Chapter 56

Inside Qianqing Palace, all the court officials were silent as cicadas in winter.

Pei Yuanshao and Jing Huan stood up one after another and strode to the front of the hall, both with displeased expressions. It was evident that they took the matter of secretly harming fellow exam candidates in this imperial examination very seriously.

All the powerful officials waiting in the hall tonight were shrewd individuals. With the two most influential masters in court both angered, who would dare to offend them? At this moment, everyone stood with lowered heads, eyes fixed on their noses, noses fixed on their hearts.

The Cabinet was originally one body. The exam fraud was discovered by Elder Yang, and her report before the hall also represented the intentions of the other Cabinet elders.

All four Cabinet elders were senior officials who had served three reigns. The imperial examination rules were personally drafted by the Department of Personnel during the Founding Emperor’s time. How could the ancestors’ laws be so disrespected?

They now stood in a row, exchanging glances, all with satisfied looks in their eyes. With the Long Imperial Consort and the镇南 Wang jointly taking action on this matter today, it would be easier to uncover the people behind it.

Elder Yang reported to the Empress and, upon receiving approval, ordered someone to present the case files.

Palace attendants filed in from the side hall.

They carried out a long black lacquered wooden table and placed it in front of the hall. On top of it was a red lacquered wooden box sealed with a strip.

All the examination papers from the metropolitan examination were stored inside this wooden box.

Elder Yang stepped forward and lifted the seal strip that read “Metropolitan Examination of the Ministry of Rites – Sealed with Care”. She opened the wooden box and took out one examination paper from the top of the entire box of papers.

She bowed and stepped forward, intending to present it to the Empress for review first.

However, the Mingxing Empress, seated at the head, had already stood up and walked closer, shaking her head and instructing, “No need for such formalities. Open the seal of the examination paper, Elder Examiner. We shall review it together with you all!”

Elder Yang lowered her head in acknowledgment and decisively tore open the seal of the examination paper.

The scroll was unrolled one by one on the long wooden table.

There were 18 folded pages in total. At the top of the first page were five large characters in cinnabar red ink: “First Place of the First Rank”, which was the long seal of the Empress’s jade seal “Secret Seal of Prevention”.

On the left side of the first page was a covering seal strip, intact and unopened. According to the tradition of imperial examinations throughout the dynasties, this should be where the candidate’s name and place of origin were written.

The Jin Feng Dynasty was extremely strict about the confidentiality of examination papers. Even the Empress could not view the names of candidates until the results were announced.

The chief examiner would present the essays of the top three ranks for the Empress to read and determine the final rankings.

To ensure fairness, the names on the edge of the papers could not be revealed before the results were announced, which was called “sealed papers”. This was a rule established during the Founding Emperor’s time and had continued until now.

The examination paper was gradually spread out on the long wooden table.

Apart from the first page showing the imperial ranking, the main text consisted of 15 folds, each fold containing 8 lines. The handwriting was in Liu-style regular script, with strong and vigorous strokes, strict composition, and pleasing to the eye.

The last three folds contained the names and positions of Elder Yang and the co-examining officials.

The court officials stared at the neat handwriting on the examination paper, their faces filled with surprise and shock.

Cui Binghuan was the first to recover. She stepped out of line, pointing at the “First Place of the First Rank” case file, and took two steps forward.

Facing Elder Yang, she asked in surprise, “This… this… Elder, could it be that you have taken the wrong examination paper? If this lowly official is not mistaken, this is clearly the essay of the first place in the first rank. If what Elder said earlier is true, and the harmed candidate was drugged and slept for eight full days in the examination hall, where did they find the time to write an entire 18-fold policy essay?”

“What Minister Cui says is indeed true. This examination paper has clear handwriting, and the first page and the last three pages have clearly been reviewed by the Elder and the Empress, judged as first place in the first rank. Elder Yang… could it be that you have taken the wrong side of the paper…”

…

The various ministers came forward one after another. Although they harbored doubts in their hearts, their gazes remained fixed on the case file.

Due to this metropolitan examination, the questions were set by the Empress and the Long Imperial Consort. The Imperial Consort had always placed great importance on selecting officials based on their true talents. Therefore, the questions for this metropolitan examination were different from previous years. The third section on policy essays tested practical matters, and candidates who relied on rote memorization would surely fail this time.

Tonight, being able to see the first-ranked essay in advance, the court officials could not take their eyes off it.

The question for the third section on policy essays was written in large red characters.

Topic: On the chapters of memorials submitted by ministers

The first question set the background as the end of the previous dynasty, with court turmoil and constant civil uprisings. Candidates were required to draft an edict on behalf of the then-reigning Empress Ming Xiao, calling on the ministers to show loyalty to the court.

The second question required writing a congratulatory memorial to the Empress on behalf of a Northern Rong minister in the sixth year of Yongtai, with the background of Northern Rong presenting a snow leopard to the court.

If it were merely writing memorials and petitions, that would be fine, but after the questions, candidates were required to write their own views and judgments according to government document standards.

From this, it was evident that this metropolitan examination was extremely difficult. Even among the senior officials present who had been in court for many years, they would need to carefully weigh their words and consider the historical background of that era before daring to put pen to paper for such memorials.

Especially for the first question, if the wording was slightly off, one might fear touching upon imperial power.

The examination paper on the long table before them, being evaluated as this year’s top candidate, must have excelled in some way.