The palace examination is the last pass of the imperial examination, not only by the emperor himself as the chief examiner, but also civil and military officials must be present, to the new branch of the Gongshi who came to participate in the palace examination to perform the "attention salute", the pomp is very grand. This is a tradition, which is the embodiment of the royal court's respect for the world's scholars, and it is also a kind of envelopment of the imperial court to the world's scholars, and the martial artists do not have this kind of treatment.

"This person is Xu Wuyuan? Sure enough, a talent, extraordinary bearing! ”

"Tsk, even the five yuan in the middle is already unprecedented, if this son is at the top of the gold list again in today's palace test, it will be truly ancient and unprecedented."

"It is said that this son is not yet eighteen years old, but unfortunately he is already married, otherwise he is the best person to catch a son-in-law under the list, and this official has a daughter Yunying who is not married!"

"Hey, don't think about it, Yang Ge doesn't like this, it's impossible for the champion to be the first."

"Ahem, Brother Li is cautious!"

Xu Jin is undoubtedly the most famous one among today's imperial examinations, but most of the court officials saw Xu Jin for the first time, and they all whispered with their colleagues who knew each other at this time.

More than 300 tributes did not squint, and lined up under the arrangement of the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and then a salutation official stepped forward and loudly announced that the new Gongshi came forward to meet the emperor.

It is not necessary to enter the Fengtian Hall to worship the emperor, and all the candidates stand on the Dan Majesty outside the hall, kneel down according to the instructions of the salute official, and get up after bowing three times in a row.

Although Xu Jin was standing at the forefront, because he was outside the hall, the distance was a bit far, and the light problem was that he could only vaguely see a humanoid creature sitting on the dragon chair in the hall, which should be Zhu Houxi's kid.

After paying homage to the emperor, the palace examination officially began, more than 300 books were placed on the Danqi outside the hall, and a group of tributes were seated according to the ranking of the examination, and then the officials of the Ministry of Rites began to issue examination papers.

The palace examination is very simple, it is a policy question, which examines the ability to govern affairs, which is equivalent to the current civil service examination, and it is also a written examination and interview together. Of course, the interview here does not refer to face-to-face inquiry, but to look at the "face", handsome plus points, ugly minus points, if you have a disability, then I'm sorry, no matter how well the article is written, it can only be a foil of green leaves, and it is difficult to develop in the career, so you can only mix it up for a lifetime.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as the palace test in the twelfth year of Hongzhi, which originally set Feng Xi, a native of Zhejiang, to be the first place, but because Feng Xi was slightly lame on one foot, Emperor Hongzhi changed the good-looking Guangdong Nanhai man Lun Wenxu as the champion. But Fengxi's questions were answered very well, and Emperor Hongzhi appreciated it very much, and finally named Fengxi as the second place, but he gave the same champion and the first, so Fengxi became the deputy champion, an example through the ages!

However, although Feng Xi became the deputy champion, he was ordinary in his official career, and the highest was only a bachelor of Hanlin (Zheng Wupin), lameness was a hard injury that dragged him down, and it was difficult to mix in the top level with a disability.

Getting back to the point, Xu Jin took the examination paper of the policy question, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching, as he expected, this policy question was really related to the military aspect.

"I have tasted and heard the Yellow River, only one set of riches, east of Helan Mountain, south of Yin Mountain, fertile fields for thousands of miles, abundant water and grass...... However, during the period of Wuzong, it was occupied by the Tatar Ordos Department, and I wanted to restore it to revitalize the power of the Ming Dynasty, and dared to ask all the beings, and the plan would be settled? ”

Zhu Houxi's 500-word policy question can be summed up as: What should I do if I want to recover the Hetao Plain occupied by the Tatars?

The so-called Hetao Plain refers to the Yellow River "several" bend and the surrounding basins, located in the territory of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia today, is the alluvial plain along the Yellow River, the area reaches 25,000 square axioms, the terrain is flat, the soil is fertile, and there are the benefits of the Yellow River irrigation, known as "the Yellow River is harmful, only one set of wealth" reputation, is an important grain producing area.

However, after the Tumubao Rebellion, the Ming Dynasty gradually lost control of the Hetao region, and the Hetao Plain was constantly encroached upon by the Mongols, and finally completely occupied. During the Chenghua period, the Ming Dynasty launched the Battle of Hongyanchi, which drove out the Mongols who were entrenched in the Hetao Plain in one fell swoop, and for more than 20 years, this area was in the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, during the Hongzhi Zhengde period, the divided Mongolian tribes were gradually unified by Dayan Khan, the Golden Family became strong again, and the Ordos tribe under it invaded the Hetao Plain again in the fourth year of Zhengde, until now, for twelve years, the Hetao Plain is under the control of the Ordos Department.

