The spring in Yanjing in February is cold, especially in the morning and evening, the blowing north wind together is in response to the sentence 'the spring breeze in February is like scissors', and it is necessary to expose people's skin to the outside and scrape all the shocking small openings.

Answering the questionnaire in this environment is simply a double test of spirit and **. Although the candidates all lit braziers, the rectangular examination room had only three walls, and they poured air into it vigorously. Candidates must put down the brush in their hands from time to time and rub the ten carrots vigorously, otherwise they will have to freeze and cannot write. As for the frozen legs, it doesn't matter what it does, but it doesn't need to write anyway.

Compared with most candidates, the silent test-taking life is undoubtedly very comfortable, I slept until dawn the next day, cooked a white porridge with yesterday's leftovers, and chopped two preserved eggs, a little lean meat into it, and made a simple version of preserved egg and lean porridge.

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, the porridge was ready, and I had two bowls of full meals, and my whole body was warm. Shen Mo brought the ultra-thin sable skin gloves prepared by Ruohan, which were perfectly sewn according to the shape of his hands, and after wearing them, they did not affect his writing at all, and they were very warm.

Coupled with the small stove in his arms and the small wind stove under his feet, he can ensure that he is completely free from the wind and cold, and can answer the questionnaire with peace of mind and comfort.

When his body and mind were in the best condition, he took off the paper bag from the wall, opened the test paper, and carefully reviewed the first three questions and four questions. These three questions were fundamental in the township examination, and now they will be even more serious. Because these three questions are the emperor's propositions, the examiners naturally have to devote all their energy to this, and they have never heard of anyone using the Chinese style of the Five Classics, and they don't even think about the last two games.

Among the three questions, the first question is the most important, which is beyond doubt. When Shen Mo saw the first question, he couldn't help but wonder, only to see that the title was only five words, saying 'There is a way to make money'...... It can be seen that people are poor and crazy and can do anything, and Emperor Jiajing actually asked directly how to solve the serious economic crisis of the Ming Dynasty on the topic of the examination.

But this title does not attract criticism, because this sentence is indeed from the tenth chapter of the 'biography' of the "University", which deals with the way of governing the country, and the original sentence is: "There is a way to generate wealth, and those who live are many, and those who eat are few, and those who are sick for it, and those who use it are comfortable, and the wealth is sufficient."

'There are many people who live' means that there are many people who create wealth, 'few people who eat less' means that there are few people who parasitize on the former, 'those who do it are sick' means that the speed of wealth creation is fast, and 'those who use it are comfortable' means that the speed of wealth consumption is slow. Therefore, everyone knows that this sentence expounds the truth of a rich country and a prosperous people, which lies in opening up sources and reducing expenditures, earning more and spending less, and then it is natural to lay out and write a stable article.

This is natural and safe in normal times, and I believe that most candidates do the same. But with his clear understanding of the political situation, Shen Mo knew that the finances of the Ming Dynasty had reached a precarious point, and even those officials who were 'cannibals' had been owed for several years, and there was no meat in the New Year. Looking at the leopard in the tube, it can be seen that Shen Mo judged that Emperor Jiajing must have wanted to see a solution to the problem, rather than getting some big and empty generalities.

A few months ago, Shen Mo definitely chose to follow the crowd without hesitation and win with his solid words, but after so many ups and downs, after seeing the chattering Emperor Jiajing, his thinking changed - the eldest husband was born in Si, and he should stand up to the sky and the earth, dare to speak and do! Always want to please on all sides but can't please well, the fly camp dog said aggrieved that he didn't say it, and he had to let people see clearly, it was better to speak freely, let go and do it, even if he failed, he would not regret it!

After answering the first exam heartily, unlike the township exam, the candidates are not allowed to appear in the exam, but after the completion of the paper, the second exam paper will be issued, and the second exam will be carried out immediately.

As for the ink scroll that was collected, it was also like the township test, signed and sealed by the collector, and then the name was sealed by the sealing officer of the outer curtain, and sent to the transcription office, which was transcribed into a red scroll by the transcription staff with a red pen, and then read by a special person, and after confirming that it was correct, the sealed red scroll was sealed, and the two volumes were sent to the receiving office, and the red number of the red ink scroll was checked to be correct, and the two volumes were separated, and the ink scroll was stored at the outer curtain official, and the red scroll was sent to the inner curtain flying on the Hongqiao.

In the 'To the Public Hall' written by Yan Ge Laoti, the vice president of the examination, Li Ben, a university scholar, the examiners of the eighteen rooms, and the eighteen internal supervisors all looked fixedly at the door...... Xu Jie, the president of this test, and Lu Bing, the director of the test, escorted the first Zhu Juan from Feihongqiao.

