At the time of the imperial examinations in the rear, the armies of the Chinese Empire were also continuing to fight in various places.

However, since the Chinese army took Yangzhou and Hefei, although the military operations in various places are still going on, there are no large-scale battles, in the southern Anhui region, the northern Anhui region are frequent, but the scale is not large, the Chinese army and the Taiping army around the county town to fight, the scale is not large, but the fight is very fierce.

At the same time, the Chinese army killed and injured the Taiping Army on a large scale, and its own deaths were also accumulated, only dozens or hundreds of casualties were killed and injured each time, but it was fighting every day, which also caused a considerable number of casualties, and at the same time, in addition to the casualties of the war, disease was also a major factor that plagued the Chinese army, for example, after the First Army marched into northern Anhui, it suffered from a large-scale disease, and the Third Division did not kill or wound many people in the battle, but because of a sudden epidemic disease that took hundreds of lives, Many more were so sick that the troops lost their previous combat effectiveness and had to rest.

Due to the continuous casualties of the front-line troops, the military training department in the rear also had to continue to send more recruits to supplement the front line, and in July alone, the military training department sent more than 3,000 supplementary soldiers to the Royal Chinese Army units on all fronts.

With the extension of the transportation and supply lines, especially the transportation of materials needed by the troops in northern Anhui, it is becoming more and more difficult, and all kinds of circumstances show that the Chinese army has entered a difficult period after the Shun Lì operation in June and July.

However, this difficulty was nothing to those ambitious Chinese generals, and since the capture of Hefei, Shi Qingxuan's First Army has continued to move westward and north. The 1st Royal Army Division and the 3rd Royal Army Division each led a part of the Auxiliary Defence Force units.

Its first division went north to Fengyang Province, while the third division moved west to the Lu'an area.

The 1st Division going north was fine. Although it also encountered desperate resistance from the Taiping army and the Twist army, the terrain was gentle. It is very conducive to the Chinese army, which carries a large amount of equipment and has a large number of mules and horses, so the war in all aspects is progressing smoothly.

First, the Third Division, the 14th and 17th Auxiliary Defense Division, which coordinated operations, suffered a large attrition due to illness, and the Third Division lost several hundred personnel, while the 17th Auxiliary Defense Division formed in Yangzhou lost nearly 1,000 personnel.

The 3rd Division, which was reduced in strength, was again resisted by the main force of Chen Yucheng's division in the direction of Lu'an, and Chen Yucheng's division took advantage of the terrain in the Dabie Mountains to avoid the main force of the 3rd Division, but instead gathered a large number of troops to attack the logistics supply lines of the 3rd Division on many occasions. Let the divisions of the Third Division be overwhelmed.

Under these difficult conditions, the 3rd Division still captured Shucheng on August 7, and then besieged Chen Yucheng's main force in Lu'anzhou City.

The first division that went north also entered the territory of Fengyang Mansion along with lì, conquered Dingyuan successively, and marched into Fengyang Mansion City, but after the first division marched into Fengyang, it was also a big headache to face the extremely complex shape of the place.

Therefore, the first division faced not only the Twist Army, but also the Qing Army, and various local regimental training. For example, in Dingyuan before, it was the Qing army that fought, but in the Fengtai area, it was fighting with the Twist army.

And Fengyang over there. In addition to the Qing army, there are also a large number of regimental training troops, including Miao Peilin's tens of thousands of horses.

For all sorts of chaotic armed forces. The First Division adopted a steady and steady posture, fighting any armed forces along the way. And the next place will be stabilized, and it is not said that the army will go straight to Fengyang Mansion City.

That's the case. It is estimated that you have run outside Fengyang City and have not fought with the Qing army in the city, and the people will knock out your logistics route.

Compared with the melee situation of the First Army, the Second Army's march was much smoother, and they marched along the north bank of the Yangtze River and entered Anqing Mansion along the way, and its vanguard had already arrived at the city of Anqingfu.

However, unlike Hefei, which could not be defended, Anqing Fucheng had a good defensive terrain and fortifications, and the Qing army had tried to recover the city many times before but had not succeeded.