At present, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty is declining, the military equipment is in ruins, and the desire to regain the Hetao area has been more than enough but the strength is insufficient, so the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces have basically given up the idea of recovering the Hetao Plain.

Now Xinjun has such a policy question in the palace examination, which immediately lifted the spirits of all the candidates. As the so-called newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, which teenager is not enthusiastic? How can I allow the Yi people to be bullied by the Yi people, and those who offend my strong will be punished even if they are far away! Since the new monarch is ambitious, our courtiers should complement him!

For a while, all the candidates were enthusiastic, and they wrote down the "reset" strategies they could think of!

Compared with the enthusiasm of the young candidates, the officials in the DPRK reacted much colder, because they are all people who understand, and with the current national strength of the Ming Dynasty, they are not capable of recovering the Hetao either economically or militarily. Today's Dayan has unified the Tatar tribes, and his strength is unprecedentedly strong, and the Ming Dynasty is now too cramped to take a defensive posture, how can he still have the ability to snatch the Hetao Plain back?

Of course, the little emperor first ascended to the big treasure, and now it is the time to be ambitious, and Yang Tinghe and other ministers will naturally not sweep his interest, so after getting the palace examination questions from the little emperor, they took it to engrave without even letting it go. After all, it's good to be ambitious, and it's okay to have fun with it and lewdness, but if you really want to use a sword, you can't.

Xu Jin is not in a hurry to start writing, anyway, he will take the test for a day and hand in the paper before dusk, there is a lot of time, and it is not too late to write after thinking clearly.

Xu Jin pondered for half an hour, until he sorted out his clues, and then began to write and answer the questions. Xu Jin has the knowledge of the advanced 500 years of the later generations, coupled with the history to refer to, his vision of the problem is naturally not comparable to the ancients of the same age, he wrote down the strategy of "repetition" one by one, put forward arguments, and then fully demonstrated, with clear layers and clear structure.

Xu Jin's strategy of "recovering the set" was divided into four steps, which can be summed up as first economic construction, military reform and strengthening the army, then the use of military and diplomatic means to recover the Hetao, and finally the combination of mass immigration and popularization and education......

Xu Jin was concentrating on answering the question, and suddenly there was a light cough next to him, and he subconsciously looked up, and suddenly saw Zhu Houxi's kid standing in front of the desk wearing a dazzling dragon robe, with his hands behind his back, and the old god was examining his exam paper on the ground.

Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu, Mao Ji, and Jiang Mian followed Zhu Houzhuan step by step.

Xu Jin was about to stand up and salute, but Zhu Houxi waved his hand and said, "Xu Sheng doesn't have to be polite, I just made a tour and continued to answer the questionnaire!" After speaking, he blinked narrowly and walked to the next candidate with a smile.

Yang Tinghe frowned secretly when he saw this, and strengthened his determination to get Xu Jin out of Beijing, not because he was narrow-minded and jealous of Xu Jin's closeness to the little emperor, but because he had the experience of Wuzong.

In Yang Tinghe's view, Wu Zong ascended the throne at the age of fourteen, which was the age of being active and playful, and was induced by a group of flattering eunuchs, which led him astray, and then favored the likes of Jiang Bin and Qian Ning, so he would never allow the new monarch to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Of course, in Yang Tinghe's eyes, Xu Jin is not a minister, but he is classified as "flattery", first of all, Xu Jin through the eunuch Zhang Zhong to offer the Fran cannon drawings to Wuzong, and last time in the palace to cater to the new monarch, sucking the new monarch not according to the regulations of the Ministry of Rites to enter the city and ascend the throne.

Therefore, in Yang Tinghe's view, Xu Jin is an opportunistic and flattering person, this kind of person stays by the emperor's side, and sooner or later he will become unprincipled and confuse the king's ministers, so he must take precautions!

In addition, Yang Tinghe is also selfish, he is a veteran of the three dynasties, has assisted Hongzhi, Zhengde father and son, loyal to the thought of the bone marrow, emotionally he naturally hopes that Jiajing agrees to recognize Emperor Hongzhi as his father, so that the bloodline of Emperor Hongzhi will not be interrupted.

And now Jiajing has not agreed, leaving the transcript of the courtiers' resolution in the middle, obviously because he does not want to recognize Emperor Hongzhi as his father. Yang Tinghe was worried that after Xu Jin became an official, he would influence Emperor Jiajing's thoughts, so he simply decided to send Xu Jin to a local post.

According to the usual practice, the top three in the palace examination must be appointed on the spot to enter the Hanlin Academy, so Xu Jin must not be the top three tripods, and the top ten in the second class can be selected as a Jishi, and they will also enter the Hanlin Academy, so Xu Jin cannot enter the top thirteen. Only after the thirteen fights did Yang Tinghe have an excuse to send Xu Jin to the local office!