King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 802 Wang Pei'an's Question
After Ying'er finished speaking, she saw that Baochai was unmoved, which made her feel very aggrieved.

This may seem like "the emperor is not anxious, but the eunuchs are", but the most essential problem is that most of the servants in Kunning Palace, including Ying'er, share the same honor and disgrace with the Queen Baochai.

Therefore, once there are signs that are unfavorable to Baochai, these people will spontaneously pay attention to it.

Of course, to be popular, one needs superb skills, and Baochai can naturally achieve this.

"My queen, is there anyone down there saying that the fourth master is a good omen for your majesty to be crowned the crown prince? Can you..."

Baochai was originally resting on the couch. Upon hearing this, she immediately opened her eyes and made Ying'er shut up with just one glance.

"How many times have I told you? Don't pay attention to these gossips, and don't keep staring at Yaohua Palace. You have ignored my words!"

"My lady, we are worried about you too!"

"Anxious? What's the hurry? Is there any need for you to be anxious about my affairs?"

Then Baochai adjusted her attitude and said calmly: "Everyone should do your own thing and don't cause trouble for me. That will be considered as the fulfillment of loyalty!"

He touched his belly and knew that this would be the first child after the emperor ascended the throne, which could be called an auspicious sign to a certain extent.

If the baby is a son, it would be even more extraordinary.

But Baochai thought that she had already given birth to two sons, and if she had another son, wouldn't it be the same as the previous generation?

"Pass my message on. From now on, no more discussion of Yaohua Palace is allowed. Anyone who violates the rules... will be beaten to death!"

"Yes!" Ying'er replied helplessly.

In fact, Baochai also knew that the effect of her words would not last more than half a year, and then someone would start to worry about her again.

Those who worry about her are often the ones who are most loyal to her, which makes it difficult for her to deal with them too harshly, otherwise it will damage the enthusiasm of those below her.

How to strike a balance and how to maintain the servants around her is a very demanding matter, and this is only a small part of the queen's duties.

Therefore, it is not easy to sit comfortably in the Kunning Palace.

After Ying'er left, Baochai sighed.

It is impossible to say that she has no worries at all. After all, anything is possible before things are settled.

But Baochai also believes that Daiyu will not compete with her, and Zhu Jinghong is unlikely to bypass the legitimate son. After all, the inheritance of the Ming Dynasty is already chaotic enough.

Of course, she could only think about these in her mind, and she would never ask about the matter of establishing a crown prince.

Therefore, what she can do now is not to let her imagination run wild here, but to make her sons successful as much as possible. This is the upright way.

"It's just a mediocre person worrying about his own troubles!" Baochai laughed.

At this moment, she couldn't help but think that compared to her deceased mother-in-law, her own mind and tolerance were indeed far behind.

"Speaking of open-mindedness... In the second half of this year, after I give birth to my child, I will select a beauty for Your Majesty!"

The selection of concubines could not only show her magnanimity as a queen, but also be used to "dilute" the favor of the harem. It was a perfect benefit to her with no harm at all.

In the blink of an eye, a few more days had passed and there were only two days left until the imperial examination on February 9th. All the chief and deputy examiners had been determined, and the questions for the three examinations had also been finalized.

Among them, the question that Zhu Jinghong attached the most importance to was set by him himself, and the content was how he viewed the current land survey of the imperial court.

This imperial examination was of extraordinary significance to Zhu Jinghong. He had to select typical examples from them to make a good start for the Qiansheng Dynasty.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Jinghong arrived at Shanglinyuan, where a mixed army was waiting for him to inspect.

This army had a total of 5,000 people, who were selected from the Imperial Guard and the Beijing Camp. They were specifically designed to serve as the "number army" during the imperial examinations, that is, the invigilators in each examination compartment.

Now that he has become the emperor, Zhu Jinghong is either busy with paperwork or meeting with officials and ministers every day. He has few opportunities to have direct contact with the army.

Although he had a strong control over the army, he still felt that meeting them from time to time would help consolidate his prestige.

As a person standing at the pinnacle of power, he has inevitably suffered from the fear of losing power.

When meeting with the army, there is always a military parade and a speech. After all this, the soldiers were all excited and swore in their hearts that they must follow the emperor's instructions and serve as good invigilators of this exam.

After the speech, Zhu Jinghong returned to the palace with a group of generals and held a closed-door meeting in the Hongde Hall.

The generals who participated in the meeting were all of high rank. In addition to the bigwigs of the Five Military Governor's Office, there were also the commanders of the imperial guards in Beijing, the generals and deputy generals of the various camps in the Beijing camp, and the commanders of various guards. These people were the powerful ones in the army.

The content of this meeting was very simple. It mainly analyzed the current security situation in all directions of the Ming Dynasty from a military perspective and made response deployments according to needs.

The discussion lasted for a full hour, and ultimately three conclusions were reached.

