The first-class concubine of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 113 Good Article

After the imperial examination, the weather in Beijing is getting warmer and warmer.

The willows are green and the flowers are red, the world is full of excitement.

And as time went by, the scholars in the entire capital were nervous, and the people in the capital talked most about who could get the ranking and who might fail the ranking.

The day of release is getting closer.

In the afternoon of this day, Shen Yilun, the chief examiner, and several examiners entered Zhao Kuangyin's imperial study with a stack of examination papers. It’s not bad, and it’s very reasonable, if the Holy Majesty doesn’t have any problems after reading it, I’ll release the list later.”

Zhao Kuangyin nodded slightly, and then glanced at the test papers, each of which had its name blurred, so no one knew who the test paper belonged to.Zhao Kuangyin glanced roughly first, then frowned slightly: "Why are there so few?"

Shen Yilun didn't panic, and said: "Because it's a closed system, so I only look at the quality of the test results. Many of them are badly written, so I didn't consider them."

In fact, Shen Yilun also wanted to say that some candidates have knowledge, but because it is the first time that the system of ambiguous names, they are too nervous and did not perform well, but he is very clear that the reform of the imperial examination is supported by Zhao Kuangyin, so he dare not say that the system of ambiguous names Bad words about the system.

After Shen Yilun finished speaking, Zhao Kuangyin nodded in satisfaction: "This is the best, and only in this way can we achieve fairness and justice, and everything is based on grades." After speaking, Zhao Kuangyin read the candidates' articles one by one, because these articles are all Those that have been repeatedly reviewed by the examiner can be said to be high-quality goods, so Zhao Kuangyin was very satisfied when he looked at them, and nodded from time to time.

And sometimes when I see a particularly well-written article, I will hold the article and meditate, thinking about whether the policies for governing the country written in those articles are reasonable and so on.

After reading it like this, Zhao Kuangyin said: "Shen Aiqing, you have read it many times, so you think that among these examination papers, which candidate's essay is the best, and should be selected as the champion?"

Shen Yilun was a little hesitant, took out three papers from those examination papers, and said: "I feel that these three papers have their own merits, and they all have the talent of the champion, but I dare not decide who will be the champion."

Zhao Kuangyin glanced at the three articles Shen Yilun found, all of which he thought were good when he read them just now.

After nodding his head, Zhao Kuangyin smiled: "These three articles are indeed good. This time, the examination question on strategy theory is imperial generals. Among them, this article is the best one, and the other two articles are relatively difficult." It is rich and has a deeper understanding of imperial generals governing the country. It is thought-provoking to read, but this time the exam question is imperial generals, and these two examinees also involved the strategy of governing the country. It is inevitable that they are superfluous, what does Shen Aiqing think?"

Shen Yilun is not a minister who likes to cater to the emperor, so he said: "Your Majesty is right, but these two candidates must be all-round talents who can govern the country. From my point of view, they have... the talents of prime ministers .”

To govern a country, a prime minister must understand all aspects, that's why Shen Yilun said that.

Zhao Kuangyin naturally understood this, but he opposed the prime minister's monopoly, and because of this, he gradually divided the prime minister's power after the founding of the Song Dynasty.

"Shen Aiqing's words are reasonable, so it makes me feel embarrassed."

Faced with a good article, their rulers and ministers didn't know what to do. Which one was chosen as the champion, they all felt sorry for the other two.

At this time, Ludoxon who was standing aside said, "Your Majesty, it's actually not difficult to choose, as long as you know who wrote these three articles, and then consider their character, isn't it easy to choose?" ?" At this point, Lu Duoxun did not wait for Zhao Kuangyin to open his mouth, and continued: "I know that the Holy One is to ensure fairness, but now I only choose the champion among these three people, and assess character. It doesn't matter if you know the name. Weichen even feels that after the final good papers of the imperial examinations are finalized, the Holy Majesty should unpack them to see the names of the candidates, and then the Holy Majesty will decide who is the champion."

Lu Duoxun is a person who is good at catering. What he said will give Zhao Kuangyin a sense of superiority as an emperor, so it is difficult for Zhao Kuangyin to object. After hearing Lu Duoxun's words, Shen Yilun frowned slightly and said: " Your Majesty, since the seal is sealed, it is for the sake of justice, if it is unsealed rashly, where is the justice?"

"Master Shen, now we are only faced with these three articles that cannot be decided. The rest are not to be dismantled. Moreover, these people have already determined that they want to be promoted to Jinshi. The dismantling is just to point out the number one scholar."

Shen Yilun wanted to refute, but what Ludoxun said was more or less reasonable, so he had to keep silent in the end.

Seeing this, Zhao Kuangyin smiled slightly, and ordered someone to tear off the seals of the three examination papers.

After the three examination papers were opened, three names caught everyone's eyes: Lu Mengzheng, Zhang Qixian, and Zhao Chengxu.

