Huiji glutinous rice, Mindong white fungus, Lingnan red beans, Yangping walnuts, Liaodong pine nuts, Yanjing chestnuts, Jinling jujubes, Xianghu lotus seeds, and then put a little Jinhua brown sugar, the boiled eight-treasure porridge looks brightly colored, smells fragrant and attractive, and tastes greasy and delicious, the eight-treasure porridge is Laba porridge, which has the effect of nourishing the spirit, and is much more nutritious than what Ge Lao Cake has, the raw materials are prepared in advance, and they are slowly cooked in a clay bowl, and they do not need to take care of it. Drank a small bowl of hot eight-treasure porridge, the body was warm, rubbed his hands, and began to make the second article, the second article is Mencius "Shun Fa Yu Jin", this topic he has done before, and has been assembled and handed over to Yang Shixiang to print it, it sold very well in Songjiang, at this time it could have been recorded, but think about it or make another one, break the question and say, "The body is sleepy and then prosperous, and the ancients can experience the examination." "Peaceful, decent, this second article does not need to be too amazing, what you want is graceful atmosphere, the title said, "Fu Shun said everyone, how can it be in the world?" And all of them are manifested by poverty, that is, they are unwilling, so what is the harm of mediocrity? ……”

Sprinkled with water, in one go, it doesn't take half an hour, the second eight-strand essay is written, put down the pen, and go to the tile bowl under the eaves of the house to hold a small bowl of eight-treasure porridge and drink it slowly, while conceiving the third article - just like that, write an eight-strand text, drink a small bowl of eight-treasure porridge, eight-treasure porridge is warm on the tandoor, it will not be cold for a while, and the charcoal fire in the tandoor gradually burns out, turns into ashes, cools, and the eight-treasure porridge is drunk, Zhang Yuan's seven eight-strand texts are also done, and then it is not time for three minutes, the sun shines from the clouds, casting bright light and shadow in the narrow alley in front of the house, Soon it was dim and faint again, and it was still cloudy weather - Zhang Yuan got up to go to the toilet, and saw Qi Huzi writing hard at the desk, without raising his head, this "" was okay, and the smell was not big.

Back in the room, Zhang Yuan began to carefully inspect the grass scroll, the imperial name, the temple must not appear in the article, and, the beginning and end of each eight-strand text can not be the same, nor can it be stained by the ink on the roll paper, otherwise it is a violation, it will be pasted on the wall of the court, then there is no hope of admission, Zhang Yuan of course can not let such a low-level mistake block his future, word by word after checking it again, he grinded a thick inkstone, and began to transcribe on the main volume, upright Xiaokai, pen spirit, It took an hour and a half to transcribe nearly 3,000 words of the seven arts, and finally wrote the name, year, hometown, three generations, and scriptures on the front of the volume.

It is already the end of the Shen Dynasty and the beginning of the unitary, the golden autumn in the south of the Yangtze River in August, and it is a rainy day, at this time the sky begins to darken, the low and cramped room is even darker and faster, such weather is very unfavorable to the candidates, the twilight is two minutes earlier than the sunny day, the department stipulates that if there is no good transcription before dark, three small candles will be given, which can support about an hour and a half, and the three candles are burned out, and those that have not been written will be forcibly twisted out by the trumpet army, which is called "helping out" -- Zhang Yuan is quick to write and the time is very tight. It was only completed before dark, and it can be known how many candidates will be "helped out" -- Zhang Yuan packed up the examination basket, and the tandoor was left in the corner of the room, and there will be two more exams later.

The soldier who monitored Zhang Yuan was pleasantly surprised: "Xiang Gong has passed the exam, and Xiang Gong is the first to hand in the papers." ”

Zhang Yuan nodded at the army: "It's hard work." "Carry the examination basket out of the dragon number room, sent to the east of the invigilation hall to receive the papers, there is a paper officer responsible for the collection of the papers, on the side is the sealing officer, immediately to Zhang Yuan's examination papers paste, number, these sealed examination papers, will be distributed to the transcription officer according to the sequence of this scripture, there are thousands of transcription personnel, are temporarily recruited from the state and county scribes and scientific examination in the third and fourth and other students who are not qualified to participate in the township examination, these people want to transcribe the candidate's ink scroll with a red pen, after proofreading is still numbered, This re-transcribed Zhu roll was sent to each room for the examiner to review, in order to prevent the examiner from recognizing the handwriting through the joints, the prevention can not be said to be strict, but the road is one foot high, and the fraud in the field still cannot be eliminated, "once the blue sky is flat" is one of the methods of cheating - there are many people who hand in the papers, and no one pays attention to Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yuan walked in the direction of Longmen after handing in the papers, it was twilight, Zhang Yuan walked through the side of a row of number houses, and saw that some of the rooms had candlelight through, and there was more than an hour, and the papers had to be handed over and helped out, so you can know how nervous it was. And in Zhang Yuan, at this time the heart is a piece of relaxation, the first seven arts completed, dare not say that the super level of play, but reflects their academic ability - Zhang Yuan at this time has the leisure to look at the Hangzhou Tribute Academy, this Tribute Academy has only such an examination event in three years, usually blocked no one to move, basil all over the ground, two months before the township test to carry out a big cleaning, it is impossible to clean so clean, the corner of the wall of the house, common clumps of weeds, against the outer wall of a remote place is even more barren, Zhang Yuan walked to the court, Suddenly, I saw a little beast that looked like a jackal and a raccoon dog jumping past the wall, as fast as lightning, and suddenly disappeared - Zhang Yuan stopped for a moment and said in his heart: "Fox spirit, repay favor or revenge?" Smiled, strode out of Yumen, suddenly felt that the light in front of him suddenly brightened, countless high and low long-handled lanterns were held, as if falling into the sea of lights, I couldn't help but squint my eyes, and I heard Mu Zhenzhen's happy cry in my ears: "Young master, young master, you have passed the exam-", followed by Wuling's shout, and Mingyan, Mingyan asked urgently: "Young Master Jiezi, where is the young master of my family's sect" Then Qi Huzi's servants, Zhou Menong's scholars, and Wang Binglin's domestic servants all gathered around to inquire - the examination basket was light, and was taken over, it was Mu Zhenzhen, Seeing Zhang Yuan squinting, he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong with the young master, are you very tired?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "I'm not tired, it's just that the light is dazzling." He said to Qi Huzi and the others' servants: "Wait a little longer, they will all come out soon." ”

