The Bamboo Horse Dressed as the Emperor

The Taixue exam was successfully concluded. Song Jiao wore the cloud-pattern hairband that Taixue gave to the top of the list, and held up his "report card", dangling in front of Grandpa Song for several days.

When grandpa goes to court, when grandpa returns home from court, and when grandpa goes out, he can take out his report card anytime and anywhere, and pretend to observe it.

——Grandpa, look, I didn't delay my study.

Grandpa Song was angry and funny, and finally brought the report card over, and asked someone to find a framer on the street, framed his report card, and hung it in the hall for visitors to watch, replacing Grandpa Song's favorite That landscape map.

Song Jiao, the big Persian cat, and the big yellow dog stood side by side in the hall, holding hands and looking up at the report card.

Song Jiao rubbed his chin: "How do I feel... this scene..."

The system said: "Does it look like your grandfather pasted the certificate of award you got from school on the wall?"

Song Jiao nodded: "Like."

The system said: "Actually, I've wanted to do this for a long time."

Song Jiao stayed at home for a few days. At lunch that day, Grandpa Song said, "Grandpa has enrolled you in a make-up class. You can go to make up class tomorrow."

Song Jiao was so frightened that he couldn't hold the bowl steady: "Where are you going to make up lessons? Where is the third grandpa?" He froze: "I don't want it, Senior Brother Liu and Senior Brother Jiang both passed the general examination, and they will take the imperial examination soon Already, the third grandfather should hurry up and tutor the two senior brothers."

Grandpa Song said, "Go to the Chu Mansion."

Song Jiao was puzzled: "Ah? Chu Mansion? Chu Heng's house?"

"Yes." Grandpa Song said, "Master Chu asked Wen Zhi to make up lessons for Chu Heng. Grandpa has signed up for you. Go and listen."

"Ah?" Song Jiao was even more confused, "Grandpa, Wen Zhi, give, Chu Heng, make up lessons?"

"Yes."

"Can this also be added together?"

"Master Chu said, I have been in Taixue for the past six months, thanks to Wen Zhi taking Chu Heng with me, now that I am on vacation, I also invite Wen Zhi to make up lessons for Chu Heng." Grandpa Song thought for a while, then lowered his voice, "Actually, Wen Zhi The family is difficult, Master Chu wanted to give Wen Zhi some pocket money, so he invited him here."

"Oh." Song Jiao nodded, and suddenly asked, "Grandpa, then I'm going, am I going to attend a class or give a lecture?"

"Go to class."

"So did you pay?"

"not yet……"

Song Jiao stuffed a mouthful of food into his mouth: "Grandpa, you know that you want me to go to other people's classes. I used to go to the third grandpa, but now I go to Wenzhi. You can't do this. It's very embarrassing for me to go to class..."

Before Grandpa Song finished speaking, he was interrupted by him.He turned the chopsticks upside down, put them on the table, paused, and then knocked Song Jiao on the head: "Don't talk nonsense, grandpa originally wanted to give the money, but Wen Zhi confiscated it. After you finish class, grandpa will give the money to you." You, you bring it to Wenzhi."

Song Jiao: "Oh!"

The next morning, Song Jiao got up early, packed up, carried a small schoolbag, and was going to summer cram school.

The Chu Mansion is a new noble mansion in Fengxiang City. It was just completed at the beginning of the year, and it is quite proud.

"Mr. Song, please, Mr. Wen has arrived just now."

The servant of the Chu Mansion led Song Jiao all the way through the Hualang courtyard to Chu Heng's study.

Song Jiao pushed open the study door: "Friends?"

The Chu family's study room is huge, partitioned on three sides, it can almost be seen as three rooms.

There was a table in the middle, and a mat next to it. Wen Zhi and Chu Heng were sitting cross-legged on the mat. They probably hadn't started yet, and they were still chatting. When they saw him coming, they all looked up at him.

Chu Heng said: "Come in quickly, don't let the air conditioner run away."

