The timing of the township test varies from province to province, but most of them are held in early and mid-August. The first of the Guangdong township test started on August 9 and was released on the 11th; The second will be on August 12 and the third on August 15. It was nine days and six nights in total. Of course, the only night between each session is also the only time for candidates who have been taking exams day and night to recharge their batteries, and most of them rent a courtyard near the exam room to rest so that they can catch the next exam. After all, although most of the first games are won or lost, it is inevitable that when the examiner plays tricks, every game must not be sloppy.

On August 9, the day of the Guangdong Township Examination, it was only four days, and Gongyuan Street was crowded with countless talents. Just from the clothes and the test basket, you can roughly see that the rich and the poor come from. But even if the family is in a big trend, if you want to say that you can win in the next field, then no one can pack a ticket. Don't you see the eldest son of the first assistant of the dignified family, and he was once shot black in the examination?

However, despite the existence of various exchange of interests, or other requests for bribes, in general, compared with the general examination, the township examination is still the most difficult level for all students to pass. Although Guangdong is located in Tiannan, not as good as Zhejiang, Nanzhili and Jiangsu, the three major devil imperial examination provinces, but because of the small amount of relief, there are many scholars, nearly 2,000 Xiucai who have obtained the qualification for the township examination compete for 80 places, and the probability of winning the examination is 4 percent, which still makes countless reading seeds fall one after another, and after three years, they will kill again and again, and so on, although they think it is bitter, but they have to do it.

At this moment, I was finally honored to get rid of the identity of the candidates, standing on the Mingyuan Tower and watching the messengers jump the great god sacrifice, watching the talents who took the exam being searched by the officers in the ten rows, and in order to check the entrainment, they turned over and looked at the clothes. Even checking his hair, he thought of his embarrassed appearance in the past, and wanted to sigh a word of insult, but after all, he swallowed it back into his mouth under the serious faces of the other invigilators.

You must know that in order to prevent favoritism and fraud, during the Jiajing period. The general examination, which did not initially adopt such strict search methods, also began to follow the system of the township examination.

The toss of thousands of people entering the hall naturally took a long time, and it was not until nearly two thousand Xiucai were completely put into the huge tribute courtyard, but they entered one by one according to the assigned number house, and it was already dawn, which happened to be the time to scatter the scrolls. As the questions of the first session were sent, the invigilators and others upstairs in Mingyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

On the first day of the test today, the sky was beautiful and the sun was shining. Except for a few unlucky ghosts who were found to be entrained and sent directly to the Education Department, there is nothing wrong with the rest!

nested in a large group of uncle-level figures, Wang Fulin was certainly not very comfortable. But theoretically, whether it is an outer curtain or an inner curtain, these examiners with different functions do not patrol the venue, so as not to collude with the candidates. Of course, after so many years, the rules are set by people, and whether they are obeyed or not also depends on people. It depends on whether the examiner is strong or not. And since Wang Fulin is the supervisor between the outer curtain official and the inner curtain official, he doesn't need to go downstairs.

So. He glanced around the four tall buildings used by the invigilators one by one, and when he looked here and there, all the scenes were the same, all of them were scenes of candidates racking their brains or struggling to write—he had already looked at the list and indeed found Du Maode. But if you can't go down, it means that it's useless to see it, so after returning to Mingyuan Building, the main stationing point of the invigilators in these three nine days, he simply took a book to read after sitting down.

Fortunately, he knew that the nine-day career as an invigilator was really difficult, so he prepared a lot of local chronicles to pass the time—all of which he didn't have time to read during his previous trip to Guangdong. Although he himself felt that he was a little bit of a disaster, he really didn't worry much about any big malpractices in the field. And so on. There was always a hint beforehand, and this time he didn't hear the slightest rumor.

After a whole morning of reading books, at lunchtime, when the trumpeter knocked on the door and brought in the meal of each trial officer with a plate, he couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth when he saw the bowl of white rice, a small plate of wilted cucumbers, two pieces of white cut meat, two pieces of white chicken and a piece of fish. The soldier who delivered the meal probably saw Wang Fulin's expression, glanced at the other examiners, and then smiled and whispered: "Master Wang, because there are one or twenty examiners plus the officer, so they are all big pots of rice and big pot dishes. ”

Excuse me! He doesn't want people to gossip behind his back!

