The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 308 Volume Jingzhou Tiantuan
When the eldest son was born, all the officials who heard the news presented gifts to celebrate.

Some captains and generals in the army also spontaneously organized banquets to entertain guests.

Because he is not only the eldest son of the Han Empire, but also the eldest son with the blood of the Xiliang Army.

With the birth of Liu Dong, the few remaining worries in the hearts of all the Xiliang soldiers suddenly disappeared.

Another month later, another piece of news came from the palace -

The emperor has decided to enthrone Liu Dong, who is just one month old, as the crown prince.

For a time, the whole country celebrated!
The crown prince is the heir to the throne!
Although the emperor has proved himself to the people of the Han Dynasty in recent years to be a qualified emperor, he still gives the people a false sense of crisis.

It's just that the royal family is now declining, and if there is no crown prince sitting in that position, it will be a bit worrying.

But as the news of the enthronement of the crown prince came out, the people's hearts were completely put back into their own stomachs.

To put it bluntly.

Even if Liu Xie died suddenly now, everyone at least knew who they should continue to be loyal to, so that everyone had a backbone in their hearts.

Although it is a little bit outrageous for a prince who is just one month old, he is still a prince!
Afterwards, three more pieces of good news came from the palace.

Lady Cai gave birth to a daughter for the emperor and named her Yi'an.

Concubine Fu gave birth to a son for the emperor and named him Shimin.

Concubine Dong gave birth to a daughter for the emperor and named her Taiping.

Suddenly, two princes and two princesses were born. For a moment, no one knew how to celebrate. In the end, they could only sigh in admiration.

"Son of Heaven, you are really fierce!"

Coupled with the fact that scholars who had recently come from all over the country to participate in the imperial examinations had gathered in Chang'an, the atmosphere in Chang'an was completely pushed to a climax for a while!

……

A market in the West Market of Chang'an.

"Shi Yuan, what do you think of His Majesty giving birth to a child?"

"How else can I look at it? Of course it's a good thing!"

Several scholars speaking with a Jingzhou accent sat together, ordered some delicious food, drank and had fun.

The scholar called "Shiyuan" looked a little unintelligent. Not only did he have slightly crossed eyes, but he also had a hairy mole on his face.

He picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. He closed his eyes involuntarily, and his lips trembled with the taste of delicious food.

"This dish is called Red Braised Pork. It is said that it was specially developed by the emperor to show his sympathy to the queen."

"Being able to turn smelly pork into such a delicacy... Is the emperor really a god who has descended to earth?"

The scholar opposite smiled softly: "I don't know if the emperor is a god who has descended to earth, but the one next to me is truly a god! Kong Ming, am I right?"

Zhuge Liang was somewhat helpless: "Yuanzhi is making fun of me again."

……

The scholars at this table were Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Cui Jun, Shi Tao, and Meng Jian who came to Chang'an to take part in the imperial examination.

Xu Shu was a young man with chivalrous spirit. When he heard Zhuge Liang being modest, he patted Zhuge Liang on the back with his big hand, which was calloused by the hilt of his sword. He said, "Even the emperor thinks you are a top scholar. Why are you being modest now?"

After saying that, Xu Shu kicked Pang Tong again: "Shi Yuan! Don't play tricks! It is of course a good thing for the emperor to give birth to a child, but that's not what I'm asking about."

Pang Tong took the opportunity to stuff another piece of braised pork into his mouth, and then said leisurely: "What is there to say? It's nothing more than that there are some tricks in the names that the emperor chooses for his offspring."

Xu Shu wanted to hear it: "What is the secret?"

"The eldest son uses his mother's surname as his name, which shows that the emperor has placed his thoughts about the Grand Master on the Crown Prince... Even though there may be some difficulties in avoiding taboos in the future, it is not a big deal."

"The second son was named 'Shimin', which obviously means 'governing the country and benefiting the people'. It can be seen as the emperor using the names of his offspring to show his ambition. Moreover, nowadays, single-character names are considered noble, while double-character names are considered humble. But now that the emperor has taken the initiative to give his heir a double-character name, I'm sure more people will follow suit in the future."

Pang Tong was quite happy about this: "There are so many single-character names, and there are always duplicates. Now that the emperor has set an example, there won't be so many people with the same name in the future."

"As for the two princesses, one is named Yi'an and the other is named Taiping... These names are different from the lofty ambitions of the prince's name, but they can reflect the emperor's benevolent nature."

Pang Tong said this with an awkward smile on his face: "I guess the emperor must like the princess more than the prince. Otherwise, how could he name her like this?"

"Eat your meat properly! Isn't this enough to shut you up?"

Xu Shu originally wanted to listen for fun, but when he heard that Pang Tong dared to say such words, he couldn't help but kick Pang Tong again.

"Didn't you ask me to say it? And you're not happy about it after I told you!"

Pang Tong seemed a little aggrieved, and in order to compensate himself, he also took Xu Shu's portion of braised pork...

Zhuge Liang also advised Pang Tong: "Chang'an is not like Jingzhou. Shi Yuan must be careful with his words and actions."

"Shi Yuan wouldn't want to lose the opportunity to take the imperial examination that he had worked so hard to get just because of a quick word, right?"

The situation of the imperial examination in the third year of Jian'an was different from that in the first year of Jian'an.

Because the imperial court has now recovered Yizhou and Jingzhou, the number of scholars has increased several times.