"Oh." Song Jiao entered the door, closed the door behind his back, and saw that there were ice cubes on the side of the mat.

In summer, Chu uses ice cubes to cool off.

Song Jiao thought in his heart, he and his grandfather were hot in summer, and if they wanted ice cubes, they had to run into the palace to rub with Grandpa Xie, but Chu Heng was lucky, he had them at home.

Who is the prime minister?Who is the grandson of the prime minister?

Thinking of this, Song Jiao quickly stepped forward and pinched the back of Chu Heng's neck.

Chu Heng was dissatisfied: "What are you doing?"

Song Jiao "hummed" at him, then walked to Wen Zhi and sat down.

It was really cool in the room, Song Jiao flicked his sleeves to fan himself, and Wen Zhi also sat up straight.

"It's all here, let's start." Wen Zhi was a little embarrassed to give someone else a make-up lesson for the first time.

"Okay!" Song Jiao and Chu Heng responded loudly, which made him even more embarrassed.

Wen Zhi touched the tip of his nose, and half of his ears turned red: "Today, let's look at the articles to be learned in the second half of the year."

"Great!"

"You...don't do this..."

"Good! Good!"

Wen Zhi took out the ruler that he had prepared earlier from under the table case, and patted the table lightly: "Uncle Chu prepared it for me. He said that if Chu Heng is disobedient, he can be beaten. Prime Minister Song said the same thing, If Mao Mao is disobedient, you can also beat him."

Song Jiao and Chu Heng: I'm so scared.

The ruler was placed on the table, both of them fell silent, and Wen Zhi opened the first page of the book.

Not long after, the attendant brought over snacks. After eating the snacks, after a while of class, you can have lunch.After lunch, they rested, and they could have snacks again when they woke up. Song Jiao and Wen Zhi also had dinner and supper at Chu's house.

Counting with their fingers, they ate five meals a day in the Chu Mansion.

Song Jiao rubbed his stomach and asked Chu Heng: "When you were studying, your father made people serve you like this."

Chu Heng nodded: "Yes."

"Then you still don't want to study?" Song Jiao said in surprise, "If it were me, I could learn to die at the desk."

"Then you can learn to die at the desk."

Chu Heng pushed the furious Song Jiao back, and the two picked up their respective spoons at the same time, scooped a spoonful of smoothie with fruit and ate it.

This is their snack, specially provided by Master Chu.

In just one day, Song Jiao couldn't even think about leaving. He was with his friends, had ice cubes for snacks, and could lie on the ground and read a book. He could read whatever he liked, which was much more comfortable than at home.

They lived like this for the rest of the summer.

Not long after, Daqi's half-yearly palace examination began.

The tribute scholars who passed the general examination this spring entered the palace and entered the Enke Hall, where they took the palace examination under the personal supervision of Mr. Xie and Prime Minister Song.

Song Jiao followed the two grandfathers and also went to Enke Hall.

The main hall is wide, and the middle is divided by a screen, and each tribute is in it to answer, and there is no sound, only the rustling of pens.

Song Jiao sat beside the two grandfathers, propped his head up, looked at Senior Brother Liu, then at Senior Brother Jiang, and then at the others.

Seeing the jade-white tribute clothes on them, and then looking down at the green clothes on my own, I found it quite interesting.

In last year's provincial examination, brother Jiang Pingjiang was Xie Yuan; in this spring's general examination, brother Liu Yiliu was Huiyuan.I don't know who is the champion in this palace examination.

In fact, according to Song Jiao's idea, they should not take the imperial examination together, they should stagger the exam, anyway, there is an exam every six months, so that both of them can get three yuan in a row.

Speaking of which, Qi Guo hasn't even won the Sanyuan exam yet.

Song Jiao thought this way, Master Xie moved him a bit, and he lowered his voice: "Maomao, don't be in a daze, learn a little bit, you will..."