Wang Fulin frowned, and said bluntly: "No need, since it is treated equally, then there is nothing to say, you can go." ”

The army didn't expect the horse's fart to be slapped on the horse's feet, so he had to leave in a hurry. As soon as he left, Wang Fulin saw that the other examiners began to eat lunch slowly, so he took his things and went directly back to the room assigned to him on the second floor of Mingyuan Building, which was the privilege of the prison officer for morning and evening rest. Although the house is cramped, it is a single room after all.

Considering that the food and drink served in the examination room may not be to his taste, he had already prepared and specially brought a small pocket boiler, a sufficient amount of pickles and dried vegetables, and of course, a bottle of oil and spicy seeds, a bottle of peppercorns, and all kinds of bottles and jars of condiments. When he also carried a basket similar to an exam basket into the examination room, if it weren't for the official uniform, he was almost searched as a candidate.

You must know that there are few people in the procuratorate, and there is no big room at all, only the cook he invites, and he can eat whatever he wants all day long.

Entering the house and opening the window, he made sure that this was the most marginal one on the second floor, and the wind direction was not bad, so he directly put the small stove on the small coffee table by the window, added good smokeless carbon, and set up a small pot. However, he did not notice in the slightest how some of the examiners, who were dutiful and invigilated while eating, felt when the aroma and spicy smell of the meal wafted down the window directly to the third floor.

"What does it smell like?" This is obviously asked by a newcomer who has served as a curtain officer for the first time in the township test.

"It's normal, in three nine-day exams, some of these candidates have a lot of tricks, and some of them can cook to cook for themselves in the alley outside the building, which is not surprising. It's not that the palace will try, the court will serve food. This is obviously said by an old-timer who has also been an invigilator in the township examination before.

Explanation is explanation. But even the old oilman who has invigilated the township test many times was a little overwhelmed by the aroma at this time, and immediately followed the smell to the window, intending to see which candidate was at ease, but he didn't take the exam well at noon on the first day, but began to fry and cook. Make yourself something to eat. But several people stood there looking east and west, and they didn't find any candidates who had such idleness. However, if you want to say that it is an illusion, the fragrance underneath is still coming, and in the end, some people even hear the sound of the oil popping just out of the pot. The examiners looked at each other for a long time before someone said something uncertainly.

"Xiao Wang seems to have gone downstairs to the room before, right?"

yes, I didn't expect that overly young prison officer!

can think that it is likely that Wang Fulin brewed this aroma downstairs, and then ate the thing in the bowl that tastes like chewing wax. Suddenly no one could eat. Zhou Congwen, the deputy envoy of the highest-ranking sea channel, said coldly: "It's really insulting! ”

Wang Fulin once swallowed back what he didn't say, but let the deputy envoy of the sea channel say it, of course people with a heart can taste it, I am afraid that there are several meanings in this statement. The first layer probably felt that the treatment of candidates was too poor, and recalled the pain of going to the field back then; The second layer is probably that the black-hearted servants in the tribute courtyard are too much, and dare to give them such food; The third layer must be annoyed that Wang Fulin, as an official of the imperial court, has left such an important duty as a supervisor to take the township test, and he only cares about making food for himself in the room!

See Zhou Congwen say so. Zhou Kang only felt the same hatred, and immediately echoed: "Exactly." The examination site is heavy, how can it be so presumptuous! ”

Although these two people are of high grade, they have thrown out such words, but the other invigilators are not fuel-efficient lamps, and no one echoes them at the moment. And the promotion officer Lingnan Dao Han Shouyue actually went downstairs with a straight face after filling his stomach with three or two strokes.

Not for a while. Wang Fulin heard a soft knock on the door. Satisfied, he was eating his first lunch in the Gongyuan and said casually, "The door is not locked, please come in." ”

When he saw that the person who came in was Han Shouyue, a promotion officer subordinate to the Political Division, he couldn't help but be a little surprised. And the other party's face at this time was gone, and he came forward with a smile on his face, and saw that Wang Fulin didn't see his own dishes at all. Instead, it was the fried bacon with dried vegetables, diced pork with sauce, and the cucumber was obviously re-mixed, and he immediately swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

As a dignified and subordinate political secretary of the fourth grade, after this Han observer entered the room, he stood unceremoniously next to the dinner table, swept the plates and bowls with his sharp eyes, and made it clear that he was attracted by the aroma: "Xiao Wang Xun, you are really powerful, you still have this hand!" ”

