Chapter 126: The Unhappy Song Huizong

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, the Water Margin world reached the time of the imperial palace examination.

Among them, Zhang Jie and Li Gang both passed the Metropolitan Examination and obtained the title of Gongshi.

However, I don't know if Zhang Jie did not put all his energy into the imperial examination,

or if his article did not suit the appetite of the chief examiner of the Metropolitan Examination, Cai Jing.

Although he passed the Gongshi, he did not get the title of the first place in the Metropolitan Examination, that is, the Huiyuan.

At this point, the old housekeeper Zhang Zhong, teacher Li Xiucheng, and good friends like Chen Wenyun when taking the Provincial Examination, had their expectations for him to be the top three in the imperial examination,

gathering Jieyuan, Huiyuan, and Zhuangyuan in one, shattered.

Zhang Jie was not angry: anyway, he didn't plan to work for Great Song.

Now coming to participate in the imperial examination was just to give an account to his cheap old father Zhang Dahu,

teacher Li Xiucheng, and himself who had struggled for the imperial examination for the first ten years, who had high hopes for him in this life.

And passing the Gongshi was already something the old Zhang family in Yanggu County had dreamed of.

In the Xuanhe Hall of the Bianliang Imperial Palace, Song Huizong, who had been on the throne for more than ten years,

Zhao Ji, was concentrating on depicting a flower and bird painting.

Beside him were also accompanied by Great Song heavy ministers such as Gao Qiu, the Grand Marshal of the Palace, and Tongguan, the Commissioner of the Privy Council.

Zhao Ji had a round and rich face, a full face, and a slender figure, overall carrying an air of wealth and Confucianism.

If it weren't for the dragon robe on his body, and Tongguan,

Gao Qiu and others waiting respectfully on the side, it would almost make people think he was a well-learned scholar,

rather than the Great Song Emperor who dominated the life and future of tens of millions of people in Great Song.

"Emperor, the results of the palace examination have basically come out.

These are the better test papers selected by me and several other Privy Council members,

please Emperor, appreciate and decide the final ranking."

After a while, Cai Jing, the Prime Minister of Great Song who sheltered from the wind and rain outside and almost covered the sky with one hand, respectfully offered several test papers.

Cai Jing: In our Great Song Dynasty, only one person can call the wind and rain, and that is the Emperor!

And only one person can shelter from the wind and rain, and that is me!

"Oh? Have the results of the palace examination come out?"

Zhao Ji stood up straight and handed the wolf hair brush in his hand slightly.

The next second, a eunuch immediately took the wolf hair brush from his hand.

This wolf hair brush looked unremarkable, but it was actually worth thousands of gold:

The brush holder was made of the best green jade tribute from the Western Regions, crystal clear;

The brush head color was light brown, the tip was golden and bright, and it was made of the best quality, long tail hair,

high density, and strong rigidity produced in the Northeast region (Heilongjiang,

Jilin, Liaoning), "Liao tail" and "Yuan tail" combined.

Its elasticity was soft and elastic, the brush was easy to spread, the resistance was weak, and it was the best of the best in the brush.

And the ink, paper, and inkstone on the table were by no means ordinary products:

The paper was one of the best papers recognized by Great Song,

made of sandalwood bark and high-quality rice straw, with a smooth and round texture,

white and flawless tribute rice paper, also sought after by scholars as jade version rice paper.

The ink was tribute from Huizhou, with the characteristics of "falling on paper like lacquer, color black and moist, long-lasting and not fading",

praised for "paper and brush not sticky, fragrance rich, rich muscle and greasy texture";

described as "light to pick up, clear to grind, fragrant to smell, hard as jade, silent to grind" Huizhou ink.

The inkstone was warm as jade, simple and atmospheric in shape, giving people a down-to-earth She inkstone.

Seeing a spot and knowing the whole leopard, clearly although Song Huizong boasted of his simple life,

the utensils and ingredients used in his food, clothing, housing, and transportation were all human treasures that were difficult to describe in simple silver money.

"Exactly."

