As the township exam approached, many students rushed to the examination room, some of them a month or two in advance; Those who have a long distance even arrive half a year in advance, and then take the township test after the subject examination.

At this time in previous years, the city was the most lively, and these students called friends, talked loudly, and wrote poems and lyrics.

But this year is a little different, the students of the Fuxue and Nanlu Academy, who were active in the forefront before, did not go to join in the fun, but buried themselves in reading and remained silent.

"Hey, what's going on? Why have all these people become dumb this year? "The candidate from a certain county said.

This candidate has taken the township exam three times, and he is very familiar with the excitement before each township exam, and the low-key nature of this year's Fucheng students really makes him unable to understand.

At the beginning, although Qi Yuandao's lectures invited famous scholars from all over the world to participate, the scale was not large, except for the onlookers, most of them were people who had studied Confucianism and were above the level, and most of them were outsiders. Even if there are a few locals, they have always been good friends with Qi Yuandao, Qi Yuandao was refuted by a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy in the lecture \ It is not a glorious thing to vomit blood in anger, those people have been friends with him for many years, and they don't want to grudge against him, so they keep silent about the lecture and don't spread it.

Because of this, the talents who went to the exam didn't know much about what happened in April.

But there is no shortage of well-informed people who lowered their voices and told what happened in March.

"Do you mean to say that Du Jinning of Nanlu Academy has refuted Mr. Qi's doctrine?" The examinee's face was full of disbelief.

The other party nodded: "Exactly." ”

Such conversations kept appearing at the inns and at the candidates' gatherings.

In Qi's mansion, Qi Siyu was looking at the book intently, and he could no longer find the arrogance in him when he took the college exam two years ago.

was locked up at home by his grandfather for two years, and in April he watched Du Jinning defeat his grandfather, who was high in his mind, Qi Siyu now has only one thought, that is, to win Xie Yuan during the township test and trample Du Jinning under his feet to avenge the humiliation suffered by his grandfather and him.

"Young Master." The housekeeper of the Qi Mansion walked in, "The list of examiners has come down. As he spoke, he put a piece of paper in front of Qi Siyu.

The examination officials of the township examination include the inner curtain officer and the outer curtain officer.

The so-called internal curtain officer, that is, the chief examiner and the same examiner in the examination room; External curtain officials, that is, officials such as promotion officers and invigilators outside the examination room. The examiner is responsible for writing the test questions, reviewing the candidates' answer sheets, and deciding the candidates' rankings and admissions. The same examiner assists the examiner in writing questions and marking papers.

The court stipulated that the outer curtain officials were not allowed to interfere in the affairs inside the curtain. Therefore, for candidates, it is very important who the inner curtain officer is.

The chief and deputy examiners of the township examination were selected by the imperial court to send Hanlin and cabinet scholars to serve in various provinces, with two chief examiners and four examiners.

"Pan Yiting?" Qi Siyu picked up the list, and when he saw the name first, he felt a little familiar, and couldn't help frowning and pondering.

The housekeeper of the Qi Mansion is as old as Qi Yuandao, and he has been a housekeeper in the Qi family for more than thirty years. Because Qi Yuandao accepted a wide range of disciples, and many disciples were officials in the court, Steward Qi was still very familiar with the affairs of the court.

He reminded: "Pan Yiting was the teacher of the former governor Zhou Dongping. ”

"Oh, it was him." Qi Siyu suddenly realized, and immediately rejoiced, "So, this time the exam is going to be out of eight strands?" ”

In the past two years, he has devoted himself to learning, and he has spent a lot of thought on the Bagu Wen, and the Bagu Wen he wrote has been frequently praised by Qi Yuandao and some teachers. But Du Jinning did not have any eight-strand articles to be praised. If compared to others, Qi Siyu, who has been hit many times, may not have the confidence to win against Du Jinning, but Baguwen, he is full of confidence.

"What about this Wang Shibin, who is it? What are the academic tendencies? He asked, pointing to the second name.

"This Wang Shibin is a member of the Ministry of Langzhong, and he is also an admirer of Baguwen."

"Haha, good, good." Qi Siyu couldn't help but scream. For the next four fellow examiners, I was not interested in asking any further.

The academic tendencies of the two chief and deputy examiners are both eight-strand essays, and the questions have always been the business of the chief and deputy examiners, so it can be seen that the eight-strand essays are tested this time.

It seems that he has a hope of taking Xie Yuan this time.

"Okay, you go out, I'm going to write a few more eight-strand articles for the gentlemen to read in the next few days, so that they can give them more pointers and strive to get a good ranking in this township test." Qi Siyu drove Steward Qi out of the door.

"Yes, the old slave doesn't disturb the young master's study." The housekeeper of the Qi Mansion not only did not have the slightest disgust, but was very pleased.

The young master of their family has grown up, he is becoming more and more calm and calm, and he knows that he is working hard.

In the Qi Mansion, Du Jinning and Qi Muyuan were also looking at the list of examiners and deputy examiners.

Qi Bokun explained beside him: "The chief examiner, Pan Yiting, is a scholar of Dongge University and a supporter of the Second Prince's faction; Wang Shibin, the deputy chief examiner, is a supporter of the Great Prince's faction among the officials of the Ministry of Literature and Qing Officials. ”

Speaking of this, he glanced at Du Jinning.

Du Jinning's reputation has risen over the years, and how many people want to accept him as a disciple have been politely rejected by Du Jinning, saying that he only worships Guan Le and a teacher in this life. Qi Bokun knew that Du Jinning advocated neutrality and was unwilling to join any factional disputes. So speaking of these examiners, he has regrets about Du Jinning.

The butt decides the head, no matter how colorful Du Jinning's article is, the examiner will only consider the people of his own faction, and will not make wedding clothes for others, and take people who are not from his own camp as Xie Yuan. Therefore, if Du Jinning remains neutral, it is almost hopeless to fight for Xie Yuan.

Qi Muyuan is Qi Bokun's grandson, and Qi Bokun naturally hopes that his grandson can take Xie Yuan. But Du Jinning's very good political performance and strong friendship with Qi Muyuan made Qi Bokun treat him as his own grandson. There are people outside the world, who knows what strong competitors will appear in the township test? With Du Jinning joining the competition for Xie Yuan, it is like adding double insurance. Du Jinning is better than letting others get it, right? No matter which of the two of them fell on this Xie Yuan, Qi Bokun would be very happy.

But Du Jinning is so neutral, the advantage is lost, and the double insurance is gone, how can this not make Qi Bokun regret?

When Du Jinning heard this, he didn't have any expression on his face, and he didn't seem to care about this.

Qi Bokun had to continue to explain: "Among the four people in the same examination, two of them are from the faction of the Four Princes; One is from the Five Princes' faction, and the other is Xiao Yi, who is a royalist. ”

Of the six internal officials, there are five political camps, which shows the fierceness of the political struggle, which makes Du Jinning can't help but shake his head.

Qi Bokun asked her, "Xiao Ning'er, what do you think about this?" ”

"Try your best to take the test, if you can be successful, I don't have any obsession with Xie Yuan." Du Jinning naturally knew that his chances of winning the Xie Yuan in the township test were very small, but he didn't care about it.

She turned her head to look at Qi Muyuan and said with a smile: "The burden of seizing Xie Yuan will be handed over to you." Keep it up. ”