Shang Zhouzuo came out of the west wing, and saw Jing Hui and Zhang Yuan, one short and one tall, looking at the white magnolia trees in front of the steps, and the two maidservants standing on the side, so he reproached: "Xiao Hui, are you here to disturb your uncle again, hurry back to the room to sleep." ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "I asked Xiao Hui to recite the "Spring and Autumn" Huan Gong Chronicle for me, Xiao Hui's voice was brittle, and he woke up. ”

Xiao Jinghui hurriedly recited: "In the first year of Huan Gong, the first month of King Chun, the prince ascended the throne. In March, the guild Zheng Bo was in the fold, and Zheng Bo took a fake Xu Tian. In the summer and April, Ding Wei, Gong and Zheng Bomeng Yu Yue. Autumn, big water-", the voice was crisp and sweet, as if I had eaten frozen hawthorn fruit, and I was really annoyed.

Shang Zhouzuo twisted his beard and smiled, listened for a moment, waved his hand, asked Xiao Hui not to recite, and said to Zhang Yuan: "Set off after the third watch, take my carriage, before the search, in the examination room, pay attention to strangers approaching, and be careful with yourself." ”

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "Thank you brother for reminding me, I will be careful." ”

After saying a few more words, Shang Zhouzuo went back to the room and told the maid Fanghua to take Xiaohui back to the room to sleep, it was already so late-

Fanghua took Xiao Jinghui back to the room, and Xiao Jinghui turned around as he walked: "Brother Zhang Gongzi, take the test well, it's good to be the champion." ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "It's too difficult to be the champion, just don't fall to Sun Shan." ”

Xiao Jinghui said crisply: "The name will never fall to Sun Mountain." After walking a few steps, he broke free of Fanghua's hand, ran back and climbed a white magnolia, stood on tiptoe and sniffed the flowers, "Gege" smiled: "It's so fragrant." He tilted his head and looked at Zhang Yuan, his eyes were shining, and he said, "Brother Zhang Gongzi remember, after the exam, take me and my sister to Manjing to visit spring." ”

After Xiao Jinghui left, Zhang Yuan paced alone in the court, early spring in February, if in the south of the Yangtze River, at this time it was already spring flowers, but in Yanjing, the ice and snow had just melted, the temperature at night was still close to freezing, peach blossoms, cherry blossoms were not opened, but a few magnolias planted in this yard began to bloom one by one, the petals were clear and beautiful, the fragrance of the flowers was elegant and pleasant, making people feel spring in the cold night, this magnolia is the primrose of the capital.

In the ethereal cold incense, Zhang Yuan's heart gradually calmed down.

……

During the examination period, the curfew was lifted, and after the three drums, Zhang Yuan packed up the examination basket, stationery, stove, clay bowl, food, charcoal, and oilcloth, and checked that it was correct and prepared to go out, Shang Zhouzuo had been reading in the study, and then came out to send Zhang Yuan to the carriage, and Mu Zhenzhen, Wuling, Laifu, and Wang Dazhui followed together-

There are about five or six miles from here to the Shuntianfu Gongyuan, the early morning is cold, the silent street is more wide, this midnight three watches to the Dongcheng Shuntianfu Gongyuan to catch up except for the exam-taking lifters and servants will not be anyone else, but although the curfew is lifted, but the patrol sergeants of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division patrol back and forth as usual, and they have to ask if they encounter suspicious deeds-

There are still two or three miles away from the Gongyuan Square, Zhang Yuan can hear the voices of people in front of him, the horses neighing and the donkeys, the carriage goes forward a mile, it is already a traffic jam, the carriage is not smooth, Zhang Yuan got off here, let the coachman drive back, he took Mu Zhenzhen and a few people to the gate of the Gongyuan and rushed to the gate of the Gongyuan, the Gongyuan of Shuntianfu sat in the north and faced south, they wanted to go around the west side of the Gongyuan to the south gate, Mu Zhenzhen, who was walking beside Zhang Yuan, suddenly said: "Young Master, that is the young master of the sect." "Pointing forward—