Cai Jing was already used to all this, and he still maintained a respectful posture.

Although the palace examination was the highest level of examination in Great Song every three years,

and it was the highest palace hall of the imperial examination that countless scholars in the world longed for,

but for this Great Song Emperor who had been on the throne for more than ten years in front of him,

it was already a trivial matter that he had experienced many times, not only familiar with the road, but also a bit impatient.

Just like this time, this Emperor only appeared at the very beginning,

showed the existence of the Great Song Emperor to all the Gongshi and turned away,

and all the subsequent matters were fully responsible by their several examiners.

"Present it."

Zhao Ji waved his hand indifferently,

how many years had it been, the palace examination was still the same, without any new ideas.

Immediately, the eunuch who received the order took the test paper from Cai Jing and sent it to the imperial desk in front of Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji opened the first test paper and looked at it a few times,

and then put it aside, clearly this test paper did not enter his eyes.

The next few were the same.

Tongguan and Gao Qiu, who were standing on the side, looked at each other and continued to look at their noses and hearts.

One of them was a lucky person who was not from the imperial examination and relied entirely on the Emperor's appreciation to get to the top;

one was a eunuch who had lost his second brother, and this imperial examination basically had nothing to do with them.

"Eh!"

Opening another test paper and looking at it for a few times, Zhao Ji couldn't help but let out a light sound.

What made his eyes shine was not how much the content of this test paper met his wishes,

or how much the policy theory on it hit the point of Great Song,

but the words on it were flying like dragons and dancing like phoenixes, silver hooks and iron strokes, the font was exceptionally elegant and agile,

and it had the same effect as the thin gold body he invented,

or it could be said that the candidate who wrote this test paper probably got inspiration from his thin gold body.

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!"

Zhao Ji watched it as if drinking fine wine, as if seeing a confidant like Boya and Ziqi.

"Cai Aiqing, what is the name of the candidate for this test paper, and where is he from?"

After admiring for a while, Zhao Ji asked with unfinished interest.

'It seems that the Zhuangyuan this time is this person.'

Tongguan, Gao Qiu, and Cai Jing all had this thought in their hearts.

Unlike the decision of the first place in the Provincial Examination and Metropolitan Examination, which required the chief examiner and other examiners to discuss,

the ranking of the palace examination was entirely decided by the Emperor.

The Emperor even wanted to appoint the last place in the Metropolitan Examination,

that is, the Sun Shan in the name of Sun Shan, as the Zhuangyuan.

Cai Jing had already remembered the names and hometowns of the candidates for these test papers on the way to report, and he replied without thinking:

"Reporting to the Emperor, the candidate for this test paper is Zhang Renjie from Yanggu County, Shandong."

"Zhang Renjie, this name seems to have been heard somewhere by me."

Zhao Ji knocked on the imperial desk, only feeling that the name Zhang Renjie was very familiar,

but for a while, he couldn't remember it.

Gao Qiu, the favorite minister, saw Zhao Ji's doubt,

so he stood out without hesitation, bowed and reminded:

"Emperor, this Zhang Renjie is the Zhang Xingwang who wrote "Shan Po Yang · Tongguan Huaigu"."

"Shan Po Yang, Zhang Xingwang."

Hearing these two names, Zhao Ji's face sank suddenly, and the joy on his face disappeared instantly:

"Prosperous, the people suffer; perished, the people suffer.

Could it be that Great Song is not thriving and the people are living and working in peace and contentment in my hands?

I destroyed the Gusiluo regime, set up the Longyou Protectorate,

and included the eastern part of Qinghai and the Huangshui River basin into the territory.

I also practiced the Western Army diligently, and the destruction of Western Xia is just around the corner.

Even the Yanyun that made Taizong stumble, I have also made arrangements,

and it is not impossible to take back the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun in the future.

The territory of Great Song has expanded by more than a thousand miles in my hands,

how dare he write a lyric to satirize me?"

He instantly felt that the test paper he had just appreciated was also hateful.

Slap!

