The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 219 Volume Counterattack
"quiet!"

At this moment, the chief examiners in each examination room are distributing test papers.

Yang Xiu took the test paper respectfully and felt the familiar touch as soon as he touched it.

As the son of a nobleman, Yang Xiu was quite familiar with paper.

But when he was young and studying, he used bamboo slips and bamboo tablets more often, so when he held the light paper in his hands, he still felt emotional.

"If the imperial court does not vigorously promote paper and continues to issue orders on bamboo slips, I am afraid that the imperial examination will be nothing but nonsense."

"Ok?"

Yang Xiu's mumbling was heard by a soldier who was invigilating the exam, who immediately glared at him.

Feeling the murderous intent from the other party, Yang Xiu didn't dare to care about him anymore. After filling in his own name, he immediately started answering the questions.

“You just copied it from memory?”

The examination questions were extremely strict this time. It is said that only three people knew the complete questions: the emperor, Shangshu Ling Jia Xu, and Zhongshi Cheng Cai Yong.

Even though Yang Xiu's father was the Grand Marshal, one of the Three Dukes, he was unable to find out the truth at all, so this was the first time that Yang Xiu saw this mysterious test question.

Yang Xiu originally thought that the first question in the imperial examination should be something like a policy question, but it turned out to be just a dictation question.

The content of dictation was an article from the "Jian'an Law" that was released not long ago.

This was naturally extremely simple for Yang Xiu, who simply wrote down the original text word for word.

The second question is still dictation and still about laws.

This is the case for question 3, question 4, and so on all the way to question 10.

From this, we can also see the intention of the imperial court in selecting officials. They are not looking for talents who can govern the country, nor are they looking for saints in morality or great sages in classics. They just want people who can recite the laws and regulations accurately.

This test paper is counted by points.

The first ten questions about laws and regulations alone account for 50 points, which is half of the total score of the paper.

As long as you work hard, these 50 points are basically easy points and will not make any difference at all.

Yang Xiu could also realize that the purpose of these ten dictation questions was just to screen out those who were not diligent. After all, the five big questions at the end were what could really make a difference in scores.

The first question is still related to laws.

The question was about a case - Dong An killed his neighbor.

During the reign of Emperor He, there was a filial son named Dong An, who was the sixth-generation grandson of Dong Zhongshu, the prime minister of Hanjiang.

Wang Ji, Dong An's neighbor to the east, was rich but stubborn and unfilial. One day, Dong's mother and Wang's mother were chatting about their sons' filial piety and unfilial piety, which was overheard by Wang Ji. Wang Ji was jealous of Dong's mother, and when Dong An was away from home, Wang Ji went to Dong's house to insult and beat Dong's mother. Dong's mother fell ill and died soon after. Dong An was furious, and thinking of Wang's mother's old age, he kept his weapons to himself. A few years later, Wang's mother also died of illness. After the funeral, Dong An beheaded Wang Ji to avenge his mother and pay tribute to his mother's soul, and then tied himself up and surrendered to the government.

The first question requires candidates to explain in detail how to punish Dong An based on the Jian'an Code.

Yang Xiu saw the trap of this question at a glance.

The story of Dong An is known to everyone.

The treatment he received afterwards is also well known to everyone——

Emperor He of the Han Dynasty heard of his filial piety and pardoned his crime of killing without authorization. He also ordered him to be a doctor, but Dong An refused. Later, he received the emperor's grace and salary and lived in seclusion in Dayin until his death.

If some candidates saw this, they would probably directly write Emperor He of Han's handling method into the question.

After all, was the emperor's decision wrong?

However, Yang Xiu paid attention to the question and asked to answer the question based on the "Jian'an Code".

How the emperor deals with it is his business.

If we only look at the Jian'an Code, Dong An committed the crime of murder and should be put to death!
Perhaps some people would feel pity for Dong An because of his situation, and think that he is a filial son and should be given a break...

But if we show leniency to Dong An today, should we show leniency to Wang An, who killed his friend, and Li An, who killed his wife tomorrow?
Killing is killing! No doubt about it!

Besides, don’t forget who Dong An is?
The sixth-generation grandson of Dong Zhongshu!

She herself is the descendant of a famous scholar!

If you plead for Dong An just because of his filial piety, you will fall into the trap of this question and be inferior.

Yang Xiu wiped the sweat from his head.

This question is neither difficult nor easy.

It is difficult because if you are not careful, you will be led astray by it and start answering questions about filial piety, so naturally your score will not be too high.

The reason why it is not difficult is that as long as you don’t have any other thoughts and just answer the questions honestly according to the "Jian'an Code", you can naturally get the answer easily.

"This question is really cruel! This question alone is likely to eliminate many children from aristocratic families."

But since Yang Xiu had thought of the trick to solve the problem, he naturally bypassed it easily and wrote the answer on paper.

However, after this question, Yang Xiu no longer dared to relax and started to work on the second question seriously.

After eleven questions related to the law, I finally got to a question that was slightly related to the meaning of the scriptures.

"How to understand Confucius' statement "There is no distinction between classes in education"".

Considering the imperial examination system, this question is quite appropriate. It is the kind of question that anyone can get points on, but it is not easy to get a high score.

