In the Ming Dynasty, there were those who took the first examination in March and those who took the examination on March 15, and they were adjusted several times in different periods.

In the Chongzhen period, the country was also very poor in all aspects, the war was in chaos, the people's livelihood was withering, and most of the scholars may not be able to withstand the long-term consumption of expensive prices in the capital.

Therefore, the imperial court also tried to save trouble, and changed it back to the first day of the first month of March, so as to shorten the time for the lifters to stay in the capital after the exam, and take the early exam and surpass the students.

Shen Shuren and Fang Yizhi were both participating in the Spring Festival for the first time, and such a tight schedule also made them have no time to make new friends.

Basically, after reading the list, I knew that I was qualified for the palace examination, so I immediately went back to prepare behind closed doors.

……

The evening before the palace test, inside the Forbidden City.

After finishing the day's work, Zhu Youzhen stretched his waist, and took advantage of the fact that the Shangshu Fang of the Ministry of Rites came over to perform the matter every year, and he cared about the list of palace exams by the way:

"Fang Qing, this time I will try, but I have found any outstanding talents. Tomorrow's palace examination list, I just read it, the comments you give are all clichés, how can you see the character of the lifter! ”

Fang Fengnian came to send materials to the emperor, and he was helpless to be questioned like this:

"Your Majesty, character is easy to fake, but learning cannot be faked. The Ministry of Rites can only evaluate knowledge, and as for the character of the child, His Majesty can decide for himself tomorrow.

The way of the imperial examination is to investigate and correct the disadvantages of the six dynasties of the Han and Wei dynasties, and to put an end to hypocrisy. In the article, it is said that loyalty and filial piety may not be true loyalty and filial piety. ”

Zhu Youzhen was very unhappy when he heard it, but now that the palace test was imminent, he didn't want to worry about Fang Fengnian.

Now among the six officials, the emperor is not very satisfied with the Shangshu of the three ministries of the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Punishment.

Those scholars themselves also knew in their hearts that they felt that accompanying the king was like accompanying the tiger, and they had the intention of retreating, and they did not give the emperor face on many issues. If you are caught making a small mistake, you can just go home and escape from the fire pit. As long as you don't make a big mistake and get killed.

The war situation in the Ming Dynasty, everyone is also looking at it, and now the Beijing officials are really not that valuable, and changing the book for two years is a basic operation.

Needless to say, Cheng Guoxiang, the previous head of the household department, moved like an abacus bead, and Zhu Youzhen asked the household department to check something, and he had to rely on the waiter Jiang Dejing to operate.

In front of him, the Ministry of Rites was in the New Year, and before that, together with Liu Zhifeng, the secretary of the Criminal Department, for some judicial opinions, he had an awkward relationship with the emperor.

The main reason is that they feel that Chongzhen's series of new laws to deal with corrupt officials last year are too cruel, not only killing themselves, but also killing family members. They advised the emperor, saying that according to the current situation, such strict law enforcement may cause the people to be scattered-

But Chongzhen has a temper that can't rub sand in his eyes, and when he saw them pleading, he thought that Fang and Liu had collected money and wanted to get people.

So, at the end of last year, Chongzhen dismissed Liu Zhifeng, who was directly responsible, and sent him to prison for investigation. The position of the secretary of the criminal department is still vacant, and the waiter of the criminal department works on his behalf.

(Note: In history, Chongzhen did not catch Liu Zhifeng's clear evidence of the crime in the end, Liu Zhifeng was starved to death in prison, and it was over.) ）

Fang Fengnian also knew that after Liu Zhifeng was dealt with and the coffin was closed, maybe it would be his turn.

Of course, he is not from the Criminal Department, and he is just helping to advise a few words in that matter, and he will not be punished, but the dismissal of the official is a high probability event.

Today, the emperor asked about the list of palace examinations, and said that the Ministry of Rites did not pay attention to the character of the candidates, and the comments were not comprehensive enough.

He knew that the emperor had recently been suspicious of the loyalty of all the courtiers by a series of cases such as Liu Zhifeng. So much so that the emperor didn't care about the knowledge of civil officials, and just wanted to find some moral gentlemen to help him do things, so he had such paranoia.

And he, as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, must remind the emperor: It is impossible to count on moral restraint since ancient times, and the six dynasties of the Han and Wei dynasties selected officials based on their character, and the final outcome was all kinds of hypocrisy.

