Guo Yun glanced at everyone, and continued: "Fan Ning hasn't performed much in the past two years, he has always been the first place in the county school Luming Academy, but Wu County's strength itself is not weak, Fan Ning can win the top of the county scholar, it is enough for people not to be taken lightly, he ranks third in my opponent list." ”

Guo Yun took out another name and pasted it on the wooden board, "Yan Qing, the head of the county magistrate in Kunshan County, is thirteen years old, and he only stood out in January this year, ranking first in the county magistrate selection competition in which more than 1,000 students participated.

I have read his test papers, and he writes quite old-fashioned, although he is only thirteen years old, but his countermeasures are very far-sighted, and he sees the problem thoroughly, I don't believe that this is written by a thirteen-year-old boy at all, and I am afraid that even the average adult scholar cannot write it.

If he participates in the adult imperial examination, I think he can enter the top 10 of the exam, and on that basis, I ranked him second in the opponent list. ”

Guo Yun took out the third name and pasted it on the wooden board.

"Liu Ran, I believe everyone still remembers him, a little man who is not amazing, the first place in Wujiang County, he had a competition with us at the beginning of the year, ranked sixth, it doesn't look like it's very good, but I tell you that he concealed his strength in the competition at the beginning of the year."

Guo Yun's last sentence made a whisper resounded in the lobby, which had been quiet, this news was so shocking that it was deliberately concealing strength.

deliberately concealed his strength and took the sixth place in the exam, what if he went all out?

The ten county magistrates who were originally full of self-confidence were suddenly poured a basin of cold water, and everyone secretly thought, I am afraid that it will not be so easy to cover all five tribute soldiers.

"I don't know the true level of this Liu Ran, but with his scheming to hide his strength, I will list him as the first on the opponent list."

Speaking of this, Guo Yun's voice became high-pitched again.

"I don't say this to undermine everyone's confidence, I just want to tell you that we still have opponents, we must not take it lightly, we must guard against arrogance and rashness, answer questions calmly, as long as we do the above points, I believe we will still win five tributes in the end."

．．．．．．．．

At the fifth watch, someone began to knock on the door outside the door, Fan Ning woke up from his dream, he immediately sat up, and in the dark, Su Liang and Duan Yu also got up.

"Is it time?" Su Liang yawned and asked.

Fanning looked out the window, it was still dark and dreary, but there was already movement in the courtyard outside.

"It's supposed to be the fifth watch, get up!"

Everyone packed up last night, in fact, there was only a cloth bag, and there was only one floating ticket in it, that is, the admission ticket, which recorded the characteristics of the candidates in detail, such as height, face shape and other physical characteristics, and there was also a guarantor.

There is also a jug of water, which is only allowed to be brought into the examination hall.

Fanning wore a thicker blue fine linen robe, and the three exams were taken separately, so there was no need to spend the night in the exam number, and there was no need to bring bedding and mats.

He put on a half-worn turban and put on shoes and socks.

At this time, the well in the courtyard was full of ten county soldiers, everyone was busy fetching water and washing their faces, rinsing their mouths and brushing their teeth, no one spoke, everyone was busy with their own affairs, and the atmosphere seemed a little tense.

At this time, Zhao Xiuwen walked into the courtyard quickly, clapped his hands and said loudly: "Breakfast is ready, go to eat after freshening up, try to eat a little full, the food provided by the examination hall at noon will not be too good, and a meal in the morning is very important." ”

At the time of registration, each person paid 200 yuan, including the examination fee and a lunch, and the examination generally starts at 3 o'clock and ends in the afternoon, about 4 hours.

After breakfast, ten county magistrates and Xue Zheng Zhao Xiuwen and two assistant teachers took three ox carts to the examination institute.

Just walked less than a mile, Zhao Changgeng suddenly exclaimed, "I forgot to bring my floating ticket!" ”

Zhao Xiuwen's face suddenly sank, the thing they needed to carry the most was the floating ticket, that is, the admission ticket, such an important thing was actually forgotten, so what else to test?

Zhao Xiuwen immediately said to a teaching assistant: "You go and get it for him!" ”

Zhao Changgeng hurriedly said: "In the cloth bag at the head of the bed!" ”

The teaching assistant agreed, jumped out of the ox cart and galloped away.

The ox cart continued to travel south, and Zhao Changgeng patted his chest and said with a smile: "Fortunately, I remembered it in time, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered it until I arrived at the examination institute, and it would have been over!" ”

But no one paid attention to him next to him, Zhao Xiuwen's face was gloomy as water, and the appearance of such a moth on the eve of the exam was never a good sign.

．．．．．．．．

When everyone arrived at the examination center, it was not yet dawn, but the square in front of the examination hall was already crowded, and there were long queues in front of the ten entrances, and almost all of the more than 2,700 candidates had arrived.

The first step in entering the examination room is identification, that is, to prevent substitute examinations, and the second step is body search, and candidates are not allowed to bring any pieces of paper and items into the venue except for floating tickets and water bottles.