Yang Xiu himself came from the Hongnong Yang family, and had a very thorough understanding of such issues.

There are reasons why others dare not write, but he dares to write!

For example, the noble families controlled the way to promotion, which made it impossible for the poor to get promoted. His sharp words directly hit the core, which meant that Yang Xiu was destined to get a high score on this question.

But when he saw the third question, Yang Xiu covered his face and even wanted to run away!
The third question is very simple. It is to evaluate a person.

But this person is not simple.

Because his name was Wang Mang.

This is another question that anyone can score points on, but it is not easy to get a high score.

This is especially true for Yang Xiu.

The previous question was more pointed, and at most it would offend the aristocratic families.

But Yang Xiu himself came from the most top-notch family, so if he offended him, he would just go back and get beaten up by his father.

But if you write this question out of line, you may very likely lose your head!

Wang Mang had actually been identified long ago as a traitor to the Han Dynasty! He was a traitor to the Han Dynasty who could never be cleansed!

As long as Yang Xiu cursed a few words on the topic, the issue would naturally be resolved.

But Yang Xiu knew that if he answered the questions in this way, his score would not be very high.

People have been scolding Wang Mang for two hundred years, but even if you scold him to the utmost, it will still be the same.

But finding a different approach to this problem is also a difficult problem.

To whitewash Wang Mang?
Yang Xiu is just here to show off, not to lose his life!
But Yang Xiu didn't want to fall into the cliché after all, so he held the brush and pondered.

"Wang Mang, Wang Mang..."

If it were an ordinary person, he would probably have compromised and submitted an article insulting Wang Mang.

But Yang Xiu was unwilling.

He's here to take first place!
If you fall into clichés and fail to stand out, then won't all the bragging you did before become a laughing stock for others?
"Wang Mang, Wang Mang..."

Yang Xiu searched over and over again in his mind about Wang Mang's deeds, and finally found a solution!
"Before Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, he was a true Duke of Zhou!"

What a coincidence, there seems to be such a Duke of Zhou in the Han Dynasty today.

Thinking of Dong Zhuo, Duke Zhou, and the emperor, Yang Xiu immediately had the answer -

"The emperor often says, judge by deeds, not by heart..."

It is true that Wang Mang was a traitor to the Han Dynasty.

But before usurping the Han Dynasty, he was also Duke of Zhou!

The reason why his reputation changed so much was because Wang Mang did different things before and after usurping the Han Dynasty.

Before usurping the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang was respectful to wise and humble, honest and frugal, and practiced many benevolent policies. He was indeed a tinkerer for the Han court at that time.

But after usurping the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang seemed to have become a completely different person.

Yang Xiu specifically gave an example.

At that time, there were already Beihai County, Nanhai County and Donghai County in the country, but Wang Mang, who had obsessive-compulsive disorder, insisted on setting up a "Xihai County" to correspond to "sitting on the four seas."

For this "Xihai County", Wang Mang specially sent troops to open up a new county in the area of ​​Qinghai Lake. In order to supplement the population, he added fifty harsh laws, just to add more prisoners to facilitate immigration...

Therefore, Wang Mang was called a "sage" because of the things he did at that time. Wang Mang was later despised by everyone because of the things he did later.

Yang Xiu also pointed out his core argument at the end:

"A gentleman is judged by deeds, not by heart. No one is perfect in the world."

After writing this answer, Yang Xiu felt a little unsure.

But this was the best answer Yang Xiu could come up with, so that was the only answer he could give.

After calming down, Yang Xiu went to look at the fourth question.

Compared to the first question which had ulterior motives, the second question which was quite conventional, and the third question which was very secretive, the fourth question finally met the requirements of Yang Xiu for an imperial examination question.

This is a policy paper.

Question: If the imperial court obtains Shu, what should it do?

Yang Xiu knew that the imperial court had actually sent a large army to Shu.

But he didn't know the final outcome of the war in Shu, so he was extremely amazed at the court's confidence.

Before conquering Shu, this question had already been put on the imperial examination paper.

He was so domineering that Yang Xiu even thought he had returned to the time when the Han Dynasty was still powerful!
"What should we do after conquering Shu?"

This question is extremely broad and the answer can be arbitrary.

You can write a good article from the perspective of politics, military affairs, or economics.

Yang Xiu bit his pen, and finally put pen to paper after a while.

"Although Shu is rich, it cannot be relied upon by the imperial court in its haste to engage in militarism."

“The most taboo thing in governing a country is to take every penny and use it like dirt, wasting the people’s energy.”

"What we should do now is to rest and recuperate, so that the people in Guanzhong who have just recovered can enjoy the good fortune, and then follow the example of Emperor Gaozu and march east through Hangu Pass to pacify the world!"

"Therefore, I, a humble citizen, dare to ask the court to curb its warlike heart and make a fresh start with the people. When the time is ripe, we can march east to strike back and restore the Han Dynasty!"

　The third volume "Counterattack" is over. Actually, I originally wanted to write it in two volumes, Liangzhou Volume and Yizhou Volume, but later I felt that it was too long-winded, so I merged it into one volume. Tomorrow will be the fourth volume of this book - "Eastward Expedition"!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)