Leaving aside this act of palace examination heroism, the rarely flustered Emperor Zhao continued reading, but at the end of the article, he once again fell into deep thought.

This was because the 'newly appointed Second Rank' had, at the end of the article, broadly discussed the governance of a monarch in response to the final question. He seriously criticized the Emperor's recently revealed interest in scholarship, arguing that in the current situation, the Emperor should not discuss those flashy and insubstantial things but should instead adopt traditional, simple, and so-called more effective methods to win over the people.

For example, holding ancestral sacrifices and proactively issuing stern demands to the Jin Kingdom, demanding the unconditional return of the abducted two Emperors, the Zhao clan members, and the loyal ministers who were also detained and abducted on that day.

These actions are simple and direct. Regardless of the outcome, doing them can always have a widespread effect on stabilizing people's hearts, and they generally yield immediate results.

"The world belongs to the ancestors, and Your Majesty's position is the position of the ancestors."

After several months, Zhao Jiu once again 'heard' this slightly harsh sentence, and he still had to admit in his heart that it was extremely correct... especially considering the context of the era.

Today is the tenth day of the eighth month of the third year of Jianyan, and there is still an entire Yuan and Ming dynasty before the Manchus.

Even according to the miscellaneous information provided by the merchants introduced by Madam Wu's family, and verified against Zhao Jiu's own geographical knowledge from some low-end games, at this moment, from east to west, it seems that the entire world island is in chaos... Just now in the Jiying Hall, he almost blurted out 'the time of the Warring States' when he meant 'the time of the all-out war between Song and Jin.'

In this situation, resorting to ancestral rites can indeed quickly stabilize people's hearts.

Moreover, to be honest, Zhao Jiu himself knew very well that the advice of this new scholar and the advice of that imperial uncle were essentially different. Uncle Zhao did it out of instinct for the clan, while this new scholar made it clear that he believed these measures were relatively more effective.

But unfortunately, Zhao Jiu was unwilling to choose the more effective method.

There were two reasons:

Firstly, it was the willful mentality of this transmigrator based on his historical understanding from another time and space... There's nothing to say, it's just that Zhao Jiu, for his personal preferences, disregarded the overall situation, so-called constantly advising others to endure for the sake of the country, but he himself could not help but antagonize those with the surname Zhao.

Of course, there may also be personal identity recognition issues unique to transmigrators, but the sample is too small to say.

Secondly, as an engineering dog, Zhao Jiu naturally preferred things that were more advanced and simpler and more direct.

This new scholar was right that the doctrines of Daoism, Qi studies, Neo-Confucianism, and even New Learning, that is, issues within Confucian ideology, seem somewhat inappropriate to discuss extensively during wartime.

However, this seems to be merely inappropriate.

Because building a new Confucian ideology is itself a call of the times and a foundation for long-term stability... Zhao Jiu does not understand any profound sociological knowledge. He does not know whether this situation is an inevitable process of Confucianism's own development or whether it is directly related to population growth and the development of productive forces?

But without a doubt, he at least knows the historical process, knows this trend, and knows that Daoism, or rather Neo-Confucianism, will soon become the uncrowned king within Confucianism, and then become the crowned king... Not only that, Zhao Jiu has also felt the eagerness from below in his actual rule and in his attempts to communicate and promote with the civil officials.

In other words, a new Confucian ideology is bound to emerge.

And if Zhao Jiu doesn't occupy this position, others will.

Even Zhao Jiu himself may not have realized that he had implicitly regarded this matter as being second only to the great task of resisting the Jin. In that case, how could he give it up because of what is inappropriate?

If there is an opportunity, he should try to promote it as much as possible. If there is no time to promote it, he must defend it.

Back in the Huangyi Hall, Zhao Jiu sat there looking at the article, first marveling, then being momentarily amazed, then laughing out of control, and finally pondering uncertainly, which had already drawn the attention of the important ministers in the hall, who did not know what kind of article it was.

After Zhao Jiu finished reading, he regained his senses and did not care, but handed the article to Prime Minister Lu Haowen to read.

