Top Scholar

Chapter 509 Martial Arts Tournament

After finishing the two articles, Su Tai's stomach started growling again.

He then pulled out five meat pies from the basket. These were specially made by a chef from a restaurant in Xianghe, whom his father had invited to bake at home. Each one weighed a pound, filled with white flour, scallion oil, and pork. They tasted absolutely delicious.

Su Tai ate three meat pies in one go and wanted to eat more, but then he remembered his brother's advice that he should not eat too much during the exam and that it was best to keep himself not too hungry. So he obediently stopped eating and stuffed the remaining meat pies back into his exam basket.

Then he wiped his mouth and continued to conceive his final policy, "A Plan for the Reorganization of the Beijing Garrison."

This was a topic that Su Lu had discussed with him. Following Qiu Ge'er's line of thought, Su Tai first denounced the long-standing problems of the Beijing Garrison: serious staff shortages, a large number of fictitious positions, and many of those in the garrison being old, weak, sick, or disabled; long-standing arrears in pay, and soldiers having no will to fight; training being a mere formality, with soldiers unfamiliar with archery and horsemanship, and their combat effectiveness being worrisome; in addition, the court's financial resources were tight, and it was difficult to continue to provide food, pay, and military equipment, making it completely unfit to be the shield of the capital!

He then proposed four targeted strategies—

First, we must build an elite force by eliminating the old and weak and replacing them with the strong and able-bodied. We must also clear out vacancies and recruit soldiers from the elite border troops and the brave soldiers of the local garrisons to maintain a force of 50,000 combat troops and avoid wasting resources.
Second, 'training troops' involves drawing border troops to serve as instructors, strengthening training, holding regular competitions, and weeding out the weak and eliminating the strong.
Third, "merit is valued" and promotions and demotions are determined by military merit, thus preventing the receipt of rewards without merit;
Fourthly, we practiced 'frugality,' prioritizing the use of limited military funds to ensure the pay of elite troops and the procurement of weapons and provisions, and assigning special personnel to supervise and prevent embezzlement.

The article concludes with a resounding statement: "If the Beijing Garrison is strong, then the capital region is secure; if the capital region is secure, then even if the country is in chaos, it will ultimately be at peace!"

The six-hour exam was long and arduous. Some candidates were exhausted and began snoring loudly, while others scratched their heads at the questions and couldn't write a single word for a long time.

Su Tai continued writing diligently, completing three articles before late afternoon. After checking them and finding no faults, he began to copy them meticulously, stroke by stroke.

Despite his fingers being as thick as carrots, and his pen holding it as soft as a toothpick, he still managed to write neatly and legibly, with a clean and spotless paper, without a single mistake!
Before dark, Su Tai finished checking the papers. He breathed a sigh of relief, put the papers back in the exam bag, and then took the remaining flatbreads from the exam basket to the table and began to eat them heartily...

After he finished the last pancake and licked his fingers clean, the bell rang from Mingyuan Building to signal the end of the exam. Su Tai let out a big burp, tidied up the table, handed in his paper, and left.

~~
The examiners collected the eight hundred papers and compiled them into the Zhigong Hall. Although they were papers from martial arts candidates, the grading process was the same.

Under the dual supervision of the supervising official and the inspector, the examiner counted the eight hundred exam papers one by one and checked for any violations, such as exceeding the page limit, omitting names and places of origin, or illegible handwriting.

The civil service examination was usually just a formality, and only two or three papers for each subject ended up in the black waste bin.

But this step is very useful in the martial arts examination. Even though there are only 800 papers, we can pick out 50 or 60 that can be directly invalidated. The main reason for the violation is that the paper is illegible. It is not that the handwriting is ugly, but that there are too many corrections and erasures. It is like submitting a draft directly.

The civil servants who were in charge of receiving the papers were naturally ruthless; when they saw a messy paper, they would simply stamp it with the 'invalid paper' mark.

