Many major events have happened in the past two years, including the princess, Liutahe, kidnapped the prime minister, the emperor was critically ill, the prime minister changed, Zheng Lang was demoted to his post and returned, Bao Zheng was in charge of Kaifeng Prefecture, and the northwest peace for ten years, the war broke out again, although it was a small battle.

Even this imperial examination has almost no attention.

But the imperial examination also caused some trouble. The people who learned the imperial examinations were several literary masters, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Gui, Mei Zhi, Han Jiang, and Fan Zhen. It was a good thing, but these people all liked new styles, which meant ancient prose. There was nothing wrong with it. Even if the parallel prose was tasteless, it was at least catchy. Now it is popular with the dangerous and strange style. It is best to make sentences by Jinshi, which is the Taixue style in the mouths of later generations. Even Zheng Lang felt difficult to read the articles they wrote later.

Ouyang Xiu and the five ministers all deeply hated this strange body.

The five people chose a new style of literary scholars. Once the list was released, the people they usually praised were not included, causing a riot. For a long time, for the imperial examination, it was necessary to be dangerous and strange. If you say no, you would not use it, and there was no notification. How could the candidates feel? So some arrogant people gathered together and waited for Ouyang Xiu to go to the morning court, blocked Ouyang Xiu, and gathered to ask. Just like the people who surrounded several prime ministers a few years ago, princesses, where did you force the princess?

The yamen runners could not stop them, and there were some mean people who sent the sacrificial essays to Ouyang Xiu's home, but no matter how they made trouble, Ouyang Xiu just refused to listen. In fact, Ouyang Xiu's reform of the new style and literature was better at this time. Zheng Lang had been using the new style and literature for so many years, although he did a lot of parallel prose in accordance with the rules during the imperial examination. Driven by Zheng Lang and others, the momentum of the development of the new style and literature was far stronger than in history.

However, Mei Yaochen and others were all worried. Fortunately, a misunderstanding occurred, referring to an accident that occurred when placing the paper. Several examiners were looking at the paper and saw an article "The Most Remarks on Punishment and Reward" with strong writing skills and fluent language, and a typical new style article.

Several examiners gathered to watch together. Mei Yaochen said, "Good article."

Han Jiang and Fan Zhen also did not object.

If you use ancient prose style to select students, this article is undoubtedly the best among the six or seven students' articles. However, a few people stared at the sentence Gao Yao said "Sha San", Yao said "Yu Zhi San" was a little confused because they didn't know the source.

It is not easy to say it out because of the Song Dynasty's lock-up system, so they could not go out to read historical books or ask people. How could they remember so many allusions? Moreover, over the years, they have had some influence, and they specifically look for allusions from unpopular books to stuff them into articles.

At that time, I only blamed myself for my poor memory.

In fact, the memory of the few people is still good, at most they are slightly worse than the perverted Zhang Fangping.

So after skipping this paragraph, Mei Yaochen whispered: "Uncle Ouyang Yong, I'm afraid this is an article written by your student."

It refers to another student from Jiangxi, Zeng Gong, a student of Ouyang Xiu.

Is Zeng Gongxin's style written well? No need to question whether it is one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Ouyang Xiu pondered for a moment, so what about his student? The paper was copied, but he was afraid of controversy from outside, so he judged the paper as second. The result was that it was not Zeng Gong, but another person, Su Shi and Zeng Gong were also on the high school list. The ranking should be relatively behind. Otherwise, it would cause more controversy.

As for Shengyuan, it is a very unfamiliar name, Li Zhi.

Su Dongpo met Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen. Ouyang Xiu was embarrassed to ask, but Mei Yaochen didn't care about it and asked the source. There were so many books in the world, maybe it was a book he had not seen. Su Dongpo replied: "Take it for granted."

Later, this incident was rumored to be a good story. Mei Yaochen was a little unhappy at that time. The list was already out. What should I do? This matter has been revealed.

The March Palace Examination. The top scholar is still a very strange person. Zhang Heng, but he has a very famous uncle. Zhang Dun, a treacherous minister, but what is loyalty and what is treacherous? If Empress Dowager Xiang obeys him, King Duan is frivolous and cannot rule the world, will the Song Dynasty go in another direction?

