In the autumn of the third year of Chen Guoyuan's reign, September 20th
The weather is sunny and windy
The first imperial examination of Chen State began.
Outside Zichen Palace, ten people who successfully passed the literary and martial arts examinations were already waiting here. Their faces were full of confidence and excitement.
His eyes are full of beautiful longings for the future, and he dreams of being a good official who is useful to the court and the people.
Among these ten people, there were children from poor families with great ambitions, as well as children and disciples from major aristocratic families in the Chen Kingdom.
There are young men who have not yet reached their prime, and there are also older men who have passed their thirties.
But at this moment, they have all reached this position step by step among tens of thousands of candidates.
When Chen Jue established the first imperial examination, he said to the outside world that the imperial examination does not depend on family background, age, or no criminals in the family, as long as everyone thinks they can pass the examination.
Now that we have reached this point, Chen Jue will naturally not slap himself in the face.
When entering the palace examination, ten people must line up and enter in order.
This order is not random, but is arranged according to the results of the previous literary test and martial arts test.
After entering, the first place Liu Yi stood on the left, the second place Qian Wencheng stood on his right, and the others lined up in two rows according to their scores.
Seeing Chen Jue, the ten candidates looked enthusiastic and bowed and saluted: "Students have met His Majesty!"
"Flat body!"
On the high platform, Chen Jue looked majestic today, sitting on the dragon chair, looking at the ten people with majesty.
Below, hundreds of civil and military officials stood solemnly on both sides, including Cui Zhongli, Tao Yuan, Liu Xun, Wang Yuanqi and other ministers.
Perhaps because on the day before the imperial examination, Chen Jue ordered the rectification of the imperial court. Many officials were dismissed or exiled due to various crimes. Today, there are not as many officials as before.
Yesterday, before dawn, all the officials in the court were summoned to the palace by His Majesty, and one by one, they counted the evidence of their crimes over the years.
There are those who are corrupt, there are those who are prostitutes, there are those whose children take advantage of their families to beat people to death, rob civilian daughters, raise villas, visit fireworks places, and there are also those who are involved with other countries...
The offence may be big or small, but if His Majesty is concerned about it, his official position will definitely be insecure.
The aristocratic family also had guards, but Chen Jue didn't give them time to react.
When Chen Jue read a person's evidence, he immediately threw the person into prison, and ordered Jinwu to go to the mansion and ransack his home.
This move really shocked the courtiers who successfully walked out of the Wenhua Palace.
It's not like His Majesty has never been crazy before, but he didn't expect to be so crazy today.
No regard for the power behind these aristocratic families.
But to be honest, although His Majesty is crazy, he also knows how to behave, and he has not taken action against the Langya Wang family, Qinghe Cui family, Xingyang Zheng family and other aristocratic families.
And those who were dismissed from their posts, confiscated their homes, and were exiled were basically disciples from big aristocratic families, or some small aristocratic families with insufficient foundation.
But even so, His Majesty's behavior yesterday was still quite scary.
Although they all knew that His Majesty came to take a hand yesterday to make room for these people, no one said it clearly, and everyone knew it.
His Majesty has long been dissatisfied with his family, and he proposed the imperial examination just to guard against their family.
They're all here, and they can't stop them even if they try.
Just like Mr. Wang said, His Majesty has grown up now and his heart has become more ruthless.
In the past, I wasn't afraid of them kneeling together at the entrance of Wenhua Hall to threaten them, and now His Majesty is even less afraid.
After what happened yesterday, the officials present did not act recklessly, for fear of offending His Majesty, being dismissed from their posts, and possibly discovering things that were not easy for others to know before. That would be the end of it!
Anyway, if you can't say anything now, don't say anything. Just let the imperial examination pass smoothly.
well!
Sad!
All the officials present were worried, but Chen Jue didn't want to know.
After the ten candidates entered the Zichen Hall, Chen Jue's eyes were always on them.
Especially Liu Yi, the first one standing in the first row on the left.
The last time I saw Liu Yi was during the Qiu Lie martial arts test.
At that time, Liu Yi was very sharp, but today Liu Yi feels a little restrained and full of scholarly style.
Of course, he also focused on Qian Wenzhong standing next to him and the few people behind him.
At this time, the Minister of Rites came out and raised his hand towards Chen Jue, "Your Majesty, everything is ready!"
"Let's start!" Chen Jue ordered quietly.
"Yes!" Liu Xun received the order, turned around and shouted to the ten people standing in the middle: "The imperial examination begins!"
After the ten candidates bowed to Chen Jue again, they sat on the floor behind several cases in front of them, with only pen, ink, paper and inkstones on them.
When they sat down and got ready, Chen Jue sat on the high platform and asked the first question "What makes a good official".
Today's questions are no longer asked by others, but by Chen Jue himself, and the candidates hand-copy them.
This was a question he racked his brains to come up with after returning from autumn hunting.
Of course, there is also the function of Mrs. Wang.
For today's question, after returning from the autumn hunt, he would quietly leave the palace and go to the Taifu Mansion every day. Sometimes he would stay there until evening.
After the first test question came out, the ten candidates had to think about it more or less carefully, then wrote it on scrap paper, and finally wrote it on the uniformly distributed test paper.
But there are exceptions.
Liu Yi was the accident.
Only Liu Yi was slightly stunned when he heard the test questions, and then he wrote quickly on the test paper without using scrap paper.
After writing the first question, Chen Jue dictated the second question, "People's Livelihood".
This question is simple and easy to write. It has a closely connected meaning with the first question.
But when it came to the third question, the ten candidates couldn't help but be stunned again.
The third test question is no longer a word, but Chen Jue dictates a story, and the test questions are based on this story.
This story is roughly about a pampered business woman who met a scholar by chance. The two fell in love and later got married and had a son together.
Two years later, the woman's husband disliked his wife for not being able to read a single word, and they had no common language with him.
So the scholar found an outside room where he was beautiful and could talk to him about poetry and songs.
And while calculating the property of his wife's family, he intended to poison his father-in-law. After his wife's mother found out, she directly filed a petition with the scholar to the government and asked her daughter to divorce her husband.
How should I ask candidates about this?
This question has nothing to do with the previous two questions, and it has nothing to do with it.
Not only the candidates were stunned, but also the officials on the left and right sides were stunned. They had no idea that the third question asked by Chen Jue was this kind of question.
Does this have anything to do with the imperial examination?
Although I can't figure out why Chen Jue asked such a question, I still have to answer it.
The candidates thought for a moment and then began to write.
Soon, Liu Yi was the first to finish writing three questions and submit the paper.
"Your Majesty, these are three test papers from Student Liu."
