Chu Nan held a large stack of manuscripts and followed Steward Xu to the living room of the palace. Sure enough, Wang Yangming was talking and laughing with a few scholars, and he must be the handsome talent in Steward Xu's mouth.

Wang Yangming saw that he was dressed as a scholar, although he was over fifty years old, he did not look old at all, he sat on his upper hand with a smile and watched everyone talk about the scriptures, and when he saw Chu Nan come in, he looked at him in surprise, pointed to the empty seat on the side, and motioned for Chu Nan to sit down.

Everyone stopped discussing when they saw Chu Nan coming in, watched Chu Nan walk in front of Wang Yangming, put down the manuscript in his arms, and said: "This is the work of those scholars who are blocked in front of your house, I helped you drive them away, and brought these things in by the way." ”

Wang Yangming smiled, took those manuscripts in his hand, and said to Chu Nan: "These are all handsome people from all over the world, come and recognize them." ”

Under Wang Yangming's guidance, Chu Nan found that they were all prestigious talents. The elegant young man with a delicate face is Meng Qing of the Meng family in Shandong, a strong man who is awe-inspiring just by looking at his surname. Sitting opposite Meng Qing was a burly man with a black face, Wu Liangshan, a famous black-faced prince in Shanxi; Chu Nan, a scholar in brocade clothes sitting opposite Meng Qing, knew that it was Zhao Kuo, the sister-in-law of today's Hubu Shangshu, and also the younger brother of Zhao Yuan, who was released from the Qinghe County Order; and two people, Dong Fan and Li Liang, were also from rich backgrounds, and finally there was one person, Subu Mai, who was born in poverty at first glance, with the surname Sima and the name Zhongyuan, but he was a distant relative of Wang Yangming, a person from Jingzhou, and he could be regarded as a fellow villager of Chu Nan.

Chu Nan endured the surname and greeted them one by one, and after some politeness, everyone re-seated, but Chu Nan snatched Zhao Kuo's seat domineeringly, causing the black man and Dong Li to look at them angrily, but Zhao Kuo smiled faintly, and found a seat to sit down at random, this demeanor and demeanor couldn't help but be convincing.

Wang Yangming didn't seem to see Chu Nan's movements, and said to everyone with a smile: "I haven't introduced it to you yet, this is the fifth son of the Chu family, and he can be regarded as an old man's half an apprentice." ”

Meng Qing showed a surprised expression and said with a smile: "Disrespectful and disrespectful, it turned out to be Mr. Wang's disciple." In this way, Brother Chu must also be brilliant, just now we and the others all presented their clumsy works, but Brother Chu came by coincidence. ”

Chu Nan shook his head and sighed: "I'm a rough person, and most things like poetry and painting can't be done, in fact, in a few days, I will go to the Praetorian Guard Camp as an errand boy and go to the barracks to mess around." ”

Wu Liangshan saw that Chu Nan admitted that he was not good at writing poetry, and his previous anger also disappeared a little, and he said curiously: "Oh, I am still a brother of Chu and I am also going to participate in this imperial examination, so I specially came to ask Mr. for advice." ”

Chu Nan saw the straightforward cuteness of the big man, and said with a smile: "Brother Wu smiled, I came here to ask for Mr. Something, but it has little to do with me about this imperial examination." ”

Chu Nan's words were almost clear to help people go through the back door, but Wang Yangming was here, and everyone was not easy to ask, Meng Qing changed the topic with interest: "I don't know if the manuscript sent by Brother Chu is a good work?"

Wang Yangming took out a few and held them in his hand, shook his head and said: "The poems of these people are still worth seeing, and the rest are either plain or grandstanding." ”

Wang Yangming flipped through the manuscript in his hand and said in surprise: "Hehe, but it's really a coincidence, these articles are all about the war in the northwest. ”

Zhao Kuo smiled and said to Chu Nan: "Don't hide it from Brother Chu, before you come, we were discussing the situation in the northwest according to Mr. Wang's order, and we were talking about His Majesty's reward for Brother Ling." ”

Meng Qing also joked: "Brother Chu is out of the gate, and the main general in the northwest is Brother Ling, so he wants to have his own unique views on the battle situation." ”

Chu Nan didn't know if the two of them were too enthusiastic or if they didn't like themselves, so he frowned and said: "Chu Mad's exploits in the northwest are naturally obvious to all, but he has not achieved a dominant position at present, and most of them still have to stalemate with the countries of the Western Regions. ”

Dong Fan sneered and said: "General Chu can endure for three years, and even if the northwest barbarians shout and don't fight, where is the blood impulsive? Listening to Brother Chu's tone, the younger brother can't help but feel that you think you are stronger than Brother Ling?"

