April 12th.
Early morning.
The direction of Jiangning Mansion Academy is already buzzing with people.
If you can see at night, you will see that the north bank of the Qinhuai River is densely packed with sedans, carriages, and even donkey carts and ox carts. Even the river is filled with boats of all sizes.
There are ten counties under Jiangning Prefecture. In addition to Jiangning and Shangyuan in the city, there are eight counties: Dangtu, Jurong, Liuhe, Jiangpu, Gaochun, Youyang, Fanchang and Tongling.
The number of these candidates from all over the country is more than three times that of the Youyang County Examination. They gather here for the same purpose, which is——
Government examination!
In the darkness before dawn, more than 3,000 candidates were crowded in front of the examination room, in county units, waiting for their names to be called for the prefectural examination. Various shouts came and went in the square.
"Are there any candidates from Jiangpu County? Come to me!"
"People from Pingshan Academy come here, come to the west of the examination room!"
"Candidates from Youyang County, come to Niutou Lantern!"
…
The bull-head lanterns in Youyang County are carried on long bamboo poles and are very conspicuous in the dark night.
Wei Chen, Sheng Changbai, and Chen Jun searched for a while, then saw the bull's head in the air, and immediately squeezed past with the test basket in hand.
The teacher of Youyang County was the leader of the candidates in Youyang County. He was maintaining order in the candidate team. When he saw Wei Chen and the others coming, he immediately said: "Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai, you two have received your seat number and can go to the examination room." Wait alone in the northwest corner."
"Ah, do you want to squeeze in again?"
Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai stood on tiptoe and looked at the dark crowd, looked at each other helplessly, sighed and continued to squeeze towards the northwest corner.
After squeezing for a long time, Wei Chen suddenly felt a chill on his left foot. When he lowered his head, he saw that his shoes had disappeared.
Wei Chen couldn't help but be speechless for a while, this is so unlucky!
After finally squeezing through the sea of people, a group of people were standing here holding lanterns. These were the top ten in the county examination. Wei Chen saw several familiar faces inside, Tao Dazhi, Wang Yaochen, There are also several of the same year in Youyang County.
When Wei Chen saw Tao Dazhi, his first words were: "Do you have any extra shoes?"
After hearing what Wei Chen meant, Tao Dazhi smiled understandingly: "Brother Wei, did your shoes get stepped on too?"
The candidates next to me all felt the same way when they heard this, and they all came together and said:
"Me too just now."
“My hat is knocked off my head!”
"My pen was also broken by stepping on it!"
What surprised Wei Chen was that Wang Yaochen, who had always been quite cold in his eyes, actually echoed: "My inkstone also broke."
Wei Chen glanced at Wang Yaochen in surprise, and without thinking much, asked everyone: "Then what did you do?"
Wang Yaochen curled his lips: "Bought now."
Wei Chen was surprised: "Is there a salesman here?"
Tao Dazhi smiled and said: "Brother Wei doesn't know something. Every year, there are so many people in the government examination. I don't know how many shoes and hats are squeezed out, and pens, inks, papers and inkstones are broken. However, the examination room stipulates that disheveled clothes are not allowed to enter. When the officer saw it, If it is profitable, I will purchase a batch of goods in advance and sell them to the candidates at a high price."
"I see."
Wei Chen suddenly realized that there were business opportunities everywhere!
After a while, a salesman wearing uniform and carrying a load passed by, and Tao Dazhi waved to him.
Wei Chen took a look through the lantern and found that the load contained food, stationery, shoes and hats. When asked again, a pair of cloth shoes cost one tael of silver!
The price is dozens of times higher than what is sold outside!
But no matter how expensive the other party sells it, Wei Chen has to buy it, otherwise he won't be able to enter the examination room.
So Wei Chen had no choice but to be slaughtered, took out his money and bought a pair of cloth shoes and put them on his feet.
At this time, there was a loud bang, the gantry slowly opened, and the candidates lined up in a line of fifty people to wait for the search to enter.
Wei Chen had experienced the inspection during the county examination and felt that it was not that strict. However, it was only during the government examination that he saw how powerful the inspection was.
The candidates stood in front of the gantry one by one, took off their clothes and shoes, even loosened their hair buns, and then took out the items in the examination basket one by one to be searched.
There was an examinee in front of him. When the officer found him, he could not stop trembling.
The officer realized something was wrong and saw that the examinee's legs were tightly clamped. He kicked him and cursed: "Open your legs!"
The examinee opened his legs tremblingly, and the officer reached into his crotch and pulled out a stack of paper.
The officer threw the paper on the ground and cursed: "You old bastard, you took everything with you into the valley! Someone came and took off his pants and took him to see the master!"
Two officers came forward and took off the candidate's pants. The candidate struggled hard and shouted: "You can't do this, it's an insult to politeness!"
The officer scolded: "What are you talking about? Give it to me!"
When the candidate was taken away, Wei Chen saw his face clearly. He turned out to be the gray-haired old Confucian scholar he had seen when he registered.
The old Confucian scholar broke free from his restraints and fell to the ground, with tears falling down: "You gentlemen, please forgive me this time. I passed the county examination at the age of seventeen, but the government examination comes and goes. I have retaken the exam dozens of times. I just want to be a child!"
The officer said coldly: "If I take you, what will others do? There's no point in begging me. If you have anything to say, just go to the Lord and say it!"
As soon as the words fell, the two guards carried away the old Confucian scholar who was crying all over the place. The candidates watching on the side were all talking about it, and Wei Chen was also sighing when he saw this.
After the inspection, Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai followed the flow of people into the examination room. After checking their identities and a series of procedures, Wei Chen got the paper with his seat number written on it, and it was stamped with the word "Tang".
Wei Chen greeted Sheng Changbai, and the two of them walked directly to the court, where their examination room was.
When they arrived in the hall, they saw Magistrate Shen Du sitting on a high-backed chair, looking down the hall. Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai immediately lowered their heads and bowed to him.
Magistrate Shen's eyes stayed on the two of them for a moment, without any expression, and quickly looked at the other candidates.
When Magistrate Shen looked away, Wei Chen and Sheng Changbai secretly breathed a sigh of relief and took their seats according to their seat numbers.
After the candidates were admitted, Magistrate Shen gave him a scripted lecture, which was nothing more than a few words about abiding by the rules of the examination room.
However, after the regular lecture, Magistrate Shen added: "I have issued a total of nine sets of questions to ensure that each of you gets different questions from those before and after you. So everyone, please concentrate on answering your own papers. , don’t whisper to each other, let alone look around, because even if you succeed in peeking, it’s of no use!”
Before Magistrate Shen finished speaking, the candidates in the hall were already in an uproar.
This is also amazing. There are nine sets of questions in one exam, which blocks all the ways of cheating!
As soon as the noise started, the soldiers guarding the examination room were heard shouting in unison.
"quiet!"
Magistrate Shen's voice turned cold and said: "From now on, if there is any violation of discipline, you will be expelled from the examination room immediately!"
The candidates fell silent for a moment.
"Distribute the test questions now and the exam begins!"
