Xiangye

Chapter 186

Hearing the scolding from the soldiers, the two of them withdrew their gazes that were about to collide with sparks, and went back to the test house.

As expected of a provincial tribute courtyard, the examination shed where Gao Wen lived was larger than the Pingliang tribute courtyard, at least the small brick kang used for resting at the back was half a foot longer.Although lying on it is still curled up and unable to stretch, but at least it is not so depressing.

Moreover, the kang has just been cleaned, so there is no need to lie down and be covered in ashes like during the courtyard test.

The chairs and the writing board used to answer the questions have just been painted with paint, and they are bright and refreshing.

This Shaanxi is different from the eastern coastal provinces in that the dawn is late.Unlike over there, Maoshi is broad daylight.Therefore, it was too late to send out the questions for the Shaanxi Provincial Examination.Anyway, the first exam is three days long, so I'm not in a hurry for an hour and a half.

Gao Wen was young, in good health, and fell asleep a lot.Immediately, he opened the examination basket, took out the stationery and candlesticks and put them on the writing board, and carefully placed the food on the kang, then shrank back onto the kang to catch up on sleep.As soon as he lay down, he stared in a daze in an instant.

Obscure sergeants are still entering the arena one after another, and the exam has not yet officially started, everyone is very casual, some people are talking in a low voice, and there is the sound of eating.

After a while, the fence outside was locked with a click, that is to say, during these three days, unless you go out, you have to stay in this square inch of land.

With the click after click, the examination room gradually calmed down, presumably all the candidates had already entered the room.

Then, there was a burst of snoring one after another.Like Gao Wen, everyone is hurrying to gather strength.

"Dangdangdang!" Suddenly, there was a burst of gongs that awakened Gao Wen from his dream.

But he didn't bother to open his eyes. If he guessed correctly, the chief and deputy chief examiners must have met with the inner and outer curtain officials, and then officially closed the Gongyuan!
……

Yes, that's exactly what happened.

Li Zhen and Shu Richang, the two great masters of this rural examination, stayed up all night to supervise the inscription engravers after engraving the titles, and then ordered the soldiers to take several artisans to a remote courtyard to guard them.They are not allowed to go out until the day when the results are released, so we can prevent them from missing the questions.

Of course, for this group of craftsmen, it was a rare vacation to eat and drink in the tribute courtyard, and to have money.

As soon as all this was done, they heard the sound of cannons outside, and the two of them naturally knew that the time had come and the candidates began to enter the arena.

After waiting for a while, someone came to invite me.So, surrounded by a group of inner curtain officials, the two great imperial envoys boarded a big sedan chair carried by 16 people and went to Xianggongtang.
They sounded gongs in front of them, and there were officials and followers behind them. They were really mighty.

The strangest thing was that behind the two great masters there was someone carrying a dark coffin covered with a brocade of red flowers on a blue background.

But it turned out that the great master Li Zhen was old and had traveled all the way from the capital to Shaanxi. It was a very hot day and he was still groggy.Therefore, Gao Linghan, the chief political envoy of Shaanxi Province, presented a birthday tree to the grand master of the imperial envoy to express his heart.

The ancients did not shy away from life and death, and Confucianism is very free and easy about the cycle of all things.Not only did he not take it seriously, but he felt that it was a very honorable thing to die by the king's order.

Coffin, coffin, promotion and fortune are also a good sign for the scholars in the examination room.

Soon, the parade was over, and the inner and outer curtain officials entered the Supreme Court. Gao Linghan, the chief minister of Shaanxi, stood on the steps, took the command arrow handed over by one of his subordinates, threw it down, and shouted vigorously: "Suo Gongyuan!"

Some time ago, Xu Zhen investigated the malpractice case of horse administration in Shaanxi, and also closed the account of the chief envoy, Si Yamen, and brought a group of people over to investigate and count, creating a great commotion.Fortunately, Gao Linghan was prepared and evened the accounts.Commissioner Xu Qin fiddled with him for several days, but found nothing, so he had to withdraw in despair.

Regarding this matter, the political envoy Gao Bu borrowed a large amount of cash from merchants to buy horses to make up for the leak.Those merchants are negotiating for their lives under their own hands, and it takes a few days and a half months to borrow money to support them.

When this hurdle passes, the autumn grain will be stored in the warehouse immediately. At worst, the taxes from Shaanxi this year will be transferred and paid back to them.As for the gap in the horse administration, after the surname Xu left, he would ask the owners of the major racecourses and local officials to sell the purchased horses.What they lack, they make up for it out of their own pockets.

Although each family has suffered considerable losses, as long as people keep it, there will be plenty of opportunities to make up for the losses in the future.

I have been operating in Shaanxi for so many years, and I am familiar with the places and scenes. How can Xu Zhen, an outsider, know the clues.

Sure enough, Mr. Xu has settled down a lot these days, and he must be at a loss what to do.

Thinking of this, Gao Linghan's heart felt relieved, and he was extremely proud of entering the examination room today.

Hehe, when I come out after this rural examination, Mr. Xu has already packed his bags and returned to Beijing to report on his duties!

"Suo Gong Yuan!"

"Suo Gong Yuan!"

……

A sound echoed in the Gongyuan like a relay.

Soon, the gate of the Gongyuan was closed with a bang and locked again.

There is a deer village outside the gate, and soldiers are placed upstairs.Even the outer wall is full of warriors with bright weapons.

After the tribute courtyard was closed, the Inner and Outer Curtain Officials formally paid homage to the Grand Master, which was regarded as reporting to the two of them.

Even Gao Linghan was not exempt from courtesy, although his rank was equal to Grandmaster Li, he was higher than Shu Richang.But he is an imperial envoy of the imperial court, representing the imperial court.

