The house is seven feet wide, one and a half feet deep, one and a half feet deep at the highest point, and less than six feet at the shortest point. It's a place that's not much bigger than a thatched house. The dark air smells musty and urine. smell, the walls are mottled with mold, there are some leaks near the back, and there are still a few scribbled grasses growing in the cracks of the walls.

Fang Zi'an took advantage of the light of the candle in his hand to look at the corner of the horn house, and sighed softly. The situation in this house was even worse than he imagined, and the conditions were even worse, which made Fang Zi'an unexpected.

However, the harsh environment was not a big problem for Fang Zi'an, thinking that when he was training the hidden mission, Fang Zi'an had stayed alone in a narrow tomb in the barren mountains with a pile of dry bones for two days and two nights.

It's not special training right now, but it can be sorted out a little. Not to mention anything else, the rippling in the air. Smell and mildew must be removed, otherwise it will be unbearable.

The solution is very simple, pee. The source of the smell is the urine bucket in the corner of the back wall for defecation. Fang Zi'an found a few pieces of rough-edged paper and burned them, and threw them into the urine bucket. As the flames went out, the air filled with the smell of burnt paper. I don't know how it works, but it works. Then take out two small pieces of steamed buns and roast them on the candle flame, and another paste with a burnt flavor quickly fills the small space, and suddenly the mouth and nose feel much more comfortable.

There were several wooden planks in the corner, and the wooden stake heads were reserved for setting up the planks on the wall, and Fang Zi'an quickly set up the bed and covered it. At the moment, he didn't want to discredit and tidy up, and he didn't have much appetite, so he only drank a few sips of cold water, chewed a few slices of dried fruit, and then went to bed. Listening to the sound of the leaves blowing in the night breeze outside, I fell asleep soon after.

Early in the morning, Fang Zi'an woke up to a cacophony, got up, and through the gap between the wooden railings, he saw a figure running outside under the porch. Those men were heavily armed officers and soldiers. Fang Zi'an realized that the big exam was about to start, and he hadn't prepared for anything. So I got up and got out of bed, found the wooden board that stitched the bookcase, and began to work. Fortunately, the planks were rooted on the walls on both sides in a certain order, and then they could be quickly assembled, and soon a rudimentary two-story bookcase was located in the doorway.

Fang Zi'an breathed a sigh of relief, got some water to wash, and then began to put pen, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table while chewing dry food, and dropped a few drops of water and began to grind the ink. When the ink became thicker, I heard the loud voice of preaching outside.

"Listen, the 21st year of the Great Song Dynasty Shaoxing Lin'an Mansion exam is about to start, the main exam of this Lin'an Mansion exam is the Ministry of Rites Lang Wei Shixun Wei, the deputy examiner is Lin'an Mansion Xuezheng Zeng Xiyuan Zeng, Hanlin Academy Bachelor Meng Weizhong, Zhao Shaokang two masters. You are hereby informed of your knowledge. ”

Fang Zi'an is not familiar with these names, but he doesn't care who is the main examiner and who is the deputy examiner. Sit quietly with only squinting your eyes and nourishing your spirits.

Next, the man outside continued to talk about some precautions in the examination room, listing various prohibited behaviors and methods of cheating, as well as corresponding punishments. Only then did Fang Zi'an know that the punishment for cheating in the Southern Song Dynasty was so severe. Once cheating is discovered, he is expelled from the examination room and banned from taking the imperial examination for life, and even members of the family are banned from participating in the imperial examination. This is actually a very severe punishment, almost cutting off the upward channel of the cheater and his family. But that's not the heaviest. Depending on the severity of the cheating, they will be imprisoned, exiled, distributed, confiscated, and even beheaded. These are all options for penalties for cheating and sabotage.

In addition to being shocked, Fang Zi'an also somewhat understood the reason why the imperial court did this. After all, this is the most important way for the imperial court to take scholars, and it is necessary to select talents to govern the country, and what is needed is naturally people with real talents and learning. This is not only a matter of fairness and justice for the imperial examination itself, but also of the governance and stability of the country's social and social institutions, and is an extremely serious issue related to the survival of the society. In this sense, it is reasonable to take the imperial examination system seriously and severely punish sabotage.

On the morning of the ninth day of the eighth month of the 21st year of Shaoxing in the Great Song Dynasty, with the ringing of three roaring bells on the Gongyuan Square, the autumn examination finally officially kicked off.

The three days were long, intense and difficult, but they were extremely short, and in the blink of an eye, it was the last day of the strategy test on August 11. This is also the most critical one. Since Wang Anshi's reform, the criteria for taking scholars in the imperial examination have changed. In the past, literacy came first, but now it is the ability to govern. The reaction in the imperial examination shifted from the previous focus on poetry to policy. So everyone knows the importance of this last day. If the previous two days were all about basic knowledge, and the students' mastery of the subset of classics and history, as well as their ability to express poems and articles, then the strategy theory is to examine these people's countermeasures and opinions on specific issues, and the test is the ability to think and manage politics.