When Zhang Yuan raised his eyes, he saw that the eldest brother Zhang Dai and Uncle Bao Sheng were coming from the south accompanied by a few servants carrying lanterns, and hurriedly stepped forward to meet each other, and went to the gate of the Gongyuan together, and saw Qi Biaojia, Huang Zunsu and others, all of whom were from Zhejiang, so they gathered together and waited to enter the examination room-

The square is crowded with people, noisy and noisy, countless lanterns such as the galaxy poured in, bathing in the bearish, just imagine millions of scholars in the three provinces of Beijing, starting from Tong Meng, to Tong Sheng, to Xiucai, and then to lift people, layer by layer selection, today it is said that there are nearly 8,000 people standing on the square of the Shuntianfu Gongyuan, and they have studied hard for more than ten years or even decades, for these three examinations, the number of Jinshi is only 344 people, and 20 can not take one, the fierce competition can be imagined, the ultimate goal of the imperial examination is Jinshi, in the people, The Zhongjinshi is called Denglongmen, the carp turns into a dragon, and he ascends to the sky in one step, and the Zhongjinshi is also called Shi Brown, which means that from now on, he will take off his cloth clothes and wear a toner official uniform-

I don't know if there is anyone else who looks at all this calmly like Zhang Yuan, but no matter how calm he is, he can't stand by coldly, he must actively participate in this torrent of scientific examinations, the idea of official status is deep-rooted, and if he is not a jinshi, he will have no status and no right to speak, and in this world, he must work hard to fight for all this.

On the fourth watch, the dragon gate fired, roll call, search began, Zhejiang candidates lined up in the south, north and north of Zhili and Shandong, Henan candidates after the entrance examination, the roll call of the supervisor according to the candidate's registration in the Ministry of Rites of the public receipt, to examine the candidate's age, appearance and public description of whether it is consistent, with or without a beard, white face or black face, pockmarked scar is in line with the test, but also two candidates in the same province to sign as a guarantee, because the person is already the head of the local figure, there are many people who know him, if you ask the gunman to take the test on behalf of the person is easy to be reported and exposed, so to the level of the examinationIn addition to the search and inspection of personal items such as the examination basket, the candidates will not be allowed to strip and naked, only take off the headscarf to see, pat and pinch through the robe, the person is already half an official, and the search is not undressed, which is to save the dignity of the person and not damage the morale -

Zhang Yuanxin said: "The weather in Yanjing in February is cold, most of the students are frail, if you want to undress and take off your socks and search carefully, I am afraid that a small half of them will freeze out of the disease, then the whole examination room will be lively, vomiting and diarrhea, coughing and fever, and the examination room will become a plague field." ”

Zhang Yuan quickly passed the search, received the Ministry of Rites printed straw roll and the main roll each twelve pieces of paper, carrying the examination basket and charcoal and other things through the three dragon gates, only to see an old and curved ancient acacia in front of the face, the branches are like a dragon, very imposing, is slowly looking, suddenly heard a voice behind him: "This acacia is planted by the people of the Yuan Dynasty, there are three hundred years ago, according to legend, this acacia once had Wenguang shooting bullfighting, so it is called Wenchang Huai, related to Wenyun, meson, worship it, ask for good luck." ”

It was Zhang Lianfang who spoke, Zhang Yuan put down the test basket and utensils in his hand, and saluted the ancient huai with his uncle, and then the two walked in side by side, Zhang Lianfang asked: "Jiezi, which room are you?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "The little nephew is the sixth room of the word 'vertical'. ”

Zhang Lianfang said: "I am the second room of the word 'division', so dangerous, almost the number." ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "It's okay on this cold day, it won't stink too much." ”

Zhang Lianfang said as he walked: "The words of the field house should be proud, the tone should be high, the words should be Zhan, and the pen should be new." ”

Zhang Yuan said respectfully: "Uncle Baosheng's guidance is right. ”