Song Jiao gave a "hush" to Grandpa Xie, and under Grandpa Song's gaze, the two of them dared not speak any more.

Burnt incense ash piled up in the incense burner. When the last session of incense was burned out, Grandpa Song picked up the small copper hammer on the table and knocked on the copper bell on the table.

The tribute scholars put down the pens and papers in time and handed over the written papers to the attendants.

A dozen or so attendants came back and forth, and put hundreds of papers on the desks of several examiners at the next level. The examiners looked serious, and quickly finished marking hundreds of papers. Soon, the papers were put away. It fell on the table of Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie felt a headache when he saw so many characters, but he still pretended to read for a while, Song Jiao leaned over and asked him, "Grandpa Xie, do you understand?"

"Go, of course Grandpa Xie doesn't understand." Master Xie gave him a push, and then asked people to take away all the papers, "Take it to Prime Minister Song to read."

Song Jiao snickered, then Prime Minister Song quietly flipped through the paper without saying a word.The tributes were still sitting in their seats, with both hands resting on their knees, and quietly waiting for the result.

Prime Minister Song looked at the hundreds of papers carefully, and he didn't even get bored. After reading for about half an hour, he put down the paper in his hand, picked up the cinnabar pen that was on the desk of Mr. Xie, and began to approve the rankings.

The eunuch who delivered the message stood bowed to one side, and Prime Minister Song would pass one sentence for each batch.

"Xu Zhong from Yunzhou, second-class."

There is no such thing as failure in the Gongshi Palace Examination. There are only three first-class candidates and seven second-class candidates.

Prime Minister Song approved slowly, and it took a long time to write a pen. Finally, he finished the approval of the seven people who were second-class, and now began to approve the first-class.

That is to say, the number one pick, second place and third place.

The servants below were a little nervous.

This time Prime Minister Song refused to write for a long time, but chose three papers and handed them back to Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie was shocked: How can I understand this thing?

He tugged at Song Jiao's sleeve, and asked him for help: "Maomao, hurry up, come and have a look with Grandpa Xie."

Song Jiao went over to take a look. There were three papers, namely Liu Yi's, Jiang Ping's, and a man named Zhang Mo.

Song Jiao looked at it seriously, but of course he didn't dare to make up his own mind, so he asked Mr. Xie in a low voice, "Grandpa Xie, didn't my grandpa tell you anything? How should I choose?"

"No." Mr. Xie thought for a while, "I seem to have said it, but I forgot."

"..."

Master Xie racked his brains: "Oh, I remembered, your grandpa said that Tan Hua Lang is the younger and more beautiful one."

This is true.

"But Senior Brother Liu and Senior Brother Jiang are about the same age, and they are both beautiful."

"Yes, why don't you see what Zhang Mo looks like first?"

Song Jiao nodded: "Yeah."

So Master Xie cleared his throat, and said loudly, "Which one is Zhang Mo?"

An older Gongshi got up and saluted, Song Jiao and Mr. Xie looked at each other, it seemed that this person could not be a flower lover.

Song Jiao hesitated again: "Grandpa Xie, but if 'judging people by their appearance', would it be unfair to Senior Brother Liu and Senior Brother Jiang? In fact, Zhang Mo's article is a notch worse than that of the two senior brothers..."

No wonder grandpa wants to hand over the decision-making power to Mr. Xie.

Ever since the rule that Tanhualang must be a young Juzi came out, everyone obeyed silently.In Qingguo, there were even a few times when a candidate who was supposed to be the No. [-] scholar was pushed to the No. [-] prize just because he was young.

If you want to select people according to the article, regardless of the invisible rules, it is best for the emperor to come to order in person, so Song Chengxiang gave him the paper.

Mr. Xie immediately understood, looked down at the three articles, and said seriously: "Okay, Zhang Mo, order some flowers."

All the gongshi were taken aback, how can an old man be a Tanhualang?

However, Mr. Xie ignored their gazes and comments, and handed the remaining two papers to Prime Minister Song to continue.

