Every time the new emperor ascends the throne, Enke will be opened, and the examination questions of Enke often contain the direction of the imperial court's major policies, such as the examination question in the first year of Shaosheng, and it can even be said that the program of the new party's governance.

The bias of the imperial court is the easiest to guide the ideological orientation of scholars; If the imperial court pays attention to poetry and songs, the reader must be looking for chapters and sentences all day long, chanting the wind and the moon, and making himself famous all over the world with his good poems and impressing the examiner.

If the imperial court pays attention to the practical current affairs of the world, if you want the title of the gold list, you can no longer go to Haoshou poor scriptures and memorize the subset of scriptures and history; You must get out of your study, care about current affairs, observe people's livelihood, and be familiar with the way of governance.

Therefore, the direction that the imperial court focuses on is the most powerful way to guide and transform the thinking of scholars.

Although Han Wei and Fan Chunren did not completely deny the new policy like Lu Dafang, they also did not agree with the new policy now implemented by the imperial court; In particular, they believe that this is too radical and will hurt too much to the old gentry class, and a country is governed by the gentry class, and it is really difficult to predict what kind of consequences this excessively new law will lead.

Now, although the new law has been forcibly implemented for more than two years, the people's livelihood has developed greatly, the newly reclaimed land has increased rapidly, and the imperial court's annual income has doubled; However, this did not dispel the doubts of Fan, Han and others, because the new policy was resisted in disguised form to varying degrees in many places, and there were not a few people who implemented the changes; He used an iron fist against local officials who opposed the New Deal, and dismissed them from office. After the imperial court purged the imperial envoy Taida last time, it sent a large number of imperial envoys to inspect the locality; Under such circumstances, it is still impossible to prevent the new law from being out of shape in the process of implementation in many places, which shows how strong the resistance of the gentry class to the new policy is.

In the view of Fan, Han and others, even if this kind of new policy does not conform to the will of the people, it will not last long, even if it is implemented strongly; This made them feel the need to make some efforts on Enco this time.

Fan Chunren is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, if there is no accident, he should be responsible for the main examination and test questions, but this is not absolute, and the imperial court has also let other important ministers serve as the main exams in the previous Ministry of Rites examinations.

The new policy has not been implemented long ago, judging from Zhang Dan's action of letting Zhou Bangyan serve as Taixuezheng, the New Party has already begun to compete for reserve talents, will they be allowed to interfere in this Enke?

Han Wei and Fan Chunren discussed this, and felt that only by obtaining the support of Empress Shaosheng could they get the messenger of the main exam, and it was also not easy to get the support of Empress Shaosheng!

In Kunning Palace, Han Bi'er was led by a palace maid and had just entered the palace. Since Yang Yi returned to Beijing, Empress Liu has never found an excuse to recruit her into the palace, and now Yang Yi has gone to Hebei to negotiate peace with Liao, so she has to recruit Han Bier into the palace again to ask for advice.

What she wanted to ask was about Lichu, and for several months, it had been Han Bi'er who had advised her on this matter, so there was nothing to avoid.

As time passed, Queen Liu became more and more anxious, once Zhao seemed to grow up, she would have to return to power, and then her son would really have no hope, but Yang Yi didn't seem to pay much attention to this matter, and she became even more uneasy, which reminded her of Han Bi'er again.

After thinking about it, Han Bi'er said softly: "If the queen wants to establish a prince, she can only rely on the new party, but the queen mother has always relied too much on them, and it will inevitably make the new party despise the queen mother, and the queen mother needs to remind them who is the master of the Great Song Dynasty, so that in the matter of establishing a prince, maybe the queen mother can successfully achieve her wish." ”

"Oh! Tell me, how do you remind them? ”

Han Bi'er quietly looked at Zhao Jie who was holding Xiao Ju, her eyes quickly turned away, her heart suddenly jumped, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "Queen Mother, seeing that the date of the Ministry of Rites exam is not far away, presumably the examiner's choice has attracted much attention. ”

When Han Bi'er said this, she stopped and didn't say anything, and Queen Liu was already enlightened, and under great joy, she rewarded Han Bi'er with a lot of jewels and jade treasures.

Han Bi'er couldn't be happy in her heart, she didn't get Yang Yi's approval for this matter, but after seeing Zhao Jie, she gave Queen Liu this idea with a vague guess.

When Yang Yi comes back in the future, she doesn't know if it's a curse or a blessing? Don't look at her very beautiful now, but Han Bi'er understands that everything about herself comes from Yang Yi, and if it arouses Yang Yi's disgust, her end will be very miserable.

She thanked Empress Liu for her reward and left the palace full of concern.

On the third day of the court meeting, Luo Zhongchun proposed to select the chief examiner of Enke; Zhang Shangying and others immediately recommended Li Qingchen as the main exam.

Zheng Yong, the servant of the Criminal Department, and Han Wei, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, recommended Fan Chunren.

Li Qingchen and Fan Chunren are not much different in terms of talent and prestige, although the two have different governance concepts, but their own character is the same and is praised by the world; When Wang Anshi was in power, Fan Chunren thought that most of the new policies were too exploiting the people, and he opposed them, and when Sima Guang and others were in power, they engaged in political persecution, and he also insisted on his heart and tried to dissuade them. Sima Guang, whether good or bad, abolished the New Deal, and he also spoke out against it.

Li Qingchen agreed with the new policy, but when Wang Anshi was in power, he did not go in to try to be in a high position; When the New Party fell, he alone resolutely stood up to refute Sima Guang and tried to save the New Deal.