Once violated, severe punishment will be imposed depending on the severity of the circumstances, ranging from warnings to disqualification from the examination, and even disqualification from the substitute examination if it is found to be a substitute exam.

"Don't get separated, come with me!"

Zhao Xiuwen led everyone to the side door, they were participating in the children's test, which was different from normal candidates, and there was a special entrance channel.

Fan Ning looked left and right, he was looking for the other six junior disciples, it was not yet dawn, and there were too many people, I didn't see them, the six of them lived in Dong Kun's house, there should be no problem in the entrance link, the key is still to play on the spot.

There were already two teams lined up in front of the passage of the children's test, Su Liang touched Fan Ning with his elbow, and whispered: "In front of us are candidates from Changzhou County." ”

Fan Ning suddenly became interested, and looked at the ten scholars in front of him, the ten county soldiers of Changzhou County were the same as them, each carrying a cloth bag on their shoulders, and the line was arranged from short to tall.

"The first three!"

Su Liang gave Fan Ning a look, "It's the three gods who are high above, Jiang Feng, Yao Xi, and Luo Zaidao, with them, the other forty-seven county soldiers can only compete for the remaining two places." ”

Fan Ning saw that these three people looked quite arrogant, and the other Changzhou county soldiers all looked back at them, but these three people didn't look back, as if there were only three of them in the whole team.

Fanning smiled and said to himself, "Maybe this is called arrogance!" ”

At this time, the two Xuezheng stood aside and chatted, but Guo Yun's eyes kept sweeping to the team of scholars in Wu County, who was looking for Fanning.

Anyone who can enter his opponent's list cannot be taken lightly, and although Fanning is only third on his list, he still can't be underestimated.

Guo Yun's gaze finally fell on Fan Ning's face, although this scholar was dressed very ordinary, Guo Yun could feel that he had a different temperament.

The other scholars all looked nervous and pursed their mouths, but this one gave people the feeling of being a child, as if they didn't care about anything.

Guo Yun looked at Fan Ning's eyes again, but Fan Ning looked at him, only to see Fan Ning's eyes cold and extremely sharp, like a knife piercing his mind.

Guo Yun was shocked in his heart, and hurriedly avoided Fan Ning's gaze, he was secretly surprised in his heart, could this young man be Fan Ning?

"Zhao Xuezheng, who is the boy in the light blue scholar's suit?" Guo Yun looked at Fanning and asked.

Zhao Xuezheng smiled, "His name is Fan Ning, Guo Xuezheng should know this name!" ”

Guo Yun nodded, it was really interesting, I don't know how to learn from real talent?

With the guarantee of the school administration, the county magistrate's identification was very fast, and soon it was the turn of the county magistrate of Wu County, and behind them, the county magistrate of Kunshan County and the county magistrate of Wujiang County also came one after another.

"Next Fanning!"

Fan Ning hurriedly stepped forward, their floating tickets had been handed in in advance, and the examiner looked at the features on the floating tickets, he was five feet three tall, his body was thin, his face was slightly long, and his eyebrows were like swords.

The examiner nodded and asked again, "Where are you from?" ”

"Student, from Jiangwan Village, Mudu Town, Wu County!"

The examiner immediately glanced at Zhao Xiuwen, Zhao Xiuwen took out his private seal and stamped a seal on Fan Ning's floating ticket, which was his guarantee.

"That's it!"

The examiner casually took an exam card and handed it to Fanning, "Go in and search your body!" ”

Walking through the small door, two soldiers were already waiting, and they skillfully searched Fanning's whole body, even his hair and shoes and socks.

One last wave of the hand, "Pass!" ”

Fanning hurriedly came to a small stool and sat down, put on shoes and socks, and put on a headscarf.

At this time, Su Liang also searched in, and he asked with a smile, "Fanning, what is your volume number?" ”

The number on the exam card given to him by the examiner is the volume number, and this volume number is very important, because the Song Dynasty imperial examination implemented a vague name system, and the name was covered until after admission.

The four exams are not submitted at the same time, but are divided into three days, so that the papers of the same person are more scattered, so you need to write the volume number on the back of the paper, and then use the volume number to collect the test papers.

This volume number is also known as the lucky number, the candidates are very superstitious about this number, in the Song Dynasty also has an auspicious number, mainly three, six, nine three numbers, on behalf of the meaning of 'rise, slip, long'.

The other four are also taboo numbers.

Fanning looked at the exam card, Ding 673, Ding refers to the special symbol of the children's test, he smiled: "I am Ding 673, what about you?" ”

Su Liang said triumphantly: "I'm Ding Liuliuliu!" ”

"Good lip service, congratulations!"

"This is actually not interesting, this time I must be a foil."

"That's not necessarily, just go all out, don't think about the rest!"

The two soon arrived at the examination room, which consisted of thirty long alleys, each with a hundred huts, which could accommodate a total of 3,000 people to take the exam at the same time.

Fanning found Lane 8, and his exam room was at No. 24 Lane 8.

Walking through the long examination room, Fanning stopped, looked up at the number on one of the examination rooms, twenty-four, this is it.