Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Lu Ci vaguely remembered that the emperor who was worried about Liu Yong's poem that complained about failing the rankings seemed to be not the current reigning emperor, but the Song Renzong who had a good relationship with Bao Zheng.

I don't know if the current emperor, who is obsessed with self-created theology, eats vegetarian fasts, and is busy building dojos and setting up colorful altars, will not care about the venting of a fallen scholar.

Lu Ci can only downplay Liu Yong's sense of existence as best he can, and then listen to fate.

After all, with Feng Mi's protection, Liu Yong was able to pass the first two examinations.

But when it comes to the imperial examination where the emperor makes a specific decision, it really depends on the emperor's mind.

In the blink of an eye, it was February 28.

As we all know, the results of provincial examinations are released not at the end of February, but at the beginning of March.

Seeing the end of February slipping away little by little, and the warm spring of March approaching step by step, all the candidates who were fascinated by the prosperity of Bianjing gradually recovered and became nervous again.

Lu Ci, who was originally only for the sightseeing experience and thought that this time was the best performance, could naturally remain calm, but the others could not.

Even if they travel together, the only ones who can still have fun are Zhong Yuan who has completely given up, and Lu Ci who is the most relaxed.

Others are more or less absent-minded, and it is difficult to devote themselves to the good times and good times.

Fortunately, the examiners who graded the papers day and night did not ask them to suffer any longer, so at noon on the 28th, at the main entrance of the Gongyuan, they announced their names.

One word was passed on to another, and within a short while, countless Juren who got the news rushed towards the Gong Yuan.

Lu Ci was wandering with them on the state bridge at that time, when he saw the crowd suddenly changed direction, and countless scholars in thongs flocked to one place excitedly, he immediately guessed: "I'm afraid it's the Gongyuan Released."

Liu Qizheng was absent-mindedly gnawing on a crystal steamed stuffed bun. He was stunned for a moment, and almost choked on it. It was even more difficult to understand why Lu Ci was so calm: "Why don't you go and see?!"

Zhu Shuo also subconsciously took two steps forward, and then suddenly realized that he looked at Lu Ci for advice.

Yi Shu and Zhong Yuan knew that there was no hope of being on the list, so after the initial excitement, they didn't react too much, and followed Zhu's words and looked at Lu Ci.

Lu Ci just saw the crowded scene that was several times worse than that during the test, so he thanked him very much, and said decisively: "Send two or three literate servants, and we will go back to the courtyard and wait for news."

Doesn't it look the same early or late?

The list will not fly because of a late glance, and the ranking will not rise just because of an early glance.

Going to watch it now, it is easy to be caught by those son-in-laws who are waiting under the list to wait for the rabbit.

Lu Ci was so calm, the others couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed by their excitement, and they all agreed.

Among the five healthy servants they hired, there were really three who could read.

Although it is far from Chengdu, where you can write and write, it is more than enough to recognize Lu Ci and the others' names on the list.

After sending them out, Lu Ci first lay down on the rocking chair, closed his eyes and rested his mind.

Infected by his extremely calm attitude, Zhu said that they also calmed down, and simply took out a bunch of books that they had just scoured from the Wan surname exchange in Daxiangguo Temple a few days ago, and started to read.

However, before watching for a while, they heard a sudden commotion outside the door.

The almost boiling voice was getting closer and closer, and it was hard to ignore. Even Lu Ci opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the door.

If they heard it right, this group of people who beat gongs and drums whizzed by, and shouted especially loudly and with extraordinary momentum, seemed to be surrounded in front of the simple courtyard where they lived.

The next time someone knocked on the wooden door, they completely confirmed their guess.

Because the shouts were too mixed and loud, the battle was amazing, but it was not so easy to hear what they were shouting clearly.

Lu Ci frowned indistinctly.

They seemed to be shouting... "Lu Ci" in a mess?

I must have heard wrong.

Lu Ci didn't take it too seriously, but stood up from the rocking chair, and ordered his servants to answer the door.

And Liu Qi, who has the most experience of this kind, pricked up his ears when he heard this unusual movement in the distance.

He couldn't help laughing when he noticed the group of people stopped in front of their door.