Lu Haowen skimmed through it quickly, and after a moment of embarrassment, he could not help but chuckle: "How can I compare to Yan Shu and Wang Gui? However, Assistant Prime Minister Xu is doing his best in all matters of the capital and provinces, maintaining it with great effort... In my opinion, although he cannot be compared to Fan Zhongyan's pure beauty, he also has a heart for the world's worries and joys; and also Privy Councilor Wang, who followed His Majesty from Hebei bearing arms, has long been His Majesty's right-hand man, has experienced many military affairs, and has faced many dangers. Although he cannot be compared to Han Qi, he can also be called decisive... This article is somewhat harsh."

As he spoke, Prime Minister Lu handed the article to Xu Jingheng beside him and directly pointed out that passage.

Even without reading, Wang Boyan and Xu Jingheng could guess eight or nine out of ten from Lu Haowen's words, but they went to read the original text while thinking about how to be humble and maintain their colleagues.

However, before the two could speak, Emperor Zhao, sitting behind the desk, waved his hand repeatedly and said bluntly: "I will not hide it from you, Prime Ministers. At first, I saw that his words were diligent and substantive, and his long article of ten thousand words was completed in one go. I originally intended to make him the Number One Scholar, but later I saw that he despised the current Chief Administrators, and I could not tolerate his audacity... If such a person were made the Number One Scholar, and his article were posted, wouldn't it mislead the world? Demote him to the last place in the First Class!"

When Lu Haowen and the others saw that the Emperor was so direct, they looked at each other in dismay and did not say much... In fact, the rules of the palace examination were 'beauty' and 'sting,' which emphasized generosity. Even those who committed obvious mistakes such as violating taboos were only demoted to the Fifth Class, let alone someone like this?

Since he could not be demoted in class, he could only be placed last in the First Class.

And this had already shown the Emperor's attitude of protecting the Chief Administrators.

Therefore, since the Emperor and the Chief Administrators jointly decided that this person was the fifth in this palace examination, the officials of the Ministry of Rites no longer hesitated and directly opened the sealed name, copied the list of names... it was a person named Hu Quan from Jizhou.

Yes, it is necessary to say one more sentence here.

At present, the Song Dynasty's palace examination ranking is a five-class system, not the three-class system of later generations, and now there are five places in the first class, from the first to the fifth are all in the first class.

This is a typical consequence of the Song Dynasty's imperial examination system adding a palace examination and greatly expanding the army.

In fact, there are two Second Ranks this year, because the second and third places are located on the left and right of the Number One Scholar on the posted list, so they are named Second Rank... if there is only one, it is called a cyclops.

As for Tanhua (Third Rank), it also refers to the two youngest and most handsome scholars among the successful candidates, which is related to the celebration activities after the palace examination.

The so-called Number One Scholar, Second Rank, and Third Rank refer specifically to the top three and cannot be relied upon. It can only be roughly guessed that it was a custom formed after the establishment of the three-class system in the Ming Dynasty.

In other words, Emperor Zhao was being petty, and after seeing that 'ancestor,' he was unhappy and moved Hu Quan from first to third, and finally to fifth.

However, it must be said that Hu Quan's palace examination article was too outstanding. After reading this article, all other articles seemed lackluster.

In fact, by the afternoon, as all six hundred and two articles were delivered, a group of soon-to-be scholars, whether uneasy or confident, left the Xihua Gate and returned to the Imperial Academy, knowing that they would have to wait a few more days for the list to be announced. However, inside the Huangyi Hall, the Emperor and the Chief Administrators had already obtained the general results from the brief and quick process.

After all, there are five classes, the first and second classes are Jinshi Jidi (进士及第, successful candidate), the third and fourth classes are Jinshi Chushen (进士出身, candidate with qualification), and the fifth class is Tong Jinshi Chushen (同进士出身, candidate of the same origin).

First divide into classes and then rank them, because except for the top five, the ranking itself is not very important.

Among them, Yue Fei was selected in the front position of the third class, which is about one hundred in six hundred, considered a candidate with qualification in a relatively front position; while Qu Duan entered the second half of the second class and obtained a successful candidate…

Zhao Jiu roughly looked and knew what was going on. It had nothing to do with the content, but it was related to whether the article quoted scriptures and was closely related to Confucian doctrine.

In this regard, although Yue Fei was extremely talented and had made great progress in literature, he was a late starter after all. Compared with Qu Duan, who had a reputation for writing early on and knew how to write official articles, he inevitably suffered a loss.

