I'm in the Red Mansion

On April 21st, before dawn, Jia Cong got up early and washed up.

Then after breakfast, I just drank a little water and didn’t dare to drink more.

Today's palace examination will probably last a whole day. If you drink too much water and keep holding your urine, it will be a problem.

Although you can probably go to the toilet in the middle, it's always better to be prepared.

After dinner, Jia Cong arrived at the gate of the palace early.

When Jia Cong arrived, some candidates were already waiting at the gate of the palace.

After Jia Cong arrived, more candidates arrived one after another.

After all the candidates arrived, the palace gate was finally opened shortly afterwards.

A group of people were led into the palace.

After entering the palace, they were arranged to wait in a side hall.

The palace examination was presided over by the emperor himself. Now that the emperor had not arrived yet, they naturally had to wait.

Soon, officials from the Honglu Temple arranged the examination venue and made preparations.

Then the candidates are led into the examination room.

Then, whips were cracked, drums and music played, and the emperor began to ascend the throne.

Next, the Grand Secretary took out the examination papers from the yellow table in the hall, handed them to the official from the Ministry of Rites and placed them on the yellow table on the Danbi step.

After the officials and candidates paid their respects to the emperor, the Ministry of Rites distributed question papers. After the candidates knelt to receive them, they went to the examination table in the hall to answer the questions.

During this period, tribute scholars were allowed to bring their own food. Tea was provided in the South Courtyard in front of the palace. The court only gave them a pack of palace cakes.

After the test papers were handed out, Jia Cong was not in a hurry to look at the questions.

There is only about one day, and there are only three test questions at most, which is enough.

Jia Cong first opened the test paper and wrote down his resume within three generations within the sealed line - that is, within the area where his name needed to be covered.

As well as information such as name, place of origin, age, etc., all of this information is recorded.

If what is filled out is different from before, you will also be held accountable.

Next, it’s time to start answering questions.

Jia Cong looked at the first question first and saw that it was:
Ban Gu criticized Jia Yi's theory of five baits and three petitions as being too brief, but Qin Mu once used it to dominate the Western Rong, and Zhonghang Shuo was also used to warn the Chanyu, so the theory was not without effect.

When Jia Cong saw this question, he suddenly became thoughtful.

This question was actually also within the scope of what Minister Kou had prepared for him.

This question is actually vaguely related to the Qing invasion and occupation of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in Daxia.

Before this, Jia Cong had already made preparations.

Therefore, Jia Cong only thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea in his mind. He then started writing quickly on the draft paper.

In the palace examination, you don't actually need to give a long speech, you just need to explain your own point of view.

Not long after, Jia Cong finished answering the first question.

Then look at the second question: Zhuge Liang did not have Shen Shang's heart but used his tactics, Wang Anshi used Shen Shang's reality but avoided mentioning his name.

Well, this question is mainly about debating whether to govern the country by virtue or by law.

This question also does not deviate from the scope given by Prime Minister Kou.

After thinking for a while, Jia Cong picked up the pen again.

After half an hour, the second question was answered.

Jia Cong looked at the third question again.

In this palace examination, Emperor Yonglong asked a total of three questions.

The last question is about talent selection.

Through these three questions, we can also see some of Emperor Yonglong's ambitions.

These three questions were all mentioned by Kou Xiang to him.

It was not very difficult for Jia Cong.

Soon, he had finished writing the first draft on the draft paper. Next, he could copy the answers onto the test paper.

When copying the policy formally, the four words "I have heard this" should be written at the beginning of the policy.

End with: I am a new student, ignorant of taboos, and have violated Your Majesty. I am trembling with fear and repent. I respectfully reply.

After answering the questions, Jia Cong did not hand in the paper immediately, but waited for a while.

In the examination room, Jia Cong was not the only one who answered questions quickly.

In fact, Jia Cong was not the only one who made preparations in advance.

Most of these candidates are either from wealthy families or the children of officials.

There are only a few people who truly come from poor families.

Naturally, they had predicted the test questions beforehand and had done some research on them.

Therefore, there are quite a few candidates who finish the test paper quickly.

As more candidates were waiting to answer their test papers, Jia Cong also stood up and handed in his paper.

When there were more people, officials from the Ministry of Rites came out and took them out.

There were eunuchs outside who escorted them out of the palace.

After leaving the palace, Jia Cong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Regardless of the ranking, the final test of the imperial examination has been completed.

I will never have to take any exams again.

I will no longer have to study the Four Books and Five Classics and eight-legged essays.

Jia Cong even called up the proficiency panel to see if he could hide the Four Books and Five Classics and the Eight-legged Essay.

Finally, he found that it was feasible, so Jia Cong simply hid these two items.

After returning to Ningguo Mansion, Mrs. Mei was relieved this time and did not call him over to question him.

On the second day of the palace examination, the marking of the papers officially began in the Wenhua Hall.

The Ministry of Rites drew up a list of Grand Secretaries and the Shangshu, Shilang, Zuoduyushi, and Cabinet Scholars who were all Jinshi graduates, and requested the emperor to appoint two Grand Secretaries and six ministers of the ministries and agencies as readers.

The collecting official took the test papers out of the box and distributed them in front of the examiners according to their official rank. Each person had about thirty papers. A label was pasted on the back of the paper with the examiner's surname written on it, but not his name.

After reading the test papers, the examiner will mark them according to five grades, namely: circle, point, dot, straight, and cross.

After the examiner has marked the papers, he will take turns to read the papers that have been read by other examiners. This is called "turning the table".

After each examiner has finished reading all the papers, they will be sent to the chief examiner for review. A comprehensive review will be conducted and everyone can speak. The papers with the most circles will be ranked first.

Not only were the names on these test papers blurred, they had even been copied.

Originally, Prime Minister Qin had already made preparations in advance.

It’s a pity that the person he had arranged in advance was unable to find Jia Cong’s test paper yesterday.

This made Prime Minister Qin so angry that he almost fell down!

Jia Cong's calligraphy is unique and can be regarded as the best in the whole of Daxia, with almost no one better than him.

With handwriting like this, are those people blind? They can't even find it?

Only then did Prime Minister Qin realize that perhaps Jia Cong - or Prime Minister Kou - had already realized that they were going to make some moves.

Therefore, during the palace examination, Jia Cong deliberately changed his handwriting.

It has to be said that this move of theirs is indeed a strategy to cut off the source of the problem.

It caught Prime Minister Qin off guard.

The time was too short, leaving Qin Xiang only one night to complete the task.

This left Prime Minister Qin helpless.

He could only ask the examiners of his faction to see if they could find Jia Cong's test paper from the others.

As long as we can find it, and then try to lower his score, maybe we can achieve our wish. (End of this chapter)