After sending all the eunuchs away, it was already October. October was a month that Li Yong was looking forward to. Because according to the custom, the tributes from various prefectures and counties were about to be delivered to Chang'an City.

Of course, Li Qing was not very interested in those tributes, but the "country tribute" delivered with these tributes from prefectures and counties.

Township tribute is not an object, but a living person, and the part of people Li Yong is most looking forward to. He was sent to Chang'an City from all over the country to take the provincial examination.

Those who can come to the capital of the Tang Dynasty to take the exam are nothing more than two types of people. The first type is students studying in the Imperial College, Hongwen Chongwen Pavilion or larger school centers in various prefectures and counties. Anyone who passes the selection examination of their own school can recommend them to the Shangshu Province to take the exams of various subjects. These people are called "students".

Others, whether they have no one, no money, or are in remote areas, have no fate to attend public schools, so they are completely self-taught.

If these people pass the selection exam in their prefectures and counties, they can get the written explanation issued by the prefectures and counties, and are recommended to Chang'an City by their prefectures and counties to take the exam. Moreover, many of these people are from poor backgrounds, so the prefecture and county governments will send them to Chang'an City with tributes, saving some candidates from being unable to arrive due to travel expenses.

This policy is quite desirable in Li Yong's opinion, and the annual grand occasion can also make Chang'an City lively at this time and stimulate various industries in Chang'an City.

In October, candidates arrive in Chang'an City and complete the verification of candidate information in November. Generally, the provincial examination led by the Shangshu Province will begin in the first month or February.

Before the candidate arrived in Chang'an City, Li Qing announced early that the examiner was Xu Yuan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, which was no different from before. Obviously, Li Qing's arrangement was quite forward-looking.

Xu Yuan took over the position of chief examiner. According to Li Qing's edict, Xu Yuan was fully responsible for the qualification review of the candidates or some matters before the examination. In this way, Xu Yuan immediately knew how important the chief examiner was.

On October 1, Xu Yuan's mansion, which had been deserted before, became lively at that time. Many of them were candidates with considerable financial resources. They brought some of their works and gifts from other places to Xu Yuan's mansion, and they all had some thoughts.

Almost everyone consciously let Xu Yuan remember the characteristics of his handwriting and writing, and of course whether his gifts are tough enough.

Because they knew that their test papers would be handled by Xu Yuan in the end, and the final scoring and ranking work would also be completed by Xu Yuan. The provincial test papers need to be misled. In this case, candidates hope that the examiner can remember their fonts first, regardless of whether it is useful or not, it is a psychological comfort.

This trend has been going on in the Tang Dynasty for a long time. Some candidates who have no money at home even come to Xu Yuan’s mansion with their own articles or poems. They want to try their luck and see if the things they wrote can reach Xu Yuan’s eyes and arouse his love for talent.

Soon, a news spread in Chang'an City, that is, the Minister of Rites, Xu Yuan, the chief examiner of the provincial examination, did not accept gifts at all, but people would leave the works he had in his hands.

This made many civilian candidates very excited. Many students who did not intend to visit them all began to recite poems and write poems in their inn overnight, wanting to send them to Xu Yuan, the chief examiner.

On this day, Xu Yuan arrived at Tai Chi Palace, followed by a servant, carrying a package from the boss on his back, and his face was filled with a sad face.

When he arrived at the main hall of Tai Chi Palace, Li Qing was sitting there, obviously waiting for Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan ordered the servant he brought to put the big bag on the ground, took out a stack of paper from the bag, and walked to Li Yan.

"Your Majesty, this is the articles and poems handed over by the students who came to take the exam that I have received during this period. In my opinion, these students' thoughts are probably not used in the right place. They just think about shortcuts. How can they become pillars of my Tang Dynasty?"

Obviously, Xu Yuan did not agree with Li Yi's request very much. He felt that this was completely promoting unhealthy trends, because once this opening opened, it had affected the mood of many poor students. They naively thought that relying on one of their articles might allow them to catch up with the students of the Imperial College overnight, and directly let the examiner remember him, so that they could directly obtain the qualification to enter the Tang Dynasty officialdom after the provincial examination.

Not only that, Xu Yuan felt that after this incident, he didn't know what his reputation would become, but he couldn't say that it was all asked by the current emperor to do this, and he was just doing it on orders.

"You have read these articles and poems? Don't present them if you are too obsessed. After all, there are many people in our Tang Dynasty who can take the provincial examination, but there are not many real talents among them."

"These are articles and poems that I have selected in the past few days. Whether I agree with the views expressed in the article or not, they will all be given to Your Majesty. After all, Your Majesty's perspective on some things is different from us."

Xu Yuan knew Li Yan quite well. He almost knew what Li Yan's personality was. He knew that some articles that might be furious after reading them, and Li Yan might fall in love with them after reading them.

"Okay! The candidates are still young, and there is nothing wrong with being eager for quick success and instant benefits. Only from their articles can we see the true intentions of these candidates. There are so many people missing in the court today. If we follow the previous imperial examinations, those Jinshi would not be able to fill these vacancies. Therefore, I asked you to collect more students' articles. I hope to find some students in this area. We can make good use of their strengths."
Chapter completed!