Zhang Lianfang said with a smile: "I am a master with low eyes, where can I guide you, your craftsmanship is above me." He also said: "Jiezi, you have not been frustrated since the child's test, and you are all the head of the case, I hope to continue the good luck, and my Shanyin Zhang family will have another champion." ”

Zhang Yuan was not blindly humble, and said: "It is up to people to plan things, and it is up to heaven to achieve things." ”

While speaking, walked through the Mingyuan Building, turned to the east into the Dongwen field, rows of lanterns hung in front of the number room, each lantern has a striking big character, "Heaven and earth Xuanhuang, the universe is desolate" in turn, Zhang Lianfang's "division" number room in front, go first, Zhang Yuan walked down more than 100 steps, find the "hanging" room, each candidate is arranged to have a trumpet guard, these tens of thousands of trumpet soldiers are temporarily sent from the battalion soldiers near the capital, once in the Gongyuan errand is not allowed to be worse, if someone pretends to enter the army to be severely punished, so it is difficult to cheat through the army, the number on the front and back of the army, Zhang Yuan showed the number plate, and a soldier with the number "six" led him in-

Shuntianfu Gongyuan had several fires earlier, one of the fires had burned more than 90 candidates, Zhang Juzheng was in power, expanded the Gongyuan, changed the wooden board room to a brick wall and tile roof, reduced the fire hazard, Zhang Yuan entered the sixth house, this house regulation is similar to Hangzhou Gongyuan, the room is four feet deep, three feet wide, six feet high, there are also two thick wooden boards with bricks cushioned as tables and chairs, by the lantern light of the narrow alley of the room, Zhang Yuan wiped the wooden board, nailed oil cloth to prevent leakage, heard Ni Yuanlu all the way shouting "bitter, bitter", walked through the narrow alley in front of the house, Bringing a fragrance of fat powder, Ni Yuanlu is good at wearing fresh clothes and good incense powder, and he learned the style of Fu powder incense of famous scholars in the Wei and Jin dynasties-

Zhang Yuan hurriedly asked, "Why is Brother Ruyu complaining?" ”

Ni Yuanlu saw that it was Zhang Yuan, and said with a sad face: "I am No. 1, bitter." ”

No. 1 is the number, last year Hangzhou Township tried Qi Biaojia and got the number, Qi Biaojia stuffed his nose with a paper ball and took three tests, and he actually won the first place in the "Book of Books", this time he will try, but Ni Yuanlu was assigned the number, and others endured it, but Ni Yuanlu has a habit of cleanliness, this is simply God's intention to trick him, aren't you so clean, I want you to be-

Zhang Yuan smiled and comforted: "Brother Ruyu, bear with it, you can get out of the mud without staining." ”

"Let's go, no talking to each other in the venue." The army behind Ni Yuanlu urged.

Ni Yuanlu said "hey" and walked over shaking his head.

Packed up, it was estimated that it was almost five watches, there was still more than half an hour before dawn, it was cold, lying on his side to rest and afraid of freezing, Zhang Yuan sat there and closed his eyes and waited for the dawn-

The darkness before dawn is thick, all kinds of strange sounds come and go, waiting for the exam questions to be sent down in this half an hour is the most difficult, Zhang Yuan can't help but think of the ghost stories of the Gongyuan that he listened to Uncle Baosheng's gimmick on the bank of the Baozi River a few days ago, since Jiajing, there are more and more ghost stories in the Gongyuan of Shuntianfu, some candidates see the ghosts, but the ghosts say that he has found the wrong room, turn around and go to the next house, and after a while, someone screams and dies, and the most spread is that there is a girl in a red dress, beautiful as a fairy, good and seductive, Only the candidate she wants to seduce can see her, and others only see that the candidate is making an ugly gesture of untying his clothes alone, and they know that the candidate is crazy-

Zhang Yuanxin said: "This atmosphere of revenge by ghosts and gods in the examination room has a great impact on candidates with poor psychological quality, and mental breakdowns are not uncommon. Then he thought again: "It's just that there are a lot of unreasonable things in this world, will there be a beautiful woman in red to seduce me?" ”

Zhang Yuan sat in the dim number house and smiled alone, and the number soldier who guarded him stood in front of the number house and looked at it with a stud in his heart, and said in his heart: "Could it be that this scholar has also fallen into evil and wants to go crazy?" Fortunately, the scholar was just laughing, and there was no other crazy move.

