Young Master Zhao said that he would not make decisions for his father, so he would naturally inform him in advance of the two options given by his father-in-law.

But he did not write a specific letter to his father. Instead, he mentioned the matter in a letter to his godmother.

The princess asked someone to bring the map and looked at it. Wow, they were all quite far away.

However, Chaozhou is on the coast and can still be reached directly by boat. It just means spending a few more days on the sea, which is not a big problem.

The Guangxi Provincial Procuratorate was located in Guilin, and going there would require crossing mountains, rivers and seas. If Zhao Lang were to serve as an official there, they would not see each other for several years.

Zhao Shouzheng really wanted to go to Guilin. Guilin's landscapes are the best in the world, with few people and beautiful scenery. It's a good time for him to put his weapons into storage, let his horses go to the mountains, and rest his old waist.

But facing his cousin's tears, he had no choice but to go to Chaozhou...

However, it would take at least one or two months for the official appointment to be passed down layer by layer. Mr. Zhao asked everyone not to make it public for the time being, so as not to get caught up in the socializing and affecting many of the work after the spring.

He Wenwei and others naturally accepted the order respectfully.

It was no longer appropriate to play cards, so the three assistants said goodbye and left, trying to finish the work at hand.

After leaving the back hall, Bai Shouli suddenly whispered, "You two, was all this arranged? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that everyone got what they wanted?"

"Stop imagining things." County Magistrate He said calmly, "Who has such great power to decide the appointment of the Ministry of Personnel? If someone really has such great power, he wouldn't care about small characters like us."

"Really?" Bai Shouli wanted to ask, is it that Mr. Zhao is active in Beijing? But he is just fat, not stupid, so how can he rashly say such a guess. However, he wanted to hear the answer from others, so that he could confirm his guess and appear more intelligent.

So Bai Shouli looked at Xiong Xiasheng and said, "Brother, what do you think?"

"This is all a blessing." Xiong Xiasheng said with a pious look on his face: "Do you remember the Buddha's appearance in Nanshan Temple?"

"Oh, yes." Bai Shouli was startled and quickly put his hands together and said, "I have to thank the Buddha tomorrow."

"Let's go together." He Wenwei laughed and seemed to agree with this statement.

~~

At this time, Mr. Zhao, who did good deeds without leaving his name, was in Xiangshan Academy, conducting special training for the registered disciples before the exam...

Xiangshan is located in the suburbs of Beijing, where the Xishan Mountains begin. It is steep and green. It has been a royal garden since the Jin and Yuan dynasties. Zhao Hao wanted to build a college in Yuyuantan, but it was occupied by Wuqingbo Li Wei and his son. The princess helped him buy the unused Fahai Temple on the southern foot of Xiangshan and renovate it.

The Fahai Temple was located on the west side of the Qilizhuang Manor given to him by the eldest princess, and there was a ten-mile horse trail between the two places. Every morning, Master Zhao set out from the manor by car to the academy to supervise the students' study, and left the academy at dusk to return to the manor to rest. He did this all day, rain or shine.

Experience has shown that this kind of special training before the exam is very necessary. The candidates who participated in the imperial examination, especially the newly-appointed candidates, have been in an extremely impetuous state since the announcement of the autumn examination results.

This impetuous state will always accompany them, and even after they come to Beijing from the province, they are still in a high fever. The candidates spend all day visiting fellow townsmen and seniors, and accepting banquets from fellow townsmen and wealthy merchants. Fellow townsmen will take turns to host and entertain each other... Of course, they are all in the name of holding a literary meeting, but the venue is always chosen in the Eight Great Hutongs and other places of entertainment.

As the saying goes, one should never leave one's fists or songs, and the same goes for writing articles. For example, if a writer is lazy for a few days, he will feel less and less like writing new articles, and the articles he writes by sitting at the table reluctantly will be disgusting and disgusting.

After months of wasting time, the candidates tried to calm down and sharpen their skills before the exam, only to find that they were completely out of shape. As a result, they went to the Imperial Academy with gritted teeth, but could only exert 50% of their 100% skills, and naturally failed.

This is why newly-appointed candidates always fail in the imperial examinations, and each time, only a hundred or so people pass both lists.

As a test-taker born in a country of involution, although Zhao Hao has no idea about the content of the imperial examination, he is an expert among experts in how to take the examination.

He required his disciples to go to Beijing on the first day of the twelfth lunar month and live in Xiangshan Academy for two months of pre-exam training. They ate and lived together, followed a strict schedule, and did not even have a holiday during the Chinese New Year. He used intense and regular study tasks to help his disciples get rid of their impetuousness and enter a confident and calm state of mind before the exam.

In addition to Wang Wuyang, Yu Shenxing, Chen Yubi and other disciples who taught him art every day, he also invited Shen Shixing, Yu Youding and other top three candidates in the previous three subjects to the academy to give regular special lectures to his disciples. He provided them with all-round targeted guidance, so that they could realize the difference between the imperial examination and the provincial examination, improve their ability to review eight-part essays, and teach them the skills to solve problems.

The most important point is to help them analyze the examiners' preferences and adjust the tone of their essays in a targeted manner to increase the possibility of being admitted to high school.

Although the examiners will not be announced until a few days before the exam, the Ming Dynasty officialdom is a place that operates according to conventions, and breaking conventions is very unwelcome, so everyone can roughly guess who the chief examiner will be this year.

