After all the candidates calmed down and accepted the news again, they all saluted Zhao Zhen and thanked the emperor for his grace.
Zhao Zhen ordered everyone to refrain from courtesy and said: "It's getting late today. Please leave the palace and go back to your home. When the day comes, I will personally congratulate you." Then he ordered the internal officials to lead all the candidates out of the palace.
After all the candidates left, some of the officials who had followed Zhao Zhen in came after Zhao Zhen to remonstrate and inquire about the reason for the matter.
Among them, Lu Jie, the imperial censor, directly stopped Zhao Zhen who was about to leave. He said: "Why did your Majesty suddenly make this decision today? Is there anything wrong with changing the ancestral law so easily?"
After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said: "Of course I decided this matter after careful consideration. Firstly, I have read the test papers of this time's candidates, and they all have real talents and practical knowledge. Secondly, this dynasty treats literati preferentially, but there have been palace examinations in recent years. Those who failed were unable to return to their hometowns, and some even lived in Bianjing for decades. I couldn't bear to see them. If there were really untalented people, they should be deposed. But if everyone is talented and learned, I would feel uneasy if they were forced to depose them. ah."
When Lu Ji wanted to say something, Zhao Zhen said first: "Isn't the palace examination just for the court to select available people? There are many available people now. Isn't it that you are happy for the court? Or do you think that today's officials It’s enough, I don’t think there is any need for so many Jinshi.”
Then, Zhao Zhen looked around at the officials who were blocking him and said: "If you really have this idea, why don't you bring it up at the meeting tomorrow and let all the officials in the court discuss it together. If all the officials agree then, it will be I also agree with reinstating deposed people and reducing the number of Jinshi."
After hearing this, Lu Jie and the others could not dare to agree, otherwise they would offend the world's scholars. Moreover, all officials in the court had children at home who wanted to take the scientific examination. How could they dare to bring up such a thing at the court meeting? This idea.”
Zhao Zhen said with a smile: "That's good. Since nothing happens, then the matter will be settled. If you are not the officials who read and grade the papers this time, you should leave the palace earlier, or wait. It’s inconvenient if the palace door is locked.”
After hearing this, everyone said in unison: "Old minister, please retire." After that, they left the palace.
The candidates on the other side followed the imperial officer out of the palace. When the imperial officer left, the palace door was closed. Familiar people among the candidates naturally gathered together and walked out of the long street, because the carriages everyone came in could only stop there, and then walked to the palace gate. Now if you want to take the carriage, you can only walk first. past.
A full moon hangs in the sky, emitting a cool light, like a crystal clear white jade plate. The moon is bright and the stars are sparse. There are really few real stars in the night sky.
This full moon also illuminates the smiles on the faces of these scholars on the ground. After all, except for those who have excellent grades and are confident that they can come out on top, the others are satisfied after knowing that they will not be deposed.
If it weren't for the announcement of the results in three days, and I was worried that the commotion would be too eye-catching, many people would have gathered their friends and gone to restaurants to have fun.
Here, Li Hao, the Zeng brothers, and Sheng Changbai were also walking together, and their whole bodies were filled with a happy atmosphere. Then I heard Li Hao say: "I didn't expect that the official family would be so supportive of Academician Ouyang and even change the rules for dismissal in the palace examination. I'm afraid those who want to see Academician Ouyang unlucky will be dumbfounded."
Only Zeng Gong was a little confused and said: "Yes, this is indeed unexpected. It seems that the official family has long disliked this corrupt writing style, and it just so happened that the teacher did what he wanted this time, and it should not only be that, The officials probably have other considerations, I don’t know what they are.”
After hearing this, Li Hao said: "Why do you want this? Anyway, it seems to be a good thing for us now. Let's consider other things later."
The others nodded after hearing this.
When everyone almost reached the place where the carriage was parked, the servants saw them from a distance and gathered around them. Then I heard Fu Deng say: "Master, why did you come out? The master even asked someone to come and ask why the master hasn't returned home yet. Hearing me say that he didn't see anyone coming back, he waited with me again. After a while, I went back to report back to the master and the lady. Now I guess the master and the lady are impatient."
