National Division

Two major events happened at the same time in the former court and the rear palace, making everyone very busy.

Needless to say in the harem, when the queen mother heard that Xiu Jieyu was pregnant, she was so overjoyed that she didn't know what to do. She personally sent imperial physician Fang to question her. She wished that imperial physician Fang would tell her that Wenxiu was pregnant with a boy. After asking, imperial doctor Fang was sweating, and finally decided to come back for pulse diagnosis ten days later, and left in a hurry.

But it's a pity that Xiu Jieyu is pregnant, and the only ones who are really happy are the Queen Mother and the Emperor.The Concubine Xian's palace was quiet, and she just sent people to Liuxiang Hall to send some cloth and silk jewelry as congratulatory gifts; let alone the newly demoted literary talents, although they dare not blatantly make a villain to curse, they are not in the room. I know how many words I have scolded Wenxiu; as for the Zichen Palace where the queen lives, it is the queen's mother, the newly promoted Mrs. Taipinghou, who handed over a sign to ask to see her.

After Qi Jun ascended the throne, the Zhao family was granted the title of Marquis of Taiping. Of course, Marquis Zhao no longer went to the border to lead troops, but now it was his confidant general who was guarding the northwest, and he could hold the northwest firmly.It's a pity that Marquis Zhao has no son, and the title can't be passed on, and now he is trying to adopt a son from the clan, and Mrs. Zhao entered the palace under the guise of establishing an heir.

"Is she really pregnant?" Mrs. Zhao sat in a daze, and said after a while, "What did the national teacher draw—it really works! Then, why don't you ask the national teacher to draw a picture for you?"

Zhao Yuehong shook her head with red eye circles: "That bitch Wenxiu said that the national teacher put all his energy into drawing this one."

Mrs. Zhao sneered: "What do you believe in what she says? Xiu Jieyu obviously plotted against the talented man on purpose, and found a reason to burn the spiritual thing on her body. It should be placed on you. You gave birth to the eldest son of Zhonggong, what is she born to?" Seeing that her daughter was thin and pale, she couldn't help feeling distressed, "It's my fault too, I spoiled you by beating the child, and it hurt you I don't know the pros and cons of this, but now I have suffered a disadvantage. Now the emperor still comes to your palace?"

Zhao Yue nodded and said: "The emperor will definitely come on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, and he will always come two or three times on the rest of the day, but—" It's just that she has been silent all this time, and even let the nanny who is still in bed in the palace calculate the days of menstruation to make a special trip. Arrangements, but still can not conceive.

"Since that's the case," Mrs. Zhao made a final decision, "Go and ask the national teacher to draw another picture for you!" Seeing the distressed face on her daughter's face, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious, "What time is it, don't put on such airs, you have to give birth to a son-in-law." It's the most important thing!"

Zhao Yue burst into tears: "What if the national teacher can no longer draw?"

"It's impossible." Mrs. Zhao didn't believe it at all. "One must have two. Back then, all the supernatural powers in the Northwest were displayed. What's the picture? Please. How can you say that he also helped your father in the Northwest back then, so it can be regarded as a friendship."

Zhao Yue heard something wrong: "In the northwest? What is mother talking about?"

Mrs. Zhao suddenly realized that she had slipped her tongue. She faltered for a while and finally said about the long whale sucking water. Seeing her daughter's face turned paler in shock, she quickly asked, "What's the matter?"

Zhao Yue whimpered: "Mother, I—" After a long time, my father's military exploits in the Northwest were so much credited to Zhibai, but he himself caused disasters when he knew Bai Yiyun. Why would Zhibai draw a picture of deer and Sichuan for her?

Mrs. Zhao was also dumbfounded, never expecting that the cause and effect of going around would end up here, she stayed for a long time before gritting her teeth and said: "Having that thing is just suitable for descendants, it's not like you can't live without that thing! If it doesn't work, let She can't give birth! Doesn't the emperor still come to your palace often now? It can be seen that the emperor also wants a son-in-law, and when you give birth to a son-in-law, no one will care how much she likes to have."

"Make her unable to give birth?" Zhao Yue couldn't help but clenched her hands tightly.After several years in the palace, she is no longer a little girl ignorant of world affairs. She fully understands what her mother said, "But——he is the emperor's heir, and besides...how can I make it so that there are no traces?"

This question stopped Mrs. Zhao.After all, the palace is not like an ordinary family's back house, not to mention that Wenxiu is probably under heavy guard now, how can it be so easy to start?The mother and daughter could only look at each other, sitting in a sad city...

When Zhao Yue was in trouble with Mrs. Zhao in Zichen Palace, the first palace examination was going on in Xiyuan.

In mid-February, the weather was still not very warm, and the new Jinshi heard that there would be three palace exams, which caused some headaches.It was only when they entered the palace that they were allocated a house in Xiyuan, not a test shed like the one in the examination room, that they breathed a sigh of relief.Although it is said that the servants live in the palace, but there are doors and windows after all, and a charcoal basin can be placed in the room, so it is not so difficult.

