Chapter 121 Palace Examination

The palace of Qing Dynasty was only built in about twenty years, mainly because the rise of Qing Kingdom was not that long, but the palace construction style is extremely spectacular, majestic and full of majesty, which fully reflects the royal family and imperial power. In front of the palace is the Chaohe Square and offices, with the Imperial Ancestral Temple on the left and the Sheji Altar on the right. The political proposition of respecting ancestors and valuing agriculture is declared with the words "Left Ancestor and Right She". There are three gates in the entire palace city, and each gate is guarded by forbidden troops. The gates must be closed at the specified time every day. Even the emperor cannot change this rule.

The young scholars were all lined up neatly in the square, waiting for the emperor's call before they could all enter the palace to answer questions. Basically, there would be no dismissal during the palace examination, but it would only affect the ranking, so it can be said that everyone present The scholars were already officials, so the atmosphere was quite relaxed and pleasant. After all, they had studied hard for ten years in order to become officials. It can be said that everyone present had basically achieved this goal.

"Xuan Shizi enters the palace!" The internal officials conveyed the emperor's decree with clear and loud voices. All the scholars immediately cheered up and arranged their clothes, hoping to give Emperor Qing and the courtiers a good impression. After all, Your image in the palace examination will also affect your performance.

The prepared scholars lined up and walked into the hall one after another behind the officials. When they arrived at the main hall, the first thing that caught their eyes was the Kowloon gold lacquer throne about 2 meters high in the middle of the hall, on which sat Emperor Qing. , Emperor Qing was dressed in a white robe, with his hair disheveled. He did not wear a so-called dragon robe, but his majesty was not reduced at all. It's stressful. Under the platform, there are hundreds of civil and military officials standing in two rows. The first one on the left is Prime Minister Lin Ruofu. Guo Youzhi is ranked fourth on the left as the Minister of Rites, followed by the Minister of Officials and the Minister of Hubu. As for the generals in the army and Chen Pingping from the Inspection and Inspection Institute on the right, Chen Pingping is sitting in a wheelchair. Although she is disabled, no one dares to look down on her. As for the other generals in the army, Guo Baokun, as a civilian official, has never interacted with him. , so I don’t know him.

Guo Baokun found his desk and sat down. There was an inkstone and a writing brush placed at the corner of the desk. There were a few pieces of paper placed in the middle of the desk, which were used to answer questions. There was no writing on them and they were blank. The difference between the palace examination and other examinations is that the examination questions were set by Emperor Qing. Even the examiner this time did not know the specific questions, so it was a test of the scholars' ability.

"You are all the talents of our Qing Kingdom, and will be the pillars of our Qing Kingdom in the future. So today I hope that you can give full play to your talents and knowledge. Qing Kingdom will never bury its talents!" Emperor Qing stood up and said He took two steps forward and looked around for a week before he began to speak, encouraging the scholars to show off their talents.

"Announce it!" After Emperor Qing finished speaking, he turned to look at the eunuch-in-waiting beside him and motioned for him to announce the topic.

Eunuch Hou is of medium build, always hunched over with his head lowered, and his face is white and beardless. He looks harmless, with a slight smile and a kind face. But if anyone really thinks so, then he is a fool. As the general manager of the inner court and a close minister of Emperor Qing, he is responsible for the intelligence inside and outside the palace, and handles everything for Emperor Qing. If he didn't have some means, he would have been replaced by others long ago.

"Your Majesty has a decree, please all the gentlemen, please take the topic of benevolence and righteousness. What is righteousness and what is benevolence?" Eunuch Hou took a few steps forward from behind Emperor Qing, straightened up, and announced the topic loudly, with a clear and bright voice. From these few sentences, it can be seen that Eunuch Hou's voice must have been trained and he must have worked hard.

Guo Baokun understood the intention of Emperor Qing after listening to the title. The current form of the mainland is very similar to the Warring States period in the previous life. The Qing State is the Qin State. Although it has unified strength, its reputation is not good. When people criticize it, Emperor Qing will For example, Zulong is also considered a tyrant. In fact, in Guo Baokun's view, it is the opposite. Only after the world is unified can we avoid years of war. Although there are sacrifices and deaths in the process, it is just labor pain. As the saying goes, long-term pain is worse than short-term. pain. Therefore, the fight for unification is the greatest benevolence. Although it seems cold, it is the consensus of people with lofty ideals.

Guo Baokun, who was answering, suddenly felt that the true energy in his body was constantly surging, rushing towards the meridians all over his body, like ocean waves, never stopping. Guo Baokun used his powerful mind to control the movement of the true energy to hit the meridians and acupoints all over his body. While suppressing his true energy from leaking out of his body, he prevented his breath from leaking.

The true energy in Guo Baokun's body originated from the Tianyi Mind Method, but after Guo Baokun modified it several times to suit his own characteristics, following the Taoist characteristics of "reaching the extreme of emptiness and maintaining tranquility", the true energy seems to be neutral and peaceful, but it is full of stamina and continuous flow. True Qi is constantly being generated and consumed, the meridians are being dredged, and the acupoints are being opened. During this process, the True Qi is constantly being purified, and the originally colorless True Qi begins to gradually An aqua blue color appeared, and the color continued to deepen. If Emperor Qing's domineering Qi is fire, Sigu Sword's attribute is gold, Ye Liuyun's Qi is wind, and Ku He is wood. Although Guo Baokun's Qi originally borrowed from Tianyi Xinfa, its attributes are completely different. The attribute of Zhenqi is the attribute of water. This is because Guo Baokun was influenced by Taoist thought and continuously improved the mentality of Tianyi Zhenqi into a mentality that conforms to his own characteristics. The nature of Zhenqi has changed and has the characteristics of water. , can now be called Xuanming Zhenqi. Xuanming itself is the name of the water god. In Taoism, it is often described as "Tao", "Xuanzhe, the name of profoundness; Mingzhe, the name of tranquility".

The Xuan Ming Qi in Guo Baokun's body was constantly cultivating meridians and acupoints throughout his body. It was constantly dispersed and gathered, and finally it all poured into the Xuan Aperture. "Boom!"

Guo Baokun felt like thunder in his mind. A mysterious orifice suddenly opened, and then the acupoints all over his body vibrated and opened. "When the mysterious aperture opens, the orifices open." As soon as the acupoint was opened, Guo Baokun had become the fifth great master. His true energy surged dozens of times, and his spirit was nourished and grew crazily, so much so that Guo Baokun could not completely control the true energy in his body. A trace of breath leaked out of the body. Although the breath was extremely weak, it was still attracted by Emperor Qing, who was also the grand master. Perceived.

"Who is that?" Emperor Qing was sitting on the throne, his original indifferent expression suddenly changed. He pointed at Guo Baokun and asked Eunuch Hou next to him.

"Your Majesty, that is the only son of Guo You, the Minister of Rites, Guo Baokun. He is a famous talent in our Qing Dynasty. He is extremely knowledgeable. He is only 18 years old this year. He has made great progress in the imperial examinations. He is on the list every time. He is among the undergraduates. The youngest one, he can be regarded as a young hero!" As the main person in charge of the exchange of information between the inspection agency and the palace, Eunuch Hou knew all the information in Qing Dynasty, so he opened his mouth to tell Emperor Qing about Guo Baokun's information. out.