Hu Ruli, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, frowned as he watched. These military examination candidates were truly despicable. From the morning onwards, they were found to have cheated on the exam, carried weapons, fought with the invigilators, or caused disturbances in the examination room. The violations were endless, and the methods of breaking the rules were varied. There was nothing they couldn't do.

With such low character, he expects to be respected like the scholar Wen? Absolutely not!
After the initial screening, the remaining fifty-one bundles of scrolls were packed into a red scroll box and sent for sealing, copying, and comparison. Finally, the supervising official and the dispatching official jointly delivered the scrolls to Feihong Bridge.

After receiving the exam papers, the eunuch examiners and two Hanlin examiners returned to Ju Kui Hall and distributed the papers to the four examiners for review.

It was already the afternoon of the tenth day of the lunar month. The results of the written exams, and who would be eligible to take the next round of exams, would be announced by this time tomorrow. Time was still tight, so the two chief examiners didn't wait for the recommended papers. They each took a stack and started looking at them right away.

The passing standard was quite lenient; literary merit was irrelevant, as long as the texts from the Four Books were fluent and logically sound. The first essay, "Military Classics," provided a basic understanding of military strategy. The last essay, "Current Affairs," which touched upon current issues, was sufficient for a passing grade, allowing the candidate to proceed to the next round of examinations.

If the essays on the Four Books accurately address the topic and clearly explain the principles, and the policy essays combine practical matters with military strategy and offer unique insights, and the current affairs essays can propose basic and feasible solutions, and the paper is neat and error-free, then it can be rated as top-grade.

The best papers were already less than one in ten; out of more than six hundred papers, not even sixty could be selected.

As for excellence, the requirements are even higher, and it's practically a formality; it's possible that no one can reach it in several subjects in a row.

However, there was plenty of amusement. Most of the candidates for the martial arts examination focused on honing their skills in martial arts, horseback riding, and archery, and their writing skills were ultimately rusty. The answers were full of comical "martial arts writing" anecdotes. When the examiners got tired of grading the papers, they would pick out these passages to read aloud to relieve their boredom. Laughter filled the Ju Kui Hall, and even the supervising censors smiled.

The imperial court stipulated that the first exam should be a written test in order to force the military students to learn more about how to write essays.

The results were meager; those who couldn't write still couldn't, and many highly skilled martial artists were eliminated. Therefore, the imperial court stipulated that, starting with the next imperial examination, the order of martial arts testing first, followed by literary testing, would be changed back, with selection based on a comprehensive score, and less emphasis placed on essays.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have a paper here..." an examiner pointed to the paper in his hand.

"Stop telling jokes. You're already laughing so hard your stomach hurts. How are you going to eat lunch?" the examiner said.

"No, my essay is actually quite good. Let me read you two paragraphs." The examiner cleared his throat and said:

"Looking at the frontier, the brave should be like sturdy pine trees, unyielding even after frost and snow; those who uphold righteousness should be like rocky cliffs, unmoved even in the face of wind and rain."

"Only by understanding righteousness can one live with courage; only by living with courage can one be fearless..."

"Hmm, not bad at all!" The examiners nodded in unison. After being tortured by nonsensical writing, the sudden appearance of such a clear and fluent article brought a sense of bliss, like hearing celestial music and having their ears suddenly clear. "Superior, superior, absolutely superior!" the examiners exclaimed in unison.

~~
On the 11th, the results of the first round were posted on the wall outside the Ministry of War.

Su Tai squeezed into the crowd and saw that he was fifth in line!

Although he hadn't won first place, his ranking was already quite high, and advancing to the next round was a certainty. His anxiety subsided, and he glanced curiously at the names of the four people ahead of him—

An Guo, Zhou Shangwen, Shen Xiyi, Ma Yong!
He noted down the names of the first four people, thinking to himself that he should try to befriend them if he had the chance; they were scholars among martial artists.

