In Xiaojiazhuang.
"Lao Gao, why do you have time to come to my place? You should be protecting His Majesty today." Xiao Rui looked at the chamberlain Lao Gao jokingly.
Lao Gao said bitterly: "It is indeed your handiwork, Prince Consort. You have done so much harm to this old slave. You can't escape with a whip."
As he said that, he showed off the vegetable leaves.
Xiao Rui didn't understand, "What do you mean? You came here for dozens of miles just to give me a few vegetable leaves? Does my vegetable garden lack such things?"
"Prince-in-law, these are not ordinary vegetable leaves."
"Not ordinary? What about me? I'm not a nerd who doesn't work hard and doesn't distinguish between grains and grains. This is..."
Before Xiao Rui could answer, Lao Gao rushed to answer, "This is the vegetable leaves thrown at His Majesty by the angry candidates."
What? puff……
Who is so bold as to throw vegetable leaves at His Majesty?
Lao Gaoxin said yes, who is so bold? But where can the candidates in the chaos care about this? Now that I think about it, I'm really sweating. Cai Ziye is fine, but if it were a wolfsbane crossbow arrow, His Majesty would be doomed.
Xiao Rui lowered his voice and asked, "Isn't there anyone throwing rotten eggs?"
"Yes, Dr. Wei was thrown a rotten egg and hit right in the head."
Pfft... Hahahaha, I want to talk to Yan'er later.
"Prince-in-law, please don't be happy. Your Majesty ordered this old slave to come here to question the crime. His Majesty ordered: Xiao Rui, I can't spare you, kid."
ah? That's it? Gone?
Lao Gao had long been used to it, and he didn't let Xiao Rui salute and accept the order, so he just finished it. Xiao Rui's reaction was also expected. Your Majesty loves this consort and can scare him with just one sentence, then he is not the number one consort in the Tang Dynasty.
"In my opinion, your old guy's edict is false, but running out to take refuge is true, right?"
Lao Gao's face turned red when his worries were exposed, "Ahem, my consort is smart, if you don't go back now, you will be whipped. I'm here to ask you for a medicinal recipe in advance."
"Let's go. I will take care of the food at noon. By the way, tell me in detail what happened today. I arranged for people to fan the flames, but I didn't let them even lose His Majesty." Xiao Rui put away the fishing rod and took Lao Gao home. Walk.
"Originally, no, everyone respected and trusted His Majesty. But then someone burned down the Imperial College Archives, and all this year's examination papers were burned..."
…
After listening to Lao Gao's story, Xiao Rui found it interesting. These people were so anxious that they jumped over the wall. If the archives were set on fire and the test papers could not be checked, there would be no way to prove that they were doing so for personal gain. At best, everyone should accept the blame together, or find two scapegoats and take the blame for setting the fire.
Temporary retake? A good trick indeed. No one can say anything because this is to resolve the current student unrest.
"What topic did your Majesty ask?"
"One is: What are the disadvantages of taxing domestic people at present? The other is: How to treat the problem of the northern grasslands?"
Xiao Rui smiled, "Good question. I happen to have a few students here, so I can take a test on them this afternoon."
"Ah? Do you have candidates here too? It's still too late to arrive to take the exam within an hour..." Lao Gao said hurriedly.
"It's not the imperial examination candidates, it's Chengqian and the others."
…
What do you mean, let the prince and crown prince try these two imperial examination questions?
In the afternoon, Xiao Rui came to his home school. Xiao Yue, Li Chengqian, Fang Yiai, Xiao Changle, the youngest Huang Yaoshi, Yang Zhengdao who came back with Empress Xiao, the other two Liang brothers who accompanied him, and eight students, big and small. Woolen cloth.
"There will be no class this afternoon. I will test you with two questions. They are the questions from this year's imperial examination. Let's see if you can apply what you have learned. Let's look at the real imperial examination. How many points can you get in the examination?"
Li Chengqian said confidently: "I was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics when I was in the East Palace. Mr. Kong said that I can take part in the imperial examination."
Huang Yaoshi raised his hand and said, "Master, I, I just learned a hundred characters."
"You don't take the exam and continue to learn to read. The same goes for little Changle."
"No, brother-in-law, I can already read by myself. I want to take the exam. If my eldest brother can do it, I can do it too." Xiao Changle seemed to be competing with Li Chengqian.
Li Chengqian's face darkened, what did he say to you? I'm two years older than you, okay? How many years have you studied?
The Liang brothers raised their hands and asked, "If you do well in the exam, can you become an official in the Tang Dynasty?"
Xiao Rui rolled his eyes and said, "You two want to become officials? That's not a big deal. Okay, as long as you do well in the exam, I will recommend you personally."
Fang Yiai said reluctantly: "Brother Xiao, can I not participate? You know me, I write too slowly."
Pfft...you really know how to beautify yourself. It’s not that you write too slowly, it’s that you need to write slowly so that everyone can recognize your handwriting. At normal speed, even you can’t recognize it. He's from a scholarly family and is the son of the prime minister. It's good that the prime minister is not pissed off by you.
"No, since you want to be an official in the Tang Dynasty, you must participate. Even if you are a military general, you must know the state affairs."
After finishing speaking, Xiao Rui wrote two questions on the small blackboard: First, what are the disadvantages of taxing people in China now? Second, how do you view the issue of northern grasslands?
Seeing these two questions, Li Chengqian was stunned. What is this? One head and two big ones. I have never seen them before. They are not in books. Taxes in the Tang Dynasty? How do I know what the taxes are?
"Brother-in-law, can I just answer the second question?" Li Chengqian raised his hand.
"Yes, you can answer as many questions as you can. It's best to answer both questions. It doesn't matter if you can't answer one question. If you hand in a blank paper, you'll be slapped in the palm of your hand."
Among them, Xiao Yue is the calmest. He has learned a lot from his elder brother, not only reading and thinking, but also practice. Not to mention, at least he has done a lot of farm work in Xiaojiazhuang.
Xiao Changle pouted and said dissatisfiedly: "Brother-in-law, you are bullying me. Aren't you going to test yesterday's homework in the exam? You are trying to solve the problem. I can read all these words, but I don't know how to write the answer."
Li Chengqian laughed and said, "Little sister, just hand in the blank paper. Hehe, it's just a slap in the palm of your hand."
Xiao Changle responded with a big eye roll in disbelief, "I don't want it. I just want to write it."
For an hour, several people were writing furiously. Xiao Rui is teaching his disciple Huang Yaoshi how to read next door.
Xiao Changle was the first to hand in the paper, and Xiao Rui couldn't help but smile after reading it. Her answer is: I don’t know what tax is. I answered the second question. I have never been to the grassland. I heard from my brother-in-law that the grassland is beautiful, but it is inhabited by a group of very ferocious grassland cavalry. In the future, when the Tang Dynasty defeats the grassland cavalry, I will definitely go to the grassland to see it.
"Is this what you think of the northern grasslands?"
Xiao Changle nodded seriously: "Yes, yes."
"What are your thoughts?"
"I, when I grow up, I want to learn horse riding from Sister Katsuo, so I want to go see it on horseback. If not, you can also take a carriage."
puff……
"Okay, you answered well. No need to beat your palms. Let's go play. Let's talk after everyone else has finished answering."
Xiao Changle jumped away and left. Li Chengqian next door finished answering the second question. He didn't want to leave the first question blank, so he started to fool around.
