It was the tenth day of August, the weather was clear and crisp in autumn. The turmoil over the Kansai incident that had arisen earlier had already been gradually diluted by an invisible force. Even if it had not been diluted, it would have been destined to be overshadowed by the large-scale palace examination today.
Although the imperial court was in a hurry to find its footing and Tokyo was no longer the same as before, the various ceremonies of the past were destined to be difficult to reproduce. Moreover, this time the special imperial examination was a grafting of the so-called three-school system (county school, state school, and imperial college) with the previous imperial examinations, which was quite out of place.
But early in the morning of that day, when hundreds of Imperial students poured into the tall and magnificent Xuande Gate, then walked right inside the palace wall past the extremely majestic Daqing Hall, turned left at Changqing Gate, circled Chongwenyuan, passed the left Yintai Gate, and then turned west, this group of young imperial elites could not help but feel dazed.
After all, not to mention the majestic Xuande Tower and the magnificent Daqing Hall, just in front is the Jiying Hall, and on the east and west sides of this road are the East and West Huamen where the names of the people are posted.
At this moment, the Song Dynasty's more than a hundred years of cultural and splendid rituals, as well as the political tradition of nurturing scholars behind them, brought tremendous shock and impact to these young imperial elites.
No matter who you are, no matter what school you follow or what political views you hold, when you think of Kou Zhun, Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, the Three Su brothers, and even Lü Yijian, Bao Zheng, Fu Bi, Pang Ji, Wen Yanbo and many other well-known people who have walked along this road, then entered the Jiying Hall, turned out of Xihua Gate, and went to Donghua Gate... everyone can't help but feel excited.
The feeling of awe and the eagerness to try it out blended together without any conflict.
This mentality reached its peak as they began to slowly and orderly pour into the Jiying Palace.
However, as the saying goes, you walk on the road to see the scenery, but others on the road also regard you as the scenery... Just as countless Taixue students walked through the wide road between the East and West Huamen and slowly turned into the Jiying Hall, they did not know that at the same time, Emperor Zhao had already been standing at the Huangyi Gate of the Huangyi Hall next to the Jiying Hall for a long time with a large group of people... Moreover, this guy actually came here specifically to see this scenery.
In fact, these students who were basically visiting the palace for the first time didn't even know that in the past, when people actually took the imperial examinations, they usually just entered and exited through the Xihua Gate directly, and there was no need to pass through the magnificent Xuande Tower and Daqing Hall before coming here. It was only because Emperor Zhao specifically instructed them to do so today that they did so.
In other words, these students went through such a long detour just to satisfy Emperor Zhao's wish to go to Huangyi Gate to watch this scene.
In this regard, both the prime ministers and the Minister of Rites Zhu Shengfei who presided over today's ceremony were speechless.
After all, firstly, the palace was deserted at the moment, and the Daqing Hall and Chongwenyuan were not in use at all, so it would not be a problem to go there;
Secondly, the reason given by Emperor Zhao is also reasonable. The so-called prosperity of Tokyo is no longer there, so we should use the main building and main hall to show the legitimacy of this recruitment.
Thirdly, the ministers were also watching the excitement at the Huangyi Gate.
Returning to the front, the carved railings on the Huangyi Gate Tower blocked the view. Emperor Zhao led dozens of senior officials from a high vantage point. They saw hundreds of students walking hurriedly and making a lot of noise on the road below, but without any sound of speech. It was really emotional, and many people were eager to speak... But on this occasion, the emperor did not speak, and everyone did not want to be the first to speak, so as not to attract the attention of the students below.
After watching for a while, Emperor Zhao couldn't help laughing in front of everyone, "I wanted to imitate Emperor Taizong of Tang and say 'All heroes in the world are within my grasp', but I couldn't help but appear a little too proud..."
The palace was spacious and everyone was silent, so as soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the attention of the students below, and attracted many people who kept walking to come and see secretly, and also caused many people on the upper floors to laugh and laugh together.
After laughing, Zhang Rong, the commander of the Imperial Navy and the chief of Liangshan Lake, who was wearing an ill-fitting official uniform and looked a little cautious, was the first to be curious: "Sir, how many people are you going to get this time?"
"Six hundred!" Zhao Jiu blurted out.
"Are they all Jinshi?" Zhang Rong was even more surprised.
"Yes." Zhao Jiu said frankly.
"It should be like this." Zhang Rong was thoughtful. "It's been many years since I took the imperial examination. It's time to take the big one."
"That's not what I meant." Zhao Jiu was still honest. "Right now, the number of vacancies in the Central Plains is not that high. Moreover, the money and food are still tight, and the officials are all on half salary... Actually, when I recruit scholars this time, I intend to send more of them to serve in the Imperial Army... What do you think? Commander Zhang, do you want some Jinshi to join your navy?"
Zhang Rong was stunned for a moment, wanting to say something but stopping himself. Even though they had received the emperor's order, other military governors such as Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Yue Fei, Li Yanxian, Wang Yan, etc. who came with him were also stunned. The two chief and deputy commanders of the imperial camp, Wang Yuan and Qu Duan, also lost their composure.
In comparison, the civil officials who attended the event, including Lü Haowen, three prime ministers, one chief censor, the heads of the six ministries, several Hanlin academicians, and several secretaries of the Secretariat, did not say much... except for a few of them who frowned slightly.
Obviously, this group of people should have known about this arrangement a long time ago.
However, there is a secret behind the smooth passage of such an arrangement that goes against the traditional political tradition of emphasizing civil power over military power. Specifically, it is directly related to a prominent figure in Tokyo recently.
This person was Hu Yin’s father, the famous Taoist scholar Hu Anguo.
By the way, when Hu Anguo came to the court that day, there was definitely not as much drama as those students imagined; nor did Hu Anguo himself downplay it and make himself look like a failure... At least from Emperor Zhao's perspective, he and Hu Anguo actually had a good chat and laugh that day, and they parted peacefully.
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