Infrastructure masters in the red building

After the examination results were released, the tributes who were selected on the list had no time to celebrate, and immediately began to prepare for the upcoming palace examination.

Compared with the previous three general examinations in nine days, the palace examination only takes one day, and only one theory is tested. For the scholars who take the examination, it is much easier both physically and mentally.

But because this is a life-and-death test, and the tributes have worked so hard to get to this point, no one wants to lose the chain at this juncture. After experiencing ecstasy and relaxation, most of the tributes are Get nervous again, hold the last "Buddha's feet" for the palace test.

I don't know who made the news, but the ancient books of Xiang Fengyi published by "Tianyi Bookstore" suddenly started to move.Moreover, the news was spread from ten to ten, and all the tributes in the capital who were waiting for the imperial examination all rushed to Tianyi Bookstore, buying the whole set as soon as they bought it, regardless of whether they could read it in such a short period of time.

Tianyi Bookstore is said to have published a thousand sets of Xiang Fengyi's classics, and it was once considered a joke by other bookstores.The owner of a bookstore in Beijing once asserted that the thousand sets of "Tianyi" would never be sold.Unexpectedly, the inventory of Tianyi Bookstore was robbed within a day.In addition to the Gongshi who participated in the palace examination for this subject, there were actually many people in Beijing who rushed to buy the books back, saying that they planned to prepare for the "next subject".

If there is no major change in the government, the next subject will be three years later, and no one can say whether Xiang Fengyi's theory will still be favored by people, or even included in the syllabus.These people in Beijing just have spare money to burn, or they are prepared to move the books home first.

When the bookstores came to their senses and took stock of the woodblocks in their own bookstores, they discovered that no one in the capital except Tianyi Bookstore had engraved blocks that wrote to Feng Yi.Even if they want to follow suit and reprint, they have to go through the test of Tianyi Bookstore.At this time, the bookstore owners regretted it one after another, and secretly complained that they had no foresight—Xia Shengshen's works were everywhere in the market, and there were a lot of them, but Xiang Fengyi's works were extremely rare.

——They actually chose to stock up on Xia Xingshen?Now that I think about it, it's kind of silly.

Jia Zheng got a set of Xiang Fengyi's complete works from Jia Fang. Before he had time to read them all, he only picked out the ones related to "extending knowledge and investigating things" and "applying the world". Take the exam.

It was also the day of the palace examination, and the whole family of Rongguo Mansion woke up early, and Jia Zheng left at three o'clock in the ugly hour, accompanied by Jia Daishan, Jia She, and Jia Fang.Mrs. Shi asked her uncle Jia Daihua to open the Jia's Ancestral Hall in the Ning Mansion, and she personally led the children of the Rong Mansion to pray in front of the ancestors, asking the ancestors to show their spirits, and bless Jia Zheng to pass the customs smoothly this time. High school Jinshi.

Only one or two strategies are tested in the palace examination, but the tribute scholars must conceive, answer, and copy on the spot. Those who can hand in the papers before dusk falls are regarded as fast.

It was already dark when Jia Zheng was picked up, and the Rongguo Mansion was brightly lit, and everyone from top to bottom was anxiously waiting.However, this time Jia Zheng was picked up by Jia Amnesty, and just like last time, he was sent directly to Jia Zheng's own study outside, where he fell asleep and no one could wake him up.

No one in the Rongguo Mansion could even ask Jia Zheng what the palace examination was about.

But no one in the Rongguo Mansion cared about the exam questions. Now that Jia Zheng had successfully passed the exam, the next thing to wait was to release the list to see if Jia Zheng could get the "golden list title".

Unexpectedly, not long after Jia Zheng was sent back, people came to Ningrong Street again.This time the concierge hurriedly invited Jia Daishan and Jia Fang out.Jia Fang hurried to the front steps of the Rong Mansion, only to see his old acquaintance Dai Quan waiting for him outside the door.

"Old Dai, it's because of the dog's exam..." Jia Daishan couldn't help feeling a little flustered when he saw this battle.

Who knows that Dai Quan shook his head with a smile, and came up to Jia Daishan and said a few words in Jia Daishan's ear.Jia Daishan's complexion softened immediately, he nodded and smiled and called Jia Fang over: "The emperor declares that you go to the Ministry of Rites to assist in marking the papers. You will go with Director Dai."

