After the white dew, the weather is getting cooler day by day.

Entering September, it means the advent of the imperial examination month, this year's examination is scheduled for the eighth day of September, at that time, more than 600 prefectures, prefectures, and armies of the Great Song Dynasty will be examined at the same time.

The chief examiner of the examination is determined by the Ministry of Rites of the Imperial Court, and it is mainly transferred from other places.

Although the government does not announce the chief examiner of Pingjiang Mansion this year, everyone still knows from various sources that the chief examiner of Pingjiang Mansion this year is Shi Zhouzhen, the governor of Qi.

For a time, all kinds of news about Zhou Zhen circulated among scholars, some people said that he was biased towards "Mencius", some people said that he liked fresh and light poems, and some people said that he paid special attention to calligraphy.

All kinds of rumors stirred the mood of the scholars, and there were still three days before the imperial examination, and the scholars of the five counties gathered in Changzhou County, which made Changzhou County particularly lively.

At noon on this day, the North Restaurant of Changzhou County was full of guests, which is close to the examination institute, and most of the guests on the seats were candidates from various counties.

They sat in groups of three or five, or two people sitting opposite each other, all whispering about this year's test solution, which made the restaurant particularly noisy.

"I heard that there are 300 more candidates who took the exam this year than last year, and there are more than 2,700 people, and the situation this year is grim!"

In the corner by the window on the second floor sat seven or eight young scholars, all of whom were students of the Fuxue.

According to the regulations, Fuxue students can also participate in the imperial examination, and they can even take the examination directly without a recommendation.

"It's normal, every year there are new candidates joining, but there are very few people who take the exam to solve the exam, and of course the number of candidates will increase every year."

"Hey! The imperial court only gave us fifty places in Pingjiang Mansion, although it was already quite a lot compared to other state capitals, but it was still too fierce to compete for one person for more than fifty people. ”

"Brother Xie can change his age to a few years younger and participate in the children's exam! Only ten people competed for a place in the boy test, and Brother Xie had a great chance. ”

Everyone burst into laughter, and the scholar surnamed Xie laughed a few times, and then he turned the topic to another scholar beside him, "Tong Zhong, I heard that your nephew is also participating in this year's children's exam?" ”

This Fan brother is Fan Ning's fourth uncle Fan Tongzhong, he got Zhu Yuanfu's help to enter the house to study, and his father-in-law happened to have a small courtyard in Changzhou County, so he asked him to take his wife over to live with him.

Fan Tongzhong was funded by the Zhu family's bursary, and he could receive three yuan a month, plus free tuition, and his father-in-law, who was wealthy, continued to help his daughter, so that Fan Tongzhong had a very nourishing life in the past two years.

He picked up his wine glass and said with a smile: "I think it's not easy for a boy to take the test, and being selected as a county soldier is already a single-plank bridge with thousands of troops, unlike the adult imperial examination, where you can have qualifications for spending two small dollars to find a few people to recommend, and their qualifications are really killed." ”

"Lao Fan is right!"

Another scholar said: "I have a distant relative who is also a county magistrate in Wujiang, and I heard his father say that more than 2,000 children in Wujiang County signed up for the county taxi selection competition, and in the end, only ten people were selected, and the other counties are similar. ”

Fan Tongzhong smiled, "Actually, we've all experienced it, have you forgotten?" ”

At this time, a soldier went up to the second floor and walked quickly, "I'm sorry! I'm late. ”

"Ah Tao is here, please take a seat!"

Everyone invited this scholar named Ah Tao to sit down like the stars holding the moon, and then surrounded him and asked, "What's the latest news?" ”

This Ah Tao is obviously a well-informed person, he smiled mysteriously, "The news from Qizhou has come, do you want to listen to it?" ”

Since it was determined that the chief examiner of Pingjiang Mansion was Zhou Zhen, a teacher of Qizhou Prefecture, many people inquired about the news from Qizhou through various channels, and the first to get the news were some big booksellers.

According to the usual practice, the two deputy examiners will each take out 100 examination papers, and the chief examiner will select 50 from the 200 examination papers as the final admitter.

Although it still needs to be approved by the Pingjiang Prefecture, the possibility of rejection is actually very small.

Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the preferences of the examiner, especially his political bias, otherwise even if the exam paper is answered with flowers, the political bias is contrary to the examiner, and the same name is lost.

Especially after the reform of Qingli, the contest between the enlightened faction and the conservative faction in the imperial court has never stopped, and which faction the chief examiner Zhou Zhen prefers has become the focus of everyone's attention.

Ah Tao looked at both sides and whispered: "This Zhou Sect is said to have a good relationship with Fu Bi, and during Fu Bi's demotion to Qingzhou, they often drank wine and tea together. ”

Everyone suddenly realized, it seems that this Zhou Zhen belongs to the enlightened faction.

Fan Tongzhong was secretly thinking in his heart, whether to reveal this news to his nephew Fan Ning.

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Fan Ning and ten other Wuxian county scholars lived in the Qiulin Zen Temple near Changmen ten days ago.

Although Wu County and Changzhou County are very close, if you wait for Changzhou County to open the city gate, and then rush to the examination institute to order Mao, it will be a bit too late in time.

