Chapter 64: The Trial (Part 1)

  After going back, several days passed by.

  There are old men, even in their fifties and sixties, who are still students, with white hair and a worn-out appearance, which makes people feel sorry for them. At this age, what's the point of passing the exam? It's just to prove oneself before death, and a lifetime of hard work will not be wasted after all.

  There were young people, the youngest of whom was about 15 years old. Fang Xin's incarnation Li Rui was also around this age.

  Of course, there is also a distinction between the rich and the poor. The wealthy mostly came by carriage, even with attendants, while the poor were dressed in simple clothes, not even wearing a blue shirt.

  These people all rent houses, read books at night, or seek literary friends. For a time, the sales of wine, paper, ink, and even food increased sharply, making nearby operators laugh with joy, wishing every day was like this. However, this is ultimately an illusion, after all, it's only one month in three years!

  Fang Xin didn't care either, following Li Rui's foundation, guessing the ink rolls, trying out brushstrokes one by one.

  In a few days, Mother He worked day and night to make him a set of green shirts. Although the green shirt is not wearable now, she also made new clothes with hemp cloth. The fabric was not good, but it was clean and dust-free.

  A pair of handmade thousand-layer sole shoes, every thread and stitch is hand-sewn, the soles are thick and sturdy, who knows how much thought and hope has been put into them.

  August 8th, the day of the imperial examination, He's family got up early and was ready. As soon as Fang Xin came out, he took his clothes and shoes, and in his heart, he didn't know what to feel. He thought that if it weren't for him, Li Rui would have failed many times, wasting years, and who knows how long his mother had been expecting and disappointed?

  Pity the mothers of the world, hoping their children will become dragons is just a wish, after all, there aren't that many dragons, but they all hope for some achievement, satisfying this point is the greatest filial piety, otherwise, even if one is usually filial, it's still hard to be at peace.

  With this in mind, Fang Xin quietly put it on. Although it was August, it was actually September in the solar calendar. Putting it on just right, he drank a little porridge and said: "Mother, I'm going."

  "Hmm!" Mrs. He didn't know what to say either, she just responded with a murmur. Fang Xin walked very far away, turned his head back and saw his thin and weak mother leaning on the door, gazing at him from afar.

  Upon seeing this, Fang Xin suddenly felt a surge of emotion in his eyes and hastily quickened his pace forward. He didn't slow down until he reached the street. At that moment, all the young students from various counties under the jurisdiction had already arrived, each looking somewhat tense as they made their way through the roads to the front of the Academy of Learning.

  This is the Imperial Academy, where the examination takes place. The walls of the academy are over five meters high, with thick and solid gates. In front of the gate stands a team of soldiers, each wearing armor and holding long knives, making clanging sounds as they move.

  Just then a young monk approached from the front, and someone inside shouted loudly: "All young monks line up on time, no noise is allowed, no fighting for precedence, violators are not allowed to enter!"

  At this drink, everyone suddenly became solemn, and then came forward one by one to check the documents. The certificates issued by Tongsheng were checked on the spot, and those who were not Tongsheng's students were put in. Without an imperial edict, anyone who dared to enter would be executed on the spot, this was a rule established during the Taizu period.

  Once inside, an official was heard shouting: "All examinees, get into the bucket and wash thoroughly, no mistakes allowed!"

  In agricultural societies, imperial examinations have always been held in spring and autumn. According to the officials, this is because of "Confucius wrote Spring and Autumn". In fact, it's because these two seasons are neither cold nor hot, and the temperature is just right, so people from all over the country can adapt. If it were winter, people from the south would not be able to adapt, what would they do?

  Therefore, the imperial court took this into consideration and thus made such a decision.

  But in the spring and autumn, it is also the easiest to spread the epidemic. Let's not talk about going to the provincial city for exams, even the county-level exams, with a minimum of 5-6 counties and a maximum of over 10 counties, each county has at least hundreds of students, so there are at least thousands of people, and some have even more than tens of thousands. With so many people gathered together, if an epidemic spreads, it often affects a large group of people at once. These are all the future pillars of the country, how can we afford to lose them?

  Moreover, the wind of cheating was not eliminated, so Emperor Taizong of the Great Chu Empire, considering this, issued an edict that the academy must prepare several thousand large tubs. When the examinees enter, they will be washed together to make them clean and tidy for the exam, which also means to check if there is any cheating. The name was given as "Shower and calm your mind to take the test!"

  At the sound of this order, many older examinees had already gone through it and undressed, but new students were very embarrassed. However, they also had to take off their clothes and enter the bucket. As a result, several people took off their clothes and revealed hidden items, and were immediately expelled from the examination room. This time, they lost their qualification for the exam, and if they did it again, they would never have the qualification for the exam again.

  Fang Xinye also found a bucket, took off his clothes and went in, but felt full of medicinal smell. It turned out that there were also a large number of licorice roots, rehmannia glutinosa, honeysuckle, mung beans and other things in the water, which was for disinfection purposes.

  Fang Xin's body was clean, had been washed and came out. At this time, his clothes had already been checked and could be worn again.

