The palace examination was scheduled for March 15th. In the past few days, Lin Huiyuan was like a trapped beast in a desperate situation, going crazy to the point of rampage!
After beating the four members of the Gu family class and beating Shen Shangshu's son-in-law, five more families suffered disaster! These five families had one thing in common, they were all officials who had questioned the results of the examination.
During the incident, Shi Menglin came home from get off work and found that the door of his house was open, the courtyard was smashed to pieces, and several servants were lying on the door with serious injuries.
And on the wall outside the door, there was also a poem inscribed:
"There is nothing wrong with the east wind, and it has made up thousands of flowers. I took the time to look at the shadows of the flowers, only the moon is slanting.
I have a Jiangnan iron flute. I want to lean on a branch of fragrant snow and play the clear clouds of Yucheng.
The clear shadow is dim, and the flying catkins are all over the sky. Floating away, you and I are like clouds.
Donghuang smiled and said to each other: Whose house is the fragrance? Could it be that the spring flowers bloom and fall, and the spring breeze comes and goes, and the youth is gone?
Outside the flowers, the road of spring is not covered by the fragrant grass."
Shi Shiyi looked left and right, and he only felt that this was a poem about spring. It had no special meaning, and he did not criticize himself. It could even be said that this poem had nothing to do with the current situation.
So Shi Shiyi became even more angry. The Lin thief went to his house, smashed the door and beat people, without even bothering to leave any poems!
Don’t you deserve a poem specifically targeted at you?
An unrelated poem about spring is just like casually attending to errands, and thus dismissing oneself?
Before Shi Shiyi could finish getting angry about the poem, he saw his own fierce woman rushing out and yelling at him.
"You who have killed a thousand swords, you are not a plague official! The door was smashed down twice in three years by the evil thief named Lin, and you, the head of the family, don't dare to let go of it!"
Shi Shiyi was reminded of some bad memories. When Lin Tailai went to Beijing to take the imperial examination three years ago, in order to help Song Hui compete for the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Shi Menglin impeached Wang Zhiyuan, which led to Lin Tailai smashing him once. The door is open.
The shrew's output continued: "The evil thief surnamed Lin has come to our door several times, and it's hard to live a good life! Can't you, this good-for-nothing dim sum, appeal fiercely and send him to the sky jail to eat!"
"Don't do this!" Shi Shiyi said firmly: "Be patient! Have you heard of the allusion of Han Xin's crotch humiliation?"
Now Lin Tailai is being sent to jail on charges of violence, and he will only serve a few days in jail. Instead, Lin Tailai will be able to avoid the imperial examination;
But until Lin Tailai takes the palace examination, or Lin Tailai dares not to take the palace examination, they can turn Lin Tailai into a serious crime of deceiving the emperor! The sentence will be at least exile from the army!
At this juncture, we must have tactical determination! We must not mess up our position!
Patience is not weakness, but deeper wisdom.
After comforting his shrew in bed at night, Shi Shiyi, who entered the time of the sage, silently recited the quotations of the eminent monks of the previous dynasty.
"Just tolerate him, let him, let him, avoid him, be patient with him, respect him, ignore him, stay for a few more days and see him."
The situation of the other families was similar to that of Shi Shiyi's family. They all had their doors smashed, people beaten, and inscribed with a three-click package.
Moreover, the five inscriptions are all in the style of Shui Diao Ge Tou, and their styles are obvious and consistent, forming "Shui Diao Ge Tou·Five Spring Songs".
This is very much the artistic style of Lin Daguan, who likes to publish poems in sets.
The officials and residents living in Xicheng watched in dumbfounded eyes as Lin Tailai wreaked havoc on Xicheng, as if history had reappeared three years ago.
And what is very strange is that Lin Tailai committed crimes continuously in broad daylight, beating and smashing, and only missing one robbery, but no one spoke up, and even the victim calmed down and remained silent.
Yousi also pretended to be deaf and mute, turning a blind eye and pretending that nothing happened!
The young gangster named Wei Si stood in the crowd. Looking at Lin Huiyuan who openly smashed the door and beat people but no one punished him, he couldn't help but sigh: "A man should do this!"
But everyone in the officialdom can feel the raging anger that is being suppressed by the Qingliu forces represented by Shen Li, the Minister of Rites!
This anger will burst out violently at the right time, completely tearing the most hateful enemy to pieces!
As for the other people who were going to take part in the palace examination, although some of them were anxious, they were still calm and not as anxious as Lin Huiyuan.
After all, it is a rule that has been passed down for hundreds of years that no one is eliminated in the palace examination. As long as you are not criticized like Lin Huiyuan and are not directly involved, there should be no big problem.
In this way, amid the chaos of war, March 15th arrived.
The prospective Jinshi gathered outside the left gate of Chang'an, and then, under the guidance of officials from the Ministry of Rites, lined up to enter the imperial city, and then the palace city.
This is the first time Lin Tailai has seen the main hall since traveling through time.
We passed through Chengtianmen, Duanmen, Meridian Gate, and Dongjiaomen, which were later renamed Tiananmen, and arrived at the large square in front of Huangji Hall.
This is the main hall of the palace. It was originally called Fengtian Hall. After reconstruction in the Jiajing Dynasty, it was renamed Huangji Hall and later called Taihe Hall.
The other candidates in the same group were all shocked by the magnificence and majesty of the palace, but Lin Daguan was much calmer, as familiar as a veteran who had been in court for many years.
Under normal circumstances, the emperor should make a symbolic appearance during the palace examination to indicate that this is the emperor's selection of scholars.
But what Lin Tailai met was Emperor Wanli, who was already acting abnormally, so there was no chance of seeing the emperor today.