Chu Nan glanced at him, looked at the people who were just waiting to watch the play, and said lightly: "I don't know if I'm stronger than Chu Mad or not, but I know him better than you do." If he had the opportunity, he would probably gamble most of his net worth, and if he lost, the foundation he had saved in the northwest would be squandered. ”

Dong Fan was about to refute, but he heard someone say: "I think what Brother Chu said makes sense." ”

The person who spoke was Situ Zhongyuan, who had been sitting quietly in the corner. Wang Yangming smiled and said to his distant relative, who had always been taciturn, "Oh, is it? ”

Situ Zhongyuan lowered his head and thought about it, and said slowly: "Brother Chu said that the difference between the northwest and the north and south wars is very much agreed, as for the later words about General Chu, I don't want to evaluate it, but I think about it, as a brother of a compatriot, he must have more say than us in this regard." As Brother Chu said, the war in the northwest, unless there is a major change, will most likely remain deadlocked. For the sake of stability, it is best for the imperial court to send a serious general to the northwest, and with the bravery of General Chu, the northwest will inevitably be impregnable. If you talk about candidates, General Yang Shouye, who guards the frontier, should be the first choice. ”

Zhao Kuo shook his head and said: "Brother Situ must know that marching and fighting is not as simple as waiting for us to talk, let alone replacing the border generals. There is another point, Brother Situ may not know, General Chu is the most arrogant, if General Yang goes, he will be relieved to assist, the two have different styles, and how to complement each other when getting along is also a problem. ”

Situ Zhongyuan also forgot his shyness at this time, and said with his eyebrows: "With merit and qualifications, if General Yang goes to the northwest, he must be the main general." But the world knows that General Yang is elegant and generous, and he does not like to seize power, and General Chu Mad can just complement each other. Moreover, the Chu and Yang families have been friends for generations, and they are even more in-laws, so there may be friction, but there will be no big trouble. As for the south, the imperial court has worked hard for decades, and the south has long been completely stabilized, and some officials with general knowledge are sent to divide the state and county management. ”

Zhao Kuo saw that Situ Zhongyuan, who had always been low-key, also dared to refute himself, and he was not happy in his heart, and was about to say a few words about him patiently, but Wu Liangshan interjected: "Situ has forgotten a very important point. In order to repay the humiliation of the siege of Baicheng, His Majesty will inevitably move the strategic center to the north, in order to win the beauty, he will inevitably draw soldiers from the northwest, and may also ask Yongzhou to respond to the main force on the back from the west, so that the position of the northwest has become more important, and the pressure is greater. ”

At this time, Wang Yangming laughed and nodded with satisfaction: "Although you are still a little thoughtful, and you are mixed with the opinions of many scholars, it is really rare to think of such depth. To tell you the truth, Your Majesty has decided to include the entire Hulunge grassland in the territory of Daliang before the winter of this year, General Yang will be transferred to the northwest to take charge of the military and politics, and Chu Mad will be crowned as the deputy general of the Northern Army, and he will also select Junyan talents in this imperial examination to strengthen Daliang's jurisdiction over the south, hey, after decades, the south will finally be completely subsumed into my Daliang!"

Everyone was overjoyed, but Zhao Kuo was a little lonely, and followed everyone to praise His Majesty the Great Emperor a few times, and then sat down with a smile.

This kind of good news of expanding the territory obviously stimulated the pride of several teenagers, and they looked forward to a bright future, and they were secretly happy about the bright prospects of this imperial examination. Then everyone went on to talk about the fighting style of the war in the north, carefully compared the advantages of the Liang and the Hu people, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the advantage of the Liang was huge, and it was not impossible to achieve the goal.

When the hot-blooded young man calmed down, he found that it was already time to eat, so he naturally got up to say goodbye one by one, but Wang Yangming seemed to be in great interest, and he insisted on keeping everyone to eat, and everyone responded half-pushed, but he was secretly happy in his heart, and he was instructed by Scholar Wang, and he was left to eat, what an honor!

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was immersed in joy, Chu Nan seized the opportunity to quietly tell the examiner about Yang Wan'er, Wang Yangming hesitated for a while, and finally nodded in agreement. Chu Nan finally let go of his worries, and happily ate his meal, and honestly waited for the meal to start.

The chef above the palace came out of the imperial dining room in the palace, and his skills are very good, except for Chu Nan, although everyone dare not let go of eating, they can be regarded as having fun. Dong Fan saw Chu Nan's appearance of eating Haisai, he couldn't help but open his mouth to reprimand a few words, and was about to speak, when a person walked out of the side hall, plain dress, only in his early twenties, but everyone recognized it as the wife of Scholar Wang, so he didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly got up to salute, but he wanted to have more capital to boast about after going back.

The young woman returned the salute gently, but did not return it, but took the wine jug from the maid's hand, skillfully poured a glass of wine, picked up the wine glass with both hands under the surprised eyes of everyone, walked to Chu Nan, and said softly: "A glass of thin wine, thank you for the kindness of the son back then." ”

Chu Nan licked off the grease on his fingers, took the toast from Mrs. Yipin, chuckled, drank it in one gulp, and sighed, "It's really good wine!"

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