But it doesn't matter, Zhao Jiu didn't really want to give Yue Fei a Number One Scholar, and this ranking just happened to let Qu Da act as a shield for Yue Pengju.

So, after just one look, Zhao Jiu ignored it.

Next, Zhao Jiu was supposed to arrange the order of the first class as usual and give the head of the second class a nod before leaving, but at this time he had lost interest, so he just arranged it casually.

The first five people, not to mention the fifth-place Hu Quan, the other four were named Li Yi, Wang Dabao, Zhao Boyao, and Yu Yunwen.

Among them, Yu Yunwen was the youngest, only twenty years old according to the list. At this age, if he was not ugly, he should be one of the most handsome Third Ranks of this year... Zhao Jiu directly placed him in fourth.

As for the other three, that is, one Number One Scholar and two Second Ranks, Zhao Jiu originally thought that the name Wang Dabao was friendly and prepared to make him the Number One Scholar, but Zhu Shengfei reminded him that Zhao Boyao was actually a member of the Zhao clan, from the branch of Zhao Dezhao, the second son of Emperor Taizu.

However, it is not known whether this reminder was intended to let Zhao Jiu take special care to show the idea of uniting the clan, or to imply that this Emperor should never make his own Zhao family a Number One Scholar?

But no matter what, Zhao Jiu Zhao came up with the first idea, and he publicly and randomly ranked this clan member first, and then ranked Wang Dabao second, and Li Yi became third.

With the first class determined, the next step was to select the head of the second class... This is also a matter of good fortune, and at this time, Zhao Jiu, who was already bored, was slightly intrigued:

"I once granted Hu Anguo's second son, Hu Hong, as a student of the Imperial Academy. He should also be eligible for the palace examination. Did he come to take the exam?"

Everyone quickly searched, and sure enough, they found him, but he was actually in the fifth class... This was also shocking!

It must be known that this was a great grace examination. Among the six hundred people, there were a considerable number of capable clerks, young military merits, and those who redeemed refugees from Hebei... so-called people from mixed backgrounds. The level of these people was there, and the fifth class was not short of people.

However, Hu Hong, the son of a great scholar and the brother of a vice censor, and already twenty-seven or eight, with his literary reputation long known, fell into the fifth class. What is this? Is it possible that he directly wrote the three characters Zhao Kuangyin in his article?

However, unexpectedly, neither Emperor Zhao nor the Chief Administrators were moved, and did not seem to think there was any problem.

Because these people knew very well that this person fell into this position not because of his writing ability, but because his doctrine was in the same vein as his father's and too obvious, and then the examiners were dissatisfied with the Qi, and he was specially demoted here.

In fact, after reading Hu Hong's article, Emperor Zhao hesitated slightly, but ultimately did not make any changes, and still selected Chao Gongwu, the original sixth place, as the first of the second class, a successful candidate… and then no longer asked.

In this way, only one day later, on August 12th, this hastily held Great Grace Examination of the third year of Jianyan was officially announced.

At the East and West Hua Gates, although the prosperity was no longer there, it was still crowded for a time.

In the evening, Yang Yizhong routinely reported, even mentioning that the senior ministers were grabbing sons-in-law from the list. Among them, Hu Quan was ignored, not to mention, the Number One Scholar Zhao Boyao was grabbed by Privy Councilor Wang Boyan, the left Second Rank Wang Dabao was taken by the Minister of Rites Zhu Shengfei for his niece, and the right Second Rank Li Yi was surrounded by servants sent by Madam Yuwen, who remained in the capital…

However, one thing that caused a sensation and discussion was that the publicly recognized Third Rank candidate, Yu Yunwen, was actually tied by Jiedushi Zhang Rong to the Xiangguo Temple… It is said that Commander Zhang's family does have a daughter.

On the other hand, the trusted family members sent by Prime Minister Lu Haowen were sent home empty-handed.

Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, but regardless of the late hour, he personally went to the Xiangguo Temple… There was no way, he was afraid that if he went late, this newly appointed scholar, a hothead, would say something inappropriate to reject the marriage and directly hurt the heart of his trusted commander.

How could that be?

ps: I was wrong, I apologize to everyone, but it's really good... I really can't control myself.