zhou Ning, the belly of the military center, and the eunuch of his henchmen be in charge of the army reform, letting Tang Yin take charge of the salt administration, setting up a school patrol envoy, and letting Wang Shouren take charge of the world's study and politics, etc.

These officials who were assigned to the outside and were in charge of one item alone did not have a backbone in the court, and their backbone was the emperor, and the courtiers had no target to attack, so they could only roll up their sleeves and fight with the emperor.

The ministers are extremely good at grasping the psychology of the emperor, in their eyes, an emperor who doesn't like to ask about anything is not a good emperor, but in the same way, if everything is handed over to the ministers, and the emperor is just a puppet, then he must be a good emperor.

This statement is not contradictory.

Because many times the emperor really doesn't care about things, such as Zhengde, but Zhengde doesn't care about things, but he doesn't hand over everything to the foreign court, but lets Liu Jin do nothing, then he must be a faint king!

The current Emperor Jiajing and Emperor Zhengde are just the opposite, he lets the foreign court do things, and he knows how to let go, but he never relaxes what he should grasp.

What to catch?

One is military, and the other is financial!

There is no doubt that military and financial affairs are the greatest right to speak for the emperor or for foreign dynasties, and if you firmly control these two points, you can let it go.

Coupled with Emperor Jiajing's caustic clan and salt political measures, the ministers of the foreign dynasty have already let the ministers of the foreign dynasty know that the emperor they serve is a king with scheming, means, and a dark belly.

If the Manchu dynasty can't change the king, then for the sake of Confucianism, you can only make changes yourself!

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