The rest was not long, and Li Zhen announced the second round of competition.
The number of people participating in this round of competition was slightly smaller, but it was more cruel and fierce. Because after passing the first round of preliminary selection, the participants this time were all elites. It was only a competition between four people, but they used up Half an hour later, after this round, two of the four people sent by Yoshida Shoin died, and of the remaining two people, one was injured and the other was intact.
One of the four members of the royal family died, the other two were completely victorious, and another suffered a tragic victory, but only two people were left with the fighting power. After this round, the literati gradually adapted to it, but they were still unable to bear it.
In the third round of the fight, Yoshida Shoin sent his two strongest men to kill the warriors under Emperor Takamei.
The fighting between the two sides ended with the complete defeat of the imperial family. Judging from the situation of the fight, the imperial family was obviously not fully prepared and lost to the samurai under Yoshida Shoin. They could only place their hope in the next literary test to reverse the situation. , otherwise after two consecutive defeats, Li Zhen would support the reformists, not the shogunate headed by the royal family.
Li Zhen said with a smile: "The literary test will be held next, and the location is here. Come and prepare the desk with pen and ink."
Immediately, the soldiers moved twenty tables and chairs and placed them at the location of the bloody competition. Most of the tables were even placed in the place where there were stains of blood. Even though the blood on the ground had been cleaned up, there was still a smell of blood. It filled the air, which caused the expressions of most of the scholars present to change slightly. After these people sat down and sniffed lightly, they smelled the smell of blood. The bloody killing scene just now echoed in their minds, and they could not calm down.
However, there are exceptions. Yoshida Shoin's disciples participated, Ito Hirobumi, Takasugi Shinsaku, Inoue Kaoru and others' expressions remained unchanged, calm and calm.
Li raised his hand and Zhao Liewen immediately distributed the prepared test papers.
Li Zhen had people translate the test questions of these test papers into Japanese and then printed them out. After the test papers were distributed, Li Zhen said: "The time to answer the questions will be two hours. After two hours, all papers will be handed in and I will judge them."
A bell rings and the time begins to count.
When the people holding the test paper looked at the questions on the test paper, some people relaxed their brows, and some people frowned, with different expressions on their faces. Emperor Xiaomei glanced at the scribes under his command and saw that everyone was frowning. , a bad premonition arose in his heart, especially when he saw Yoshida Shoin's disciple's calm demeanor, he felt that something was not good this time.
Yoshida Shoin did not participate. He sat cross-legged with a smile on his lips.
In fact, what Yoshida Shoin is most worried about is the competition between warriors. No one can predict who will be under the emperor's command, but when it comes to the literary examination, he has absolute confidence in his disciples, and he won one this time. He is already confident of winning the next battle.
Two hours passed by in a blink of an eye.
"Winding."
Zhao Liewen shouted, and the soldiers immediately put away all the test papers.
"No, I haven't finished it yet. Wait, wait, wait." said a participating scholar under Emperor Komei.
"Haha, come on, I'll hand in the paper." Ito Hirobumi said proactively.
Immediately afterwards, Takasugi Shinsaku, Inoue Kaoru and others handed in their papers one after another. Most of the scholars who were noisy about not finishing the papers were people under Emperor Komei. They had no choice but to hand in the papers. After all, this was in front of everyone. The interview cannot be denied.
Li Zhen put away the twenty test papers, looked at Emperor Xiaomei and Yoshida Shoin, and said with a serious expression: "The test papers on both sides have been collected. I will mark all the test papers today and announce the results tomorrow. At the same time, I will also announce which side I support, so please go back and wait for my news."
Yoshida Song**: "I'm bothering the king of Zhennan."
Li Zhen smiled slightly and nodded.
Emperor Xiaomei's expression was very unnatural, but he still said: "Thank you for your hard work, King Zhennan."
Li Zhen nodded with a smile on his face.
Yoshida Shoin continued: "Your Excellency, the Emperor, I think the shogunate you support is really bad and lacks strength. Look at the scholars who participated in the exam, every one of them has turned into a pustule. Their results must be a mess."
Takasugi Shinsaku echoed: "I just saw someone's paper with an empty space on it, and I can't answer it."
Ito Hirobumi continued: "I also saw a person's paper full of blanks."
The people under Yoshida Shoin spoke one after another, like sharp knives piercing the heart of Emperor Takamei. Emperor Takamei's face was dull and his face became more and more ugly. He spared no effort to support the shogunate, but the results he obtained were disastrous. Ideal, he even vaguely felt that the result of this competition would definitely end with his failure, making him feel even more unhappy.
Emperor Takamei flicked his sleeves, turned around and left Li Zhen's residence. Noda Yoo, Anhito and others followed behind, and they all left dejectedly. Everyone vaguely guessed the outcome in their hearts.
Yoshida Shoin said respectfully: "King Zhennan, our cooperation will be further developed."
Li Zhen said: "The results will come out tomorrow, but I look forward to continuing to cooperate with you."
Yoshida Shoin smiled slightly, turned around and led the people away.
Li Zhen returned to the study, and Zhao Liewen then brought someone over to bring the test papers and said, "Your Majesty, I will find someone to translate and then grade the test papers one by one."
After a pause, Zhao Liewen asked: "Do you want to participate in the evaluation in person?"
Li Zhen shook his head and said: "No, you have full authority to handle it. Just hand me the answer sheet you think is the best. Also, the test papers of Ito Hirobumi, Takasugi Shinsaku and others will be brought to me for a look. Remember, in the end, The result is that Yoshida Shoin wins, no accidents are allowed to happen."
"yes."
Zhao Liewen felt a chill in his heart and agreed.
Next, Zhao Liewen started grading the papers. In less than an hour, all the results were tallied up. All the disciples under Yoshida Shoin were ranked in the front, occupying the top three, and eight of the top ten people were Yoshida Shoin's disciples. Everyone, especially Ito Hirobumi’s answer sheet, made very few mistakes and scored the highest, ranking first.
Li Zhen read the translated test paper, but he lacked interest and could no longer raise his interest. Even though Ito Hirobumi, Takasugi Shinsaku and others had mentioned that they wanted to learn the advanced methods of the West, but in the end they were just scratching the surface and no concrete ideas had been formed. , so after Li Zhen read two scrolls, he lost interest in continuing to read.
The next day, Li Zhen asked someone to announce the results.
This result was not unexpected. After Emperor Komei got the news, he no longer stayed, and left Nagasaki with his people directly, rushing towards Kyoto. Noda Yoo stayed behind to mediate, and Yoshida Shoin led a group of disciples under his command. They gathered at Li Zhen's residence and seemed very happy that this day had finally arrived.
Yoshida Shoin sat upright and said respectfully: "Next, there will definitely be a battle between us and the shogunate. I implore King Zhennan to mobilize the army, march towards Kyoto, and capture the Tokugawa shogunate."