"Jia Xiuzheng, Kaifeng County, Kaifeng Prefecture, entered the palace for an interview!"

......

"Cao Xun, Kaifeng County, Kaifeng Prefecture, entered the palace for an interview!"

......

There were fewer and fewer scholars waiting in the rest room, and they did not come back after attending the interview. At this time, only Li Yanqing was left in the rest room. He sat silently in the room waiting. He knew that there was a reason why the emperor put himself in the last interview.

At this time, a eunuch walked to the door and shouted: "Li Yanqing, Tangyin County, Xiangzhou, entered the palace for an interview!"

Li Yanqing stood up, tidyed up his clothes, and followed the eunuch to the side hall. The light in the side hall was slightly dim. Emperor Zhao Ji sat high on the dragon throne, just in the dark, and could not see his appearance clearly. On both sides were more than a dozen high-ranking civil and military officials, including Cai Jing, Yu Shen, Wang Fu, Bai Shizhong, Li Bangyan, Zhang Bangchang and other important officials, but Tong Guan was not there. He was not in Bianjing at this time, but rushed to Hebei to inspect the preparations for the war in various prefectures in Hebei under the order."

When Li Yanqing walked into the hall, Cai Jing's eyes immediately narrowed. This kid is not simple! He can actually enter the top ten. No wonder Tong Guan valued him so much.

Li Yanqing walked forward, and an official pointed out the seat where Li Yanqing should stand. Li Yanqing bowed and bowed, "Student Li Yanqing will meet my emperor!"

Zhao Ji's gentle voice came from above, "Li Shaojun, we're meeting again."

"This is the honor of the students!"

"I am very surprised. Li Shaojun not only has outstanding riding and shooting, but also has excellent literature. He can be said to be both civil and military. Such a top talent has not appeared in the Song Dynasty for many years. The appearance of Li Shaojun is a good omen for the revival of my Song Dynasty, which makes me deeply pleased."

Zhao Ji looked at Li Yanqing's test paper again. In the provincial examination, Li Yanqing ranked fifth, but this is not the final ranking. If the results of the palace examination are added, the final ranking can be determined.

He opened Li Yanqing's palace examination paper and wrote "Breaking the Formation, Northern Expedition". It was written in a grand manner, and his calligraphy also had a faint sense of a great spirit, which made Zhao Ji very satisfied. Especially the sentence in the poem "Solve the affairs of the king and win the reputation of his life and his life." It was really touching.

Zhao Ji looked through for a moment, then asked with a smile: "Is Li Shaojun only sixteen years old?"

"The age of the student's hometown is not divided into the big month or the small month. The student is born in the first month. According to the algorithm of Bianjing, he should be seventeen years old."

"That's also a hero who is a young man! I wonder what kind of ambitions Li Shaojun has?"

Li Yanqing bowed and said respectfully: "Report to Your Majesty, the students are willing to fulfill Your Majesty's ambitions and participate in the Northern Expedition."

This question and answer surprised Zhao Ji. The candidates in front all hoped to be the official and benefit the other side, but Li Yanqing actually wanted to join the army. He continued to ask: "Does Li Shaojun want to join the army?"

"The students' ancestors participated in the battle of Song and Xia, but unfortunately died on the battlefield. The students are willing to inherit the ancestor's will and participate in the battle of attacking Xia, and beg your Majesty to fulfill it."

Zhao Ji did not make a statement immediately, but said lightly: "Li Shaojun has great ambitions, which is admirable. I will consider it, let's go ahead first!"

At this time, Cai Jing's eyes lit up next to him. He knew that Tong Guan wanted to insert Li Yanqing into the court as a pawn for him to interfere in the government affairs. Unexpectedly, Li Yanqing actually wanted to go to the frontier to join the army, which made Cai Jing overjoyed.

He suddenly realized that Li Yanqing did not want to be Tong Guan's pawn, which made Cai Jing suddenly have an idea in his mind, perhaps Li Yanqing can use it for him.

At this time, Li Yanqing had already followed the eunuchs and the interview was over. Zhao Ji glanced at the ministers and said, "Dear friends, please tell me! How should I rank the rankings?"

As the chief examiner, Yu Shen stood up and said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Highness, ranked first in the provincial examination, and performed well in the palace examination. His winning the top scorer was what everyone expected. I think he could be the first."

Cai Jing also stood up and said, "Since the imperial examinations of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the prince has not yet won the top scorer. It is rare that King Jia won the first place with his peerless talent and deserves his name. It is a legend that he has become the top scorer for all ages."

Facing everyone's request to point Jia Wang as the first, Zhao Ji was unmoved. He said lightly: "Although Jia Wang has real talents and knowledge, there are only a few people who know him. Once he is the top scorer, I am afraid that my backbone will be poked by the people of the world. I have repeatedly considered him, but he cannot be the first. I appreciate this poem Li Yanqing, and I am awarded him the first place in the palace examination."

