The palace examination only lasts for one day.
From dawn to dusk.
However, there are too many Gongsheng students this year, a total of four hundred.
The officials in charge of the palace examination did not dare to delay, and quickly led the students to the open space outside the main hall, where there were tables and chairs arranged in advance, as well as pens, inks, paper and inkstones for the students to use.
Since it was a random selection, there was nothing to be careful about, so Xu Mo chose to sit on the side of Qihuai.
"Today Ce asked, how do you view the decades-long dispute between the Chongqing Dynasty and the Tartars?"
As soon as the examiner finished speaking, the Gong students all opened their eyes wide.
In the past ten years since I joined the imperial examination, there have been no war-related topics in the imperial examinations. It is not that there are taboos in civil and military affairs, but the perspective of this kind of question is straightforward. It is either the main battle or the main peace, and it is difficult to find a middle ground.
This means that your paper may be so good that Tianjia looks at it, or it may make Tianjia abandon it in anger.
Except for a few who were confident, most of the students frowned and didn't know what to do.
Even Qi Huai and An Jun turned around, wanting to see what their classmates thought and wrote.
"Quiet, don't turn your head, don't peek. If you find cheating, you will be disqualified from the imperial examination." The examiner scolded sternly.
The students could only lower their heads and write hard.
Xu Mo licked the ink with the tip of his pen and did not rush to write. He thought carefully in his mind.
Wars often cause tens of thousands of casualties, and the national treasury is in short supply. Fundamentally speaking, the Tian family should not want to go to war or waste money and people.
The war was started by the Tartars again, and the Dayu Dynasty was more passively defensive and had no choice.
From this perspective, the Tian family should hope for peace and even peace talks.
The Chongqing Dynasty's treasury is empty, and after ten years of cultivation and rest, it may be possible to become completely strong.
Xu Mo nodded and was about to write when his third brother Fang Heng's autobiography suddenly sounded in his mind.
"Before I went to the border, I only thought about peace in the world, and I thought about taking a step back, but when I actually participated in the killing, I didn't know whose blood was sprayed on my face, and my heart was filled with hatred."
"The world is peaceful. It is easy to say these four words, but Dayu and the Tartars have accumulated hatred for decades and killed so many bones of each other. Can there really be peace? Even if they are in peace, those relatives who have died, Can innocent lives really be in peace?”
All the spectators, the literati on paper, can easily propose peace talks.
But only military commanders know that peace cannot be reconciled, and hatred cannot be eliminated.
Those who die will never live again.
The same is true for the people on the border in Dayu, and the same is true for the relatives of the Tartars.
So will Tianjia want to continue fighting?
The military salary to support soldiers comes from the national treasury, and the revenue from the national treasury comes from taxes. Rich businessmen can still take part of it through gritted teeth, but the already poor civilians have to save it through their teeth.
In Xu Mo's memory, the people in Shilipu Village were very poor, but they all had land, farmed, and did odd jobs in their spare time. Why were they so poor, so poor that they couldn't even eat enough?
Because of taxation.
When ordinary people harvest ten bags of grain from one acre of land, they need to pay basic agricultural taxes, miscellaneous taxes, and personal taxes. There is always zero or zero left over, which is only six or seven bags.
Logically speaking, there is enough to eat, but people live not only to eat, but also to get sick, to be filial, and to reproduce.
When you don't have enough money in your hands, you can't afford to eat when you get sick, and you can only starve when you reproduce.
Xu Mo asked himself, if he were in Tianjia's position, would he really bear to let his people starve and freeze, just to fill the national treasury?
He couldn't bear it, and he believed that Tianjia couldn't bear it either.
Therefore, stopping the war is the goal, but how to stop the war deserves consideration.
At this moment, Xu Mo was not the student who was writing furiously to gain rankings. He was a man standing in mid-air, truly overlooking the earth, and loving this dynasty from the bottom of his heart.
He hoped that everyone would have enough to eat and drink, that the people would be safe and happy, that there would be no more wars on the border, and that the soldiers would live a long life.
I don't know how long it took, but Xu Mo's pen tip paused, and he finished the last thick stroke of ink and color and put it back to its original position.
Some of the other students frowned and thought, some looked around, and some hesitated.
Qi Huai started writing early, turned around and saw him, and winked mischievously.
Xu Mo laughed and looked at An Jun again. He seemed to be struggling with something and his writing speed was very slow.
When he finally looked back, he bumped into Fang Yuan, who was fluttering in white clothes.
Neither of them evaded, they just looked at each other calmly and generously, one was gentle and polite, the other raised his eyebrows and smiled softly.
It can be seen that Fang Yuan is very confident.
A descendant of the Fang family, a military general turned civil servant, this question itself has a natural advantage.
But Xu Mo was more confident in his answer.
The examiner in the Hall of Supreme Harmony stood up, looked at the sun, and struck the gong after the tea time, "Stop writing and collect the papers."
It was also a coincidence that An Jun had just finished writing the last word and was so nervous that he dried the ink with his mouth.
The examiner personally came forward, took away more than 400 test papers, and announced the second step: reading the papers.
This is randomly selected and evaluated simultaneously by eight examiners in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. It not only tests personal ability, but also tests psychological ability.
If you are selected first, it will be a bit stressful.
Four hundred students waited with bated breath for the lucky man to appear.
Another tea time passed, and the examiner stood up and said with persistence, "Liu Ziqiu."
Except for the person involved who shivered, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.
A thin figure walked out of the crowd, stepped forward cautiously, and burped before he could open his mouth.
The examiner shook his head and gave a low rating on the paper.
"I, my name is Liu Ziqiu, my opinion is that the war should be stopped. The people's life is already difficult, and fighting more and more will only make it more difficult..." He was probably immersed in it, his tone gradually became calmer, and he became a little more calm. .
It was the second examiner's turn to evaluate, and he gave me a neither good nor bad score.
Then the third, the fourth...
The moment he finished speaking, the eighth examiner came down to evaluate and stacked them in a row with the test papers.
It seems that Qi Huai is right. Literary talent in the imperial examination is far inferior to personal conversation. Calmness is the real key.
Xu Mo closed his eyes, took deep breaths, and thought about his ideas and the way he explained them.
He didn't know how long it took, but when he opened his eyes, he saw Fang Yuan confidently walking out of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Several examiners nodded slightly, showing appreciation.
"Congratulations to Brother Fang. I wonder where you will rank."
"Brother Fang is outstanding and eye-catching. He is still fourteen years old. According to me, he deserves to be among the top three."
Already, people from the Fang family have begun to flatter him.
Fang Yuan glanced at Xu Mo from afar and said modestly, "It doesn't matter, I still hope you all will shine."
It was also a coincidence that as the examiner appeared, the word "Xu Mo" sounded clearly and clearly.
Finally, it was his turn.
