Li Guang was speechless for a moment, then he came to his senses, and then he kept silent again.

It may be that Li Guang just said it directly, so Wang Boyan's words were more direct - if the other generals were dissatisfied, would they be dissatisfied with Emperor Zhao or Yue Fei himself?

Of course it was directed at Yue Fei himself. The answer is self-evident.

Because Emperor Zhao was extremely good at handling people like Han Shizhong, Li Yanxian, and Zhang Jun... and to be fair, looking at these people's past performance, it was very obvious that they were in awe of the emperor, including the very particular Wang Yan, Lu Xing, and even the somewhat stupid Wang De. These generals had different personalities and flaws, but everyone had a unanimous understanding that one was capable of fighting and the other was loyal.

Sometimes, the ministers themselves would even grumble about the current state of affairs, especially before the emperor who was talking nonsense in the palace ascended the throne, military generals all over the world would easily surrender and rebel, and would be easily shaken. However, the people whom the emperor employed and valued, not to mention the civil officials, even the military generals, never compromised on their principles... How could he pick these people out?

You know, many times, the respect and awe that the ministers have for this official simply comes from the official's ability to judge people and the power of his support.

And without mentioning these things, back to the matter of Yue Fei, if the generals' dissatisfaction was only directed at Yue Fei, wouldn't it be better from the perspective of being a monarch? It would also ensure that Yue Fei, the youngest and most powerful soldier, would be a lone minister?

Better balance of military power?

If you think about it this way, the government's move was actually a deliberate and clever trick and could not be called frivolous.

Thinking of this, not only Li Guang, but also Xu Jingheng seemed to be thinking about it. He nodded slightly and said nothing.

But at this moment, Prime Minister Lu Haowen, who had just taken another sip of tea, shook his head slowly and resolutely: "Although the emperor has given some small warnings to the generals and ministers, it is still more likely that the emperor will put his heart in theirs. This move is definitely not his intention!"

"Then..." Wang Boyan was puzzled as he took the tea. "Aren't we going back to the beginning?"

"Not really." Lu Haowen sighed softly while holding his teacup. "I'm afraid the emperor really thinks that giving Yue Pengju a Jinshi degree is very useful?"

"What use can it be?" Li Guang also laughed while holding his teacup. "Can he be appointed as the Privy Councilor?"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Li Zhongcheng himself was stunned, and then the four important officials of the dynasty almost felt their scalps tingling and looked at each other, and then almost at the same time put the tea on the table in front of them... Because they suddenly realized that it might not be appropriate at this time, but when Yue Fei got older, he would be forty years old, and the war would almost be over, wouldn't it be okay?

Who knows, this may become a precedent and custom in the future... All Privy Councilors are appointed from the military... and they are granted a social status!

Of course, this is the case of the four important ministers judging others by their own standards.

How could Emperor Zhao think so far ahead?

He really just did this out of a desire to protect Yue Fei... You have to know that as a time traveler, Zhao Jiu never thought that Yue Fei would behave in any way because of Han Shizhong's jealousy. That would be as funny as Han Shizhong's rebellion!

He only knows that it is a false accusation!

Therefore, no matter whether this action was deliberate or opportunistic, it was by no means a frivolous act... Zhao Jiu just wanted to protect Yue Fei by cutting off the source of the trouble from the civil officials because of that groundless accusation. He just wanted to give Yue Fei a protective shell against the civil service system.

Of course, as I said before, Emperor Zhao is somewhat judging others by his own mean character, and is even a little overly worried.

Do you really think that all the ministers are Qin Changjiao? Qin Changjiao is a person who only appears once in a thousand years, right?

Moreover, Emperor Zhao is sitting firmly in the palace, who can touch his trusted and beloved generals?

Even the discussions in the Huangyi Palace today, weren't they just private discussions when people were extremely bored?

As expected, the civil and military officials sat idly with Emperor Zhao in the Huangyi Hall for no more than half an hour. As someone boldly handed in his paper in the hope of winning the first prize, everyone from the prime minister down gathered in the hall to discuss the essays of the new scholars and stopped talking about idle talk.

Moreover, although Emperor Zhao had made it clear before leaving that there was no need to follow any old customs for writing essays, in fact, there were no specific old customs for writing essays in the palace examination.

Because the core of this article is actually about "beauty" and "thorns".

Specifically, "beauty" is praise, and "criticism" is pointing out mistakes... and the object of praise and pointing out mistakes is naturally the emperor. In fact, compared with the format of the palace examination, the coexistence of "beauty" and "criticism" has been the basic criterion for judging palace examination articles since the Tang Dynasty.

In other words, this palace examination essentially requires these Jinshi to write a political essay that flatters Emperor Zhao and points out his faults. As long as the flattery is good and the criticism is on point, then this is a typical good essay for the palace examination.

And this is also the reason why many ministers are optimistic about Yue Fei and Qu Duan... There is really no need for any literary talent. Yue Fei's previous "Good Horse Pairing" is a model of in-house strategy on employing people. As for Qu Duan, it's hard to say whether he is "beautiful", but "satire" should be no problem, right?

Back to the present, it was impossible for Zhao Jiu to read all the 600 articles with the names blurred out. He just asked the prime minister, the minister, and the Hanlin scholars to review them together and decide on a rough ranking. Then Emperor Zhao would only look at the excellent ones.

Not only that, as the examination of the papers with the names covered began in the Huangyi Hall, Zhao Jiu came straight to the point this time. After deciding the rankings, he opened the names and no changes were allowed, no matter what the rankings of Yue Fei and Qu Duan were.

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