In the next three days, Sun Yuan spent one day reading through Zhu Xi's annotated "Four Books", which he had read when he was in college, and he was not unfamiliar with it, but he also read it smoothly.

The remaining two days are to recite the model essay, which is not difficult, but it is only 30,000 words, which is nothing compared to the college entrance examination. Anyway, just one word "back", I don't try to understand the meaning of the article.

But with it on his back, Sun Yuan felt that this matter was a little interesting. When he first started memorizing model essays, he didn't know anything about how Baguwen was written.

I only know that the so-called eight-strand text is just composed of eight parts: breaking the topic, undertaking the topic, starting to speak, starting, starting the stock, middle stock, back stock, and bundle stock. As for how to solve the problem and how to undertake the problem, it is blind.

But after memorizing a belly of sample essays, I have a clear understanding of the shape of the eight-strand text, although I don't know how to write, but I can also see the quality of an article.

This is also a pleasant learning process, and there is even a faint joy in my heart.

"It seems that I am still a reader at heart, but in the coming troubled times, reading is useless. What is needed in troubled times is strength, and if you want to gain power, you must start here. This is also a helpless thing! ”

Sun Yuan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In the past three days, Sun Yuantian got up at dawn and began to endorse, and waited until midnight at 0:10 before blowing out the lamp and going to bed, only resting for three hours every day, and it was a lie to say that he was not tired.

In a trance, I seemed to be back before the dark college entrance examination.

Every now and then, he would be pleasantly surprised from his ignorance in a cold sweat.

College entrance examination, that's a more terrifying existence than Leitai!

I, Sun Yuan, can even pass the difficulty of the college entrance examination, and be admitted to a prestigious university with excellent results, what is the score of a county exam?

Probably because of the existence of Lei Tai, Sun Yuan quickly returned to the state he had at the end of his third year of high school, and it took him two days to memorize more than 30,000 words of Fan Wen.

To put it bluntly, liberal arts is just rote memorization, and this is the strength of Sun Yuan, a liberal arts monk.

Three days passed in a flash, and the afternoon before the exam, Sun Yuan entered the city and stayed at his sister's house.

In order to thank Gao Quan for his assistance to Sun Yuan, when Sun Yuan set off, his mother specially asked Sun Yuan to carry a bag of mung beans over.

After looking at this bag of mung beans, brother-in-law Gao Quan's face looked better.

The start time of the county examination was set very early, which was early in the morning, and it was four o'clock Beijing time in the future. In other words, Sun Yuan needs to get up at three o'clock.

After having dinner at his sister's house, Su Mu still had a very important thing to do: write two essays to warm up.

So, he flipped through the "Four Books" casually, pointed with his finger, and pointed to the main point of the sentence "If you are like this, you will not see the chapter", as the title of this eight-strand essay.

He dipped his brush in water and wrote on the floor in the format.

I found that it was a little difficult. After all, as a modern person, I am still not used to writing in classical Chinese, and it is inevitable that there will be some stumbles.

There is no way, just draw up an outline first. Then I recalled the model text I had memorized in the past two days, picked out some sentences with the same meaning from them, modified them slightly, and wrote them.

That way, it's easy.

The state suddenly came, and the five-hundred-word article was written all over the floor in one stroke.

At first glance, it looks like something.

"What a Du Lisheng, this method is really good!"

Rubbing his hot hands, he was about to write the second article, when his brother-in-law's strange voice came from outside the window: "Recently, the price of lamp oil has increased again." ”

Sun Yuan laughed angrily, but he also knew that this was not the time to be angry with his brother-in-law. Before the big exam, I had to maintain a stable state of mind, so I blew out the lamp and went to bed.

Speaking of which, Sun Yuan is just a teenager now. The so-called can't wake up in the first 30 years, can't sleep in the last 30 years, but there are a lot of sleepiness. Before going to bed, he was still a little worried that he wouldn't be able to get out of the window and delay the exam.

The government offices of the Ming Dynasty were very early, and this time Rugao County was scheduled for early morning, that is, four o'clock in the future.

Sun Yuan was sleeping soundly when he was awakened by a loud noise, listening to the movement, as if someone was cutting something. I was busy getting dressed and getting up, packed up my stationery and went out to take a look, but I saw my sister sitting on the bench, cutting Chinese medicinal herbs with a small guillotine.

He rubbed his hazy eyes and asked with a smile: "Sister, what are you doing here, your house is not a medicine store!" ”

Sister Sun Xiaohua's forehead was full of shiny sweat: "Cut some decoction pieces for the shopkeeper of Yushoutang, and it will be winter in a while." On the day of the winter solstice, there were many people who took tonics, and he did not have enough men there. Your brother-in-law went and got some work and asked me to do it. If you work for a month, you can also get a few dollars of silver to supplement your family. ”

As he spoke, he wiped his forehead: "Brother, why do you get up so early, I'll cook for you." ”

Sun Yuan held his sister down: "Sister, you are busy, don't worry about me." I have something to go to the street, and I'm in a hurry! ”

"Hey...... Brother, let's have a bite to eat......"

Before the words fell, Sun Yuan had already opened the door and went out.

