Chapter 197 Huiyuan
Afterwards, several people carried the unconscious Zhou Hong out of Liuyuan to seek medical treatment.

A dozen students, Zhang Yuyan and others also left the Liuyuan Garden without saying goodbye to their hosts.

Of course, I didn’t eat here either.

Chang'an and his uncle sent the frightened Zhang Yuyan and Liu Shan back to their house, and then they returned home together.

Lu Jingzhou also returned to his residence. After tinkering in the house for a long time, he took out a few pieces of paper and handed them to Feng Shan: "Teach this children's song to the children in the city. Whoever learns it will give five cents."

"There is also this story. Give it to the storyteller from Wa City. You will be given one tael of silver per performance. There is no cap on the amount."

In other words, as long as the storyteller sings every day, give him money every day.

Feng Shan agreed, picked up the paper, and began to dress up. He put a white beard on himself, put on inconspicuous clothes, and walked to Wa City.

Within a few days, a nursery rhyme began to circulate in the market: The imperial censor of Zhou Dynasty was hidden in Jingli, gold was used to make bricks, jade was used to make beds, and golden pythons were buried in family ancestral halls.

Later, another story was circulated in teahouses and booksellers in the market, telling that a relative of the emperor took the emperor to order the princes, and then he ascended the throne as emperor.

At first people didn't pay much attention to it, but when the list was about to be released in April, several courtiers submitted memorials, impeaching Zhou Yushi for abusing his power and framing good ministers.

They also dug out all the cases heard by Zhou Yushi in the past twenty years, and each case was accompanied by a list of bribes he collected.

These lists also indicate the name and place of origin of the briber.

The emperor was furious, and immediately stripped off the imperial robes of Zhoucheng Mansion and detained him. He ordered Dali Temple to interrogate him and selected several ministers to participate in the trial.

Within two days, the Royal Forest Army dug out a cellar from the Zhou family ancestral hall. There were boxes of gold and silver jewelry in the cellar. One of the boxes contained a dragon robe embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon.

When the minister of Dali Temple presented the dragon robe to the emperor, the emperor was furious and immediately ordered dozens of members of Zhou Yushi's family to be imprisoned, awaiting trial.

Even Zhou Yushi's cousin Zhou Guifei was also implicated. The prince she gave birth to was only one year younger than the prince, and was rejected by the emperor because of this incident.

On April 2, thousands of candidates gathered in Zhongshu Province to look at the results.

They were riding horses and leading donkeys, or in small groups.

The wall where the announcements are posted is more than one foot high and six feet long, with eaves above it. When the drum sounds in the early morning, the clerk will post the announcements on it.

Lanterns are hung in front of the wall and guarded by government officials with swords.

There were not many people looking at the list at this time, but there were also quite a few. People looked over slowly like a revolving lantern. If they found their own or family members' names, they immediately jumped up with joy.

Song Sanshun and Feng Shan also came to check and saw that Lu Jingzhou's name was actually Huiyuan.

Wu Zhonglou also won. He ranked 125th, which is not bad.

A total of 300 Gongsheng students were admitted this time. Even if these admitted candidates were ranked at the bottom in the palace examination, they would still be of the same background as Jinshi and would not be eliminated.

In other words, Wu Zhonglou is now a full-fledged Jinshi, and at worst he will be released as a seventh-grade county magistrate.

Song Sanshun was so happy that he hurried home and told his wife and brother-in-law: "I'm so happy! He won the Chonglou, number 125!"

"Oh! It's really the ancestor of the Sanqing Dynasty who has blessed me!" Mrs. Wu bowed her hands in the air again and again, smiling so hard that she couldn't even see her teeth.

Song Sanshun said again: "Master Lu also won, he is the first place!"

"Ah? Really." Wu and Wu Zhonglou were both happy for Lu Jingzhou: "Oh, maybe Mr. Lu really wins the number one prize."

Song Sanshun smiled and said: "A person as smart as him must be the number one scholar."

"Hey, let's prepare the red envelope quickly. Maybe there will be a newspaper at dawn to announce the good news." Mrs. Wu hurriedly ran to wrap the red envelope.