First, we must pay attention to the South China Sea to guard against another invasion by the Western barbarians; second, the southwest is still unstable, and timely intervention is required if chaos occurs; third, there are still bandits and rebellions in Korea and Japan in the northeast, so we must focus on guarding against them.

In general, the current situation around the Ming Dynasty is relatively stable, but some key areas need attention.

After the meeting, Zhu Jinghong ordered a banquet to be held in Wuying Hall so that he could have fun with all the generals.

In a blink of an eye, another two days passed, and the first imperial examination of the Qiansheng era began. Feng Yuan, a middle-aged candidate who had failed the exam several times, once again stepped into the examination room.

The first examination will be on February 9th, and the second and third examinations will be on the 12th and 15th.

The seven days in total passed in a flash for Zhu Jinghong, but were extremely difficult for the other candidates.

As time went by, when the imperial examination was being held, most of the topics in the capital were about the examination. Students would start communicating as soon as they came out of the examination room, and even when they returned to their residences, they would chat with their roommates.

Feng Yuan is no exception, but compared to others, he is somewhat calmer.

In this imperial examination, he chose to take an unconventional approach and expressed his support for the court's new policies in a straightforward and radical manner. At the same time, he discussed the various benefits of the court's implementation of the new policies from the two perspectives of common people and the court's major plans.

After finishing the last exam, Feng Yuan returned to his residence to wait for news. He was prepared to fail.

The candidates were relieved after the exam, but the chief and deputy examiners had to be busy. It was definitely a very tiring task to read through the answers of nearly 4,500 people.

First, it took four days to complete the copying and sealing. At this step, those answers that did not pass the test or did not pay attention to taboos were eliminated directly.

In every scientific expedition, there are always people who make low-level mistakes, which is really strange.

After the test paper is copied, it will be distributed, that is, sent to the examiners for review. This step is done by drawing lots under the supervision of the chief examiner and co-examiners, so the examiners do not know whose paper they are marking.

The examiners will recommend the papers they like after the initial reading to the fellow examiners. These papers are called "recommended papers."

The co-examiner, also known as the deputy chief examiner, will write a "pass" on the test paper he likes. The paper with the "pass" mark will then be sent to the chief examiner. If the chief examiner also likes it, he will write a "pass" on the test paper.

Some examiners with a strong sense of responsibility will randomly check the "failed papers" that did not pass the exam. The chief examiner also has the power to review the recommended papers that were not "taken" by the deputy chief examiner for re-examination.

For example, one of the chief examiners this time, the Chief Censor Wang Pei'an, was much busier than others. He specifically looked for "dropped papers" from various places to check.

Feng Yuan's unconventional approach resulted in him being eliminated this time, without even the chance to be examined by a fellow examiner. This was basically the same treatment he received in previous imperial examinations.

Generally speaking, compared to those candidates who started school early and studied hard, Feng Yuan did not start to work hard until he was nearly 20 years old, so his foundation was indeed much worse. But this time he was lucky, and his paper was opened by Wang Pei'an.

After reading Feng Yuan's answer sheet, Wang Pei'an asked the examiner, "This answer sheet is clearly organized, well-narrated, and well-prepared. Why don't you accept it?"

The examiner was an editor of the Imperial Academy, who was also a leader in the previous imperial examination. After reading Feng Yuan's answer, he replied: "Your Excellency, this person's literary talent is shallow. Just look at the beginning of his essay and you will know that his knowledge..."

The examiner was very afraid of Wang Pei'an, but at the same time he felt a little superior. After all, he was a Hanlin Academy student, while Wang Pei'an was just a juren.

As he was talking, Wang Pei'an's eyes were already filled with anger, and he then scolded him, "So you only read the beginning of the document and didn't read the rest... and you dismissed this person?"

The editor of the Hanlin Academy was so shocked by Wang Pei'an's angry questioning that he was speechless.

"This text is unclear in its meaning, and its discussion of the matter is not..."

"I asked you if you dismissed this person just by reading the beginning?" Wang Pei'an asked again.

Of course it is like that, but can you admit it? Of course not.

According to regulations, as long as there are no errors in the text format, the examiner should read the entire essay. The act of disqualifying a candidate by only reading the beginning is, of course, a violation of the law.

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Of course, there are many examiners who do this. After all, it is true that for many articles, one can basically determine the level of the article just by reading the beginning.

So no one has ever been bothered by this matter, but who would have thought that Wang Pei'an would be encountered today.

Wang Pei'an was indeed upright, but he also knew when to stop. Seeing that he had shocked the man in front of him, he continued, "This volume is written in a simple style, the things it talks about are incisive, and its views on current politics are novel. Why can't it be selected?"

This was considered as a way to give the examiner a way out. If this person was not tactful, Wang Peian would not have let it go easily.

