New Shun 1730

Until July, Tian Ping never came to see him again, probably because he knew Liu Yu was busy reviewing and would not disturb him before the big exam.

It was not until the first day of July that Tian Ping came to give him a gift.

The gift was quite auspicious, a set of expensive bionic porcelain.

A lifelike large porcelain crab with two reed sticks clamped in its claws, which meant "Second Class Chuanlu", the homonym of two reed sticks clamped in the claws.

He did not say anything else, not to mention passing on a single sentence.

He only told Liu Yu to take the exam well, and left in a hurry without even staying for a glass of wine.

The exam started on July 23, and was divided into the first test and the second test.

The first test was all objective content, including shooting, geometry, horse riding, stone lifting, mathematics, astronomy, and geography. The difficulty was much more difficult than the summer exam in the inner house. At least the geometry had already tested solid geometry, and the astronomy had tested the precession of the equinoxes.

Three days of examination, three days of grading, only about a hundred people took the exam, and the content was very objective, without any fake or subjective influence.

On the first day of August, it was the re-examination.

After the grading, Liu Yu was still the first in these objective contents without any surprise.

He was a little bit behind in lifting stones, but the other subjects were too far behind, and the others could not catch up.

The truly meaningful exam was the palace examination policy essay presided over by the emperor himself.

The palace examination was held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. At this point, the management was relatively loose.

First, the emperor might be present, and cheating was tantamount to committing suicide.

Second, there was no point in cheating on the policy essay if you didn't know the questions in advance.

There were so many history books, and Dashun also tested various schools of thought, astronomy and geography, and no one knew what questions would be asked.

You can smoke during the palace examination, but you can't drink or eat, and of course it's best not to smoke.

You can bring refreshing snuff, but the premise is that you don't sneeze in front of the emperor after you have a good time.

Those who take the exam can carry their own small table.

The tables in the palace are very awkward. For the sake of retro, they all choose table tables. You have to kneel like the ancient scholars.

However, since the Tang Dynasty, Hu stool tables have been popular. The retro table tables made for etiquette are not suitable for everyone.

If you don't mind the fatigue, you can carry the table yourself, from the gate of the Forbidden City all the way to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Anyway, the people selected by the Wude Palace must be martial arts-oriented. If you can't even carry the table, you don't have to participate.

According to the ranking of the previous preliminary exam, wait outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The best preliminary exam results will go in first, choose the best position to put down the table. Since the weather in August is not warm, the palace will also prepare some heaters, but they are all placed in specific positions. Whoever has a good preliminary exam score can grab the warmest and best-lit place.

At dawn, Liu Yu carried the table and followed a group of people, and came to the outside of the Hall of Supreme Harmony under the guidance of the female officials and eunuchs.

The middle steps are not allowed, but the left steps are allowed.

After going through the roll call, saluting, kneeling, etc., they entered the hall one by one according to the ranking of the previous preliminary examination and chose their own seats.

Those who came with their own desks unfolded the desks.

Those who did not carry their desks had the eunuchs arrange the awkward low desks in the Spring and Autumn style.

After arranging the desks, they waited for the emperor to come. After kneeling, the examination took too long and the emperor could not keep watching. After a few words of encouragement, he left.

The person who presided over the examination on site was Duke Ying, Left Prime Minister, and General Zhang Muzhi.

His ancestor was General Zhang Neng of the Left Guoyi of the rear camp of Emperor Taizong Li Guo. He followed Li Guo and Gao Yigong to resist Ajige in Yan'an and Yulin, and retreated unscathed after the defeat of the Battle of Tongguan.

As the Western and Route Army of Dashun, they fought thousands of miles, climbed snow-capped mountains and crossed grasslands, and arrived in Hubei from Shaanxi, and then fought the whole game.

The most direct lineage among the direct lines. It just so happened that the Duke of Ying of the previous dynasty also had the surname Zhang. Perhaps it was out of some bad taste, or perhaps it was a kind of orthodox self-mockery that a nephew robbed his cousin. Anyway, the lineage of Zhang Neng was also named Duke of Ying.