Jia Fang: ...What's the matter?He didn't even pass the imperial examination, so how did he become a member of the marking team?

Dai Quan's eyes widened, but his smile had faded away. He bowed to Jia Fang and said, "Master Jia, the emperor is thinking about you, and I want you to go to the Ministry of Rites to help me take a look at those test papers."

When Jia Fang came out with Jia Daishan, he was wearing the big clothes that he used to see every day, but it was not his official robe of the second-rank "Jiedushi". Just as he didn't know if it was impolite, Dai Quan took his arm and left , and whispered in his ear: "Jia Sanye, your visit this time is not considered a formal review. It is just right to wear regular clothes."

Jia Fang was then stuffed into a sedan chair by Dai Quan, and the sedan chair swayed for half an hour. In front of him was an official office with a stone tablet in front of it, with "Ministry of Rites" clearly written on it.

It was already late at night, and there were no lights on the private houses opposite the government office, but there were still bright lights everywhere in the official office, illuminating the entire official office compound brightly.From outside the door, people could be seen coming and going in the courtyard, the voices of people were noisy, and it was a night-free scene.

Jia Fang was invited out of the sedan chair by Dai Quan, and the manager affectionately took Jia Fang's arm, leading him all the way straight into the ceremony department.Jia Fang couldn't hold back his curiosity, he couldn't help but look left and right—for later generations, this should be the residence of the college entrance examination marking team, right?

I saw that in one room after another in the official office of the Ministry of Rites, the papers of the tributes had been scribbled. At this moment, countless officials are struggling to transcribe - the examiners cannot directly see the candidates' handwriting when marking the papers, so a special arrangement is arranged. The test papers were transcribed by hand, because they were transcribed with a red pen, so these test papers are called "Zhu Juan", and the original papers of candidates are called "Mo Juan". Only at the time of imperial reading will the ink scroll be called out for reading.

Dai Quan took Jia Fang straight into the main hall of the Ministry of Rites. There, the crown prince Xia Shengshen, whom Jia Fang had met once, was sitting and concentrating on reviewing papers.Around him, officials from the Ministry of Etiquette kept coming over, handing over to Xia Shengshen the scrolls that they thought were relatively good.

At this time, Dai Quan stopped and respectfully asked Jia Fang to wait for a while.Immediately after he entered, he bowed and said something beside Xia Shengshen.

Xia Shengshen immediately raised his head and saw Jia Fang standing by the door.At the same time, the prince and Taifu let out a "hum" in his nose.

Jia Fang raised the corner of his mouth to greet him, but Xia Shengshen's attitude was as expected: this guy definitely didn't intend to give him any good looks.

Just imagine, when a marking officer was "airborne" down after a good marking work, what would the person in charge of marking think?

Besides, at Jia Fang's age, he might not be qualified to be Xia Shengshen's student, but now he actually participates in reviewing papers for Gongshi's palace examination.

No wonder Xia Xing was upset.

But Dai Quan straightened up, with a smile on his face, he didn't move or leave.Xia Shengshen had no choice but to stand up, and made a gesture of bowing his hands to the sky, which should have agreed to this matter, and asked Dai Quan to reply to the emperor.

After Dai Quan left, Xia Shengshen did not leave the desk where he was in charge of grading papers, but looked at Jia Fang from a distance for a while, and casually let out another breath from his nose: "Huh—"

He immediately called an official from the Ministry of Rites who was in charge of running errands, and made room for Jia Fang.After a while, the little official from the Ministry of Rituals went to make a pot of thick tea for Jia Fang.When Jia Fang saw it, he knew it must be necessary to stay up late...

Not long after, a neatly written booklet was handed over to Jia Fang, and Xia Shengshen's voice sounded in front of Jia Fang: "Third Young Master, let's take a look at the test papers for this time. Someone will send you the papers you have read later." Come here, please take a look-"

Jia Fang stood up and thanked Xia Shengshen.Unexpectedly, Xia Xingshen's loud voice could be heard in the whole official office, only he said: "But you have to remember that the imperial examination is the place to select scholars for the country, if you make trouble here, the old man will never forgive You!" Immediately after a "bang", Xia Shengshen slapped the table in front of Jia Fang, and the teacups and cups on the table jumped up and down.