In the end, Prime Minister Song read the remaining two papers several times, and wrote words on them with a cinnabar pen.

The eunuch's voice sounded in the hall.

"Feng Xiang, Jiang Ping, order the second place."

"Feng Xiang, Liu Yi, the champion."

Jiang Ping and Liu Yi, who were sitting on both sides of the main hall, stood up at the same time to thank each other. When they looked up, they looked at each other and said "Congratulations" to each other.

The results of the palace examination were announced, and Mr. Liu came out as the No. [-] scholar and the second place.

Early the next morning, Song Jiao and his friends went to Shijietang early to say congratulations to the two senior brothers.

But I don't want the two senior brothers to be away, only Mr. Liu is reading a book on the counter.

Song Jiao jumped into the door: "Third Grandpa, congratulations."

"Mr. Liu, congratulations."

Mr. Liu raised his eyes to look at them, and couldn't hide his joy on his face: "We are both happy and happy together. When you, Wen Zhi, and Chu Heng also win the first prize, I will be really happy."

"It's still early." Song Jiao looked around, "Brother isn't there? Did you go out to play?"

"Where is it? A few days later, the number one scholar paraded through the streets, and was called by the people in the palace to measure and cut clothes."

"Oh." Song Jiao nodded, and also lay on the counter, "When the time comes, I will lead a pony and quietly follow behind the two senior brothers."

"What are you doing after them?"

"It's a matter of luck, and there must be a lot of girls throwing flowers, handkerchiefs, etc. for them. They will definitely not be able to take them down. I will carry a big basket and help them put away things."

Mr. Liu pretended to be stern, and raised his hand to drive him away: "Go, go, I want you to get in the way there? They are coming back soon, go and play with them, don't bother me."

"Third Grandpa, then I'm really leaving."

"Let's go."

"I really left."

"Come on."

Song Jiao waved to him: "The third grandfather pays his respects."

Wen Zhi and Chu Heng also saluted: "See you, Mr. Liu."

The three of them left Shijietang and walked towards the imperial palace to see if they could meet the two senior brothers.

Just passing by the place where the list was posted, Song Jiao dragged two friends and squeezed in from the crowd to take another look.

The names of Liu Yi and Jiang Ping hang high on the top of the list, and they are drawn in gold letters on the red paper, which is extraordinarily dazzling.

Song Jiao clasped his hands, and expressed his honor to You.Then he heard the names of the two senior brothers mentioned by someone in the crowd, and he happily pricked up his ears to listen.

"...The old rules, young people should be Tanhua, why is it changed today? Liu Yi or Jiang, which one can't be Tanhua? Why did Your Majesty and Prime Minister Song choose an old man to be Tanhua?"

Song Jiao's smile froze, only hearing the whispering in the crowd continued.

"Liu Yi is Master Liu's grandson, and Jiang Ping is also Master Liu's student. Master Liu and Prime Minister Song are brothers, so there is this relationship."

"I can't say that. Prime Minister Song is the most fair. Maybe Liu Yi and Jiang Ping really have something special?"

"Prime Minister Song is fair, but I heard that Prime Minister Song's grandson was also there in the imperial examination. He called Liu Yijiang Ping a senior brother. This time, he and His Majesty started the first class. Your Majesty is illiterate. How could he know?" Read the article, isn't it..."

Before the words were finished, the remaining hints were obvious.

"Prime Minister Song's grandson is not bad either. Didn't he pacify the Northwest a while ago, and also ranked first in the Taixue exam?"

"He's more powerful. His Majesty has gained recognition at such a young age. Of course, His Majesty trusts him even more. He can point to whoever he says, but he's a 15-year-old kid after all, so it doesn't matter if he's thinking about personal affairs."

"This year's palace examination is a bit unfair. Is it true that the students of Prime Minister Song and Master Liu will dominate the palace examination in the future?"

