At this time, the imperial examination was still in its infancy, and a systematic system had not yet been formed for marking papers, and the method of marking papers was relatively simple.

When marking the test paper, the examiner only needs to write the word "Tong" on the paper with the correct answer; On the paper with incorrect answers or no answers, mark the word "no", and the candidate's fate is frozen at that moment.

Due to the simple procedure and lax control, this provides "convenience" for candidates to be admitted.

In other words, whether a candidate can pass the rank has little to do with the paper score, but mainly depends on social prestige and interpersonal relationships. Therefore, outside the examination room has become the key for candidates to exert their "spare strength".

Before the start of the exam, many exam-takers brought their masterpieces and specially visited those powerful and well-known Confucians, in order to get the recommendation of these big names, and then successfully won the title of the gold list.

However, because the King of Wei criticized the unhealthy trend of the imperial examination a year ago, the trend of "running papers" and "asking for help" disappeared overnight this year, and many people are staring at this year's provincial examination, so it is indispensable to pay attention to the results of the papers, at least there can be no more such situation as Chen Yize, the son of the Hubu Shangshu, last year.

There are five essays, and three of them are qualified, but Chen Yize only answered two, and he was named on the gold list, and he also ranked third on the gold list.

The examiner is this year's Zhigong Household Department Waiter Yao Chongzheng, as well as the Ministry of Officials Lang Yang Guanzhi, the Ministry of Rites Wailang Wei Yiren, Zuo Shilang Zhong Cao Jing, Zhongshu Sheren Jia Zhang and other four same examiners, they are all four or five rank officials, can be described as officialdom old fritters, each other tacitly know, regardless of the social prestige and interpersonal relationship of the child, the first five articles of the essay did not answer three articles, all of them were approved a "no" word, regarded as the first.

In this way, with the elimination of the first and second exams, there are only 360 lifters who can really enter the final competition, which is one-fifth of the total number of references, of which only five are women.

Because according to the usual practice, a female lifter will be on the list every year, and the number of female lifters is small, and the examiner has always paid little attention to the female lifter, under normal circumstances, the test paper of the male lifter will be read first, and then the test paper of the female lifter will be determined.

In this extraordinary period of this year, the five examiners are not only temporarily tied together, but also supervise each other, so in order to prevent themselves from taking responsibility for no reason, it is better to follow the old practice.

As a result, the five fellow examiners all ignored the fact that this year's female lifters were very different, and one of them was Yongzhou Xie Yuan, who still read the men's examiners first.

Five examiners, reading 355 examination papers, the amount of marking is not a large workload, and in the end due to the influence of years of social prestige and interpersonal admission, but in three days, 27 male examiners were selected without much controversy and finally ranked first, and even the five examiners were very unanimous in the top ten.

On the fourth day, the five examiners were ready to review the five remaining female examiners, and planned to determine the final ranking together.

Thanks to the errand of marking the imperial examination, the five examiners did not have to go to the court early in the morning, but during this period, they had to stay and eat in the Shangshu Provincial Yamen in the imperial city.

At this time, the treatment of civil servants was still very good, from the central to the local government offices all had civil servant canteens, and the civil servants who went to work had public meals, and the five examiners were still in the official office for food and lodging these days, and there were special people to send the morning food to the temporary room.

The five examiners live in a courtyard, and the chef will not favor one over the other, seeing that it is now the cold of spring, and the weather is very cold, he made mutton soup and wheat noodle steamed cakes for several examiners.

Afraid that the soup would be cold quickly, the five handymen walked quickly on their feet, came to the door of the five examiners, and said, "Xianggong, go to the morning." ”

Xianggong is not the well-known name of the wife to the husband, at this time it is a nickname for the prime minister, of course, sometimes it can also be called this way for other officials.

A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier, and in the same way, a good civilian who does not want to be a prime minister is not a good civilian officer.

It is estimated that there is no need to go to the morning court these days, everyone has slept well, and after today, they can finally go home after reading the papers, the examiners are in a good mood, this heard the title of the miscellaneous servant "Xianggong", the examiners couldn't help but smile, and when they saw their colleagues also go out of the room to eat, they also said hello to each other, and then went back to the house to eat.

Cao Jing in Zuo Shilang is exactly forty this year, at the peak of spring and autumn, smelling the rich peppery smell in the mutton soup, I can't help but think of the orchids that were only harvested at home during the New Year, fourteen cardamom, beautiful and plump, and I couldn't help but smile on my face at the moment.

After eating pepper mutton soup for several days, this body can finally get rid of the anger today.

Thinking of the happiness after returning home tonight, Cao Jing, who knelt in front of the desk and ate with the morning food, hurriedly drank a few large mouthfuls of mutton soup, and saw that the soup was about to bottom out, so he remembered the wheat noodle steamed cakes on the side, and he had to sell a lot of strength at night, and the wheat noodles were solid, so he wanted to eat one.

The thought flashed, and Cao Jing took a big bite of the soft wheat noodle steamed cake, huh? What's wrong with ...... taste?

Looking down, he saw that there was a small white note in the wheat noodle steamed cake, his expression suddenly tightened, and he immediately looked at the door, and saw that the door was closed, so he breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly took out the note and looked: First, Liu Chenxing, Liang.

It's only six words, but the meaning is clear.

But Liu Chenxing and King Liang, when did they get involved?

By the way, Liu Chenxing was the son of King Wei who was admitted to the palace last year, so King Liang is ......

Before the thought was finished, Cao Jing stood up abruptly, paced back and forth for a few steps, and then calmed down, returned to the front of the case and sat down, put the oil lamp on the case a little more, and burned the note.

At the same time, Yao Chongzheng, the head of the household, and Jia Zhang, a member of the Zhongshu House, also found a note in the steamed wheat cake, and the two acted in unison, and after reading it, they took the oil lamp and burned the note.

……

At the beginning of the morning, at about nine o'clock in the morning, the five fellow examiners finished their morning meal and stepped on the front and back feet of the meeting point to the main hall of the hospitalized children.

Yao Chongzheng, the head of the household department, is the chief examiner of this year's provincial examination, and at the last moment of marking, he had to speak first: "In the past few days, you have worked hard, and when the test papers of the remaining five female lifters are finished today, we can be regarded as living up to the trust of the saints and successfully completing this year's imperial examination." ”

The Ministry of Officials is the head of the six departments of Shangshu Province, Yang Guanzhi, as the servant of the Ministry of Officials, is regarded as the highest status present, and he naturally intersected, and said with a smile: "This year's competition for female lifters is more fierce than in previous years, one is Xiao Sisi, who is known as the first talented woman in Chang'an, one is Zheng Wanqing, the cousin and niece of Ouyang Neisheren, and one is Liu Chenxing, Xie Yuan of Yongzhou, I don't know who will be able to title the gold list this year." ”

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