In the capital hall of Gongyuan.
Wang Gui is drinking tea.
Now that the papers have been submitted to the emperor for reading, just waiting for them to be issued, the rankings can be determined and released.
However, Fan Zhen and Wang Chou still dispute the ranking of one volume.
But for now, we will put it aside until the emperor's will comes.
Now Wang Gui walked around the capital hall after drinking tea.
The Huayang Wang family has been a family of officials for generations, and by Wang Gui's fourth generation, he had been admitted to the imperial examination. At that time, Wang Anshi was originally the number one scholar, and he was the second. However, Wang Anshi wrote a sentence, "A child has his own friends", which caused displeasure among the officials, and he was eventually dismissed.
Therefore, Wang Gui, who was supposed to be second in the list, was the number one scholar, but Song Renzong said, "I don't want a noble man to precede the poorest men in the world", and there was a story in the Song Dynasty that "officials do not win the number one scholar", so Wang Gui, who has been an official for generations, was not replaced. Wang Anshi became the number one scholar.
After four years of foreign service, he took up the post of librarian.
In the Song Dynasty, when there was a shortage of prime ministers, they must be chosen by the two systems. Those who were appointed by the two systems must adopt the custom of Zhongguange. Therefore, the pavilion and pavilion are a place for supporting each other and cultivating talents.
Having been in a family of officials for many years, Wang Gui is most familiar with official affairs. Wang Gui suddenly stood out among the officials, and his official career was much smoother than that of Wang Anshi, who was born in the same year.
Then he served as a Hanlin scholar and the emperor drafted edicts.
Wang Gui served as a Hanlin bachelor for many years. His imperial edict was the most appropriate and most appreciated by the emperor, so he was praised as a generous writer.
The first reason for this is that Wang Gui wrote well and his parallel prose was excellent, and he was unanimously praised by everyone in the palace.
In addition, Wang Gui himself was also good at understanding the emperor's thoughts. Figuring out the emperor's intention is an essential skill for every minister of the emperor.
Wang Gui is a master in this and has always been cautious. This time he shoulders the responsibility of knowing the tribute.
In another time and space history, Renzong accepted Han Qi's suggestion to establish a prince. After Han Qi went out, he told Wang Gui to prepare an imperial edict.
The next day Wang Gui went to see Renzong again and said that some people said that the Prime Minister forced the emperor to establish a heir apparent. I want to hear your opinion personally.
Wang Gui returned to Caozhao after receiving Renzong's confirmation.
This incident was praised by Ouyang Xiu as a true bachelor.
At this time, someone said from outside: "Someone is coming from the palace."
Immediately Wang Gui was shocked and immediately ordered someone to call Fan Zhen. Wang Chou and Official Xing Ding came to greet the palace envoy.
…
After the palace envoys left, Wang Gui, Fan Zhen, Wang Chou and other officials all looked happy, grateful for the emperor's great kindness.
The palace envoy had nothing to say except that the officials were very satisfied with their examination.
Without any other words, Wang Gui and the other examiners were deeply moved by the emperor's benevolence.
What is the word "benevolence"? It means self-denial and restoration of propriety.
There are things that you can do but don't do. That's self-denial and restoration of propriety.
As the Nine-Five Supreme Being, the emperor should restrain his desire for unlimited power and not do whatever he wants, so he should be "self-denying".
Self-denial is not enough; one must also be able to restore etiquette.
The emperor does not interfere with his own will, which is to delegate power to others and respect the examiner's choice.
The papers for such provincial examinations have been returned to the capital from the imperial court, and they should be ranked among the top ten. Since the emperor does not evaluate the ranking of the papers, it is up to the examiner to decide.
Fan Zhen had another dispute with Wang Chou over the ranking of the provincial examination paper.
Wang Gui also understood this.
Fan Zhen was stubborn, Wang Chou persisted, and both of them were evenly matched.