Because Qiu-ge'er had said that his writing was just a little short of passing the county-level imperial examination. These people were better than him, so naturally they were at the county-level... Su Tai thought honestly.

~~
The next day was the second round of the martial arts competition. The content of the exam was the same as the provincial martial arts exam, but it brought together top martial arts experts from all over the country, and the standards for advancement were raised accordingly.

As dawn broke, banners fluttered in the air at the military training ground in western Beijing. Liu Yu, the Minister of War and chief examiner of the martial arts examination, sat on a high platform, flanked by the five military commanders and professors of the Imperial Guard. Imperial guards patrolled the area, and censors supervised the examination, creating a solemn atmosphere.

The first item is mounted archery.

The track is eighty zhang long, and on the right side of the track, which is painted with white lime, three targets with red backgrounds and white circles are particularly eye-catching.

The examiner announced loudly: "For mounted archery, use an eight-strength bow. Gallop on horseback for three rounds and fire nine arrows. Hitting five targets is required to pass!"

In the provincial examination, candidates only needed to draw a six-strength bow and hit the target with three arrows to pass. Clearly, after the provincial examination, raising the standards was no longer an effective way to eliminate candidates.

Don't be fooled by how easy it is to draw the Eight-Power Bow while standing; it greatly affects the power exertion when riding a horse, and those extra two points of power can significantly impact the accuracy of many people.

But for Su Tai, this was not a problem at all. His arms were even thicker than when he took the provincial examination, almost as thick as an ordinary man's thigh.

When it was his turn, he took the bow and arrow, fired one arrow on foot to familiarize himself with the weapon, then mounted his tall horse, spurred it, and the warhorse galloped away.

In the blink of an eye, he nocked the arrow, drew the bow fully, and aimed in one fluid motion, hitting the bullseye with all three arrows on his first attempt!

Then, as he turned his horse around and returned, he hit the target with all three arrows again. This happened repeatedly, with every arrow finding its mark, drawing cheers from the entire audience!
The examiners on the high platform nodded in approval. Liu Yu asked those around him with great interest, "This candidate is quite robust and skilled in archery and horsemanship. Whose family has produced such a young man?"

The generals looked at each other, clearly unfamiliar with the place.

Someone said, "I don't know, I only know that the top two scholars of this year's imperial examination sent them to take the exam. Look, they're still watching over there."

Following the direction Liu Yu pointed to the left, he indeed saw the newly appointed top scholar Su Lu and the third-ranked scholar Su Man walking excitedly toward the giant who had finished his archery.

"Ah, I know!" Liu Yu's son, Liu Ren, suddenly realized, "That bear-like guy is called Su Tai, and he's Su Lu's older brother."

He lowered his voice and said, "Dad, teach them a lesson."

"Shut up, you idiot!" Liu Yu glared at him and said in a low voice, "Go, and politely invite Scholar Su and Scholar Su to come up on stage and take their seats."

"Huh? I'm still standing!" Liu Ren said unhappily.

“Even your father has to respect Scholar Su, who do you think you are?” Liu Yu said in a low voice, “If you’re not going, then get back to your hometown in Henan and don’t cause me any trouble in the capital.”

"Oh dear, I'll go." Liu Ren had no choice but to dejectedly go and invite Su Lu and Su Man.

Su Lu readily agreed. It was enough that he was at odds with Liu Jin and Jiao Fang; there was no need to be irreconcilable with all the eunuch factions.

Su Man knew that they weren't inviting him, but it wouldn't be appropriate to invite Su Lu alone, so he made an excuse that he was accompanying his brother to take the exam and stayed behind.

Su Lu followed Liu Ren up to the high platform, where Liu Yu stood up with a smile to greet him: "Hehe, the top scholar has also arrived."

Upon seeing this, the civil and military officials quickly rose and politely greeted the top scholar.

"You all flatter me," Su Lu said, bowing repeatedly.

P.S. I'll continue with the next chapter, please vote with your monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)