The imperial examination was only one day.
From dawn to dusk.
This year, there were a whopping 400 candidates.
The officials in charge of the imperial examination did not dare to delay. They quickly led the students to the open space outside the Taihe Hall, where tables and chairs had been set up in advance, as well as writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstones for the students to use.
Since it was random selection, there was nothing much to prepare for. Xu Mo happened to sit down next to Qi Huai.
"Today's essay topic is how to view the decades of conflict between the Dayu Dynasty and the Northern Nomads."
As soon as the chief examiner finished speaking, the candidates' eyes widened.
In the past dozen years, the civil service examination had not featured any war-related topics. It wasn't that there were taboos around civil and military affairs, but rather that this kind of straightforward topic, of either advocating war or peace, made it very difficult to take a balanced view.
This ant that your exam paper could be outstanding enough to catch the court's attention, or it could make the court furious enough to discard it.
Apart from a few who were confident, most of the students furrowed their brows, not knowing what to do.
Even Qi Huai and An Jun looked around, wanting to see what their fellow students were thinking and writing.
"Quiet, no looking around, no peeking. Once caught cheating, you will be disqualified from the imperial examination," the chief examiner sternly reprimanded.
The students could only bow their heads and start writing furiously.
Xu Mo dipped his brush in ink but did not hurry to write. He thought carefully in his mind.
Wars often led to tens of thousands of casualties. The national treasury was running low on grain. Fundantally, the court probably did not want war or to drain the people for its own benefit.
The wars were started by the Northern Nomads. Most of the ti, the Dayu Dynasty was forced to defend passively. It was helpless.
From this perspective, the court should hope for peace, even negotiations.
With an empty treasury, the Dayu Dynasty could probably fully recover after ten or so years of recuperation.
Xu Mo nodded, about to put brush to paper, when his third brother Fang Heng's account suddenly rang in his mind.
"Before I went to the border, I only thought of peace under heaven. I thought both sides could compromise. But after really participating in the killing, with soone else's blood splattering on my face, my heart was filled with hatred."
"Peace under heaven, these four words are easy to say. But after decades of accumulated hatred between the Dayu Dynasty and the Northern Nomads, after they slaughtered so many corpses, can there really be peace? Even if they beca peaceful, could those dead relatives and innocent lives really rest in peace?"
All the onlookers and armchair strategists could lightly suggest negotiations.
But only the generals knew that hatred could not be resolved, grievances could not be erased.
The dead could never co back to life.
This was true for the Dayu Dynasty's border residents, and for the Northern Nomads' loved ones as well.
So would the court want to continue the war?
The military provisions to support the troops ca from the treasury, and the revenue of the treasury ca from taxes. Wealthy rchants could still scrape together a portion through gritted teeth, but already impoverished commoners had to squeeze it out from between their teeth.
In Xu Mo's mory, the villagers of Shilipu were very poor, but they all had land that they fard. They would also take on odd jobs during their free ti, so why were they so poor, poor to the point they couldn't eat their fill?
Because of taxes and corvee labor.
The villagers would harvest ten bags of grain from an acre, but they needed to pay the basic agricultural tax, sundry taxes, personal taxes, and so on. What was left totaled only six or seven bags.
In principle that should be enough to eat, but people don't just eat. They also get sick, care for their elders, and reproduce.
When they didn't have enough silver, they couldn't afford dicine when ill, and when they had more children they could only tighten their belts.
Xu Mo searched his heart and asked himself, if he stood in the court's place, could he really bear to let his people starve and freeze just to fill the national treasury?
He couldn't bear it, and he believed the court couldn't either.
So stopping the war was the goal, but how to stop the war deserved careful consideration.
At this mont, Xu Mo was not a student striving for a top score, but soone hovering in midair, sincerely loving this dynasty from the bottom of his heart.
He hoped everyone could eat their fill, he hoped the common people could live in peace and joy, he hoped the border would see no more war, and he hoped the troops would live for a hundred years.
He didn't know how much ti had passed when Xu Mo's brush finally stopped, finishing with a flourishing dot. He put it back in its original place.
So students were frowning in thought, so were looking around, and so were hesitating in a daze.
Qi Huai had started writing early and even winked playfully at Xu Mo when he looked over.
Xu Mo smiled. He then looked towards An Jun, who seed to be struggling over sothing as his writing speed was remarkably slow.
When he brought his gaze back, it collided head-on with the breezy figure of Fang Yuan in white.
Neither avoided the other's eyes, facing each other fair and square. One was gentle and courteous, the other smiled archly.
It was evident Fang Yuan was very confident.
As a scion of the Fang family and a military officer turned civil servant, he had a natural advantage with this topic.
But Xu Mo was even more confident in his own answer.
The chief examiner in the Taihe Hall stood up and looked at the sun. About one incense stick of ti later, he struck the bronze bell and said, "Stop writing, hand in papers."
Coincidentally, An Jun had just finished writing his last character, so nervous that he blew on the ink to dry it.
The chief examiner went up in person to collect over 400 exam papers, and announced the start of the second item: reading aloud.
This was randomly selected, with eight examiners in the Taihe Hall simultaneously assessing. Not only did it test individual ability, but also psychological poise.
Being chosen first would inevitably be sowhat pressuring.
The 400 students held their breaths, waiting for this lucky person to appear.
After another incense stick of ti, the chief examiner stood up and read from the na plaque, "Liu Ziqiu."
Other than the person in question giving a start, everyone else let out a breath.
A thin figure erged from the crowd, walking up timidly. Before he could speak, he gave a loud hiccup.
The chief examiner shook his head and marked a not very high score on the paper.
"I, I'm Liu Ziqiu. My view is that we should stop the war. The common people's lives are already difficult, continued fighting will only make things worse..." He probably got absorbed in it, as his tone gradually steadied and he beca more composed.
The second examiner gave a middling score.
Next was the third, fourth examiner...
As soon as he finished speaking, the eighth examiner marked down an evaluation, stacking the papers in a pile.
It seed Qi Huai was right that literary style was far less important than poise in the imperial examination. Composure was truly key.
Xu Mo closed his eyes, taking deep breaths over and over, and recalling his own principles and speaking style.
He didn't know how much ti had passed when he opened his eyes and saw Fang Yuan walking confidently out of the Taihe Hall. The examiners were all nodding slightly, looks of admiration on their faces.
"Congratulations to Brother Fang, I wonder if you'll rank in the top three."
"Brother Fang stands out brilliantly. And at the age of fourteen no less. I'd say he's sure to place in the top three."
The Fang clan's hangers-on had already started singing his praises.
Fang Yuan glanced at Xu Mo from afar and modestly said, "It's nothing much, I still look forward to everyone else's outstanding performances."
As if by coincidence, the chief examiner reappeared and clearly announced "Xu Mo."
Finally, it was his turn.
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