Zhu Youzhen was in a bad mood, and he really came up with the idea of "waiting for the end of the Spring Festival work to remove Fang Fengnian".

However, for the past few days, I have to endure it. If the palace examination admission results come out, the Ministry of Rites Shangshu is taken down by the emperor, where will the face of the court go?

Zhu Youzhen suppressed his anger, was patient, and forced Fang Fengnian to cite a few talents with integrity from the palace examination list, and sent him the previous papers for confirmation.

Fang Fengnian was forced to have no choice, sighed, and had to report a few names:

"The capital Wei Zaode, Tianjin Gaoeryan, the articles are all righteous. However, the minister still said that character cannot be seen from the wording of the article, please be cautious!

In addition, there are Ningbo Ge Shizhen, Tongcheng Fang Yizhi, Suzhou Shen Lin and others, the article is simple in wording, the policy is serious, and there is an old view of seeking the country. ”

Fang Fengnian didn't dare to talk nonsense, after all, the emperor wanted to see the original scroll.

Zhu Youzhen really immediately asked people to bring the papers, picked out these people, and read them carefully. The quality of the eight rhetoric, the advantages and disadvantages of the ups and downs, the emperor is not very professional, so it mainly depends on everyone's political attitude.

Wei Zaode's article, sure enough, was sung in a high moral tone throughout the article, and it was sung more skillfully, which immediately won the favor of the emperor.

And the others, some of which are more pragmatic, give the emperor a sense of moral disillusionment.

When he saw Shen Shuren's scroll, Zhu Youzhen paid attention again, suddenly remembered, and asked:

"This Shen Lin looks familiar, it is the innovation of Caoyun under the household department, right? I remember that two months ago, I took care of the Ministry of Household to promote the pilot Caoyun innovation, and Cheng Guoxiang didn't report the latest situation! ”

Looking at it, Zhu Youzhen asked people to go to the household department to ask about the situation, and before he knew it, it was late at night.

……

The next day, the day of the temple examination.

Shen Shuren and Fang Yizhi, together with the other two hundred and ninety-eight students of the same year, under the guidance of the officials of the Ministry of Rites, entered the palace one by one and came to the Jianji Hall early in the morning.

Jianji Hall is the later Baohe Palace, there is Wenyuan Pavilion on the left, there is Wuying Hall on the right, it has always been the examination place of the palace examination.

There are a full 300 cases in the main hall, fifteen columns from east to west, twenty rows from north to south, and they are arranged squarely and neatly. The four treasures of the study on the table do not need to be brought by the candidates.

Chongzhen sat on the central throne and said a few words of encouragement before the exam.

Shen Shuren also boldly and secretly observed, Chongzhen's image was also quite unexpected, looking a little wrinkled, thin, and his beard was mottled and messy, not like a person who had just turned thirty.

Soon, Chongzhen personally announced the exam questions, and the last stone in Shen Shuren's heart also fell to the ground:

Sure enough, the test is how to rectify the rule of officials, deal with internal and external strife, and prevent hundreds of officials from being disloyal to thieves and being coerced by slave thieves.

Shen Shuren knew very well how to get a high score, but when he reached this last step, he didn't plan to go completely step by step.

Because the views on today's answer sheet are likely to be recorded in the history books, he doesn't want future generations to mention them and say that his views on the palace test are purely naïve and high-pitched and hypocrites.

Fortunately, he has been preparing for this answer for a long time, has multiple spare tire options, and knows how to compromise so as not to offend Chongzhen, but also to have something to say.

After making up his mind, Shen Shu walked smoothly and quickly finished the paper. In terms of the speed of submission alone, he is definitely in the top 10%.

Because most of them haven't finished the exam yet, Chongzhen can also take the time to personally read the first few papers and then hand them over to the officials of the Ministry of Rites. When there are more people who hand in the papers, the emperor can't read it, so he basically won't read it.

The palace examination lasted for a total of three hours, and the results would not be available immediately, and theoretically there would be two days to mark the papers. So after the exam, Shen Shuren and the others went back.

But in these two days, the emperor can also interview and ask candidates who he thinks are good in advance.

The results of the questions may also affect the final score, and the ranking is not entirely determined by the paper.

