Chapter 392: The New Champion, Speaks Out for the Murong Family in Court

The main gate of the Forbidden City is located in the southern section of the central axis of Yanjing City. The north is called Zi and the south is called Wu, so it is called "Wumen". The three city platforms on the east, west and north sides are connected, surrounding a square square. It is like three mountains surrounded by five peaks, which is extremely majestic.

The front of the Wumen Gate of the Forbidden City has three extremely tall doorways, and the middle one is eleven feet high, which is amazing. This is the special door for the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to enter and exit the Forbidden Palace. Anyone who enters without permission will be killed!

But there are two exceptions. One is that the queen can enter the palace through this gate when she gets married. The other is that the top three winners of the palace examination, the top three winners, can walk out of this gate once when they parade in the capital. This is also the supreme glory moment for the scholars of the Ming Dynasty.

Today, among the hundreds of new Jinshi wearing Jinshi scarves and clothes, three lucky ones will leave the palace from the imperial road and enjoy the highest honor in the life of a scholar, glorifying their ancestors and leaving their names in history.

Xu Xin stood in the center of the team, wearing a black gauze Jinshi scarf, a dark blue wide-sleeved Luo gown with a green border, a green leather belt with black corners around his waist, and a locust wood tablet in his hand. He was no different.

He did not whisper to each other like the people around him, but was silent, his eyes looking at his nose and his nose looking at his heart, and his heart was just as calm as water.

This was the moment that scholars dreamed of, and for him, it was just like this. He had been an emperor, and he had seen all kinds of big scenes. This made people excited?

He had just gotten up from the phoenix bed of the concubine that the emperor had been thinking about day and night this morning. Was he proud?

At this time, another bell rang on the city gate tower, and a eunuch said in a hoarse duck voice: "The auspicious time has arrived, and all officials and tribute students will come to see the emperor!"

All the officials and new Jinshi outside the Forbidden City kept their mouths shut at this moment. Usually, civil and military officials entered the palace from the left door, and nobles entered from the right door. The left and right side doors were not open.

But now the emperor is holding a grand ceremony in the Golden Palace, so the officials have to enter through the two side gates instead. After passing through the deep doorway, they just keep walking forward. After passing through the Fengtian Gate, they will see a white jade railing, dragon-carved pillars, and an extremely wide square that can accommodate 10,000 people.

At the end of the square is a golden palace that is 11 meters high and sits on a three-story white marble platform. This is the most magnificent building in the Forbidden City, the Fengtian Palace. Its length-to-width ratio is exactly 9:5, representing the emperor's supreme power.

All the designs of the Fengtian Palace are for one purpose only, which is to highlight the supreme imperial power to the extreme. The effect was achieved, and the newly-appointed scholars who saw it for the first time all burst into tears and prostrated themselves.

Even the officials who were not seeing it for the first time were all overwhelmed with emotions, and their loyalty to the emperor and patriotism arose spontaneously...Except for Xu Xin, he spent dozens of yuan on tickets in his first life, so he came in for a walk and ate a bowl of quite expensive and unpalatable noodles inside.

Besides, he would live to be a hundred years old in several lives. He just committed a treasonous act of deceiving the emperor last night. He had no fear of the imperial power. Loyal to the emperor? He was only loyal to the founding emperor of the Xu Dynasty, that is, himself.

In front of the Fengtian Hall, there were guards in golden armor holding various weapons such as golden gourds, treasure tops, and flags that were more symbolic than practical. Under the eaves, there was also a palace band equipped with a full set of musical instruments such as Huangzhong and Dalu. This was called the Lubu Fajia.

The music sounded, and it was still the cabinet minister Wan'an who came out.

"All the tribute students, listen to the announcement."

"The emperor's grace is great. He opened the imperial examination to select talents for the country, regardless of their origin. Now that the palace examination of the Dingwei year of the 23rd year of Chenghua has ended, your majesty has tested the tribute students all over the country, and has granted the first-class Jinshi and the third place, and the second-class Jinshi origin... as follows..."

"The first place in the palace examination... Wang Shouren!"

The big generals on both sides shouted in a relay: "The first place in the first class, tribute student Wang Shouren, comes to see you..."

For a while, the same sentence echoed in front of the entire Fengtian Hall.

"Top scholar, please follow me into the hall to thank the emperor!"

Xu Xin followed the leading official into the Golden Hall. In the light music and the rhythmic singing of the ceremonial officer, he was led to the left class of the sixth-rank official and stood still.

The Golden Palace, known as the largest in the world, is quite simple in layout. There are 72 large red pillars in total. The six pillars surrounding the emperor's throne are covered with gold. There is a giant dragon on each pillar, guarding the emperor's throne on the golden platform.

The emperor sitting on the dragon throne is somewhat majestic under the support of this magnificent gold and jade. Xu Xin looked up and accidentally met the emperor's eyes. He found that Emperor Chenghua was looking at him with a smile, just like the curious expression when he saw the giant panda when he was a child.

Xu Xin felt a chill in his heart, and the guilt of sleeping with the concubine last night disappeared all of a sudden. He even thought, why not go to the Forbidden City again tonight. I heard that the biological mother of the thirteenth prince, Concubine Li, and a concubine named Shao are both very beautiful...

After the long roll call process, the three top champions changed their clothes, and then it was the "Imperial Street Boasting Officials" out of the Meridian Gate, that is, the top three scholars rode horses to tour the capital.

Xu Xin had already been in the side hall, and the palace maids had changed him from his wide-sleeved dark blue Jinshi robe to a red silk and blue-edged round-necked court robe. He had replaced the leather belt with a plain silver belt, and hung a jade pendant. Even the black gauze hat on his head had a big red flower pinned on each side... He looked more like a groom than a champion.

The groom's attire imitated that of a champion. Compared to a groom who could be anyone, a champion who only appeared once every three years in the Ming Dynasty was too rare.

"Wang, champion, come forward and let me take a good look!"

Xu Xin changed into the champion's attire and entered the hall again, but heard the emperor calling him. He stepped forward to the imperial steps and looked up at Emperor Chenghua.

Although he had just met a few days ago, Emperor Chenghua today was obviously more energetic and more majestic.

"Wang Shouren, I have heard of you for a long time. You are the prince's tutor, the youngest champion in the history of my Ming Dynasty. Your father, Wang Hua, was also selected as the champion in this Jinluan Palace six years ago. Father and son are both champions, which can be said to be unique in the history..."

The emperor boasted to Xu Xin for a while, as if he really valued this new champion, but such nice words are just for listening. However, Xu Xin was selected as the champion, in addition to his excellent articles, there are indeed these factors he said.

"New champion, do you have anything to say to me!"

After the emperor finished his words of encouragement, he casually said a very formal ending.

Generally, in this case, the new champion would just thank him, but Xu Xin... really spoke, and as soon as he opened his mouth, it was a big event that shook the Jinluan Palace.

He mentioned his new concubine, Jiang Yufeng, the eldest daughter of the Jiang family from Jiangnan, and the two daughters of the Murong family, who had their property confiscated, were all disciples of the Nanhai Shenni, and said that the second daughter of the Murong family was wrongly accused of assassinating the thirteenth prince...

The new champion spoke out for the Murong family in court, and this incident caused a great earthquake in the Jinluan Palace.