"Lord Wei should be credited for this time. Grand Tutor Zhou, you are usually very rigorous in your work. I was very relieved to let you do this, but I didn't expect that you would disappoint me this time." An Jingzhi said in a light tone.
There is no doubt that Grand Tutor Zhou is a loyal minister, but he is too upright and does not know how to adapt. He just takes this opportunity to teach the other party a lesson.
When Grand Tutor Zhou heard this, he felt ashamed and bowed, "Your Majesty, I have disappointed you. It was indeed my negligence this time. Please punish me, Your Majesty." After saying this, Grand Tutor Zhou knelt down.
"Okay, you're better now. Since Grand Tutor Zhou sincerely repents, I'll give you this chance." An Jingzhi said.
Grand Tutor Zhou stood up and bowed to him, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"In that case, you will arrange the palace examination. Please do not disappoint me again this time."
In the past, the palace examinations of this dynasty were usually prepared by the emperor, then reviewed by ministers, and only after everyone discussed and agreed that the papers were feasible would they be sent to the candidates.
But had An Jingzhi exhausted him enough by giving him that math test? The content of the test wasn't difficult, but it was a brain-intensive task. It wasn't easy to come up with clever and ingenious ways to screen out the candidates' abilities.
He just took this opportunity to assign the work directly, under the pretext of giving Grand Tutor Zhou a chance to make amends. If he had assigned this job before, Grand Tutor Zhou would definitely have advised him again and again, mumbling and talking non-stop.
It's really overwhelming.
But this time, Grand Tutor Zhou was in the wrong first. He wanted to say a few words, but when he thought about the current situation, he simply kept silent.
After Grand Tutor Zhou left, only An Jingzhi and Wei Li were left besides the palace maids.
"I am very satisfied. After this imperial examination is over, you will report to the Ministry of Revenue. Keep a close eye on the court's purse."
Wei Li, still in his image of an upright and loyal minister, imitated Grand Tutor Zhou's usual manner and bowed, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
An Jingzhi smiled and said, "Go down."
After Wei Li packed his luggage and turned to leave, he had a silent grin on his face.
He knew, he guessed right again.
Your Majesty affirmed his behavior, and before Your Majesty changes his mind, as long as he continues to maintain this attitude, he will be valued in the future.
His Majesty's decision to send him to the Ministry of Revenue was a very clear signal.
Among the six ministries, the Ministry of Revenue has the most benefits and its power is comparable to that of the Ministry of Personnel.
Wei Li made up his mind that as soon as he finished his work on the imperial examination and returned home, he would start buying the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. What the superior likes, the subordinates must follow. This is a necessary rule for a fence-sitter.
Of course, he would not admit that he was a fence-sitter.
The Ministry of Revenue has more places where arithmetic is used. Wei Li thought that he might have to find someone who is good at arithmetic to teach him. When marking the test papers, he also saw those arithmetic questions. If An Jingzhi had not given them the answers, they might not be able to solve most of the questions by themselves.
…
Three days later.
This year's imperial examination list has been announced.
Everyone was crowded at the foot of the Imperial City, a sea of people. People kept trying to move forward to see if their names were on the list.
"Why am I not on the list? Why am I not on the list?! I don't believe it! I must have missed it!" Someone looked at all the lists, from beginning to end, over and over again, and when he found that his name was not on the list, he couldn't accept the reality. He messed up his neatly tied bun and looked like a madman.
The guards who were maintaining law and order on the side quickly dragged the man away.
It's a familiar routine, after all, it gets a little crazier every year.
The others rushed forward and looked carefully at the names on the list.
"I knew I wouldn't pass the exam. I couldn't even answer two math questions. Oh, I have to wait another three years."
"I passed! I passed! Hahahaha, great! I passed!"
Some are happy, some are sad.
The world is full of mixed feelings when it comes to the list.
"If you win, get out! Don't just take up space here! There are still many people who haven't seen it!"
"Don't push me, don't push me. Ouch! Who is it? You stepped on my shoe!"
"Master, Master! Your name is on it, you won!"
"I've learned the arts of literature and martial arts, and now I want to serve the emperor. Fifteen years of hard work has finally paid off! Woo woo woo..."
"Why didn't I get in? Impossible! I answered the essay questions so well, why isn't my name on the list?"
"Brother, maybe you didn't pass arithmetic. Do you want to go over there and take a look? There's a list of arithmetic scores posted there."
This year, an additional list has been added, the arithmetic list.
The highest score is 79 points and the lowest score is 0 points.
An Jingzhi himself didn't expect that someone else could get a score of 79.
As for those who scored zero, they did not hand in a blank paper, they just wrote randomly.
Those who were cleared out for cheating were not even eligible to be on the scoreboard.
Half a month later, the palace examination was held as scheduled.
The palace examination questions were set by Grand Tutor Zhou. An Jingzhi took a look at them and distributed them after he thought there was no problem.
Everyone was answering the questions carefully. He walked around from time to time with his hands behind his back. Whenever he walked next to a candidate, that candidate would suddenly be afraid to move as if they had been acupunctured. He could see that these people were too nervous, so he simply stopped walking around and sat back, waiting for time to pass.
When the time was up, the eunuchs collected everyone's test papers.
While all the students were waiting nervously, An Jingzhi read through them one by one.
Grand Tutor Zhou was indeed a pragmatic person. The question he asked was: If a minister disagrees with the king, how should he advise the king?
What Grand Tutor Zhou wrote was rather subtle. An Jingzhi thought to himself that if the other party hadn't made a mistake this time, he would have been in the wrong.
I guess his question is: If a minister disagrees with the king, and the king is obviously wrong, how should the minister advise the king?
That's right.
This kind of question tests a person's ability to deal with people and things. Although not everyone can have access to official education, those who can pass the examination will naturally have their own channels of communication.
An Jingzhi selected three people who he thought answered the questions better as the top three.
The eunuchs selected the poem, "The first place in the imperial examination was Wei Jiaqi, the second place was Jia Chunxin, and the third place was Zhang Chengbo."
An Jingzhi's ranking was determined entirely by academic performance. In the past, the third place winner was always a handsome guy. It was even possible that someone could only be ranked third even though he was handsome but had very good academic performance.
For him, only the talented are promoted.
So this year's third place winner looks rather ordinary, and even the first place winner is the most handsome among the three.
After the eunuch read out the list of successful candidates one by one, An Jingzhi arranged their destinations. This time he planned to take a different approach. He didn't want these people to be meat eaters who didn't know about grains. He sent them one by one to various prefectures and counties to serve as trainee county magistrates.
After he finished speaking about his decision, the whole court suddenly buzzed with excitement.
"Your Majesty, you cannot."
"Your Majesty, this is a different etiquette."
How could these people, who had studied hard for over a decade and finally passed the imperial examination, become trainee county magistrates? It would have been fine for ordinary second-class or even-class imperial scholars, but those with higher rankings would generally have stayed in the capital as officials, rather than being directly demoted like they were doing now.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com