Let me see which unlucky person was chosen!

The prince has a lame leg and can't run away at all.

The old emperor tapped the thick branch in his hand and smiled at his troubled son.

"Gao Xian, I haven't hit you for a long time, and you've become a spoiled brat, right?"

"How many families did you plunder to get all these jewels?!"

The thunderous sound frightened the prince and he shivered: "Dad, I... I don't know..."

The old emperor sneered: "You really don't know, you ordered the servants to do all these, right? You are only responsible for getting the things, and the prince doesn't care how many families are broken up."

The prince flexibly got behind Prime Minister Dou and stuck his head out: "Dad, please listen to my explanation! I specially asked someone to watch me, how could I plunder you!"

The old emperor stared at his son, with a storm of anger in his eyes: "Of course I believe you must have sent people to supervise, but the results are here. There is only one possibility, when they plundered, I have kept you in the dark. How many times have I told you not to act frivolously and never treat people as fools - are you going to say that these pearls and gems were picked up from the river or dug from the mountain! " [

Mission completed perfectly!]

A familiar voice of joy rang in his ears, causing the old emperor's anger to stagnate.

Xu Yanmiao? Why is he here? Could it be that -

the old emperor understood and squinted at the prince: "Are you looking for Xu Yanmiao?"

The prince nodded frantically: "Dad, if you don't believe me, you should believe Xiao Bai Ze!"

His father was stunned for a moment.

His father nodded: "You are right."

"But your father still wants to beat you."

This time it was the prince's turn to be stunned.

"

Your Highness, are you okay?"

Xu Yanmiao asked very carefully.

The prince lay straight on the bed, his face swollen, and one of his hands was tied up like a wasp's nest.

"I'm not well." He said expressionlessly, "Do you think I look very well?"

If Xu Yanmiao's thoughts had not reached their ears in time, his father would have regarded him as a bully who bullied the people in the village and broken his other leg to prevent him from going out to oppress the people.

Xu Yanmiao held the pestle and turned it the last half circle. He wiped the herbs with a cloth strip, made a medicine bandage, and took it to the prince to change it.

He looked very patient, but he complained in his heart: [I didn't expect you to take the old emperor to see it without even checking the goods. ]

[What if I have never seen the world and think that the emperor carrying a golden hoe is the ultimate luxury? ]

The prince turned over and showed a guilty look.

Isn't it that he is... too excited and didn't think about taking a look first?

"By the way, Xu Yanmiao, help me up."

"Oh, okay, where are you going, Your Highness?"

"Longmen Mountain!"

"But your leg..."

His legs were already inconvenient to begin with, and it became even more difficult to move after the injury.

The prince supported Xu Yanmiao, limping, with a strong will: "Let's go!"

When they arrived in front of the jewel house guarded by guards on Longmen Mountain, the prince said angrily: "Xu Lang! My father didn't believe me! I assured him that I definitely didn't make any "Jewelry Compendium" and search the country for rare treasures, but he didn't believe it and ridiculed me, saying that seeing is believing. Could these rare treasures be picked up from the ground!"

"This house was built by Xu Lang." When he turned to face Xu Yanmiao, he was calm again: "I believe Xu Lang is definitely not a villain. This house must have been built by you using other methods. It has nothing to do with the blood and sweat of the people."

But Xu Yanmiao was so moved that he said on the spot: "Your Highness, there are relics on the walls, on the ground, and on the roof. They are burnt out of chicken bones and mouse bones. It's not expensive... Hmm? What's that sound?"

Xu Yanmiao turned his head and saw that the bushes in the dark seemed to be shaking, which was scary. He reached out to pull out the musket.

The prince suddenly became very excited, and he pulled Xu Yanmiao's shoulders to push him towards him: "It's just a fat rat, don't worry about it! Xu Lang, what did you just say, these are all made from chicken bones?!"

"And rat bones."

"All the same, all the same! Xu Lang, this matter is very important, can you tell me in detail how it was burned?"

"Okay."

Xu Yanmiao said.

Behind the bushes, there were one, two, three, four people squatting, the emperor took the lead, the minister looked in, and a group of people sneaked around, stealthily pulling aside the vines and looking in Xu Yanmiao's direction.

Although Xu Yanmiao had said in his mind that the glittering house was made of worthless chicken bones, the moment he said it himself, the old emperor's upright body tilted slightly, causing the bushes to shake. Beside

him, the Minister of Revenue held his breath, his face flushed, and he almost fainted.

A chicken bone is a pearl. If you use those pearls to embroider a pearl shirt, it can be sold for at least 100,000 yuan, and the raw material is just a pile of chicken bones!

The treasury will have money again!!!

Although there are mountains of gold and silver being mined, who would complain about having too much money!

The emperor and the Minister of Revenue looked at each other, and they both reached a consensus at this moment.

