[Jian Wang III] Prosperous Tang Dynasty

After the news of Chunwei was released, scholars from all over the world came to Beijing one after another.

Because the imperial examination was too hasty this time, not many people came, the emperor was quite worried.

"It's just such a small number of people. After being dismissed by you, I don't know if the rest can fill the vacancies in the court." The emperor said to Su Jixian worriedly, "You have to take it easy, don't let such a group of people finally pass the imperial examination. Just one or two."

Su Jixian's expression was indifferent. He slept very late these days to prepare for the spring, and he was under a lot of pressure. "Your Majesty, please rest assured, I have my own discretion."

The emperor looked at his face, expressing his uneasiness.

On February [-]th, Chunwei was officially held.

Candidates lined up to enter the examination room one after another, the Imperial Army patrols passed by from time to time, and several doctors were also sitting in the arranged infirmary.

The exams on the first day were History, Ming Suan, and Ming Jing. Du Fu was the invigilator, and two officials, one civil and one military, were the deputy invigilators. Li Bai and Su Jixian were drinking tea in a teahouse outside the exam room.

On the second day, Jinshi and Mingzi were tested. Li Bai invigilated the examination, and two proselyte officials deputy invigilated the examination. Du Fu and Su Jixian sealed and classified the papers in the Chongwen Hall.

On the third day, the exams were for scholars and Ming Fa, with Su Jixian as the invigilator and two military officials as assistant invigilators.

However, the day when Su Jixian invigilated the exam was not as calm as the previous two days.

When he came to the examination room in the morning, Su Jixian looked at the number of candidates who were clearly fewer than the previous two examinations, and was thinking about whether to put some water in his mind, when suddenly there was a loud bang above his head, which startled everyone.

Lead gray clouds slowly piled up in the sky, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. From time to time, lightning flashed through the clouds, and a thunderstorm was about to come.

"It's going to rain." Su Jixian said to the assistant examiner next to him, "Add a curtain to keep out the rain for each candidate, so that the test papers won't be wet by the rain."

"Yes."

At this time, there was still some time before the exam began, and there were not too many candidates, about thirty, and the rain curtains were quickly drawn.

Su Jixian looked at the increasingly gloomy sky, and ordered to send an additional team of forbidden troops to patrol the examination room.

In the middle of the day, the exam officially began.

Not long after the examination papers were handed out, there was a gasp of collapse coming from each examination room. The two assistant examiners glanced at each other, and then looked at Su Xiang, who was sitting in the chief seat drinking tea slowly.

Su Jixian raised his head and glanced at them, "What?"

One of the deputy examiners happened to be Guo Yao, the eldest son of Guo Ziyi, and he had a good relationship with him. He smiled and approached him, "What question did Prime Minister Su ask? It doesn't seem easy to hear this?"

"Which of the scholar subjects over the years is easy?" Su Jixian said lazily, "There are spare papers on the table, take them yourself."

Guo Yao responded, stretched out his hand and took out two examination papers pressed by sapphire paperweights on the table, handed one to the colleague beside him, and sat down to concentrate on reading the examination questions.

Su Jixian came up with two questions in the scholar examination paper. The first question was to analyze the role of the Battle of Suiyang in the entire Anshi Rebellion, and write down what strategy he would use if he defended Suiyang.

Guo Yao broke out in a cold sweat.Can candidates really answer this kind of question? !Even if it was him, he might not be able to answer very well!

"This... Prime Minister Su," Guo Yao looked at Su Jixian tremblingly, "Is the topic too difficult?"

"Is it difficult?" Su Jixian didn't think at all, "It doesn't matter, I'm the one who rated it anyway, and I made up my mind, I won't get everyone out." If they really want to get out of everyone, the emperor will probably fight him desperately.

Guo Yao sighed and continued to look at the second question.

The second question looks much simpler than the first one. It asks how to rebuild the prosperous world now that the war has just ended and the mountains and rivers have been devastated.

Guo Yao thought to himself that Su Xiang still has a bit of human touch, and this question is not too difficult.However, after he tried to answer, he found that he didn't know how to write!

Reconstructing the prosperous age... This is too general for a while and it's really hard to write. I don't know where to start.

He decided to take this paper home for his father and a few brothers to ponder with, thinking that the imperial examination that Prime Minister Su took the exam would probably become a nightmare for those examinees.

"Boom—" There was a sound of thunder, and then it rained heavily, and the temperature dropped a lot.

Su Jixian put on the cloak sent by Yin Yuanwei, looked at the rain outside, narrowed his eyes slightly, "Guo Yao."

"Huh? Yes!"

"Take a patrol around the exam room to see if anything is amiss."

"Eh?" Guo Yao was taken aback, but didn't ask, "Yes."

He put away the papers, put on his coir raincoat and went out, his figure quickly disappeared in the majestic rain.

The other deputy examiner who stayed behind didn't know Su Jixian very well, so he didn't dare to speak to him, so he sat in a corner and studied the test questions silently by himself.

After a long time, Guo Yao came back, took off his coir raincoat at the door, walked quickly to Su Jixian and reported in a low voice: "Mr. Su, I found a large number of medicine bags in many places. The accompanying medical officer said that the medicine bags would It attracts poisonous insects, but fortunately, it was soaked by the rain, and the effect was reduced, and it will not attract insects after treatment."

Su Jixian nodded, "Have you dealt with it yet?"

"Naturally, there are a lot of medicinal materials prepared in the medical hall, and they have been settled."

