At the gate of the Imperial Palace in the capital, Liu Jin stood with many scholars, waiting to enter the palace to take part in the imperial examination.
Although Liu Jin also entered the palace once, it was only Zhu Houzhao who brought him in, and his identity was just a commoner, but now it is different.
He was a scholar of Jinke and came to the palace to take the palace examination. Regardless of whether he did well or not, according to past practice, Liu Jin was considered to have bought into the Ming Dynasty's bureaucracy.
If you do well in the palace examination and get into the top few, the next step is to enter the Hanlin Academy. After a few years in the Hanlin Academy, you can rise to the top, and if nothing unexpected happens, you can basically reach the level of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers.
Of course, if you get in the middle of the exam, not too good, and can't get into the Hanlin Academy, you can still work in the Six Ministries, be a proper Beijing official, and become an official such as the director of a certain ministry. Generally speaking, it is a place with a bright future. Of course,
, if you do not enter the Hanlin Academy, your future promotion space will be limited, and non-Hanlin candidates cannot join the cabinet. This is basically an unwritten rule.
If you don't do well in the exam and get into the bottom of the second-class or third-class rankings, don't worry, at least you will have the opportunity to become an expatriate and serve as a local official.
Although the starting point is relatively low at the beginning, maybe a minor official of the eighth or ninth rank, he is generally promoted very quickly. After working for a few years, he can be promoted to a county magistrate or something. After a few more years of working as a county magistrate, he will be promoted to county magistrate.
Able to be promoted quickly.
Generally speaking, as long as you can pass the joint examination and participate in the palace examination to become the emperor's disciple, you will have a bright future, especially those who are ranked first and second.
First, he went to the Hanlin Academy to stay for two or three years. Dozens or hundreds of people worked together to repair and compile books, or they went to the Zhanshi Mansion in the East Palace to correct calligraphy and proofreading.
Once a vacancy becomes available, it can be filled immediately, and promotions are super fast. Many people can be promoted to the position of Minister of the Sixth Ministry or Minister in just a dozen years.
The imperial examination is held every three years. There are more than a hundred Jinshi admitted from the entire Ming Dynasty. Naturally, all of them are very valuable and have a bright future. All the famous civil servants in the history of the Ming Dynasty also passed this imperial examination.
Selected from the exam.
So at this time, the fellow scholars around Liu Jin were all high-spirited and had a spring breeze on their faces. They had slowly grown from a book boy to today, and each of them had suffered countless hardships for this.
Now, finally, all the hardships have come to an end, and I have successfully realized the carp leaping over the dragon's gate, and realized the highest ideal of a scholar, working as a farmer in the morning, and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening.
"Father, have you seen it?"
Tang Yin was wearing a brand-new scholar's uniform. Looking at the group of ministers in front of him who kept walking inside, he couldn't help but ask his deceased father in his heart.
Tang Yin's family background was not that good. His father ran a tavern and his family was in decline. Therefore, his father had very high demands on him since he was a child, hoping that he could pass the imperial examination and shine brightly.
Tang Yin's family was actually very glorious. His ancestor was Tang Hui, a former Lianglingjiang general. Tang Hui's grandson Tang Yao was the prefect of Jinchang. Later, Tang Yao's son Tang Bao was named the Duke of Jinchang due to his meritorious service.
Later, Tang Bao's grandson Tang Jian followed Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to join the army and was granted the title of Duke of Ju. He was one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion. This shows that the Tang family was also very impressive. Some of them were granted the title of Duke of Ju, and they were extremely prominent.
However, by the time of the Song Dynasty, the Tang family did not have many talented people going abroad. They only produced minor officials such as censors and military officials, so they were considered to be a family of officials after all.
By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the Tang family was completely in decline. There were no more talented people, and no one was an official or general.
Because of this, his father had very strict requirements on Tang Yin. Tang Yin has been known as a child prodigy since he was a child, and he learned everything very quickly.
In the past few years, Tang Yin's father, mother, first wife and son left one after another, which was a big blow to Tang Yin, so he also placed his hope that the imperial examination could revitalize his family.
Now he finally got admitted to Jinshi as he wished, fulfilling his father's high hopes for him.
"Finally passed the exam~"
Similar to Tang Yin, young classmate Wang Shouren was filled with emotions at this time. His father was the number one scholar and he could be said to be born extraordinary. His mother was pregnant with him for fourteen months before giving birth to him. Her mother dreamed of gods before giving birth to him.
Dressed in beautiful jade, the clouds advocated that a naked child fell from the sky, so Wang Shouren was called Wang Yun at first.
To put it simply, he was born into a great person, and when he was born, he was like a saint. There was auspiciousness coming from the sky, and the great person was not good enough.
He was indeed very promising at a young age. He started attending private school at the age of twelve. At the age of fifteen, he wrote to the emperor many times to offer advice to quell the peasant uprising. At the age of fifteen, he dared to travel throughout the Ming Dynasty, and even dared to go beyond the Great Wall.
