"This is impossible!"

When everyone was surprised and surprised by Li Ling's final ranking, a Huainan master who lost the title suddenly couldn't help but shout loudly, with a tone full of doubts and disbelief. Then, the same emotion spread among other Huainan masters. They all stared at Li Ling and the soldiers who announced the good news, with doubts in their eyes, as if the good news was forged by the two.

"Yes, in the past hundred years of my Great Yue, I have won only 150 Jinshi at most. There are rumors that I only won 150 people in the current academic year. How could Li Ling win 151?"

"Yes, there must be something wrong with this..."

Whether they were the tribute scholars or not, these Huainan scholars refused to admit this. Even the people in Huainian were looking at Li Ling in a strange way. It was really unreasonable for this ranking. Even Li Ling himself was a little dazed at this time, and he also had a hint of doubt. As they said, his 151-times-one person was too strange. Is he really the bottom-end crane?

"Bang!" Li Ling himself did not refute, but Xu Cang finally couldn't hold back. He immediately slapped the table and shouted sternly: "Is the results of the imperial examination announced by the court wrong? Or is it because you failed to pass the exam, you have to question all the candidates who passed the exam? If so, you, you..." He pointed to several candidates in Huainan, "You are all on the list, are there any problems?

"After all, you just can't afford to lose. Just because our Huaibei Juzi did not get worse than you in the exam this time, so you decided that there was something wrong with this result?"

Xu Cang has always been a gentle and humble gentleman who has almost never had any disputes with others. Even if he is targeted, he will give in. No one expected that at this moment, he would stand up for Li Ling, and his face turned red and his body was trembling slightly.

This made Li Ling feel moved after reacting. This is his true friend, because in Xu Cang's opinion, others can tolerate slandering him, but when they point the finger at his friend Li Ling, he can no longer sit idly!

At that moment, he also stood up, first smiled and took the good news from the somewhat surprised soldier, and put a ingot of silver into his hands: "Thank you, this brother, for conveying the good news, I don't respect you a little."

"Mr. Li is so serious. These are all things that young people should do." The soldier replied with a smile, then took a step and turned away. All the students here are much more noble than him, and he doesn't want to be involved in the fight between them.

When he turned and went downstairs, he heard Li Ling snorting coldly, "What you say is strange and unreasonable. To put it bluntly, it is just your wishful thinking. Who stipulates that 150 people in the current subjects that have been circulated before must be correct? As far as I know, the court won 134 Jinshi in the previous subject, and 126 people in the next subject... I have never heard of this number that must be a matter of order!"

His remarks are really hard to argue. Originally, as candidates, they could not really know the specific decision of the imperial court on the number of candidates. At this moment, they would just shout twice and complain. Li Ling's eyes swept over them: "If you want me to tell me, the one who really should raise objections should be why you, a talented man in Huainan, did not pass the tribute exam, but you, who are unknown, are on the list!"

This sentence reminded everyone in Huaibei, and they all laughed and agreed: "Yes, yes, Mr. Cui, you are a talented man in Huainan, why is it unnamed this time? And you wait, you always said that I, Huainan scholar, are not as good as you Huainan, but today we are not worse than you."

"Nonsense! I, Huainan tribute, obviously, have more than you, but we have fifteen people on the list..."

"But according to Brother Dai, the leader of the Five Classics can be used as five people. We have two leader of the Five Classics here. And our Xu Zhuowu is still the third in the exam, and is more than your Qisheng. So when it comes to the real discussion, I am the candidate in Huaibei who is better at it!" Tao Yun had already figured out the number of people on both sides at this time, and immediately stood up and said, looking at Dai Wanchun, "Brother Dai, the fact is right in front of you, you can't refuse to admit it, right?"

"You..." Dai Wanchun looked annoyed, but after all, he couldn't stop talking, so he could only sigh.

Many people calculated carefully and understood the whole story. According to the calculations set before, the fifteen people in Huainan won the pilot, plus one leader of the Five Classics, and the Huainbei candidates who only eleven people were on the list were counted as nineteen because they had two leaders of the Five Classics. After this, the total number was 19! Now the two sides actually tied, and according to the ranking, Huainbei, with Xu Cang, was really better!

This is a fact that the scholars in Huainan who have always been able to steadily suppress Huainan end cannot accept it. Many people even thought of one thing - if Cui Yuan and Caizi could pass the imperial examination this time, wouldn't they have surpassed Huainan? For a moment, many eyes fell on Cui Yuan, who was already in a state of dismay, including resentment and suspicion...

