After nine days and six nights, Wei Chen's candidates finally finished the exam, but the examiners in the public hall continued to be busy.

After the candidates finished answering the first question, the ink scrolls handed in were like the township exams, the papers were sealed, transcribed and read, and after confirming that they were correct, the prison officials escorted the scrolls to the inner curtain of the public hall.

In the six-year examination, there are a total of 17 rooms, which are divided into five rooms for the Book of Changes, five rooms for the Book of Poetry, three rooms for the Book of Books, two rooms for the Spring and Autumn Period, and two rooms for the Book of Rites.

Among the seventeen examiners, there are eleven from Hanlin, three from Kedao officials, and three from the sixth department.

Among these fellow examiners, the three tripings of the previous imperial examinations accounted for more than half, and all of them were middle- and high-grade Beijing officials with profound knowledge and outstanding talents.

And the two examiners who presided over the national talent selection ceremony are even more terrifying.

Xu Mu is the main examiner of the examination, and he is the prince Shaobao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the scholar of Longtuge University, from the first grade.

Liu Tingxi, the deputy chief examiner, is a bachelor of Zhan Shi and Hanlin of Zhan Shifu, and he is a third grade.

After the first Zhu roll was delivered, Xu Mu, the chief examiner, and Liu Tingxi, the deputy examiner, led seventeen fellow examiners to the portrait of the "Dacheng Holy Master" in the lobby.

The two examiners stepped forward to burn three incense sticks, and then bowed three times and bowed nine times, and the rest of the examiners followed up and saluted in turn.

Let's try it soon, everyone. 】

Under the gaze of the Holy Master, Xu Mu led all the examiners to swear: "For the country's society, do not show favoritism, do not be invited, do not accept bribes, and the gods will die together." ”

This is the same rule for hundreds of years, after going through this process, the two examiners will preside, and after the seventeen fellow examiners draw lots, each will be assigned a stack of red scrolls.

After the chief examiner Xu Mu announced the request to take the papers, the examiners returned to their respective rooms, tore open the papers, and distributed the papers to the three subordinate markers, who read the papers first.

First of all, look at the number of words in the article, and the papers with less than 300 words in the four books or less than 500 words in the Five Classics will not be taken.

Then, those articles that violate taboos in words should also be eliminated, such as those that violate the name of a saint or the temple number, etc., are not taken.

In addition, if it is found that the examinee has particularly deviant sophistries and heresies in the article, he or she will even report to the Ministry of Rites, investigate the examinee's responsibility, cut off the original fame, and retire from the people.

There have always been more than 200 papers in each room, and there are 30 or 40 volumes that have been dethroned because of various violations.

As the first sieve of the marking work, the marking officer can be described as a heavy responsibility, and the pen in his hand is related to the fate of every candidate.

Therefore, when the marking officer read the file, he was trembling and meticulous, and he did not dare to miss a word.

At this time, in the Shangshu scripture room, the same examiner Xue Yungong and the three marking officers under his command were reading the papers all night.

Xue Yun bowed his head, and Yang Lin, the marking officer with bloodshot eyes, had just rated one of the papers in his hand as the last grade, and then pulled out the next one from the unread papers.

According to the rules, there are 30 recommended papers for each room, of which 20 are the main papers, and there are 10 preparation papers.

At present, the recommended volume of this room is almost full, but there are still a lot of unread volumes, so when he picked up the volume in his hand, Yang Lin also looked at it with a critical gaze.

Let's take a look at the problem first: "Learn for a long time and specialize, call it the most beautiful." ”

The word "learning" is concise and concise, and it can be regarded as reading the deep meaning of the sage, but it is not unique to break the problem to this step.

Yang Lin rubbed his eyebrows, took a sip of tea, and continued to read, reading the sentence while carefully reading the text.

Gradually, his gaze seemed to be trapped in the article, and he couldn't pull it out......

After a long time, Yang Lin, who had read the whole article, raised his head in amazement, recalling the words and meanings in the article.

"Therefore, if you don't listen to it, but you can do it in your heart, just this one sentence, you will get the fun of a saint!"

Yang Lin's eyes were full of excitement, and he took the pen and was about to draw a circle, when he suddenly seemed to think of something, and suddenly stopped the movement in his hand.

The number of recommended papers is full, and this extra one means that one of the recommended papers will be out, Yang Lin is just a marking officer, so he doesn't dare to make this kind of decision rashly.

Frowning and thinking for a moment, Yang Lin finally put down his pen and walked towards Xue Yungong, the same examiner, explaining his concerns.

After Xue Yungong understood the situation, he asked Yang Lin to continue to go back to read the papers, and he picked up the papers sent by Yang Lin and read them.

After reading the article carefully, Xue Yungong couldn't help nodding lightly, and after a while, he took out another article from the eucalyptus.

This is a positive volume that is ready to be recommended, and the article is also excellent among the thirty recommended papers, Xue Yungong wants to compare this volume with the two volumes that Fang just saw, so that it is convenient to have a reference.

After comparing the seven articles one by one, Xue Yungong exhaled heavily, and he had a conclusion in his heart.

"Turning the pen to the pen, this volume is more clever. Such a majestic and majestic wind, non-pedantic Confucianism can't do it! ”

smiled slightly, picked up the pen and wrote a comment in the blank space behind the volume sent by Yang Lin: "Gao Zhiwei, sent as Hongyin, this is really the fun of a saint!" ”

After that, this volume was classified into the stack of recommended papers in this room, and it was at the top.

……

The examiners of each room followed the process, day after day, and in a blink of an eye, it was the end of February, and it was finally time for the exam to be determined.

Although it was daytime, the door of the public hall was still closed, and the red candles were lit inside, and all the outer curtain officials and inner curtain officials who would take the test gathered together.

In the seventeenth room, a total of 340 main papers were selected, 170 preparation papers, and the main and deputy examiners went down to collect the falling papers, which were placed together in the hall and piled up in three stacks.

After the chief examiner Xu Mu, the deputy chief examiner Liu Tingxi and the seventeen same examiners went to the statue of the Holy Ancestor to offer incense, Xu Mu said: "Let's start filling in the list." ”

The number of candidates in each room has nothing to do with the marking officer, but it is closely related to the same examiner in each room.

In order to have a few more good students, the examiners in each room are fighting for the papers in their own rooms, and they are competing with other examiners.

The controversy lasted for two days, and finally came to an end, and the last 290 were all arranged in turn, and only the volume of the Five Classics was still in the hall.

The scroll sent by Xue Yungong is also among them, and now it has been designated as Shangshu Jingfang Jingkui, and the word Weichen can be seen on the scroll with the name of the lake opened.

The papers of the five classics are arranged in order for the 17 examiners and the two examiners to determine the final ranking.

Zhang Maoxiu, one of the same examiners and also the director of the Ministry of Engineering, took the lead in speaking: "Xia Guan thinks that Xu Lin's article on the Book of Poetry is slightly better, and it can be Huiyuan. ”

After Zhang Maoxiu finished speaking, another fellow examiner, Qiu Zhongyi, a member of the household department, also echoed: "The lower officials also think that Xu Lin's article is better. ”

Seeing that the two same examiners expressed their positions one after another, the chief examiner Xu Mu smiled slightly, and was about to speak, when he suddenly heard the sound of the table, and one of them suddenly got up, and shouted angrily:

"Have you forgotten how you swore in front of the Holy Master before?"