Bachelor

Chapter 451 Fang Wei's County Examination

Living in Xuedao's yamen for the past two days, the days are quite leisurely.Both Ma Quan and Tan Tuo were very excited. At the thought of being Sun Dan's disciples, the two businessmen couldn't help but gear up.But because the two have been in business for many years, their studies have been neglected, so they had no choice but to sharpen their guns before the battle, borrowing a lot of Four Books and Five Classics from the Xuedao Yamen to recite with their heads in their arms.

Fang Wei is not nervous, she has been studying poetry and books with her father since she was a child, and when it comes to real skills, she is three points better than ordinary scholars.If she is a man, it may be difficult to take part in the imperial examination, but it should not be a problem to get a reputation.

In addition, he had something on his mind, sitting in the Xuedao yamen, all he could think about was how to meet Sun Dan and ask him to avenge his father and the people of Suining, he seemed a bit out of his wits.

Seeing her like this, Ma Quan and Tan Tuo reminded her that it's better to go to school and review her homework.But Fang Wei couldn't read the book at all, and thought in his heart: It's just a small county test, don't take it too seriously.

In the past, her father also presided over a county examination.She has also read the test papers of those Tongsheng students, and they are nothing special at all.

Strange to say, since Fang Wei and the others came to Xuedao Yamen to sign up to live in, Sun Dan never showed up again.Fang Wei, who had been looking forward to meeting him like the stars and the moon, was in a trance, and felt that the two days passed extremely slowly.

Fang Wei didn't know that Sun Dan had been looking for Suining scholars in the city for the past two days, but after two days, she and Ma Tan were the only candidates in the Taoist Yamen. It seemed that Sun Dan had found nothing.

On the third day, the county examination in Suining finally started.According to the imperial examination system, the examination time was still set at [-] o'clock. Before dawn, Ma Quan's loud voice sounded outside Fang Wei's door: "Brother Fang, Brother Fang, get up quickly, Mr. Sun has arrived at the examination room."

As soon as Fang Wei heard that Sun Dan had come, Fang Wei lost all sleepiness.He got up in a hurry, didn't care to wash his face, dressed indiscriminately, and ran to the examination room with Ma Quan and Tan Tuo at the door.

The examination room was set up in the Xuedao Yamen, and Sun Dan had already brought a large group of officials from the Huai'an Xuedao Yamen waiting there. The mighty yamen servants guarded the gates, and there were lanterns everywhere, illuminating the examination room brightly.

The three of Fang Wei lined up and waited for the roll call.

The more drums were beaten loudly, and the yamen servants lined up left and right, everything was solemn and solemn.

A student next to Sun Dan suddenly said: "Originally, this exam should be presided over by Master Fang Shangzu, the magistrate of Suining County, but unfortunately he died in the flood. In this unprecedented disaster, Master Sun still stays in this dangerous city to preside over his personal safety." The imperial examination is so good that it is admirable."

Hearing him mention his father, Fang Wei felt a pain in his heart, and his eyes began to turn red.

Sun Dan said: "The imperial examination is a grand ceremony for talents, and it is the foundation of the country. Mountains can collapse and the earth can sink, and the imperial examination cannot be abolished. Even if there is no examinee, even if the entire Huai'an city is submerged in the flood, my lord will start as scheduled. Test."

The Taoist also shed tears: "Your Excellency is right, even if there are no candidates, we will open this dragon door wide and recruit candidates for the country."

Sun Dan: "Let's roll the roll."

"Suining...Fang Wei..."

Finally, Fang Wei's name was called, and she hurried up.

The Xuedao who called the roll glanced at her: "Where are you from Suining?"

Fang Weiyi was confused, but didn't know how to answer.

Sun Dan sighed beside him: "The Yellow River burst, Suining no longer exists, it's all a country of Ze, let's go in."

Xuedao nodded: "Fang Wei, who made the guarantee?"

Ma Quan and Tan Tuo replied, "We are the guarantors."

Xuedao nodded: "Get the test paper."

Only then did Fang Wei come to his senses, negotiate with Ma Quan and get the papers into the examination room.

This paper has fourteen pages in total, and the test questions are also printed on it, and each of them has two blank manuscripts.

It could be seen that Sun Dan had prepared a lot of papers for this exam. There was a pile of papers on a table in the exam room, which was two feet high.Unfortunately, only three copies have been sent out now.Thinking of how many scholars from Suining were buried in fish belly, everyone felt a little sad.

The atmosphere in the examination room was also very dignified.

The examination room was empty, and before dawn, there were only three people in it. It was deserted, which made people feel a little inexplicably scared.

The county test is no stranger to Fang Wei. In fact, she has read the county test papers from her father before.Generally speaking, the county test is only the basic skills of the candidates. Most of the test questions are small questions and the difficulty is not great.The so-called small questions, even if a few words in a sentence are taken from the Four Books as the topic, when answering the question, the examinee directly writes the few words in the question, but also needs to explain the meaning of these words.Such questions actually test the candidates' rote memorization skills.

There are two questions in this subject, both from "The Doctrine of the Mean".

The first topic is "Great Virtue Dunhua", from the book "All things grow together without harming each other. Dao runs parallel without conflict. Small virtues are passed on; great virtues are transformed, this is why this world is big."

The second topic is "Chapter Without Seeing", which comes from "Those who are not seen but chapters, do not move but change, and do nothing." It means: to reach such a state, it will be obvious without showing, and it will change without waiting for activities , doing nothing will achieve something.

These two topics are famous sentences in "The Doctrine of the Mean", which are familiar to anyone who has read the book.There are not only many related stereotyped essays in the market.

