Film and TV starts with acquiring a memory palace

Chapter 680: Palace Examination

"Announce, the successful candidates of this year's imperial examination are entering the palace."

"..."

The eunuch's voice came from the hall, and Gu Tingyu and others quickly straightened their clothes, as they must not lose their composure in front of the emperor.

Although you can basically become an official after taking the palace examination, there are still some considerations regarding how to assign your position. It would be bad if someone saw you.

Following the guidance of their father-in-law, Gu Tingyu and his group walked into the Jiying Hall.

"I will pay my respects to Your Majesty."

At this time, they were no longer common people, so they could become subjects.

"You are all pillars of the country. There is no need for formalities. Please stand up."

The emperor sat on the dragon throne, looking at the more than 200 people below with some anticipation in his eyes. These people were all the elites of this time. He had set the policy essay topic this time in the hope of making some achievements before he died, and these were the people who could be used.

Gu Tingyu and others also stood up directly. Only then did they have the opportunity to see the official's appearance.

Well, there's nothing special about him, he just looks better than ordinary people. If he were outside, he would just be a handsome middle-aged guy.

However, sitting in this Jiying Hall, with the contrast of hundreds of officials, it was completely different.

Among all the people below, some looked at the official carefully, while some did not dare to look up at all. However, Gu Tingyu did not worry at all and looked at him carefully.

"Gu Tingyu, I didn't expect to see you again."

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I was not feeling well before and I feel so sorry for your kindness."

"Haha, that's enough. Now that I'm better, I'll have to work harder in the future."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Gu Tingyu bowed respectfully. He was not surprised that the emperor knew him. After all, he was the son of Marquis Ningyuan and he had been to the palace to attend banquets before, so he had seen him before.

However, just these two sentences made the people who came after him extremely envious, especially those who came from poor backgrounds.

I used to envy the status of the champion. After all, there was only one in each session, and he would immediately catch the eyes of officials. After all, being the first would always be easy to be remembered.

Now I am even more envious of Gu Tingyu's background. He can talk to officials so casually, but I can't do that.

The emperor did not say much. After all, the focus of today was the palace examination, so the eunuchs around quickly set up the examination room. Each person had a small table and a stool. This was the place for the exam.

Gu Tingyu sat on a stool, looking at the papers on the table. The palace examination only tested policy essays, which was the same as the metropolitan examination, but was more difficult.

Gu Tingyu was not surprised. He did not rush to answer the question but read it carefully.

When he saw the test questions, he was not surprised. Ever since the essay in the imperial examination was about horse politics, Gu Tingyu guessed that this imperial examination must have been arranged by the official above.

This palace examination was not surprising, it was still as biased as before, and the topic this time was actually about the shortage of money.

That’s right, to sum it up, the Song Dynasty is out of money, how to solve it.

Historically speaking, the Song Dynasty was an era with a very developed economy. According to various documents and cultural relics, commerce in the Song Dynasty was very developed.

But even such a dynasty is now short of money.

Gu Tingyu also had a headache for a moment, after all, it was too far away.

Gu Tingyu was having a hard time, let alone others. The other tribute scholars were already overwhelmed. This problem was even more difficult than Ma Zheng's.

At least these people have some knowledge of Ma Zheng’s problems, but they have absolutely no idea about the money shortage.

These people are either very poor and have no money, or they come from scholarly families and do not care about money and have never thought about this issue.

Gu Tingyu was unaware of other people's troubles. He thought about the records of the Song Dynasty in his mind and had some ideas in his mind.

The main reason for the money shortage in the Song Dynasty was that the commerce was too developed and the copper production was too low.

After figuring out the problem, Gu Tingyu organized his thoughts and started writing on the test paper.

Because of the developed commerce, the Song Dynasty had trade with neighboring countries. Of course, some restricted materials were not allowed, but it was still considered developed.

However, the result of this situation was that the surrounding countries all recognized the currency of the Song Dynasty, which led to the outflow of money from the Song Dynasty, resulting in a shortage of currency in the country.

In addition, the country's land area is relatively small, the number of copper mines is insufficient, and the output is small, so it cannot make up for the domestic currency.

There are also some minor problems, that is, various businessmen or literati hiding money, which is also the cause of the problem, but it is not a big reason.

Then there is the custom of burying the dead with the dead, which is also a problem.

After thinking this through, Gu Tingyu wrote it down on the test paper.

After explaining the reasons for the money shortage, it is necessary to propose solutions. This is the focus of policy discussion. After all, discovering problems is important, but solving problems is more important.

Gu Tingyu stopped writing and thought for a moment, sorting out his thoughts in his head.

Gu Tingyu thought of two main solutions. The first was to increase the frequency of use of silver and gold after the copper coins came out. This would effectively alleviate the problem of large-scale transactions and solve the shortage of copper coins.

The second point is the need to improve the casting technology of copper coins, reduce the proportion of copper, ease the use of copper, and increase the output of copper coins.

The remaining minor issues are to cooperate with the previous two plans to allow merchants and wealthy people to reduce the number of copper coins in their hands and exchange them for silver or gold.

After writing for two hours, Gu Tingyu finally finished.

Looking at the policy essay on the paper and checking it to see if there were any problems, Gu Tingyu immediately indicated that he was going to hand in the paper.

At this time, the others had not finished writing yet, and when they found out that Gu Tingyu had already handed in the paper, they all became a little anxious.

The emperor and several ministers were originally bored. After all, it was really boring to just sit there doing nothing. But when they saw Gu Tingyu handing in the paper, they all became excited.

After the eunuch handed Gu Tingyu's paper to the emperor, the emperor read it silently.

"Hey, that's interesting."

The emperor didn't take it seriously at first. After all, so many ministers in the court hadn't thought of a good solution. He didn't think these people could come up with a solution. He was just brainstorming. He didn't expect that Gu Tingyu's article actually had some ideas.

When several ministers saw that the emperor was interested, they also felt itchy in their hearts. They didn't know what was written on it and why the emperor had such an expression.

"Mr. Han, come and take a look at this."

Mr. Han did not take it seriously, thinking it was just interesting.

But when he really took Gu Tingyu's article and started reading it, his attention gradually became serious.

The other ministers looked at the two people playing charades and felt itchy in their hearts, so they also wanted to go over and take a look.

"Mr. Han, what do you think?"

"It's quite interesting. Let's not talk about improving the coin-making process for now, after all, it's not accurate, but I think the first plan is pretty good."

"That... ..."

"Your Majesty, this matter still needs to be discussed. Let's talk about it later."

Although the emperor was a little anxious, he knew that this was not the time to talk as the palace examination was still going on, so he nodded and agreed.

The others finally saw Gu Tingyu's article and understood why the emperor and Minister Han acted like that. They knew in their hearts that if nothing unexpected happened, Gu Tingyu would have been the top scorer.