Therefore, the candidates in Wu County will go to Changzhou County in advance to seek refuge with relatives, rent private houses, or live in inns, and Changzhou County, with a population of 200,000, is more than enough to digest two or three thousand candidates.

The land of Qiulin Temple originally belonged to the county government of Wu County, and was later donated to the temple, and the temple reciprocated the favor and was willing to solve the accommodation problem of the scholars for the Wu County government.

The county magistrates of Wu County who have held the imperial examinations have lived here.

In the pavilion in the back garden of the Zen temple, Fan Ning is sitting with Su Liang and Duan Yu drinking tea.

After more than two years of studying at the tea house of the county school, Fanning learned to order tea, a basic social skill of the literati of the Song Dynasty.

Most of the students from scholarly backgrounds learn to order tea at the age of seven or eight.

Su Liang lowered his head and sniffed the tea can, and said with a smile: "It's actually Fengcha, where did you get it from?" ”

Dragon tea and phoenix tea are the top teas, and the advantages and disadvantages of tea cakes in the Song Dynasty are not only as simple as the place of origin, but also the follow-up production and even maintenance are extremely important.

Like dragon tea and phoenix tea, they are also Jianzhou tea, and if they are made well-made, they can be called milk, stone milk and white milk, which are the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of tea cakes.

The key is also to raise tea, raise tea for three years, keep the color, fragrance and quality unchanged, then the tea can be upgraded to the third level, Jingting.

As for dragon tea and phoenix tea, it should be carefully raised for at least ten years, and the rich tea fragrance will precipitate, so that the tea fragrance will still have an endless aftertaste after soaking in water ten times, which is the best in tea.

Zhu Pei gave Fan Ning three tea cakes before entering Beijing, and Fan Ning only later learned that Zhu Pei gave him Feng tea, which was a tribute to the palace, and only the dignitaries in the capital had the opportunity to enjoy it.

At most, the top teahouse only uses Jingting, and you can drink phoenix tea in the alum building in the capital, but a phoenix tea costs at least twenty taels of silver.

Many wealthy businessmen go to Alum House to drink tea, largely to taste the taste of phoenix tea.

Fanning smiled and scooped a level scoop of tea with a teaspoon.

Scooping tea is a very important part of tea, less tea and more soup, it will not reach the degree of water and milk, and the surface of the tea will not be foaming, which is called 'cloud foot scattering'.

On the contrary, if you scoop too much tea, the surface of the tea soup is thick like porridge, and the surface of the tea cannot foam, which is called 'porridge noodle gathering'.

Tea must be no more, no less, and grasping the right amount depends on experience, and Fanning has failed many times before gradually finding the feeling.

Put the tea powder into the rabbit black cup, then pour a small amount of boiling water, mix the tea powder into a thick paste, and be sure to stir evenly, which is the key to whether the tea soup can be delicate.

The next step is to order the climax of tea and pour water.

Generally, the left hand holds the soup bottle and the right hand holds the tea whisk.

Fanning lifted the soup bottle and poured water into the teacup, and a steaming thin line erupted from the teapot.

The key point of ordering water is that the hand should be steady, the landing point should be accurate, and there should be rhythm, and the boiling water must be poured into the tea cup at a point, which will not destroy the tea surface.

The tea whisk in the right hand should quickly rotate and blow and whisk the tea soup in the tea cup to make it a soup flower, that is, a bubble, and the real tea master will make the soup flower become a thousand postures, or animals, or birds, or flowers.

'The genus of birds, beasts, fish, insects, flowers and plants, delicate and picturesque, will be extinguished in a moment. ’

This is called tea splitting, and only a master of tea ordering can do it.

The first tea master in the Northern Song Dynasty, Nanping Qian of Jingci Temple in Nanshan, Xihu Lake, is said to be able to draw the landscape of West Lake on the tea surface, and is known as 'Samadhi'.

Su Dongpo wrote a poem specifically for him:

'The Taoist came out of Nanping Mountain to try the tea samadhi. Suddenly, the noon rabbit spotted and played as a spring urn goose wine. ’

Of course, Fanning is far from the realm of dividing tea, and most scholars can't do it, but the top tea prostitutes in top teahouses can do it.

The literati fight tea, one bucket of soup color, two buckets of water marks, soup color refers to who ordered the tea is stronger and whiter.

And the bucket water marks are actually more than foam,

Whoever lights up the more foam, the longer it lasts, and the later the water marks will be revealed.

Soon, the foam in the teacup came out, and it gushed higher and higher, like beer foaming, and the foam had overflowed the teacup, but did not flow down, and hung firmly on the eaves of the teacup, and finally became a hemispherical shape.

Duan Yu and Su Liang clapped their hands together and praised, "It's like a ball of snow foam, no wonder Zhang Jiaoyu praised you for making the most progress in ordering tea." ”

"Amitabha, a good tea ordered by a petty official!"

The three of them turned around, but they were the abbot of Qiulin Zen Temple, Master Dazang.

The three of them hurriedly got up and saluted, and Fan Ning said modestly: "The mage has won the prize!" ”

Master Dazang smiled and said, "I was just passing by here, and by the way, I told Fan Xiaoguan that there are guests visiting in the front yard!" ”