Jiangnan, Hangzhou, mid-autumn and August.

The Mid-Autumn Festival has just passed, but it is the time of autumn.

As the last test of the Zhejiang Township Examination, candidates from all over the world have gathered in Hangzhou, waiting for the opening of this exam that can change the fate of themselves and even their entire families. For this reason, as early as two days ago, the security in the city was several times stricter than usual, and several teams of patrol soldiers and horses were set up in various parts of the city gate streets.

Hangzhou is an important place of Wenchang since ancient times, and there have been seven or eight champions in the Song Dynasty in the past 100 years, and there are many Jinshi such as carp crossing the river. It is precisely because of this that both the local people and officials attach more importance to the imperial examination, and almost every year the township test autumn will make the sense of ceremony to the extreme.

However, this year's situation always makes people feel a little different, although there is still an endless stream of candidates, but the number of candidates is less than 30% in previous years, which is obviously problematic. Because the imperial examination of the Great Song Dynasty is different from that of the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, the status of the examiner at this time cannot be used for life, which means that once you fail to be selected by the imperial court in the next year's examination, then you will have to take the township examination again in your hometown to obtain the qualification to enter Beijing.

In this way, the number of candidates for the township examination will continue to increase every year, and there will be no decrease in the number of candidates. But when this situation was reported to the Hangzhou prefect and other officials, they did not take it to heart: "This is just the impact of the change in the rules of the imperial examination this year, so don't worry too much." With just one sentence, the matter was pressed.

But everything that followed showed that things were far more serious than they thought-

In the early morning of August 19, when the genius was bright, hundreds of people spontaneously came out of their homes, wanting to see the grand scene of those candidates rushing to the examination room, and taking the opportunity to let their children absorb some of the atmosphere and think that they would lay a good foundation for the future.

But today, when everyone went out, they were surprised to find that the candidates who came out of the inns did not carry the examination basket in their hands, but some people carried weapons such as poles and sticks in their hands and gathered into a stream, rushing towards the street in front, as if they were going to participate in the martial arts, but in fact, Hangzhou has never conducted any martial arts examinations.

And when this group of people arrived at a cross street that was more than half a mile away from the examination room, they all stopped, and then formed a huge array in an orderly manner, blocking the street tightly.

The streets here are not as prosperous as in Hangzhou, and the streets are a little narrow, but now they are blocked by more than 2,000 candidates, and the road has been completely cut off.

It wasn't until after the formation was set up that the examinee quickly pulled over the two tables used for setting up stalls on the side of the road, and a candidate with a loud voice stood on top, took out a piece of paper, shook his head, and read out the content of the above in a subdued tone.

This article is full of ancient dictionaries, and the good of the four and six is not condescending, and many people around them are full of question marks, but they don't understand it at all. It wasn't until other readers or candidates explained aloud that everyone understood the content of this article. They were actually expressing their dissatisfaction with the government's sudden change in the content of the imperial examination, and proposed that if the government refused to change back to the ancient Chinese examination situation, all candidates would boycott the examination and protest until the government changed its mind!

After hearing this, the surrounding people all changed their faces one by one, and at the same time began to talk about it, but they didn't know what to judge. And those candidates also did what they said at this time, standing there one after another, no longer looking at the examination room in the back, and from time to time some people loudly proclaimed their hard work in the cold window for ten years, thinking that the government's sudden change in the imperial examination method was the biggest injustice to themselves.

Time passed little by little, and the people gathered around were more and more, and various theories were also very loud, turning the area around the examination room, which should have been solemn and quiet, into a vegetable market, which was really an unprecedented wonder.

But then, an even more surprising scene also appeared-

When there was still half an hour before the start of the examination, more than a dozen young men in slightly shabby clothes also hurried over, and after seeing the posture here, although they were a little surprised, they still did not linger long, and just turned their bodies to pass through the crowd of two thousand.

It's just that they didn't take two steps before they were intercepted by a group of candidates, and some people stared at them domineeringly and asked, "What do you do?" ”

"Participate in the autumn festival, this time is almost up, and if you don't go to the exam room, you will be late." One of the young men hurriedly replied, and pulled the other party with his hand: "Let me go, I'm here from Zhuji County, and it's a few days away...... but he couldn't pull it, but was surrounded by more people around, which made him startled: "You guys...... What do you guys do here? ”

"Didn't you listen to what we just preached? The court is unfair, and it is really insulting to use the demonic style of vernacular to abandon the ancient language in the land south of my country. How can our generation of scholars let this unhealthy trend run rampant, so we, the candidates, have decided to take the exam here. Since you and others are all candidates, let's take a stand with us here. The leader of the examinees immediately proclaimed in a loud voice.

