On August 10th, the autumn sky was clear and crisp. The recent turmoil in Guanzhong had already been gradually diluted by an invisible force. Even if it hadn't, it was destined to be overshadowed by the massive palace examination today.

Although the imperial court was hastily established, Tokyo was no longer what it once was, and the various rituals of the past were destined to be difficult to reproduce. Moreover, this special imperial examination was a hybrid of the so-called Three Schools System (county schools, prefectural schools, and imperial academy) and the previous open examination system, making it somewhat of a mismatched combination.

However, when hundreds of imperial academy students poured into the tall and magnificent Xuande Gate early this morning, then walked right past the awe-inspiring Daqing Hall within the palace walls, turned left through Changqing Gate, circled around Chongwen Institute, passed through the Left Silver Terrace Gate, and then turned west, these young elites of the empire couldn't help but feel their minds wander.

After all, not to mention the towering Xuande Tower and the majestic Daqing Hall, just ahead was the Jiying Hall, and on both sides of this road were the East and West Hua Gates, where the lists of successful candidates were announced.

At this moment, the centuries-old cultural rituals of the Great Song Dynasty, and the political tradition of nurturing scholars behind it, brought a tremendous sense of awe and impact to these young imperial elites.

No matter who they were, regardless of which school of thought they followed or what political views they held, when they thought of Kou Zhun, Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, the Su brothers, and even Lu Yijian, Bao Zheng, Fu Bi, Pang Ji, Wen Yanbo, and countless other familiar names who had walked this road, entered the Jiying Hall, exited the West Hua Gate, and had their names announced at the East Hua Gate… everyone couldn't help but feel their hearts surge.

The sense of reverence and the eager anticipation were surprisingly integrated together without conflict.

And this mentality reached its peak as they began to slowly and orderly enter the Jiying Hall.

However, as the saying goes, you admire the scenery on the road, while others see you as part of the scenery… Just as countless imperial academy students walked through the wide path between the East and West Hua Gates and slowly turned into the Jiying Hall, little did they know that at the same moment, Zhao Guan Jia had already been standing with a large group of people at the Huangyi Gate of the Huangyi Hall next to the Jiying Hall for a long time… Moreover, this fellow was specifically there to watch this scene.

In fact, these imperial academy students, most of whom were visiting the palace for the first time, didn't even know that in the past, when selecting Jinshi, they usually just entered and exited through the West Hua Gate, without having to walk past the magnificent Xuande Tower and Daqing Hall. It was only because Zhao Guan Jia had specifically instructed it today that they had made this special detour.

In other words, these imperial academy students were simply making that big detour to satisfy Zhao Guan Jia's desire to watch this scene from the Huangyi Gate.

To this, the chief councilors and Zhu Shengfei, the Minister of Rites who presided over today's ceremony, all had nothing to say.

After all, firstly, the palace was desolate at the moment, and the Daqing Hall and Chongwen Institute were not in use at all, so walking from there didn't interfere with anything;

Secondly, the reason given by Zhao Guan Jia was also justifiable, saying that the prosperity of Tokyo was gone, and the main tower and main hall should be used to show the correctness of this selection of scholars;

Thirdly, the chief councilors were also enjoying the spectacle from the Huangyi Gate.

Back to the present, with the railings of the Huangyi Gate tower obscuring the view, Zhao Guan Jia led dozens of officials to look down from a high position. He saw hundreds of imperial academy students hurrying along the road below, making quite a bit of noise, but without a single word. This was somewhat感慨， and many people were eager to speak... only the Guan Jia hadn't spoken in this occasion, so nobody wanted to be the first to speak, lest they attract the attention of the students below.

After watching for a while, Zhao Guan Jia finally couldn't help but turn around and laugh publicly: "I originally wanted to imitate Emperor Taizong of Tang and say 'All the heroes in the world are within my grasp,' but I'm afraid it would seem a bit too complacent..."

The palace was spacious and silent, so as soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the attention of the students below, causing many people who were still walking to steal glances, and even more people upstairs to laugh and smile along.

After laughing, Zhang Rong, the commander of the Imperial Marine Corps and the leader of Liangshanpo, who was wearing an ill-fitting official uniform and looked a little cautious, couldn't help but ask curiously: "Guan Jia, how many people will be selected this time?"

"Six hundred!" Zhao Jiu blurted out.

