It was finally late at night, and the last scholar who handed over the paper also left the examination room. There was already a lot of cheers outside the examination room. The scholar cheered for the examination. Since there was no standard for the test scores and it was entirely based on the examiner's preferences, basically every candidate felt that he had done well in the exam, and he could get high scores in the first two subjects, and the last subject also expressed his great ambitions and confidence grew in the hearts of every candidate. The next ten days were the moments for them to wait and enjoy.

Although there are many brothels in Zhongdu, Zhongdu has strict jurisdiction over officials. Officials can marry concubines, but they are not allowed to appear in brothels, nor are they allowed to raise wives. Of course, the scholars are not affected. However, once they pass the imperial examination, they are exposed to sleeping in Zhongdu. At the least, the official position is extremely poor, and at the worst, they are directly removed from the list.

Last year, two top scholars were exposed for visiting prostitutes in brothels. The last scholar was only given a low position as the chief clerk of the small county, and another scholar was removed from the list by criticizing and denying them and was not allowed to be hired for life.

It is this strict rule that makes no scholars dare to get involved in brothels, and they don’t even dare to drink flowers and wine. If they end up in the Golden List, they are ruined in the minor details, wouldn’t it be worth the loss?

However, there is no constraint on drinking parties, so the business of restaurants in all sizes is extremely popular. They sit all over the place from morning to night. Many inns also start the business of restaurants temporarily, providing home-cooked wine and dishes in the inns, allowing scholars to go back to the inn to eat and drink. When the scholars get drunk, the inn staff are also responsible for helping them back to the room.

An imperial examination made Zhongdu’s wine shops and inns make a fortune, but the brothels were frustrated. However, after the imperial examination was issued, the brothels’ business would suddenly reverse to make up for their previous losses.

In the temporarily opened wine and food area in Shunxing Inn, more than 20 scholars gathered here for a drink. Chu Suiliang and Lu Han were sitting in the corner drinking and chatting. Chu Suiliang seemed a little depressed. Although he thought about it all night last night, he was very glad that he was prepared in the exam room, but now after thinking about it carefully, he felt that his vision of the world was too narrow.

He sighed, "Now is the time for the world to compete for hegemony. Opening up borders and unifying the world is the mainstream kingdom. I actually wrote about trivial matters in small counties, and it was a mistake! Brother Lu is wise."

Lu Han still wrote about his best pacification of Hu Ce, including strategies for the Turks and the Western Regions. He proposed to support the Tiel tribes and jointly deal with the Turks. After the Liaodong Battle ended last year, Lu Han had followed Li Jing to the ancient tribe of Baye, which gave him a more direct practical experience.

Lu Han smiled and said, "The thing I have experienced most is His Highness the attitude towards prisoners of war. Unless he is extremely guilty, he usually tries not to kill him. This is to preserve his labor and wait for the restoration of people's livelihood economy in the future. From this, it can be seen that His Highness of Qi attaches great importance to local economic recovery. What you and I wrote are actually two sides of the same thing. I don't think you have to worry at all. As long as you have something to say, you should be able to be on the list based on your level."

"I hope!" Chu Suiliang sighed in depressedness.

"Come on, I'll drink this glass of wine first. I'll take you to visit all over Hebei tomorrow. Anyway, the ranking will be released in ten days. I forgot about the imperial examination for the time being and have a good trip."

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After the imperial examination, nearly 100 officials went all out to mark the papers. This is a arduous project. On average, each official needs to review 700 test papers. The first review is the first review. Any test papers that fail the calligraphy and empty content of the policy are eliminated, and nearly 80% of the test papers will be eliminated in the first review.

The second trial is the key. Ninety percent of the candidates will be eliminated here, and the remaining thousand candidates will enter the final competition. Two papers of these thousand candidates will be given to the presiding judge, and the ten presiding judges will determine the last hundred who will be ranked in the imperial examination.

Once the 100 people who were listed above are determined, the other test papers will be returned, and officials will have to conduct the second trial again. This is to confirm the recruitment of the Imperial College. Since the imperial examination system has been implemented, the names and hometowns are blocked by notes. Until the 100 people who were listed above are determined, the papers of the names and hometowns of all scholars will be torn off. This is to ensure that the southern scholars have more opportunities to enter the Imperial College.

As soon as the sky was dawn, an important court meeting was held in the Ziwei Pavilion Political Consultation Hall. Ziwei Pavilion is also called Beige, while Tianci Pavilion in the Neishi Province is called Nange. Ziwei Pavilion is close to Zhang Xuan's official room. It was just completed at the beginning of the year and replaced the original Ziwei Partial Hall and became the power center of the Northern Sui Dynasty. All major military and national affairs were decided here.

However, the reason why Ziwei Pavilion is called the Power Center of Northern Sui is not because of the building itself, but a major power reform implemented by the Northern Sui Dynasty since the beginning of this year. For core officials, Zhang Xuan will be granted the title of Ziwei Pavilion as the Supervisor in the name of the Regent. There are currently five people who have obtained the title of Ziwei Pavilion, namely Su Wei, Pei Ju, Wei Yunqi, Xiao Yu and Chen Leng.