Zhang Dun also came to the imperial examination. Because his nephew's top scorer in high school was ashamed to be on the same list, he left. He took the provincial examination again for the second time and also had the first grade in high school. This was also the Jinshi on the two-day palace examination list that was the only one in the history of the Song Dynasty.

All the glory of March is concentrated on Zhang Heng.

But Zhang Heng and Zheng Lang didn't even look at this, because the Jinshi on this list made him confused.

From a political perspective, there are the backbone of the reformists, including Lu Huiqing, Zeng Bu, Jiang Zhiqi, Lin Xi, etc., Liang Tao, the leader of the Shuo Party, and the Shu Party supported by a certain brother. From a literary perspective, there are three major masters of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, including Zeng Gong.

According to the classics, there are Cheng Hao, the founder of Luoxue, and his disciple Zhu Guangting, Zhang Zai, the founder of Guanxue, and Lu Dajun, and the representative of Shuxue.

There were nine prime ministers later, including Wang Shao, Zheng Yong, Liang Tao, Lv Huiqing, Su Zhe, Lin Xi, Zeng Bu, Zhang Yu, and Zhang Dun. The later new parties included Lu Huiqing, Zeng Bu, Zhang Dun, Deng Wan, Wang Shao, Lin Xi, Zhang Yu, etc. Among the old parties, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zhu Guangting, Liang Tao, etc. If several examiners were added, almost half of the elites in later generations would be concentrated!

The big bull named Wang who Zheng Lang was extremely concerned about came. Of course, he was not good yet. Zheng Lang continued to pay attention to see if he was traveling northwest.

The most famous one is the brothers. The most amazing ones are the top three, Zhang Heng, Dou Bian, and Luo Kai. Who knows, who knows who these three are?

...

The legend starts with a playboy.

Su Xun is very similar to Zhang Fangping and Zheng Lang's family. He comes from a small family and does not have to worry about food and clothing. Therefore, the teenager Su Xun has been living a confused and dark life until he saw his second brother at the age of seventeen.

Su Huan's glory in the middle school entrance examination once hated for studying, but three years later he couldn't even pass the exam and relaxed again. It was not until his mother passed away that he felt guilty and hated again. He was twenty-seven years old at that time.

Like Zheng Lang, he is self-taught.

The advantage is to let him get out of the current style of writing that is not good at Taixue style. The disadvantage is that what he learns is a wild way, especially the parallel pair is not his strength. For example, his poem "There is a horse in the wild", where there is a horse in the wild, and he will never groan. If his son is not good, there will be no other person. If he is trapped in the stable, he will not be able to drive me. If he meets me, he will not be able to end up in the wild. Bald hair is in frost and flesh is in the wolf. Would he be hurt, but he will not care about others? If he has no son, I will forget.

The ancient meaning has been created, but what about parallelism and rhyme?

Of course it was very sad. Therefore, this exam lasted for nearly twenty years, and every time it failed. The family situation became worse and worse. In the past twenty years, in addition to moth-like scientific examinations and study, he only did one major thing. He actually found that the Su family in Meishan was a descendant of Su Weidao, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. He continued to take the exam and found that the Su family came from the three brothers Su Jian, Su Jia, Su Wu and Su Xian in the Han Dynasty, and then took the exam. He found that the Su family had the previous saints and Su Qin. With the conditions of the Song Dynasty and the conditions of the Su family, how they were verified, it can only be said that God knows.

Unexpectedly, there were so many sages and powerful people in the previous generation of the Su family, and Su Xun hated even more. But he did not expect that in the eyes of later generations, the so-called ancestors of the Su family were only compared with their father and son.

When he was forty and was discouraged, the noble man he was destined to arrive, Zhang Fangping.

Zhang Fangping had great achievements in governing Shu. There were many famous officials in governing Shu in the Song Dynasty. Zhang Fangping was among the top five. He not only focused on military and government affairs, but also on education and culture. He accidentally saw Lao Su's articles and was stunned at the time. This is Li Taibai, but Li Taibai wrote poems and this person wrote prose, who was as unrestrained and powerful as he distinguished himself. He sent someone to meet Lao Su and asked him to read his articles one by one. After reading it, he asked: "Is this talent and learning for you? Don't go to the imperial examination?"

