Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 273 Wen Yanjing

In March, it is warm and cold at first, but the weather is still much warmer than in the twelfth lunar month, so the heavy cotton-padded clothes are replaced by thin ones.

Early that morning, after Li An washed up and had dinner with his parents, he went out in a carriage.

When the carriage arrived at the door of Sheng's house, Li An did not enter. Instead, he asked the concierge to go in and inform Sheng Changbai.

Because today is the registration day for the provincial examination, Li An and Sheng Changbai agreed to register together.

The administrative divisions of the Song Dynasty were roads, prefectures, and counties, and the rural examinations were conducted based on roads.

Bianjing belongs to the Gyeonggi Road, and all the prefectures and counties belonging to the Gyeonggi Road must come to Bianjing to conduct the township examination.

Li An waited for a while, and brothers Sheng Changbai and Sheng Changfeng came out.

This time when they went to sign up, the two of them didn't ask anyone to prepare a car and planned to take Li An's ride there.

The three of them exchanged a few pleasantries, got on the carriage, and headed towards the inner city.

Sheng Changfeng opened the curtains, looked outside and said with a smile: "This is just the provincial examination, and Bianjing is much more lively than usual."

Once this kind of thing is taken advantage of by someone with intentions, when the provincial examination is over and rumors spread, both Ang Lee and Hai Wenren will be in a lot of trouble.

Sheng Changfeng said with some pride: "The Gyeonggi Road Provincial Examination is held in Gongyuan. We can get familiar with Gongyuan first, and we will have a head start in the next year's examination."

No matter whether Li An got any useful information from Hai Wenren, he couldn't talk nonsense about this kind of thing.

At this time, it was the time for the provincial examination, and many people speculated that the policy topic of this provincial examination would be the establishment of a governor.

Wen Wu is the first.

During this period, King Yong and King Yan were trying hard to win over courtiers. The ministers in the court also knew that it would be very disadvantageous if they were left to fight, so they all petitioned the officials to establish a heir apparent.

"There is an element of luck in guessing the questions. You can make preparations, but you cannot rely entirely on the guesses." Li An shook his head and said.

Sheng Changfeng curled his lips. He was annoyed by Sheng Changbai's preaching tone, but since Li An was here, it was hard for him to refute. So he changed the topic and said: "During this period, there has been the most discussion about the topic of the rural examination. I know a few wealthy young men, and they told me that the topic of the policy discussion this time is likely to be about the establishment of a prince."

Li An shook his head secretly. Sheng Changfeng had no clue and kept talking about everything. No wonder he would cheat his father.

"What Zi Qian said makes sense. If you focus entirely on the topic, you will be neglecting the basics and focusing on the last." Sheng Changbai said.

Seeing this, Sheng Changbai didn't say anything more, but looked at Li An and smiled: "When the provincial examination is over, Zhong Huai should come back."

Naturally, these people would not be reconciled after failing, so every time the imperial examination ended, all kinds of cheating remarks would be rampant.

Regardless of whether it is a county examination, a township examination, or a general examination, there are always some people who are highly self-sufficient and talented but fail.

Although Sheng Changfeng only talked in private, with his character, he might also talk nonsense outside.

"This is natural. After all, Gyeonggi Road is at the foot of the emperor, with a prosperous literary style and a large population." Sheng Changbai said.

Sheng Changfeng was scolded twice by Sheng Changbai and turned away with a very ugly expression.

"Third brother!"

Sheng Changbai's face darkened and he shouted: "Mr. Hai is an upright man. He is in charge of this provincial examination. How could he possibly leak the slightest information? Stop using these crooked ideas."

Sheng Changfeng felt unhappy when he saw the two united front. He turned his eyes and looked at Li An and said, "Zi Qian, I heard that Xianggong Hai valued you very much and praised you very much. I heard that the examiner for this provincial examination was Xianggong Hai. Didn’t you get any useful information from Mr. Hai?”

Sheng Changbai frowned slightly and said, "Third brother, the final test of the provincial examination is the individual's talent and learning, so you can't be careless."

"Haha, let him treat us to drinks when he comes back." Li An said with a smile.