Like the Dukes of Yi, Xiang, and Jing, it was slightly higher than the ancient Spring and Autumn period titles such as Duke of Qi: this was because the old nobles of Dashun had listened to too many storytelling and opera scripts, and each of them felt that this kind of exaggerated title was a little higher than the ancient Spring and Autumn period title, and it was similar to the blue water virtue...

Adding the title of Quan Jiangjun meant that he had no military power. Duke of Ying, Zhang Muzhi, was Liu Yu's grandfather. Since he was in charge of the exam, Liu Yu had to kneel down to take the test paper from Duke of Ying and then open it on the table.

When the test paper was opened, the format also showed some historical problems left over from Dashun.

There were too many complaints.

By the will of Heaven

The Emperor said: I have received the mandate of heaven and ascended the throne for nine years.

Thanks to the martial virtue of Taizu, the literary talent of Taizong, the Zen doctrine of Sejong, and the filial piety of Gaozong, the government has been harmonious, the four directions are peaceful, and the territory has been expanded to the north, which has made some small contributions to the ancestors.

I study the classics day and night, and I dare not relax. I want to protect the country, comfort the people, and subdue the four barbarians.

Therefore, I seek from the classics and history to explore the source of governance and chaos; seek from the hundreds of schools of thought to understand the mechanism of the universe; seek from the military to obtain the strategy of control; seek from astronomy to understand the changes of wind and clouds; seek from geography to know the key to danger and ease; seek from geometry to determine the distance; seek from the weight to understand the finance and taxation.

Many of you have come from the army, studied in the Wude Palace, and studied in the present world. Now I am here to issue the policy, please listen to my words respectfully. The study of the prosperity of the country is based on history first, such as "Tongjian", "Taishiji", "Hanshu" and "Tangshu".

In the past, Emperor Wu of Han expanded to the west, attacked the Xiongnu in the north, opened up the Western Regions, and used troops in Dayuan several times. Some people said that he blamed himself for reducing the population by half, but throughout the Han Dynasty, there was no bloody incident in the Nine Provinces. Later, it was said that countries always perished because of weakness, but the Han Dynasty perished because of strength.

After the opening of the Western Regions, grapes, pomegranates, alfalfa, etc. were obtained, and there were also good horses from Dayuan. Through trade with countries such as Daxia, we exchanged what we had and what we needed, and then we knew that there was still a country in the far west.

After the fall of the Han Dynasty, there were the Three Kingdoms, the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, the Eight Kings, and the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang, Di and other barbarians took the opportunity to rebel and even crossed the South.

After the Sui Dynasty, the Li Tang Dynasty rose and established its capital in Chang'an. The Western Regions were opened again, and Beiting and Anxi were the protectorates to protect the Xia. Hu merchants traveled back and forth and lived in the market. Gems and pepper filled the market, and all countries came to pay tribute.

After the An-Shi disaster, Tubo rebelled again, and the Western Regions were cut off. The Guiyi Army was left alone and could not see the king's army.

Since then, the Western Regions have not heard the Han Dynasty for 700 years.

As for the Song Dynasty, it did not communicate with the Western Regions. There was the Shanyuan Alliance, the Jingkang Shame, and the Yashan Hatred. The Mongols were destroyed, the Ming Dynasty rose, and Hami was abandoned. The Western Regions were never visited again, and the disaster of the Eastern Tartars finally came.

It is not about the words of prophecy and divination. Does the existence of the Western Regions have anything to do with the fate of the country?

The Han Dynasty opened up the Western Regions and exerted its strength to the Wusun; the Tang Dynasty opened up the West and shocked the Arabs. Now the Zunghars are coiled in the Pamir Mountains and lying in Qiuci. They have the danger of yellow sand, fertile water and grass, and control the island of farming. They have never been to the court. Their power is growing day by day. If they are attacked by soldiers, how can they not win?