After going out, Sun Yuan couldn't help shaking his head. As far as he knows, his brother-in-law is harsh, stingy, and lazy, and he has to sleep until three bars in the morning every day before getting up, and he basically doesn't care. All the big and small things in the family fall on my sister, and it can be said that this Gao family depends on my sister alone. In this way, he scolded and scolded his sister at every turn.

Poor and lowly couples mourn everything, as her mother's family, I have to support this family business.

The test site is set in the county yamen, not far from my sister's house, and it takes less than ten minutes to get to the ground.

As soon as he saw the scene in front of him, Sun Yuan couldn't help frowning: There are too many people, and the competition is really fierce, it seems that things are not as simple as I imagined.

Rugao is a large county in the south of the Yangtze River, and the culture and education in the Jiangnan region are the first in the world. Even if it was an ordinary county test, more than 200 people came.

The vast majority of the more than 200 people are newly born children in the past two years, and they are the reserve of Rugao Shilin. The county examination is taken twice every three years, that is to say, there are more than 100 students in the county every year, which makes people admire when they think about it.

However, this is not a good thing for Sun Yuan, he is just a second knife who has just read a book for three days, and he has to compete with so many ancients, and the prospects are not good!

He could only comfort himself in his heart: Fortunately, it was Rugao, and there were only more than 200 candidates. If you travel to a place like Chun'an, it is not uncommon for five or six hundred people to try in one county, and that is the real hell mode!

Zhou Xiangchun, the magistrate of the county, took a group of people who looked like masters to sit in front of the yamen and take a roll call.

After waiting in line for a long time, someone finally called Sun Yuan's name: "Spring Tai, Sun Yuan." ”

Sun Yuan hurriedly stepped forward and said, "I've seen my old parents." ”

Zhou Xiangchun actually knew Sun Yuan for a long time, but he still asked majestically: "Who gave him a guarantee?" ”

"It's a late birth." Du Xiucai stepped forward to reply.

It turned out that according to the rules of the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty, all the boys who were referred to had to be guaranteed by the county school. Therefore, during the county examination, all the students were present to testify and verify their identity.

There are only so many students in the county school, and it can be said that each student has to protect dozens of children. And each child has to give a few taels of silver as a meeting gift, which can be regarded as an important income that the students have agreed to every year.

Sun Yuan looked around secretly, and most of the people who came were teenagers, but there were still many old children with gray heads. The county examination is held twice every three years, and the meeting gifts for the students every year, plus tuition fees or something, are a lot of expenses. It can be seen that reading is a matter of great money at first sight, and it is not something that poor families can afford, and the trend of high-quality people without poor families became more and more serious in the late Ming Dynasty.

It can be seen that it is true to say that the economic base determines the superstructure.

Du Xiucai not only did not accept his own gift, but returned the gift of two taels of silver, and this old pedant liked his own words, so he thought that he was good at learning and was optimistic about my Sun Yuan's future.

My Sun Yuan's foundation in Chinese culture is still far worse than that of the ancients, although the characters are well written, they look decent on the surface, but in fact they are just a paper tiger.

Based on the article alone, I'm afraid that I can't compare to the children around me, and if I want to get a good ranking in this exam, it seems that I have to use my brain in calligraphy.

"Well, Du Xiucai, you can also be regarded as a well-known reading seed in my county, and the person you guarantee must be good. Sun Yuan, take the roll and go in! Zhou Zhixian waved his sleeves, and his tone was also very cold, waking Sun Yuan up from his thoughts.

Sun Yuan hurriedly stepped forward and held the scroll with both hands and thanked him.

When others saw the county honor, they had already trembled and didn't dare to sweat. Sun Yuan is a person, although he was not a personal spirit in his previous life, he was also a person who had seen the world. In his mind, Zhou Zhixian is just a ******** in later generations. Back then, in Beijing, it could be said that a stone was thrown and hit a right place. He didn't pay attention to Zhou Xiangchun, and even glanced at him when he took the paper, and found that although Zhou Zhixian's tone was cold, his eyes were gentle, and he obviously had paid attention to himself.

I was suddenly sure in my heart: a good start is half the success, the county test is not formal, and whether it can be on the list or not can be said to be a decision of the county. This Zhou Zhixian has a good impression of my Sun Yuan, and as long as the article is not written in a big way, I should be able to have a good ranking.

The county exam was sloppy, and there was no test number and a matching number to sit down, after entering the county courtyard, Sun Yuan rushed straight into the lobby and grabbed the position, which was also the exam experience that Du Xiucai taught him in advance.

It is said that the examination rooms for the children's examination are all located in the lobby. However, there were so many people who came to take the test that I couldn't sit inside. Because, the transept next to it has also been opened up.

Compared with the lobby waiting for the fire, the light in the ear room next to it is very dim, and when you enter the room, there is no way to answer the question where the light does not shine, so you can only wait for the sun to come out. In this way, it delayed the work of doing the question.

When Du Xiucai first talked about this, he also sighed: "There are too many scholars in Jiangnan, and the number of imperial examination admission places given by the imperial court is really limited, how many talented people have been buried, but what, what!" ”

"It's better to be in the north, I think when I went to northern Shaanxi for study, I happened to see a county test. There are only about 30 children sitting in a huge examination room, as long as you can write, you will definitely be able to win. ”