After passing the three stages of naming, transcribing, and reading, the transcribed version of the test paper will be sent to the chief examiner and deputy examiner.
Moreover, in order to prevent the chief examiner and deputy examiner from cheating, these transcribed versions of the test papers were locked in a large room, and the chief examiner and deputy examiner were searched every day when they came in and out.
Each test paper first passes through the hands of two markers, and if it is unanimously approved by both markers, then the paper is initially qualified.
After all the papers have been reviewed, the final candidates for Jinshi will be decided based on the number of preliminary qualified candidates.
Under normal circumstances, there are only eight chief examiners and deputy examiners combined for the general examination. This time there is one more Li Qiao, so there are nine people.
In other words, nine graders have to grade 10,000 papers within ten days, and each grader has to grade two to three hundred papers a day.
When grading two to three hundred papers a day, excluding the time for eating, drinking and sleeping, one paper must be graded within two to three minutes.
But there are so many questions in each paper, what can be done in two or three minutes?
It is only enough for a general glance. As long as there are no errors or omissions in what the examiner sees, it is considered preliminary.
Under such circumstances, students who can pass the Jinshi examination are somewhat lucky.
Li Qiao is a very responsible person. Although the work of grading is intensive, he also tries his best to be responsible for every paper in his hand.
If he wants to be worthy of these candidates, his eyes, brain, and pen in his hand will move very fast.
Li Qiao suspected that he was dazzled after spinning at high intensity all morning, which was normal.
But he is a superpower.
After a brief moment of doubt, he knew he was not dazzled.
Since he was not dazzled, why did three similar papers appear?
Is he involved in this matter or not?
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the people beside him. He was in a group with Feng Li, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites. Each of the thousands of papers on the table in front of them had to pass through their hands.
He sat on the left side of Feng Li. Originally, he and Feng Li each took a stack of papers to review, but he reviewed them quickly, and soon the pile of reviewed papers in front of them was one foot high.
When Feng Li saw this, he began to review the papers he had reviewed, saying that it would save trouble because his ability had been certified by Sheng Hong. Since the papers passed his hands first, there was 99% chance that there was nothing wrong with it.
Feng Li said this in a joking tone, as if he wanted to avoid being lazy. However, if something went wrong with this batch of papers, both he and Feng Li would bear the responsibility.
Since the responsibility was shared, he didn't say anything.
Moreover, Feng Li was not really lazy and was very serious when marking.
Now the paper in his hand is the third similar paper. He has placed the first two similar papers in front of Feng Li. Can Feng Li see the similarities?
It should be possible, right?
Because the similarity between these three papers lies in an idiom: Feng Huan plays the cymbal.
Feng Li's surname is Feng. Even if he reads ten lines at a time when grading papers, he must be sensitive to the word "Feng".
Feng Huan plays cymbals. Feng Huan is a person's name. In "Warring States Policy", it is written as Feng Chen, but in "Historical Records", it is Feng Huan. "Historical Records" is one of the three histories and biographies that must be tested. Scholars all over the world are familiar with it. It is written as Feng Huan based on "Historical Records".
The word "huan" is more difficult to write because it has many strokes. In these three similar test papers, the word "huan" is written incorrectly, and the mistakes are still the same.
this……
Either the examinee cheated.
Either the transcriber made a mistake.
Li Qiao couldn't make up his mind, so he could only put it aside temporarily and continue to review the remaining papers. However, he paid attention to Feng Li beside him out of the corner of his eye, wanting to see Feng Li's reaction.
But Feng Li didn't respond.
Feng Li didn't seem to notice the outrageous typo, and directly determined the grades according to the grades he gave these three papers:
pass.
The most important thing about the general examination is the last policy question which takes three days to write.
This year’s policy topic also comes from Sheng Hong’s essay.
In the twelfth month of last year, Sheng Hong wrote a short essay because of the successful construction of the Grand Canal. The content of the essay was about the old problem of difficulty in transporting grain.
Sheng Hong built the Grand Canal to solve the problem of difficulty in bringing grain taxes into Beijing, but even if the canal was built, it would not fundamentally solve this old problem.
Because the Grand Canal cannot penetrate all places in Dasheng.
For places far away from the Grand Canal, grain taxes still had to be sent overland to the capital.
It is well known how difficult the land route is.
Therefore, the policy topic of this session of the examination is to ask candidates how to solve the difficulty of transporting grain by land, an old problem that has not been solved for thousands of years.
If this question had been asked before Li Qiao was born, the answers might be varied.
But with Li Qiao in front of them, this year's candidates have learned to look at the root cause of the problem.
After all, it's just about money.
As long as you have money, are you afraid that you won't be able to build roads?
Not to mention adobe brick roads like those in Hexi Prefecture, green brick roads and bluestone slab roads can be built.
Therefore, these three test papers with the same typos all provide practical ways to make money in the final policy essay.