Although Wang Fulin and this Han Guanyu really didn't know each other before, but everyone came over so actively, even if it was just for a bite of food, he wouldn't really drive the other party out, and after getting up with a smile and inviting the other party to sit down, he saw that Han Shouyue was thinking about what was the best thing to eat, so he put on an extra pair of chopsticks and explained: "This is all made according to my own preferences and tastes, if Han Guanyu is interested, why don't you also try it?" However, I can put the words first, I have a very strong taste, and you may not be able to eat it. ”

"Oh? If that's the case, I'll have to learn it! "If it weren't for the smell of your downstairs being too seductive, I wouldn't have come right here

Han Shouyue's eyes were very poisonous, and with just one sweep, he excluded the good-looking diced sauce and meat, because it was obvious that it was reprocessed from the previous dishes. He looked at it and judged that the dried vegetables were the best to find bacon, which looked fresh and delicious, so he directly stretched out his chopsticks and grabbed a piece of bacon, but as soon as he put it in his mouth, his face immediately changed. The burning sensation suddenly filled his mouth, burning him so much that he almost felt like he could breathe fire.

At first, he thought that Wang Fulin was deliberate, and he couldn't help but be indignant, but seeing that Wang Fulin was eating well, he gradually realized what it meant to have a heavy taste. But when the initial burning sensation slowly subsided, he tasted a little bit of it.

It seems like...... Seems to be a little interesting?

Despite this, after eating a trench and growing wise, Han Shouyue, who rubbed the rice, still tasted another chopstick carefully after the hot feeling in his mouth disappeared. Although he was very unaccustomed to eating chili peppers for the first time, Wang Fulin stretched out his chopsticks five or six times before he could eat at most one bite, and there was no white rice to accompany the meal, this spicy feeling was really unbearable, and in the end he had to find an excuse to run away from the table.

Although the commissioner did not say anything about this experience, after returning to the third floor, the grease stain on his mouth betrayed his whereabouts. So at dinner time, because it was almost exactly the same as the regular dish for lunch, the number of people who came to Wang Fulin's place to eat changed from one to three. The three of them directly filled three bowls of rice in a food box, Han Shouyue took the lead, Guangzhou Duan Fucheng, who served as the supply officer, and Liu Xiancheng, who was in charge of the test papers, followed behind, and in the end they were all so spicy that they gasped, but the white rice was all wiped out.

On the first night of the prison as a prisoner in this tribute courtyard, Wang Fulin was looking at the candlelight in the house outside the window, accompanied by the starlight in the sky, so he barely fell asleep, of course, there was also the buzzing mosquito outside the mosquito net. When he got up the next morning, washed and dressed out, he saw that all the curtain officials had arrived. It's just a one-day invigilation, and many people's eyes are already bloodshot and mentally exhausted, especially a few older ones. This time, when I drank breakfast porridge, there were two more people who went to Wang Fulin's place to eat, and there were two more than the previous three.

By the third day, which was the last day of the first township test, the number of people who rubbed rice had grown to all the external curtain officials except for the two proctors surnamed Zhou. Zhou Kang, the deputy envoy of the university, even secretly made up his mind to have a good talk with Zhou Congwen, the deputy envoy of the sea route, to see if he could take this opportunity to impeach Wang Fulin. Seeing that the sun is getting wester, gradually some candidates are ready to hand in the papers after finishing the questions, while more people are still sweating profusely, hoping to finish the questions before the candle issued in the first session is extinguished.

As for the outer curtain officials and the inner curtain officials, they are about to really enter the working state. Because after the first volume is received by the outer curtain officer for various operations, the inner curtain official will start to read the paper, and before that, from the collection of the volume to the transcription to the posting of the volume, there is no room for error. Just when everyone was nervous, Wang Fulin suddenly heard a plop from behind him.

Turning his head to look, he froze for a moment. Because Zhou Congwen, the deputy envoy of Haidao, who had always been serious and difficult to deal with before, actually fell to the ground, his forehead was broken, and blood flowed!

PS: Because the imperial examination is not the focus of this book, when Xiao Wang participated in it before, he wrote it casually, and I won't change some mistakes. Recommended and Wang Daokun were good friends in his early years, and Wang Shizhen, who turned his face in his later years, wrote "Science Examination", some of the gossip is very interesting, especially during the Hongwu period (to be continued. )