It can be said that both of them are people who can stick to their hearts and forget their selfishness for the public; Regardless of their political views, their own character is impeccable.

Li Qingchen received more support in the New Party; Fan Chunren, as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, has a great advantage in the selection of the chief examiner, of course, the main reason is that Empress Shao Sheng did not express her position, so the selection of the chief examiner was deadlocked for a while.

After suppressing this matter, the imperial envoy Liu Hai suddenly mentioned the matter of establishing the prince again: "Your Majesty, Empress Shaosheng, as the saying goes, the country cannot be without a monarch for a day, in the same way, the prince is also related to the safety of the country. ”

As soon as Liu Hai said this, the ministers in the palace did not have time to discuss, and the imperial envoy Luo Ding stood up again and said: "Your Majesty, Empress Shaosheng, as the saying goes, there is no joke in the king, on the day His Majesty ascended the throne, he announced that the world, if Empress Shaosheng gave birth to the first emperor Longzi, she will be established as the crown prince, and now the first emperor Longzi is eight months old, if Your Majesty does not establish a prince, I am afraid that the world will criticize it, in order to make Your Majesty's benevolence and virtue not damaged, the minister asked His Majesty to establish a prince, and to level the gossip of all the people in the world." ”

Although the ministers of the court and the central government all knew that sooner or later Empress Liu would bring up the matter of establishing a prince again, when this day really came, everyone still felt a little caught off guard; Among the three provinces and the six senior officials, except for Cai Jing and Lin Xi, who came out to express their support for Lichu, everyone else was silent.

Empress Liu, who was behind the bead curtain, was very unhappy when she saw that the matter of Lichu was really cold, and she glanced at Zhao Yi lightly, without saying a word.

Zhao on the throne seems to be restless at the moment, although the edict of enthronement was not drawn up by him, but it was announced in his name, if he denies this matter at this time, it is equivalent to not believing in his words, what will the people of the world think of him?

In fact, his nature is similar to Concubine Zhu, he is very cowardly, he abides by his duty, and he has never spied on the throne; When he ascended to the throne last year, it was entirely the New Party that helped him up out of consideration for the New Deal, and as far as he was concerned, he would rather be a peaceful prince than be a puppet.

It was Concubine Zhu, and she also politely persuaded him to take the initiative to give up the throne, the reason is very simple, now the entire palace is under the control of Queen Liu, and Queen Liu's thoughts, that is Sima Zhao's heart, are known to passers-by.

Zhao seems to be weak by nature, has no opinions, is not the appearance of the master, and the foreign court has no power to help, in this deep palace, Concubine Zhu is worried that if this continues, it will endanger his life, so she persuaded Zhao to come instead.

Now that he was squeezed like this in the court, Zhao seemed to think of his mother's words, and suddenly his heart was full of panic, his face was embarrassed, and he said cowardly: "I ...... Now the heirs of the first emperor are healthy and intelligent, and the dragon and phoenix are beautiful, I should fulfill what I said at the beginning, and the Zen position is ......"

"Your Majesty! Cannot! ”

Before Zhao seemed to finish speaking, Fan Chunren hurriedly walked out of work to stop it, the most feared thing finally happened, the Longfu Palace where Zhao Jie lived before once reported that there was a red light at night, which made them worried, Zhezong died, and the brother died and the brother died, this was a normal continuation of Guozuo; But recently, auspicious news has often been reported from all over the country, and Zhao Jie's Longfu Palace has red light from time to time, they have been officials for decades, how can they not know what Empress Shaosheng is going to do?

If Zhao Jie was born before Zhezong's death, Fan Chunren and others would not object to appointing him as emperor, but now that Zhao seems to be the emperor, Empress Shaosheng still has thoughts of non-division, which will definitely make the situation of the Great Song Dynasty fall into unpredictable turmoil.

I only listened to Fan Chunren Zhengyan said: "Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven who officially ascended the throne in accordance with the will of heaven, since he ascended the throne, he has been diligent and studious, benevolent and upright, and has never done anything immoral. ”

Fan Chunren said it righteously, except for Cai Jing and Liu Hai and others in the court, Zhang Dan, Xu Jiang, Su Song and others did not express their position on this matter.

This made Empress Liu secretly annoyed, she suddenly interrupted the debate in the hall, and said calmly: "The ministers don't have to fight, the matter of establishing the prince will be decided by the officials in the future, and there is no hurry; However, Enke is imminent, and the candidate for the chief examiner cannot be delayed, I think about it again and again, the Ministry of Rites is in charge of the world's tribute, Fan Shangshu has both virtue and ability, and it is appropriate to serve as the chief examiner of this department. ”

As soon as Empress Liu's words came out, including Zhang Dan, all the members of the New Party were secretly shocked, the imperial examination involved a lot of things, and a test question was often interpreted by the people of the world as the direction of the government; If Fan Chunren is allowed to be the chief examiner, people in the world will even think that the wind direction has changed, so they will be more emboldened to oppose the new policy. This is extremely detrimental to both the New Deal and the New Party.

Empress Liu was obviously annoyed that the New Party did not speak for Zhao Jie, so she fought back, and this counterattack even Zhang Dian was secretly frightened, Empress Liu held the regency and the jade seal; Although she also needs the support of the ministers of the DPRK and China, the New Party needs her support even more.

As soon as she falls to the old party, just like Gao Kou at the beginning, it will be a catastrophe for the new deal!

(To be continued)