Qi Jun looked from room to room and saw that the examinees were all bowing their heads in composition, and nodded in satisfaction, but when he turned around, he saw several examiners behind him exchanging glances with each other, and asked, "What's the matter?"

The chief examiner, surnamed Lu, quickly laughed and said: "Go back to the emperor, I heard that the emperor will take three consecutive exams for the palace exam? I'm afraid it will be inconvenient for these candidates to live in the palace."

Qi Jun said nonchalantly: "The door to the harem in Xiyuan has been sealed, and this place is no longer considered a palace, so there is no inconvenience." Seeing that the sky was getting dark, the candidates should have finished their first essays, and said , "I have collected the articles and sent them to the Taiji Hall. I want to approve them at night."

The examiners all looked at each other in blank dismay. Although the emperor presided over the palace examination nominally, there was no emperor who personally approved the examination papers. They just read a few random papers, and then the examiners ranked them in order. Only the three tripods were ordered by the emperor himself. Certainly.However, since Qi Jun ascended the throne, he has already done a lot of things that broke the rules, and several examiners had no choice but to bow their heads and say yes, and went to make a fuss.

There were 200 candidates taking part in the imperial examination. If Qi Jun wanted to read everyone's articles carefully, he couldn't even see the dawn.He wanted to browse through it briefly, but he didn't know that he had read more than [-] articles, and two or three of them were really good. You pedantic bookworm, this time Enke is really right!"

Zhibai was dozing off on a table beside him, and was startled by him, wiped the corners of his mouth and raised his head, sleepy-eyed: "What did Your Majesty say?"

Qi Jun couldn't help laughing at his appearance: "Didn't you just meditate at Zishi, and you fell asleep like this after a few hours?"

Zhibai yawned and looked at the hourglass: "It's four o'clock, isn't Your Majesty going to sleep?"

Qi Jun was excited to read the exam papers, so he couldn't sleep, so he stood up and said, "Didn't you say you want to watch Wenqi? Everyone is asleep at this time, so hurry up and leave."

Zhibai remembered today's topic, and his drowsiness disappeared immediately.Qi Jun summoned a light chariot, sat on it with Zhibai, and went straight to Xiyuan. Along the way, he was still excitedly talking about the highlights of several strategies: "I am most afraid of taking those who will only An idiot who reads the Four Books and Five Classics. People read books to understand, not to make two-legged bookcases. I don’t know how many people are familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, but they don’t know anything about firewood, rice, oil and salt. Ask him to go to the Du River. He doesn’t know water conservancy. Tell him to go to Sinong, he doesn't know about farming, ask him to ask prison, he doesn't know how to judge people, such a person, no matter how good the article is, what's the use? Such a person has learned to be stupid, so what do you expect him to say?"

"The good thing about these articles is that they are not only beautiful in writing, but also rich in content. You see, they know a lot about the prices of grain, rice, cloth and silk in Shandong. Knowing so much, it can be seen that he has traveled thousands of miles and read thousands of books—Zheng Mingshi, um, I remember this person."

Zhibai couldn't understand the article, but he could understand Qi Jun's words, and immediately said happily: "Then this person's literary spirit must be impressive."

Qi Jun casually looked at the room number on the paper: "The third room of Xuan Zihao." Ordinarily, this paper should be vaguely named, but Qi Jun was in a hurry, and the examiners took the papers and presented them directly in front of him. It has not been sealed, so the name and room number are clearly displayed on it.

While the two were talking, they had already arrived at Xiyuan, the gatekeeper quietly opened the gate, Qi Jun got off the light chariot with Zhibai, and walked in.From his point of view, the inside was dark, but he didn't know what it looked like in Zhibai's eyes, so he asked, "Can you see Wen Qi?"

Zhibai frowned: "It's strange...why is it that although there is a literary spirit, it is only a few feet high and low, and it is short and only covers the bricks and tiles—why are the few flames soaring into the sky that I saw that day?"

Qi Jun was stunned: "No? Maybe, maybe it's just good writing. The writing is a bit impractical, so it was never accepted?"

Zhibai shook his head: "Writing style is not a matter of diction. However, maybe the article does not suit the examiner's taste, and there are some who have not been accepted. It's just that the style of writing in Xiyuan is not as strong and splendid as what I saw in the past few nights in Chunwei... ..."

Qi Jun frowned and pondered for a moment, then said decisively: "Go to Xuan Zihao first."

It was quiet in the garden, only the sound of a group of people's footsteps, and they walked to the door of the Xuanzi shop in a moment.Zhibai stood there, dumbfounded, Qi Jun felt something wrong when he saw his face, and said in a deep voice, "What did you see?"

Zhibai murmured: "The glow is like a lamp, its color is dim yellow, and there are clouds of black air shrouded in it——Your Majesty really thinks that his articles are gorgeous and full of content?"

Qi Jun's face was already covered with a layer of frost, and he said in a deep voice: "There is also room No. Especially outstanding, specially memorized the room number and name one by one in my heart.

Zhibai followed him around in the dark Xiyuan in the middle of the night, just shaking his head.Among these few people, the best ones are just a few feet away from the roof tiles, and the worst ones are as faint as a lamp like Zheng Mingshi.Although he doesn't understand articles, if such a person can be praised for his beautiful articles, what about the few people he saw who were full of literary spirit during the Spring Festival?