As soon as they saw the two adults coming, everyone in the room hurriedly left their seats to see, Xu Jie and Lu Bing also bowed their hands, and then took them to the hall, in front of the tablet of Confucius, the 'most holy master of Dacheng', and bowed three times and nine kowtows. Xu Jie also swore on behalf of all the officials who read the papers: "For the sake of the country, the society will be impartial, not to follow personal feelings, not to be asked, not to accept bribes - if you have this heart, the gods will die together!" ’

After finishing this set of official tasks, Xu Jie got up and turned his head and said: "Everyone, a thousand instructions are actually just one sentence, to be 'impartial'. You have also done the exam questions this year, so naturally you should know how much Your Majesty values this exam......" A pair of small but bright eyes swept over the crowd majestically: "Even if you forget what 'impartiality' is when you mark the papers, think about the wife and children at home, and start drawing lots." ”

The eighteenth room with the examiner drew lots according to the order, each was assigned a test paper, returned to the seat and sat upright, waiting for the president to show his intended Cheng Wen - that is, the standard answer to this exam, and so Xu Jie's own according to the meaning of the saint, the proposed article sent down, and then announced the requirements for taking the paper, the same examiners tore open the paper bundle, began to read and evaluate, if they saw the paper they liked, they would circle it with a cyan ink pen, and make an evaluation, and then hand it over to the deputy chief examiner.

Just like the township test, this is called a recommendation paper, if it becomes a recommendation paper, there are five or six points of certainty that it will be selected. If you get this 'take' word, you will have eight or nine points, and then the examiner will also like it, and then write a 'medium' word, congratulations to this player, a lifetime of future will be in hand!

It is precisely because the marking process is so meticulous and complicated that it is almost impossible to get out of the thousands after the exam, but in this era when the father and son of the Yan family cover the sky with one hand and are pervasive, it is difficult to implement procedural fairness in actual work. In fact, there are some people who will be admitted to the Jinshi, and they are already destined before the exam...... Just one day before entering the examination room, Yan Shifan managed to send someone to meet Li Ben, the vice president of the undergraduate entrance examination and a university scholar who was in confinement. Give him a list and let him help. Li Ben's face changed when he heard this, and he got up and left angrily, and as he walked into the house, he said solemnly: "Yu Xiuzai, Yu Xiuzai...... which means "just that, just that", which sounds very righteous.

The messenger touched his nose and went back to complain very angrily, but Yan Shifan, who had extraordinary comprehension ability, heard Li Ben's extraneous voice, and said to his henchman with a sneer: "Li Ben is not good at talking, he prefers to use awkward language, obviously telling us the code!" He ordered someone to pass on the three words 'Yu Xiuzai', so that those who gave heavy gifts could remember it and find a way to use it during the exam.

Of course, in order to reduce the risk, it is impossible to buy all the eighteen rooms with the examiners, and this kind of 'same joint' articles are often unsatisfactory, smelly, and not likely to be recommended by the same examiners, so this kind of cheating is mainly concentrated in the link of 'searching for papers'. Li Benhui used this power to find the test paper that passed through the joint, and also called it 'really seeking the pearl', leaving no handle.

And we know that the 'relics' obtained from the search of the file must be ranked outside the fifty, so this kind of cheating will not completely ruin the country's talent collection ceremony, at least in the normal marking process before the search of the file, fairness and justice can still be guaranteed...... This is an unspoken rule.

In the blink of an eye, at the end of February, when there were still three days before the deadline, the examiners finally selected 400 examination papers, and gathered the 400 places to be admitted...... For the fate of these four hundred, it was almost decided; Because although His Majesty will rearrange the ranking of the new science and technology scholars in the later palace examination, in fact, as long as the handwriting is not too ugly, the ranking will not change too much...... I have never heard of any ten candidates who were selected to become the champions, nor have I heard of any of the top 30 candidates who fell outside the top two, so the examiners are often more concerned about this process.

Fortunately, this time, the president Xu Jie, is a good man who is easy to speak, and there is basically no objection to the opinions of Li Ben and the same examiners, so in a harmonious atmosphere, the ranking work is carried out slowly, and after two days, except for the top ten papers, the remaining 390 are all scheduled.

On the last day, when it was time to decide who was the undergraduate Huiyuan, there was finally a dispute, and it was between the two bachelors, the principal and deputy examiners, and there was a dispute......

(To be continued)