Prime Minister.

Chapter 85, Section 084: Cutting Off the Retreat Route

Time passed quietly, and on the surface, everything inside the examination hall was calm, seemingly without any undercurrents.

Xue Huai maintained his own pace, doing his job well and carefully reviewing each answer sheet, while also navigating between Gao Tingbi and Liu Yu.

Whether they were instructed by their respective benefactors or not, the two seemed to have completely forgotten the argument and conflict of that night. Although they could not be said to have reconciled and become close friends, they were at least able to communicate amicably.

At times like this, Xue Huai would recall the few words Shen Wang had relayed to him by a servant that morning.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly that even though his mentor was an outsider, he could still foresee the intrigues within the examination hall and even roughly guess Xue Huai's situation.

Xue Huai understood that this insight was honed by more than twenty years of official career experience and his talent and wisdom, especially the former, which was something he lacked now.

These reflections were fleeting, and Xue Huai really didn't have much time to indulge in daydreams.

He devoted most of his energy to the vast number of exam papers, spending his days either in the marking room or in the copying room checking the ink-written papers, a privilege specially granted by the chief examiner, Sun Yan.

At first, Gao Tingbi followed him closely, but after two or three days, he confirmed that Xue Huai was looking up the recommendation papers of several people under Yue Zhongming's command, so he stopped following him every time. Firstly, he also had his own things to do, and secondly, he was the top scholar of the Gengchen imperial examination. It was fine that his talent was not as good as Xue Huai's, but wouldn't it be a laughing stock if he followed him around all day?

Xue Huai didn't care about this. Whether Gao Tingbi was acting as Sun Yan's eyes to monitor him or not, he would continue to do what he decided.

At the same time, he also used Liu Yu to mobilize Yue Zhongming's men to keep an eye on the movements of some people inside the inner curtain.

To outsiders, Xue Huai showed no unusual behavior, but only he knew in his heart that as time went on, the tranquility in this courtyard would eventually be lost.

That morning he thought a lot, struggling with whether to stay out of it or step forward, or at least give most of the candidates in this year's spring imperial examination a fair chance.

Even without Shen Wang's message, Xue Huai had already made up his mind. However, his mentor's reminder freed him from all his shackles, allowing him to deal with everything that was about to happen with an extremely calm and composed mindset.

On the tenth day of the third month, the candidates who had endured nine days and nine nights of hardship at the examination hall finally finished their third exam. They dragged their extremely tired steps out of the examination hall and saw the light of day again.

Next, they would wait anxiously for the results to be announced. Some knew they had underperformed and were in a daze, while others were confident that they would pass and indulged in drinking and revelry. The commotion and noise of these nearly four thousand candidates made the entire capital city exceptionally lively.

However, for the examiners who are still locked inside the examination hall, now is the real test.

In the preliminary review, even if the eighteen examiners and the two chief examiners had disagreements, they could be temporarily set aside. For example, in the conflict between Liu Yu and Gao Tingbi, the answer sheet was still recommended by Liu Yu and would await its fate in the deliberation.

The so-called deliberation process involves the six examiners reviewing the recommended papers in public, the chief examiner making a decision, and debating some controversial papers to determine the final selection of a subset of the papers.

The candidates endured an extremely difficult three-part exam, but the examiners focused their evaluation on the first part, which consisted of questions on the Four Books and Five Classics. Generally, this part carried more than 70% of the weight. Only when the two answer sheets were of comparable quality would the second part be reviewed, and the inferior answer sheet would be downgraded.

Therefore, it has always been said that the first round of the imperial examination determines one's fate.

Only after the deliberations are completed will the examiners search for any unfilled papers to prevent overlooking talented individuals.

The 12th day, at the second quarter of the morning.

Zhigong Hall.

Xue Huai arrived at a moderate time, accompanied by Gao Tingbi, with Liu Yu following two steps behind.

The six examiners gathered, and then the two chief examiners, Sun Yan and Yue Zhongming, appeared.