Song Jiao looked around, locked on the tongue-twisting people in the crowd, and was about to rush over to argue with them angrily.

Wen Zhi and Chu Heng stopped him.

"Forget it, after a few days all the palace examination articles will be printed, and it will be clear who is superior and who is inferior, who is strong and who is weak." Wen Zhi said in a low voice, "If you make such a fuss, I'm afraid it will damage the reputation of the two senior brothers." What's worse, Jiang Ping's status is still special, he was originally involved with the Qing Kingdom, so don't let anyone catch him."

Song Jiao closed her eyes, suppressed her displeasure, thought for a while, and tried to break away from her friends' hands: "It's okay, I won't argue with them."

He hid in the crowd, slowly approached the group of gossipers, stretched out his hand from the crowd, and pushed the person who was talking.

The man was talking vigorously, and the more he thought about his "guessing", the more correct he became, when he was suddenly pushed, he couldn't stand still, and fell to the city wall with a bang.

When everyone saw this, they all dispersed.

Song Jiao withdrew his hand and walked out from the crowd. At this moment, Liu Yi and Jiang Ping came from the other side of the long street. He adjusted his expression and walked in front of the two senior brothers.

Liu Yi just took a look at him and could see that he was not happy.

"What's the matter? Who made you unhappy again? Could it be that brother Shen is back? Bullied you again?"

Song Jiao shook his head, folded his hands, digested for a while, and did not tell his senior brother what happened just now.

But things didn't go in a good direction.

A few days later, the palace examination articles were printed and placed in various bookstores and teahouses in Fengxiang City for people to read.

I thought that this would eliminate those rumors, but the gossip from who knows where it came from still occupied the public opinion in Fengxiang City, and even some officials went to the public, please play a rearrangement.

Mr. Xie naturally refused, and threw the article to the ground with his hands, letting them read it by themselves, announcing the dismissal of the dynasty in displeasure.

Then Yijia paraded through the street, Song Jiao was on the second floor of the tea house, leaning on the railing, watching the two senior brothers wearing red clothes and riding white horses, walking down the long street.

There were not many people watching the ceremony on the long street, and many of them had strange expressions.There was a mother holding a child, and when Liu Yi passed by, she wanted the child to touch Liu Yi's sleeve, but before she could touch her, she was pulled back by others.

But Liu Yi and Jiang Ping looked at each other and smiled helplessly.

That Tanhua Lang Zhangmo also lowered his head all the way, looking very embarrassed.

Song Jiao was belated and hesitant. He encouraged Grandpa Xie to break the rules for many years.

Could it be that he was wrong?

But scientific examinations should be won by essays, so how can one judge age and appearance?Isn't that what Qingguo is like?Sometimes I can't find any good-looking ones, so I just pull in a well-written article as a candidate, and sometimes in order to make up for the candidate, I forcibly push the number one scholar to the back.

Is this right?

Song Jiao suddenly didn't understand.

A street parade came to an end like this. In the evening, there was a Qionglin Banquet for Jinshi. Mr. Xie and Prime Minister Song would also attend. They originally wanted to take Song Jiao with them, but Song Jiao didn't want to understand Before I did something wrong, I didn't really want to go out and have fun.

Master Xie rubbed his head and comforted him: "What's the matter? What's the matter? Because others gossip? I don't think Maomao did anything wrong. It's just that there are no established rules. If there are no established rules, it's nothing."

But Song Jiao still couldn't be happy, so Prime Minister Song asked him: "Maomao, do you want to re-rank now?"

"No." Song Jiao shook his head resolutely, "My principle of doing things is correct, and there is no need to rearrange. If I rearrange, wouldn't I wrong the two seniors?"

"Then why are you unhappy?"

"I thought I acted in accordance with principles, but it seems that many people are unhappy, and even implicated that innocent Tanhualang."

Prime Minister Song smiled: "Is he innocent?"

