The food carried in the long-eared bamboo basket of Gao Pragmatic walked around the county government examination room, and was brought out by him as it was.

At this time, it was still early, and his exam paper was taken by the county lord on the spot, according to the usual maximum of two or three days, the county will release the list, and then you can take the various documents given by the county to go to Kaifeng Mansion for the government test, so Gao Pragmatic thought about it, and let the four family members who came with him discuss it themselves, and go to Gao Laozhuang alone to report the good news to Zhang's family, and he planned to live here for two days in Wubo, and then go back not too late when the county government released the list.

Eating melons outside the county government...... Oh, the onlookers saw that Gao Shishi handed in the papers so early, and they were so excited that they seemed to have been won by the county lord, and they were noisy, and many people laughed and asked the county government to beat gongs and drums - this is not a blind shouting, but there are many places that have this habit.

But although Gao pragmatic met the above requirements, he did not enjoy this treatment, and the people of Xinzheng have been treating the Gao family as the face of Xinzheng all these years, so they will ask the county government to send musicians out through coaxing.

Gao Pragmatic himself is not very interested in these vain things, but there are many people who can't stand the coaxing, and some idlers are not afraid of big things when watching the play, and they also know that this is a happy event, and it is impossible for the young master of the Gao family to blame them, so they stepped forward to stop Gao Pragmatic's team and asked him to wait, saying that maybe the county government is not ready, after all, the young master of the Gao family is too fast.

The Gao family is a generational official eunuch, and it is not a strong bully, Gao Pragmatic really didn't dare to be unapologetic to Xinzheng Xiangzi at this time, so he had to stay where he was, feeling a little embarrassed - as if he was asking the county government to give "treatment".

This may be regarded as "kidnapping by public opinion" to some extent, right?

But fortunately, this embarrassment did not last long, less than half a pillar of incense, the gate of the county government opened, and a team of drummers blew the lock and beat the gong out, one by one beaming.

In front of the drummer team, there was also a middle-aged man who looked like a master holding two notices in his hands, walked quickly to the public list, raised his hand to the onlookers and made a four-way gesture, and said loudly: "Fellow villagers! Be quiet! Here is the transcription of Gao Gongzi's examination papers, just wait for all the candidates in the county government to release the cards (out of the examination room), and the list will be announced! In addition, this one is the county just now, and Gao Gongzi is right, the county can be listed in advance, and you can take a look! ”

The people of all kinds who were present were extremely satisfied, especially some idlers, who applauded one after another, and recommended a few people who had read the book to read it out.

The master posted the list, smiled and said hello to Gao Pragmatic, Gao Pragmatic politely said a few words, and Gao Jue next to him also handed out a red envelope with a smile on his face - this is the usual reward, generally not much, and will not put silver or copper coins, generally treasure money. But the treasure banknotes have been stopped printing at this time, and there are not many in circulation on the market, so the red envelopes of the Gao family are really broken silver, but Gao Pragmatic is not a particularly low-key person, but he is not a person who likes to show off blindly, so this reward is generally only two or three dollars of broken silver, which is just auspicious.

The master didn't have to ask for this bit of silver, just "to ask for some joy", took the red envelope and complimented him a few words, and then retired first under the pretext that there was still an exam in the yamen.

Now that the drummers have come out, the people sent home by Gao Pragmatic to report the good news don't have to go back alone, anyway, the drummers must go all the way to Gao Laozhuang to "send joy", and the Gao family will follow along. The drummers were in high spirits, because the Gao family was a family of eunuchs, and when someone in the family passed the exam, the reward had always been generous, and a team of people played hard to send Gao pragmatic away.

At this time, Gao Pragmatic didn't want to go to Wubo's house, so he could only honestly go back to Gao Laozhuang together.

When he arrived at Gao Laozhuang, Zhang's had already known the news in advance, went out to greet him in person, and asked his subordinates to reward the drummers - Zhang's was more generous than Gao Pragmatic for this kind of thing, with one or two broken silver in each red envelope, and the drummers' faces were full of flowers, and they praised Gao Pragmatic's performance in the examination room just now, and praised Gao Pragmatic as if he had descended to the earth with Wenqu Xing, and those who didn't know thought he was a jinshi.

It's easy to send these things away, and Gao Pragmatic has the time to tell Zhang in detail about the situation of the exam just now, and Zhang is also very happy after listening to it, and said: "The third test of the boy, your first test seems to be quite smooth, it depends on whether you can take the first case." ”

The so-called head of the case is the elegant name for the first place in the county test, the government test, and the road test.

The Gao family has led Shi Fengfan in Xinzheng for decades, and there are not a few precedents for the children of the Gao family to take the head of the case, and Zhang feels that since his son's article was submitted quickly, and he has won the strong praise of the county, and even said "If this article is not worthy of this comment, no one in Henan can be the one this spring", then the county head should be no problem, so there is this saying.

Gao Pragmatic originally had a habitual thinking about things like exams as "the score is not high, it's good to pass", but after listening to Zhang's words, he realized that it should not be a big problem for him to take the head of the county case. Not to mention that his article itself is written very smoothly, just because he participated in the county examination this year, he has already made several Confucian children in the county who have a slight literary name and hope to get a good score when referring to it, and they are ready to take the exam again next year, in order to avoid the sharp edge of high pragmatism, he feels that the head of this case belongs to me.

After the county examination, the government examination was not opened, Gao Shishi first rested at home for a day, and the next day planned to take a time to personally go to the Xinzheng Coal Mine to excavate the place to have a look. Who knew that on this day, the county government had already announced the list of county test winners, and even copied copies of all the winning papers and published them together to show justice.

Of course, this operation itself is not uncommon, such as the township examination, the general examination and other talent selection ceremonies, the candidates' articles and the examiner's comments, are all to be published for the whole country, word for word. It's just that when it comes to the level of the county exam, only a few will announce it, and Xinzheng County Zun probably took into account the Gao family's reputation and strength in Xinzheng, and felt that not announcing it might cause questions from the outside world, so he made this move.

With the family background of the Gao family, naturally people have already been arranged to "squat" at the gate of the county office, but there is no need for Gao Pragmatic to run to check it in person, as soon as the county test results of the county government are announced, the news will be transmitted back to Gao Laozhuang in less than an hour.

Here is a situation: if it was in the Qing Dynasty, the head of the county went to the government examination and the road test, regardless of the results, at least it would be won, because if it was not selected, the face of the county order would be too ugly, and there was a great factor of official protection; But in the Ming Dynasty, it was different, and the county case head could be brushed down in the government test and the road test, so the list of county test results in the Ming Dynasty was called the round list.

The so-called round list, that is, the style of the list is circular, the first place of the case, the name is written in the center of the circle, and the outside is written in a clockwise direction according to the results, a circle is fifty, if you get more, then write a circle outside the first circle, not horizontal or vertical. In this way, it means that the list of winners is not yet final, and it is still necessary to wait for the government test and the road test. However, in a northern county like Xinzheng, one circle is basically enough.

Sure enough, this year's Xinzheng county tried to win the middle round list, and the name written in the center of the list was Gao Pragmatic.

The head of the county!