This time the imperial examination was allowed to be held in the Huangji Palace, and each candidate had a desk. Anyway, we were not eliminating people, and we did not care about keeping distance from each other to avoid cheating.
When Lin Tailai found his examination case, he found that he had been tricked by the Ministry of Rites again.
His position was at the deepest part of the hall, and the light was very dark, so writing was much more difficult than normal.
The examination location was close to the toilet, and the palace examination location was dimly lit. In response, Lin Daguan silently recited a few words, "Don't bully young people into poverty."
After you have obtained the title, you must arrange it with the head of the Etiquette Department who is responsible for arranging the exam location!
Compared with the general examination, the imperial examination is really short and small.
In the first session of the examination, seven eight-part essays were required, while in the palace examination, only one policy essay was required, which took up to one day.
Although the highest record of writing essays in the Imperial Examination is 10,000 words per day, and some people say 7,000 words, normal people only write two or three thousand words. Compared with writing in the examination, the pressure is not that great.
Of course, this time the imperial examination is quite special, as an additional eight-part essay was included in the exam, and the focus of many people’s attention was on this eight-part essay.
After all the candidates returned to their seats, the eight-part essay title designated by the emperor was handed out. It was "The Master said: Act with interests in mind, and complain too much", which comes from "The Analects of Confucius".
When writing a proposition composition, you must first review the topic. "One section" means that the topic is not just this sentence, but a large section after this sentence in the original text of "The Analects" is the title.
Lin Tailai meditated on the original text, "If you act with interests in mind, you will not complain too much" followed by "Can you serve the country with courtesy? Why? If you can't serve the country with courtesy, how can you be polite?"
Later there is the more famous sentence "A gentleman is known for his righteousness, and a villain is known for his benefit".
Therefore, the main theme of the article comes out, which is to write around profit, righteousness, and etiquette at the level of governing the country. It is a very classic content.
Lin Tailai felt that Emperor Wanli's question was so in line with the emperor's temperament. Maybe the emperor had been thinking about the three words profit, righteousness and propriety his whole life.
Eight-legged essay proposition writing is not about letting yourself go and writing cool essays. The process is boring and boring.
By the afternoon, Lin Tailai had finished writing this eight-legged essay and another unimportant policy essay topic.
After handing in the papers, I left the Huangji Palace Square through the East Corner Gate and then left the palace.
As a candidate, all you have to do is over, and the subsequent results will depend on what the big guys do.
When gathering with friends in the evening, Jin Shiheng asked: "How did you answer the question today? Do you have any hope for Dzogchen?"
In recent conversations, friends have been using the term "Dzogchen" to refer to winning another top prize.
"Do your best and obey destiny. Everything in your destiny is forced." Lin Tailai answered uncertainly.
Jin Shiheng asked again: "Didn't you seek help from Prime Minister Shen?"
Lin Daguan said very clearly: "I'm afraid this application is neutral, which is understandable."
For Shen Shixing, under the current storm of public opinion, it is the best outcome for Lin Tailai to get a Jinshi title safely. There is no need to take huge risks and force himself to be the number one scholar.
Moreover, the emperor personally intervened this time. Under the unpredictable power of God, Shen Shixing did not dare to take the initiative.
In order to gain fame in case the emperor was angry, he even brought Lin Tailai with him to vent his anger, but the gain outweighed the loss.
So Lin Tailai really doesn't expect Shen Shixing to help him this time, and he doesn't want Shen Shixing to lose his first assistant.
"Is this the end of it?" Jin Shiheng seemed to be even more unwilling than Lin Tailai.
Without the strong support of powerful people, the probability of winning the top prize among more than 300 elites is extremely slim.
But facing the Nine Yuan Miracle that is within reach, why don’t you try harder?
"Otherwise, what else can we do?" Lin Tailai drank down the glass of wine, picked up the beauty and walked into the house. Maybe he needed to vent his frustration.
On the night of the imperial examination, the examination papers were sealed and locked in the cabinet.
Under the supervision of Jin Yiwei, more than a dozen record readers stayed in the Ministry of Etiquette and were prohibited from contacting the outside world.
On the next day, more than a dozen examiners, headed by the cabinet bachelor, came to the cabinet collectively and began to read the imperial examination papers.
According to regulations, there are two days to read the papers, during which the papers will be divided into more than a dozen tables, and everyone will take turns to go to each table to read the papers and grade them.
Of course, the above is a normal situation. A big boss with the right to speak can individually recommend a certain test paper and convince others.
This is indeed the most rigorous imperial examination in history. The examiners do not know the name of each examination paper. They can only see the number. It feels like opening a blind box.
Therefore, all the experts can only make rough judgments based on the writing style and content of the test paper. If you don't have some basic writing skills and sensitivity, it is really difficult to do it.
Due to the current tense public opinion situation, the atmosphere at the examination site was very depressing. The big bosses did not talk much, and there was no laughter at all.
In particular, Shen Li, the Minister of Rites, had no expression on his face, and his whole body was filled with a sharp aura of keeping strangers away, as if whoever touched him would die!
It is a general assembly line operation, and all the evaluated test papers will be sent to the first assistant for final summary.
This paper reading process lasts for almost two days, and the final results will be released on the third day.
Among the more than 300 test papers, there were only a dozen that were poorly written in eight-part essays and were sealed away by Shen Shangshu with a sneer.
When the paper was opened, Lin Tailai's test paper was found and presented to the emperor alone.
Then came the most important task of reading the imperial examination papers - selecting the three best papers as the top three and presenting them to the emperor for inspection.
The specific rankings of these three examination papers were determined by the emperor. This is how the number one, number two, and third overall came to be.
The big guys first selected the two test papers with the most favorable reviews, but inevitably, as if destined, there was a huge controversy about the last selected test paper.
