"When-when-when-"

On the third watch, the bell from the southeast of the Great Zhou Gongyuan came into the simple house, waking up Wei Chen, who had slept for a long time.

Wei Chen opened his eyes with some difficulty, his mind was still drowsy, and the short sleep of two hours was not enough to replenish the energy he had consumed these days.

Getting up from the couch, Wei Chen rubbed his temples that were a little sore, looked around the scene in the room, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.

A portrait of the Holy Master, a hard couch, a table, a bucket, this is all the belongings in the hut where Wei Chen is, and nothing else.

The doors and windows of the house were nailed, and only one pane could be opened to deliver food or something.

Through the pane, you can also see the scene in the courtyard outside, full of sergeants of the Imperial City Division, three steps, one sentry, five steps and one post, and the guards are extremely tight.

This is the treatment of the main examiner in the hall.

On the day he was appointed as the chief examiner of the examination, Wei Chen was taken to this Great Zhou Gongyuan by the sergeant of the Imperial City Division, and then locked up in it.

Until the release of the list, Wei Chen had to stay here, neither going home, nor meeting relatives and friends, or interacting with ministers outside the Gongyuan, to prevent the occurrence of imperial examination fraud such as leaking questions and asking for help.

Although Wei Chen understood the necessity of locking the courtyard early on, no matter what, he was locked in the tribute courtyard for half a month and was not allowed to go out, and his every move had to be closely monitored, and it was inconvenient to do anything, this kind of life still made Wei Chen feel quite bored.

Fortunately, today is the ninth day of the second lunar month, and the day of the examination is not far away.

After a brief grooming, Wei Chen dressed neatly, and walked out of the house and came to the public court.

In the public hall, the examiners had almost arrived, and the deputy chief examiner Ding Siquan was sitting in the hall with the same examiners.

Seeing Wei Chen's arrival, everyone immediately got up together and bowed to the chief examiner.

With the examiner, Wei Chen answered, and then the deputy examiner Ding Siquan invited Wei Chen to sit down, and he sat under Wei Chen, and all the same examiners also sat down.

In this examination, the same examiner selected from the Beijing officials, first on the subject, then on the character, and then on the knowledge, and a total of 18 people were selected.

Among the eighteen same examiners, three were the imperial history of the Imperial Inspectorate, three were officials of the six departments, and twelve of the Hanlin officials were selected as the same examiners due to the advantages of the department, including Li Zuochang, Sheng Changbai, Chen Shao and others.

However, the court is a solemn place, and on this occasion, even if they are close friends, they don't talk much, just nod their heads to each other, and then drink tea, sit silently, and wait for the auspicious time to come.

waited until the fourth watch, only to hear three cannons outside the dragon gate of the Gongyuan, and the candidates began to enter, Wei Chen and the examiners slowly got up and came to the Mingyuan Building in the center of the examination room in the south of the Zhigong Hall.

Mingyuan Building is three floors high, is the commanding height of the entire Gongyuan, specially used for inspection and invigilation, standing on the upper floor can overlook the entire examination room, the candidates' every move is in full view.

Accompanied by the examiners, Wei Chen climbed to the third floor of Mingyuan Building, leaning on the railing and looking down, but saw that the candidates were carrying the examination baskets and entering the corridor, and were searched one by one in the corridor between the dragon gate and the instrument gate.

The inspectors took the roster and checked the names, places of origin, ages, and appearances of the candidates, while the sergeants searched the candidates.

These candidates were able to come here, at least because they were famous, but the search sergeant did not treat them with any courtesy, and during the search, they went up to the poor hairline and down to the swollen knees, and none of them were missed.

If it was placed when Wei Chen took the county exam for the first time, he would definitely frown unhappily when he saw this insulting scene.

But Wei Chen has been tested all the way and has experienced too many searches, and his mentality has long been clear.

Moreover, now that he is the examiner of the examination, he naturally understands that this is not the time for mercy, and if he lets go of some lucky people, it will be a great injustice to the candidates who abide by the rules.

Wei Chen was afraid that the search inspectors would save too much face for these old men and not search carefully enough, so he specially called Gu Wan, the head of the Imperial City Division in charge of the search, and repeatedly told him that he must search carefully, and would rather let the candidates enter later than have any perfunctory search in the matter.

Gu Wan immediately took the order and left, ordered his subordinate sergeants to strengthen the search later, and re-searched the hundreds of people who had been searched before, and sure enough, he found two fish that had slipped through the net.

"I've been shackled, deprived of my qualifications for the examination, and dragged to the outside of the Tribute Courtyard to show the public!"

After Wei Chen announced the fate of the two cheaters, he glanced at Gu Wan who came to report in front of him, and his eyes showed a little dissatisfaction.

There was a mistake in the errand, and he was caught by his boss, Gu Wan's face was a little unbearable, and it was not good for Wei Chen to attack, so he could only hold back the evil fire in his stomach and vent to the candidates below.

At this time, the candidates behind were unlucky, they were ravaged by the sergeants of the Imperial City Division led by Gu Wan, and they were all disheveled and disheveled, as if they had just escaped from somewhere.

Wei Chen was still standing upstairs in Mingyuan with his hands in his hands, staring at the search below with a cold expression.

Ding Siquan, the deputy chief examiner beside him, and a group of fellow examiners saw Wei Chen's unangry and self-righteous main examiner bearing, and their hearts were full of emotion.

Twenty-year-old will take the main exam!

If it were someone else, I'm afraid that the Da Zhou scholars would have been in a lot of uproar.

But this person is Wei Chen.

That's a different story.

Wei Chen's age is indeed not very old, but in terms of the imperial examination alone, there are really few people who can compare with his qualifications.

Who made Wei Chen not only pass the top prize at the age of fifteen, but also the sixth yuan and the first place that no one has ever passed before?

After Weichen Liuyuan and the first, he was already a living legend in the hearts of readers, and was worshiped by scholars all over the world.

Moreover, as Wei Chen's "Tan Wenlu" has gradually spread over the years, benefiting thousands of candidates all over the world, Wei Chen's reputation has been pushed to another peak.

With these premises, Wei Chen's coming to do this will be regarded as a matter of expectation, but as for age or something, it has become secondary.

The deputy chief examiner Ding Siquan is two rounds older than Wei Chen, but what's the use, he can only be below Wei Chen.

To be honest, Ding Siquan is still a little jealous of Wei Chen, after all, when Wei Chen was a bachelor at the beginning, his seat in the Hanlin Academy was still below Ding Siquan.

And now, Ding Siquan is the deputy chief examiner of the examination, but Wei Chen is already the chief examiner, and the gap between the circumstances before and after will inevitably make Ding Siquan a little disappointed.

However, this little emotion, once compared with the benefits that can be obtained by befriending this Wei Shaozhan in front of him, suddenly seems insignificant.

Now that the new monarch has been on the throne for nearly a year, the contradiction between Zhao Zongquan and the Empress Dowager Cao has become more and more prominent, and the dispute between the emperor and the queen in the court has almost reached the point of undisguised, but Wei Chen, the main exam, can be jointly recognized by the Son of Heaven and the Queen Mother, which shows how stable Wei Chen's position in the court is.

Coupled with Wei Chen's current age and ...... achievements, in short, Ding Siquan has secretly made up his mind in his heart, this time he will preside over the examination, and he will never rely on the identity of the deputy chief examiner to do his own thing, everything is only Wei Chen's first vision.