Reborn in Liangshan: I built the strongest lineup

"Hmph, quite the airs, and quite the boast."

Zong Ze was also in the crowd. He saw Ren Yuan shouting there, and when he looked at the two sentences engraved on the stone tablet, he was truly shocked.

A group of powerful people, how could they have such thoughts?!

"Hmph, I'd like to see if you lot are real or fake!"

Zong Ze didn't say much, but he didn't stop. Instead, he squeezed through the crowd and walked into the examination room first!

When the students around saw that the old man Zong Ze had taken the lead in stepping forward, they were also spurred on. Some of the younger ones shouted, "Ambition knows no age," and rushed out after him. The middle-aged scholars were no less ambitious, and they followed the younger ones, afraid that if they were too slow, the prince would misunderstand.

"Brother, that's great!"

Xiao Jiasui secretly gave Ren Yuan a thumbs up. Ren Yuan's words had greatly boosted everyone's morale. Now, these students were as energetic as Wu Song after drinking eighteen bowls of wine, as if they were going to a battlefield instead of an examination hall!

However, although most people went inside, a small number of people stopped outside the examination hall.

"You won't go in?"

Ren Yuan raised an eyebrow, looking at these people.

The students who had stopped at the door looked at each other, and then someone mustered up the courage to stand up and say to Ren Yuan:

“Your Highness, we do not have such lofty ambitions. We have studied the classics for so many years, believing that there are riches in books. If it weren’t for a few taels of silver, we would not have studied so hard for so many years. We had no opportunity in the Song Dynasty, so we came here to try our luck. But please seek your promotion and wealth elsewhere… Your Highness, we find it hard to accept. Please forgive us.”

Seeing the expressions on these people's faces, Ren Yuan didn't say anything, but simply nodded.

“I understand. There’s nothing wrong with speaking your mind openly and honestly. I respect your thoughts, but this is not what my Dayi Kingdom wants. You can go to the inn to collect your travel expenses. I hope you can get what you want in the future.”

"Your Highness, is what you're saying true? Can we get travel expenses?"

The scholars were somewhat incredulous that they could actually receive travel expenses.

"It's not easy for you to come all this way, so we can't let you leave empty-handed. If you change your mind in the future, you can come again."

Putting everything else aside, Ren Yuan's move truly had the flavor of "spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones." After he finished speaking, many of those who did not enter the examination hall showed expressions of guilt on their faces.

But since they had already made their choice, they couldn't go back on it now. They could only bow respectfully to Ren Yuan and then turn and leave.

"Brother, that's great! This way, these students will definitely make a name for themselves when they go back. But brother, do you really think their idea is sound?"

Xiao Jiahui moved closer to Ren Yuan and reiterated her affirmation.

“It’s normal for scholars to want to become officials. After all, no one is perfect, and I don’t object to that. But what I object to is people who become officials and then only care about their own selfish desires and forget their original intentions.”

Ren Yuan watched the departing figures, then pointed to the people inside the door:

"These students who have entered the school may be influenced by these two sentences at this time, but who can guarantee that all of them will still remember their original aspirations many years later?"

"So I don't blame those students who left. They faced their own hearts, which is good. As for those who entered, although some are of good character and talent, most are just ordinary people. Some even came in with others just to save face."

"I don't expect everyone who passes the imperial examination this time to be like you few, but I hope that those who pass this time can remember these two sentences for a long time and not get lost in power and desire so quickly."

"Brother is insightful; I admire him."

Xiao Jiahui felt that her brother was becoming more and more like a wise monarch. If he was only a tyrant before, he now had more of the aura of a wise ruler. He was an emperor who was both civil and military, and trusted his ministers. This was what many ministers throughout history had dreamed of.

"Alright, stop praising me. Guide the students to their respective exam sites and get ready for the exam!"

Ren Yuan didn't say much, gesturing for Xiao Jiasui to do the final work. Xiao Jiasui and Zhu Wu were in overall charge of this imperial examination, along with a series of support personnel.

Tao Zongwang was in charge of the construction of the examination hall, Li Yun was in charge of patrolling and guiding the outside of the examination hall, Song Wan and Wu Da were in charge of the candidates' food, the Tiangong Bureau was in charge of printing the test questions, the Secretariat was in charge of copying, the Zhengtianqi were in charge of the security of the examination hall, the Tianmu Army was in charge of the supervision and inspection inside the examination hall, and the Huichun Army was in charge of providing medical support.

This complete set of support services was designed and reviewed by Xiao Jiasui and Zhu Wu. It can be said that it covers almost all possible situations in the imperial examination process. For Dayi's first imperial examination, success was the only option; failure was not an option!

Guided by the soldiers, the students quickly took their seats and each received a writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Then, soldiers carried large trays filled with sealed tubes and began distributing them to the students. The questions were already folded and placed in the tubes; they only needed to open them to answer the questions.

"It's time for the exam! The exam begins!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

As the exam began, the drum in the examination hall started to beat rhythmically. All the students who heard the sound opened the sealed tubes in front of them and took out the test questions.

The moment the exam questions were seen, gasps of surprise rippled through the exam hall almost simultaneously.

"Dear students, please strictly abide by the examination room rules. No talking! No whispering! No looking around! No hand gestures or secret signals..."

Actually, when the students entered the venue, some junior teachers were already reading the "Dayi Imperial Examination Rules" through megaphones. However, because everyone was excited about taking the exam at Dayi for the first time, they didn't really listen. Therefore, Ren Yuan specially asked them to read the rules a few more times after the exam started.

As for the content of the rules, just kidding, Ren Yuan has taken so many exams in his past life, he's already heard them all by heart!

Today's subject is for liberal arts students. Their exam questions are actually very simple. Apart from one optional question on poetry composition or classical interpretation, the remaining three questions are all policy essays.

Moreover, the questions were all very simple. When Ren Yuan was setting the questions, he took the easy way out and just wrote down the topic.

I. On War

II. On governing the country and benefiting the people.

III. On the selection of talent through the imperial examination system.

Because these three topics cover a wide range of areas, Xiao Jiasui and Zhu Wu had to add some supplementary information to each major topic, such as combining discussions with examples and avoiding empty talk.

However, this extremely simple policy essay question was something these students had never seen before in their lives, so much so that even the most talented ones did not immediately put pen to paper!

Zong Ze, who had already received the exam paper, was now experiencing a huge surge of emotions!

He retracted his previous assessment: Ren Yuan, he understands the imperial examination system!