Chapter 121: Admission

On the morning of the eighth day of August, the candidates who participated in the township examination were making the final preparations before the examination, because in the afternoon the candidates were going to the tribute institute. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. biquge。 info

The township examination of Daming will be held on the ninth day of August, and there will be three consecutive exams, each of which will be three days.

However, it is said that each test is three days, but in fact, it counts the one day earlier and the next day.

In the first session of the ninth exam, you have to go to the first place in the afternoon of the eighth day of junior high school to be searched, and the next day you will officially start the exam and hand in the papers until dark.

If it is not finished after dark, candidates can also light candles to do the questions. However, during this exam, each candidate only has three candles, and when all of them are burned, they must hand in the paper. Even if you have good eyesight and can use the moonlight to do the question, you can't do it, as long as the candle is extinguished, you will be forced to roll up.

When the dragon gate is opened on the morning of the tenth day of the new year, the candidates are allowed to leave the examination room. This is known as a three-day exam. Therefore, in fact, at the time of this township examination, the time for candidates to really do questions in each exam is only the whole day of the ninth day of junior high school.

The second exam starts on August 12, and you must enter the exam on August 11, and the rules are the same as the first exam, and you can only leave the exam room on August 13.

Then on August 14, I entered the venue to prepare for the third test, and by the evening of August 15, in fact, all three tests of the township test were over, but the candidates could only leave the examination room when the dragon gate was opened on the morning of August 16.

There are three exams, which are said to be nine days, but the candidates actually only have three days to do the questions.

At the end of the autumn exam, candidates can choose to stay in the provincial capital and wait for news, or they can choose to return to their hometowns. The results of the township examination will be distributed to all prefectures and counties by the official post station, and the prefecture and county officials will send messengers to personally come to the door to send good news to those candidates who have passed the examination, and ensure that it is sent to the place where the candidates are registered.

In the morning, Shen Ze and Gao Yu were preparing things for the afternoon entry. Of course, they just do it with their mouths, not with their own hands. The two little maids in the backyard, Red Rui and Green Calyx, are preparing them for the exam.

During this township examination, pen and ink inkstones and paperweights need to be brought into the examination room by themselves.

As for the scratch paper, it is not required for candidates to bring it, and it will be distributed in the Tribute Academy. After all, this scratch paper is too laborious to pick up, which needs to be searched one by one to check whether there are any words, which is very time-consuming and laborious. It is also said that there is a potion for writing, and when the paper is dry, you can't see anything. As soon as I saw the water, the handwriting was revealed.

Therefore, when entering the venue, those who are not allowed to bring this scratch paper are allowed to be distributed, but are distributed by the Tribute Academy.

Of course, this test paper and scratch paper are not given for free, and when the candidates receive the number plate, each candidate pays a tribute of one or two or five dollars of silver.

In addition to these stationery items, the most important thing is this food.

Because one is going to stay in the exam room for three days, at least four meals must be prepared.

Charcoal fires will be prepared in the examination room for heating and cooking, and what is brought into the examination room is not necessarily cold rice, but can be freshly cooked. However, it is obviously difficult to make your own food in the barn.

Although charcoal basins are provided in the house of the Gong Yuan, the candidates want to make a meal on the spot, but they can do it enough. Not to mention that most of these scholars are not diligent and do not distinguish between grains, even if you know how to cook, there are no pots and pans and kitchen utensils in the house, and it is unrealistic for you to want to cook. Besides, the exam time is tight, so how can I have spare time to cook.

And the space in the building is very cramped, and the top is a grass and wood structure, and if you accidentally catch fire, you will be planted. Maybe it will cause a lot of anger and affect others. If you annoy the invigilator, maybe you will be punished for not being allowed to take the exam in the future. Today, these invigilators are even the governor, and it is just a matter of raising your hands to treat you as a little talent.

Therefore, basically no candidates will find themselves a headache, and the vast majority of candidates in this room, no one cooks by themselves, and they all bring some ready-made.

The meals prepared by Hongrui and Green Calyx for Shen Ze and Gao Yu were all ready-to-eat foods such as shortbread, duck, bacon, osmanthus cake, and sesame cake.

In addition to these ready-to-eat foods, Hongrui and Green Calyx also specially prepared some porridge powder for Gao Yu and Shen Ze that could be flushed. Hot water is provided in this test room.

This porridge flour is made from japonica rice stir-fried, mixed with some walnuts and black sesame seeds, and then ground together into flour. After all, it is the mid-autumn season, and it is still very cold at night, and if you only eat cold food, your body will definitely be uncomfortable.