Wang Gui has always refused to help each other and reserved his final attitude towards this. But the results will be released tomorrow, and now he has to make his final decision.
Yesterday, when the servants went to the tribute courtyard to bring them a change of clothes, Wang Gui learned a piece of news, that is, You Si Jian Zhao Pian had once visited the palace to see the emperor. This was the only person the emperor saw before the royal scroll was issued.
Wang Gui has been paying attention to the emperor's every move and infers his preferences for people and things.
So can I get a glimpse of the emperor's thoughts from Zhao Pang's mouth?
Wang Gui knew this was absolutely impossible. As an important minister, Zhao Pian knew the rules and could not leak the conversation with the emperor to others.
So where did Wang Gui find out?
Now looking at these ten papers submitted to Yulan, what comes to mind.
He took the paper back and put it in his hands to look at it carefully.
When he turned to a paper, Wang Gui saw nothing different after reading it for the first time, so he put the paper aside.
Wang Gui was already a little tired, so he immediately rubbed his eyes, took a blanket, and leaned on the high-backed chair to take a nap.
When Wang Gui woke up, he saw that he was about to unfurl the candles. He thought he had slept until nightfall, but when he glanced out the window, he saw that the sky was still bright.
When Wang Gui's eyes returned to the desk, he didn't know when a butterfly flew out of the window and rested lightly on the scroll.
"Did Zhuang Zhou dream of a butterfly?"
Wang Gui smiled slightly and felt that there was a certain artistic conception here. On weekdays, he would like to write a poem, but today he was not in the mood.
Wang Gui didn't notice anything strange and waved his hand to drive the butterfly away. Unexpectedly, the butterfly went away and came back, landing on the scroll several times.
The officials on the side were about to step forward to help Wang Gui drive away the butterflies, but were blocked by Wang Gui.
Wang Gui saw that the butterfly had stopped on the same paper several times, and the names of the candidates on this paper were all on it.
Wang Gui couldn't help but be surprised when he saw this scene. Could it be that God wanted me to take this scroll?
Wang Gui calmed down, but when he saw that the officials on the left and right had also seen this scene, they almost burned incense and bathed in it. We often heard about such things in the examination hall, but now we saw it with our own eyes.
Wang Gui thought about it for a while, sat down again and looked at the paper carefully.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He saw something strange next to the name of this examinee. So he carefully tapped it with his finger, then put his finger on the tip of his tongue and licked it.
"This looks like nectar glutinous rice soup..."
Wang Gui was shocked when he thought of this.
The paper he had previously submitted to the Emperor's Imperial Examination was the examinee's ink paper. This was not a transcribed paper, and it was a paper with names removed.
Because this anonymity is only for the examiner, and it is also anonymity for the emperor. Who are you guarding against? This is disrespectful. Therefore, the name must be removed and submitted to the emperor.
The seal is pasted at the seam between the family shape and the test paper, which is equivalent to covering up half of the page. Moreover, the paste used for sealing is a mixture of white flour and rice soup, which is generally very light.
On the other hand, this volume seems to have traces of honey glutinous rice soup only in a small part of the name and family status.
This honey glutinous rice soup is a royal treat in the palace.
So it's obvious... there is only one truth.
Wang Gui stroked his beard and smiled, it was really God's will!
Thinking of this, Wang Gui turned around and said: "Deng Deng, let several examiners come to the capital hall to discuss the results."
Outside the collection room in the Prime Minister's country, many scribes came early in the morning.
Among these scribes, there were both decrepit old men and frail young men, and most of them were middle-aged men in their prime.
At the moment they are all talking outside the room.
"Why isn't this door open?"
"Wait a minute, I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry."
"It turns out that a seal stone in this Zhai is worth ten guan, but you have to wait for three to five months to get it. I'm saying it, but I don't know why the Zhai refuses to add more seals, even if it is increased to 12 guan. Fifteen guans can't move him, and the owner of the restaurant is a man who is not short of money."
