On the sixth day of the fourth month, the Son of Heaven summoned the chief examiner.

Duan Cizong had never entered the Zichen Palace, and in the past fifteen years, he had only seen the Son of Heaven from afar during the Great Dynasty, and now he knelt down under the lap of the Son of Heaven, thinking of the message that the Son of Heaven Tuo Ning Tao brought to him, he really had mixed feelings, and he held back his tears and did not fall.

Li Shihong on the side looked much calmer, and inadvertently caught a glimpse of Duan Cizong's red eye circles, Li Shihong secretly pouted, one was laughing at Duan Cizong's gaffe, and the other was thinking that Duan Cizong was deliberately pretending to please the Son of Heaven.

Shi Shouzhen gave the two of them to sit down and said, "The ceremony is a major event of the country, don't be negligent, Wei Xiang has already explained to you." I have a few more instructions, one is not to follow selfishness, if you are found to have leaked exam questions or have cheated on you, don't say that you are an official, and you will not be able to keep your life; The second is to be impartial, I know that every time there is always someone who wants to go through the imperial examination, I heard that Li Qing you are closed to thank guests, Duan Qing vicious dog avoids guests, I like this very much; The third is to take talents for the country, pay attention to pragmatism, do not take articles that are full of flowers and have nothing to read, what I want is talents who can govern the country; Fourth, don't form a party for personal gain, engage in a crooked party, take the name in the front and reap the benefits later, and if I find out, I must also investigate it afterwards. ”

The two fell to their knees again and said "yes".

The great eunuch Liu Weiguo took out a small boxwood box from the large gold-lacquered cabinet on the left side of the hall, and Shi Shouzhen gestured to hand it to Li Shihong. Li Shihong took it respectfully, held it in his arms, the box was covered with a copper lock and a seal, and Liu Weiguo handed the key to Duan Cizong with a smile.

Shi Shouzhen said: "The box contains the exam questions, which are kept by Li Shihong, and the key is kept by Duan Cizong, it's not that I believe you, I'm not afraid of 10,000, I'm afraid of just in case, I do this to protect you." In the end, the country will take the two people. ”

According to the usual practice, the two chief examiners received the exam questions, the Ministry of Rites held a banquet, and after the banquet, they were directly sent to the Tribute Academy. In order to show solemn respect, every time the examiner was admitted to the hospital, he used eight sedan chairs to send him off, and the drums on both sides played so happily.

Li Shihong sat in the sedan chair, gently rubbing the smooth surface of the wooden box in his hand, it is the dream of countless officials to become the main examiner of the examination, and more than 300 jinshi are out of their own disciples, how much help they will have in the future. The Son of Heaven said not to form a party for personal gain, and when the time comes, Taoli will be self-defeating, and I am afraid that it will not be something that the Son of Heaven can control.

Some people must be selected in this examination, Wei Xiang's grandson Wei Youcheng is the first one, this son is talented, even if he wins the Huiyuan, no one will gossip; Mrs. came back from a banquet in the Hou Mansion of Korea a few days ago and brought back a box of jewelry, and the fourth son of the Hou of Korea Jinke also participated in the examination; The second son of his old friend Liu Zongyi worships himself as his father-in-law, and he is also taking the exam......

Li Shihong's fingers lightly tapped the wooden box, thinking all the way, and when he arrived at the sedan chair in the Gong Courtyard, he actually had eight names. Li Shihong was a little annoyed, it seems that he has indeed traveled extensively, and he owes a lot of favors, and it is not easy to pay it off this time.

Holding the wooden box tightly and stepping out of the sedan chair, there were eighteen examiners in front of the Gongyuan, plus nearly fifty or sixty officials from the prison gate, promotion, acceptance of the file, sealing, and reading, and bowed in unison, "See the chief examiner." "Exempt", at this moment, Li Shihong's eyes were blurred, penetrating the dozens of people in front of him, and it seemed that he saw hundreds of new science and technology scholars, nearly 10,000 scholars who participated in the test, and countless Li people behind them.