"That's good." Su Jixian pondered, "If you strengthen the guards, no one will be left in the streets around the examination room. Oh, by the way, remember to tell your father and ask him to talk to King Jianning."

"Yes."

The episode of the imperial examination passed quickly, and the urgently strengthened defenses did not relax even in such a heavy rain, and the candidates in the examination room knew nothing about it.

Under the cover of the roaring rain, there was a figure floating in a private house, and a few whispers failed to penetrate the rain curtain to the outside.

"Damn rain...the plan failed, they are aware of it, stop everything and don't act rashly."

"Yes."

At the beginning of the Xu Dynasty, the last imperial examination was over, and the examinees who had handed in their papers returned to their places under the escort of soldiers.

At this time, the heavy rain had already turned into light rain, and the patter of rain kept falling. Su Jixian asked someone to pack up the papers, and took the papers back to the Prime Minister's Mansion without going to the Chongwen Hall first.

It took three days to review the papers and one day to sort them out. It was already February 24 when the rankings were released.

There were crowds of people in front of the imperial list, some with gray faces full of disappointment, some sighed but cheered up quickly, and some were so excited that their cheeks flushed and they kept shouting "I won!".

In the private room on the second floor of a tea house not far from the imperial list, the emperor in royal blue plain clothes was holding tea and smilingly looking at the sentient beings below.

"It's been a lot of hard work for Prime Minister Su these few days." The emperor smiled, "Only five people have been hired in the Talent Division. Fortunately, Prime Minister Su didn't recruit all of them."

"I would like to hire more, but Your Majesty has also read the papers. Some of the papers are outrageously answered, and the selection of the scholar department is not ordinary officials. I dare not be strict."

Speaking of the paper, the emperor couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Some people's answers... are really interesting. After all, they have too little knowledge, so it's only natural that they give poor answers. Speaking of which, who is Dugu Jiu? Is it at the bottom?" "

Su Jixian turned his head to look down, and pointed to the crowd, "Over there, that's the man in white with light yellow hair."

The emperor looked carefully. After all, he had practiced martial arts, and he was in his prime at this time, so he could easily find the person he was looking for in the crowd. Where is Chief Lou Zhiyu?"

"Not below. Lou Zhiyu is a disciple of Changge Sect. Mr. Taibai and Mr. Zimei should know each other."

"Is that so... don't worry, there will be a palace test in the future."

"Speaking of the palace examination, Your Majesty, I have something to do with you." Su Jixian sat up straight and said, "On the third day of March, I have a red affair at home. After the palace examination, please give your majesty a few days off."

The emperor nodded and said: "Oh, I remember that your sister is going to get married... I will ask the imperial concubine to add makeup to your sister later, and you can go on vacation after the 28th. But the court is busy, and you have to go to court on the fourth day of March .”

"Yes."

The imperial examination on the day after the announcement of the results was basically smooth, the emperor asked some random questions and assigned the examinees to their respective positions, and these had already been planned, and the new team of the imperial court gradually took shape.

After February ended, Ye Xuan could no longer meet with Chen Yue, and the two sides were intensively preparing for the final work of the wedding.

On the second day of March, Chen Yue, who had been quietly waiting to get married in the boudoir, suddenly became nervous and nestled beside Su Jixian, refusing to leave.

Su Jixian, who was checking the dowry list, looked at his restless younger sister, and sighed, "Yue'er, you and Ye Xuan have been together for not one or two years, but four years. What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid." Chen Yue emphasized, "I'm just a little... I don't know what to do."

"What should I do? Sleep in the room and take care of yourself, and wait for tomorrow to get dressed and get married."

Chen Yue was silent for a while, then suddenly said: "Brother, I won't marry, okay?"

As soon as the words fell, Su Jixian subconsciously stretched out his hand to touch her forehead, "Yue'er, are you sick?"

"No, no." Chen Yue grabbed his hand, hugged his arm and sighed, "I don't know why... I just suddenly feel panicked."

Oh, it turned out to be a premarital phobia.Su Jixian understood, put down the dowry list in his hand, and patted her on the head, "What are you panicking about? You are still my younger sister after you get married, and my elder brother will protect you all his life. Ye Xuan has no parents, and the owner of the villa treats you very well. Very good, you have nothing to worry about when you marry, so don’t panic. If you don’t marry, Ye Xuan will grab someone with an epee that day.”

"I know, I know everything." Chen Yue lowered her head and leaned on his shoulder, "But I don't know why, thinking that I won't be able to be with my brother in the future, I feel...a bit like crying."

As she spoke, there was a bit of crying in her voice, Su Jixian couldn't laugh or cry, took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears, "Don't cry, it's not that Ye Xuan doesn't have a house in the capital, you can still come back every day in the future. "

"If you come back every day, Ye Xuan will make people gossip. Where can a bride go back to her mother's house every day?" Chen Yue frowned and cried, "And after returning home, I will go back to Yangzhou with Ye Xuan..."

"It's not like you won't have a chance to see me in the future, what are you afraid of?" Su Jixian poured a cup of tea into her hand, "Ye Xuan has been waiting for you for four years, don't let him be happy for a while."

"Well... no."

Su Jixian touched her head, his eyes were gentle, "What brother wants to see most now is that you get married in a wedding dress with ten miles of red makeup, Yue'er, don't be afraid, this is the most beautiful time in your life, be happy, Um?"

"Um……"

The author has something to say: It seems that I can't end this article in more than 60 chapters, but it should be possible to finish more than 70 chapters.Alright, in the next chapter, Chen Yue gets married, let me look for the wedding customs of the Tang Dynasty.