Candidates for the township examination need to stay in this house for two nights, and it is still very cold in the night of mid-autumn, so they have prepared a single-layer blanket for no one with red stamen and green calyx, so that they can be covered at night when they rest!

As for pillows or something, they originally had to prepare red rui and green calyx, but Gao Yu didn't let them prepare. Because it was useless to prepare, it was estimated that he and Shen Ze would not be able to sleep.

Because when candidates enter the venue, whether it is clothes, blankets or pillows, as long as you are not single-layered, but have a mezzanine, these officers and soldiers will cut and search. This dress and blanket can be prepared in a single layer, but your pillow can't be a single layer, a single layer is a pillow towel.

At that time, the officers and soldiers who searched and inspected the pillow cut open the pillow, and then took out the pillow core to search and inspect, and it was sure that the pillow was also a mess and could not be pillowed. So, naturally, they won't go to that trouble.

In addition to these, Shen Ze wanted a rain cloth, Gao Yu needed a tampon to plug his nostrils, and the male yellow, red stamen, and green calyx that both of them needed were also prepared for Shen Ze and Gao Yu.

???

After Shen Ze and Gao Yu counted everything, Hongrui and Lucao stepped forward and received these things in the same way as in the examination basket. This examination basket also has requirements, it is not covered, nor can it be a wooden examination box, it can only be a wicker and basket weaving.

The two little maids finished cleaning up and went to prepare lunch for the two of them.

Before the sumptuous lunch was finished, the tall shopkeeper came with a few guys, and Gao Wu also came with a few Gao family guards. Shen Ze's two roads were home to Ding Shang, Nanshan and Xia Beihai also came.

For Ming scholars, the imperial examination is a more important event than marriage, so there is a custom of sending the examination to relatives and friends.

…………

The entrance of the candidates began at the beginning of the afternoon, and the Gao family's house was close to the Degong Courtyard, so they could go very calmly.

After Shen Ze and his entourage went out, they saw that on this street, many candidates were walking in the direction of Gongyuan, both on foot and by car, some went alone, and many people went around a candidate.

The tall shopkeeper personally carried the examination basket for Gao Yu, while Shen Ze's examination basket was carried by Shang Nanshan, and their group also went to the Gongyuan in a mighty way.

The number of people who will be admitted to the Shandong Township Examination is still 75. Shandong is also a major province in the north. Among the northern Beijing, six provinces, and nine towns, it is only less than Beizhili and Henan. The number of places in the Beizhili Township Examination is 100 today, and 80 in Henan.

The number of lifting places in the provinces of the Ming Dynasty, since Jingtai set the current number in the fifth year, has been maintained until the end of Wanli, these 150 or 60 years, the number of people in each province has not changed.

In the past 150 or 60 years, the only time that the quota has changed is when the great eunuch Liu Jin stole politics, and the township test in the fifth year of Zhengde increased many places in his hometown Shaanxi, and Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan also increased some respectively.

The reason why Shen Ze knew about this was because it was a controversial topic whether the admission quota for the township examination in the fifth year of Zhengde was based on Liu Jin's quota.

Because Liu Jin fell on August 14 of the fifth year of Zhengde, it was in the process of conducting the township trial. After Liu Jin fell, he was executed soon after, and the imperial court immediately issued an edict to the provinces where the quota had changed, and to admit the people according to the previous fixed quota.

But after the imperial edict arrived, the marking and admission work of the provinces had been completed. For example, Sichuan, which is so far away from the capital of Debei 0, when Liu Jin was executed, the imperial court's will to maintain the original quota arrived in Sichuan, and the list would have been issued a long time ago.

Therefore, the number of admission places in Zhengde for five years, and the number of provinces that involved Liu Jin's order to increase, are quite controversial in later generations.

Of course, the quota for the five-year township examination in Zhengde is just a digression for now, and the Shandong township examination is still 75 places.

Although the number of places in Shandong is not small, the competition for this subject is still very fierce.

When receiving the examination card, Shen Ze learned that more than 3,200 candidates from the six prefectures of Shandong and the capital of Liaodong came to participate in the township examination this year. These 3,200 candidates competed for 75 places, and the ratio of more than 40 to 1 was very fierce in the scientific examination of the northern provinces.

When Shen Ze and Gao Yu and their entourage came to the Gongyuan, it was not yet the time to "open the dragon gate" at the beginning of the year, and the candidates were waiting at the gate of the Gongyuan.

