May 15, the day of the temple examination.

Early in the morning of the same day, before dawn, Zhu Hao entered Dong'an Gate and waited to enter the palace from Donghua Gate to participate in the palace examination.

The tributes present can be said to be in good spirits, and they are all waiting for the title of the gold list.

More than a year has passed since the end of the examination, and one of the winners has died, and one has returned to his hometown to guard the system, which is a bit of a time change for everyone.

At the end of the time, the world was gray, and the figures were still unclear, and a group of tributes began to enter the palace.

Led by the eunuchs in the palace, the Hanlin scholars walked in front of the procession and led the tributes into the Donghua Gate.

Donghua Gate belongs to the southeast gate of the palace, the north is the Wenhua Gate connecting the Wenhua Palace, and further north is where the East Palace is located.

To the south is the Cabinet Duty Room and Youguo Hall and other row houses, and directly opposite is Zuoshun Gate, which is the place where Jiajing changed its name to Huiji Gate 41 years later.

Entering Zuoshun Gate, this place has been counted as the boundary of the palace, but entering Fengtianmen is not counted as entering the Great Interior.

The group walked across the Jinshui Bridge, and at this time, in front of the West Corner Gate, a row of eucalyptus tables had been set up, and all candidates needed to sit on the ground to participate in the palace examination.

"The Emperor's Great Political Chronicle" contains: "...... In May of the 16th year of Zhengde, Tingce will try to lift people in Chinese...... The Ministry of Rites played the funeral of Wuzong from the simple, went to the west corner gate, and asked the ......"

The seats of the tributes are sorted according to the results of the examination, and Zhu Hao, as the leader of the examination, naturally sits on the leftmost of the first row.

This position looks good, but to look up at the emperor's throne position, it is still a little off.

But I'm so familiar with Zhu Si, it's the same whether I look at it or not.

When the sun rises.

Zhu Si, as the nominal examiner of the palace examination, personally appeared at the examination site.

The tributes did not need to kneel, but they had to bow down to the emperor, but because the tributes had not undergone the basic training of the court, the scene was a little chaotic and not neat at all. After the ceremony, all the tributes returned to their positions, and immediately after kneeling and sitting, there were attendants who sent the examination papers to the candidates.

Compared with the general examination, the format of the examination paper of the palace examination is more regular, and each copy will be checked in detail for errors and omissions after printing, so as to ensure that there will be no defects in each candidate's examination paper.

On the exam paper, Zhu Hao's palace exam questions are impressively listed:

"The emperor said: I am the only king, and I am the lord of the order of heaven to unify billions of trillions, and I must first live with salty and happy, so that I can have my desire for peace, and then I will do my duty as a father and a woman, which is worthy of shame. Whoever is at peace with the people, and whoever desires, will be the first to be clothed and fed. If you have no food or clothing, you will inevitably die of coldness and displacement. How can the husband and the bandit get food? How can the silkworm be clothed? The two are also the thoughts of the king, and the worries are also.

"Today, too, there are few cultivators and many eaters, silkworms are very scarce and there are many clothers, and there are floods, droughts, insects, and locusts, and laziness and redundancy, and there are smoke and dust on the side, and thieves in it, so it is no wonder that the people suffer from it day by day. It is not caused by ignorance, and the upper cannot participate in the mediation machine, and the lower cannot be prosperous, so I am really worried and ashamed. However, there are times and presents, and there are changes in power, and I don't know what can cause the rain to fall? Disasters do not occur, the people have enough food and clothing, they work agriculture and do their jobs, and they follow the road and return to the country?

"The sons of the scholars, when they are clear and reasonable, when they know their husbands, they are embraced within and have the power of me, and they have been around for a long time. When you tell what you see and know, you can tell it in the article, and I will read it for myself, and don't be afraid or hide. ”

This was originally a question for the palace examination in the eleventh year of Jiajing.

Zhu Hao took a clever approach and used the palace examination questions twelve years later at this time, and such an exam question with compassion for the world and people allowed all the candidates to discuss the way to govern the country and secure the country, which can be said to be very in line with the situation that the new emperor is in ruins after he ascends the throne.

After the Ming Dynasty experienced the chaos of the Zhengde Dynasty, the emperor came up with such a topic, which also fully reflected his excellent quality of loving the people like a son and cherishing the common people in the world.

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The temple examination does not require too many cumbersome ceremonies.

The only purpose is to win the country from the people.

Since the entry of the tribute scholars into the palace, there is basically no extra sound, after the examination begins, the candidates either ponder for a long time, or write and draw on scratch paper, straighten out their thinking.

The rules of the Daming Palace test, according to the "Ming Huidian" listed: "Where the palace tries Hongwu for three years, the palace test is a direct statement, limited to more than 1,000 words." ”

This is different from the usual writing of four books and scriptures, no need for eight pairs, but it requires to write a thousand words, although the number of words is not as much as possible, but basically want to rank high in the temple examination, how to write two thousand words or even three thousand words, and require no typos.

In the palace examination, in addition to examining the candidates' literary and martial strategies, experiencing the hardships and difficulties of the emperor's governance, and offering suggestions and suggestions to deal with the disadvantages of the times, it is also required that one hand must be written well.

Because the palace examination papers are not transcribed, this means that the candidates' examination papers will be directly seen by the palace examination examiners, although the palace examination of the Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the point of "suppressing the text and repeating the characters" in the Qing Dynasty, but the actual situation is not much different, if you want to be ranked first, the ugly writing will be denied.

The vast majority of candidates present need to think hard and think about how to solve the question, but for Zhu Hao, there is something easier than this to answer the question by himself?

glanced up slightly at Zhu Si on the throne in the distance, and found that Zhu Si was also looking at him.

