Zhao Shouzheng quickly stood up and waited in line for a long time before it was his turn to hand in the paper.

The place for collecting the scrolls is in Wenzhao Pavilion, the right auxiliary hall of Huangji Hall.

Four examiners, Zhang Siwei, the Imperial Academy student, Shen Shixing, the editor, and two officials, Zheng Dajing and Zhang Qi, were present. As in the imperial examination, the examinees' papers were initially checked under the watchful eyes of the supervisors, and then they were issued with a seal and numbered every fifty papers before being put into boxes.

After the collection is completed, it will be sent to the sealing office located opposite the Wucheng Pavilion.

In the Wucheng Pavilion, the Minister of Rites Xu Fan had already memorized the first sentences of more than twenty policy essays.

He is knowledgeable and has a photographic memory, so remembering this is no problem for him.

This copy by Zhao Shouzheng was the last one he needed to write down. He took it in his hand and glanced at the beginning:

'I replied: I have heard that the ruler is the heaven. Heaven has the grace of nurturing, but cannot manage the world by itself. Therefore, the responsibility is entrusted to the ruler. Therefore, the ruler should hold the Tai'a in his palm and beat the drum in the field...'

"It's the same thing again..." Xu Fan's mouth twitched as he saw it, and he thought it would be better if this science was renamed "fart science".

The five Zhao disciples were like this, and so was Zhao Hao's father.

Is it necessary to fawn on the emperor like this?

Isn't it nice to be an upright minister who does not flatter the king?

This made the young cabinet minister even more determined to eliminate all six members of the Zhao family from the top three.

"Well, when I get back to appointing them officials, send them to Danzhou, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Liaodong. Let them die far away and never come back!"

~~

At this time, the lights in the east side hall of Wenhua Hall were brightly lit, and the twelve examiners were chatting happily.

Tomorrow is the day for them to mark the papers. Today, all of you adults who are usually busy can finally have a little time to relax.

Lord Xu sat cross-legged at the table on the kang.

Prime Minister Zhang and Minister of Personnel Yang Bo sat on both sides of the kang table, while Left Censor-in-Chief Wang Ting sat at the bottom with his body tilted.

The other ministers stood under the kang and chatted with the four big men.

As for the last two examiners, Li Bangzhen, the Left Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple, and Zhu Dashou, the Attending Academician of the Hanlin Academy...the two future bigwigs had to shoulder the task of serving tea and water to the current bigwigs.

At this moment, Lord Xu said, "I came up with an upper couplet the other day, but I haven't thought of a suitable lower couplet yet."

"Minister Yuan, please tell me something. We are a bunch of useless people, but we can always be better than three Zhuge Liangs." Yang Tianguan, with a white beard, has a voice that can blow the roof off.

Under everyone's urging, Xu Jiefang slowly said: "The Jing and Wei rivers flow in the same direction. Wash your hat with the clear water and wash your feet with the muddy water."

Upon hearing this, Yang Bo smiled and said, "This couplet is not easy to answer. We need to find the answer from the scriptures."

Because it comes from "Mencius", "When the water is clear, wash your hair; when the water is muddy, wash your hair. It is enough. It is up to you."

After a little thought, no one had a clue except Zhang Juzheng.

But Mr. Zhang is now aloof and aloof, so he wouldn't tell anyone even if he knew.

Wang Zongxian pointed at the big ribbons and said, "I saw that the champion just smiled, so he must have it."

"Hurry up and tell me." The big guys urged the top scholar in the 35th year of Jiajing.

Zhu Dashou couldn't refuse, so he held the teapot and said with a smile: "This humble official just thought of it, 'The heat and cold are different, in summer, drink water, in winter, drink soup.'"

"Okay, okay!" Yang Bo had his eyes slightly closed the whole time. Hearing this, he slapped his thigh and said, "It also comes from Mencius."

In "Mencius·Gaozi", there is a line "Gong Duzi said: In winter, we drink soup, and in summer, we drink water. So, eating and drinking are also done outside?" Zhu Dashou used Mencius to contrast Mencius, and the parallelism is neat and perfect.

The big guys also praised him, saying that the top scorers are still as skilled as ever. I wonder if this year's top scorer has the same ability as him?

"The Yangtze River's waves behind push the waves ahead, so of course each generation is stronger than the previous one." 'Zhu Qianlang' smiled kindly.