After chatting all the way, the carriage came to a stop outside the south courtyard of the Ministry of Rites.

The South Courtyard of the Ministry of Rites is actually the Gongyuan. The three people got off the carriage and saw that the square outside the gate of the Gongyuan was already crowded with people. A rough estimate was that there were at least several thousand people.

Li An got off the carriage, looked at the dozens of registration points queuing up, and said, "Let's find a queue together."

"I think we should separate." Sheng Changfeng said.

Seeing that Sheng Changbai was silent, Li An didn't say anything. He only told Sheng Changfeng to finish reporting his name, and if he and Sheng Changbai didn't come back, he would wait for them in the carriage.

Sheng Changfeng responded and left. "Let's go too." Sheng Changbai said.

"Ah."

Li An nodded, and the two chose a team with fewer people and lined up.

It is said that there are few people, but it is actually difficult to truly estimate. After all, there are one to two hundred people queuing up at each registration point.

However, registration is not complicated and the process is very fast.

Those who win the county examination will receive a certificate from the county where they are located, and the list of successful candidates will be handed over to their respective roads early.

When registering, you only need to take out the certificate and find your name according to the roster, and a certificate will be issued, which is equivalent to the admission ticket for future generations.

Then draw numbers again.

As for whether there is someone pretending to be someone else, that will be checked when entering the venue.

Although there were no photos or anything like that in ancient times, the rosters sent from the local government contained descriptions of their appearance, and they would be checked when the time came.

Li An looked at the crowd around him. There were thousands of people at the registration point on Gyeonggi Road alone. This was only part of the list. After all, the registration period lasted for three days, and today was only the first day.

Although the largest number of people signed up on the first day, it was estimated that there were tens of thousands of people.

Nowadays, there are eighteen schools in the Song Dynasty. If you calculate this, there are about 200,000 people participating in the provincial examination.

Of course, Gyeonggi Road is at the foot of the emperor. In the middle of Gyeonggi, there are more scholars than in Jiangnan.

Due to the war, the north lags behind the south in terms of population, economy and education, and there are definitely fewer scholars.

Even so, more than 100,000 people took part in the provincial examination.

This is after one round of screening in the county examination, otherwise there would be more people.

But in the end, only more than 200 people were named on the gold list.

It’s no wonder that the imperial examination was called a thousand troops crossing a single-plank bridge.

Based on county calculations, there were hundreds of thousands of scholars, and two to three hundred people were finally admitted.

Picking one out of ten thousand is a bit exaggerated, but there is no problem in choosing one out of thousands.

Li An saw many white-haired old men in the queue.

Although the registration does not check the appearance and you can sign up for others, Li An felt that these old people most likely signed up for themselves.

At their age, even if they pass the exam, they probably won't be able to serve as an official for a few days. It is estimated that they will most likely not even be awarded an official position and will only be awarded a prose official.

While Li An was looking around, Sheng Changbai also chatted with a man in front of him.

The man was dressed in ordinary clothes and looked very ordinary. He looked like he was in his twenties, with dark and rough skin. It was obvious at a glance that he was a student from a poor family.

Thinking that the surroundings were noisy, Li An didn't hear clearly what the two of them were saying, but from Sheng Changbai's laughter from time to time, it could be seen that the two of them were having a very interesting conversation.

"By the way, I also have a friend who I would like to introduce to Brother Wen."

Sheng Changbai turned over and said with a smile: "Zi Qian, this is a student from Xihua County, Chenzhou. His name is Wen Yanjing, and his courtesy name is Shigao."

Li An was stunned when he heard this and exclaimed: "What did you say his name was?"

Wasn't Wen Yanjing named on the gold list after Zhao Zongquan ascended the throne? It should be the next examination after Sheng Changbai won the list.

No, that imperial examination was held by Enke after Zhao Zongquan ascended the throne.

It was normal for Wen Yanjing to participate in this imperial examination.

"Ziqian, do you know Brother Wen?" Sheng Changbai asked doubtfully.

"I don't know." Li An knew that his performance was a bit suspicious, and he quickly shook his head.

(End of this chapter)