As the Spring Examination was approaching, more and more scholars came to Bianliang.
When the scholar's friend from out of town at the tea stall heard him talking about the late emperor, he quickly stopped him and said, "How dare you even talk nonsense about the late emperor? I heard that Bianliang is full of imperial city officials."
"Brother Chengping, don't worry."
The scholar pulled his hand away, pointed at an old man drinking tea at a nearby tea stall, and said with a smile, "That man is Old Wang, the official from the Imperial City Bureau who works on this street."
Old Wang turned around and smiled at the scholar, revealing his old yellow teeth like corn cobs.
The friend from outside the city was surprised and said: "This..."
The scholar whispered, "The chancellor said that if the court isn't doing things right, the people of the Song Dynasty can point it out. Have you heard of Zou Ji's advice to the King of Qi? As long as it's not excessive, a few random words are fine. We don't punish speech in the Song Dynasty, and I have a good relationship with the old king."
"Brother Liu is amazing."
Scholars from other places admired him very much.
Several people bought newspapers and immediately checked the situation.
After seeing Fan Zhongyan's battle report, everyone was overjoyed and said, "This is so satisfying! The Liao people have oppressed our Song Dynasty for too long. This battle will destroy their prestige."
Seeing the Liao people's demands for peace, they were furious and said, "The Liao people are so shameless! They dare to demand money after losing the battle. They have occupied our Han land and oppressed our Han people. Their blood debt must be repaid with blood."
Finally, seeing the statements of Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun, he turned his anger into joy and said, "Our emperor and the prefect are indeed sensible. They know that the Liao people are wolves that can never be satisfied. If we agree to their demands, there will inevitably be a second and third time. Just like after the Treaty of Chanzhou, they came back to demand it last year."
"Yes, it should have been done long ago. Consider our great Song Dynasty, with a population of tens of millions and millions of armored soldiers. Why should we fear the Liao Kingdom?"
"But there's one thing I don't understand. Why did the Chancellor explain the plan to deal with the Liao Kingdom to the entire court? Wouldn't the Liao people know that we're going to send people to contact their vassal states and tribes, and how could they prepare in advance?"
"What can we do? How many of the nobles in the court are so resolute? If the prefect doesn't tell them about the solution, I'm afraid none of them will agree. I guess the prefect is just resorting to this last resort."
At the tea stall, the common people sighed one after another, saying that among all the civil and military officials in the court, only the chancellor was a true man.
Fortunately, their emperor is wise and promoted the chancellor. Now the Song Dynasty officials and the chancellor govern the country. Even though the court is full of corrupt officials, with the support of the people and the people's hearts, they can probably build a powerful empire.
Just as the people of Bianliang rose up and discovered that the newspaper had reported another major event overnight, at this time in the Xiangfu County government office, Xiangfu Magistrate Su Huan was receiving a guest.
This person was his younger brother, named Su Xun.
Su Huan served as the Tongpan of Langzhou two years ago. When Zhao Jun passed by Sichuan, he found that he governed well. Moreover, he was a Jinshi in the second year of Tiansheng, and his qualifications and experience were quite long. So at the end of last year, he was promoted to Kaifeng to be the magistrate of Xiangfu County.
Although he was just a county magistrate, the magistrate of Xiangfu County was on par with Kaifeng County. Historically, before the Yuanfeng reform, he was a fifth-rank county magistrate.
Although Zhao Jun carried out the Jingyou reform, he did not lower the rank of the Chi County magistrate, so the rank of the Xiangfu County magistrate was higher than that of an ordinary prefect. The next level was often a fourth-rank assistant official, and it was normal to be promoted to a fourth-rank Kaifeng prefect.
Therefore, Su Huan was promoted out of turn, moving up one level from the sixth rank Tongpan, skipping the fifth rank. Now he knew that he was appreciated by the court, and he was in high spirits.
Su Xun also came to take the imperial examination this year.
He only "started to learn to study" seven years ago, when he was 25 years old. In the fourth year of Jingyou, which was the year Zhao Jun should have taken the exam, Su Xun came to Bianliang to take the imperial examination, but was not admitted.
At that time, Zhao Jun had no idea of his existence, because Zhao Jun had already gone out to travel around the world. During the exam, Zhao Jun should have been in Bozhou dealing with Guo Chengyou.
Originally, after this failure, Su Xun took the examination for the Maocai special examination the following year, but failed again. From then on, he either stayed at home studying all year round or traveled around.
It was not until the second year of Jiayou that he sent his two sons, Su Shi and Su Zhe, to Beijing for the imperial examinations. Both sons passed the exams, and his name became known in Bianliang. The court invited him to join the government, but he refused. From then on, he became obsessed with literature.
But at least at this time Su Xun had not given up the idea of taking the imperial examination. After learning that the imperial court would hold another special examination this year, he rushed from Sichuan in a hurry, wanting to participate in the spring examination in February this year.
Since his elder brother is now the magistrate of Chi County in Xiangfu, he naturally has to come and seek refuge with him.
"Mingyun."
In the backyard of the county government office, Su Huan read Su Xun's article and praised it highly, saying, "Your article is a testament to your scholarship. It examines the successes and failures of governance and chaos in ancient and modern times, and is very methodical."
Su Xun smiled and said, "I haven't been idle at home these past few years. I've been concentrating on studying, and I really feel that I've grown a lot."
"Well, if nothing unexpected happens, you will probably pass the imperial examination this year."
Su Huan smiled.
"well."
Su Xun sighed, "It's not that easy. If I want to pass the imperial examination, I have to compete with the children of the rich and powerful. Otherwise, there is no chance for me."
There were naturally shady dealings in the imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty. For example, Han Qi found evidence that Chen Yaozuo, Han Yi, Shi Zhongli and others were involved in shady dealings, giving tips to the examiners and helping their own nephews pass the imperial examinations, and only then was he able to bring them down.
There is also a folk legend that when Feng Jing was taking the imperial examination, his opponent was Zhang Yaozuo's nephew Shi Butong. If Shi Butong had not mistaken Feng Jing for Ma Liang, Feng Jing might not have won the top spot.
That's why Su Xun lamented the difficulty of passing the imperial examination.
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