When his servant got Lu Ci's order to open the door, he waved his folding fan gracefully, and said happily to everyone who was looking at him: "This is definitely a great thing! Someone in our room must be among the top three!"

When he was listed in the provincial examination last time, he was only in the middle and lower positions, so of course he could not enjoy such luxurious treatment.

But he has seen it before—the ones who can make such a big commotion and return faster than the healthy servants who went to check the list are obviously some of the smartest small townspeople in Bianjing.

After checking the list for the first time, they asked for the addresses of the top three, so they could rush to report the good news and take the opportunity to ask for a reward.

At the beginning, there were only a dozen or so people, but more and more people joined them halfway, and when they really got to the door, it was a huge crowd.

Compared with the few people who were vaguely expecting, Lu Ci at this time can be said to be as calm as water.

He lacks everything else, except self-knowledge.

Even if it feels like he has performed supernormally this time, with his limited talent in poetry and prose, it is already a sky-high to be able to rank in the bottom of the list. Of course, it is impossible to reach the top three.

I don't know which one of these incredible top three people is.

Lu Ci leisurely took a sip of the honey water, and his eyes passed by Zhu Shuo, Teng Zongliang and Liu Qi who were the most likely in his mind one by one.

In his heart, he still felt that Liu Qi had the greatest hope.

After all, poems and prose are the most important thing in the selection of scholars at this time, and this is precisely Liu Qi's strong point.

Zhu said that although he was the famous Fan Zhongyan, he was still a little younger.

...It turned out that everyone, including the three of them, was staring at him inexplicably.

Lu Ci couldn't laugh or cry: "What are you looking at me for?"

Liu Qi smiled and said, "You guess?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was opened, and a group of beaming people scrambled to push away the servants who answered the door, rushing in frantically, and immediately filled the small courtyard.

Seeing six young gentlemen sitting in the living room, they couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and shouted in unison: "Mr. Lu from Mizhou, is Mr. Lu here?"

Lu Ci: "..."

Even now, he still doesn't want to believe it, and he calmly replied under the excited gaze of everyone: "Why are you looking for me?"

After successfully finding the right owner, everyone involuntarily burst into bright smiles, turned their heads together, and shouted majesticly: "Congratulations to Lu Langjun for ranking first and winning the provincial yuan! Congratulations to Lu Shengyuan! "

The unison roared with incomparable effort, and the effect was earth-shattering, making the ears of the people present go numb.

Liu Qi and Zhu Shuo, who had suppressed their excitement just now, listened quietly with bated breath, and after confirming their guesses, they exploded completely.

God! ! !

Their eyes lit up, they screamed hoarsely, jumping around Lu Ci like crazy, their faces flushed.

After the crazy meal, Liu Qi was the first to back out, staring at Lu Ci with a smile, and muttering: "Two yuan, saving yuan..."

Zhong Yuan's eyes were wide open, his mouth was wide open, and he looked at Lu Ci, who was surrounded by the crowd like stars holding the moon, with a look of deep awe in his eyes.

Damn it, he thought that Xie Yuan was already a big deal, how could he still know a province in his life?

Teng Zongliang couldn't stop being amazed at first, then he understood it, and said with a smile: "It's expected!"

Yi Shu hugged Zhu tightly and said, the two of them even burst into tears, and said incoherently while whining: "Brother Yu Yu, you deserve it! Brother Yu Yu!"

Lu Ci, who was forced to accept countless congratulations, habitually wore a decent smile on his face, but was at a loss in his heart.

Looking at the joyful appearance of the crowd, rather than being moved, it would be better to doubt...

The examiner must be completely insane.

Lu Ci was indeed not the only one who couldn't help but doubt his life.

And there were those three examiners who personally rated him at the top of the list.

Compared with the solution test, the provincial test is more strictly enforced in terms of regulations.

Before the readers finished unpacking and checking the nearly [-] volumes, and ranked them according to the third rating, even Liu Yun, who was a Zhigong Juguan, could not intervene at will.

Because of this, when the performance was released on February 28, he was as shocked after learning the truth as any other person who paid attention to this matter.

"The top spot is Lu Ci?"

