I will never be Renzong

Chapter 184

On July [-], the fifth year of Tiansheng's reign, [-] candidates who passed the imperial examination lined up neatly early in the morning, waiting for the imperial examination held by Zhao Zhen in the Xuanzheng Hall today.

In addition to selecting the top three in the palace examination, there will still be rankings. The rankings will determine the order in which they will send officials in the future. The higher the ranking, the higher the chance of sending officials once there are vacancies in the imperial court.

The 50 Jinshi were divided into ten teams, 500 people in each team, and walked towards the Xuanzheng Hall under the leadership of officials from the Ministry of Officials, but they didn't want to walk [-] meters away from the Xuanzheng Hall, and suddenly saw ten screens erected in front of it.

A servant came forward and shouted: "There is an edict from the government. All qualified Jinshi must go to the screen to answer the questions alone. After passing the answers, they can enter the palace and wait for the palace examination. If they fail to answer the questions, please go to Chongming. The palace is waiting!"

"What? Another exam? Never heard of it?"

"What's wrong with the officials?"

"That's it!"

"It's been a long time since I passed the Jinshi exam. Could it be that the officials are deliberately trying to embarrass us?"

There are many candidates who are not in a good state of mind and can't help talking about it.

"Silence! The official has an edict: Anyone who makes noise at will will be disqualified from Jinshi!"

Seeing this, the waiter yelled in a hurry, and the candidates stopped discussing just now. After ten years of hard study, they finally reached this point. If they were disqualified at this juncture, it would not be worth it.

Seeing that the scene had quieted down, the waiter shouted loudly: "Please No. 1 in each row enter behind the screen to answer the questions!"

There are ten rows of [-] Scholars, and they are ranked according to their grades, so the first row of ten people is the top ten of this courtyard examination.

Han Qi and Ouyang Xiu looked at each other, they didn't understand why the official had to take the extra test, and of course they were even more curious about what the official test would be about!
After Han Qi walked into the corresponding screen, he suddenly saw that an examiner was already sitting there, and there were two Jinyiwei personnel standing behind him, and the table was full of common rice, millet, millet, wheat , Shu, which is the so-called five grains.

"Ask the candidates to point to the grains on the table in one breath."

Just as Han Qi was about to salute, he suddenly heard the examiner's question and seemed to understand something. Seeing this, he could only pick up the grains on the case, and then quickly finished speaking one by one.

Han Qi came from a bad family background, he was born to his maidservant Hu Shi Lianli when his father Han Hanhua knew Quanzhou Mansion, it can be said that before Han Qi achieved fame, he was a very neglected bastard, and when he was four years old, His father passed away, and he grew up under the care of his elder brother and sister-in-law. He had managed the family's fields in his early years, so he was no stranger to grains.

Han Qi answered such a simple question quickly, and then came to the Xuanzheng Hall under the guidance of a servant. At that time, the tables and chairs had already been set up in the Xuanzheng Hall. Take the first seat, and then a maid will come to brew a cup of the best West Lake Longjing tea.

Then Ouyang Xiu, Wen Yanbo, Bao Zheng, Wang Yaochen and other top ten Jinshi all walked in, and they couldn't help but look at each other, thinking that there was such a simple but not easy exam question before the official palace exam, maybe it was someone else. With intentions, each one of them began to ponder in their hearts, what questions would be asked by the palace examination officials in a while!
About an hour later, 256 candidates outside had passed the assessment of identifying grains, and [-] of them failed the assessment.

"The official is here!"

A servant shouted loudly.

"Students meet the official family! Long live the official family!"

When all the candidates saw Zhao Zhen walking in, they all got up and saluted respectfully.

Zhao Zhen walked to the front of the hall from the left, raised his eyes to see the half-empty tables and chairs on both sides, and couldn't help being a little disappointed, then got up and walked to the back of the hall, and said calmly: "Turn all of them around. Come!"

Seeing this, all the candidates turned their heads and looked at the empty seats, wondering what they were thinking.

Seeing this, Zhao Zhen said: "Seeing these vacancies, I thought of eight words, that is: the four bodies are not diligent, the five grains are not distinguished, and everyone who is doing it is a well-educated person. Who can tell me this sentence?" source?"

After Zhao Zhen's words fell, Ouyang Xiu, No.3 in Jinshi's list, took the lead in saying: "Report to the officials! This sentence comes from "The Analects of Confucius·Weizi". Master? Plant his stick and grow up.

The specific allusion is: Zilu traveled with his teacher Confucius, but he fell behind in the team. When he didn't know where to go, he happened to meet an old man carrying a weeding tool on crutches.Zilu then stood aside, bowed to the old man, and asked respectfully, "Have you seen my teacher?"After hearing this, the old man gave him a blank look, and replied angrily: "The limbs don't work, and the grains can't be distinguished."Who is your teacher?After speaking, stick the crutches in the ground and start weeding."

"Very good! Hold your head up!"

Zhao Zhen said to Ouyang Xiu.

Ouyang Xiu raised his head when he saw this, and suddenly saw a familiar face, thinking, isn't this the young owner of Xinyuelou?Suddenly remembering that he was drunk back then, but he was going to drag the official in front of him to the brothel, his face turned pale, and beads of sweat suddenly rose on his forehead.

Seeing this, Zhao Zhen couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly, then straightened his face instantly, and said majesticly: "Students, it is understandable to spend time on study and neglect physical exercise, but if you even If there is no distinction between the five grains, then even if you are full of knowledge and talent, what is the use of it?"

"A total of 2036 academicians participated in this round, and less than a hundred of them passed all four subjects. In the future, all of you will serve as government officials and serve as parents' officials. You may as well ask yourself, are the two mathematics and criminal laws that I added for the exam really true?" Is it that difficult? Before this palace exam, I read the Analects by chance. When I saw this sentence, I wanted to test the students, but I didn’t expect that half of the officials who were Jinshi and rank didn’t even distinguish the five grains. It’s my fault. I also checked it out, if not, if such an official is sent out, I am afraid that it will not benefit the people, but it will be a disaster!"

In addition to Zhao Zhen, there were also important officials of the court. At first, the important officials of the court did not take it seriously when they heard Zhao Zhen's assessment, because many of them were veterans of the two dynasties, and many even came from poor families. I don't believe that through layers of selection, the candidates who finally take part in the palace examination will have no distinction between grains.But the result shocked them. Half of the [-] Juren, who had read poetry and books and learned a lot, couldn't even distinguish the five grains.

"Come on! Send out the exam questions for the imperial examination!"

Zhao Zhen shouted at the servants.

Seeing this, the servants hurriedly distributed the exam questions to the more than 200 candidates present. There was only one question in the palace exam, and it was usually about strategy, but Zhao Zhen's question was a bit unexpected.

The question for this palace examination is: Is private ownership of land good?Or is it better to have state-owned land?
(End of this chapter)