"Seventy-three! Seven for the national treasury, three for the inner treasury!"

"While others don't know that these things are worthless, sell them to the wealthy nobles in the country first!"

"Then take them out to sea!"

The two men held hands tightly, and the glittering light of money in their eyes almost blinded the other ministers.

The Minister of Rites decided to join.

He offered a plan: "I heard that India is rich and has many Buddhists. I think they must hope that their monks can burn out relics."

- Because the court has been cracking down on various temples, the monks in the country can only sincerely fast and chant Buddha. The phenomenon of being rich enough to annex village land and annexing hundreds or thousands of acres of land like in the last years of the previous dynasty has never appeared again.

The old emperor: "!!!"

The Minister of Revenue: "!!!"

This idea...

Wonderful!

The three old bitches exchanged glances, which seemed to contain thousands of words.

Although

the prince's actions allowed his father to use the relic-making method openly, he was still beaten again.

His father took a rolled-up book and knocked on his forehead again and again, sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily, as if he was playing a drum.

"Stupid! After all this time, you still haven't realized that Xu Yanmiao is a double-edged sword. You deserve to have your hand cut off."

The prince questioned: "Then why don't you still use him, father? You let him be the chief examiner for the Spring Examination in February next year. Aren't you afraid of problems?"

"What to be afraid of." The old emperor seemed to be thinking about the right description and smiled slightly: "Xu Yanmiao is best at doing things within the rules and regulations - haven't you noticed that he never makes mistakes when doing what he should do in his official position?"

- Your mistake before was that you didn't explain in detail what should be done and what shouldn't be done. It's no wonder that Xu Yanmiao is so imaginative.

"Really?"

The prince looked at the old emperor suspiciously.

Why did he think it was just his father's illusion? Xu Yanmiao did not have any problems in his official duties, but whether there will be any unexpected incidents depends on whether God has mercy on the people around him.

*

Suddenly, he was given the task of being the chief examiner of the imperial examination. Xu Yanmiao was overjoyed on the surface and thanked the Lord for his grace, but in fact, he was already using the emoticon "I really want to be a salted fish" in his heart.

——In addition to compiling history recently, he has also been selecting suitable candidates to fill the vacancies of official positions. Now there is another spring examination...

"I'm so tired that I'll just die QAQ"

Xu Yanmiao rubbed his face hard and began to read the imperial examination questions over the years.

[The old emperor must be crazy. I was nineteen years old and he asked me to set questions for the students to take the imperial examinations. Many of them were older than me. He was really relieved. 】

【How is this different from writing the college entrance examination paper at the age of nineteen. 】

The Minister of War, the deputy chief examiner of the Spring Examination and the Grand Academician of the Huagai Palace, was thinking the same thing.

Other things are fine, but isn't it too risky to let Xiao Bai Ze set the questions for the imperial examination? Xiao Bai Ze didn't even seem to have read the Analects in its entirety.

Just as he was thinking, a voice came hesitantly: "Minister Li, regarding the question setting for the imperial examination, I would like to ask about the pulse of this."

When he looked up, he saw Xu Yanmiao looking straight at him with a serious expression.

The Minister of War suddenly realized something.

It seems... even if this person wails in his heart that things are difficult, he will grit his teeth and do it - whether he does it well or not is another matter, but he is indeed not afraid to step into new areas.

He has such a temperament, and Your Majesty is willing to cultivate him. Given time, he will surely be able to rise high in the imperial court and hold the position of one of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers.

This thought popped up, and the next thought rushed to his mind -

Your Majesty, should you give Xu Yanmiao as many opportunities to gain experience as possible before your life ends? At least even if anything happens, the founding emperor's ability can cover him up?

Thinking too much, the Minister of War quickly pulled his thoughts back, asked Xu Yanmiao to sit down, and patiently explained to him the inside story of the imperial examination questions.

"There is a customary practice for the spring examination. The first round tests three questions on the Four Books and four questions on the Five Classics; the second round tests one essay, five judgments, and one internal examination on imperial edicts, imperial decrees, and memorials; the third round tests five questions on classics, history, and current affairs."

"The first and second rounds are not the focus. You can just figure out the questions. The most important thing is the third round..."

＊

After leaving the government office and on the way home, Xu Yanmiao kept thinking about the explanation of the Minister of War.

The third round, five questions on classics, history, and current affairs, focuses on examining students' insight into current affairs, understanding of national policies, and research on laws and decrees.

At the same time, it is actually testing the examiners who set the questions. Their political stance and will can be seen from the content of their questions.