There is a ceremony in front of the roll call: "The commissioner of Shanxi Province, who is the supervisor of the examination, salutes the imperial envoy!"

Gao Linghan cupped his hands and stood aside after saluting.

Then there was another monitoring officer, "The inspector Shaanxi inspector saluted the imperial envoy!"

That's right, even the procurator of the criminal procuratorate has come to be the examiner.That is to say, among the three divisions in one province, except for the commander who was in charge of the military, the other two entered the examination room, which shows how much the country attaches importance to the provincial examinations.There is no way, the imperial examination is the only way up for the lower classes of society, and it takes on the task of letting the old out of the old and absorbing the new to keep the upper class alive and bonding all classes together.

Although these two proctors are of high rank, their powers are heavy.But during the entire exam period, he could only stay in the Zhigong Hall and was not allowed to enter the inner curtain door.Only undertake the task of maintaining the law and order of the Gongyuan and maintaining the order of the examination room.Regarding the imperial examination, they have no right to speak.

After the two supervisors visited the Great Master, it was the turn of the inner and outer curtain officials.

"The inspector is in place!"

"Bye, get up!"

"The examiner is in place!"

"Bye, get up!"

"Officer Mi Feng is in place!"

"Bye, get up!"

……

Then came the transcription officer and the reader.

After a long time, all the ceremonies were completed, and the sky had already dawned.

Suddenly, a soldier walked to the open space outside the Zhigong Hall with a long whip of Zhangba, and whipped three times with "pa pa pa pa".

The sound was so clear and crisp that it made people feel a layer of chills all over their bodies.

These three whips represent the official opening of the Shaanxi Provincial Examination.

After staying up all night and being busy for a long time, Great Master Li was already exhausted, but at this moment he was speechless, and only waved his hand softly, like a signal from Shu Richang.

Unlike him, Shu Richang was extremely energetic, his eyes were full of light, and he yelled: "The exam is on!"

So I ordered people to take out the sealed topic papers, opened them, and ordered people to distribute them separately.

As soon as the topic was opened, all the inner and outer curtain officials subconsciously craned their necks to look.The three "Four Books" questions in the first round of the township examination are the most important. It can be said that it is directly related to whether the candidate can pass the exam.As long as this game is done well, it doesn't matter if the next two games don't perform well.

As for Gao Linghan and the Shaanxi Inspectorate, they even stepped forward, each took a copy and looked at it carefully.

As soon as he saw the title, Gao Linghan showed a slight surprise on his face: "So it's this?"

Before that, he had heard from his staff that Huang Wei had already hit Li Zhen's exam questions.As the highest administrative officer of a province, Gao Linghan had a lot of hookups with the local government and had a lot of money dealings.For this rural examination, as early as two months ago, someone had asked him to study under him, wanting to make it easier.

If you don't respond to them, you will lose face.

After hearing the topic, Gao Linghan was very satisfied, so he asked Mr. Ma to share the news with each of them according to the list he had drawn up in advance.There are not many people, about ten people.

He is an old official, so he naturally knew that cheating in the imperial examination involved a lot, so he didn't come forward from the beginning to the end, and he didn't communicate with the examiners.Just tell those people to take the exam. Since you already know the topic in advance, if the essay is poor and you are not admitted, you can only blame yourself.

Seeing Gao Linghan's surprised expression, Li Zhen asked suddenly: "Why, Mr. Gao has opinions on these three questions given by the old man?"

"I may have any opinion, but I think the topic is too simple." Gao Linghan said casually.

"That's right, it's really simple!" Nei Lian and Nei Lian officials discussed in low voices.

Li Zhen smiled wearily: "It's better to pass the test more easily, so as to test whether the basic skills of the scholar school are strong. It seems that everyone is a little disappointed." As he spoke, he glanced at Gao Linghan intentionally or unintentionally.He suddenly felt a little dissatisfied, this high minister had been playing around with inexplicable people all day long to invite him to dinner and dinner, but he was just trying to trick the old man.It seems that Mr. Gao also paid attention to what he said when he was drunk that day, and he did not know how many people he leaked.

It's annoying!

Gao Linghan was originally a strong-minded person, so he would never feel guilty.However, he suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

Yes, today is really not going well.After the rural examination is over, I have to appease the officials and squires who walk away.

Soon, the topic papers were distributed separately.The exam officially started, and candidates dared not make any noise, their ears were filled with the rustling sound of turning paper and grinding ink, like spring silkworms eating mulberry leaves.

But in the silence, there was a group of soldiers holding up long flags, shaking the white paper on it, and the leader shouted loudly: "The country recruits soldiers, and you must be innocent. There are evil ghosts and ghosts, and those who have vengeance come for revenge." !"

A few people in the back also shouted: "If there is revenge, revenge, if there is revenge, revenge!"

It turns out that the dynasty of this country has been established for nearly a hundred years, and there have been [-] or [-] sessions of electing scholars. In addition to the puppet yuan of the previous dynasty, there is no telling how many candidates have been taken in this Xi'an Gongyuan.Every time there are those who get sick, those who can't solve the problem, and those who commit short-sightedness, I don't know how many people have died.

Those who died were resentful scholars, because they couldn't be reincarnated, so they lingered a strand of grievances in this Gongyuan to make troubles.

Therefore, every time before the township examination, such a meeting will be held, so that those undead will come out with their wishes and don't make trouble.

Shu Ri became furious and shouted: "What are you doing? My generation read the books of sages and sages, and cultivated righteousness. If you don't say anything, you will be confused, and tell them to retreat quickly. It's not proper, it's not proper!"

(End of this chapter)