"You've all worked hard these past few days, so let's get straight to the point."

Sun Yan sat in the main seat, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the eighteen examiners, without deliberately lingering on Xue Huai's face.

The clerks placed the hundreds of recommended papers, which they had sorted into categories, on the table in front of the examiners.

The atmosphere suddenly became a little tense.

Sun Yan and Yue Zhongming, being veterans of officialdom, had experienced similar situations many years ago, so they sat very calmly. However, for the eighteen examiners, this was the first time in their lives that they would personally decide the fate of others in the imperial examination, and it was also the only opportunity for many of them.

Aside from a few members of the Hanlin Academy, it was very difficult for the rest to serve as examiners for the provincial examination a second time. As for the position of chief examiner... it was clearly not a position that ordinary people could covet.

After the scribes finished distributing the materials, Sun Yan calmly said, "Let's begin with the Spring and Autumn Annals section."

Although the Spring and Autumn Annals is not the first of the Five Classics, it has been the most popular choice in the imperial examinations of the Great Yan Dynasty for the past few decades, so Sun Yan's arrangement is certainly not inappropriate.

Sitting next to him, Yue Zhongming remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was sneering. He was eagerly anticipating the expression on Grand Secretary Sun's face later.

Gao Tingbi and Liu Yu exchanged a glance but made no move.

Xue Huai did not back down. Under the watchful eyes of the other examiners, he slowly rose and bowed to Sun Yan, saying, "Your Excellency, I have a request before reviewing the papers."

Sun Yan looked at him meaningfully. During this period, through Gao Tingbi's report, he had roughly understood Xue Huai's progress. This talented Hanlin scholar was indeed capable. He gradually found clues from nearly a thousand answer sheets, namely that there were problems with the recommendation papers of several examiners who were related to Yue Zhongming.

He nodded slightly and said, "Please speak freely, Xue Shidu."

Xue Huai said calmly, "This humble official would like to invite Chief Censor Fan to come and listen to today's deliberations."

A solemn silence fell over the room.

Everyone stared at Xue Huai with solemn expressions, wondering what kind of trouble this third-ranked scholar would cause this time.

Some astute individuals noticed that Xue Huai was now addressing Fan Dongyang by his official title, the honorific title of Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate. Sun Yan secretly praised him. The reason he and Ouyang Hui wanted to use Xue Huai to deal with the Ning Party was partly to prevent the Grand Secretary from influencing the Emperor and once again using the excuse of stopping factional strife to easily resolve the matter.

On the other hand, although Xue Huai was young and inexperienced, he had successfully established an image in the minds of all the officials and civil servants through his unwavering impeachment over the past few years, especially after investigating the corruption case in the Ministry of Works. That was, as long as he took action, the person he impeached must have a problem, the only difference being the severity of the problem.

This is the power of a person's reputation. Although Sun Yan was a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, he did not believe that his words would have such a destructive effect.

At this moment, Sun Yan asked in a pretentious manner, "Why did you invite Vice Minister Fan here?"

Xue Huai said solemnly, "During the review of the papers, I discovered many irregularities. For the sake of fairness in the imperial examination, it would be appropriate for Chief Censor Fan to witness the proceedings."

Sun Yan pondered for a moment, then looked at Yue Zhongming beside him and asked, "What does Vice Minister Yue think?"

Yue Zhongming sneered inwardly. Of course he knew what Sun Yan was planning, but Sun Yan didn't know Xue Huai's true thoughts. So he calmly said, "It's all up to you, Your Excellency. I have no objections."

"In that case, let us do as Xue Shidu suggests."

Sun Yan gave the order, and a clerk quickly left.

A moment later, Fan Dongyang, the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief, stepped into the Zhigong Hall.

With a cold and solemn expression, he glanced at Xue Huai after listening to Sun Yan's brief explanation, then silently walked to Yue Zhongming's side and sat down.

“Xue Shidu, you may speak now.”