At this point, the Minister of War gave him two impromptu examples: "In the previous dynasty, Emperor Wen of Zhou seized the throne from his nephew. In the first imperial examination after he ascended the throne, the inner curtain officials flattered him a little. The topic of the policy essay that year was summarized as 'A clean emperor is the act of a great sage and a great saint. When a country is about to fall, a sage will be born to support the country.' The chief examiner that year was directly promoted from the Minister of Personnel to the Minister of Rites." "

Also, during the time of Emperor Jing of Zhou, the empress dowager committed adultery with court officials and caused chaos in the palace. The chief examiner asked questions to satirize this matter, asking about 'propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame'."

After he said this, Xu Yanmiao had a general idea in his mind.

[I understand! The test questions are targeted at people! ]

[I know how to ask questions! ! ! 】

Forget about targeting the emperor, he also wants to save his life.

But the emperor can't do that,

there are still candidates for this spring examination! Now many candidates have arrived in the capital to prepare for the spring examination three months later. Many candidates have come in and out of the officials' mansions during this period, and the inns near the examination hall are also full of people.

He doesn't pick people on purpose, he just checks the gossip about whoever he meets.

If the other party is not filial to his parents, he will use "filial piety" as the topic.

If the other party bullies the weak and bullies students in school, he will use "great revenge" as the topic.

If the other party hides his marriage history, abandons his wife and children, or becomes a son-in-law for the imperial examination but is prepared to eat up the whole family, he will use "criminal law" as the topic.

...

【Great! It's decided! 】

Xu Yanmiao happily went to the street where the students usually lived. On the way, she bought a freshly fried meat pie and ate it while walking.

——Next, let him see which unlucky family was chosen!

...

There was a boat parked at the ferry on the bank of Luoshui River.

Three people came out of the cabin, two men and one woman.

One was nearly fifty years old, but his appearance was very majestic. He was very neat and tidy, and his clothes were not wrinkled at all.

One was in his twenties, with a dignified appearance and a delicate appearance, but his eyebrows were filled with pride.

There was also a woman with a girlish bun, a quiet demeanor, but very energetic eyes.

Before they got off the boat, several strong men came over carrying three sedan chairs. They walked quickly to the three of them, put down the sedan chairs one by one, and said with a humble look, "Mr. Ji, my dear, my lady, please get on the sedan chair."

A sedan chair is a kind of sedan chair, with a bamboo chair placed between two poles. It is carried by two sedan bearers, one in front and one behind. The thick ropes from the friction on their shoulders support the poles, ensuring that the sedan chair will not shake.

The woman shook her head, turned around and left.

Ji Gong opened his mouth slightly, then closed it silently. Looking at the woman's back, he signaled several strong servants to follow closely.

The young man simply couldn't believe his eyes. He swallowed his saliva and asked carefully: "Foster father, A Zheng, this is..."

Ji Gong, or Ji Sui, did not answer, but just lowered his thick eyelashes and asked lightly: "Are you sure about this spring examination?"

The young man cleared his throat and said proudly: "The top place must be my son!"

Ji Sui nodded slightly: "Then you will be the top three."

The young man smiled in response.

The two got on the sedan chair.

In addition to the sedan chair bearers, a dozen strong servants quickly ran down from the boat and trotted to the front of the sedan chair to clear the way to prevent collisions between people and animals.

There were also seven or eight strong servants behind the sedan chair, carrying luggage and bookcases, with great pomp and circumstance.

On the sedan chair, Ji Sui spoke again: "I will take you to meet my friends later, let them comment on your policy and discuss the situation in the capital."

The young man showed no abnormality, and seemed to be very flattered and not surprised. He just bowed and said: "Thank you, foster father."

Ji Sui was really more and more satisfied.

This young man was originally a student in the prefecture where he governed. He was smart and studious. Unfortunately, his parents died, so he had to suspend his studies and return home to farm.

Although he was poor, he was kind-hearted. There was a cemetery about 10 to 20 miles west of his village, where the ownerless corpses were dumped. They were exposed to the wind and sun every day, and were eaten by wild animals. He was hurt by the sight, and he went to the cemetery every day after finishing his farm work, picked up the corpses and buried them.

In addition, he did not forget to study the classics while farming, and later he passed the examination and became a scholar.

Ji Sui liked his character and appreciated his talent, so he adopted him as his adopted son, one is that there would be someone to carry on his knowledge, and the other is that there would be someone to take good care of Qin Zheng for him a hundred years later.

This trip to Beijing was to help this adopted son plan his future.

Just as he was thinking about which senior official to take the young man to see, Ji Sui turned around and saw Xu Yanmiao, who was waiting for him on the side of the road, walking past with a sedan chair, better than the car lane, holding a cake in his hand and eating it slowly.

The other party also saw him.

Ji Sui pinched his nose subconsciously.

"Why again..."

Met Xu Yanmiao again?

Then, Xu Yanmiao looked at his adopted son, then at him again. He didn't know what he was thinking, but there was a subtle pity in his eyes.

Ji Sui: "..."

For some reason, Ji Sui had a familiar and unexplained premonition.