Originally, the office was surrounded by human voices, so it was by no means quiet.But after Xia Shengshen erupted, the whole office miraculously quieted down, and everyone put down what they were doing at the same time, and looked at Jia Fang together.

Such a young man, in the midst of the examiners from the Ministry of Rites who were grading the examination papers for the palace, was dressed in casual clothes, without official robes... and he had to be personally taught by Mr. Xia Shengshen, and he was instructed by ear to ear.

Who is this? !

The official office was quiet for a moment, and immediately became noisy again.Everyone seemed to ignore Jia Fang's arrival in a flash, and once again devoted themselves to the intense work of marking papers, and worked hard to select the pillars of talent.

Xia Shengshen snorted coldly and returned to his seat.

Jia Fang took a sip of strong tea to wake up, opened the booklet in his hand, and began to read the exam questions.

This booklet is a folded eight-page hard-shell booklet. The text inside is hand-copied, and it is the test questions for this palace examination.

Jia Fang was a little surprised by this.He had heard that the requirement of the palace examination was to write a policy theory, and the topic was generally only two hundred words at most, three to five hundred words at most.I didn't expect it to be a booklet with so many pages.

He took a closer look at the content inside, and was even more surprised: it turned out to be a very modern exam. There were three questions in total, but they were not required to answer all of them. The scholars could choose two of the three questions and choose two of them. answer.

The first question is an essay question, which discusses the significance of the theory of "manipulating the world and applying it" to the whole society.

The second question, which is also an essay question, requires Gongsheng students to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the imperial examination, and asks them to propose how the imperial examination system should be reformed in the future under the current situation.

Jia Fang immediately put down the booklet in his hand, and looked at Xia Shengshen's darkened old face in the distance.He seemed to hear the slapping in the face, and imagined that Xia Xingshen, as the organizer of the imperial examination, had to correct the examination papers himself, read the complaints of the scholars about the examination, and their suggestions for the future examination.

He sort of understood why Xia Shengshen was so unhappy today.

But when he saw the last question, Jia Fang was completely dumbfounded: he really didn't expect His Majesty the Emperor to ask such a question.

This third question is an application question, or a scenario simulation analysis question.This question assumes that the tributes suddenly became the chief officials of a small county deep in the mountains in the south, and faced the following problems:

The land of the residents under the jurisdiction was originally sufficient, but the newly moved in more than three times the number of original residents, the land is not enough to distribute; at the same time, the residents of the area are faced with such things as the harsh natural environment, being in a pestilent place, being inaccessible to the outside world, There are many problems such as lack of circulating copper coins, uncivilized folk customs and so on.

This question requires candidates to assume that they have become the chief official of the local area, and formulate new policies for the local area according to what they know and think.

In addition to addressing the many problems raised in the questions, candidates are also allowed to imagine the difficulties of the local people's livelihood, ask questions and formulate solutions by themselves.

As a result, all the officials of the Ministry of Rituals present saw the young "examiner" who was temporarily airborne and frowned when facing the pamphlet.

"Do you know how hard it is? Do you know how difficult it is for us this time?" Some officials of the Ministry of Rites couldn't help but find a little balance in their minds: this time, the grading of papers is simply to select generals from among the dwarves, not to mention how difficult it is-the most important thing What's more, for the last question, the marking officers can almost only grade by feeling, and no one knows whether the answers written by these students are correct.

Jia Fang didn't know what they were thinking at all.He was just surprised that His Majesty the Emperor brought so many "private goods" in this most important palace test paper.

At the same time, he also understood why Dai Quan was the one who asked Dai Quan to find him. The last question was tailor-made for him. Among all the examination officials present, only he was qualified to pass the candidates' answers and judge these people. Whether you have the ability to work at the grassroots level, and whether your ideas are realistic.

There are three questions in a palace test, candidates must choose two answers, otherwise the answer sheet will be judged invalid.Therefore, the first essay question on "practicing the world" must be chosen by everyone.

The second and third questions, no matter which one you choose, you have to take a big risk: the candidates who choose the second question have already come all the way here, but they have to be forced to criticize the existing examination system, and even In a disguised form, he accused his house teacher and seat teacher, no matter how he wrote it, he would offend others.

