In the hall of the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites, the test papers that had been uniformly transcribed were piled up on more than a dozen long cases lined up, and more than 20 officials involved in the marking of the papers sat down on the left and right sides and began to conduct preliminary examination of the test papers.

The first step was to first eliminate those poems and strategies in the blank volume, and more than 160 people were excluded from this alone.

The second step is to eliminate the papers that are general, full of errors, and incorrect texts, and more than 1,000 people are eliminated in this item.

In the end, there were only more than 400 examination papers left in front of the three main examiners of Lu Yijian, Du Yan, and Yan Shu, and the more than 230 jinshi who would be selected in the undergraduate provincial examination would be produced from these more than 400 people.

The three of them began to mark the papers one by one, as people who have come over, they all know the importance of the imperial examination to the judges, so they dare not slack off, and the content of each test paper must be exchanged with each other in a whispered conversation before deciding to choose.

After three days of evaluation, by the morning of the 13th, 232 places were about to be announced.

All that remains is the top 10 rankings, and the most important thing is the top 3 rankings, and at this point, the opinions of the three have been seriously divided.

The top three papers selected by each of the three were different, with a total of nine papers competing for the top three. In desperation, the three of them had to read through the nine test papers again, and soon Du Yan found a problem.

"This person didn't even answer the test paper completely, how can he enter the top three competition? This is Yan Sansi's chosen move, this is not good! According to the rules, this kind of unfinished test paper should not be taken, I think it is better to eliminate it and fill it with another person. Du Yan shook the test strip in his hand.

Lu Yijian stretched out his hand to take the test paper, and sure enough, he saw that the name on the test post did not answer the question in accordance with the regulations, but wrote a limerick poem on it.

"It rained in Bashan last night, snowflakes fell in the north tomorrow morning, and the ancient books of the lonely lamp were not enough, how do you know the cold and summer, winter and summer?"

Lu Yijian threw the test strip on the table and said coldly: "Ridiculous! The sentence is sarcastic, is this a reference to the undergraduate exam questions being too remote? Just this kind of reckless remarks should be directly discarded, you need to know that the exam questions are hand-picked by the saints, how can he be allowed to point fingers. Yan Sansi, the old man still gave up. ”

Yan Shu was deeply impressed by this test paper, and hurriedly said: "Two adults, the reason why I took this test paper is because his strategy for the test is very well written, do you think that most of the policy articles this year are talking about redundant things?" The content is similar, picking up people's teeth and wisdom, almost without exception, quoting the words of the book in the Tiansheng period of Song Zijing, except for the literary rhetoric that can distinguish the superior and the inferior, there are few novel arguments; And this article is unique, starting from the balance between officials, with novel views and well-thought-out arguments, so the old man put it forward separately. ”

Lu Yijian didn't read this policy carefully, and saw that Yan Shu said solemnly, so he read the following policy carefully, and nodded slowly: "Although it is a little biased, it is also novel, and it is indeed a little different. ”

Du Yan frowned and said: "But if such a person who can't answer all the questions can win the top three, how can the emperor explain there?" In addition, isn't it quite a whisper from the lifters? Besides, if these people can't answer the question, they will sarcastically mock the person who asks the question, so arrogant and arrogant, how can they be able to take on great responsibilities in the future? I mean, if you just throw it away and pull it down, you will have the most important attitude, and if you have a bad attitude, what if you have talent? ”

Yan Shu understands that what Du Yan said is good, but in fact, there is something hidden in it; Over the years, the imperial examinations have finally circled the top three, and the examiners all hope that their selected people will be shortlisted, the reason is very simple, what will it rely on to recruit these new officials in the future? It is the virtue of relying on the grace of knowledge; In the future, I only need to say lightly: "If it weren't for the old man who took you as the top three in the first place, you would not be where you are today." Just one sentence is enough to teach these fledgling lifters to bow down at their feet with gratitude.

The competition between the examiners for the selection of scholars is also to a large extent to lay the foundation for their future power training.