Liu Yun asked in disbelief.

After getting an affirmative answer, he blurted out as if in a dream: "How is this possible? I know clearly about his paper..."

I have given up on putting people at the top of the list!

Did the reader check it wrong?Or was he mistaken from the start?

I don't know how long it took before Liu Yun put down the teacup as if he had just woken up from a dream, and hurriedly searched among the pile of old volumes that were about to be sealed and stored.

Since the list had already been released, although his move seemed sudden, it was not considered a violation.

He didn't care about the curious gazes from others, so he turned out the paper that he thought was Lu Ci's at first, took it out and put it on the table, and immediately put the paper at the bottom that was jointly evaluated by the three examiners. For "Last Time", the paper was so excellent that there was nothing to say, and I also found it.

The seal of the frontispiece has been torn apart, and two different names and surnames are clearly written on it.

However, the owner of the former is Liu Sanbian, and the owner of the latter is Lu Ci.

"No, no, this handwriting is clearly Lu Ci's!"

As shocked as Liu Yun, there were also the two deputy directors who had just received the news and felt as if they had been hit by a bolt from the blue.

They couldn't hold back their yelling, rushed to Liu Yun's case in a hurry, and flipped through the two papers that completely ruined their plan.

Although Liu Yun hasn't figured out what's going on, as long as it's the Northerner whom he was most optimistic about before winning the Provincial Yuan, he is still mostly happy in his heart.

The willows are dark and the flowers are bright, gratifying and congratulations.

For these two deputy directors from the south, it was bad news.

Especially when they thought they had suppressed Lu Ci's success, they couldn't bear the blow even more.

"I clearly remember that Lu Ci's handwriting is not like this in the official paper!"

One person seemed to be a little out of breath, and in the tribute courtyard where people came and went, he spoke out what was in his heart, causing everyone to look at him.

Liu Yun didn't expect that he would send a message to the door, so he was happy, and he was not in a hurry to compare the public documents of Lu Ci and Liu Sanbian just found out, but smiled and raised his eyebrows, and asked slowly: "Deputy Li Secretary, may I ask the official purpose of setting up a special Fengmi office and a transcription office, what exactly is it?"

Obviously, it is to prevent the examiners from being entrusted with favoritism and cheating.

But Li Fusi, who just explained the mystery in one word, has already exposed the fact that he intends to identify Lu Ci's identity through his handwriting.

Even if his purpose of identifying the examinee's identity is to lower the opponent's rating, not raise it up, but as long as there is something to talk about, how to turn black and white in the future, can't help but those who are good at verbal criticism at Yushitai?

Deputy Li knew that he had made a slip of the tongue, so he closed his mouth tightly and stopped talking.

Liu Yun sneered and chased after him fiercely: "Deputy Li deliberately wrote down that Lu Jieyuan, oh no, it's Lu Shengyuan...his handwriting, and because he was at the top of the list, he was so angry, what is the reason? Woolen cloth?"

"With such selfishness, can you still be worthy of the post of Zhigongju?"

Deputy Li said nothing.

As long as he doesn't say the wrong thing anymore, relying on this sentence alone, except for a few sarcasm from Liu Yun, there will be no follow-up influence.

Even in the face of Liu Yun's rhetorical question, he wished he could reply with "half a catty", so it was not good to speak at this time.

Another deputy director glared at him who had no choice but to put his flag down, then looked at Liu Yun, and said righteously: "Director Liu, please thoroughly investigate Lu Ci, at least write down the handwriting on his test papers, Make a comparison of all to get rid of the suspicion of being a ghostwriter!"

Liu Yun snorted noncommittally, and only lowered her eyes to flip through the two people's private papers.

With his eyesight, he quickly saw the mystery, and he knew it more or less.

Without being influenced by preconceived notions, Liu Sanbian's handwriting on the provincial examination paper can be said to be [-]% like Lu Ci's in the public paper.

But looking carefully at Lu Ci's provincial test paper, although there are only two points of similarity in appearance, there are eight points of similarity in spirit.

But when a person intentionally changes the font, the shape is easy to change, but the spirit is not easy to change.

It's just that when outsiders look at flowers, unless they pay extra attention, they only see the shape.