What Fang Zi'an is most worried about is actually this scene, because the previous few scenes are nothing more than rote memorization, and the poems can be 'borrowed' from famous articles, and there will definitely be no mistakes. The difficulty is in this last one. The topic of the thesis is unknown, so it depends on real understanding and writing power, and it must be an opinion. This is where Fang Zi'an's worries come from. The more relevant the topic is, the more difficult it will be.

However, when he got the question, Fang Zi'an breathed a long sigh of relief.

Zi said: Sensitive and studious, not ashamed to ask. Shangshu Youyun: If you ask questions, you will be rich, and if you use yourself, you will be small. Today, the Great Song Dynasty is prosperous, the world style is gradually changing, and the style of study is also the same, and the style of exaggeration and arrogance is even greater. In order to learn this stubbornness, there is no other person in his eyes, but what? Let's talk about it. ”

This topic is not at all what Fang Zi'an thought, it is a policy question about current politics and the like, but a topic about learning that is not painful. This kind of topic is actually an old-fashioned topic, and such a topic itself is an exaggerated and tasteless question. Fang Zi'an was both happy and sighed deeply at the same time. It has only been stable for a few years, and even the imperial examination has already shown an exaggerated and unrealistic performance, and it is obviously a retrogression to ask students to write such articles that are not beneficial to reality. Or maybe it's just intentional, deliberately avoiding sensitive issues. Topics such as war and peace, military affairs, the rule of officials, loyalty and treachery, and so on, are avoided whenever it is possible to touch on some sensitive matters. This is actually a kind of silence in disguise.

With Qin Hui in power, it is obvious that he will not allow these discordant voices to appear, nor will he allow such arguments. Those are likely to turn over his old accounts and uncover the scars of the imperial court. Therefore, the topic of the imperial examination has become such an old-fashioned topic that has no nutritional effect and has no practical effect.

But for Fang Zi'an, this is a good thing. There are many articles on this kind of emptiness, and there are many wonderful ones. Fang Zi'an searched his intestines and scraped his stomach, and soon found it from the remaining memories. At the moment, the ink is sharpened, and the pen is written.

"A gentleman's learning must be easy to ask. Asking and learning complement each other. There is no doubt if you don't learn, and you can't have a broad knowledge if you don't ask; If you are studious and not diligent in asking, you are not really a good scholar. Reasonable, but not up to the task; Know its big picture, but don't know its details, ask it, and make a decision? ”

“……”

"A wise man thinks a thousand times, and he will make a mistake. What the saints do not know, it is not necessarily unknown to the fools; What a fool can do is not necessarily what a saint cannot. There is no specialization, and there is no end to learning, but then you can ask less? "Zhou Li", the foreign dynasty to inquire about the people, the country's political affairs still ask about the people, so the noble can ask the cheap, the virtuous can ask the unscrupulous, and the old can ask the young, only the Tao is done.

Kong Wenzi was ashamed to ask, the master is virtuous. The ancients thought that asking was a virtue, and they did not see that it was shameful, and the later gentlemen fought against it and were ashamed to ask, but the ancients were deeply ashamed, and there were many people who were not ashamed of it in later generations, and they were sad! ”

A "Ask" will soon fall on the exam paper, and there is no need to worry about goofs. Because the person who wrote this article lives in the Whip Dynasty hundreds of years later. Fang Zi'an thanked the high school Chinese teacher from the bottom of his heart, if he hadn't forced the whole class to memorize every piece of classical Chinese, he would have been a little blind at this moment. The behavior that Fang Zi'an hated at the beginning, but now he has helped himself in this time and space nearly a thousand years ago, which has to be said to be really a mysterious creation.

But in fact, Fang Zi'an actually didn't have any sense of accomplishment. I really studied hard before, thinking that I would really rely on my own ability to be admitted to the imperial examination. However, Fang Zi'an is not stunned, it is better not to take risks in this kind of thing, since you can borrow strength, it is best to borrow strength. This year, the imperial examination is once every three years, and if you miss, it will take another three years. So Fang Zi'an still honestly played the cards, and learned from it cheekily. Of course, learning is not without handy, for example, the first test of the hundreds of scriptures and ink meanings, all rely on their own hard work to read and memorize, that thing can't be borrowed.

In any case, when he put down the brush, Fang Zi'an's mood became happy. The three days of life in the cage were finally over, and it was like a nightmare. It's not because of the cramped and harsh environment, but because of the oppressive and terrifying atmosphere here. Every night, Fang Zi'an could almost hear the howls of pain coming from the house, which was the sorrow of some people when they realized that they would have no hope because they had failed in their exams. It was a helpless moan from souls tormented and twisted by this era. Fang Zi'an realized that he was actually in the same situation as them, and sitting in this dark house was actually a helpless compromise. But Fang Zi'an knew that he was different from them. I will never become a loser and a victim of the times like them.

Some people died here, and Fang Zi'an was going to sail away from here.