Hearing the sound of Mu Duo, the exam questions began to be distributed, Zhang Yuan stood up "Teng", and the army standing in the alley hurriedly said: "You wait, I'll go and get the exam questions for you." ”

The number "six" of the army went to the fence gate to get the exam questions back and handed them to Zhang Yuan, a one-foot square piece of paper, printed with seven lines of words, at this time the genius was slightly twilight, Zhang Yuan took a closer look, the first question is "only the benevolent can be good and evil", I can't help but smile, see the question in my heart, and then look down, his exam questions should be four questions and four books, three "Spring and Autumn" questions, but see that the fifth question is "punished by widows and brothers to royal family state", this is the "Book of Songs? The sentence in "Daya" -

"This military brother got the wrong question, I'm not this exam question." Zhang Yuan shouted.

At this time, Ni Yuanlu on the other side of the number also shouted: "This Spring and Autumn question is not mine, I am a poetry question." ”

Zhang Yuan hurriedly said: "The Spring and Autumn question is mine." "Hand the exam questions in his hand to the army, let him change them, and when he looked at the exam questions again, the first four questions were the same, and the fifth question was "Zheng Bo Yibi fake Xu Tian"-

Zhang Yuanxin said: "That's right, this sentence is the sentence in the 'Lu Huan Gong Chronicle' that Xiao Jinghui recited to me last night." ”

The seven questions have been kept in mind, Zhang Yuan squatted under the eaves of the house to cook the stove, borrowed a fire, lit charcoal, and began to cook eight-treasure porridge, which is both nutritious and thirst-quenching and convenient eight-treasure porridge is the best food in the field, this time Zhang Dai, Qi Biaojia, Wang Binglin They will learn Zhang Yuan to cook eight-treasure porridge for food, and will become the first choice for members of the Han Society to participate in scientific examinations in the future-

Pine nuts, chestnuts, jujubes, lotus seeds...... Slowly boiled in the tile bowl, "Gu Du Gu" gently boiled, the aroma gradually overflowed, the sky was already bright, the sun on the ninth day of the second month also shone into the narrow alley of the "vertical" number room, the vast majority of candidates have already seized the time to compose, Zhang Yuan stood up, greeted the sun, moved his hands and feet, and jumped a few times, the number house is short, you can see the tile roof when you jump, the roof is sunny, and there are flocks of birds flying over the Gongyuan——

The army praised: "The old man jumped so high." "It's rare to see such a lively reader.

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "If you want to jump over the dragon gate, you've been practicing." "Anyway, go back to the house, set up the table and chairs, and start grinding the ink, the first art "only the benevolent can be good and the evil can be evil" The draft has been played, just waiting to be written on the grass roll, and now it is the second part of the draft, but at this time I saw someone writing a poem by the wall, Ouyang Xun style and grass, the words are very beautiful, poetry cloud:

"Eight thousand people are the best men, and I will also come in with them. The distressed articles are answered one by one, and there is no guess about the topic. The lack of tiles in the house is often leak-proof, and the candle nails cannot be crooked. My generation has three true creations, and the grandmaster does not take talents. ”

Looking at this ink, it should have been left by the examinees of the Ugly Department three years ago, Zhang Yuan thought to himself: "How can this person know that he must have fallen into the first place when he is still in the room?" Looking at the back of the poem, there are a few lines of small words, but it turns out that this lifter only made three of the first seven articles, and the last two are equivalent to coming in to play, and he is bored and leaves a poem to laugh at himself.