When the papers were not spread out in four and were only roughly compared, Liu Sanbian's handwriting had a seven-point-shaped scroll, which of course could give people a deeper impression.

— No wonder it leads to such misunderstandings.

That beautiful paper that people unanimously gave the first grade really belonged to Lu Ci.

But why did Liu Sanbian imitate the fonts in Lu Ci's public volume?

Why did Lu Ci come to the examination room, and suddenly changed a word with a completely different form?

The more Liu Yun thought about it, the more interesting it became.

He didn't think it was a pure coincidence, or Lu Ci's whim.

However, if Lu Ci can plan ahead and take everything into consideration in the most tense provincial examination room, if he is careful to this point, he really doesn't look like a sixteen-year-old young man, but more like a wily fox.

In any case, he was the one who benefited, so naturally he had to help Lu Ci.

Regarding the stern suggestions put forward by the deputy directors, Liu Yun had a deep heart, and deliberately did not stop him, and said happily: "You are also reasonable. In order to calm people's hearts, then please pay attention to comparing the qualifications of the Imperial Medicine Institute. Let's make a decision on Lu Ci's two handwriting tests."

If the calligraphy and painting are obviously different, they will be dismissed by other lists, and they will not be eligible to participate in the palace examination.

But this is not within their responsibility.

Liu Yun wasn't worried about Lu Ci - just because of the officials' cautious attitude towards juzi in the past, it was impossible for the Royal Medicine Academy to treat it carelessly and slander it indiscriminately during the review.

Especially when the victim is still Lu Ci.

This young talent who has already ranked first in the provincial examination and won two yuan in the provincial examination at a young age is quite famous.

After all, it would be an exaggeration to say that he is only one step away from the imperial examination.

Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, only a few decades ago, there has been such a genius who has reached the third grade.

To be able to win the second place in the hands of the officials, and spread the good stories of knowing people and talents, not only Lu Ci, but also the officials will be happy.

For this point, the people of the Imperial Medicine Academy will be cautious when reviewing.

If Lu Ci was too careful and changed the font beyond recognition in the provincial test, it would be really easy to be self-defeating.

But since even he can see the similarity between the charms of the writing, how can those servants of the Royal Medicine Academy who have a more vicious vision in this regard miss it?

Seeing Liu Yun's complacent appearance of agreeing to their proposal lightly, the two deputy directors looked at each other unwillingly, guessed something more or less, and left with a sigh.

Seeing the appearance of the two leaving in despair, Liu Yun's heart was not just happy, but happy.

Because there were still a lot of people watching, he forced himself to put on airs, and just sipped his hot tea on the ground.

——This Lu Ci is really up to the mark!

And Lu Ci, who told Liu Yun to let out a sigh of relief, looked at the surging canal water expressionlessly.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. The examination institution in charge of the palace examination is a seemingly irrelevant internal service institution—the Imperial Medicine Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ("Song Huiyao Collection Draft Officials" No. [-] of [-]

The responsibilities of the Royal Medicine Institute included engraving and printing test papers, comparing the notes on the test papers of Son Ming Juren who passed the provincial test, and reviewing their qualifications to participate in the palace test, etc.If it is judged that the calligraphy and painting are different, and there is suspicion of finding someone to write for them, the qualification for the palace examination will be disqualified.

2. It is said that I have a bug.This provincial exam is actually the beginning of the transcription process QAQ!I clearly wrote it down in the outline to remind myself, but I forgot it now... Cough, as long as you know it.

3. And, I just accidentally found out the list of officials who participated in Dazhong Xiangfu's eight-year magistrate's tribute examination. Coincidentally, Liu Yun is really one of them.

The other two are Zhao Anren, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Li Wei, Bachelor of Hanlin. ("General History of China's Imperial Examination System Song Dynasty Volume 224" p[-])

4. As I said, there was no record of Liu Yong being explicitly made things difficult in Song Zhenzong's final exam, but his luck in the exam was not good, and he kept failing.On the contrary, Song Renzong, who is known to have a good temper (Bao Zheng's saliva flew into his face without getting angry), Song Renzong hated Liu Yong very much.