The examiner naturally understood the deeper meaning of this. He knew that Wang Pei'an was capable of doing something that would go against the will of the world, so he had no choice but to compromise.

"Mr. Wang, can you please allow me to review it again?"

"Take it and look carefully!"

So this person had to look at it again, and finally put the answer sheet in the "recommended papers" section, and then the answer sheet would be sent to the same examiner.

Normally, the successful test papers will be handed over to several chief examiners only after the co-examiners have reviewed them.

But as the chief examiner, Wang Pei'an could directly take the answer sheets and review them together with several examiners, so he did not hesitate to use his power.

He looked at a lot of test papers today. Even among those that failed, there were many with brilliant writing skills, but Wang Pei'an did not bring them up.

This is because the papers he read basically did not mention the sufferings of the people, and even if they did, they were just general discussions. Only Feng Yuan's article had a detailed discussion.

After getting the test paper, Wang Pei'an first found Zhao Yushan, the most important examiner.

Feng Yuan said a lot of good things about the new policies in his volume, and he did have some profound insights, but his literary talent was indeed lacking, and in Zhao Yushan's opinion, it still needed to be honed.

But Wang Pei'an believed that this person lamented the hardships of people's lives and pointed out the benefits of the new policies to the common people. Although his writing was not very good, its merits outweighed its flaws.

In other words, Wang Pei'an advocated that this person be selected. After careful consideration, Zhao Yushan did not respond immediately, but instead invited the other two examiners over.

The other two chief examiners were Grand Secretary Ye Bingwei and Minister of Personnel Zheng Xianlin.

While Ye Bingwei was still reading the article carefully, Zheng Xianlin had already supported Wang Pei'an's opinion, which was considered a gesture of goodwill towards Wang Pei'an.

Seeing Zhao Yushan's ambiguous attitude, Ye Bingwei stopped talking and agreed with Wang Pei'an's opinion.

Finally, the four examiners reached a consensus and Feng Yuan's answer sheet was placed in the high school column.

In the blink of an eye, another seven or eight days have passed, and it is February 25th, the day when the results will be announced.

Feng Yuan was not in a hurry, but his fellow villagers had already called each other to go and see the list together, so Feng Yuan had no choice but to follow them.

The results of the imperial examination were announced outside the Daming Gate. Most of the candidates arrived early, both old and young, and were accompanied by servants.

Although the Tianjie outside Daming Gate is wide, with thousands of people gathered here, the place still seems crowded.

In order to make it easier for the candidates to read the list, two lists were set up on the left and right sides of Tianjie, so the scene was surrounded by four cores.

"Master Song Ziyu of Jinling, the top scorer in the imperial examination... the top scorer in the imperial examination!"

As soon as they arrived at the scene, Feng Yuan and others heard this sentence, and then all the scholars in Jinling cheered.

Song Ziyu was originally the first place winner in the Jinling County Examination, and now he has won the first place in the Imperial Examination. It seems that he is already in sight of getting the first place.

If he succeeds in the palace examination and becomes the top scorer, he will be the first person in this dynasty to pass the top three places, or to be more precise, the first person to pass the top six places. This is an extraordinary auspicious sign.

More than 340 years have passed since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. There have been only two people who have won the third place in the imperial examination. Winning the sixth place in the imperial examination is unprecedented.

Therefore, it is normal for people in Jinling to feel proud of it.

Feng Yuan was of course happy for his friend, but at the moment he was more concerned about whether he had passed the exam, so he urged his fellow townsman to go and check the list.

The others were in a similar mood as him, and after cheering, they became more concerned about themselves, so they all rushed to the leaderboard.

Song Ziyu, who won the top prize in the high school entrance examination, did not go with them this time. After all, a capable man like him would naturally send someone to check it out, which would be considered impressive.

Let’s talk about Feng Yuan and his group. They finally squeezed to the front of the list and saw that the first place was Jinling Song Ziyu. Then they began to look for their own names.

As Feng Yuan continued to watch, he became more and more disheartened, and in the end he didn't even want to watch it anymore.

And around him, there were mostly dejected voices.

There were more than 4,500 candidates who took part in the imperial examination, but only 350 were admitted, so the majority of them failed.

"Brother Feng, you got it!"

Hearing his companion's exclamation, Feng Yuan simply responded blankly: "Ah?"

"Brother Feng, you got it!"

Feng Yuan smiled and then replied, "It's more like being possessed by an evil spirit!"

He had been fooled many times in previous scientific expeditions, so he didn't believe it at all.

At this time, someone else said, "You really won. If you don't believe me, look for yourself. Who is that in the third row from the bottom?"

Two people said this in a row, and their tone was anxious and unwilling. Feng Yuan looked over with half belief and half doubt.

Then, he was petrified because he saw his hometown and name.

"I...actually won!" Feng Yuan couldn't believe it.

(End of this chapter)