At this time, Meng Chong, the eunuch in charge of the imperial kitchen, came in with a group of young eunuchs to deliver dinner.

Hearing their conversation, he joined in the fun and said with a smile: "We also have a couplet, let me ask you gentlemen for advice."

"Oh, Lao Meng can also make pairs?"

As the saying goes, if you want to offend someone, don't offend the cook. These bigwigs who often dine in the palace are naturally very kind to Meng Chong.

Then Manager Meng opened the steaming food box, brought out a plate of braised sea bass with both hands, placed it in front of Lord Xu, and said with a laugh:

"The perch has four gills, and it is the only one that can be found in Songjiang."

The originally warm atmosphere in the hall was suddenly suffocated.

The big guys thought that this damn eunuch might be hinting that the descendants of the Xu family were the kings and hegemons in Songjiang...

Eunuch Meng smiled innocently and said,

"This is the first batch of tribute fish that Jiangnan just sent. We know that Yuanfu thinks shad has too many bones, so we specially replaced it with four-gilled perch, a specialty of Songjiang."

He held up the chopsticks with both hands and said, "This is the largest one in the imperial kitchen. Please try it and see if it suits your taste."

"Thank you." Lord Xu naturally would not show his emotions, but he took the chopsticks and did not move, obviously he was still angry.

At this time, the eunuchs who came to deliver the food placed a variety of exquisite dinners on several tables in the hall.

Fortunately, cabinet ministers did not eat at the same table with ministers, so the bigwigs took the opportunity to wash their hands and prepare for dinner to escape from this embarrassing place.

Zhang Juzheng could not escape. He took the wet towel from the eunuch and wiped his hands while saying calmly:

"I have a couplet for you to share with Eunuch Meng."

"Hurry up and tell me." Meng Chong said with a naive smile.

"Eight-legged crabs roam the world!" Then Zhang Juzheng said in a deep voice, "Are you satisfied with what you heard, Eunuch Meng?"

"Puchi..." The big guys couldn't help but laugh. They thought that Mr. Zhang was really a cold-faced comedian who was eager to protect his teacher...

Because eunuchs all like to eat crabs, it is said that it can cure bifurcated urination. During the reign of Emperor Wuzong, the great eunuch Liu Jin also had this hobby, and he and his accomplices were rampant everywhere, just like a group of crabs, weren't they?

Someone wrote a doggerel poem to mock it: "I will always look at the crabs with cold eyes, and see how long you can run rampant?"

Later, Liu Jin was indeed executed by slow slicing, and people began to compare eunuchs leaving the palace to "crabs running rampant."

"Domineering, domineering." Meng Chong was annoyed by the retort and had to leave with an embarrassed smile.

~~

When Meng Chong left, a smile appeared on Lord Xu's face.

He pointed at Zhang Juzheng with his chopsticks and said gently, "Uncle, you are still as harsh as you were when you were young."

"He just brought disgrace upon himself." Zhang Juzheng forced a cool smile and was about to take the plate of four-gilled perch away, saying, "We don't want this fish."

"Hey." Xu Jie waved his hand, stopped him and asked, "What's wrong with the perch?"

As he spoke, he picked up his chopsticks and ate with relish, saying, "Each of my Songjiang four-gilled perch is extremely precious and cannot be wasted."

He originally couldn't eat it, but his obedient disciple vented his anger for his master, so Lord Xu could naturally show his prime minister's magnanimity again.

Seeing that his teacher finally started eating the dish, Zhang Juzheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief and began to enjoy his favorite first batch of shad.

But in his heart he couldn't help cursing, "What a fool as a castrated pig, yet he still thinks he's so smart!"

He originally wanted to stay out of it, so he didn't ask the emperor how to play.

But when he saw Meng Chong winking at him just now, he knew that this idiot was here to bring some delicious food with extra ingredients to Lord Xu.

The fool had an important task, but he was too talkative and made a fool of himself, which made the old man so angry that he refused to eat. Seeing that he was about to fail, he had to ask him for help...

Zhang Juzheng was naturally furious. Who were all those people in this room? They were all gods who had become spirits! If they could figure out what was going on, there would be no way to explain it to them!

But considering that if I don't help, this idiot will definitely continue his stupid behavior.

Zhang Juzheng then said something slightly vicious to Meng Chong and helped him save the situation.

ps. Fourth update, thanks to old friend 'Dingyong' for the reward. Every time I see old book friends I know reappear, I am so happy... Please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~