The typo came from the article in the second session that was tested on the same test as poetry, came from the Four Books and Five Classics, and did not involve the Holy Composition.
Therefore, Li Qiao gave these three papers preliminary passing grades based on the last policy essay.
After the initial pass, there is a final review. The final review is very strict. Each test paper must pass through the hands of nine markers.
Judging from the uncanny similarities between these three papers, it will definitely be seen when it comes to the final review.
But he and Feng Li could use the words "old eyes are dim" to excuse it.
So, does he care about such a trivial matter?
Never mind, that might be the fault of the third prince and the remaining seven deputy examiners - the probability of the transcriber making an error is almost zero.
If you don't care, then these three papers will definitely not pass the final review and will not affect the scores of other candidates.
…
Li Qiao quickly made a calculation in his mind. He pretended that he didn't notice the outrageous similarity and continued to review the test papers day and night.
On the night of the eighth day, all the test papers were finally passed, and nearly 2,000 were initially qualified.
This ratio is good, and Li Qiao is satisfied with it. From what he has observed in the past few days, this year's Lizi's thinking is quite divergent. He doesn't say how much money the listed methods can make, but he can definitely make money.
That's good.
Even if the money is not used to build roads and transport food, it can still be used elsewhere.
It can be seen that under the pressure of Sheng Hong, and under his example of winning six yuan in a row, all the scholars in the world took their eyes away from the books and began to study practical problems.
very good.
Li Qiao is happy to see the success.
Next comes the final review.
Nine people will ultimately review less than 2,000 papers, and some of them have already been marked, so the speed will be very fast.
However, a scene that surprised Li Qiao appeared:
The final review process was even more lax than the initial review process.
At the beginning of the marking, the remaining eight markers, including the third prince, were quite patient and would spend at least two minutes reviewing each paper.
But in the last few days, these people were numb, and the work intensity was high, so they just glanced at the previous answers and then went directly to the final policy article.
Regarding this situation, Li Qiao couldn't blame him. Time was tight and these people were indeed very tired. On the one hand, he felt sorry for the candidates, but on the other hand, he could understand the perfunctory behavior of these people.
But now that it was time for the final review, these people stopped looking at the front and went straight to the final article without even glancing at it.
As a result, the three identical test papers passed the final review and appeared on the desk where the Jinshi belonged.
This session only admitted 100 Jinshi, which was 80 fewer than the previous session where Li Qiao was. Although the number of candidates in this session was a little less than that in the previous session, if calculated based on the admission ratio, this session still has more candidates. Be cruel.
It was so cruel, but the cheater squeezed out other candidates and occupied three seats.
what to do?
To say, or not to say?
It is already the afternoon of the tenth day, and these hundred test papers need to be presented to Sheng Hong tonight for Sheng Hong to review.
The remaining eight people are chief examiners and deputy examiners and are not allowed to leave the Gongyuan. However, he was sent here by Sheng Hong. Now that all the papers have been reviewed, he can leave the Gongyuan and return to the palace to return to Sheng Hong.
If it were in the past, Sheng Hong might have taken a closer look at these papers, but now Sheng Hong pays attention to health, so he won't spend time looking at these papers.
Just as Li Qiao thought, after determining the candidates for one hundred Jinshi, he first went to find the original test papers of these hundred people, and then he and a group of Forbidden Army soldiers escorted these one hundred test papers back to the palace.
It was getting late at this time, and hundreds of large candles were burning in the Qiuxian Hall at the same time. These candles illuminated the Qiuxian Hall as if it were daytime.
Sure enough, Sheng Hong just randomly selected a few papers from the hundred papers, and only read the final policy article. He didn't even look at the previous Mo Yi, scriptures, poems, and policy articles.
"This is not bad. We call for the exchange of special snacks from the north and the south, so that local governments can earn some money by relying on the special snacks from other places."
After Sheng Hong read the paper in his hand, he couldn't help but show approval on his face.
"Yes, and this is easy to operate."
Li Qiao said.
Sheng Hong put the test paper in his hand back into the wooden box with satisfaction, and then looked at Li Qiao who was standing aside. He said with a kind face: "Li Aiqing, you have worked hard these days. You can go back home to rest for two days, and wait until you have a good rest." Okay, please tell me in detail what ideas you have come up with for this election."
"Although I asked Yan'er to do the statistics, you have a good mind. When you look at those answers, even if they don't make sense, you will definitely have different thoughts in your mind."
"This is the main reason why I sent you there."
Isn’t Li Aiqing clueless?
Then he asked Li Aiqing to see what the world's leaders thought.
He still counted on Li Aiqing more than the best in the world.
He sighed softly as he spoke: "Li Aiqing, this old problem of transporting grain has been a headache for me and my father for many years. This time we have no choice but to reach out to everyone in the world to ask for a solution. You should also take it to heart and share my worries."
"As the head of the household department, you know as well as I how much money there is in the treasury, and how much money is needed in Dasheng."
"You should understand how anxious I am."