And those who choose the third option, if they don’t have a deep understanding of the grassroots, or if they don’t have a wide range of knowledge, and don’t listen to things outside the window, they may not be able to write a single word when facing this topic.

Because you have to choose two out of three, all candidates will choose one of the second and third questions to answer carefully according to their own understanding.Everyone takes a little risk, which is fair enough.

Seeing this, Jia Fang finally understood why Jia Zhenghui collapsed on the bed as soon as he got home, and fell asleep as soon as he got home—it is estimated that all candidates will feel that their minds are exhausted after this exam. , I used my brain too much.

Jia Fang put the test booklet in his hand and looked at it for a while, and then test papers were delivered to him one after another.A clerk from the Ministry of Rites kindly told Jia Fang about his scoring rules—the rules were very simple, and he divided the test papers into three piles: the messy ones, the mediocre ones with occasional bright spots, and the very exciting and impressive ones. one type.

Jia Fang thanked the little official and began to review the papers.At this time, he felt that the officials of the Ministry of Rites actually didn't need their help in marking the papers. All the papers had already been annotated with the comments after reading it: top, middle top, middle bottom and so on.As for Jia Fang, no one asked him to write a score on the test paper.

Soon he started to look at the papers, on which most people answered the first question.But if the first question is just a general talk with a lot of flowers and flowers, and there is nothing to say, Jia Fang will skip it and waste no time at all.

His attention is on the second and third ways.

Jia Fang took a quick look at the second question, and saw that there were various answers. Some people clearly proposed that the scale of the imperial examination should be expanded, the threshold should be lowered, and "special" examinations should be introduced; some people believed that the content of the current examination should be reformed, Reduce the proportion of stereotyped essays, and examine policy theory more. Some people even flattered the emperor, thinking that more "scenario simulation questions" like the third question should be taken.

However, Jia Fang classified all the answer sheets that had substance in their words into the category of "occasionally bright spots".

He also read a lot of answer sheets for the third question, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. These candidates who passed the exam to the top of the country, who will be admitted by the imperial court as the pillars of the country, really know too little about the grassroots.

In response to the problem of insufficient land, almost everyone put forward the solution of "equal distribution" and the implementation of the "equal field system", without any mention of how to give up the existing land if the cultivated land has already been occupied, and how to compensate after giving up.

There are also people who blindly promote enlightenment, advocate the establishment of county schools in prefectures and counties, and spread the way of sages, but they don't mention where the money and food for running the schools come from, and how the people who have learned the ways of Confucius and Mencius can solve the problem of hunger.

These answers give people the feeling that they are all suspended in the air and cannot land.

But Jia Fang has to say that this kind of test questions is completely open, and the questions that call for everyone to brainstorm also let him see a lot of unconstrained ideas.For example, he saw someone pointing out that there are often thieves and thieves in the southern mountain villages, and the garrisons in prefectures and counties are often far away from the water and cannot be rescued from the fire. need;

These are exactly what Jia Fang wants to see, those things that he did not think of in Taoyuan Village, are now fed back to him from the test paper.

Thinking of this, Jia Fang suddenly wanted to thank His Majesty the Emperor, who actually used this method to carry private goods in the palace examination papers, and used such an incredible way to let himself mark the papers, to get to know the elite students in this country views on the same issue.

No matter how much these questions tormented the examinees of the palace examination earlier, the various ideas of those people now inspired Jia Fang.

It seems that His Majesty the Emperor still really hopes that he can build the "experimental field" of Taoyuan Village well.

Jia Fang hurriedly found an errand runner in the Ministry of Rites, asked for pen, ink and paper, and copied down his valuable opinions one by one.

Xia Shengshen read the paper in the dark all the time, and when he read that the East is white, he thought of Jia Fang again.He guessed that the young man might have fallen asleep at his desk, so how could he have the patience to read so many test papers.

Unexpectedly, when he raised his head, he saw Jia Fang holding a large stack of red scrolls energetically, reading with relish, and there was still a large pile of manuscripts stacked in his hand, and he was constantly copying something on the manuscripts.

Most of the other officials of the Ministry of Rites are already resting at their desks, but Jia Fang is the only one who reads more energetically and writes more energetically.

Even Xia Xingshen couldn't help feeling that this young man, compared to his peers, was really a bit... special.