No way, among so many candidates present, except for Zhu Hao, he knew Zhang Xuan, but he only had a one-sided relationship with Zhang Xuan, at this time Zhang Xuan was buried in the pile of people and was not conspicuous, Zhu Si would not have a deep impression on an old scholar who had only talked a few words.

Zhu Si used to envy Zhu Hao's imperial examination, and he was the first in the list, this time he finally had the opportunity to witness Zhu Hao's imperial examination in person, and he was still the chief examiner, of course, he had to pay more attention to the performance of this good friend who grew up together.

Cabinet Scholars and Ministers of Rites are not in the examination room.

In addition to the cabinet scholars, there are also Hanlin scholars and ministers, Zhengqing, squires, and political envoys, etc., and the number of officials reading the papers in each temple examination is about thirteen or fourteen, as little as ten, and the candidates will be announced on the day of the palace examination.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the palace test list is generally on the second day after the palace test, and after the Xuande Dynasty, it is usually the third day after the palace test, and the fourth day is given a grace and honor banquet.

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The palace examination did not submit the paper in advance.

After writing it, I waited there, and finally everyone went out of the palace together at sunset, after all, the examination room was in the palace, and it was impossible to send you out of the palace one by one, so we all came and went together.

There is no lunch at noon.

Although nominally the emperor presides, the emperor usually shows his face, sits for a while and leaves.

But there will also be the emperor's "absence", that is, "not the palace", before Jiajing, the emperor's "no palace" occurred a total of four times, respectively in the eighth year of Tianshun and the sixth year, ninth year, and twelfth year of Zhengde.

In the eighth year of Tianshun, because Yingzong had just died, there was an alternation of imperial power, and the Zhengde Dynasty was ...... three times It's purely that Zhu Houzhao doesn't want to go.

In this way, it can be seen that the selection of talents in the Ming imperial examination, how irregular it was when it arrived in the Zhengde Dynasty, there were three palace examinations before the palace examination, and the emperor did not come, and finally after Zhu Si ascended the throne, the situation was improved.

This time, Zhu Si presided over the imperial examination, which seemed to be unprecedentedly important, even at noon, Zhu Si was not in a hurry to go back to dinner, and even the court affairs seemed to be slack.

At this time, Zhu Hao had already finished answering the exam papers, sitting there and waiting for the papers to be handed in.

Until the sun set in the west, a eunuch came to remind Zhu Si that he should pay attention to his body and had to go back to rest, Zhu Si got up before he could finish it, and looked at Zhu Hao when he left, with a smile between his eyebrows.

After the emperor left.

The people of the Hanlin Academy, who were in charge of supervising the field, were a little more relaxed, but according to the rules, they could not get close to the candidates and check the articles, so as not to be suspected of collusion.

Zhu Hao noticed that Yang Shen was also present.

The two had met before and had a brief conversation, Yang Shen didn't seem to pay much attention to Zhu Hao, occasionally looked over, and then turned his gaze to some candidates he knew, such as Yang Weicong and other scholars from Beizhili or Sichuan, those were his comrades.

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At sunset, the papers were finally handed in.

The eunuch came over to receive the exam papers and seal them, and Zhu Hao's papers were sandwiched in the middle.

When the sun completely sets the horizon, even candidates who have not finished the answer are required to turn in the paper...... After all the examination papers were handed in, everyone got up, lined up in order, and followed the eunuchs and the officials of the Hanlin Academy to the outside of the palace again.

After leaving the Donghua Gate, the "noise" is finally no longer restricted, and all candidates can talk freely.

"Zhu Gongzi ......"

Because there is no need to queue up, when everyone walks to Dong'anmen, they are already three or five percent of their heads.

At this time, Zhang Xuan followed quickly from behind and saluted Zhu Hao.

Zhu Hao was discussing the topic of this palace exam with several Huguang candidates who were in front of him, and when he heard this, he looked back at Zhang Xuan and nodded with a smile.

I wanted to discuss the big gift with Zhang Xuan before, but I didn't find anyone, and I didn't expect Zhang Xuan to take the initiative to come to see him after the palace test.

Zhu Hao said goodbye to several Huguang candidates, and then walked on the side with Zhang Xuan and walked side by side.

"I noticed Your Majesty before, and I have been staring at your side......"

Zhang Xuan mentioned.

Zhu Hao couldn't help squinting.

This Zhang Xuan is really good at drilling camps, in the end, the historian did not wronged you, if it weren't for the great courtesy that you made meritorious contributions, maybe you would have become Yan Song, fortunately, you were already a little old man when you were admitted to the Jinshi.

Zhu Hao smiled: "Brother Zhang, are you wrong?" With so many people present, how can you be sure that Your Majesty is looking at me? ”

Zhang Xuan didn't dwell on this topic, and instead said: "I have been studying behind closed doors before, and I have never visited him, I wonder if Your Majesty needs to be relieved of his sorrows now?" ”

Zhu Hao said: "Brother Zhang, you should know, right? ”

Zhang Xuan nodded.

Before the palace test, the court discussed the big ceremony for the first time, and ended in the complete failure of the new emperor, the new emperor's father is not a father, and the mother is not a mother, Zhang Xuan, as the initiator of the great ceremony in history, how can he not see that the emperor urgently needs a voice to stand out for himself?

But Zhang Xuan probably knows that he is soft-spoken and is not qualified to discuss big gifts.

"It seems that you should have a good talk with Brother Zhang, why don't you make an appointment? It's not early, it's not dawn until now, it's time to go back and rest......"

At this time, he has arrived in front of Dong'an Gate, Zhu Hao means that we will say goodbye at the door.

Zhang Xuan looked very eager: "It's better to choose a day than to hit the sun, it's better to be the east from below, and invite Zhu Gongzi to a banquet...... Please Zhu Gongzi must appreciate his face. ”