Compared with other articles that are full of flowers and brilliantly written, Cai Qi's seemingly simple article is actually difficult to write too much. The data alone requires him to spend a lot of effort to recall it. In addition, various calculations based on this make him pinch his fingers and his writing speed is naturally extremely slow.

In the end, the other candidates in the hall had left one after another, and he was the only one who was still there burying his head and writing. Even though he had experience in doing things in the yamen, Cai Qi was nervous and anxious, which caused him to sweat on his forehead, and he started writing even slower.

At the same time, the candle lit on the table had been lit to the end, and a swaying swayed, making Cai Qi even more uneasy, and subconsciously reached out to protect the candle flame. However, at this moment, a man suddenly put down a long candle that had just been lit and said something to comfort him. This made Cai Qi feel moved. He looked up and almost stood up: "Sun...Master Sun..."

Sun Tu put down the candle with one hand and pressed Cai Qi, who was about to get up, with the other hand: "What you have to do now is to finish the article. I think it's almost over, so I can't be distracted."

Cai Qi felt a little moved, responded with a nasal tone, and then put his attention completely on the paper and pen in front of him. Even Sun Tu took the article he placed aside without looking at it.

When he finally finished writing all this article and wondered whether he should check it carefully to see if there were any omissions or places where taboos were violated, he suddenly found that the written paper was pinned in his hand by Sun Tu, who had not left beside him, and looked at it carefully. Seeing him looking up, Sun Tu smiled even more, handed him the few pieces of paper he had seen in his hand, and took the last piece of paper over.

After half a cup of tea, Sun Tu finally finished reading all the articles in his hand, and then looked at Cai Qi who was a little nervous: "You are Cai Qi? The Jiangnan candidate who mentioned in the essay during the imperial examination that he wanted to increase commercial taxes to fill the national treasury?"

"It's the student." Cai Qi had already stood up at this time, and quickly bent down and replied. As he said, his heart moved again: "How could the Taiwei know the name of a mere person?"

"Haha, do you know that among those exam articles, the one I like most is yours. Although your article is not as smooth and beautiful as other candidates, every sentence hits the current shortcomings of the country, especially for the commercial taxation, which has always been a problem. It is precisely because of this that when other examiners demoted you, I stood up to the public and clicked you to enter the palace examination. And you did not disappoint me. This article on the transportation of military food to comment on the similarities and differences between the Northern Expedition in the founding of the country and today's Northern Expedition is indeed unique and refreshing."

Cai Qi looked at Sun Tu with some disbelief. He could become a member of the palace examination and there were such twists and turns. This made him forget to thank Sun Tu for a while, and he was left with excitement.

Sun Tu looked at the other party with a smile and said, "By the way, looking at the various data details in this article, you should not be an ordinary candidate, right? And you really have a good idea of ​​calculating these data. I think you have a strong understanding of mathematics?"

Until he heard the word "Suanxue", Cai Qi suddenly came to his senses and bowed and replied: "What the Taiwei said is that before the reference, the students were just a small household official in Zhuji County, Shaoxing, Jiangnan. These related data were also collected by the students in the official documents of the publication for more than ten years. In addition, the students were indeed quite interested in the Suanxue since childhood, so they were later hired by the county government and walked in the household house."

"So that's it. It seems that you are indeed gifted. OK, very good!" Sun Tu nodded repeatedly to express his approval: "Is there any evidence that the final failure of Emperor Taizong of the Kingdom's Chu sent troops to the Northern Expedition as you wrote was because the supply of military rations in the rear was not enough?"

This made the other party blush and smile bitterly: "This student was just inferring from facts. First, the road between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom was already rugged and difficult, and the main army had already reached the vicinity of Youzhou, which led to the supply route being too long. The Taiwei was well versed in military tactics, and he should know that in this case, without mentioning the dangers along the way, the consumption of food alone was much greater than that of the close-range transport of food. After all, the people who transported food also had to eat, and they were transporting food, so it was naturally impossible to save it. In this way, no matter how much more food was transported to the front, it would be consumed, which would inevitably lead to a shortage of food in the front.

"The second is that we can be reversed based on the results. Although the defeat of Gaolianghe was due to Emperor Taizong's injury, the entire army collapsed, but in the eyes of the students, this was just an appearance. The fundamental reason for this defeat was that the Northern Expedition Army was not adequate for food and grass, and the soldiers in the army were already in trouble. This was why Taizong's injury was used as a trigger, resulting in the final defeat."