After reading the topic of the historical essay, Liu Yu was overjoyed.

The books that the emperor gave me at the beginning were indeed "selected" by the emperor. The topic of this historical essay was indeed about the Western Regions.

I had prepared it long ago. Kang Budai's writing style was grand and flamboyant, with more than 5,000 words. I just needed to recite it silently and copy it once.

However, Liu Yu could only say that there were too many complaints about the topic of the palace examination.

If it were a normal dynasty, after Fengtian Chengyun, there would be no need to add too many "thank you lists", at most it would be traced back to Taizu.

However, the power transfer of Dashun was too strange. After Li Zicheng's death, it was his nephew Li Guo, and after Li Guo it was Gao Yigong, and after Gao Yigong it was Li Laiheng.

Except for the blood relationship between Li Zicheng and Li Guo, the rest had nothing to do with blood relationship.

There were comrades-in-arms and adopted sons, and even the surname was changed once in the middle, so the thank you list should be traced back to Li Laiheng, otherwise it would be ungrateful.

And the following question stems further highlighted the ideology of Dashun.

Both Han and Tang dynasties perished.

But no matter what, the former Han dynasty perished at the hands of the Green Forest and Red Eyebrows; the latter Han dynasty perished at the hands of the Yellow Turbans.

Although Tang dynasty perished at the hands of the vassal states, it actually originated from the Huang Chao uprising.

The ideology of Dashun is very clear, which implicitly means that Dashun can perish, but it must perish from within, not from without.

So they listed Han and Tang dynasties, praised them greatly, and then began to insult those who had not taken the Western Regions.

Han and Tang dynasties were not so glorious, and each had its own problems.

The power of foreign relatives, the disorderly politics of generals, the disaster of vassal states, the grabbing of merits by frontier generals, and so on.

But under the ideology left over from the end of the Ming Dynasty, these were not problems.

It even vaguely expressed an attitude: perishing from within means that the meat was rotten in the pot. Today's historical theory is not to discuss the faults of Han and Tang dynasties, but only to discuss why Han and Tang dynasties did not perish from without.

According to the explanation, it perished at the hands of Dashun, and it was not Dorgon but Li Zicheng who forced Chongzhen to death.

But what happened at the end of the Ming Dynasty... Dashun claimed that the difficulties in founding the country were unprecedented. In fact, in the official view of Dashun, the end of the Ming Dynasty was almost over, so it was put on a par with the Song Dynasty - there was no Western Regions.

Although it is said that it does not seek prophecies, divination and other irrelevant things, Dashun still has to ask, why did the dynasties that obtained the Western Regions generally perish internally, while the dynasties that did not obtain the Western Regions generally perished externally?

Is there any connection between them?

Of course there is a connection, but the relationship is the opposite. Only by conquering the world can you obtain the Western Regions, not by conquering the world.

As a topic for policy essays, it must be argued.

It is also testing the examinees' overall view and logical thinking ability: Is the horse a white horse, or is the white horse a horse.

Later, it said that now it is preparing to occupy the Western Regions, which is located at the intersection of the east and the west, with grasslands, farmland, and the obstruction of yellow sand logistics. If you want to conquer the Junggar, can you win?

This seems to be asking the candidates whether they have a chance of winning, or to give a strategy for using troops, but in fact it is two questions.

First: the difference between the Junggar and the Khalkha Mongols, why is the Junggar so strong, while the Khalkha Mongols have become so messed up? The difference lies in whether there is arable land. A simple grassland tribe is already finished these days. A powerful nomadic force must have farming, city building, and handicrafts at this time.

This is to prove that we must do it, otherwise it will definitely become stronger and stronger.

Second: If we want to do it, it has the danger of yellow sand, how to solve the logistics problem?

Candidates, please praise me for my wisdom and bravery, and for overcoming all objections to solve the Khalkha problem, so that the troops can take another route, not just along the Hexi Corridor.

This praise is the "critical" point.

Or, the point of scoring.

After the praise, you can continue to write down with your imagination.