With a sound of "Open the dragon gate-!" The gate of the Gongyuan, which had been closed for many days, finally opened slowly in a creak, which made the spirit of the thousands of people gathered in front of the door also suddenly lifted, and the door of opportunity to decide the fate of their lives had also been opened. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Since the establishment of the imperial examination system, this test has become the only way for the children of the common people to break through the poor class, just like the Yellow River carp jumping over the dragon gate, once over the dragon gate, you can turn into a real dragon swimming between the four seas and the world, otherwise it is still just a weak fish that swims underwater and may be caught by fishermen at any time. Therefore, the gate of this Gongyuan was regarded as a dragon gate by the people of the world at this moment, just waiting for these candidates to jump high.

When the gate opened, two rows of nearly 100 officers and soldiers with spears and steel knives on their waists rushed out with serious expressions and lined up on both sides of the gate, and then a six-rank official stepped over the high threshold and walked to everyone. At this moment, although there were thousands of people in front of the gate of the Gongyuan, none of them spoke, and thousands of pairs of eyes were firmly fixed on the prison officer, just waiting for him to let him go.

The prison officer Yan Qing's expression looked more nervous than those officers and soldiers, and after coughing a little, he raised his voice as much as he could: "All of you have participated in rounds of imperial examinations to get to this day, so I won't say anything superfluous." I just want to remind you that the examination is a ceremony for the imperial court, and it is a major event that Your Majesty, the cabinet elder and everyone attach importance to. If something is found out, don't blame the official for not being emotional! With that, he leaned to the side and waved his hand at the officers and soldiers behind him: "Let's start!" ”

For those who come to Beijing to take the exam, as long as they pass this hurdle, it is the beginning of soaring. However, before they could solve the problems in the examination room, they had to undergo another test -- they were searched by the officers and soldiers guarding the door. Once they are found to have cheats such as entrainment, their fate will be very miserable, not only will they be flailed at the gate of the Gongyuan for three days, but they will also be deprived of all their fame, and they will not be allowed to participate in the imperial examination again for the rest of their lives! If it is more serious, you may be put in prison or sent to the border.

It is precisely because the punishment is extremely severe, and the candidates who can come to participate in the examination are all masters of the field who fought in their hometowns, so in recent years, there have really been no cheaters. It is precisely because of this, coupled with the fact that the status of these officers and soldiers is much higher than that of the officers and soldiers, and some of them will be more able to enter the court as officials in the future, so the officers and soldiers cannot be as thorough in their inspection as they were in the township examination.

Everything was going according to the usual rules, but at this moment, a figure with a voice of "Slow! It was Yang Zhen who hurried over.

"What advice does Yang have for you?" When Yan Qing saw Yang Zhen coming over suddenly, he was stunned and hurriedly stepped forward to ask.

Yang Zhen only nodded at him and said, "This official feels that this is too casual, and he must search his body carefully." ”

"Ah......" Yan Qing was stunned when he heard this, not understanding what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd.

It turned out that after hearing the movement at the gate, Yang Zhen suddenly thought of what happened a few years ago. At that time, he relied on finding out the fraud of the Yao family brothers to defeat this enemy who was far above his own strength at that time, and at the same time, this incident also made the dignified governor of Huguang a disgrace.

Thinking of this, Yang Zhen felt uneasy. If Zhang Juzheng really has any calculations about this, it is likely to be based on this point. For the sake of prudence, he naturally tried his best to eliminate the possibility of cheating in this exam.

Before Yan Qing came back to his senses, Yang Zhen had already stretched out a finger and said to those officers and soldiers who were full of suspicion: "From now on, as long as you search for a candidate with an entrainment, this official will reward him with one or two pieces of silver." Okay, let's go on a body search. ”

As soon as the words of "coaxing ......" came out, the front of the Gongyuan, which had been very quiet, suddenly became noisy, and the officers and soldiers were greatly excited--their monthly salary was only one or two pieces of silver, which was quite a temptation for them; And the candidates are very dissatisfied, what is this, do you have to treat yourself as a thief?

It was Yan Qing, who frowned with some dissatisfaction after hearing Yang Zhen's words: "Lord Yang, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to do this, right?" All of them are well-known scholars, and you ...... like this."

Yang Zhen didn't give him a chance to finish his words at all, but just waved his hand: "The stakes are very high, you have to be cautious." If there is anyone who wants to pursue it then, just come to me. ”

"You ......" Yan Qing didn't expect Yang Zhen to be so faceless, and his face suddenly sank. But in terms of identity, how could he, the head of the Ministry of Rites, dare to fight with the commander of the Jinyi Guard, so he could only snort, turn around and leave. He didn't back down, but planned to talk to the chief examiner, Master Zhang, and ask him to stop this move.