The stars came to Mingyuan Tower like the moon, Li Shihong first put the wooden box in his hand into the gold plate, enshrined it on the incense case, and burned incense to worship. The chief and deputy examiners sat in the first place, and the other officials sat on both sides, the sound of firecrackers sounded outside the door, the tribute courtyard was locked, and the examination officially kicked off.

Before the end of April 8, Jiang Anyi and the others washed up, Zhang Yuzhu and Shi held lanterns, and the three of them went to the tribute courtyard in the southwest corner. Although it was April, it was still cold in the early hours of the morning, and Zhang Yuzhu babbled on the side to tell her brother to pay attention to this and that, which caused Jiang Anyi and Fan Shiben to laugh secretly.

Zhang Zhicheng's brothers and sisters' parents died, and the brothers and sisters depended on each other, Zhang Zhicheng did not win the promotion, and the two brothers and sisters suffered in the countryside, so after Zhang Zhicheng was lifted, the brothers and sisters would sell their family's land and house and come to the capital to fight.

Zhang Zhicheng responded without getting bored, seeing that his sister's face was red from the cold, he stretched out his hand to cover his sister's face for a while, and said distressedly: "After I enter the tribute courtyard, you and Shi don't go out at home, if there is anything to say when I come back, the silver and other things are good, don't be stolen." ”

Zhang Yuzhu shyly broke free of her brother's hand, subconsciously glanced at Jiang Anyi, saw him smiling at herself, her face flushed, and she responded: "Got it, brother, you can rest assured." ”

There is already a group of people surrounded outside the Gongyuan, and the Gongyuan is like a castle from afar, surrounded by dense siege thorns, no wonder it is called "Thorn City". When the time came, the door of the Tribute Courtyard opened, the lifters entered the Tribute Courtyard, Jiang Anyi and others said goodbye to Zhang Yuzhu and the stone, and entered the Tribute Courtyard with the flow of people.

Bypassing the stone square, there are four "inspection offices" on both sides of the road, which are the places for searching. Da Zheng Lu, "Anyone who carries a piece of paper and only a word will be put in a flail for a month in front of the scene, and the crime will be punished." Anyone who searches for official service and knows about it is guilty of the same crime." The fairest thing about the Gongyuan is here, no matter where you come from, rich or poor, you will all be undressed and inspected by the officials of the Gongyuan. The examiners lined up in eight columns, and walked into the Inspectorate with their names high.

Because there are too many people who will be tested, it is impossible to uniformly arrange pen, ink, paper, inkstone and food, so candidates are allowed to carry a prescribed standard of examination basket, "exquisite and long, the bottom is the same, so as to facilitate search". There are rules on food and clothing, and if they are violated, they will be expelled from the country at the slightest and punished with a crime at the worst. Every three years, these regulations make a fortune for those who specialize in making test-taking clothes, hats, pens and inks, cakes, and even candles.

The numbers are different, Jiang Anyi, Fan Shiben and others are in different queues. Hearing his name, Jiang Anyi hurriedly stood up and entered the investigation office with the person whose name was named. The officials in the inspection office are arranged in two rows, with the scholars in the middle, and the officials inspect the clothes, utensils, and food of the soldiers in pairs, so as to prevent the cheats of coercion, and then check the "identification of the official seal" at the second gate to prevent the gunman from cheating.

After a lot of chaos, Jiang Anyi finally entered the Tribute Academy. Enter the "Dragon Gate", take the meaning of the carp jumping the dragon gate, there are horizontal plaques on the middle three doors, the middle door is inscribed "Tiankai Wenyun", the east gate is inscribed "Ming Jing takes scholars", the west gate is inscribed "for the country to seek talents", under the dark and dreary night, the tall dragon gate reveals solemnity.

The sense of shock brought by the dense number house is by no means what the Dezhou Gongyuan can give, countless lights are lit up between the houses, bright as the stars in the sky, reflecting the southwest corner of the Yongchang imperial capital, standing on a high place, you can see the red light of the Gongyuan in the sky, it is the "Wenchang event".