"Are they all Jinshi?" Zhang Rong was even more stunned.

"Yes." Zhao Jiu replied honestly.

"It should be like this." Zhang Rong said thoughtfully. "It's been many years since we selected Jinshi, so we should have a big one this time."

"That's not what I meant." Zhao Jiu was still honest. "The current vacancies for officials in various parts of the Central Plains are not that many, not to mention that money and food are still tight, and officials are still on half-pay... In fact, this time I intend to recruit many scholars to serve in the Imperial Army... What do you think? Marshal Zhang, would you like some Jinshi to take orders in your Marine Corps?"

Zhang Rong was stunned for a moment, hesitating to speak. Even Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Yue Fei, Li Yanxian, Wang Yan, and other military commissioners who had come along under the Guan Jia's decree were also stunned. The two Imperial Deputy Commanders, Wang Yuan and Qu Duan, also lost their composure.

In comparison, the accompanying civil officials, from Lu Haowen down, the three chief councilors, the Censor-in-chief, the heads of the six ministries, several Hanlin academicians, and several drafters of the Secretariat, didn't say anything... Only a few of them frowned slightly.

Obviously, these people must have known about this arrangement long ago.

However, there was a secret behind why this arrangement, which went against the political tradition of valuing civilians over the military, was able to pass smoothly -- specifically, it was directly related to a prominent figure in Tokyo recently.

And this person was Hu Anguo, the father of Hu Yin and a famous Daoist scholar.

Speaking of which, when Hu Anguo entered the court, it certainly wasn't as dramatic as those imperial academy students imagined; nor was it as understated and seemingly unsuccessful as Hu Anguo himself described... At least from Zhao Guan Jia's perspective, he and Hu Anguo actually had a pleasant conversation and a peaceful parting that day.

First of all, Hu Anguo was not a pedantic scholar.

The opinions he put forward, such as prioritizing military affairs and defending the old capital, were actually in line with the current governance philosophy of Zhao Guan Jia and even the central government. Moreover, as someone who had retired to seclusion after passing the Jinshi examination, Hu Anguo actually pointed out many critical issues that those in power were destined to be unable to address during that audience.

For example, this great Confucian scholar directly pointed out in public that the officials within the imperial court already had a tendency to form factions. Important officials in the Southeast, Sichuan, and Jingxiang all had their own wings in the central government, and often opposed the emperor and the chief councilors for local interests... causing Li Guang, Zhu Shengfei, Liu Ziyu, and others to feel uneasy.

Furthermore, Hu Anguo openly proposed that "military power should not be entrusted to others." He was the first to praise Zhao Guan Jia and the commanders for establishing the memorial system, and he believed that this was not enough, and the Guan Jia should further try to penetrate the authority of the emperor and the central government into the deeper levels of the army.

It was precisely by taking advantage of these two sensitive issues that were suddenly thrown out in public that Zhao Guan Jia was able to go with the flow and formally pass the matter of Jinshi entering the military, which had been strongly opposed by Vice-Minister Xu Jingheng and Censor-in-chief Li Guang.

In fact, by that time, Zhao Guan Jia already had some affection for this Daoist scholar. He really felt that Hu Yin's father seemed to be more useful than Hu Yin... The young Hu could only be used to anchor the issue of war and peace, but this old Mr. Hu could play a stabilizing role in many political affairs.

However, everyone also knew the final result.

Hu Anguo, who had extremely high qualifications, great fame, and a proper background, still failed to become a central minister in one leap. He only received a library position and an imperial reward, and was essentially still idle.

The reason was clear.

First of all, the performance of this old Mr. Hu aroused the vigilance of the chief councilors and other important officials. Putting such an idealistic Confucian scholar in front of a Zhao Guan Jia who always liked to cause trouble, would the combination of the two be even more difficult to deal with than when Lu Yihao and the Guan Jia were together?

Who would dare to keep him?

The other reason was naturally the "cultivation of qi" theory that had caused a huge controversy.

In all fairness, Zhao Guan Jia didn't have too much aversion to this "qi."

Even though Hu Anguo specifically emphasized that his "qi" was not an image-based metaphor, but a real combination of the origin of the universe and morality, Zhao Jiu still didn't think it was absurd... The reason was simple: judging people should be done from a historical perspective.