Zhang Yuan shook his head, not affected by this decadent person, polished the ink, and the eight-treasure porridge in the tile bowl under the eaves was also cooked thoroughly, scooped a few spoonfuls of Jinhua brown sugar, stirred well, Zhang Yuan asked the army to take a bowl and give the army a bowl first-

The trumpet army said repeatedly: "Thank you, thank you." "When you smell it, your saliva will come out.

Zhang Yuan ate a bowl of eight-treasure porridge and began to answer the question, and Shouyi broke the question: "The sage sets the right for likes and dislikes, and only for the benevolent." "The topic is clean and subtle, mellow and atmospheric, and then he wrote: "The likes and dislikes of Gairen people are also fair, so their things are not out of perseverance, but only said to be able, and they can be lightly given ......"

Zhang Yuan did not deliberately compose for the preference of the examiner Wu Daonan this time, Wu Daonan is the eye of the Wanli 17th year of the self-ugly science hall test list, and the champion is Jiao Hong, but when Zhang Yuan found the art of the examination of that subject, he found that Wu Daonan's eight-strand essay seeks novelty and writing for curiosity, which is a kind of biased text, this kind of art will be praised if you like it, and if you don't like it, you will directly abandon it as a roll, it can be said that there is a great chance surname in Chinese style, and it depends on the preference of the master and the master, Zhang Yuan can also write this kind of art, but Zhang Yuan can't take this risk, Because it is likely that he will not even be able to pass the pass of the Spring and Autumn Chamber, and the current Wu Ge Lao will definitely be very different from his thoughts and style when he was young, if he votes for Wu Ge Lao's favor back then, it will be the most stupid to carve a boat for a sword and wait for the rabbit, so Zhang Yuan's first article of this art pursues the air and sound elegant, the language is rich, and the natural truth, this is the text of the line, and no one can say that it is bad-

This nearly 500 words of four book titles and eight strands in one go, after writing the first art, Zhang Yuan immediately followed the second article, Yanjing in February, the days are short and the nights are long, although he is a famous talent, to write before dark and transcribe this first seven articles of the art do not dare to relax, to hurry up, although it can be done after dark, but it is better to be able to complete before the fall.

In the afternoon, the eight-treasure porridge in the tile bowl was eaten up, Zhang Yuan's first art seven articles were also made six, and the last one took half an hour, and then began to carefully check, there was no violation of the mistakes and omissions, then grinded a thick inkstone, began to transcribe, with a correct small block in the frontispiece to write the name, year, hometown, three generations, the scriptures, and then it took an hour and a half to complete the seven art transcriptions, at this time the sunset has receded, twilight began to shroud down.

Zhang Yuan packed up the examination basket, accompanied by the number soldier out of the "vertical" number house, and sent the grass roll and the main paper to the east of the invigilation hall.

Zhang Yuan didn't have long eyes behind him, and he couldn't see the subtle movement of the sealing officer, he walked out of the place where he was rejected, and the army numbered "six" also completed this guarding task, and said goodbye to Zhang Yuan and returned to the residence of the army.

Walking out of Mingyuan Tower, the Wenchang Huai, who was as pretentious as a dragon, bowed like a giant in the hazy twilight, as if he was saluting Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yuan hurriedly saluted this Wenchang Huai, and strode out of the three dragon gates, the first thing he heard was Mu Zhenzhen's cheerful voice: "Young Master, Young Master——"

Mu Zhenzhen's eyes are sharp, he has been staring at it since the dragon gate was opened, running quickly, taking the test basket in Zhang Yuan's hand, his blue eyes are bright, he is beaming, showing his waist and long legs, which is extremely moving.