Zhao Ji's implication is that he wanted to be the top scorer of Li Yanqing. How could Cai Jing tolerate Tong Guan's man as the top scorer? Even if Li Yanqing didn't want to be Tong Guan's pawn, he could not tolerate it.

Cai Jing stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the candidates often have good literary skills but weak governmental skills, which leads to Wang Anshi's imperial examination reform. Although Li Yanqing's poems are good, he is only the fifth place in the provincial examination. If he is selected as the top scholar, it will mislead the emperor's scholars, thinking that Your Majesty will value poetry and slight classics. My ministers think that Li Yanqing can be designated as the forefront, but it is absolutely impossible to determine as the top scholar!"

All the ministers stood up and said, "Your Majesty, Cai Xiangguo's words are reasonable, I hope your Majesty think twice!"

Yu Shen also stood up and said, "The Weishi had carefully studied Li Yanqing's test paper. The reason why Weishi named him fifth in the provincial examination was because he firmly opposed the alliance with the Jurchens in the article "Countermeasures of Song, Liao and Jin", and proposed that if the Liao Kingdom was destroyed, the Song Dynasty would worry about the loss of lips and teeth. His idea was to regain Youyun and retain Liao Kingdom. His concept was to be relatively conservative and lack the momentum of enterprising spirit, so Weishi did not classify him as the top three."

Zhao Ji could not take the opposition from other ministers to heart, but the words of the examiner Yu Shen made Zhao Ji hesitate a little. If he ordered a conservative scholar from the Northern Expedition as the top scholar, it would not be in line with the political atmosphere of this imperial examination. Although Zhao Ji liked the poem Li Yanqing very much, he had to consider Li Yanqing's conservative attitude.

After pondering for a moment, Zhao Ji took a pen and wrote a one next to the second place Wang Ang's name, a two next to the Jia Wang Zhao Kai's name, and a three next to the Li Yanqing's name, and handed the list to Yu Shen, "Please post the list!"

More than 580 candidates stood in Daqing Square, waiting patiently for the moment of the listing to arrive, and removing the top ten that everyone knows. The remaining more than 570 candidates can only expect a glimmer of hope from 11th to 20th.

At this time, a bell rang, the examiner Yu Shen and the two deputy examiners walked out of the hall and came to the steps of the hall. The scholars were silent, and each of them stretched their necks for fear of missing a word.

Yu Shen slowly glanced at everyone, pulled off the scroll cover, and opened the list and sang loudly: "The results of the palace examination have been released, and it is announced as follows. Three people in the first place are selected, the first place is Wang Ang, Jiangdu County, Yangzhou, and the second place is Wang Kai, Kaifeng Prefecture; the third place is Li Yanqing, Tangyin County, Xiangzhou, and the above three people are selected as Jinshi!"

The scholars were so excited that they congratulated the three of them. Li Yanqing was also extremely excited. He actually won the third place in Tanhua.

At this time, an official invited three people to change their clothes. Yu Shen said loudly: "The following are the second ones, the fourth to the twenty. The list is as follows: the fourth place is Cao Xun, Kaifeng County, Kaifeng County, Kaifeng Prefecture, and the fifth place."

Just as the examiner Yu Shen announced the list, the list was officially released outside the imperial city. There were crowds of people in front of the list, and they were scrambling to check the list. Li Daqi came with Tiezhu and Li Yanbiao. He couldn't squeeze in, so the literate Li Yanbiao squeezed in to check the list.

Tiezhu smiled and said, "Isn't Xiao Yuanwai already a Jinshi? I've drunk the Qinggong wine, why is the second uncle still so concerned?"

"You don't understand. That's just a pre-citizen Jinshi and the government will not report good news. This is the real Jinshi list. It is related to the ranking of Jinshi. It is necessary to issue it to each prefecture and county to report good news. This is the key!"

"Does the second uncle want to go back to Tangyin?"

"Of course I have to go back after the exam, otherwise who will take the lead? You two will also go back with me. We will ride back to Tangyin and go home before the good news."

At this moment, Li Daqi was waiting for many years. This was the most glorious moment in his life. How could he not go back?

"Yan Biao is out!"

Tiezhu pointed, and Li Yanbiao squeezed out with sweat, ran to Li Daqi and said, "Second uncle, I'm beaten!"

"I know I won, how many titles have I won?" Li Daqi stamped his feet in an anxious manner.

"Third place in the A list!"

"ah!"

Li Daqi roared with excitement, "My son was captured in Tanhua! Tanhualang!"

Everyone around him looked at him, and almost everyone looked at him with envious eyes. This person's son actually won the third place in Tanhua. Li Daqi could no longer care about everyone's eyes and said to the two of them anxiously: "We will go back to Tangyin County now!"

"Do you go back now? Don't wait for the little official."

"Let's go, let's go back to the store first!"

Li Daqi was anxious and pulled two of them for a moment. The three of them left the imperial city one by one and hurried back to the store.
Chapter completed!