Lao Su can't say that I'm afraid of taking the exam, and those turtle sons don't hire me one by one. What should I do?

Zhang Fangping and Lao Su were asked about his embarrassment for a long time, and knew that it would be impossible to take the normal route. Unless he had surgery on the entire imperial examination, Lao Su would never have high school in his life. So he personally wrote letters to Ouyang Xiu, Tian Kuang, Zheng Lang, Yu Jing, Wen Yanbo, Han Qi, Fu Bi, especially Ouyang Xiu, which had nothing to do with Zheng Lang. He disliked Ouyang Xiu's big mouth. Ouyang Xiu also thought that he was not a good person. These two were political enemies of his life. In order to recommend Lao Su, he actually wrote to Ouyang Xiu. This is also one of the few private messages Zhang Fangping wrote to Ouyang Xiu in his life.

Others don’t know, but Zheng Lang knows it, so he wrote back to Zhang Fangping, don’t worry, Lao Su is nothing, you have time to talk to his two sons.

Zhang Fangping followed Zheng Lang's words, called Su Che and Su Shi, and talked about it in person. The remark was even more shocked and wrote another letter. It was amazing that three people from the Su family were about to have a big shot.

Lao Su brought his two sons to the capital with this belief.

Unfortunately, he was really self-taught and learned from the ancients. He was somewhat out of reality. Articles were good articles, but after reading them, he was a pity. And he had a very serious dispute with Wang Anshi at Ouyang Xiu's mansion. Lao Su was retro. Wang Anshi attached importance to innovation and had different ideas. In the end, he fought hard, but Ouyang Xiu came and persuaded him to stop.

The big Su and the other Su saw this scene. They were juniors and did not dare to come over to argue, but they remembered it in their hearts.

In his life, Lao Su relied on his "bare hair in frost, flesh in wolf. I would rather hurt others, I don't care about others? I forget that I have no son." He could not imagine that he was on the high school list. But he realized many problems, that is, the importance of parallel prose. After his two sons grew up, Lao Su sent them to Meishan a Taoist temple to study with Taoist Zhang Yijian, and learned the study of phonology. That year, Su Dongpo was only eight years old and Su Che was only six years old. Although Zhang Yijian was a Taoist priest, he was very proficient in Confucianism and had more than a hundred students under his disciples. Xiao Su was not the most outstanding, but the most outstanding one was Da Su and Chen Taichu. Big and Big Su's fate was good. Although I gradually ruined my family property, I still had knowledge. There was also a mother with good knowledge. Zhang Yijian taught them the sound and rhythm again, and the biggest shortcoming was supplemented.

Until last year, Lao Su brought his two sons to the imperial examination, and finally got his wish. Both brothers were on the list, not the top three, nor the top ten, so they could not be awarded an official position immediately. In addition, the roads in Sichuan were far away, and the father and son continued to stay in the capital and did not go back for the time being.

Zheng Lang was calling out the three father and son.

By the way, he called someone, Zhang Fangping.

Then, at home, the wife was preparing for another thing, her daughter got married.

If you take a month off, otherwise you will have to rush to Jingdong Road to take up your post, and it will be too late.

Suddenly, I thought of my wife's long list and never saw the second son of the Su family.

But even if you meet, it is probably not OK. Su Dongpo got married with the local Wang family very early, and Xiao Su was also married with his mother's Shi family. Da Su Zheng Lang didn't think about it at all. Xiao Su was not bad. It seemed that the marriage was made by the brothers of Su two years old and Su in the winter of the previous year. When his wife was looking for a son-in-law, the two had not yet got married, but could she take away the love, so would the Su family regret the marriage between Shi family?

Besides, my wife would not agree, who is Su Che? I don’t know you!

However, children and grandchildren have their own happiness, and friendship is good, Zheng Lang is quite satisfied.

Zhang Fangping's home is close. The two of them came first, and they were good friends, so they were not very polite. Zhang Fangping asked Cui Xian for good tea.

Xing'er brewed tea and Zhang Fangping said, "Xingzhi, what's wrong before calling me to come?"

