Zhumen Hangui

The emperor looked at the overview map of the Tribute Academy in his hand, and then at the corresponding candidates.

From west to east, there are two rows of houses with sixty rooms in each row.

Candidates in these dormitories are in bad luck!
He glanced around, looked at these names one by one, and saw Su Yizhao's name in the No. 15 house.

He is no stranger to this name. The previous cheating case in the provincial examination was related to this child. When the fourth child came back, he praised this child very much, saying that this child was extremely intelligent and a born politician.

He was still looking forward to this child, so he felt very heavy at the moment.

On the easternmost side of the other row, number 56, he saw Su Yijue's name again.

This name is obvious at a glance, and Su Yizhao is two brothers.

Carefully write down the names of the other candidates silently. I don't know how many of these candidates will survive.

"Report!" Dali Temple Minister went straight into the main hall without waiting for the notification from the Ministry of Rites.

"Report to the emperor, the fire has been extinguished, and the scene is being cleaned up at the moment."

Su Jinxun immediately asked, "How?"

Kang Shiwen took a deep breath, "It's horrible!"

Su Jinxun's heart sank, and his lips trembled.

"The dragon gate has been deformed by burning, and the rubble and walls have collapsed a lot. I ordered people to pry it open and enter, and all they saw were charred and stacked bones."

The eyes of all the ministers were slightly wet when they heard the words, this is the most instinctive reaction of a person before death.

The dragon gate was locked, they probably wanted to open the dragon gate and escape.But the dragon gate is made of iron-clad wood, and the wood in it has been soaked, so it is not easy to catch fire at all, and it is difficult to burn.

There are still big iron chains locked outside, how could these people escape?They can only be burned alive.

Kang Shiwen didn't want to describe the horrors he saw. There were bloody handprints on the iron door. One can imagine how painful it would be before death.

"How many candidates died? Have you counted them?" After a short silence, the emperor asked.

"Before I came, I was counting. In addition to those who were burned by fire, there were also those who were crushed to death by beams, bricks and rubble. There are broken arms and limbs under the ruins. The number of people cannot be fully counted yet."

Kang Shiwen sighed, "Some were seriously injured and were crushed under the rubble. The minister is still sending people to search and treat them. Before we came, we only found 160 seven survivors."

"160 seven? There are 530 candidates in this exam." The emperor did not expect such heavy casualties, and even he couldn't sit still.

"Yes! There are also 23 Inner and Outer Curtain Officers, 45 Patrol Officers, and 14 people as handymen, all of which are included."

Kang Shiwen has already got the list in his hand, and the number of people is far more than the previous calculation.

"Since I succeeded to the throne, there have been two natural disasters. I didn't expect such a major event as a fire in the Gongyuan. I am ashamed of my ancestors!"

The emperor is heartbroken, so many candidates are all juniors whose families put their hopes on them, how to explain to the common people?

"Your Majesty! These are not your faults. Natural disasters cannot be caused by humans. The fire in the Tribute Court this time is also the negligence of those invigilators."

The chief assistant, E Chongming, suddenly came out and began to verbally criticize those officials.

"Your Majesty, the fire could be controlled originally, and there was no wind before. But it was because of their negligence that the fire spread rapidly."

It was only then that everyone remembered that the closed disciple of Shoufu should also be in the Gongyuan!
They immediately looked at Shoufu, and found that he was also haggard at the moment, with great grief on his face.

"Master Shoufu, it was indeed possible to control the wind, but no one could have predicted the wind!" Wang Deng said hastily.

"You said you have been observing the fire outside the Gongyuan, so why did you open the dragon gate when the fire was not big? After all, you are still afraid of taking responsibility, so many lives!"

The chief assistant was furious, his eyes widened, he pointed at Wang Deng and cursed, "How are you at ease?"

"The subordinate handed over the sign and went to the palace to ask for instructions. How can he make his own decision? In the end, the servant on duty deserves to die. It's really not enough to vent his anger by tearing him apart."

How is Wang Deng not afraid?Chunwei is in charge of the Ministry of Rites, how could he not panic if such a big mistake happened?

Although the righteous words just now are true, but there is not no worry in my heart.

Opening the dragon gate without authorization, if the fire has been brought under control, who will bear the blame?He can't afford to bet on the slightest, losing his official position and armor, and the most serious, ransacking his family and exile!
"Master Kang, where is the list of survivors?" Su Jinxun didn't want to care about the confrontation between the two, he just wanted to make sure that the children in his family were safe.

"Already sorting out! There will be news later." Kang Shiwen said.

"Okay! We will discuss the responsibility after the event. Now we should quickly clean up the aftermath and appease the people and the families of the candidates who died."

The emperor interrupted the quarrel between the two, and said to Kang Shiwen: "Confirm the list of victims as soon as possible!"

The candidates who were burned to death were completely changed, and they didn't know who was who. Now they can only deduce from the list of survivors.

If no one can be found, they are already killed.

After waiting for a while, the list of survivors was presented to the emperor.

"This is the 180 survivors so far, and the number of survivors is still increasing."

The emperor took the list and looked at it, and the first thing he found was Meng Lingxi's name.

I looked down again, but I couldn't find the Su family's children.

"Look at it!"

The emperor took the lead in giving the list to the first assistant. Although E Chongming made mistakes many times in the past two years, at least he owed a lot to the community.

E Chongming immediately took it over and took a look. When he saw Meng Lingxi's name, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and his face softened a lot than before.

"Show it to the officer!"

Su Jinxun couldn't wait any longer, he watched eagerly, and seeing E Chongming holding it in his hand for a long time, he was so angry that he wanted to curse.

It took a while for E Chongming to pass the list back, but everyone saw his expression and knew that his closed disciple was fine.

The other families had no children to take the exam in the Gongyuan. The names of these candidates were very unfamiliar to them. Seeing that Su Jinxun was so eager, they directly gave Su Jinxun the list in their hands.

Su Jinxun looked up and down the list several times, and even moved his fingers over and over again, but the familiar name did not appear on the list.

Everyone saw that his face was not good, so they knew that his grandson's name was not included in this list.

Su Jinxun didn't dare to think about it, but silently walked aside and waited.

After more than half an hour, there was another news from there.

"Report to the emperor! There are now 15 people who have survived, of which 180 and [-] have been found as complete bones, and the rest of the bones are still being pieced together. The house has been cleaned up, and no survivors have been found."

As Kang Shiwen spoke, he presented the list again, and the emperor held it in his hand and read it carefully, but he still didn't find the names of the Su family brothers in it.

He sighed, this is probably the last list.For the Su family brothers, luck is more than luck.

Su Jinxun took the list and read it carefully. After reading all the names one by one, his eyes suddenly dimmed and he fell to the ground with a plop.

"Su Siqing?" Everyone exclaimed.

Seeing this, the emperor immediately shouted: "Quick! Please call the imperial physician!"