I clearly wanted to be a tyrant, but how did I become the greatest emperor of all time?

Isn’t Zhang Yingchai a good-for-nothing?

Puns are not to be trusted!

After the tribute students entered the venue, they shouted "Long live Li Tian" to him.

Then the Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Tang Xiaoren, read out the topic personally drafted by Your Majesty.

"On the gains and losses of government policies."

This even scared Tang Xiaoren.

Your Majesty, do you want to ask about politics?

The imperial examination system actually has a long history.

However, the current imperial examination in the Great Zhou Dynasty is a large-scale imperial examination.

During the Han Dynasty, there was also a small-scale imperial examination.

That kind of imperial examination is called Zhike.

Those who can participate in the imperial examination are all well-known scholars and talented people in the country.

Those who can pass the imperial examination can achieve great success.

The category of policy essays appears in the imperial examination.

In the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination and the system of imperial examinations were carried out in parallel.

The imperial examination was used to select talents on a large scale, while the system of special examinations was a separate channel reserved for the elites.

The imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty also required that only those who already had official status could participate.

It is a selection exam.

The famous poet Su Dongpo was selected through the imperial examination and was considered to be a future prime minister.

Be it the imperial examination or the system of imperial examinations.

The original idea of the policy essay is that Your Majesty seeks good solutions to policy issues from scholars all over the world.

By the time of the Great Zhou Dynasty, policy essays had become a topic for selecting talents.

Therefore, the policy essays of the Great Zhou Dynasty usually focused on understanding the Four Books and Five Classics, and rarely involved court policies.

For example, questions such as "Discuss the pros and cons of government policies" are considered political questions.

All the tribute students were excited.

This year's palace examination questions are actually about politics!

What does this mean?

On behalf of His Majesty, he did not hesitate to ask these tribute students, "How have I done?"

If I answer this policy paper well, my name will go down in history!

There is an article on politics that has left its name on the subject, which is "On the Correspondence between Heaven and Man" written by Dong Zhongshu during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.

This article laid the foundation for the subsequent dominance of Confucianism.

Emperor Wu of Han fully accepted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion to promote Confucianism as the only doctrine and to abolish all other schools of thought.

This policy paper has been passed down through the ages.

Emperor Wu of Han and Dong Zhongshu were all recorded in history books.

Ask the government!

This is arguably the most difficult policy paper!

If it is well written, it will not only leave a name, but it may even become the national policy of the Great Zhou in the future!

What a temptation this is for readers?

All the tribute students were very excited.

Even Tang Xiaoren was a little envious of this batch of tribute students.

Although he was the top scorer in the imperial examination, he was only tested on some general classics during the palace examination.

What does this prove?

This proves that Your Majesty attaches great importance to the imperial examination!

Your Majesty feels that our cabinet has not done enough!

Your Majesty is so wise, yet he still asks the vast number of tribute students about the gains and losses of governance!

Tang Xiaoren was also moved by the spirit of not being ashamed to ask questions.

The cabinet still hasn’t done enough!

Tang Xiaoren, who decided to work more attentively in the future, didn't know what Li Tian was thinking.

If Li Tian knew that he still wanted to keep working hard, he would probably be so angry that he would faint.

When Lu Weibin heard this question, he was also slightly stunned.

Immediately, I felt touched.

Even though he had scolded His Majesty so badly in the Imperial Examination, he was still able to take part in the Palace Examination.

The questions for the palace examination are still "Your Majesty, ask questions about politics with an open mind."

Lu Weibin also had the idea that a gentleman would die for his friend!

This kind of emperor is the one I, Lu Weibin, want to serve all my life!

He picked up a pen, quickly organized his thoughts, and began to draft.

Liu Wenzhuo also quickly got into the state and began to draft with a swift pen.

The palace examination was shorter than the imperial examination, and candidates were required to finish writing their policy essays within two hours.

Then, the chief minister of the cabinet, Tang Xiaoren, personally brought Jia Renyi, the president of the Hanlin Academy and other civil officials to review and revise the examination papers.

Finally, ten copies were selected and given to the emperor for preview.

These ten are the top ten in this scientific expedition.

The specific ranking will be decided by Your Majesty personally.

The first one is called the top scholar!

The second is called the runner-up!

The third one is called Tanhua!

The first three are collectively called the first class, and can be directly appointed as officials by the Hanlin Academy.

The rest are called the second class. Those in the second class can participate in the Hanlin Academy's examination and join the Hanlin Academy if they pass.

If you fail, you can also become a censor.

After the top ten are the top three.

The top three are not so lucky, but if they have connections, they may be able to stay in Kyoto.

Otherwise, he would have to be sent to a county and serve as a county magistrate.

The top three are collectively called Jinshi. Only with the status of Jinshi can one have the possibility of becoming a high-ranking official in the court.

But basically, only the top two have the chance to sit in the position of prime minister.

Local officials need to stay in office for assessment, and by the time they return to Kyoto, they are already quite old.

The first and second class are clean civil servants from the start and are promoted much faster than the third class.

In particular, the first-class soldiers can join the Hanlin Academy, which is a position close to His Majesty.

If I am valued by His Majesty, then there is no need to mention the speed of promotion.

Therefore, the Hanlin Academy was also regarded as a place for training prime ministers.

That is to say, it is the place where future prime ministers are stored.

All the tribute students did not dare to be negligent and focused on writing their essays.

Li Tianze yawned out of boredom.

So boring!

But I can select treacherous ministers for the country, and I can tolerate it!

After waiting for a long time for the exam to end, Tang Xiaoren hurriedly took the test papers to review.

The tribute students were taken to the waiting area.

Liu Wenzhuo was surrounded by his fellow villagers, who asked him about what he had written.

Liu Wenzhuo did not hide anything and spoke a few paragraphs of his own content with a smile.

All the tribute students praised Lianlian.

Liu Wenzhuo ranked first in the imperial examination and his ranking would not fall below the second class.

So he had the least pressure and wrote a flattering article that did nothing wrong.

Liu Wenzhuo listed Li Tian's achievements since he took office and praised Li Tian and the ministers highly.

For example, the court is full of people!

His achievements are comparable to those of Yao and Shun!

It's just a bunch of flattery anyway!

But this guy's writing style is indeed gorgeous, even this kind of article is written very well.

Both the allusions and the words used are just right.

His test paper quickly stood out in the eyes of the examiners.

Although Tang Xiaoren doesn't like this kind of flattering literature.

But Liu Wenzhuo's article is indeed well written.

His test paper was ranked among the top ten.

Tang Xiaoren took out another test paper.

"My dear colleagues, I think this article can also be ranked in the top ten."

What Tang Xiaoren took was Lu Weibin's test paper.

Unlike Liu Wenzhuo, Lu Weibin still took the imperial examination route.

He listed all the deeds that Li Tian had done since he ascended the throne.

Then began to criticize the court’s failure!

For example, Lu Weibin believed that the chaos in river transport was caused by the fact that there were many powerful people in the Huai River area, and the landless people had no choice but to join the canal transport.

This is how the so-called one million canal workers came into being.

The people in these areas were originally a source of instability for the imperial court.

But this instability was not caused by the canal workers.

It was because they did not curb the land annexation in the Huaihe River and did not suppress the powerful.

Lu Weibin's entire policy paper is devoted to denouncing Your Majesty's stupidity and the cabinet's incompetence.

When Tang Xiaoren took out the test paper, the other examiners were all stunned.

The second most harsh person cursed in this policy paper is you, Lord Tang Xiaoren!

Since you, Lord Tang, don't care, then let His Majesty decide!