"Is there one thing to ask, how about the treasury?"

"It's a little better, but it's not very good." Zhang Fangping shook his head. He couldn't figure out how he lost so much money.

He also said: "If you want to be good, you should become the prime minister. Although Pang Chunzhi is good at managing, he has insufficient prestige and his position will not last long."

Zheng Lang kept silent. He was planning another thing in his mind. The Yellow River. It was actually a bit difficult to deal with. Last year, when he returned to Beijing for the first time, he was full of confidence. He heard Wen Yanbo shouting that the national treasury was getting empty, and when he returned to Beijing for the second time, he was not confident enough. Because the dispute between Wuzang Epang and Liangzuo was not left for him. If he went up the Yellow River, Xixia would not be able to take care of Xixia, and if he looked at the Yellow River, it would not be able to take care of Xixia.

Let’s go down and take a look first, and he is also feeling a little depressed during this period.

He said, "In addition, I brought three guests to meet you."

"who?"

"Your old acquaintance."

The two of them were having tea while waiting for Zhang Fangping's old acquaintance.

After a while, the three of them were brought here. Zhang Fangping looked at the three of them in surprise, and then looked at Zheng Lang.

It was also the first time that Zheng Lang saw the three Su family members. Lao Su and Xiao Su had a rectangular face, which was a little thin and a big Su face with a rich charm, with a little bit of Taibai flavor passed down from later generations.

The three Sus did not dare to neglect them. They still didn't know much about the major issues of the country, but the big shots still knew. Zheng Lang's position is not high now. But if the big shots were ranked, Zheng Lang would definitely be ranked first. Now it is not high. A single edict will enter the two palaces. Moreover, the big shots in the capital are running five, six and seven. Zheng Lang is only in his thirties and has unlimited room for development. If it comes to achievements, he should be the first.

After giving a big gift solemnly, Zheng Lang said: "Su Mingyun, Su Zizhan, and you, do you have any words?"

Su Zhe said: "There is no words left before the crown is added."

"Then I will call you Su Che, three of you, please sit down."

"Thank you," Su Xun, Su Dongpo and Su Che sat down carefully.

It cannot be seen from the perspective of later generations that the three of them are not very famous at this time, and their families are not very high, so they are somewhat restrained when facing Zheng Lang.

Zheng Lang said again: "Xinger, make tea for the three guests."

"Thank you," Lao Su said again.

"Brother Mingyun, my family is not polite and you don't have to be rude."

"yes."

Zheng Lang then looked at Da Su and Xiao Su. Lao Su was mainly two sons. He said, "Zizhan, what do you think when you come to the capital?"

"The prosperity of the capital is far beyond my imagination."

"That's because of the open-minded policies, our dynasty is the first generation in terms of wealth. If the policies are appropriate and there is no serious internal strife, the prosperity of the capital will be ten times that of the present in fifty years." Zheng Lang said it is not an exaggeration. If Xixia is pacified, the 300,000 border troops can be reduced at least half, and 50,000 can be cut. In fact, there is no need to lay off. As long as you bring back to the capital and reduce the waste of material transportation, it will be a huge amount. Moreover, there are related civilians, rural soldiers, strong men, archers, and wing soldiers who assist in defense. This alone can save the country 15 million yuan a year. If some disadvantages are solved one after another, 10 million yuan will be saved.

This is a part of savings.

Open source is the increase in commercial taxes brought about by the prosperity of business. Banks have developed to the peak, and there is also Ping An Supervision, which has increased the income of more than 60 million yuan. Once in and out, it will reach a huge amount of 90 million yuan. In fact, it is impossible. It can have 50 million yuan. In decades, the prospects of the Song Dynasty will be unimaginable.

But who can guarantee that there will be no serious internal strife and who can guarantee that the policy will be appropriate at all times?

The Su brothers were extremely surprised when they heard this. When they arrived in the capital, the prosperity of the capital had already made the two brothers confused. If it were ten times more prosperous, what would it be?

Zheng Lang didn't say much and said to Zhang Fangping: "Brother An Dao, why do you have a political disagreement with Ouyang Yongshu?"
To be continued...