The gate of this Gongyuan is crowded with people, all of whom are candidates who have come to take the exam and relatives and friends who have come to send the exam.

After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, I finally waited for the door to open the tribute courtyard.

Gao Yu and Shen Ze saw that the gate of the Gongyuan was open, and they each took their own test baskets at the moment and asked everyone who came to send the test back. They followed the flow of candidates into the gate of the Tribute Academy.

After entering the gate of the Gongyuan, there is a special person to drain the candidates, guide the candidates to the position where they enter the hall to wait in line, and there is a special examination room to inspect and lead through the dragon gate, and then accept the search in the first courtyard of the Gongyuan.

After passing the search, you can enter the examination room through the four small doors in the first courtyard under the guidance of the soldiers in the examination room.

Shen Ze and Gao Yu's number houses were far away from each other, so naturally the positions in the queue were not together, so they separated in order to say "good luck" to each other, and went to the queue assigned to their respective number houses to wait for the search.

The search and inspection of this township test is very strict. Candidates must remove their underwear and be carefully inspected before they are allowed to enter the venue. All items in the basket will also need to be taken out for search.

After all, the three exams of the county, government, and hospital exams before the township test were all completed on the same day, and they were generally entered in the dark in the morning to be searched, and the time was relatively urgent. However, the reason why the township test entered the venue one day earlier was mainly to have time for searching.

The whole afternoon of admission the day before the township test was actually used for searching. Even if the candidates enter the venue, they will not be issued exam questions today, and the candidates will be locked up in the number room after entering the venue, so Shen Ze looked at the long queue and the slow search, but he did not have any impatience.

However, although Shen Ze was able to maintain a relatively good attitude at the beginning, after more than an hour, he had not been found yet, so he was a little anxious. The point is that standing in line is really tired and my feet hurt.

It wasn't until nearly half an hour later that Shen Ze was finally found.

The requirements for this search are that the clothes on the body must be stripped off to a single garment, the hair bun must be opened, and then the body must be searched by the searching soldiers.

Shen Ze could only comply. He was afraid that it would be cold at night in the mid-autumn season, so he put several layers on his body, and planned to cover his body at night, or fold them up as a pillow, and it was really troublesome to take off this layer.

Fortunately, Shen Ze was wearing all single-layer clothes, although it was troublesome to take off, but as long as he took it off, the soldiers who searched and inspected him just took a brief look at his clothes, and they passed.

The candidate next to Shen Ze was more miserable, he didn't seem to think of wearing a single layer of clothes, but was wearing a very warm autumn robe in a gorgeous satin velvet. As a result, the robe was opened a lot by the soldier who searched for it, and he reached in and groped inch by inch to see if there was any entrainment.

The examinee couldn't help muttering when he saw that he had a luxurious satin robe that was in tatters, and that he was wearing it as if he was asking for food. As a result, the search soldier scolded him for wearing a sandwich robe, which caused trouble for their search.

If this Xiucai is scolded by a big-headed soldier on weekdays, he will definitely not eat him. But today I can only endure it, in case I annoy them, these soldiers make him a little stumbling, saying that he wears a robe with a table and has the intention of cheating, or directly stuffs him with some cheat sheets or something, then he will be in trouble, because the candidate is very interested in shutting up and not daring to fight back.

The search of the township test has always been the strictest, because once a talent becomes a lifter, it can be regarded as a complete entry into the privileged class and the upper class, so there is no shortage of people who take risks, so this search must be very cautious.

Comparatively speaking, the search at the time of the test is much more relaxed than that of the township test. Because lifting people is already a figure with a head and a face. Go to the exam, and if you don't pass the exam, you can take it again.

But if this cheating is discovered, once it is punished and deprived of the title, the gain will outweigh the loss. After all, even if you can't pass the Jinshi exam, a title can make a scholar's life very nourishing, and there is really no reason to risk cheating in the exam. Therefore, the search at the time of the test is much more relaxed.

In addition to body searches and clothing inspections, the candidate's stationery supplies are also searched.

This inkstone and paperweight have to be checked for interlayers, and this brush has to be checked to see if the tube is hollow.

And this food, too, should be checked in case someone hides the cheat sheet in the food.

By the time the inspection was finished, the food that Shen Ze was carrying had been disemboweled, cut into small pieces.

After a long period of searching, Shen Ze was finally searched, and under the guidance of a soldier in the examination room, he entered the examination room through the four small doors side by side.

……

……