Wuling, Laifu, Wang Dazhui, Zhang Dai's concubine Su Zhi, Xiao Mingyan, as well as Zhang Lianfang's servants, Qi Biaojia's servants, and Wang Binglin's servants all surrounded them, Zhang Yuan said: "Wait a while, they will all come out." ”

Hearing a clear and crisp voice, he shouted, "Brother Zhang Gongzi, did you do well in the exam?" ”

Zhang Yuan took a look, ha, Xiao Jinghui is here, and Jinglan, Jinglan is standing by a carriage not far away and looking this way, waiting for her fiancé Qi Biaojia to appear, Shang Jinglan and Qi Biaojia have been hired on the 26th of last month, and they agreed to discuss the marriage period in three years.

Zhang Yuan and Xiao Jinghui walked to the carriage and asked Mu Zhenzhen: "Zhenzhen, but what kind of food is there, I'm very hungry." "It's a hard day's work, and it's a lot of physical exertion.

Xiao Jinghui hurriedly said: "There is a pavilion old cake on the carriage, I will go and get it for Brother Zhang Gongzi." And he said, "My mother is here too." ”

Zhang Yuan went to the carriage to salute his sister-in-law Fu, Fu was because her two daughters were coming, she had to come with her to take care of her, and asked Zhang Yuan how he did in the exam, and he was very happy to learn that the exam went well, and asked: "Hasn't Qi Huzi come out yet?" "The mother-in-law cares about her son-in-law.

Xiao Jinghui took out a small jar from the car, and there was a stack of old cakes in the jar, which was still hot, and said: "This is specially prepared by my mother and the kitchen for Brother Zhang Gongzi and Brother Qi Huzi." ”

While talking, Shang Zhouzuo and Qi Chengjiao arrived, Zhang Yuan stepped forward to salute, and when several people waited together for about two minutes, Qi Biaojia and Zhang Dai came out, all smiling, obviously quite proud, Zhang Dai smiled: "It was completed in front of the candle." ”

After waiting for a while, Zhang Lianfang came out, and Shang Zhouzuo invited Qi Chengyi's father and son, Zhang Lianfang's uncle and nephew to his mansion for a banquet. ”

Zhang Yuanxin said: "Then there is an unexpected. ”

……

In the Shuntianfu Gongyuan in the spring period, in addition to 200 examiners, 8,000 candidates and nearly 10,000 soldiers, there are more than 5,000 transcription students and reading students, the transcription students are responsible for transcribing the sealed ink scroll with a red pen and signing their own names, and then send the Zhu scroll and the original ink scroll to the reading center, and the reading students are responsible for proofreading to ensure that the copied Zhu scroll is exactly the same as the original ink scroll, and then send the proofread Zhu scroll to the inner curtain to read the scroll, and the original ink scroll is kept in the receiving place, for the list to be unsealed and checked and the gift department grinding——

This set of marking procedures seems to be seamless to eliminate fraud, but the road is one foot high, when the temptation of money is big enough, there will be people who ignore the law and disregard, as long as they are willing to work hard, willing to pay money can always find a gap to get into, the sealing officer and the transcription student are the key, the sealing officer scratched his fingers on the examination paper, and compiled the examination paper at the end according to the three-fold font size, this examination paper has been folded into the hands of a bought transcription, and there are a total of three transcriptionists who have been bought-

A transcription student has to transcribe five such examination papers a day, so this transcription student can not immediately transcribe this examination paper with finger marks, but quietly hide this ink scroll, and pass it to another person by taking the opportunity of going to the toilet, this person came to the canteen with the examination paper, in addition to the 8,000 candidates in the Gongyuan, there are nearly 20,000 people to eat, hundreds of canteens, thousands of cooks, miscellaneous servants, mixed personnel, in a firewood room, a skilled calligraphy and painting framer from Songjiang Mansion received this ink scroll, he cut the ink frontispiece art from the seal, Then the two pieces of paper are spliced together so that it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, which requires superb skills, the paper is textured, and the framer soaks the edge of the paper that needs to be spliced with water, brushes out the fine fibers with a small brush, and then splices, and it took a night to splice it into one, and send it back to the transcription office before breakfast, and the transcription student transcribed the Zhu scroll according to this spliced ink scroll——

This kind of cheating method is called "cutting the head alive".

(To be continued)