April 12th.

Morning.

The direction of Jiangning Mansion School Palace is already full of people.

If you can see at night, you will see that the north bank of the Qinhuai River is densely packed with sedan chairs, horse-drawn carts, and even donkey carts and ox carts, and even the river is crowded with large and small boats.

There are ten counties under Jiangning Prefecture, in addition to Jiangning and Shangyuan in the city, there are eight counties of Dangtu, Jurong, Liuhe, Jiangpu, Gaochun, Youyang, Fanchang and Tongling.

These candidates from all over the world, the number of people is more than three times that of the Youyang County exam, and they gather here for the same purpose, that is-

House test!

In the darkness before dawn, more than 3,000 candidates crowded in front of the examination room, taking the county as a unit, waiting for the entrance of the government examination, and various shouts in the square came and went.

"Are there any candidates from Jiangpu County, come to me!"

"Come here from Pingshan Academy, come to the west of the examination room!"

"Candidates from Youyang County, come to the Niutou Lantern!"

……

The bull head lantern in Youyang County is carried with a long bamboo pole, which is very conspicuous in the dark night.

Wei Chen, Sheng Changbai and Chen Jun looked for a while, and then they saw the bull's head in the air, and squeezed over with the test basket at the moment.

The teacher of Youyang County is the leader of the candidates in Youyang County, and he is maintaining order in the team of candidates at this time, and when he saw Wei Chen and the three of them coming, he immediately said: "Wei Chen, Sheng Changbai, the two of you can go to the northwest corner of the examination room and wait alone." ”

"Ah, do you want to squeeze it again?"

Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai stood on tiptoe and looked at the crowd of black presses, glanced at each other helplessly, sighed and continued to squeeze towards the northwest corner.

After squeezing a long way, Wei Chen suddenly felt a chill in his left foot, and when he looked down, his shoes were gone.

Wei Chen couldn't help but be speechless for a while, this is too unlucky!

Finally squeezed through the sea of people to the place, there was already a group of people standing here with lanterns, these are the top ten in the county test, Wei Chen saw several familiar faces in it, Tao Dazhi, Wang Yaochen, and a few in Youyang County.

As soon as Wei Chen saw Tao Dazhi, the first thing he said was: "Are there any extra shoes?" ”

After hearing what Wei Chen meant, Tao Dazhi smiled understandingly: "Brother Wei was also stepped on?" ”

The candidates next to them all felt the same way when they heard this, and they came up and said:

"Me too."

"My hat is all off!"

"My pen was also broken!"

To Weichen's surprise, Wang Yaochen, who had always been quite cold in his eyes, actually chimed in: "My inkstone was also broken." ”

Wei Chen glanced at Wang Yaochen in surprise, didn't think much about it, and asked everyone: "Then what did you do?" ”

Wang Yaochen pouted: "I bought it now." ”

Wei Chen was taken aback: "There are still merchants here?" ”

Tao Dazhi said with a smile: "Brother Wei doesn't know, there are so many people in the government examination every year, I don't know how many shoes and hats are squeezed out, and I don't know how many broken pen, ink, paper, and inkstones, but the examination room stipulates that you are not allowed to enter if you are not neatly dressed. ”

"I see."

Wei Chen suddenly realized, this is really a business opportunity everywhere!

After a while, a merchant wearing a uniform and carrying a burden passed by, and Tao Dazhi beckoned him to stop.

Wei Chen took a look through the lantern, and sure enough, there were all kinds of food, stationery, shoes and hats in the burden, and when he asked again, a pair of cloth shoes cost one or two silver!

This price is more than dozens of times higher than what is sold outside!

However, no matter how expensive the other party sells, Wei Chen has to buy it, otherwise he will not be able to enter the examination room.

So Wei Chen had no choice but to be slaughtered obediently, took out the silver and bought a pair of cloth shoes, and put them on his feet.

At this time, the bangzi made a loud noise, the dragon gate slowly opened, and the candidates lined up in a line of fifty people waiting to be searched and entered.

Wei Chen experienced the search during the county test, and felt that it was not so strict, but when he arrived at the government test, he saw the power of this search.

The candidates stood in front of the dragon gate one by one, undressed and took off their shoes, and even their hair buns had to be loosened, and then took out the things in the examination basket one by one to be searched.

There was a candidate in front of him, and when the messenger found him, he couldn't stop shaking.

The errand officer realized that something was wrong, and when he saw that the candidate's legs were clamped tightly, he kicked and scolded: "Legs open!" ”

The examinee trembled and spread his legs, and the officer reached into his crotch and pulled out a stack of papers.

The messenger threw the paper on the ground and scolded: "You old rammer, all the entrainment has been carried to the valley road!" Someone came, picked up his pants, and pulled him to see Fuzun! ”

The two officers were ordered to step forward and pick up the candidate's pants, and the candidate struggled hard while shouting: "Don't do this, it's insulting!" ”

The officer scolded: "What are you talking about, pick it up for me!" ”

When the candidate was taken away, Wei Chen saw his face clearly, and it turned out to be the gray-haired old Confucian student he had seen when he had signed up earlier.

The old Confucian broke free and fell to the ground, tears falling down: "Uncle, okay, please spare me this time, the old man passed the county exam at the age of seventeen, but the government exam went back and forth dozens of times." The old man just wants to get a child! ”

The messenger said coldly: "I took you, what will others do?" It's useless to beg me, if you have anything to say, go to the mansion and say it! ”

When the words fell, the two errand officers took away the old Confucian who was running around the country, and the candidates on the side were all talking, and Wei Chen was also embarrassed when he saw this.

After the search, Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai entered the examination room with the flow of people, and after a series of procedures such as checking their identities, Wei Chen got a paper with his seat number written on it, and it was also stamped with the word "Tang".

Wei Chen greeted Sheng Changbai, and the two walked directly to the public hall, where was their examination room.

When he arrived in the hall, he saw the prefect Shen Du sitting on a high-backed chair, his eyes swept to the bottom of the hall, and Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai immediately bowed their heads and waved at him.

Governor Shen's gaze stayed on the two of them for a moment, and he didn't say anything, and quickly looked at the other candidates.

When Governor Shen's eyes aside, Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai secretly breathed a sigh of relief and took their seats according to the seat number.

At the end of the candidates' admission, Governor Shen gave a lecture according to the script, which was nothing more than observance of the discipline in the examination room.

However, after the regular lecture, Shen Zhifu added: "This official has a total of nine sets of questions, and I guarantee that each of you will get different questions from the people before and after." So everyone, please concentrate on answering your papers, don't talk to each other, and don't look around, because even if you succeed in peeking, it will be useless! ”

Before Governor Shen's voice fell, the candidates in the hall were already in an uproar.

This is also too bad, nine sets of questions in one exam, which is blocking the way to cheat!

As soon as the noise started, I heard the soldiers guarding the examination room shouting in unison.

"Silence!"

Governor Shen's voice turned cold and said: "From now on, if there is a slight violation of discipline, you will be expelled from the examination room immediately!" ”

The candidates were instantly silent.

"Now send the exam questions, the exam begins!"