Daming talker

Chapter 426 The boring palace examination

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! These five companies have one thing in common: they are all officials who have questioned the results of the general 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 is decorated with thousands of flowers. I took the time to look at the shadows of the flowers, only the moon is slanting.

I have an iron flute from the south of the Yangtze River. 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 floating in the clouds.

Donghuang smiled and said: Whose house does Fangyi belong to? Could it be that the spring flowers bloom and fall, and the spring breeze comes and goes, ending the youth?

Outside the flowers, spring comes, and the grass does not cover it. "

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 take the palace examination, they can turn Lin Tailai into a serious crime of deceiving the emperor! The sentence is at least banishment from the army!

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.

This is very much the artistic style of Lin Daguan, who likes to publish poems in sets.

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, so you dismiss yourself?
Before Shi Shiyi could finish getting angry about the poem, his fierce woman rushed out and cursed at him.

Officials and residents living in Xicheng watched in stunned silence as Lin Tailai wreaked havoc on Xicheng, as if history was repeating itself three years ago.

The situation of other families was similar to that of Shi Shiyi's family. They all suffered from the three-click package of smashing doors, beating people, and writing inscriptions.

"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!"

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!"

"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."

Shi Shiyi was reminded of some bad memories. Three years ago, when Lin Tailai went to Beijing to take the imperial examination, Shi Menglin impeached Wang Zhiyuan in order to help Song Hui compete for the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, which led to Lin Tailai smashing him once. The door is closed.

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: "This is what a man should do!"

And what is very strange is that Lin Tailai committed crimes continuously in broad daylight, beating and smashing him and missing a robbery, but no one spoke up, and even the victim calmed down and remained silent.

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 from the previous dynasty.

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.

Yousi also pretended to be deaf and mute, turning a blind eye and pretending that this was not the case!

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!

Moreover, the five inscriptions are all in the style of Shui Diao Ge Tou, and their styles are obvious and consistent, forming the "Five Spring Songs in Shui Diao Ge Tou".

"Don't do this!" Shi Shiyi said firmly: "Be patient! Have you heard of the allusion of Han Xin's crotch humiliation?"

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 curse himself. It could even be said that this poem had nothing to do with the current situation.

At this juncture, we must have tactical determination! You can't mess up your position!
Patience is not weakness, but greater wisdom.

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, Wumen, 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 were all shocked by the magnificence and majesty of the palace, but Lin Daguan was much calmer and looked familiar like 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 Lin Tailai met Emperor Wanli, who was already acting abnormally, so he didn't want to see the emperor today.

This time the palace examination was allowed to be held in the Huangji Palace, with each candidate sitting at a desk. Anyway, we don’t eliminate people, and we don’t care about keeping distance from each other to avoid fraud.

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 location for the general examination was close to the toilet, and the location for the palace examination was dimly lit. Regarding this, Senior Official Lin silently recited a few words, "Don't bully young people into poverty."

After you get 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 palace examination is really short and small.

In just the first session of the examination, seven eight-legged 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 palace examination is 10,000 words per day, and some people say 7,000 words, but normal people only write two to three thousand words, which is not as stressful as writing in the examination.

Of course, this time the palace examination is quite special, as an additional eight-part essay was included in the test, 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 has 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.

By the afternoon, Lin Tailai had finished writing this eight-part essay and another unimportant policy essay topic.

After handing in the papers, he 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 the big guys.

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 "Dzogchen" to refer to winning another No. 1 pick.

"Do your best and obey destiny. There is nothing in your life that you don't force." Lin Tailai answered uncertainly.

Jin Shiheng asked again: "Didn't you seek help from Prime Minister Shen?"

Lin Daguan said very clearly: "I am afraid that this application will be 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 make the emperor angry in case the emperor was angry, he even brought Lin Tailai with him to express 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 at your fingertips, 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 palace 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.

The next day, more than a dozen examiners, headed by the cabinet bachelor, came to the cabinet collectively and began to read the papers for the imperial examination.

According to the regulations, there are two days to read the papers. During this period, the papers will be divided into more than a dozen tables. 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 persuade others.

This is worthy of being the most rigorous imperial examination in history. The examiners did not know the name of each examination paper. They could only see the number. It felt like opening a blind box.

Therefore, 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’s really hard 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 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 more than 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, second and third overall winners were determined.

The big guys first selected the two test papers with the most favorable reviews, but inevitably and fatefully a huge controversy arose regarding the last selected test paper.

(End of this chapter)