Li Shihong and the others have been sitting in the Mingyuan Building since Yinshi, and everyone was silent, only the red candle occasionally made one or two soft sounds. Duan Cizong listened to the sound from afar, and his thoughts flew back to the situation when he participated in the examination, and the ups and downs came up.

"It's time to come," the little official said loudly. With this shout, Li Shihong stood up first, standing side by side with Duan Cizong, and the other officials lined up neatly in turn, bowing deeply to the wooden box offered in the gold plate, Li Shihong stepped forward and took out the wooden box, showing everyone the intact seals and copper locks on it.

Duan Cizong opened the copper lock and opened the lid of the box, which contained three yellow brocade bags with dates on them. Duan Cizong took out the one on April 9, re-locked the wooden box, put it back on the gold plate, and handed it over to Li Shihong.

Li Shihong read out aloud: "Four book questions: On etiquette and not let the world rule; Fu: Japanese five-color Fu (rhyme with 'Rili Jiuhua, Holy Rune Tude'). After speaking, he handed it to Duan Cizong beside him, and Duan Cizong handed it to the same examiner in turn after reading it. There are small officials next to the book on the paper and posted on the wooden card, and the small official holds it to the number house to put the question.

The lamentations came and went, and the vast majority of people did not expect that the current department would actually give up the poems and make them, and those poems that had been drafted countless in advance could only be thrown away. Di Zi No. 8 Shen Nei Wei Youcheng saw the corner of his mouth with a smile, although the Japanese five-color Fu has not been written, but if you want to talk about it, who else is it?

Suzi No. 3 House, Zhang Zhicheng wrote down the test questions expressionlessly, for him, twenty years of hard study waiting for today's burst, what kind of questions can be difficult to hold in his belly Chinese chapter; Zhang Zi No. 5 sat on Fan Shiben, and after seeing the title, he sighed lightly, changed the poem to Fu, and Anyi's specialty could not be brought into play; Cheng Zi No. 6, Jiang Anyi was stunned when he saw the test questions, it was actually a writing fu, and there was no place for heroes.

Jiang Anyi was slightly flustered, poetry and songs are praised, which is a must-know style for readers, he is famous for his poetry, and other styles are rarely involved, as Fan Shi and Yu Shi said, their own accumulation is still too little. Jiang Anyi secretly smiled bitterly, it seems that he is going to return this time.

Of course, Jiang Anyi began to search in the memory of the demon again, compared to the vast poems, the proportion of songs is not much, and soon, Jiang Anyi's face showed the color of ecstasy, God has mercy on me, there is actually a "Sun Five Colors Fu" with the same title, fortunately it is still rhymed with "Rili Jiuhua, Holy Rune Tude", if it weren't for the fact that the house was too small, Jiang Anyi would have knelt down and thanked all the gods.

The first test is over, the paper is sealed, the official who receives the paper, the official who seals it, the transcription officer, and the reading officer are all in place, compared with the township test, the test must not only be sealed, but also to be transcribed, which is much stricter. The surveillance officers and the promotion officers supervised the whole process, and there were no drawbacks on the surface, and only they knew the subtleties of it.

On the 12th, the second exam began, and the questions were completed. The internal supervision examination asked the examiner to be promoted to the hall and divide the papers, Li Shihong signed the room, and Duan Cizong checked the first few bundles of papers, and before they were sent to the same examiner, the marking work had begun. With the examiner to select the satisfactory person to add a circle, recommended to the examiner, although it is three exams, the first is the key.

Without further ado, after three trials, Jiang Anyi and others returned to the hotel and waited for the announcement of the list on May 10.

Note: Shizi suit type, hat with a single layer of felt; Large and small shirts and gowns, all with a single layer, leather clothes to the face, felt clothes to the inside, trousers oil cloth felt to listen to the use, only allow a single layer; Single felt for socks, thin soles for shoes, and felt sheets for seating. Examination tools: roll bags are not allowed to be filled, inkstones are not allowed to be too thick, pen barrels are hollowed, and water is injected with porcelain; The charcoal is two inches long; The wax table is made of tin, and the single disc is allowed, and the column must be hollow through the bottom; Cut each one. (It's not a good time to examine it carefully, it's just a novel)