The furious Zhao Ji threw Zhang Jie's test paper on the imperial desk,

even if part of it was drowned by the splashed ink, he didn't care.

"Emperor, calm down!"

Seeing Zhao Ji's anger, Tongguan, Cai Jing, Gao Qiu and others bowed together and hurriedly persuaded.

"That Zhang Renjie directly wrote a lyric to satirize me, how can I calm down?"

Zhao Ji said angrily.

"Emperor, that Zhang Renjie must be a scholar who has read too much and doesn't know your painstaking efforts.

In my humble opinion, why not dismiss him directly and give him a lesson."

Gao Qiu flattered Zhao Ji.

As for Zhang Jie's resentment after knowing?

What can a scholar who offended the Emperor and absolutely has no future in Great Song do to him, the Grand Marshal Gao?

Zhao Ji was instantly moved when he heard this: "Doesn't he like to criticize current affairs?

Then I will let him be a white-clothed prime minister for a lifetime like Liu Yong!"

This Liu Yong was the famous Liu Sanbian among the scholars of Great Song.

During the time of Emperor Renzong, Renzong remembered the sentence "endure to exchange fame for shallow drinking and low singing" in Liu Yong's lyric,

and specially dismissed him,

saying: "Just go for shallow drinking and low singing, why do you need fame?"

Since then, Liu Yong, who was desperate for his official career, called himself "Liu Sanbian who fills lyrics by imperial decree", and boasted of himself as a "white-clothed prime minister",

lingering in the red-light district for his whole life, poor and frustrated, and died in depression.

Even his funeral was handled by several prostitutes raising money, which was extremely miserable.

"Emperor, no, absolutely not!"

Seeing that Zhao Ji intended to dismiss Zhang Jie like Renzong dismissed Liu Yong, Cai Jing hurriedly spoke to dissuade him.

Zhao Ji looked unhappy when he heard this: he was the dignified Great Song Emperor,

could he not decide whether to admit a jinshi or not?

Gao Qiu, who was good at observing words and colors, saw Zhao Ji's thoughts instantly,

knowing that the Emperor was not suitable to argue directly with a minister like Cai Jing;

and knowing that he, the favorite minister, was the one to say what the Emperor couldn't say,

and do what the Emperor couldn't do, Gao Qiu immediately stood out and refuted Cai Jing:

"Why not?

The Emperor is the undisputed master of the millions of people in our Great Song.

Under the whole world, is it not the king's land. On the shore of the land, is it not the king's minister.

Not to mention dismissing one Zhang Renjie, even dismissing ten or a hundred is just a word from the Emperor!"

"Hmm."

Zhao Ji nodded imperceptibly.

"Emperor, Renzong officially issued an edict in the second year of Jiayou that 'the palace examination for jinshi,

none shall be dismissed', this is the old system of the ancestors, absolutely cannot be changed!"

Seeing Zhao Ji moved, Cai Jing had to move out Renzong's old edict.

"Renzong..."

Mentioning Renzong, Zhao Ji couldn't refute directly.

After all, although Renzong had no heirs and was not his direct ancestor,

his legal source of the throne was Renzong.

Anyone in Great Song could refute Renzong, but he, the Great Song Emperor, could not,

refuting it would be a major event that shook the foundation of rule.

However, he couldn't refute it, which didn't mean his subordinates couldn't refute it circuitously.

He immediately gave Gao Qiu a look.

"Humph!"

Getting the hint, Gao Qiu had a bottom in his heart, and he snorted coldly:

"The Emperor is the most wise and martial master in our Great Song for a hundred years,

even compared to Taizu and Taizong, he is not inferior.

Since this is the case, what is wrong with changing a little bit of the ancestor's law?

Moreover, didn't Renzong also dismiss Liu Sanbian at the list?

This is not the Emperor changing the ancestor's law, but actually acting according to the ancestor's law!"

After speaking, he scanned Cai Jing a few times and said unkindly:

"Prime Minister Cai, as the chief examiner of the Metropolitan Examination, that Zhang Renjie should call you a teacher.