Sun Yan looked at Xue Huai, a hint of expectation appearing in his eyes.

The other examiners in the hall were even more puzzled. They were already nervous, and now they couldn't understand why Grand Secretary Sun would agree to Xue Huai's rash request.
Today's discussion is bound to be full of disputes. Now that we are in the midst of Fan Dongyang's notoriously incorruptible leadership, if we make a mistake or say something wrong, wouldn't that be handing the other side a handle to use against us?
You should know that the censors are always finding fault with the court officials; they will find problems even when there is nothing wrong with them.

They certainly didn't understand the special circumstances of the day. Sun Yan and Yue Zhongming were both waiting for Xue Huai to make a move against the other side, so naturally they wouldn't reject Xue Huai's proposal.

In the ensuing silence, Xue Huai picked out five answer sheets from the table in front of him and then said, "Grand Secretary Sun, Junior Minister of the Imperial Academy, and Chief Censor Fan, as the examiner of the Spring and Autumn Annals, I have discovered during the review process that these five answer sheets are suspected of being obtained through connections."

Sun Yan's expression remained unchanged, but he was secretly delighted, thinking that this must be the recommendation letter from Liu Yu and the others.

He liked Xue Huai's style of doing things very much; he was decisive and went straight for the central army without any hesitation.

The clerk stepped forward, took the answer sheet from Xue Huai, and then presented it to Sun Yan and the others.

The moment he saw it, Sun Yan sensed something was wrong.

This was not a recommendation from Liu Yu!

Sun Yan calmed himself down and read it carefully. The answer sheet in his hand was reasonably well-written, but the explanation of the question was mediocre.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Xue Huai continued, “My lords, please take a look. These five answer sheets are of different quality, but they have a peculiar common point: the opening paragraph all has the character ‘酬’ (chóu), the introductory paragraph all has the character ‘攸’ (yōu), the middle paragraph all has the character ‘化’ (huà), and the closing paragraph all has the character ‘实’ (shí).

Upon hearing this, all the examiners' expressions changed.

Sun Yan's expression was solemn, while Fan Dongyang coldly stared at the answer sheet in his hand.

Only Yue Zhongming was shocked.

Of course he recognized that these words were the secret code set by the Crown Prince!
Xue Huai looked around at everyone and said without hesitation, "My lords and colleagues, you are all learned people. You must know that these words are not commonly seen in the examination papers. The fact that they appeared in almost the same position on these five papers by such coincidence has caused three of the papers to be illogical, yet the whole article is still quite elegant. It's like a few stains on a jade pendant that cannot be ignored."

"Clearly, this is a common technique used to open joints!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Fan Dongyang said decisively, "That makes sense."

Sitting next to him, Yue Zhongming was filled with doubt and surprise. He never expected that Xue Huai's first target today would not be Sun Yan, but himself!

Yue Zhongming truly could not understand the young scholar's thoughts.

He looked at the composed Xue Huai and realized that the other party had not revealed the truth of the matter. Suddenly, a realization dawned on him.

Perhaps because Xue Huai valued his reputation highly, he feared being manipulated because of this matter, so he chose to eliminate this potential threat before targeting Sun Yan.

After all, Yue Zhongming couldn't very well jump out at this time and say that it was the Crown Prince's doing.

Firstly, he hadn't reached that point of taking a desperate gamble yet, and secondly, he still needed Xue Huai to deal with Sun Yan.

Thinking of this, Yue Zhongming felt very complicated. He thought to himself that Xue Jingche was not as loyal and upright as he appeared, and that he was just as cunning and manipulative.

Fine, let's just consider it a tacit exchange.

He winked at Xue Huai as if it were nothing.

Xue Huai remained calm, slightly lowering his head and eyebrows.

He seemed to be indicating that he had understood Yue Zhongming's attitude, but in fact, the moment he lowered his eyes, a sharp glint flashed deep in his eyes.

Only by cutting off your retreat can you move forward.

(End of this chapter)