Although there are no clear regulations, everyone knows that Ziwei Pavilion’s supervisor is actually learning the Pingzhangshi of the Tang Dynasty. If the Tang Dynasty adds the title of Pingzhangshi, it can be called the Prime Minister, and the same is true for the Northern Sui Dynasty. After adding Ziwei Pavilion’s supervisor, it can be called the Prime Minister. It can be said that this is a threshold for becoming a Prime Minister.

Zhang Xuan sat in the upper head, including Su Wei and Pei Ju, the Minister of the Left and Right Prime Minister, Xiao Yu, the Minister of the Inner History, Zhang Xuansu, the Minister of the Yellow Gate, Wei Yunqi, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Li Gang, the Minister of the Imperial College, Du Yan, the Minister of the Imperial College, Lai Hong, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Wen Yanbo, the Minister of the Qi Palace, Fang Xuanling, the Chief Secretary of the Records Office, Du Ruhui and other dozen senior officials gathered together to decide the final list of imperial examinations.

The examiner of the imperial examination this time is still Su Wei, the right prime minister, and the deputy examiner is Lai Hong, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Wen Yanbo, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites. This is also because the imperial examination is held jointly by the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites.

At this time, Feng Shanchang, the Censor of the Supervisor, stepped forward and bowed to Zhang Xuan, "Your Highness, you should arrive fifteen people. Because Chen Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites is not absent from the capital, the remaining fourteen people have arrived."

Zhang Xuan nodded and said to Su Wei: "Let's start!"

Su Wei seemed a little tired. He was old, but as the chief examiner, he still reviewed the papers for three consecutive days, reviewed all the 100 pre-listed scholars' policy statements, and signed his own name.

Su Wei cheered up and slowly said to everyone: "There were 72,600 scholars in this imperial examination, which was more than 11,000 more than last year. The admission quota was still the same as last year. The first 100 were Jinshi, and another 3,000 Tai students were hired. The recruitment of Tai students has ended, and a total of 3,300 people were admitted, of which 2,200 scholars were south of the Huaihe River. According to last year's practice, the list can be released after review by the Ministry of Civil Affairs."

Zhang Xuan looked back at Li Gang, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Li Gang hurriedly said: "The list is under the final review and can be completed before this morning."

At this time, Su Wei winked at the deputy examiner Wen Yanbo. Wen Yanbo stepped forward and presented a sealed list of imperial examinations to Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan took off the sealing wax and slowly unfolded the scroll on the table.

Su Wei continued: "The exam papers of these 100 admitted scholars were reviewed by ten third-level examiners, which indeed represents the highest level of the imperial examination. Of course, in the preliminary review, many scholars were not selected because of their poor calligraphy. Perhaps their articles were good, but calligraphy is the premise. This is the consensus we reached last year. In addition, the ranking of the top 20 was not determined. Who can enter the top 10 in the end is today's issue."

According to convention, the top twenty places are the A list, and the last eighty places are the B list. The ranking of the B list is ranked by the examiner, and the ranking of the A list must be decided after discussion within the Ziwei Pavilion.

As for the top three, the No. 1 pick, the No. 1 pick and Tanhua, it must be decided by Zhang Xuan.

Another deputy examiner came to Hong to present the red lacquer wooden plate with the test papers of the top 20 candidates to Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan flipped through it and said, "If you remove the scriptures and poems, we will only look at the policy and theory!"

Lai Hong removed the wooden plate that posted scriptures and poems, leaving only twenty test papers. Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "Let's take a look! Let's talk about it together."

He took out two of the test papers and distributed the remaining eighteen to everyone. They each took one test paper and read it carefully

At this time, Su Wei said: "What is the topic of this policy discussion? The topic is very broad and can allow scholars to speak freely. Therefore, each scholar's discussion direction is different. For example, the twenty scholars on the A-list discussed the governance of local counties, some discussed the strategies of conservatives of the Western Regions, some discussed the strategies of pacifying Hu, some discussed the integration of the north and the south, the relationship between the central government and the vassal states, and some discussed the development of roads and shipping. It can be said that the strategies are wonderful, the arguments are detailed and rich, the writing is smooth, and the insights are very profound. Many of them are even ashamed of."

"Has Su Xiangguo arranged in order?" Zhang Xuan asked.

Su Wei smiled and said, "Last night, the old minister, Pei Xiangguo, Wei Shangshu and Xiao Shilang, we discussed it. According to their opinions on strategy, the writing style and calligraphy were roughly arranged in a sequence, but we were not sure about the top three, so please make up your decision!"

Su Wei took out a list of the A-list and presented it to Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan looked at it and handed it to everyone, "Everyone can take a look at this list. If there is any objection, you can put it forward now."
Chapter completed!