For this, Yang Zhen didn't take it seriously at all, just waved his hand and said to the officers and soldiers and those obviously stunned candidates: "Why don't you hurry up and line up to accept the body search, and then go in to prepare for the exam." Otherwise, this time will not wait for anyone. ”

The form is stronger than people, and in desperation, all the candidates can only step forward with apprehension and accept the inspection and search of officers and soldiers. And this time, their treatment is much harsher than before.

The temptation of a reward or two of silver is very great, which makes the officers and soldiers no longer care about the identity of these movers, and in their eyes, the candidates have become potential small ingots, as long as they search for the evidence they carry, they can make a lot of money.

As a result, these candidates were unlucky, and they were searched by these rude and unscrupulous people in public, and even those private places may not be protected. As for their examination baskets, they were completely turned upside down by the officers and soldiers, and the pen, ink, paper, and inkstones, bags containing test papers, and food were all opened to see clearly, even the steamed buns were no exception, and they were broken one by one to see clearly.

These candidates were naturally very annoyed that they were treated like this, but there were so many officers and soldiers watching with knives and guns, and Yang Zhen, the big leader of the Jinyi Guard, by his side, even if there was more unwillingness and anger in his heart, he could only endure it at this time.

In this way, there was really some gain, more than 100 people searched it, and they were really found three candidates who mixed the contents of the note in the middle of the pen barrel and sewn it in the underwear compartment. Suddenly, the interest of the officers and soldiers increased, and the search became more careful.

But there are also downsides to this. It's been more than an hour, and most of the candidates should have been able to be put in, but today there are only more than 200 people, and eighty or ninety percent of the candidates are still waiting outside the door. At this time, the candidates who were eager to enter were a little dissatisfied and immediately made a noise.

The drum noise soon attracted Zhang Siwei, but after listening to Yan Qing's report before, he didn't think so. In his mind, Yang Zhen could do this to prevent drawbacks and accidents as much as possible, which would only be beneficial to himself, and naturally the more detailed the investigation, the better. But now, this has caused dissatisfaction among the candidate group, and may even cause some trouble, so it can only be temporarily calmed down by the candidates' grievances.

But before that, he had to take care of Yang Zhen's emotions first, after all, now that the two were in the same boat, he didn't want to offend each other because of this, not to mention that Yang Zhen was not wrong in his opinion.

"Yang Yanshi, if you search your body like this, I'm afraid that even if it gets dark today, you may not be able to welcome all the candidates into the Tribute Academy, but I'm afraid this time is not enough." Zhang Siwei rubbed his hands and said to Yang Zhen with some embarrassment.

In fact, Yang Zhen was also a little hesitant after seeing this efficiency, and when he heard Zhang Siwei say this, he also pushed the boat and said: "Since this is the case, everything is up to the decision of the examiner." ”

"So it offends." Chong Yang Zhen bowed his hand slightly, Zhang Siwei stepped forward, and shouted at everyone outside the door with full anger: "Shut up to this official!" ”

As one of the cabinet members, although Zhang Siwei, who has been a high-ranking official for many years, is nothing in front of Zhang Juzheng, his official authority is still not something that those people and officers and soldiers can resist, and the scene suddenly fell completely quiet.

"This officer knows that you are in a hurry to enter the exam, but have you thought about it, why do these officers and soldiers do this, is it just for that little silver? No, they are for you, and they want to give you an absolutely fair and just test environment. Otherwise, if someone is brought in and gets better results in the exam, it will only be you, the candidates, who will suffer, and what does it have to do with the officers and these officers and soldiers? Well? When Zhang Siwei spoke, his eyes only kept sweeping on the faces of the candidates in front of the door, and he only saw that they were ashamed, and he didn't dare to look at them.

Seeing that the momentum had been suppressed, Zhang Siwei eased his tone again: "But this official also knows that it is not a way to search like this, and it will only delay your time." Therefore, to compromise, you will open your clothes, jump on the spot a few times, and then write the test number in the test basket and stay here, and after checking that it is correct, you will be sent back to the number room. Let's get started! ”

If such a rule is proposed from the beginning, I am afraid that most of the candidates here will definitely oppose it, which is really insulting! But now, after going through the previous events, they were able to accept this seemingly simpler verification method, so thousands of candidates untied their clothes outside the Tribute Academy, and then jumped on the spot like a group of demons, suddenly forming a special scenery.

Seeing this, Yang Zhen couldn't help but glance at Zhang Siwei with some admiration, this adult was really a little anxious, and he actually thought of such a proper method that everyone could accept in a short period of time!