Several people in Huaibei laughed and said, completely mocking Cui Caizi. Feeling all this, Cui Yuan's face suddenly turned red, and his body trembled. As soon as he got together, he opened his mouth and vomited a mouthful of blood. As everyone exclaimed, he straightened and fell backwards...

This scene made the scholars of the two Huai River panic, and they couldn't care about any dispute over face. They moved one after another, either checking their greetings or leaving directly. Who would have thought that the talented man in Huainan not only failed to pass the Jinshi this time, but instead vomited blood because of his anger?

When Li Ling and Xu Cang left the Zhuangyuan Building, their faces were covered with strange emotions. Whether they were happy or sad, they were a little confused.

...

Imperial Palace, Imperial Study Room.

The head of this exam, which was standing at the stairs, was the head of the examination. Fan Meisheng, the Minister of Rites, felt that there was a layer of sweat on his back, but he did not dare to look up and observe the actions and reactions of the emperor behind the imperial case. Because he knew very well that after the list of 151 tribute scholars was reported this time, the emperor would definitely be angry!

Sure enough, after quickly sweeping off these more than a hundred names, the emperor finally turned his attention to the last one: "Fan Meisheng..."

"I'm here." Fan Meisheng's heart shrank even more. As an old minister, he had not heard the emperor call himself like this with his name and surname for a long time.

"What's the reason for this Li Ling, who is ranked 151st?" The emperor looked up at the old minister in front of him, "He looked up and spoke."

"I... I think that this move is lacking in talent, but the articles such as the strategy theory are still worthy of attention, so I decided to take it low and that I can only live up to the magnanimity of this dynasty and take the scholars with their original intentions." Fan Meisheng looked up slightly, but did not dare to meet the emperor's eyes, and made a somewhat reluctant explanation.

"Is that so far as I know, the court decided to only recruit 150 scholars, and since Taizu opened the imperial examination, our dynasty has never exceeded 150. Now there is suddenly such an extra person, how can we convince the public?"

The emperor's questions echoed quietly in the somewhat empty halls, making Fan Meisheng even more frightened.

He wanted to tell the emperor directly that I knew Li Ling was an expert you liked, and asked someone to send him the books he wrote just to let himself choose the candidate from the exam. However, this imperial examination is a national ceremony of materials. How could it be determined by the emperor's own likes and dislikes? Where is the so-called fairness and justice of the imperial examination?

Moreover, if Li Ling is really put on the list of 150 people according to the emperor's wishes, there will inevitably be an outstanding talent who fails! This is something that Fan Meisheng, as an examiner, cannot accept. Moreover, this is not only his idea, but also a countermeasure that all examiners unanimously decided-

It’s okay if you want to polite someone. But it can’t break our rules! So this time I gave Li Ling a strange crane-like ranking - 151!

However, in front of the emperor who was unpredictable, he did not dare to say these words directly, so he could only say tactfully: "Your Majesty, this is the result obtained by me and a group of examiners after carefully studying the candidate's papers. Is my decision made for the sake of justice in the imperial examinations, and I hope your Majesty will understand it!"

The emperor stared at the minister in front of him, as if he wanted to see all his internal organs clearly. But after a long time, he turned his eyes back, and even the powerful aura exposed on his body slowly dissipated: "Can you have this Li Ling's article paper?"

"I have brought it, can Your Majesty want to visit?"

"Come on." The emperor ordered in a calm tone.

This made Fan Meisheng feel a little relieved and quickly handed over the article he had prepared in his hand, and the old eunuch handed it to the emperor for a closer look.

The emperor immediately looked through these articles, and after a while, he slowly said: "Although Li Ling's article is not very good, it is also quite good. Especially the two questions, even ordinary officials may not be able to write them, right?"

"What Your Majesty said is, but in terms of the more important topics of the Four Books and Five Classics, Li Ling is still far behind other candidates, and the gap is not small. And our imperial examinations have always paid the most attention to the major topics of classics and meanings, so..."

The emperor's eyes sank, wanting to say something, but in the end he waved his hand: "I'm tired, you go."

"I'm leaving!" Seeing that the emperor finally accepted this result, Fan Meisheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly visited the temple and left the palace.

It was not until he left that the emperor snorted coldly: "Now I finally understand why Emperor Taizu tried his best to suppress the so-called "Sutra" and "In the Taizu Dynasty", the imperial examinations were not only the so-called "Four Books and Five Classics", but also the "Astronomy, geography, and military affairs" and "As astronomy, geography, and "All military affairs" could be listed. But now, over the past few decades, I have returned to the old path of the past, and even became more and more serious, focusing on the so-called "Four Books and Five Classics". Even if I want to praise someone, they have to use these methods. OK, that's great!"
Chapter completed!