"Du Shumi, now we are waiting for the country, but we just look at the talent, as for the character of the child, I am afraid that it is difficult to make a conclusion based on a small poem; Privately, these questions are indeed biased, even if you and I come to answer, I am afraid that we will not be able to answer them; Although the rest of the students answered, it was far-fetched and had nothing to show off, but the old man felt that this man was really straightforward and dared to speak out. ”

Du Yan waved his hand and said: "What kind of frankness is really straightforward, it's just grandstanding, the old man insists on it as undesirable." ”

Yan Shu looked at Lu Yijian and said, "Lu Xiang, what do you think?" ”

Lu Yijian will be a member of the government after the year, of course, there is no problem of cultivating his own power, so he doesn't care who recommends people to get the top three; Emotionally speaking, it is naturally more important to Du Yan, but Lu Yijian is not a person who makes a statement easily, and one of the secrets of staying in the court is to play ball, so he said: "The old man thinks that Du Shumi's words are reasonable, so let's do it, the old man suggests, the three of us each choose an answer sheet and send it to the saint, and the saint will decide, so that it is in line with the holy will, and the differences between you and me will also be eliminated; To be honest, I was here for three consecutive days to mark the papers, and the old man was a little dizzy and couldn't bear it, so he wanted to go back and rest earlier. ”

Du Yan and Yan Shu hurriedly condoled: "Lu Xiang takes care of his noble body, don't work too hard; Just follow Lu Xiang's words. ”

Since Lu Yijian spoke, Du Yan couldn't help but give face, so the three of them each selected a test paper, presented it to the palace, and kicked the ball to Zhao Zhen.

……

After the provincial trial, Su Jin had no time to spare, on the one hand, he began to prepare for the wedding on the 18th, and on the other hand, he had to supervise the completion of the house near Lijingmen.

In order to complete the construction of the new house as soon as possible, as early as more than ten days ago, Su Jin did not hesitate to spend a lot of money, so that the dynasty invited hundreds of craftsmen to be busy here, in order to complete it as soon as possible.

The new house covers an area of nearly 20 acres, and the original wall is only more than five feet high, which has not been inhabited for a long time, and there are many places where it is damaged and collapsed; Su Jin ordered all the walls to be demolished and rebuilt, and all the adobe walls were changed to bluestone masonry, and the height was also increased to one zhang and a half; And imitate the practice of the imperial court official post to cloth thorn porcelain and other objects on the wall, and spend a lot of money to pull up several barbed wire.

In the layout of the house, two lookouts were built in the front and back yards, and gongs and arrows were placed to give alarm and defense, so that in the event of an enemy attack, it could quickly warn and carry out preliminary defense.

The inner house has spent a lot of effort to build a number of solid secret rooms, in case of danger, the whole family can stick to the secret room like the secret room to wait for help, the secret room is full of food, lodging and drinking utensils, prepare ten days of dry food and water, covered with a mezzanine, not afraid of fire.

Between the inner house and the outer hall, the original two-entry house was demolished, paved with a blue brick floor, and transformed into a small square; Seven or eight fine houses are built on both sides, led by the dynasty Ma Han, Zhang Long, Zhao Hu and others to live in the courtyard, which can be used as a place for martial arts practice on weekdays, and if there is danger, the empty square is also convenient for the enemy to hide.

After the whole mansion is completed, it looks like a small castle, the whole house is surrounded by a strong and tall thick wall, and tall towers stand in the front and back yards, and the large mansion with five entrances is changed to four entrances, and it is basically a forbidden area from the second entrance to the back, except for a limited number of a dozen maidservants and Wang Dynasty Mahan and others, the rest of the people are not allowed to enter the backyard.

Su Jin was also quite helpless, it took nearly 150,000 yuan to rebuild this mansion, and all this was because he was worried about Xia Zhu's counterattack, which made him feel very unhappy.

He has always taken the initiative to attack, but at this moment he has to do it, the last assassination against himself failed, when the situation calms down, Xia Zhu will not easily stop, he is not enough, now his mother Mrs. Wang is also here, and Yan Biyun is about to marry the door, Rou Niang and Huanniang Xiao Sui'er and the old and young in the family are also nearly thirty or forty people, any poor pool, may be exploited by Xia Zhu, Su Jin can not take this risk.

But Su Jin is a person who is willing to be suppressed for a long time and lives in the shadows, once the backyard is worry-free, he has to seek a chance to fight back, anyway, both of them are secretly doing their tricks, it depends on whose means are more clever and whose arrangements are more meticulous.