"How can things of gold and silver move people? Last time I came to the door with a rubbing from a family heirloom, and the other party just agreed."
The other party clapped his legs and said, "If I had known this, I would have given it a try."
"I heard that the people who asked for seals in this fast had to wait until half a year later, but things are getting better now. I don't know why the master's temperament changed so much, and suddenly all the seals that had been waiting for half a year were cleared. Now I am here again, and see See if you can help my nephew get a lead chapter."
"I have to say that his seal cutting is really good, and it is sealed with a book. I can't afford a seal, but buying a few sets of his seal characters and trying to figure them out will be of great benefit."
"In my opinion, the seal is better. I've seen the rubbings of the seal carved by the chief. It's really wide enough to move a horse, and dense enough to hide a needle. It's really the handiwork of a great craftsman, but it doesn't show any ingenuity."
"If that's the case, what kind of seal do you want the Master to engrave?"
"Engrave a free seal and write down the numbers of the people of Liba, and use it on the calligraphy and paintings collected over the years."
"What a humble man."
"Have a laugh."
"I don't know who Master Zhai studied under? If I ask him, he won't tell the truth. With his current ability, is he still afraid of humiliating his master?"
Zhang Yue and Tang Jiu were sitting in the studio, Tang Jiu was drinking wine, and Zhang Yue was yawning.
The waiter looked at the guests outside the door and couldn't help but said: "My boss, my boss, look at how many people come here to ask you to engrave a seal."
Zhang Yue's mood waned when he saw this scene. Ever since Wu Anshi learned that he had failed the provincial examination, Zhang Yue had no intention of studying and came to the collection studio to carve seals to relieve his frustration in the examination room.
Unexpectedly, what was lost was gained by chance. In one breath, I cleared the backlog of orders in the store for half a year, but I never expected that more people would come...
Looking at this scene, Zhang Yue thought that if he failed in the imperial examination, he would be able to survive by relying on this craft in the future, and maybe he would be able to prosper in Bianjing.
"Is the owner open?"
Zhang Yue suddenly had a headache when he saw so many people: "Wait a minute, let me finish this steamed bun."
After Zhang Yue worked hard, he finally opened the restaurant for business, and many people rushed in.
…
During this period, the waiters were waiting for the guests, and Zhang Yue was still at leisure, when a guest came in.
Zhang Yue saw that the other party was the old governor of Zhang Yu's house.
Zhang Yue suddenly lost his mood when he saw it.
Laodu Guan cupped his fists and said, "I've met Mr. Sanlang."
"I care about politeness. I wonder what you have to do?"
The old governor smiled and said: "The day after tomorrow is Master Lang's birthday, Master Master would like to invite Mr. Sanlang to come over and have a birthday wine."
"Eating wine?" Zhang Yue pondered.
The old man said with a smile: "Yes, I ask Mr. Sanlang to honor me no matter what. Otherwise, it will be difficult for me to explain to Mr. Master when I go back."
Zhang Yue said with a smile: "I don't know if anything will happen at that time. If I have time to go, please go back and tell my uncle."
Seeing Zhang Yue's tone, the old governor would probably not force a smile and said: "Young Master Sanlang, I don't know that my wife was very ill before the winter. Mrs. Kaichun only recovered now. Master Lang also wanted to use this birthday banquet to enrich his wife." Joy.”
"My wife treats Mr. Sanlang very well on weekdays. Mr. Sanlang must go this time."
Zhang Yue glanced at the old governor and said: "I know. If there is nothing else, the old governor should go back. As you can see, I am quite busy and have no time to greet you."
When the old capital official saw that Zhang Yue had issued an order to expel guests, he couldn't help but tremble in his heart. Today, Zhang Yue is no longer the young man he used to be when he first arrived in Bianjing and could be manipulated by him.
So the old man was busy and said with a smile: "Sanlang Jun, you are busy, I will take my leave."