When Zhao Kuangyin and the officials saw these three names, they couldn't help being stunned for a moment. Zhao Kuangyin and Shen Yilun were not familiar with Lu Mengzheng and Zhang Qixian, but they were very familiar with Zhao Chengxu.

That's the second son of the current prime minister, but how can he have such wisdom?
Zhao Kuangyin was already suspicious of Zhao Pu, but now that his son was ranked among the top three, he became even more suspicious about it. Shen Yilun is a smart man, seeing this situation, he quickly knelt down and said, "My lord, these examination papers are sealed. Yes, we didn't know that the Prime Minister's son's article was in it, so I ask the Holy One to enlighten me."

When Shen Yilun said this, Xue Juzheng, Song Qi, Lu Duoxun and others also knelt down and wrote, these papers were all selected by them, if there are any problems in them, they should be responsible.

Zhao Kuangyin knew a little about Zhao Pu's second son, Zhao Chengxu. After all, his son Zhao Defang had a good relationship with Zhao Chengxu. He could hear something from his own son, but according to what he knew before, Zhao Chengxu's talent was not so good. High is.

Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin's first suspicion was that Zhao Chengxu might have cheated during the exam. Although the imperial examination system has been reformed, cheating cannot be avoided. Then Zhao Chengxu is the son of the current prime minister. For sure, it's just this test question, so Zhao Chengxu shouldn't know about it?
Since the leak of the exam questions, Zhao Kuangyin has made protecting the exam questions the top priority. The person who wrote the questions is not allowed to leave the Gongyuan. He just wanted to know what the questions were, and he entered the Gongyuan alone. He believed that the entire university In the Song Dynasty, apart from the examiners who were imprisoned in the tribute courtyard, he was the only one who knew the examination questions of this year's imperial examination.

Things are weird and hard to explain.

But at this time, Lu Duoxun said: "Your Majesty, I dare not show partiality when reviewing the papers. If Your Majesty really has doubts, you might as well call Zhao Chengxu to ask."

Lu Duoxun was very angry at Zhao Pu for promoting Shen Yilun and making him fail to win the examiner. Now that he had such a good opportunity, he didn't want to let it go. He saw that Zhao Kuangyin had doubts about Zhao Chengxu, so he proposed to confront him face to face.

Zhao Kuangyin hesitated for a moment, then Zhao Chengxu is the second son of the current prime minister, if he has doubts about him, will Zhao Pu be dissatisfied?At this time, Zhao Kuangyin didn't want to make trouble with Zhao Pu. After all, in the past ten years, Zhao Pu had been kind to his Zhao family, and even more so to Zhao Kuangyin.

However, Zhao Kuangyin didn't hesitate for too long. The imperial examination was a major event, and even the prime minister's son couldn't do favoritism. Moreover, he also wanted to see Zhao Pu's attitude towards this matter.

"Come here, please invite Zhao Pu and Zhao Chengxu into the palace."
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When Zhao Pu and Zhao Chengxu entered the palace, they were very confused. Zhao Pu was the prime minister, and entering the palace was commonplace for him, but Zhao Chengxu was different. He had no fame, and it was impossible for him to enter the palace unless there were special circumstances.

During this period of time, the imperial examinations were very troublesome. Zhao Pu thought of this, but he knew his son very well. They enter the palace?
On the way into the palace, Zhao Pu looked at Zhao Chengxu and asked, "Did you have any abnormalities during the imperial examination?"

Zhao Pu was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head again and again: "There is nothing unusual."

Zhao Pu nodded, thinking that as long as his son did nothing wrong, then everything would be fine.

Thinking like this, he soon entered the emperor's study room.

When the two came in, Shen Yilun, Xue Juzheng and others were still there, which made Zhao Pu's heart sink, and he also felt that he had predicted the point.

After the two saluted and stood aside, Zhao Kuangyin took out Zhao Chengxu's article and asked, "Chengxu, is this your article?"

Zhao Chengxu was taken aback for a moment, stepped forward to take it, glanced at it, and nodded: "The words of Hui Sheng belonged to Cao Min."

Hearing Zhao Chengxu's admission, Zhao Kuangyin didn't show any fluctuations in expression, he only glanced at Zhao Pu, and said, "Zeping, please read your son's article."

Zhao Pu murmured in his heart that he was not very optimistic about his son's essays, so after the imperial examination, he only asked about some poems, prose and ink meanings, but he didn't ask about policy essays.

Now that the emperor let him read the policy theory article, could it be that his son's article wrote some taboo words?
Zhao Pu took the article handed over by Zhao Kuangyin tremblingly, and then read it carefully from the first word, for fear of missing a word. When he finished reading the first paragraph, Zhao Pu couldn't help being taken aback, and then went on Look, the more he watched, the more surprised and suspicious he became, and after watching it, he finally understood why the emperor asked them to enter the palace.

It turned out that the article written by my son was so good, but this article was so good that it was a little abnormal.

Zhao Pu naturally hoped that his son would be well-educated, but he knew too well how much his son weighed like a father, so after reading the article, he immediately glared at Zhao Chengxu.

(End of this chapter)