"The county lord is here!"

When the first rays of morning light poured into the county seat of Jiangkou County, a voice sounded from among the candidates who gathered together and whispered and whispered.

This made the scene fall silent suddenly, and everyone stretched out their heads to look at the road in the direction of the county government, only to see Chen Yu, who was wearing a seventh-grade official robe, walking over surrounded by a group of officials.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Ming imperial examination is the foundation of the national examination, and the county examination is the foundation of the imperial examination, this county hopes that you can strictly abide by discipline, and the candidates participating in the examination should be innocent, not impersonated, not replaced, not hidden, not entrained, and not cheating."

With the arrival of Chen Yu, the two closed doors of the county school slowly opened, Chen Yu stood in front of the gate of the courtyard, glanced around at the students present, and said with a serious expression, "Those who do not meet these six items are not allowed to take the exam, otherwise they will be severely punished once they are found!" ”

The so-called innocence of net worth refers to the fact that the children and grandchildren of prostitutes, excellent people, subordinates, and deceased are not allowed to take the exam, and they can only be equal to civilians after three generations of retirement.

The so-called impersonation, as the name suggests, is to pretend to be a hometown, that is, people from other counties pretend to be from their own county to take the exam.

Because there is a quota for the number of students admitted to the county examination, and the number of children in each county varies, children in counties with a small number of people often go to counties with a small number of people to take the examination in order to be admitted, which is not good for the people in the county, so it is not allowed by law.

If there is a candidate who sells favors or accepts bribes and sends candidates who are not from the county, after the prospective candidate or others report and expose it, he or she will be punished as he deserves, which is called "attacking impersonation", which is similar to the current college entrance examination immigrants.

The so-called gun substitution, is to ask someone to take the test, the ancient scholars' pursuit of fame can be described as fanatical, so candidates whether rich or poor have people to take the test, anyway, there are no photos at that time It is difficult to verify the identity, only the life of the insurance to identify, which is easy to produce the transfer of interests.

The so-called concealment of funeral is that the mourning period of concealed parents is less than three years, and the funeral of parents according to the Ming Dynasty must be filial piety for three years, which is not only applicable to officials but also effective for candidates.

The county exam is held every three years, and the opportunity is rare, so some mourning candidates hide the reference of the matter, and no one wants to stay up for another three years, and they may not be able to gain fame in this exam.

As for entrainment and cheating, this is very easy to understand, generally refers to the way of cheating in exams, with the ancient scholars' fanaticism for fame, those who are not strong will naturally try their best to cheat, cheating in a variety of strange ways, eye-opening.

"Ladies and gentlemen, check the entrance, and don't make a noise!" After finishing speaking, Chen Yu turned around and entered the county college, and Wang Cheng, the county school teacher of Jiangkou County, stood at the gate of the courtyard and shouted loudly to the candidates who were gathered on the street in front of the door.

Hearing this, there was a commotion at the scene, and the candidates picked up their own examination baskets with stationery and food, that is, long-eared bamboo baskets, and stood up according to the queue arranged in advance, waiting to enter the county school.

According to the process of entering the venue, the candidates entered the county school in the township as a unit, and the test basket was inspected by the errand officer at the gate of the hospital to confirm that there was no entrainment of private belongings and then released.

Because it is difficult to cheat in the examination room, coupled with the fact that the examiner is a local parent official, and the test questions are relatively simple, the county and government examinations during the children's examination are relatively relaxed, and usually only the examination basket is checked but not the body.

It is worth mentioning that in the Ming Dynasty, the entrainment that was searched out of the examination room was relatively light, and the search was scolded, and the cheat sheet was confiscated, but the candidates could still take the exam, and if they were found to be entrained in the exam, the consequences would be serious, and they would be severely punished by the examiner.

One thing to pay attention to is that the cheat sheet should never be hidden in the crotch of the pants, which is a blasphemy against the biblical legend, and the sin is very great, and the candidate will not only be disqualified from this exam, but will also kneel at the gate of the county school for a day, and can only leave after the exam.

Since there are not so many rooms for candidates to use in the county school, when the county school is approaching, an examination shed will be built in several courtyards of the county school, that is, a huge pergola, and then tables and chairs will be placed in the pergola for candidates to take the exam.

In a county like Eguchi Prefecture, which is rich in materials, it is good to say that not only can it build a magnificent examination booth, but also provide tables and chairs for each candidate to use individually.

If it is left in those remote states and counties, not only can you not set up an examination shed, but there are no desks and chairs for the exam, only two stacks of bricks and a wooden board as an exam table, and then sit on the ground.

This kind of humble examination room can still cope with the past in normal times, and once it encounters windy and rainy weather, candidates will become chickens in the soup, and the only way to postpone the exam will be at that time.

It is worth mentioning that the entrance to the courtyard where the examination shed is located should be blocked with a wooden fence, and there is really no fence that can be replaced by branches, and idle people are not allowed to enter, otherwise they will be severely punished for the crime of sabotaging the imperial examination.

After the candidates enter the county school, they have to wait for the final inspection before the entrance of the examination shed, which has a wooden gate, which has an elegant name called "Dragon Gate", which means that once the county examination is passed, it is one step closer to fame.