These arguments are all conclusions drawn by Cai Qi through collecting some data over the years. When asked today, he was excited and almost forgot that what he was facing was the most powerful Taiwei Sun, the Song Dynasty. It was not until he finished speaking that he woke up, and he looked restrained and nervous again.

Sun Tu nodded with satisfaction: "Well, it seems that although you are in the county government office, you are only a minor official, but you have always been concerned about the major affairs of the court. What's even more rare is that your ability to learn a certain degree and be able to use it, is the talent that the court needs."

After pausing for a moment, seeing the other party showing joy, Sun Tu smiled again and said, "Okay, the time for the palace examination is up today. You should leave the palace first and wait for news. A talent like you will definitely be valued by the court."

"Yes...yes, students, students thanked the Grand Marshal for their support..." Cai Qi was excited and almost knelt down and kowtowed. After a while, he left the palace in a daze.

When Sun Tu watched him leave, he showed a joyful smile on his face. It seemed that even God was helping him this time. He just mentioned to Tong Mu and the others that he wanted to find professional talents to enter the important yamen, and he found a person who was good at math. Isn’t this just enough to put him in the Ministry of Revenue for training?

In this way, because the depression of seeing those "Bravely Essenced Articles" that were used to flatter those "Bravely Essays" before was wiped out, in Sun Tu's view, as long as Cai Qi has a precedent, more relevant talents will inevitably emerge in the imperial examination hall in the future, thus changing the bad habit of inheriting the past hundreds of years of poetry, songs or essays to win the Jinshi, so that more talents can be used for themselves.

The facts later showed that Sun Tu still underestimated the 100 candidates in the palace examination who were in the current subject. These people may be filled with many candidates who only know how to write flattering articles, but Cai Qi is definitely not the only one who has real skills.

There are three of them who can not only write the article in a subtle way, but also have their own reasons. When people look at it, they nodded repeatedly.

For example, this candidate named Shen Tu from Huainan revealed the difference between today's Song Dynasty and the past from the distinction between civil and military affairs, and used this as an extension to bring the Han and Tang dynasties together and made a powerful comparison. Although there is a certain suspicion of flattery, everything in his article is reasonable and has many opinions. Judging from the article itself, it is obviously more than just better than Cai Qi.

Another candidate from the capital, Zhang Nan, even analyzed the previous Northern Expeditions from the perspective of military use, which is easy to understand. Even those who do not understand military affairs can understand many subjective factors that have repeatedly defeated the Song Dynasty from his articles. He even boldly pointed out the shortcomings of many emperors who like to remotely control the war in front of the Song Dynasty since Emperor Taizong...

The only flaw of this article is that it is half-white. It should be that Zhang Nan made some changes in the word selection and sentence formation in order to cater to Sun Tu, the chief examiner, abolished the ancient text. Unfortunately, many habits of writing cannot be changed easily, so at first glance, it always makes people feel a little awkward.

But even so, Sun Tu was quite appreciative of this article. As for the person, it was not possible to make a judgment just by reading one article.

Anyway, in the process of reviewing candidates' articles in the next few days, Sun Tu still gained a lot. He only found more than a dozen insightful and potential candidates from these hundred people. He was naturally satisfied with this and made corresponding arrangements.

Three days later, the court finally announced the final result of this palace examination. Shen Tu was the well-deserved top scorer, a candidate named Yang Changnian became a role model, and Zhang Nan was Tanhua.

As for Cai Qi, he became the first in the second grade and was named Chuanlu. However, it is said that Sun Tu originally planned to list him as the third place, but after a secret discussion with Tong Mu, he ranked him one behind. In this way, Cai Qi was not so conspicuous in this imperial examination. After all, the three candidates ranked first.

But even so, when he learned that he was the first in the second grade in high school, Cai Qi still couldn't believe his ears and eyes. Even when he entered the palace again and thanked the court and the emperor with the same year, he had a sense of unreality that his soul was out of his body. Because he never thought that he would have a day to become a Jinshi and truly become a court official.

What surprised him even more was still behind. Just above the Golden Palace, the emperor issued a special order to lift him, the new Jinshi, into the position of Minister of Revenue, as the Minister of Revenue, and be responsible for the food supply to the Northern Expedition Army. This is obviously a great trust and honor, as well as a heavy burden...

As for other Jinshis, Zhang Nan was also sent to the Ministry of War by exception, and Shen Tu even went directly to the Political Affairs Hall to serve as a small official, and he really entered the center.
Chapter completed!