Qi Jun's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and he suddenly sneered: "Okay, very good! Tomorrow, I will try again!"

Originally, the candidates were still writing essays in Xiyuan on the second day, but early in the morning, Qi Jun ordered someone to order all the candidates to go to the Tai Chi Hall for interviews.A group of people took their seats in the hall, Qi Jun walked in and asked, "Which one is Zheng Mingshi?"

Immediately, an examinee in the front row got up to answer. Qi Jun glanced up and down, and saw that he was born with a good appearance, but his eyes were a little cloudy, so he said: "I see that you did a good job in yesterday's test paper, but as you Candidates from Henan, why are you so familiar with prices in Shandong?"

Zheng Mingshi hurriedly said: "Returning to Your Majesty, Wansheng went to Shandong with his father to study for two years, so he is familiar with it."

"Oh, tell me, how much is your commodity price in Henan?" Qi Jun said casually, "How much is a stone of grain, how much is brown rice, and how much is polished rice? What are the prices of sorghum, soybeans, and cotton?"

Zheng Mingshi suddenly froze, he hesitated to answer a few questions, and beads of sweat started to break out on his head.Qi Jun sneered and said: "You are familiar with the price of the place where you study, why don't you know the place where you live? Well, I have a pair for you!" He stretched out his hand and took a fan from Feng En's hand , unfold the fan gently, and a green dragon jumps out from the fan, "How can a fan draw a green dragon, how can the wind not rain?"

Since the cloud comes from the dragon, the dragon is a spiritual creature that travels wind and rain, but the blue dragon painted on the fan can only fan the wind but not rain. This couplet is quite ingenious.

All the eyes in the hall turned to Zheng Mingshi, only to see that the beads of sweat on Zheng Mingshi's forehead became more urgent, and his little white face was blue and red, it was almost impossible to see.Qi Jun's face became more and more cold, his eyes swept across the people in the hall, and he said coldly: "Who can match up?"

There was silence, and all the candidates lowered their heads.Qi Jun suddenly got up and said sharply: "Come on!"

More than a dozen guards rushed into the palace like wolves and tigers, and pressed several examiners to their knees. Qi Jun forced them with sharp eyes like a knife: "Is this the talent you have chosen for the court?" Pointing at Zheng Mingshi, he quickly reported the names of several examinees, "I arrested them all and handed them over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice together with the examiners in each room for interrogation. After all, who leaked the examination questions I gave! , How did they get it! All the candidates admitted by Chunwei on this list will be invalidated!"

The palace tried out a batch of fake products, which caused a sensation in the capital.Just after the imperial list was posted here to cancel the candidates admitted by Chunwei, someone from the criminal department over there came to express their grievances.The person in charge of the case was Meng Yang, the former servant of the Ministry of Military Affairs, who was called by Qi Jun himself to sit in the Ministry of Punishment. Naturally, he dared not neglect, and after careful questioning, he brought him in front of Qi Jun.

"You said that the articles by Zheng Mingshi and others were all written by you?" Qi Jun looked at the three candidates in front of him. The three were of different ages, all of them were very plainly dressed, and they all had Shandong accents.

"Yes." The leader is the youngest, "Cao Min Su Rui, I participated in the Qiu Wei with two friends in Shandong Mansion in August last year. At the time of the list, there were two people who were not ranked, and only one of the grass-roots people was lowly placed at the bottom, but the one who got the list was a lot of people with no talent and virtue, and they only got money by sending money to the chief examiner. They came to the capital together and wanted to take the opportunity of the palace examination to report this matter to the emperor, but after staying in the inn for a few days, someone asked Cao Min and others to write essays under the pretext of asking for advice, and the topics were all the same. They guessed that the test questions were leaked. Sure enough, after Caomin entered the arena, all the questions in the test were asked for advice by someone, but Caomin failed. This Zheng Mingshi asked for advice after the results were released. Caomin thought at that time, Could it be that this is the topic of the imperial examination? They deliberately wrote the price of Shandong in it, and embedded the word Su at the end of the second line of the second paragraph of the text, and embedded the word Rui at the end of the third line of the third paragraph, which is the name and surname of the Caomin. Although the two friends of Cao Min did not end, they were also "asked for advice" about Chun Wei's article, if the emperor has any doubts, the three of Cao Min can write it down silently on the spot."

As he said, Qi Jun looked at Zheng Mingshi's paper and found that the word "Su Rui" was embedded in it. He believed it eight points, and said, "In that case, I have a couplet here. You may be right? How about a fan drawing a green dragon?" Is it windy or rainy?"

Su Rui lowered his head and pondered for a while, then raised his head and said: "A pair of grass folks are bold, with colorful phoenix embroidered on their shoes, after all, it's hard to fly to the sky."

"Okay!" Qi Jun jumped up against the table, "It seems that not only the capital's Chunwei is fake, but Shandong's Qiuwei is also fake. I want to see who is going to play tricks on my Enke!"