The final inspection is composed of the county magistrate, the instructors who inspect the examination room, and the students in the county, which is not only to verify the identity of the candidates, but also to distribute the examination papers, and only after passing this level can they enter the examination booth to take the exam.

A huge pergola was built outside the examination shed, and the magistrate sat on the west side of the pergola, facing east, the instructors stood behind the magistrate, and the student who guaranteed the candidates stood beside the instructor.

Candidates enter the pergola in turn to receive the examination papers, shout loudly in front of the county, and the corresponding students confirm their identities and shout back "A certain Bao", which is "singing Bao", which is the most important part of the county examination, so as to determine the candidates' reference qualifications.

After all, there are many candidates for reference, and the number of students in a county is limited, only 20 people, so one person often has to protect more than 100 children, so it is impossible to know some candidates one by one.

Therefore, if the student who is a gualet has doubts about the identity of the candidate, the magistrate will order him to inspect or deduct the exam, because the process is relatively boring, so there will be wine to serve, and those who sing the insurance must always moisten their throats.

Because the candidates in Baihe Town were ranked in the front, second only to the candidates in the county, Li Hongyu, who was a child of the Li family, did not wait long to enter the pergola and get the exam paper, and the exam number on it was "County Examination A Yilu Lu", a very auspicious number.

"Baihe Town's child Li Hongyu, Baihe Town's Li Renbobao!" Then, Li Hongyu strode in front of Chen Yu and shouted in a deep voice behind him.

"Baihe Town's Lisheng Li Ren Bobao!" Li Renbo, who was standing in the queue of students, immediately replied in a loud voice.

Usually, the examiner will not respond to the candidate, as long as the student who is the student who is the candidate does not object, the level is considered to be passed.

However, unexpectedly, Chen Yu, who was drinking tea, bowed slightly to Li Hongyu when he heard this, although he and Li Hongyu only had a few sides to each other in the case of Li Hongqing and Qin Yue, but he was deeply impressed by Li Hongyu and had an inexplicable good impression of Li Hongyu, who acted steadily.

Li Hongyu was keenly aware of this, and his heart was suddenly happy, this is a good sign, so he bowed to Chen Yu and left quietly, now is not the time to make friends with Chen Yutao, otherwise he will definitely be criticized by the outside world, which is not a wise move.

According to the number on the exam paper, Li Hongyu found his seat, the sixth in the eighth row of seats placed in a courtyard.

Because of the large number of people, several courtyards of the county school are used, the tables and chairs in each courtyard are arranged horizontally and vertically, each row is basically twenty people, and two or three hundred candidates can be accommodated according to the size of the courtyard, so the number of people in several courtyards has added up to more than 1,000, which is actually a major event in Jiangkou County.

After sitting down on the seat, Li Hongyu began to look through the answer sheet at hand, a total of twelve pages.

The first page is the cover, because the county test is not as strict as the township test, so the candidates write their identity directly on the cover, and after the test, the cover is pasted with paper and then sent to the instructor for review, instead of having to transcribe it like the township test to prevent cheating.

Because of this, it is very easy to be bored in the county examination and the government examination, as long as you open up the joints of the examiner, then you can become the head of the case, and then directly obtain the fame of Xiucai, and you don't need to participate in the later college exams.

Li Hongyu wrote his name, age, place of origin, appearance, three generations of resumes, and the life of the guarantor on the cover.

Except for the cover, the rest of the paper is used for answering questions, with a red line and a straight Doug, twelve lines per page, two crosses per line, and two pieces of plain paper for drafting purposes.

The county examination has to be tested four or five, the specific number of which is determined by the examiner, and usually four are examined, the first one becomes the "main field", the second one is "recruitment" (or initial response), the third is "repetition", and the fourth is "continuous response".

The four exams are taken every few days, each of which is one day, and the paper is limited to be submitted on the same day.

According to the custom, candidates who pass the main field can participate in the next level of the government examination, and do not need to take the next three exams.

But if you want to become the head of the county exam, then you must take the test one by one until the end of the fourth game to determine the first place in the county exam, that is, the head of the case.

After each test of the county examination, a list will be issued, which is called "case", and the candidates who are on the list are called "out of the circle" or "out of the number".

Because the candidate's name is sealed, only the test number is written in the first three cases, that is, the seat number, and the candidate's test number is written in the list, which is called "round case", commonly known as "circle", or "group", and the first circle is taken within fifty.

The circle is divided into two layers, the outer circle is 30, and the inner circle is 20.

In the center of the circle, write a "medium" character with a red pen, and the vertical of this "medium" character should also be written as long on the top and short on the bottom, just like the upper part of the word "expensive", which means auspicious.

The test number written in the middle of the outer layer is the first place, and the other rankings are based on the first place, and they are arranged in counterclockwise order.

Until the last game, the candidate's name was used instead of the test number to issue the list, and the candidate's name was written horizontally on the paper according to the ranking.

Becoming the head of the county trial can be said to have many benefits, not only can you glorify your ancestors, but more importantly, you can directly obtain the fame of Xiucai and become a student.

Therefore, among the several exams of the county examination, for those candidates who want to gain fame, the last one is the most important, and the first few are just floating clouds compared to them, and the selection at all levels is for the fourth service.