Are you shielding your student?"

"You, you are slandering!"

Cai Jing was almost vomited blood by Gao Qiu's words.

Yes, according to convention, Gongshi should visit the chief examiner of the Metropolitan Examination after passing, to establish the name of teacher and student.

But that Zhang Renjie didn't come to find him at all after passing!

He was lying down and getting shot!

After hearing Gao Qiu's words, Zhao Ji also frowned:

Could it be that Cai Jing's forming a party for private interests had reached this point?

The instinct of an emperor told him that the people below must be balanced and absolutely cannot be dominated by one family!

Cai Jing, who had also reached the peak of his ability to observe words and colors, knew that he had to use a big move,

he gritted his teeth and said a name that was absolutely taboo in Great Song:

"Emperor, have you not heard the story of Zhang Yuan?"

"Zhang Yuan, does that Zhang Renjie dare to learn from Zhang Yuan?"

Hearing the name Zhang Yuan, Zhao Ji's elegant face instantly turned into a pig liver color.

Who is this Zhang Yuan?

This person is the number one traitor in Great Song for a hundred years!

Zhang Yuan was originally from Huayin County, Huazhou, Yongxing Army Road, Great Song.

When he was young, he "regarded himself as a hero", "was spirited and had vertical and horizontal talents", and was outstanding.

After being dismissed in the palace examination, he felt that his talents were difficult to display, so he decided to betray Song and join Xia.

In the fourth year of Tianshou Lifa Yanzuo of Western Xia, in the Battle of Haoshuichuan,

he assisted Yuanhao to defeat the Song army led by Ren Fu and others.

The Song army lost more than 10,000 people in battle, and looking at the corpses of the Song army all over Haoshuichuan,

the other wounded and escapees were countless.

He also arrogantly wrote a poem on the wall of Jieshang Temple:

"Xia Song is not towering, Han Qi is not strange. The dragon and tiger chariot is full of rivers,

still talking about military machines", to satirize the then prime ministers Han Qi, Xia Song and others of Great Song.

Since then, Great Song lost its strategic initiative against Western Xia and could only defend passively.

It was only because Western Xia was small and had few people that Great Song had reversed some disadvantages in the last ten or twenty years.

And his betrayal of Song directly prompted Renzong to reform the imperial examination system:

Cancel the elimination system at the end of the palace examination, and all those who pass the Gongshi and participate in the palace examination will be granted "Jinshi status",

or "Tong Jinshi status", to prevent the outflow of talent.

"Your Majesty, must be guarded against."

At this time, Tongguan, who had been silent, also joined the ranks of dissuasion.

Tongguan was tall and fierce, with a loud voice, without any femininity of a eunuch,

just like a real man who commanded millions of troops and crossed the world,

and just like his appearance, he was one of the most capable generals in Great Song today.

He didn't care whether Zhang Jie was dismissed or not, but the matter of Zhang Jie possibly defecting to Western Xia or Great Liao was related to his practical interests.

He was still counting on one day to lead the army north,

take back the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, and become the only different-surname king in Great Song!

For him who had actually lost his descendants, there was no need to think about the continuation of blood,

all he wanted now was to leave his name on those three feet of bamboo silk!

"This..."

Thinking of the tragic consequences of Zhang Yuan's defection, Zhao Ji was also a bit shaken:

He was the ruler of a country after all, and he could distinguish between his own temporary preferences and the shaking of the foundation of the country.

As for directly giving Zhang Jie death to end the future trouble?

That was a bit of a joke.

Is the foundation of Great Song to love the people like children and seek welfare for the people?

Wrong, the foundation of our Great Song is "the Emperor and the scholar-officials share the world"!

Zhang Jie, as one of the representatives of the contemporary scholar-officials, could fall to his death,

drown in the water, or even choke to death on water, but he could not be given death by him! ===== CHAPTER 127 =====

As one of the representatives of the contemporary scholar-official class, Zhang Jie could trip and fall to his death,

drown after falling into water, or even choke to death on water, but he absolutely could not be ordered to die by him!