Li Hao said: "In that case, let's go back quickly." After saying that, he said goodbye to Sheng Changbai and said: "Brother Changbai, please leave early. I guess your family members are also waiting impatiently. Originally, I said I would try it out after We went to Fan Tower to get together, but something went wrong again and we didn't make it. This time, after the results of the palace examination are released, we will definitely go to Fan Tower to celebrate again."
Sheng Changbai nodded in agreement, and then everyone got on their carriages and went back to their homes.
After Li Hao returned home, Wei and Li Jian hurried over to greet him and asked why he came back so late.
Wei said: "Didn't you say that the palace examination will end at Mao o'clock at most? Why is it so late today? Fortunately, none of the people I told Fu Deng came out when I sent someone to ask Fu Deng. Otherwise, I would be anxious to death."
After hearing this, Li Hao smiled and said: "It's okay. It's a good thing to come out tonight. The official announced today that the imperial examination will not be held, which means that I have passed the Jinshi examination now."
After hearing this, Li Jian and Wei asked Zeng Gong in surprise, "Is this true?"
Zeng Gong said: "Of course, congratulations to my uncle and aunt for becoming a Jinshi."
After hearing this, Li Jian and Mrs. Wei hugged each other excitedly. Li Hao, on the other hand, smiled at Zeng Gong after hearing this and said, "I would like to congratulate my brother on passing the Jinshi examination." Then the Zeng family brothers congratulated each other when they heard this. By the end of the congratulations, everyone looked at each other and then laughed together. Show your full enjoyment. After all, ten years of hard study, today is the reward.
The same was true for the Sheng family. Mrs. Wang learned about this from Sheng Changbai and almost arranged for people to set off firecrackers to celebrate in the middle of the night. Fortunately, Sheng Hong finally persuaded her to stop, saying that she would wait until the rankings were known after the results were released. As for Minglan, after hearing the news, she was happy for Changbai and Li Hao, and also happy for her aunt. She was happy that someone could help the Wei family shine.
After everyone else left, the Chongzheng Hall in the palace was still brightly lit. Because the officials of the Li Yuan and Hanlin Academy staying in the palace tonight are still busy, they need to seal all the examination papers overnight. However, due to the rush of time, the palace examination ink scrolls do not need to be transcribed into red scrolls, but directly sealed with official seals. The sealed seal will be sent to the examiner, who will then hand it over to the grading officer for storage, waiting for grading on the next day.
At midnight on March 16, seventeen examiners entered the palace and began to review the examination papers. Since the marking time is only one day, it is really difficult to comment on each imperial examination article one by one and distinguish the good from the bad in such a short period of time, not to mention that the level of many candidates is not very different. Therefore, the top ten papers in the imperial examination are often selected first and submitted to the examiner in advance. If nothing else happens, the top three in the first class are often produced from these ten papers, and the other seven will also occupy the top few in the second class.
After all, the examination took more than half a month to mark, and was screened by several examiners. In addition, the examination was more comprehensive. Compared with the palace examination, which was shorter in time and narrower in scope, it was a good test. reference opinions.
Therefore, the examiner will pre-select a total of ten test papers for the emperor to read tomorrow, and decide the order of the test papers for the emperor to read. The remaining more than 300 test papers were evaluated and classified by all the paper readers. If the examiner thinks the paper is good, he will put an "O" on it; if he thinks it is not good, he will put an "X" on the paper. The more "O"s there are, the higher the final ranking will be. However, now that the top ones have been decided, the ranking order of these remaining papers does not seem so important.
As a result, the examiner will roughly read all the papers and divide the papers with good scores into the first and second grades. After the scores are sorted, the examiner will collect the first-class papers and judge them as second-class, and the next second-class papers will be judged as third-class.
On March 17, all the papers will be arranged in the planned order and await the emperor's inspection.