So, only the next day, on the second day of the third month, after the officials of the Ministry of Rites roughly read the papers overnight and roughly screened out the list of sixty people who could enter the first and second grades. Chongzhen personally summoned these sixty people and picked some questions for an interview.

As for the two hundred and forty people in the top three behind, the emperor didn't have time to ask. said that the emperor took it personally, but in fact, the officials of the Ministry of Rites decided on their own and went through the process.

After Shen Shuren learned that he had entered the interview range of 60 people, he knew that the second-class "Jinshi background" was there, and he would not be reduced to "Tongjinshi". As for "Jinshi and Di", he didn't think about it at all, and he knew that he didn't have the strength.

The location of the interview is not far from the Jianji Hall the day before, which is in the Wenhua Hall to the west.

After everyone saluted, Chongzhen took the lead in asking his most optimistic Wei Zaode:

"Now that there is internal and external strife, there are many thieves in the court, and those who are loyal to the country are becoming rarer. Wei Zaode, you speak first. ”

Wei Zaode shook his spirits and hurriedly went out: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the civil and military are not strong-minded and can not be diligent in state affairs, mostly because the imperial court selects officials to pay attention to the hypocrisy, and cannot temper the spirit of benevolence and morality.

As the saying goes, shame is almost bravery, but now the DPRK is not ashamed of greed and weakness. There are even quite a few important ministers of the imperial court, who feel that they should be lenient for those who surrender thieves in various prefectures and counties, and give them the opportunity to so-called 'self-reform'.

As everyone knows, once this evil example is opened, although it can save one or two people who have lost their way and lost their footing, it also makes the world decadent, and shameful and upright people are ashamed to be with it. After a long time, the atmosphere of the court is declining, but it is like entering the abalone, and it has not been questioned about its smell for a long time. ”

Shen Shuren was beside him, and he was not surprised, because he knew that this was the political attitude that the emperor himself liked to hear when Chongzhen took the imperial examination in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

Sure enough, Chongzhen was immediately overjoyed and praised Wei Zaode, a moral model of "zero tolerance for bad officials".

The other quasi-jinshi next to him listened to the emperor's attitude, and when they were asked by Chongzhen again, many of the boneless ones echoed one after another, changing flowers to emphasize the importance of "rectifying the atmosphere of the imperial court".

Some radical candidates, fearing that their speeches would not impress the emperor, quickly tilted their speeches to empirical measures.

As he spoke, a few candidates said sternly that Xiong Wencan, the former governor of the six provinces who was currently in prison, should be beheaded as soon as possible!

To warn those officials who are not strong in principle, who have expectations for those who are anyway after the thieves, and who expect the anti-thieves to reform themselves!

Loyalty is not absolute, it is absolutely disloyal! There can be no ambiguity in matters of principle!

Soon, the quasi-jinshi who held this kind of view left a good impression on Chongzhen. It's a pity that there are too many of them, and their rhetoric is similar, so they don't become very flowery, and in the end, the recognition is not too high.

Beside Shen Shuren, his companion Fang Yizhi had already secretly shook his head when he heard this response, and he also whispered to Shen Shuren while others were not paying attention:

"Your Majesty personally asked, why did it become that everyone sang a high note together? This kind of unrealistic thinking is really dangerous. For example, how many people dare to say that they have never been sorry for Da Ming?

Now the generals who lead the troops to resist the thieves and Jiannu, some of them are thieves anyway, and some of them have supported the army to respect themselves, preserve their strength, and trap the commander in the ...... There are so many questions. I really want to blame him for being shameless, talking about deeds and heart, I'm afraid that there are thousands of troops and horses who want to force Li Chuangjiannu's side. ”

Shen Shuren also sighed and shook his head slightly, signaling Fang Yizhi not to worry:

"What my brother said is very true, but today is His Majesty's inquiry, not a royal debate. If the brother feels that what Wei Zaode said is inappropriate, he should also think of another set of measures and talk about things. It cannot be directly refuted, broken but not standing. ”

The biggest difference between a question and a debate is that a debate can only refute the other party and cannot come up with a solution.

And the question must be "you can do it, you can go up", if you can't get on, you don't have to open your mouth, otherwise it will definitely be a loss of honor in front of the king, and you will be severely punished by the emperor.

Fang Yizhi felt that Wei Zaode was shameless, but he really couldn't think of another solution, so he could only endure it.