The Qing Dynasty investigated and dealt with fraud cases, gave severe punishments, and also shook out some high-level ugliness behind the scenes, reflecting the decay of the imperial examination in the Qing Dynasty. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info here is one of the 5 cases:

Fourth: In the fiftieth year of Kangxi (1711), Shuntian Township test. As soon as the trial list was announced, the nameless ones were in an uproar. Because most of the students admitted were salt merchant disciples. The chief examiner is Zuo Bifan, and the deputy examiner is Zhao * Jin. Angry, he changed "Gongyuan" to "sold out". A couplet was posted in front of the Gongyuan: "Zhao Zilong is full of gall, Zuo Qiu Ming has eyes and no beads", stabbing the two chief examiners and deputy examiners. Emperor Kangxi ordered the Shangshu Zhang Pengxi, the governor Kali and the governor Zhang Boxing to jointly review it. Unexpectedly, Kali and Zhang Boxing were impeached by each other. Kangxi ordered Shangshu Zhang Pengxi and Mu Helun to examine Kali and Zhang Boxing successively, and both found Zhang Boxing guilty. Emperor Kangxi believed in Zhang Boxing's innocence and was suspicious of Zhang and Mu's conclusions. So he ordered Jiuqing, Yushi, and to interrogate the matter, only to find out that Kali and Zuo Bifan colluded and acted misbehaps. As a result, Kali and Zuo Bifan were dismissed, and Zhao * Jin and others were executed.

In the TV series "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", when Liu Yong participated in the imperial examination, the examiner and Wang Shen cheated in the scientific examination for personal gain, resulting in the stupid high school champion, Bangyan, and Tanhua, although Liu Yong was full of economic Lun, he fell off the list, Liu Yong broke the fraud and complained for many students, risking his life to change the "Tribute Academy" plaque to "sold out", which provoked the emperor's anger and arrested Liu Yong on the spot. The three of them were passed on to the Golden Palace, and the Qianlong Emperor personally examined them, and the three of them were revealed in their original form, and then the emperor announced that Liu Yong's test papers were transferred to the palace, and Qianlong immediately appointed Liu Yong as the champion of the gold list.

What I remember most clearly is that Emperor Qianlong took the new title of the couplet "a line of geese fly south", but I didn't expect the champion to come out with "two roast ducks going north", which made the emperor cry and laugh on the spot, and the true level of the champion was immediately exposed in front of the emperor and the ministers.

In the TV series, the story of Liu Yong's change from "Gongyuan" to "sold out" actually comes from the Jiangnan Township Trial in the 50th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. After the incident was leaked, Jiangnan Juzi was so angry that he rewrote the word "Gongyuan" to "sold out", and carried the clay statue of the God of Wealth to the temple of Confucius. When Kangxi heard the news, he immediately sent personnel to Jiangnan to investigate the case. After several twists and turns, he was finally removed from his post as governor of Liangjiang, and all the criminals involved in the fraud in the department were beheaded.