The imperial court obviously had no conditions to allow all these scholars to participate in the imperial examinations at once, so it could only let the states first select the scholars who came to Chang'an to participate in the imperial examinations. And the selection condition was to memorize the complete "Jian'an Code"...

That's right.

In the first year of Jian'an, as long as you memorize the entire "Jian'an Code", you will pass the exam and be able to serve as an official.

But in the third year of Jian'an, memorizing the "Jian'an Law" was just a threshold for participating in the imperial examinations...

So Pang Tong certainly didn't want to be deprived of his qualifications just because of a few nonsense words.

Pang Tong even touched his face with self-mockery: "Fortunately, there is the imperial examination."

"If it were before, with my appearance, how could I have entered the palace and pursue a career in government?"

The system of recommendation before the Han Dynasty also included appearance as part of the assessment.

And with Pang Tong's appearance, I'm afraid he will never become an official in his lifetime...

Therefore, even though Pang Tong was not a scholar from a poor family, he was still full of gratitude towards the imperial examination system of the court.

Xu Shu knew that Pang Tong was extremely sensitive about his appearance, so he comforted Pang Tong after hearing what he said: "Don't even think about passing the exam and getting an official position! Shi Yuan might even be able to get the top spot in the imperial examination! He can compete with Sima Yi!"

Previously, Sima Yi followed Ban Chao's example and killed Xu You, and resisted Cao Cao in Xiangyang for several months. He had already become an undisputed leader of the younger generation!
But Xu Shu believed that neither Zhuge Liang nor Pang Tong was necessarily worse than Sima Yi!

The top scholar position in the second imperial examination is secured by the scholars of Jingzhou!
After hearing this, Pang Tong waved his hands and said, "I'm definitely not as good as Kong Ming."

"Let's not talk about anything else. This year's imperial examination will definitely have questions on arithmetic and instruments. How can I compare with Kong Ming in these questions?"

When it comes to writing and strategy, Pang Tong is not arrogant. He really dares to compete with Zhuge Liang.

But as to arithmetic and instruments...

Forget it……

Pang Tong was extremely depressed: "Kong Ming recently married Huang Yueying, the daughter of Huang Chengyan, a famous scholar in Miannan. I heard that she is also good at arithmetic and instruments. She studies during the day and at night. How can I compete with her?"

"Besides, the emperor had asked Yan Xiang to send a notebook to Kong Ming, which was also full of mathematics... Tsk tsk!"

Xu Shu was indeed unhappy after hearing this: "It's not like we haven't read the letter that the emperor gave to Kong Ming, but we are really stupid and don't understand the meaning of it. What can we do?"

"As for the Huang family girl who is good at equipment... Hehe! I'm afraid you won't meet her!"

Pang Tong rolled his eyes, but began to "interrogate" Zhuge Liang.

"Kong Ming, what did the emperor write to you? We can't understand it, so you have to tell us!"

Zhuge Liang did not hide his secrets, but just smiled bitterly and said: "I have only understood some of the basics and some of the arithmetic content."

"For example, odd numbers change but even numbers don't, and the sign depends on the quadrant..."

Pang Tong:?
Xu Shu:?
Cui Jun, Shi Tao, Meng Jian: ???

Pang Tong waved his hands in a headache: "Let's not talk about it anymore!"

"If I really encounter arithmetic questions in the exam, I can only consider myself unlucky!"

They all have a deep understanding of the gap between them and Zhuge Liang.

Anyway, they figured that it was impossible for the emperor to specifically ask a question that only Zhuge Liang could answer, while leaving everyone else in blank stares, right?
"As long as you can answer the other questions well, you will definitely be able to get into high school."

They tried some of Chang'an's famous delicacies, but did not dare to get too drunk, so they returned to the post station prepared for them by the court to rest.

Not only the scholars of Jingzhou.

There were also many scholars from other places who participated in the imperial examinations.

For example, Sima Yi’s brothers Sima Lang and Sima Fu.

Wen Hui from Taiyuan, Pei Qian from Hedong, Pang Yan from Fufeng, Pang Yu from Jiuquan, Yan Wen from Tianshui, Yang Hong from Qianren, Qin Mi from Guanghan...

These young talents who usually lived in seclusion in various places gathered in Chang'an, intending to take part in the second imperial examination of the Han Dynasty.

Under the previous system of recommendation, no matter how hard they tried, there was no path for promotion prepared for them, and their fate was never in their own hands.

But the imperial examination was different.

Black and white.

Everyone is answering the same test paper, and their future and destiny are all in their own hands.

This pen can write about dragons and phoenixes flying in the air, and can also write about a bright future.

The big hand that had been strangling these scholars' necks for four hundred years suddenly loosened its grip. How could they not fight desperately?
Everyone is eager to try, looking forward to passing the exam, and especially looking forward to being listed on the list of successful candidates at Baqiao after entering the top 100. They are even more looking forward to being praised by court officials in Chang'an after entering the top 10!
There are even rumors that the last top scholar Sima Yi was recruited by the emperor himself!

The emperor personally recruits him!

What an honor!

Even the legendary Jiang Taigong is probably no more than this, right?

When these scholars thought that the emperor might come to their palaces in person to recruit them, they were so excited that they trembled all over!

They fought hard in this imperial examination!!!
(End of this chapter)