He began to learn how to check things at the age of eighteen. He is the one who talked about checking bamboos for seven days and seven nights. He already passed the imperial examination at a young age.
However, he failed repeatedly in the general examination. When he failed the first time, Li Dongyang said that if he failed this time, he would definitely win the first prize in the next imperial examination.
But next time he took the entrance examination again, he still failed, and he suddenly felt a lot of pressure. His father was the number one scholar, and he was said to be the number one scholar by big guys like Li Dongyang, but he failed the exam twice, so that
Being laughed at.
Now, he is just twenty-eight years old. He took the exam for the third time and finally passed it. He was relieved and would not be laughed at anymore. The words of this tiger father and dog son were very harsh.
It can be said that everyone present is similar to Tang Yin and Wang Shouren. Everyone looked at the courtiers entering the palace in front and felt a lot.
Well, of course, this requires the exception of Liu Jinlai.
Liu Jin has a golden finger, and he passed the imperial examination while sleeping. He has never experienced the difficulty of the imperial examination in this era, and he doesn't know what his status means now. At this moment, he feels that the strict system of ancient times is really
It's so inhumane.
He has been waiting here for more than an hour. Standing here, he can neither walk around casually nor whisper to each other. He even has to stand straight and have a certain appearance.
In short, there are many rules. For a person from the later generations, there are really too many restrictions and restraints, and he always feels very tired.
"Hey, if you failed the exam on purpose, you will definitely collapse if you go to morning court every day and stand up."
Thinking of going to the morning court, Liu Jin looked even more sad. He got up at midnight every day and waited here. He stood still for an hour or two before going to the morning court. Thinking about it, he felt that this was not something human beings do.
.
Finally, after waiting and waiting until Liu Jin's legs became numb, it was time for the new scholars to enter the palace to take the imperial examination.
The place for the palace examination was arranged in the Taihe Palace Square in front of the Jinluan Palace. At this time, the square was surrounded by the big bosses of the dynasty. On the dragon steps, Emperor Hongzhi was also sitting on his dragon chair carefree.
After a bustling ceremony, it was finally time for the exam. The emperor himself set the questions for the palace exam. Of course, sometimes the emperor was too lazy and would send an important minister to do it for him.
Emperor Hongzhi was a diligent emperor, and he attached great importance to this triennial ethics ceremony, so naturally he could not be lazy.
Emperor Hongzhi's eyes swept around Liu Jin and others, and soon locked on Liu Jin, who was sitting in the row in front, and he couldn't help but smile.
"What question should I ask?"
Emperor Hongzhi thought about it in his mind. In the palace examination, the emperor set the questions and the emperor took the test, so everyone was called the disciples of the emperor. However, the questions set by the emperor were usually related to current affairs and politics, and the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics were rarely published. After all, what the emperor needed was
Talents who can govern the country, not nerds who can only read rotten books.
"Yes~"
Soon, Emperor Hongzhi thought of something, picked up the pen and wrote a few words on the paper.
Why An Xinan~
This is the question for this imperial examination. It is also based on the current affairs and politics. Since the Ming Dynasty, the southwest has been unstable. The chieftains in the southwest often rebelled, and sometimes they even became very serious.
Now that the border troubles in the north had been temporarily put to rest with the advent of cement, Emperor Hongzhi only had the chieftain affairs in the southwestern region on his mind.
Recently, another piece of bad news came from Guizhou. The female chieftain Milu rebelled again because she had a conflict with her husband, which caused no peace in Guizhou and gave Emperor Hongzhi a headache.
The steep mountain roads in the Yunnan-Guizhou region are not suitable for large-scale battles at all. Even if the imperial court sends millions of soldiers to the Yunnan-Guizhou region, it will be in vain. There is nothing that can be done against these chieftains who are hidden deep in the mountains, old forests, and high mountains.
Emperors of all dynasties have been very troubled by the affairs in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, and they have never been able to come up with a good solution.
Now Emperor Hongzhi is also taking this matter as a test for new scholars such as Liu Jin. He wants to see what insights they can come up with. Of course, he mainly wants to see what good methods Liu Jin, a disciple of an expert, can come up with in this regard.
.
"Why Anxi?"
Soon, everyone saw the question asked by Emperor Hongzhi.
The ministers in the court suddenly began to think about it one by one. The emperor's question was obviously not random. The emperor was worried about things in the southwest. Naturally, ministers like them also had to worry about eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor.
As for Tang Bohu, Lun Wenxu, Liu Long, Fengxi and others, they all frowned and began to carefully figure out Emperor Hongzhi's intention of asking this question, and then thought about how to answer it.
This kind of test question must be very difficult for those nerds who are obsessed with studying. You can't study by rote. After all, you still have to apply what you have learned.
"Why Anxi?"
Liu Jin looked at the test question, thought about it carefully, picked up the pen and started writing. The beginning was the four characters "Gie Tu Gui Liu".