  After washing up, I was led to a sign, and following the sign, I entered a room. It turned out that all the rooms here were wooden houses, with a table, chair, bed, and a basket. This basket is changed once a day, inside there are tea, eggs, rice, pancakes, and even half a chicken, which is what the examinees eat every day.

  This is the law of the imperial court, and it applies equally to all, regardless of their status.

  After Fang Xin entered, he saw several pens and inkstones on the table, which were of different thicknesses but all types were available. The materials were not excellent, but they were good. There was also a stack of white paper, which was also a uniformly distributed item. Originally, it was supposed to be collected back, but because it was exquisite, often after the exam was over, candidates would secretly take it away. At first, the government checked, but later they couldn't check anymore and didn't want to punish them for this matter. Thinking that you are all scholars, they just let it go, so they tacitly allowed it.

  Once the candidate enters the room, they are not allowed to go out. There is a toilet for hygiene issues. After finishing the exam, everything about leaving the scene is nonsense. You have nothing to do and you must sleep here too. Not allowed to enter or leave within three days.

  An hour later, all the candidates had entered the examination hall according to their name tags. At a signal from the chief examiner, the doors were immediately sealed off. From now on, except for imperial envoys with sacred edicts, even the prime minister or princes would not be allowed to enter.

  Twenty thousand candidates, naturally divided into several districts, called houses. There are House One, House Two, House Three, all the way to House Twenty. Each house has one hundred rooms, with three examiners and five patrolling soldiers assigned to each room for day-and-night surveillance and supervision.

  There are three chief examiners, one chief and two deputies, who can patrol freely in each room.

  After all the lists were confirmed and the candidates were verified one by one, the examiners all let out a sigh of relief and personally distributed the examination papers.

  Fang Xian saw three people, one of whom was a middle-aged man wearing an eighth-grade official uniform, while the other two were relatively younger and wore ninth-grade official uniforms. This is the imperial examination for scholars, where each chief examiner is appointed by the court, and the others are appointed by local education officials.

  Fang Xian saw them coming in and repeatedly bowed deeply with his hands clasped together, but he didn't say much either.

  This middle-aged man looked at the brand, saw the two words "Li Rui", and a hint of strange light flashed in his eyes. He checked the pen and ink again, found that they were already well-prepared, and there was no problem with the quality or usage. So he didn't say anything else, handed out the exam paper, and said: "You wait for the exam to start carefully, and be sure not to cheat."

  Fang Xin bowed deeply and replied, "Yes, I am." After the three of them left, Fang Xin sat down, took out the exam paper, and upon reading it, he felt a sense of relief wash over him. He couldn't help but laugh.

  As expected, the thick exam papers were ten pages long, but they were nothing more than posting scriptures. This is the model of filling in the blanks and dictation for modern poetry volumes. The examiner selects a page from the scripture book, extracts one line and prints it on the test paper. Based on this line of text, the examinee must fill in the relevant context above and below.

  If it's an ordinary candidate, even if they're familiar with the text, it's still possible to pass, but there are ten exam papers, with tens of thousands of words in total, and answering all these words without a single mistake is not an easy task. With brush-written characters, there's no chance to correct mistakes, and if there are any typos, you can only circle them and write the correct character on the side, but this will naturally lower your score.

  Especially for this kind of exam, it's directly related to one's life and future prospects, so many people are nervous, and once they're nervous, they're done for. Fang Xin is already at the fourth level, with control over his body and mind reaching a state of harmony, so he doesn't need to think twice, and can write directly, with each word smooth and elegant, finishing in one breath.

  After finishing a page, grind the ink again and then write another page. Each page is placed on the desk to wait for it to dry naturally, so as not to smudge the wet ink and stain the exam paper.

  Fang Xin, in the past three months, had practiced until he was familiar with it. Although it was a formal script (required by the examination hall), he could write over 1,500 characters within an hour. Without eating or drinking, he continued writing, and it seemed that someone had come to him, but he didn't even lift his head.

  After finishing writing the tenth volume, he finally placed the last sheet on the desk. Only then did he realize that it had already gotten dark, but somehow, someone had lit the candles for him.

  Fang Xin didn't think much of it, lit a candle, and one by one examined the exam papers. He found that every word was beautifully written, with a dignified air between the lines, not like an exam at all, but rather like a calligraphy competition. Moreover, all the answers were correct, without a single mistake, the paper was clean and tidy, and the characters were neatly arranged. At this point, he couldn't help but smile to himself.

  He laughed and thought for a moment, then laughed again. He wrote it himself that day, but how many people have self-control? Even if he wrote it himself, it took about six hours, so now the volume is released, and when the next volume is released tomorrow, it will be collected, a total of twenty-four hours, which is also reasonable.

  The exam is generally like this, of course, the imperial examination is an exception. The reason is simple: at that time, it was no longer a test of basic skills, but rather a question raised by the emperor on the spot to write a thesis, about 1,000 words, and it should be written on the spot.

  Bring out the basket, although the food has gone cold, but at this time I'm hungry, so I don't mind, tearing at a chicken leg and eating, drinking water. At this time, it's quiet all around, many people are still writing, some are preparing to take a rest, and continue writing tomorrow.