In addition, after Shi Dakai retreated to the west, he tried to use Anqing as an important stronghold for the eastern defense, and strengthened the city's city defense system and reinforced the troops, so that the current Anqing city is not only perfect in the city defense system, but also has more than 50,000 troops, and a considerable part of them are veterans of the Taiping Army, and the city is not easy to fight.

Based on this, it was not an easy task for the Second Army to take Anqing City along the way!

The Fourth Army in the southern direction of Anhui was smooth sailing, marching westward and capturing most areas of Weizhou and Chizhou, except for leaving part of its forces on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Anqing City to cooperate with the Second Army in besieging Anqing City, part of the troops had moved westward to Pengze, and its troops were directed at Jiujiang.

The Third Army in Fujian was also relatively smooth, but under the influence of Fujian's mountainous terrain, the speed of the march was quite slow, the Third Army climbed the mountains in Fujian for more than a month before entering Jianning Mansion, and the southbound troops entered Fuzhou Mansion relatively quickly, but the Third Army was originally weak, and the predecessor of the 10th Infantry Division, the main force of the Third Army, was the 10th Mixed Brigade, and then the predecessor was the 10th Mixed Regiment under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Division.

The strength of the army has always been dissatisfied, and after entering Fujian, it was divided into troops to march into Jianning Province, so that the Third Army that entered the territory of Fuzhou Fu only had 3,000 Royal Army troops and more than 2,000 auxiliary defense division troops.

The total strength is only 5,000 people, and with the Chinese army moving south to Fujian, all the troops that can be looted in Fujian have been gathered in Fuzhou City.

However, although the strength of the Third Army is small, but the combat effectiveness is still not weak, plus the Qing army on the Fujian side is also some old green battalion eight banners, and it is not difficult to fight, in the Lianjiang area and the Qing army fought twice in a row, after defeating more than 3,000 Qing troops, the Qing army has now retreated in Fuzhou City, and the Third Army will continue to march into Fuzhou City after resting and replenishing, according to the comparison of the combat effectiveness of the two sides, taking Fuzhou City is just around the corner.

Looking at the various fronts of the Chinese army, although they are facing certain difficulties and troubles, they are generally relatively smooth, and the only thing that can be regarded as more troublesome is the northern Jiangsu side.

Stimulated by the fall of Yangzhou. Even more afraid that the Chinese army would attack the city of Beijing at once, the Qing court was greatly panicked, and had already drawn a large number of troops from the northern provinces to gather in various parts of northern Jiangsu.

After continuous reinforcements. There are already more than 50,000 soldiers on the Huai'an side of the city, and there are nearly 10,000 soldiers in Suqian and other places north of Huai'an City. In addition, more Gyeonggi training troops, Zhili training troops have begun to move south.

In the face of so many Qing troops, Shen Chiyun of the Fifth Army also felt a headache, his department was only about 20,000 people, and the main force was only a division of more than 8,000 people, and Huai'an City was extremely strong, not to mention whether it could be defeated if it was forcibly attacked, but it would definitely suffer huge casualties.

In desperation, he could only set up camp outside Huai'an in order to hold on for a long time. In order to wait for the end of the war in northern Anhui, the First Army returned to northern Jiangsu.

On August 17, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Suzhou, Jiangsu, and Wuhu, Anhui opened the examination at the same time, and students from each province gathered in one place.

More than 4,000 students from Zhejiang Province and more than 6,000 students from Jiangsu Province applied for the exam, and even fewer students from Anhui. However, there are also more than one person who applies for the exam in a year.

The number of people reporting from the above three regions reached 12,000, and interestingly, not all of them were people from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui, but also people from Jiangxi, Fujian, and even Shandong and other provinces secretly came to take the test.

This shows how attractive the imperial examination is to students!

Inside the city of Hangzhou. Dong Li couldn't help but be surprised when he looked at the crowded inspection, although he knew that some people would come to take the exam. But he didn't expect that there would be so many, and even a few of his classmates who had heard with his own ears before and didn't come to the exam were secretive to apply for the exam.

