The prefecture examination is also held once a year, but it is slightly different from the county examination. Because it has been upgraded to the level of the state capital, it is much stricter both in terms of procedure and degree.
First of all, there is a special venue. This venue is dedicated for exams. It is a very wide and huge square. There will be small tables placed at regular intervals. Candidates will complete the exam for several days on this small table.
Secondly, the examiners are divided into officials inside the curtain and officials outside the curtain, who are isolated from each other.
The so-called "inside and outside the curtain" refers to the examiners who invigilate the exam at the exam site and the examiners who judge the papers after the exam.
The officials inside and outside the curtain entered the examination room one or two days before the exam, locked the courtyard, and collectively burned incense in the sky and swore an oath to each other.
The examiner is the examiner responsible for setting questions and marking papers, including the chief examiner and fellow examiners. This time, the chief examiner of the curtain official is still Shen Yuan, and the co-examiner is a teacher selected from each county.
There are many officials outside the curtain, including promotion officers, supervisors, supervisors, inspectors, inspectors, supply officers, etc., who are filled by officials at all levels in the state government.
This is also the first government examination that Shen Yuan has presided over after he moved to Yunzhou Economics School. When he was presiding over the county examination in Qinghe County, the same examiner almost rejected Zhao Cheng's test paper. If Shen Yuan hadn't had a whim, he went to the waste paper box and rummaged through it. Maybe Zhao Cheng will fail.
If this kind of thing really happened, it would undoubtedly be a great challenge to Shen Yuan, so this time Shen Yuan closed the courtyard early, and then he did not disclose the test questions to anyone, and after writing them silently, he sealed them in in the box.
Then the box was transported to the printing room under supervision. After enough test papers were printed, the seal was affixed on the spot, and the seal was inspected and signed by the outside officer.
On the day of the exam, when these test papers are distributed on the spot, they will be signed and sealed again.
These two signatures are called sealing signature and unsealing signature respectively.
In terms of test papers alone, the procedure is already more cumbersome than the county test, and other aspects are even worse. What's more, this time it was especially strengthened at Shen Yuan's strong request.
Because the examiners who were grading and judging the papers this time were still teachers drawn from various counties, Shen Yuan was not sure whether the scene that happened in the last Qinghe County examination would happen again.
If the candidate Zhao Cheng was really targeted, the method this time would be more subtle.
But as the examiner, Shen Yuan had no choice. He could only try to be fair and try to provide a stricter environment to ensure this fairness.
Zhao Cheng and An Dongjun, who had stayed in the inn for three days, arrived outside the examination room early. It was not bright yet, it was dark, and the examination room was already full of candidates.
"Brother Zhao, I hope you are still at the top of the high school this time!" An Dongjun waved his fist at Zhao Cheng.
Zhao Cheng knew that as long as he passed this exam, he would be a Gongsheng student and would be one step closer to Da Chen's officialdom.
"Yeah! Let's work hard together!"
At this time, on the road from Shangjing to Yunzhou, a carriage was speeding on the official road.
There are two coachmen, one is sitting there and the other is observing the situation.
The carriage at the back is not big, but the paving inside is obviously thick enough, so even if there are occasional bumps, the people in the carriage can endure it without saying a word.
There was only one person in the carriage. He was in his forties, with a short black beard on his round face and crooked eyes. He looked very kind and made people feel approachable.
If there are officials in Beijing here at this time, they will recognize this person at a glance. He is Su Zaixing, who is known as the selfless iron censor.
Although the road was slightly bumpy, Su Zaixing could lie down in the carriage and read a book. He was not worried at all about whether he could reach Yunzhou in time.
Following the emperor's decree, Su Zaixing secretly went to Yunzhou to serve as an inspector, specifically responsible for inspection work.
When Su Zaixing was leaving, Mr. Bai Ge's son saw him off in person and was very respectful. If it weren't for Mr. Bai Ge's reputation, Su Zaixing would have really wanted to leave, but in the end he held back, but he didn't. Take another look at Bai Jingtao.
But Bai Jingtao did not feel dissatisfied, and poured three glasses of wine for Su Zaixing himself: "I have heard that the Iron-faced and Selfless Iron Censor is famous, and now he is about to go to Yunzhou Prefecture for a trial tour. I wish Brother Su a great victory and catch those who dare to The person who cheated in the examination room!"
Su Zaixing didn't drink the wine offered by Bai Jingtao because he wasn't familiar with him, so he didn't answer his words. He just looked at him coldly and then turned around and boarded the car.
But in Su Zaixing's heart, he did think so.
Su Zaixing was the supervisory censor in the eighth rank. The mission given to him by the imperial court was to supervise all officials and detect lawlessness, and he indeed took this job seriously and was worthy of the black veil given to him by Chen Ting.
The current emperor found him in such a tight time and asked him to rush to Yunzhou Prefecture immediately to take an exam as a patrol officer. Although the Holy Father did not say a word, from this attitude, Su Zaixing guessed that there must be many unknown secrets in this examination room.
You must know that it was already the eighth day of April when the emperor summoned him, and the time for the Yunzhou Prefectural Examination was April 12th. There were only four days until the exam started. Even if he ran all the way from Shangjing to Beijing non-stop, the fastest It takes four or five days.
What's more, Su Zaixing is a civil servant and cannot be like those military scouts who can ride alone and travel thousands of miles in a day and eight hundred in a night.
So by the time Su Zaixing rushed over, Yunzhou's official examination should have ended.
Generally speaking, the grading time for the first exam is at most three days, plus the four days before the exam, a total of seven days. Su Zaixing had to drive more than a hundred miles every day just to get there before the results were released. .
Su Zaixing did not complain. He put a thick quilt in the carriage and said to the charioteer: "The emperor's order is urgent. There are only seven days. I don't care what you do, but I must do it before sunset on the seventh day." Rush to the Yunzhou examination room."
The charioteers were also ordered by the emperor and could change horses at the inn, so I felt a little confident. In addition, there were two charioteers who could drive in turns. In this case, the only way to reach the Yunzhou examination center within seven days was Pretty much.
Therefore, the carriage was running like lightning, starting from the moment it left Shangjing. Su Zaixing's bones were almost shattered in the carriage, but he didn't complain.
If it weren't for the fact that there was something the Holy One was extremely concerned about in the Yunzhou Examination Hall, why would he be given a temporary appointment as a small supervisory censor?
Su Zaixing endured the bumps in the carriage while slowly filtering the information he had about the Yunzhou examination room in his mind. The first one was about the examiner Shen Yuan.
This official had just been transferred to Yunzhou Confucian Classics from being an assistant professor at the Imperial College in Beijing. He was obviously demoted. Moreover, this examination was Shen Yuan's first time presiding over a state examination.
A smile appeared on Su Zai Xing Yuanyuan's face. It seemed that the Holy Emperor was very worried about Shen Yuan.
