The emperor on the dragon throne saw that the ministers below were arguing but could not reach a conclusion. He said in a somewhat unhappy mood: "Lord Li, what is going on? Tell me the truth."
Upon hearing this, Lord Li explained, "After hearing the report, I went to check and found that the test paper was wet and the handwriting was a little unclear."
Upon hearing this, Lord He knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please don't blame me for being too talkative. It's just that this matter concerns the students of the whole country, so I have to make a fuss. I heard from the merchant that during the Cangzhou exam, it rained on the second and third days, but it didn't rain at all.
If the test paper was really destroyed by water, then where did the water come from? If John Horgan's test paper was destroyed by the rain in the previous two days, then he would not have needed to continue to take the subsequent tests, so this matter really needs to be verified.
What's more, there is someone who dared to bet so much money so confidently. If I say there is nothing wrong, I'm afraid no one will believe it. He Xuezi can ignore this, but he can't help but give him justice!
After saying this, Lord He bowed his head and kowtowed.
The emperor, sitting on the dragon throne, heard this and asked, "My dear ministers, what do you think of this matter?"
After hearing this, the court officials were silent for a moment, and then someone suggested, "Your Majesty, why don't you just take out He Xuesheng's test paper and take a look at it?"
Upon hearing this, the emperor simply waved his hand and said, "Then present the test paper."
After a while, a eunuch presented He Jinshu's test paper. After the emperor opened it and took a look, he found that there were indeed water stains on it. Perhaps the water had dripped from it. Except for the first one, the following ones were also stained with water stains to varying degrees.
Although some of the words are blurry, most of them are still clear.
The emperor took a look at the dictation and poems at the front. Although they were well written, they were not particularly outstanding. So he looked through the current affairs and articles at the back. He originally thought that they were just some empty talk, but he never expected that the emperor would be fascinated as he read.
The officials below were a little confused when they saw the emperor like this. They didn't know what He Jin had written that made His Majesty read it so seriously.
While a group of people were whispering to each other below, the emperor finally looked up from his examination paper, handed it to the eunuch, and said to him, "Pass this paper to each of you, my dear ministers, for a look."
"Yes." Eunuch Li took the test paper with both hands and responded.
After that, the test paper was read by every official in the court.
In addition to the necessary literary dictation and poetry this year, the current affairs test is about how to better treat the plague and the Minjiang River flood. Another question is: what are your views on some national policies implemented by the East Kingdom in the past three years, and put forward corresponding suggestions and improvement methods.
He Jinshu combined some of the knowledge he learned from the library with the current situation of Dongliguo and gave a series of simple and easy-to-operate methods. The specific content is too long to be stated here one by one.
After everyone saw it, some were amazed, some were skeptical, and some opposed it. For a while, there was a lot of discussion in the court.
After everyone finished speaking, the emperor asked, "What do you think of Mr. He's methods and suggestions?"
"These methods are really great, Your Majesty." Lord He spoke first.
Regarding field planting, He Jin wrote about the effective development of wasteland, the rational planning of planting, and even wrote about what fertilizers can be used and how to make them.
Taking Wujia Village and Shenjia Village as examples, it also describes how they planned the entire village. In the future, not only crop planting but also economic income will increase. It is exciting to see this.
But at this time someone objected and said: "Your Majesty, although what Mr. He wrote seems good, if you really want to implement it, you still have to be cautious."
Another official from the Ministry of Works objected, "Your Majesty, I once participated in the flood control efforts on the Min River. I believe one of the river control measures is very applicable to the Min River. We could try it out."
Then the others began to express their opinions. After everyone had spoken again, the emperor asked Prime Minister Wang, who had been silent the whole time, "What do you think of this matter, my dear Lord Wang?"
"I think Mr. He's writing is indeed good, and we can try these methods." Prime Minister Wang said respectfully with a bow.
The emperor saw that most people agreed, so he made the final decision and said, "Since that's the case, my dear ministers, please try the method above and see how it works. As for He Jinshu's failure to pass the exam, I think since He Jinshu is so talented, it won't hurt to take it again.
In addition, in recognition of his recent contributions, I will reward him with 1,000 taels of gold, 500 acres of fertile land, some cloth and jade, and a plaque with the words "Good Will and Beneficial to the People." What do you think, my dear ministers?"
Seeing that the emperor was so decisive, everyone dared not even raise some opinions. Although they were still unwilling, Lord He knelt down with the others and shouted "Long live the emperor!"
Afterwards, when the emperor saw that all the ministers were fine, he asked Eunuch Li to adjourn the court.
In the Wei family courtyard, after listening to He Xian's story, Wei Mingyuan smiled and said, "Jinshu is much more scheming and cunning than his father. If I'm not mistaken, he must have guessed that someone would sabotage him and make him fail the imperial examination, so he came up with the gambling and then roasted these people over the fire."
Then he added, "This kid is using himself as bait to catch these people!"
Although these people were not hurt at all this time, once the seeds of doubt are planted, they will naturally fall apart over time.
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