Wen Changlin looked at the scale of several thousand people. A look of bitterness: "How can there be so many people!" ”

Dong Li looked at Wen Changlin's distress, and naturally understood what he was thinking. Originally, Wen Changlin and Dong Li both thought that there should not be too many people to take the exam in Enke this time, and the empire is now thirsty for talents, and it will inevitably lower the admission standards at that time, and in this way, their hopes of winning the promotion will be greatly increased.

But now, it seems that there are so many people who take the test, and when there is less meat, there will be less chance of oneself.

Although he was a little sad in his heart, Dong Li still cheered up his friends beside him: "Don't worry, you and I have been burying our heads in books day and night for the past month, Brother Wen, your character has made great progress, and you will definitely not lose to anyone when the time comes!" ”

Wen Changlin is still not optimistic: "You and I have studied hard for the month, but they haven't relaxed, you see, they are still reading with books!" ”

Wen Changlin said, and pointed to a scholar not far away, the scholar was wearing a robe with some patches, and at a glance he knew that he was a child of his poor family, and if he looked closely, he could see that the book in his hand was a self-copied 'elementary physics'.

Everyone waited for a while, and the door in front of them opened, and a few patrol officers wearing a similar style to military uniforms, but the color was black, and they came out with sticks in hand, and then a middle-aged man in a Chinese uniform came out.

Wen Changlin saw it and whispered beside Dong Li: "I heard that the township tests in various places are personally sponsored by the ministers of the Ministry of Education, and this person should be Lord Zhong, the co-organizer of the Ministry of Education!" ”

At this time, I didn't see Lord Zhong talking nonsense, and after saying a few words about the scene, it was announced that the candidates had entered, and thousands of people immediately rushed in.

Zhong Songzhi looked at the dense array of candidates, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he looked at the many seats in the examination room. Due to the significance of the first imperial examination, the invigilation of the township examinations in various places was personally invigilated by the Minister of Education, and the Minister of Education Jiang Daoquan presided over the examination in Jiangsu, and the two co-organizers were in charge of the Zhejiang and Anhui examination rooms, and Zhong Songzhi, as the co-organizer, was responsible for this Zhejiang examination room.

When the examination room was deployed before, because he did not expect that as many as 4,000 people would apply for the examination, so that the examination place was not large enough and there were not enough seats.

After all the candidates had entered, Zhong Songzhi and several other officials from the Ministry of Education, a supervisory officer dispatched by the Imperial Household Agency, and even an escort officer from the military opened the sealed test paper.

Unlike the traditional township examination papers in the past, which were all written by the examiner himself, the test papers used in the township examinations in various provinces this time were jointly written by the lecturers of the two navy and army academies and several elite talents selected by the Ministry of Education, which were reviewed and sealed by Lin Zhe, and jointly escorted to the examination room by the Ministry of Education, the military, and the palace affairs department in the form of a secret edict.

After the pre-printed test papers were opened, they were quickly distributed to the candidates.

Dong Li looked at the test paper in his hand, and first looked at the first page of the test paper, which was the scriptures, that is, the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, which was not difficult for Dong Li and other traditional readers, and a moment of effort was to draw up the broken questions of a few test questions, but he did not rush to do the eight-strand article directly, but turned over the other pages of the test papers.

There are three topics in history, the first of which is: Zhou and Tang are heavy on the outside and light on the inside, and the Qin and Wei dynasties have their own opinions!

There are also three policy discussions, the first title is: Jiangnan mulberry cocoon is extremely prosperous, raw silk is exported to foreign countries in the national benefit, but the heavy mulberry cocoon light rice grain, Jiangnan granary has no real name, need to transfer rice grain from other places, try to say in detail the pros and cons of gains and losses!

There is also a Gewu test paper, which has more than 30 questions covering arithmetic, physics, chemistry, astronomy and geography, etc., and the first question is a physics question: which is right or wrong between the law of conservation of heat and mass and the conservation of energy!

Then there are all kinds of arithmetic problems, chemical physics problems, and a very plain geography problem: "Where is Prussia?"

Looking at these questions, Dong Li's brows furrowed, and he was thinking hard about how to answer! (To be continued......)