Before the words fell, Qi Biaojia came out with the examination basket, saw Zhang Yuan, and said happily: "When I handed in the paper, I saw that Brother Jiezi's room was empty, was Brother Jiezi's composition proud?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "It's okay, how did Huzi Shouyi solve the problem?" ”

Qi Biaojia said: "What I broke is that 'people and words are also through the sky, and the gentleman must be afraid', what about Brother Jiezi?" ”

Zhang Yuan said, the two of them discussed their seven arts enthusiastically, while talking, Zhang Dai came out and joined the discussion, and then, Huang Zunsu came out, Ni Yuanlu came out, Wang Binglin came out, and Zhou Menong finally came out, complaining: "It's dark early, I have used up two candles, it's so dangerous." ”

The seven of them talked and laughed all the way, and when they returned to the river bay boat, the boat girls on the three boats had already partnered to cook a good meal for the ministers, good wine and delicacies, Zhang Yuan and the seven of them were so hungry that they took a bath and rested after eating a large piece.

The second one was on August 12, there were two days of rest, Zhang Yuan was afraid of being disturbed, and the three boats of the eldest brother and Ni Yuanlu traced back to the bank of the Qiantang River, stayed there for two days, sailed back to the original place in the evening of the eleventh, and re-entered the field in the early morning of the next day, this search was not as strict as the first one, no need to untie the hair, no need to take off the socks, the second one to make a thesis, five judgments, edicts, edicts or tables to make one, this is difficult to prepare questions, plagiarism is not easy, so the search inspection does not have to be so strict - Zhang Yuan's second exam is still smooth, It's just that when I went to the toilet, I felt that the smell was strong, the sky was sunny in the past two days, the temperature was rising, and the first feces were not cleaned up, and the power of the "" was finally revealed. ”

When handing in the papers in the evening, Zhang Yuan heard that a scribe said that a candidate died in the cold room, the candidate was over sixty years old, and he suddenly lay on the board and did not move, the army did not pay attention at first, thinking that this old Xiucai was tired of writing and wanted to take a rest, but after a while there was no movement, and when he entered the room, he saw that the pulse and breath were gone, he was already dead, and his body could not be straightened. Put the dead body on one end of the seesaw, this end pressed hard, the seesaw bounced up steeply, the dead body flew out of the high wall, there were corpse collectors outside - nearly 10,000 candidates, there were almost 10,000 old and rare people, the exam was tense, sudden death was really not unusual, Zhang Yuan walked out, while shaking his head, for this imperial examination is really crazy for the whole country, it has lasted for four hundred years, it has become more and more intense, not for the sake of knowledge and preaching, only for fame and fortune, and said in his heart: "Me too, I just want to become an official through the imperial examination-"

……

After the second exam, the first seven pieces of the art have been distributed to each room, this red scroll is printed with the name of the transcription student, the name of the student, this is the real-name responsibility system, the candidate's ink roll is stored in the outer curtain - "Yi", "book", "poem", "rite", "Spring and Autumn", separate room marking, "Yi" five rooms, "poem" five rooms, because the "Yi" and "poems" are the most candidates, "book" three rooms, "rites" and "Spring and Autumn" each one room, August 12 afternoon, Zhang Yuan's first seven Zhu scrolls were sent to the "Spring and Autumn" room, Fang Guan is often familiar with the county Yang Lian, the marking officer has Jiaxing Prefecture Xue Wang Professor, Quzhou Prefecture Xue Chen Xuezheng and Yuyao County Xue Gu Jiaojiao, Fang Guan Yang Lian warned the three scholars to read the papers carefully, not just to see the problem and make hasty comments, the seven articles of art must be circled sentence by sentence, so as not to succumb to the talent - the three scholars secretly complained, "Spring and Autumn" only arranged a room, but this year there are still many candidates in the "Spring and Autumn" scripture, there are more than 700 people, each of them seven articles, a total of no less than 1.2 million words, to read down word by word, eyes must be blindedHowever, the scholar has always been hard, and he acts as an examiner every time he says that there is a supply of good wine and good food, so there is still some interest, so let's be serious - Zhang Yuan handed in the paper early, but the number was backward, when Gu Jiaoyu read this article titled "More Gentleman's Fear, from the Mandate of Heaven and Reach It", he was greatly appreciated, circled sentence by sentence, and criticized: "The recognition of reason is accurate, the perfunctory words are pure and elegant, and there are people who are difficult to reach in the plain, and it is advisable to crown the house." So I recommended it to the housing officer Yang Lian.

(To be continued)