In order to prevent waves of newspapers from coming to her door, she prepared a few more copies, each containing two taels of silver.

Mrs. Jiang is also putting away the dishes in the kitchen, which she bought yesterday, just to prepare for today's banquet.

It was still dark at this time, and Chang An and his sister were soundly asleep. They didn't wake up until firecrackers exploded outside the yard.

When I opened the window and looked outside, I saw many people coming into the yard.

There were newspapers wrapped in red silk, and there were many people I didn’t know. They were neatly dressed, handed Wu Zhonglou a greeting card, and invited him to their house.

Chang'an was curious, so he put on his clothes and got down from the kang. After washing himself with the water Xiaoju brought him, he ran out to see the strange things.

"Uncle, show me which house invited you as a guest?" She craned her neck to look at the invitation in Wu Zhonglou's hand.

Wu Zhonglou handed it to her with a smile and said helplessly: "I don't recognize any of them."

There were more than twenty of these invitations from officials of fifth, sixth and seventh rank, as well as merchants. Naturally, Wu Zhonglou would not go to the banquet one by one.

Then I have to filter it out.

Chang'an took the initiative to take on this arduous task because she knew that most of them wanted to be defeated.

She copied the names and family backgrounds of the owners of these posts on a piece of paper, and when sister Yuyan came over, she asked her about the situation.

Because Sister Yuyan went out to dinner with her mother when she was seven years old, everyone in the capital knew her by name.

Throughout the next day, people came to congratulate her from time to time, but Jiang and Wu who received the guests were exhausted.

Song Sanshun and Wu Zhonglou were also very tired, because they left all the male guests.

After finally waiting until sunset, Haitang Garden finally became quiet, and Chang An had more than a dozen invitations in front of him.

In the early morning of April 21st, three hundred Gongsheng students were dressed neatly and went to the Fengtian Palace in the imperial city to participate in the palace examination.

This time they do not need to bring a test basket, nor pens, ink, paper, and inkstones. The palace will provide everything for the test.

The candidates lined up to enter the imperial city and outside the Fengtian Hall.

After dawn, buckets of porridge and baskets of steamed buns were brought from the imperial kitchen. Each of the Gongsheng students had a bowl of porridge and two steamed buns.

The side dishes are pickles, served on a large plate, with only one plate placed on each table.

The courtiers also ate from the food provided, and the food varied according to their rank.

Some have meat and eggs, and some have porridge and two steamed buns just like the Gongsheng students.

When eating, those with lower rankings didn't even have seats, so they just sat on the steps with their bowls in hand to eat.

After the meal, the eunuchs also prepared tables, benches, pens, inks, paper and inkstones for the examination, and lined them up in the open space outside the Tai Chi Hall.

The candidates took their seats one after another, waiting for the emperor to come and give the questions.

The palace examination only lasts for one day. After the exam is completed, the marking officer will open the box and mark the papers on the spot.

The test papers were spread out on a long table. Eight marking officers reviewed the papers at the same time, and then used five symbols to determine the quality. The test paper with a much superior score also had the highest score.

Finally, the top ten test papers were handed over to the emperor for personal selection. The emperor selected one, two, and three from them, that is, number one, number two, and third overall, as the first grade, and awarded the title of Jinshi.

The rest are divided into the second and third grades according to their grades. The second grade is awarded to those with Jinshi background, and the third grade is awarded to those with the same Jinshi background.

When the emperor saw the test paper of Lu Jingzhou, who had the most honors, he was surprised to find that he was only fifteen years old.

I also saw that he had unique opinions on policy and theory, as if he had been in official circles for a long time, and I was even more impressed by him.

The emperor thought for a long time, and considering that Lu Jingzhou was still young, he selected him as the second choice, and selected a talented man who was nearly thirty years old as the top candidate.

Later, a roll call official announced the rankings at the entrance of the hall and gave the Jinshi uniforms to wear.

The robes of the top three are different from the rest, especially the robe of the number one scholar, which is a bright red dress.

When Lu Jingzhou heard about his ranking, he was not surprised at all.

In his previous life, when he was seventeen years old, he was on the list and also ranked second. Hearing it again in this life felt like going back to the past.

But this life is different.

Maybe he and Changan will have a different future.


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