You, Zhao Jiu, knew about oxygen in your twenties, while Mr. Hu Anguo, with his long beard, knew about "cultivating qi," that was because you were special, not because his level was not good... Because the mainstream philosophical thought this year was to connect morality, this ethereal thing, with the universal principles of all things.

Moreover, this connection had to follow the guidance of Confucian classics.

However, even if he understood in his heart, Zhao Jiu still gave up the idea of keeping old Mr. Hu by his side as an important minister, because he had to adhere to the more utilitarian New School. And according to the serious research that Zhao Guan Jia had been doing with the vigor of an engineering dog, he had long discovered two huge problems with the New School!

First of all, naturally, Cai Jing and that Supreme Daoist Emperor insisted on the New School, but because they were too corrupt, they ruined the political reputation of the New School in the process... This had to be done slowly, there was no way around it.

Secondly, the New School simply didn't have an effective systematic exposition of the universe and the origin of all things in its own theoretical system.

No matter how innovative Mr. Hu's "qi" was in this year, and how absurd some practical imperial academy students felt it was, the New School didn't even have this "qi"!

And now, Zhao Jiu simply didn't have time to study Confucian classics and help the New School improve this "qi" in order to achieve a backdoor listing... Then there was no way, he could only let old Mr. Hu, who was good at cultivating "qi," be idle for the time being.

This was the real reason why Hu Anguo entered the court and the two sides talked deeply, but had to part ways helplessly.

But in any case, just for the matter of sending this time's Jinshi to the military, Zhao Jiu had to thank him.

Turning back, the surrounding military officials were surprised. Zhang Rong thought for a long time but didn't dare to agree. As the many imperial academy students poured into the Jiying Hall, Zhao Guan Jia didn't say much, but supported his gold belt, wore a red robe, and a winged hat, and led dozens of civil and military ministers to the Jiying Hall through the side door of the Huangyi Hall.

Once inside the hall, Zhao Guan Jia sat on the throne, with civil and military officials standing on the steps below. The six hundred imperial academy students below performed a great salute from the sides of the slightly crowded desks, and then rose in unison at the sequential announcements of the Guan Jia and the chief officer Lan Gui, and returned to their places behind the desks.

Up to this point, Zhao Jiu still looked as usual, while the six hundred people who were about to become Jinshi had different expressions... And interestingly, among the important officials, the Prime Minister Lu Haowen and the Minister of War and Governor of Kaifeng Chen Gui on the left side actually had different expressions, just like the several military commanders on the right side.

Lu Haowen came from inherited privilege, and Chen Gui came from the study of law. They both had regrets on the imperial examination.

And those military commanders undoubtedly had different thoughts because of the centuries-old customs and people's hearts... Of course, among them, Zhang Rong, who was specially invited by the Guan Jia to watch the ceremony and who had the lowest background, was the most discomposed.

The ceremony continued, and soon the Minister of Rites Zhu Shengfei led the eunuchs forward and asked the Guan Jia to write the examination questions in public.

There was no need to mention these formalities. Zhao Guan Jia had already thought about the questions, and even communicated with the three chief councilors, Lu Haowen, Wang Boyan, and Xu Jingheng, and confirmed that there were no objections.

But for some reason, seeing the Guan Jia stop halfway through writing on the imperial desk, the three chief councilors, who knew that this Guan Jia was going to cause trouble again, had no reaction at all... On the contrary, the three of them had a feeling of relief.

Because what was coming would always come.

"Prime Minister Lu, I remember that this time there are also excellent local officials and young meritorious officers who are literate participating in the examination... Is that right?" In the quiet Jiying Hall, the ears of the six hundred upright Jinshi candidates suddenly heard a clear Guan Jia's "imperial voice."

"Replying to Your Majesty, that is indeed the case."

A slightly older voice immediately responded, obviously that of the current Prime Minister Lu Haowen, whom many people believed had merits no less than Li Gang and Zong Ze.

"Then that's good." Zhao Jiu suddenly smiled, but didn't even put down the brush in his hand, and directly pointed to an unexpected person, casually saying as if he was talking about idle gossip. "Pengju, you have military merits, and you are very young, and you have always been literate, so you also meet the requirements, right? I'll have Chief Officer Lan add a case, and you can also take the exam!"

ps: Sorry, I'm a bit weak today, this is the only chapter.