"Isn't he innocent?" Song Jiao raised his head, "He took the exam for so many years, and finally got into the first class, but because I asked him to be a Tanhualang, he was not young, and was discussed by a group of people. He was paraded in the street this morning He was also very unhappy."

"Then are you going to the Qionglin Banquet tonight?"

Song Jiao thought for a while: "I'll go and say congratulations to my two senior brothers and Tanhua, and then I'll come back."

"it is good."

The Qionglin banquet is in the palace, and the summer night breeze is cool, and the banquet is in the high pavilion.

Song Jiao followed Mr. Xie and Prime Minister Song, and the Jinshi saw the ceremony, and then took their seats.

Holding the wine glass, Song Jiao went to say "Congratulations" to the brothers and Tanhua Lang.

Song Jiao always felt a little guilty towards that Zhang Tanhua, but that Zhang Tanhua didn't care much, waved his hand, and just said "it's okay".

After finishing this matter, Song Jiao stayed for a while longer, and when the banquet was halfway through, he told the two grandpas that he was about to leave.

He still couldn't figure out why the palace test turned out like this.

He originally thought that when the article came out, everyone would be convinced, just like the last time when he came back from the Northwest and took the first place in the Imperial Academy. At first, everyone was not convinced, but after the article came out, everyone was convinced I understand.

From his point of view, the articles written by the two senior brothers are indeed better than Tanhua, why is it like this this time?Everyone thought that the two senior brothers relied on their relationship to...

Song Jiao walked downstairs alone, while Fan Kai led the others and followed at a distance.

Suddenly, he saw two people downstairs.

At this time, half of the banquet was over, Jinshi were more casual, and it was not unusual for some of them to go downstairs to get some fresh air.

It's just that Song Jiao looked at them, and the two seemed familiar.

One is Senior Brother Jiang Pingjiang, and the other...

Suddenly, there was a thunderous shout from upstairs.

"I want to report on Jiang Ping, the top candidate in the imperial examination, for working carefully for the Qing Dynasty and having an affair with the enemy country."

Song Jiao woke up like a dream, and looked at the two people downstairs, one was Jiang Ping, and the other was clearly Li Xu—Qing Guo's proton who stayed in Qi State, Li Xu.

Of course he believed in Jiang Ping, but now...

His mind was spinning quickly, he turned to Fan Kai and said, "Uncle Fan Kai, hurry up, go down and take Li Xu away."

"Yes." Fan Kai took the order and quickly went down.

But Song Jiao stood where he was, and in just a short moment, he wanted to understand many things.

It turned out that their target was Jiang Ping.

Over the years, Song Jiao trusted Jiang Ping's character, and knew that Jiang Ping and Qing Guo had a deep and endless hatred, so he couldn't be Qing Guo's spy.

But in this matter, there is really a secret work of celebrating the country.

So this time, the rumors in Fengxiang City are rampant, no matter what they can't be clarified, it's because someone is fueling the flames and spreading rumors behind the scenes.

Leading the people in Fengxiang City to wantonly slander the results of the palace examination, even biting the emperor and the Prime Minister of Song Dynasty, shaking the foundation of Qi State, making the literati worry about the fairness of the palace examination, and dare not come to Qi State again.

Even if you can't do all of the above, there is one thing that the black hand behind it will definitely be able to do.

Ruined Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping was originally the companion of Prince Qing, and his relationship with Qing was unclear anyway. The palace examination was unfair, and if Qing was given the title of meticulous work, he would surely die.

This is a poisonous plan.

Standing on the stairs, Song Jiao saw that Fan Kai had dragged Li Xu away downstairs, and heard Liu Yi fighting for Jiang Ping's arguments upstairs.

He quickly went downstairs, pulled Jiang Ping back, and looked at Li Xu in front of him.

He was crazy at first, and he didn't know when he would be well again.

Li Xu gritted his teeth, and looked at Jiang Ping with pity: "You want to be the second best in Qi State? You have a good idea, and you will never be an official in Qi State in your whole life!"