Therefore, when they saw the title, the three candidates couldn't help but gasp: This is really too simple.

Seeing the expressions of the candidates, Sun Dan smiled secretly in his heart, and thought: It's just a small county exam.I'm not a candidate for the exam, am I worthy of going against the candidates?Besides, I came to preside over this county examination because of ulterior motives.The form is more important than the content. Anyway, there are only three candidates, and the champion, first runner-up, and third runner-up have been decided before the exam. Anyway, it is just a formality.After finally getting together three people, if there were another strange question and two people were eliminated, wouldn't this county test become a joke.

Although the exam questions were simple, the three candidates present did not dare to be negligent, and first carefully pondered the exam for a while.Then, instead of answering the questions first, he made a draft on the manuscript.

In fact, none of these three people thought about achieving anything in the imperial examination field.Ma Quanhe and Tan Tuo never thought of relying on the imperial examination to become an official. They have also accumulated tens of thousands of family assets in the past two years as a businessman, and they live a happy life. Naturally, they will not suffer from the hardship of ten years of poverty.However, in order to climb up to Sun Dan and become his protégé, he had to pass the county test no matter what.

As for Fang Wei, she was originally a woman. The reason why she pretended to be a man to take the exam was already committing the crime of beheading.However, in order to have a private contact with Sun Dan to report the truth about Suining Dashui, it is impossible to get a good grade in the exam.

Seeing that the three of them were so serious, Sun Dan nodded secretly, feeling a burst of relief in his heart.

After finishing the draft, the three of them revised it again, and then began to transcribe it stroke by stroke.

By the time the papers were finished, it was already noon.

When they felt hungry, the three of them got up and handed in the paper.

After receiving the papers, Sun Dan asked the three of them to wait a while and mark the papers on the spot. Anyway, there are only three papers, so the delay will not be long.

Seeing that both Ma Tan and Ma Tan's papers were in the same block letters, their handwriting was correct, and their answers were quite satisfactory, so they called out yes, and handed them to Xuedao next to them: "Look, see if you can make it."

The students took it and looked at it, and nodded: "Yes."

When he saw Fang Wei's article, Sun Dan's eyes lit up: "Su Dongpo's handwriting is good, and the article is also very good, such an article."

When the scholars heard Sun Dan's praise, they all gathered around, and nodded at the same time: "Good article, such a writing, even if you are going to take part in the examination, it is not difficult to get a candidate. Congratulations, Mr. Sun, for accepting another proud one." protégé."

Sun Dan laughed out loud. Ma and Tan wrote very ordinary words, but this Fang Wei is a talented person.With this person and this article, the county examination can be regarded as a success, and there is an explanation to the court and everyone.

He stroked his beard in satisfaction, picked up the ink pen and drew circles on the three-point paper, which was considered to have taken all three of them.

The students laughed at the same time, and shouted to the three of them: "Thank you, Mr. Sun, you have won."

The three of them were pleasantly surprised, and knelt down at the same time: "Thank you, Mr. Sun."

Sun Dan waved his hand: "It's noon, the Xuedao Yamen has prepared meals for all the candidates, you go and eat." After speaking, he left the examination room with all the Xuedao officials holding the papers.

At this time, Fang Wei remembered that he should find Sun Dan.But the matter of Suining is very important, and it is impossible to talk about it in front of everyone.

Fortunately, after lunch, Ma Quan proposed to visit the teacher at Sun Dan's mansion at night, which made Fang Wei heave a sigh of relief, and hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, we should visit the teacher."

"I don't know where Master Sun lives."

Fang Wei: "I know."

Ma Quan was overjoyed: "Then, brother Fang will be asked to lead the way at night."

After resting for an afternoon and having dinner, Ma Tan and his wife bought a lot of gifts and hired a sedan chair, and the three of them went to the courtyard where Sun Dan lived.

As soon as I arrived at the courtyard where Sun Dan lived, I happened to meet Sun Dan's housekeeper, Sun Zhong, who came out.

Seeing that it was Fang Wei, Sun Zhong was stunned: "Why is it you again?"

Fang Wei's face was a little hot, but he was more adept at talking about things. Knowing that family members like Sun Zhong were more dignified than ordinary seventh-rank officials, he explained his reason for coming with a smile.

Sun Zhong was even more dazed, looked at Fang Wei and said, "Unexpectedly, unexpectedly, you became the master's student."

Fang Wei blushed even more when he remembered what happened that day.

Ma Quan asked in a loud voice: "Housekeeper, is my mentor here?"

Sun Zhong was not angry either, he couldn't stop looking at Fang Wei, and it took a long time before he replied: "The imperial court arranged for Yang Yiqing and Yang Ge to come to Huainan to preside over the overall situation. My master went to Shandong to pick up Mr. Yang, and he won't be back until a few days later."

"That's it!" The three of them were a little disappointed, especially Fang Wei, who felt even more sad when he thought that his father's grievances could not be resolved.

As a last resort, the three had no choice but to leave gifts and leave.

After returning to Xuedao Yamen, a person from the Water Transport Yamen led the two boats over, saying that he heard that Ma Quan and Tan Tuo were disciples of Master Sun, so the boats of Master Sun's disciples would naturally be released.

Ma Tan and the two were very happy, and they didn't live in Xuedao Yamen, so they immediately bid farewell to Fang Wei and started business.

Before leaving, the two also knew that Fang Wei was short of money, so they each gave her 100 taels of silver.

So, Fang Wei rented a hut in the city and waited quietly for Sun Dan to return to Huai'an.

(End of this chapter)