The dozen or so candidates were stunned when they heard this, and then shook their heads and said: "I am different from you, we all support the use of vernacular scientific examinations, so what do you have to do with us to boycott the examination, please give way." ”

His words were like pouring a scoop of cold water into a pan of oil, and the whole scene immediately exploded. In a moment, someone on the side already shouted loudly: "It turns out that it was you and other heretics who caused the court to make such a mess, and it is really a great crime!" ”

"That is, even you guys who are only rough in writing and ink are worthy of participating in the sacred imperial examination? Today, I still want to compete with the children of saints like us, I really don't know what to do! ”

"It's insulting, it's insulting! Kick them out, and they will not stain my ears and eyes! ”

All kinds of ridicule and ridicule that thought they were superior suddenly poured towards these dozen or so different candidates like a tide, and they were stunned. After a while, someone raised his eyes and looked at the sky and said loudly: "What does it have to do with you when we test ourselves?" What are you doing to stop us from doing scientific research? As he spoke, he angrily pushed forward with his hand and shoved one of them.

This time it was a hornet's nest, and the ridicule that was just a matter of being a person just now immediately turned into insults, and some people even waved their fists and even shouted with a stick in their hands: "These guys still dare to hurt people, really deceive my generation of scholars and dare not fight back?" Call me! ”

These candidates were already full of anger, just like active volcanoes, and now they were burned by the sparks, and the flames that rushed to the sky quickly erupted, and countless fists and rods fell fiercely on those poor candidates who were completely unprepared and lonely, beating them screaming again and again, but there was nowhere to dodge, and finally they were knocked to the ground by someone, silent......

But this time, it completely ignited the anger in the hearts of thousands of candidates, and some people raised their fists and shouted: "The government is unfair, and my generation should ask for justice." This is not only for ourselves, but also for the hundreds of thousands of scholars in the world and for the foundation of Confucianism in the future. Let's go, let's go to the exam scene to meet the examiner and ask them to give us an explanation! ”

More than half of the candidates were young people, and they were naturally full of passion when they were instigated by this, and without thinking too much, they turned around again and ran towards the examination room in the back. And when they left, there were only a few pools of blood left on the ground, and there were more than a dozen poor candidates who did not know whether they were alive or dead, and were motionless. When the other people saw this, they were dumbfounded, and they didn't know how to react for a long time, and few of them even dared to go over to watch the excitement anymore.

Because many people have realized that today's turmoil is bound to be not small, I am afraid that Hangzhou will have another big mess in a few years.

Two thousand candidates came in a big way, and they surrounded the examination room at once, and also frightened the soldiers and generals who were guarding in front of the dragon gate.

These soldiers and generals all came from the north with Lin Chong, and they had fought a lot of battles before, but they had never done such work to maintain order in the examination room, so although they felt different about the behavior of the candidates gathering in front of them, they didn't care too much, just that this was also a ritual for local candidates before the start of the exam.

It wasn't until there was a commotion over there, and then these people rushed over with great momentum, with a posture of wanting to do it with themselves, that they suddenly understood that these candidates were not here to scream for the exam, but to make trouble.

At that moment, one of the leaders of Yu Hou hurriedly called someone into the examination room to go to the officials inside, and stepped forward with a knife, shouting: "What are you waiting for here?" This is a weightlifting place here, how can you wait here to be presumptuous? ”

"We want to see the examiner, He Shilang of the Etiquette Department!" The leader immediately stepped forward and replied loudly.

"Yes, we want to see He Shilang, we have to ask him why the imperial court has set such ridiculous rules, and actually asked me to abandon what I have learned for many years to write some bullshit vernacular Chinese!"

"Tell He Shilang to come out and speak, otherwise I'll be around here all the time......"

The more the candidates talked, the more excited they became, and their voices rolled straight inside, obviously they didn't need to go inside to report, and the examiners inside could know that something had happened outside.

At this moment, He Dingkun, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, was sitting in the hall of the examination room on the ground, holding a cup of tea and soup in his hand and drinking it slowly. When he heard the shouts of the waves outside, he didn't even move his eyes, and there was really a sense that Mount Tai collapsed in front of him without seeing it for a moment. However, the local deputy examiners in front of him were already sweating in a panic: "He Shilang, the candidates are so nonsense, but what should they do?" ”