Because there is an unspoken rule that new Jinshi students pay homage to the chief examiner of the imperial examination and form a teacher-student relationship in the officialdom, according to convention, the cabinet ministers will have a chance to establish a faction, or rather, to serve as the chief examiner.

There are four grand secretaries in the cabinet now. The first assistant Li Chunfang was the chief examiner of the previous term, and the second assistant Gao Gong was the chief examiner of the term before that, so these two are excluded.

Then there were only two candidates left: Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji. Zhang ranked higher than Zhao, and he was also the imperial teacher and a close comrade-in-arms of Gao Ge Lao. No matter how you look at it, Emperor Longqing would not abandon him and choose Zhao Zhenji as the chief examiner.

As for the deputy examiner, there were many candidates, but old Hanlin scholars like Yu Youding and Shen Shixing, who had already established their own studios and were familiar with the small circle of Zhanhan Ci Chen, guessed that the deputy examiner this time would most likely be Lü Diaoyang, the Chancellor of the Zhanshi Palace, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and a Bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.

They told Zhao Hao that when Gao Ge Lao was the Imperial College's chief examiner, Lü Diaoyang was the Imperial College's director and served as his deputy. The two had worked together for many years and were very happy. Gao Ge Lao had a very high opinion of Lü Gongduan. According to his style of promoting talents regardless of kinship, he would definitely promote Lü to the cabinet. It would be natural for him to serve as the deputy chief examiner for one term and then the chief examiner for the next term.

Even the selection of co-examiners for the 18 chambers had a pattern to follow. Basically, all the Hanlin scholars who were evaluated as excellent had to serve as co-examiners at least once.

For example, Wang Xijue applied for abstention in the last examination because of Wang Dingjue's participation in the examination, so he will definitely not be able to escape this time.

Wang Dingjue and Yu Shenxing, who were among the top three candidates in the previous exam, will serve as co-examiners one year earlier than the Hanlin scholars of the same year. However, Yu Shensi will take part in this exam, so Yu Shenxing will also apply for abstention and will not serve as a co-examiner this time, but can still come to the academy to teach as a teacher.

So in order to avoid suspicion, the Wang brothers did not show up for this intensive training, and stayed at home obediently waiting to be summoned by the court.

However, according to the rules, the examiners should not all be Hanlin scholars, but some should be drawn from the six ministries and local areas, so they could only guess roughly, but this was enough.

Based on this information, they can roughly guess the range of questions asked by the chief examiner and instruct candidates on the writing style and tone preferred by the examiners in each room.

In fact, it was not just Xiangshan Academy. Everyone would guess the examiner and the questions, but whether you could guess correctly or not was entirely up to your ability. Especially in this era of underdeveloped information, without top connections and advice from insiders, relying on your own guessing, or attending a few literary gatherings and getting advice from a few fellow countrymen and seniors, it was like a blind man groping in the dark, and it was far off the topic.

Moreover, the examiners are different every time, so the experience of the last examination cannot be used as a reference for this examination. But how many people can get such real-time intelligence and accurate analysis?

This is also the reason why a large number of talented scholars such as Hai Rui, Li Zhi, He Xinyin, Luo Rufang, etc., all stopped at the level of Juren and could never pass the Jinshi examination.

With their wisdom, they can naturally see through that the national talent selection ceremony has long been reduced to a feast for a few people. For these country bumpkins with no background, it is lucky to be able to pass the imperial examination, so what else do they need?

Of course, if you want to get into high school, you can do it. You can work hard, flatter and get close to someone as soon as possible. The big guys will help you with all this. However, people like Hai, Li, He and Luo are so upright that they can't bow down to the powerful. So they gave up after seeing through it...

~~

The academy would also conduct mock examinations regularly, and Hanlin scholars would imitate the preferences of the current examiners to mark the papers and provide one-on-one tutoring.

Combined with scientific diet and scientific work and rest schedule, candidates can adjust to the best test state in every sense.

If you use the prepared to attack the unprepared, how can you not win?

Therefore, it is natural for the candidates to achieve good results in the examinations.

On February Yi-Hai, the imperial edict came down, appointing Zhang Juzheng, Junior Tutor and Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary of Jianji Palace, as the chief examiner of the joint examination; and Lu Diaoyang, Left Vice Minister of Personnel and Academician of the Hanlin Academy, as the deputy chief examiner, to examine all the talents in the country!

Unsurprisingly, the Wang brothers were among the examiners...

On the eighth day of the second month, examiners entered the Imperial Examination Hall. On the ninth day, the imperial examination officially began in the fifth year of Longqing.

The second game on the 12th.

The third game on the 15th.

Then the names are covered, the papers are transcribed and proofread. The examiners mark the papers in separate rooms and make preliminary selections. The papers are then sent to the chief examiner for review and ranking, which is written into a 'draft list'... The marking process has been detailed in the previous article and there is no need to repeat it.

On February 27, the two chief examiners, Zhang Juzheng and Lu Diaoyang, together with Yin Shidan, the official in charge of the imperial examinations at the Ministry of Rites, officially confirmed the admission list.

The results were announced the next day, and a total of 400 successful candidates, including Yu Shensi, were admitted.

Among them, 81 people came from Yufeng Academy and Xiangshan Academy...

P.S. Sorry, I just finished writing one update. But I won't say what I said, I will still write the second update, but it will definitely be late, don't wait, it will be there tomorrow morning.